PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Brandon Pfaadt & Eduardo Rodriguez BOUNCE BACK for D-backs Rotation in 2026?

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4We’re checking in on the MLB Postseason and keeping a close eye on our adopted team, the Seattle Mariners, as they battle the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS. Meanwhile, we’re keeping tabs on former D-backs—spoiler alert: outside of Dalton Varsho, things aren’t looking great. Plus, it’s Mailbag Monday! We tackle your questions and debate whether Brandon Pfaadt and E-Rod can bounce back from rough +5.00 ERA seasons to help the D-backs stay competitive in 2026.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Zen Leaf: Visit our friends at Zen Leaf (http://zen-leaf.store/phnx) for 50% off using promo code ZENPHNXSpencer’s Appliances: Visit Spencerstv.com and use code PHNX5 for 5% off appliances OR use code PHNX10 for 10% off TVs, audio and mattressesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website.Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we're still on the outside looking in at the MLB postseason, but we are going to discuss how the former Diamondbacks players are doing. And we're going to answer a very important question about if Brandon Fott and Erad can rebound from their 20, 25 seasons to help this team stay afloat in 2026. All of this in 30 seconds and probably still some more screaming about the Arizona Cardinals. Don't you go anywhere. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXD Backs podcast live from Studio K. presented by our friends at Circle K. My name is Derek Montia,

occasionally known as your host of Southwest Bias and your host of this PHNXP podcast. Also, I'm replacing Espo. That's why I have his little thing here. It's his nameplate for now. Now I'm the captain of this ship. Of course, I'm not doing it alone.

I got my first mate, actually the true captain for this thing. It's the one the only Damon dog on one to two. Shadow captain. Damon, I'll tell you, man. I want to talk baseball. I want to talk about the MLB postseason, and I want to, of course, answer Mailback Monday questions,

but I'm still not over the Cardinals' loss. Nor should you be. As an Arizona sports fan, I'm just devastated. I'm moping around my house. I am. I'm just kind of like listless. I have no life, no energy to me, and yet I'm supposed to be here doing two shows today.

And I don't know how, I don't know how, after the way that they broke my heart yesterday. But I'm an Arizona sports fan. I am used to having my heart broken. I've learned how to rebound from bad relationships, and I'll get over this one too. But of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365 in GameTime. Make sure to download that Bet365 app right now. Use that code of PHNX 365.

When you sign up, you'll get some bonus bets for following a few easy steps. Over at Game Time, use our code of PHNX. You'll get $20 off your first order at GameTime for your already low last minute ticket deals. Well, the Arizona Diamondbacks, again, aren't in the postseason, but we have adopted a team and that team is playing a very, close, very exciting series that right now is all tied up and that is our sea snakes from Seattle. I don't know how being sea snakes has anything. It's their abbreviation is SEA and then we, there are, so they're the sea snakes. But the Mariners are in an incredibly exciting series right now

that is tied 1-1. Game one, it's basically the battle between Noah and Shane is really what it's all about. And Shane is a hardworking leader of our production staff. And meanwhile, Noah is the most atrociously unflappable human being that you've ever met in your life that, like, very rarely can ever be upset, ever sad, ever anything but a nuisance, quite frankly, around the office. Well, and the worst part is, is he's like so negative about his own teams. Like, he hates the tigers. He hates them. And so when they lose, he. He hates them. And so when they lose, he can just be like, well, I was right the entire freaking time. Yeah, he's one of those people. Yeah. We have a few of those in our chat. Let's not,

let's act like they're not not going to. Yeah, it's true. I love them none the same. But Noah, meanwhile, I want all the bad things in the world for some reason happen to Noah and his tigers. They win game one in 11 innings, like I said. It was an exciting game. That one, kind of, kind of crazy by the lack of production by guys not named Cal Raleigh or Julio Rodriguez. and quite frankly, Julio is not really known for being a super clutch player for the Seattle Mariners. He's a very good player, but at the same time, he's also a guy that tends to not step up in the biggest of moments, right? And he has done that so far for the Mariners. Cal Rally was three for five in that game one loss with three singles.

Julio Rodriguez, three for five, with a home run to RBI. Mariners not named Cal Raleigh or Julio Rodriguez went 0 for 28 with seven strike. workouts in that game. And they lost by one run. It's kind of remarkable when you think about it. And it's very, very reminiscent of what we've seen out of this Diamondbacks team. At times, I've said, can we just get a third guy? That's all we need is a third guy. And that's all the Mariners needed. Former Diamondbacks did not help him out. We'll cover that when we spy on our exes here in a little bit. But the Mariners did win game two. Playoff Julio is here. Again, didn't have as good of a day in game two as he did in game one,

but he did hit the go-ahead RBI double that scored rally after he doubled in the eighth inning. Again, those two guys getting a job done and it ended up being the game-winning hit for the Mariners. Also, they lose the game that Terek Scoobal didn't start for the Tigers, but somehow win the win he does. Explain that because it's baseball. They still have a tough road ahead after losing game one. They basically lost home field advantage there to the Tigers, and we'll have to win one on the road in order to kind of get this thing back on track

so that they could potentially win it. You know, maybe they take both games in Detroit. This is going to be an exciting series, and I still feel like the Mariners, who have really good pitching and a really good bullpen, haven't even had their finest day offensively yet. They've been able to hold the Tigers, but the Tigers have done a decent job, you know, doing that to the Mariners as well. But overall, we are still rooting for Seattle,

even though New York technically has the most former Arizona Diamondbacks players. We're giving up on the Yankees because they are getting slaughtered right now by the Toronto Blue Jays who are proving to be once again the most dominant team in baseball for a reason. They beat the Yankees in game one, Damon by a score of 10 to 1. And in game two, they beat the Yankees by a score of 13 to 7. Fun fact, in those two games, the Blue Jays outscored the Bengals. so far on Sunday. So that's a fun fact.

Not so fun of your Bengals. No, probably not. Probably not if you're a Jemar Chase or a Chase Brown owner or what's it? Jamar at two toddies. He did. He had a long one too. That was pretty impressive.

But Vladdy, Vladdy Jr. Can I just say Derek real quick, not to derail the show and make this about Damon and Derek's fantasy football teams, to which I will also say, we probably should. Congrats to you on your victory over me this week. I just watched one of my football.

Congrats to you over your victory over me this week. It's 100% over. Don't you get. I can't believe what a performance that you had. Oh, I hate you. I don't like what you're doing right now. Screw the sleeper app and their projections. It should say 100% Derek right now.

But that being said, I was just going to say I'm in another fantasy matchup where that Jamar Chase 60-yard touchdown pass and the Amari de Mercado fumble happened at the exact same time. And I have Jamar Chase and my opponent had Amari DiModato. Oh, no. So he had like a 95% chance to win, and it would have been like almost 100. And it went to 50-50 in the span of about 10 seconds. And I was just like, I don't know what I'm watching right now.

In hindsight, I mean, at the time I was like, Cardinals are still going to win this football game. And in hindsight, I'm like, I kind of wish he just scored. You know what? I don't want to talk about Toronto dominating the Yankees. What loss from the Diamondbacks this year is like this? Is there a loss? I mean, because they've had plenty of losses where the Diamondbacks blew the lead,

right but what's the equivalent of this like hitting a home run and missing second base i don't like like getting yourself out by out by out over running the base or something yeah and that made the second out and then you know again you would have gone up by like let's say you know an extra run and then you just let the other team completely come back but i don't know there there are so many things here that i can't even compare it to in a baseball game and i mean watching the diamondbacks at times was like watching that one cardinals game But spread out throughout a season, right? Yeah, just finding ways to lose baseball games.

Oh, God. Yeah, I mean, the pain for them was one day. Ours was like 40 games this season, so don't even get me started. Plus, there's also the fact that Bo and I had the fact that, like, those one losses are devastating in football. And in baseball, we tend to take them as being equally devastating, despite the fact that there's 161 more games to play and not just 16 or in the, you know, Cardinals case, however many they have left. But again, Leah is running around the office. We have representatives for all of these teams in the postseason all, very excited about how their teams are doing.

Of course, known Canadian. Leah Merrill is excited about Vladdy Jr. going three for four with a home run in game one and two RBI, and then three for five with a home run and four RBI in game two. Man's doing it single-handedly against the Yankees there. Alejandro Kirk, the guy who is part of the reason why we ended up with, one, Gabriel Moreno, had two home runs in their game one victory. And then the guy we traded for Gabriel, Gabriel Moreno, Dalton Bar Show put on a show so far

in the postseason. He had two home runs in the game two victory. And we're going to talk about the Diamondbacks losing that trade a little bit later. But they did put up seven earned runs in game two on Max Fried in the first three innings and ended his night. And good Lord, the Toronto Blue Jays Damon looked like they're going to be very difficult to beat. they do it's kind of funny because some of these teams felt a little bit fraudulent and

I'm not going to discredit the blue jays because they like they didn't get the things they wanted they didn't add to this team through free agency the way they wanted they were actually kind of the I guess the the the butt of the jokes a little bit that they missed out on so many guys but then they went out there and they solidified Guerrero being a part of this team for this long-term future probably for the rest of his career and the man showed out out. He's shown out so far in this playoffs, and he is shown why he is absolutely worth every dime of that money. Same thing with the Brewers. I mean, the Brewers felt a little fraudulent as being the best team in the National League.

And they crushed the Cubs. Like, they crushed the Cubs so bad in game one that, like, it was, the game was over after the first two innings. The Brewers put up all nine runs of their nine to three victory in the first two innings and just suffocated the Cubs. It was with, I watched it. It was frustrating for me to watch, right? Nico Horner, a typical gold glove winner makes an error in the field that allows the

inning to just go on and the club cubs just let single after single after like it was just one after another the brewers didn't have a single home run in that nine to three victory it was just all like the conga line going around the bases in the first and the second inning and this is the first postseason game they've ever won with freddie pralta on the mound which is kind of crazy considering how good of a pitcher he is there but uh i guess last but not least we still have the dodgers and the phillies a series that we couldn't hope both teams lost more. But the Dodgers give Otani a win at the bank, even though he really didn't deserve it.

Can they take a two-0 series lead? It feels like it. The Phillies look tired for some reason and old, which is what they are. But Otani did get his first postseason win as a pitcher for the Dodgers. Meanwhile, he was 0 for 4 with a walk at the plate, gave up three early runs, and then the Dodgers bailed him out. for the win with two runs in the six and then three more in the seventh. What was, I guess, different about this game for the Dodgers is their bullpen didn't allow a run.

They didn't allow the Phillies to get back in this late. Roki Sasaki looked pretty damn good as their closer in the ninth inning. And you hate to see it because the bullpen was the Dodgers biggest weakness. I don't know if Sasaki can still be nails on the biggest stage in a close game, but he was there in that game won and they held the Phillies to just five hits overall in that five to three victory. Kyle Schwarver went 0 for three or over four with three strikeouts. So again, another big star not having a good night at the plate. And meanwhile, they might have lost Harrison Bader to a groin injury that he suffered in that game. But he could still play

in game two. So that would take place tonight. Interesting to see if that happens. But overall here, it feels like some pretty dominant series. And then our Mariners and what feels like is going to be a brawl with the tigers and going to be continue to be very close games. The Mariners desperately need some production from their lineup outside of guys not named, you know, Julio or, you know, Cal Rally. And Polanco did a great job. He stepped up there in game two, but still the, it's like, like I said earlier, what the Diamondbacks needed was a third guy at times to step up.

And the Mariners desperately need that in order for them to get over the hump. here against the tigers. I just, I don't know, it feels like the Mariners are the better team in this series, Damon. Maybe it's because I'm rooting for them. Or maybe once again, it's just my pure, I don't want to call it hatred, just desire to see Noah not happy. Yeah.

Like, it's a desire to see him sad. Yeah. Which is a hard emotion to get him to achieve. But he's prepared for the tiger's loss, much more than Shane's prepared for the Mariners' loss. No, Shane will cry. I'm fearful of what's going to happen to this office should the Mariners lose, quite frankly, because Shane's change kind of the glue guy around here a little bit. Shane'll it'll trickle down to the rest of his production staff for a thousand percent.

He's just going to be nasty. Yeah. We don't need that. Yeah. sure you're not wrong about that our boys are not showing up in the postseason that's for sure we are going to spy on some of our exes here uh here in a little bit but let's go ahead and take a quick break on the other side of this break we're going to do that exact thing don't you guys go anywhere you're watching the ph next diamond back show let me tell you i i love pure edibles and this was a

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Candice Montoya wants to know, did we talk about Naylor's shoes yet? Nailer had some spectacular shoes on. Very sparkly, very gorgeous. And unfortunately, it wasn't doing anything to help his performance at the plate in the postseason. And speaking of performances at the plate, we have a whole lot of guys to spy on on this edition of spying on our exes. Damon, should we start out with the good or should we start out with the bad? Because it takes a drastic drop off from the good to the bad. And I don't know if we should start on the good or end on the high note.

What do you think? Let's end on a high note, Derek. All right. Well, let's talk about the Mariners and our Diamondbacks, former Diamondbacks that are not helping that team win. Gino Suarez has not been very good as a member of the Seattle Mariners. And I mean, I hate to say it because if Killarex was here, he would be the first person to confirm my obsession with one, Gino Svarez. But quite frankly, the trade has not worked out for them.

The two players couldn't be more different, by the way. Josh Naylor is beloved by Seattle Mariners fan base for what he's done as a member of that team since joining that team. Not only has he produced at a very, very high level, but he has quickly become a leader of that clubhouse. And quite frankly, might be, as Shane alluded to with me, he might be distracted by impending fatherhood because his wife is set to have a new baby any day now. And that is something that might be causing him a little lack of focus, lack of attention, completely understandably so. And of course, that could be why we're seeing unfortunately, Josh Naylor go 0 for 4 with a walk in game 1

and 0 for 4 with a strikeout in game 2. But Gino's swerres, 0 for 8 in those two games with four strikeouts. O for 4 in game 1 with two strikeouts, over 4 in game 2 with two strikeouts. And since joining the Seattle Mariners, at least during the regular season, Gino slash 189, 255, 428 for his 682 OPS. He had 13 home runs, had 31 RBI, and honestly probably was a huge disappointment to a team that thought that he was going to come back as a huge shot in their arm to add to the bottom of their lineup and to just bring them some more power outside of, you know, Cal Rally, right? And this is kind of what happens with Gino.

It's the unfortunate part about it. Gino is a streaky hitter, just like Lourdes is a streaky hitter, and sometimes those streaks come at very inconvenient times. But unfortunately for Gino here in the playoffs, he has not been very good, does not have a hit. like I said, he has 0 for 8 with those four strikeouts. Overall, I mean, you know, back in 2022 with Seattle, he actually was pretty damn good in the playoffs for them. He went five for 20. You know, he had 350 batting average with a home run and three RBI.

So Gino has produced better in the playoffs, especially for Seattle in the past, but right now is struggling, as you could say about most of the Diamondbacks playing in the playoffs right now. Paul Goldschmidt for the Yankees did not play in game one. He did go one for two as a pinch hitter and then he took over at first base with a run scored. But Luke Weaver's career might be in the middle of collapsing right before our very eyes. He was rocked again in his second appearance.

That was in game one loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Luke Weaver gave up two hits, three earn runs and one walk, did not record an out, Damon, once again. in fact after game one after his two postseason appearances so far for the Yankees his ERA couldn't be calculated because he did not have an out recorded so you cannot record you can't figure out ERA without having an out recorded he finally did record an out in game two he recorded one he went in for a third of an inning got one out and that caused his postseason ERA to be 100 And I mean, it's unfortunate because Luke Weaver was really, really good for the Yankees last season, especially in the postseason. So it's just unfortunate to see him struggling this way. And I think that once again, it just confirms that we did in fact lose the Paul Gullchman trade. Right? I guess. I mean, I don't even know who won or lost that Paul Gullchman trade, to be completely honest with you. But Carson Kelly was one.

for four with two strikeouts. The Cubs won the Paul Goldschmidt trade. That's what I forgot who said that. I think it was Sean said that on one of our live streams, not that long ago. It's probably the truth. But the trade we also might have lost might have been the Dalton Varshow trade because Dalton Varshow, you guys, has been incredible for the Toronto Blue Jays. And when you talk about clutch, when you talk about what guys do, when the season is

on the line, Dalton Varshow went two for three in game one with a double two runs scored and a walk. And then in game two, he went four for five with two doubles, two home runs, four RBI, and four runs scored. Four for five with two doubles, two home runs, four RBI, and four runs scored. That's incredible to me, Damon. And I mean, we always knew what Dalton Varshow could be 100%. Like, there is no doubt about it in my mind that we knew that Dalton was going to be a very

special player overall and like just the kind of guy that no matter what you were going to miss him you were going to miss him as a member of this team you were going to miss him in the outfield doing the stuff that he was doing when he was a member of the diamondbacks and you know now this season has had a five war season last year has a 2.8 war season in 2025 and that was with him missing substantial time in 2025 you only played in 71 games. for the Toronto Blue Jays. He slashed 238, 284, but had a 548 slugging percentage with an 833 OPS. He had a 122 OPS plus this year.

His defensive metrics are off the chart. He had 20 home runs and 55 RBI. And again, 20 home runs and 55 RBI in 71 games, Damon, that's like half a season. It's amazing with a 2.8 war, right? When you look at... It's such an interesting trade. It really is. Diamondbacks go to the World Series after in year one of making the trade where both guys that they brought in are their, what they're three and their five hitter in their lineup of a World Series team. You know what I mean? Like that's, it's hard to, it's hard to say that, you know, you lose that trade, but feels like Dalton Bar Shows by far the best player in that deal if you're, if you're truly looking at it. Honestly, I feel like if Gabby wasn't as injury prone as he's been over the last three seasons. Yeah. That I would feel more comfortable being like, yeah, I.

I think the Diamondbacks win this trade just because Gurriel's still an above average player. Gabby, a young hitting catcher is a huge asset. But with the injury problems, I think you just have to say like Varsho is kind of like, he's kind of just like a, I don't even like he's like a Cal Ripkin. Like the dude just, I feel like he's always on the field. He's always playing. He's always performing. He's a great defender. Well, and what he turns what he turned into as an outfielder was insane.

Can you imagine Corbyn and him in the outfielder? field? No, I mean. No, I literally can't. And again, these are the things that you think back on because now Gabby's value is dropping, not just because of what you said, not just because of the time he's missed due to injury, but quite frankly, look at what happened there at the end of the year. Something weird happened where pitchers started to feel more comfortable with James McCann behind the plate than Gabriel Marino to the point that they didn't want his bat out of the lineup, obviously, but they didn't want him behind the plate. I think you're putting a little too much stock into that personally. And I've told you that. like a couple times. I know, but I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that it is interesting, right? I mean, yes, it's a way to get both of their bats in the lineup, but you could also do it the reverse way with James McCann hitting D.H. And Gabby behind the plate, right?

It's just concerning because of the fact that he is our full-time catcher of the future, all things, fingers crossed, and then that's the hope, right? But, well, and we'll dive into this. We'll dive into this a little bit more. All off season, yeah. I don't think that he's like, you could make the argument that maybe that they were We're like, yeah, we prefer James McCann over Gabby right now defensively. But there's no world in which they're uncomfortable with Gabby defensively.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. They still think Gabby is a good defensive. And I don't think that it was Gabby defensively, if that makes sense. I think it had all, everything to do with James McCann's game calling behind the plate. Yeah. And again, that's something that with time Gabby can get better at and can improve it, just like all of the other things. But they're, I'm just saying overall,

considering Gabby was such an important key of that trade, that this is, it was concerning. Like, it was concerning that for some reason they felt McCann was better back there. And I feel like it just shows that there are some things he was doing better. Now, experience is what it is. And we've talked about that on this show. You can't rush experience. You can't, there's like, life just has to happen, right? So you have to get experience and you have to be behind the plate calling games,

especially in high leverage situations in order for you as a catch. to gain that experience. So that's that's the only reason why I had I guess conspiracy theory level concerns about that replacement there at the end of the year. But I get it there. We're D-BACs fans. It's doomsday mode. Is Gabby broken? Oh yeah. The season's done will never be good. Like I totally understand that. I just I'm just trying to be a little bit more of like I feel like, you know, they still are they still love Gabby obviously. It's just, it was I agree with you. Like they were trying to figure out now. Extend Gabby now. Extend Gabby now. Now it would be the, yes, yeah, hear me out.

His value couldn't be lower. Right now is when you get a good deal on extending Gabby. I hear you. I hear you. And then he do it before his breakout season like Prudamo had last year. Because I feel like Gabby healthy could be that. You know, he could have that. It's just, I'm still never going to say he's going to lead the team in home runs ever again.

That was a mistake I made once. The health aspect is the thing, though, Derek. A thousand percent. Like, when you're extending a guy, a young catcher who has now three straight seasons been injured and missed a ton of time. But he got hit in the hand. He's had a million. You could, he went to the dentist.

He went to the dentist to get some teamwork done. He, you know, got ran into at home plate when Rice Harper cold cocked him MMA style and knocked him out. Yes. At a collision at home plate. Like, you could name. He's not tearing his groin by being down in the catching position. You know what I mean?

He has all the nagging injuries, though. All of them. Every single one of them is, is Gabby Moray. And so it's, it's just, and then, you know, like he does the thing. You're going to blame Max Esposito for that, too, like they did with the pitching arms? Well, this year, I mean, they thought Gabby was going to be out like a month. And then he was out like three months, no? I mean, that was a little bit weird.

Because of the MRI. That was because the MRI showed that he was, it was, the damage was worse than it was. And, like, again, it's, Tori often says that he speaks too quickly on stuff. And I've seen it firsthand this year with some of the injuries and the way that things have changed on those injuries throughout the season. But more importantly, Dalton Vars shows war this year, by the way, taking a step backwards. His war from this year, which is lower than he had last year, totals is higher than Lourdes is for the last two seasons combined. And I'll get into Gabrielle Moreno's here in a second. But again, it's war is a stupid stat and it's hard for me to really

justify too much based on it. It's just the best way to compare apples to apples here. meanwhile gabby 2.6 war to 2024 1.6 in 2025 varsha was just the war god though well yeah but he has the formula on how to like just pump war up through the ceiling i mean when you when you talk about how good he is at the plate and how he good is how good he is defensively yes absolutely but to be fair like you said we didn't necessarily trade that for what we've gotten out of the last two seasons 2023 is what was important in and in 20203 gabbie played the most games he did for the Diamondbacks, 111 games that season, and he had a 4.3 war. So, again, his war right up there with the five that Dalton Varshow, you know, posted last year.

And again, those two together combined definitely make you feel like for a while there that the Diamondbacks were coming out on top. But with Lordus now being injured and quite possibly, I hate to be doomsday about this, but we might have seen the last of Lordus Gurriel on the field for the Diamondbacks, depending on the severity of this. his recovery and how long it takes for him. It happened so late in the year. Right. And it's going to be a full year recovery that this could, this could be it for Lord is. The Diamondbacks once again have a player that they're paying a substantial amount of money to

on their roster that probably won't play for the entire season. And this is a, this is an ongoing saga with this team. Like it never ends with having kind of like this dead money on their, on their payroll that they can't do much about. And unfortunately are stuck paying. But. And that's what we talk about with the,

Dodgers, right? Like if this happened to them, they'd say, oh, Guriel's out for the year. Let's bring in, let's pay a new left field. They're $15 million to come be the guy. We'll actually find a guy that's better defensively. Yeah, probably. And younger. Probably. They'll probably find a younger, better replacement, whereas the Diamondbacks are like, man, we're really going to have to go cheap on left field next year because, because Lordis is out. And it's like, man, it's just different playing fields. Or even saying they might not even get a first baseman through free agency because they have. We're already briefed it. Frankenstein over there.

We're already briefing on that. Tim Tawa. And Tyler Locklear after a month, apparently. Yeah, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler is going to take a while. After, after one, they said he'll, he'll be back in a month. And then we'll have lefty paving, righty paving, and then super utility Tim Tawa. And, uh, the 30th ranked OPS among first baseman across all of baseball. It's going to be awesome. I try to keep the mood light around here.

And I did. Here's what I will say. It's a joke about guys that used to be on this team, and all of them doing bad. And now I'm sad, David, you made me sad. Here's what I will say. We had the lowest, one of the lowest, if not the lowest, team OPS from the DH position, which is very important in 2020. And won the National League in the process. So if you're good enough in other areas, you can make it work.

But I don't feel great about the power hitting next season because we lost pretty much all of our power hitters. And, yeah, that's that. But Derek, I do have some breaking news for us. What's that? If you care to know. Yeah. What do we got?

We have Hank Aaron Award finalists. Oh, let's go. National League. We got Pete Alonzo, our own Corbin Carroll. Hey. Shohei Otani, put him in jail. Yeah. Our own Heraldo Perdomo.

Hey. Kyle Schorber, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatees Jr., Kyle Tucker, Trey Turner, and Christian Yelich. Out of the 10 nominees for the Hank Aaron Award, the Diamondbacks, have two of them. We have two of them. And one's not named Catele Marte. And am I wrong, but I'm looking through here? Are the Diamondbacks the only team that has two?

Am I wrong about that? Blue Jays have two. No, Phillies have two. Trey Turner and Kyle Schwerber. The Blue Jays have two. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Vladdy's good, so is George Springer. But anyway, good.

Let's go. I love this. Good guys, they do good stuff off the field. You know, Corbyn Carroll. The one thing I will say about Corbyn Carroll is I know that his off, field philanthropy, if you want to call it that, or I guess just his community activity is sometimes relayed by the team. But as a person that gets their media releases, let me tell you, Corby and Carroll is very humble about the stuff he does. I mean, there is not a lot of fanfare

that goes around about how much he gives back to the community and how much he's done. And again, one of the coolest moments I can think of this year was when he brought in the debats. the Nike team and gave them all new jerseys, new hats, new gear. They got them all hooked up with the Serpientis stuff. And those guys went on to win their championship. And it was really cool to see them back at Chase Field, hanging out with Corbyn and showing them their trophy. And again, just making the organization proud.

And Corbin, Corbin does, in fact, make the organization proud. And I don't think there's much more you could say about Geraldo Prado either about making this organization proud. He has been a leader on and off the field. He continues to be a leader in regards to sticking up for his teammates and also just a really fun guy that makes you love rooting for the Diamondbacks team. So just so much good being generated there. And again, these guys, they do it with very little fanfare.

So follow them on Instagram and you can kind of see some of the stuff they're doing because every once in a while you see them post something of, of what they're doing, but they're always donating to the community and especially helping make youth sports, provide youth sports with equipment and jerseys and all of this stuff they need. So very incredible, very incredible. So we're going to take a quick break on the other side of the break. We are going to dive into the mailbag and see what questions you guys have for us today. Don't you guys go anywhere.

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Rally House will not disappoint you, that's for sure. Find your local Rallyhouse location and shop their entire product assortment online at Rallyhouse.com today. All right, Damon. Well, it's Monday, and I know it's Monday by how mad I still obviously am about what happened to the Arizona Cardinals yesterday. But, of course, every year is our year,

unless you're talking about Arizona sports teams, every month on this show. show is Hispanic Heritage Month as long as I'm alive. Every week is Shark Week because we live dangerously. And of course, every day is Earth Day because Damon and I recycle. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go to the mailbag quick. My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes we go wow. All right. What do we got, Damon? What a Bob, man.

Every time. So he never lets me down. No, that's a fact. Travis Moore, leading this off, per usual. Getting on base, too, as always. But he just wanted to know what's Drey's best possible outcome for next season, Derek? I mean, best possible outcome is he comes in. He dominates.

He has a 1.24-ERA. 50 saves. Yes, 50 saves on the season and finally solves the Diamondbacks bullpen problems. Forever. Forever. Once and for all, for sure. I do think that there's a huge opportunity for Drake, right? and guys like Dre Jameson.

We have talked about it in the past, but just at the beginning of this season, we were probably asking a very different question about Jameson's career. What's going to happen with him? Where is he going to factor in? We were hoping that he was going to be one of the final guys that made the opening day roster, and he did not.

And then unfortunately, he suffered quite a bit of injury this year. He had experienced forearm tightness, which, as you may or may not know, is a disaster. those words together are a disaster for the Diamondbacks in 2025, but luckily it was actually a bone fragment in his right elbow, and he took some time to recover from that. But he will be pitching in the Arizona Fall League, as we have discussed, and I think that that's going to be huge for him to get some additional playing time

this off season for him to see some live bats. I was quite frankly surprised to see him on the Diamondbacks, or I shouldn't say the Salt River Rafter's roster, but I'm delighted because Drey Jameson could, he could be an X factor for this team next year that so desperately needs guys to step up. Dre's attitude is unlike anybody I've seen in the bullpen. Maybe Philip Abner is the only guy that I could say

that was very Dre Jameson-like. And the fact that he had a edge to him, but a sincerity to his edge, where his confidence goes beyond just being confidence, like he truly believes in himself and his ability to go out there and get the best hitters in baseball out. I think that it's going to be a question about opportunity,

and if he can step up and outperform the other relievers, I don't feel like that's going to be very hard, considering Dre does have substantially more, you know, experience than some of those younger guys do right now, even though he's still a very young man himself. The question will be, can he stay healthy? And it will also be, can his velocity on his foreseeing still be there? So if that's the case of Drake can get healthy and stay healthy

and can, you know, get his fastball back to where it was, I think that the sky is the limit, quite frankly, because again, the Diamondbacks need him. They need bodies to start the 2026 season, and there is no job that is secure, no job, no pitcher, not a single pitcher, besides maybe Ryan Nelson has secured a job. It's probably easy to say that about Brandon Fott and Erod, but we're going to talk about them here in a second.

And I don't feel like their jobs are secured if they don't come out and perform. and they are going to be vital to the Diamondback success. But I also believe that Dre Jameson could be vital as well, right? Not a lot of high expectations there for him, but the opportunity is there. And I personally know that Dre is the kind of guy that wants this opportunity, craves it. And not only that, but man, talk about a guy that loves the spotlight and loves those big moments. Like, he is unshakable.

So I think him and Philip Abner could be huge additions in high leverage situations for this bullpen. coming up in 2026 and again they don't need them they will need them all right what else we got our next question here uh and i believe this is our next question Derek so i apologize if not but zabe just wants to know what's your review of a new taylor album oh i was going to save this for later because i don't think people were really ready um for my take on this this is this is this is difficult there was a period of time i got caught using um taylor swift songs as uh thumb titles for this show for a significant period of time. I think I was able to make it over a week before someone figured out what the scam was that was going on here. In regards to life of a showgirl,

Damon, I will say I don't love it, but it's growing on me. I will say it feels a little bit like Taylor's going through the pop music motions a bit, right? Wow. Like, I don't, I don't know, I don't know how to phrase it. Like, I feel like she's like mimicking herself. Like she's, she's, she's, she's almost like a copy cat making Taylor Swift music. I feel like she's a fraud just a little bit. But I figured it out, Damon. I figured out what the problem is.

And I am afraid. I am afraid. You should be. Are you listening to the things that you're saying right now? No, no, no, no. Wait. I'm sure some Swifties will agree with me on this. I am afraid of the music happy Taylor is going to make.

Happy Taylor in a relationship in a committed, loving, relationship with one Travis Kelsey whose only other goal in life is to ensure that Xavier Worthy never plays football ever again. That's his only other job is to hurt Xavier Worth and to be the bow of Taylor Swift. The pain

of heartbreak may have been what gave her an edge in her overall discography here, Damon, but I will say I like Opelite and Honey. Derek, is that why girls have been way nicer to me recently? Is it because Taylor's turned a new leaf? She's influencing the entire female community.

And that's the part that makes it feel like fake heartbreak, right? Like she doesn't know heartbreak anymore. She's like her head is in the clouds. She's happy. Everything is great. And she's trying to write songs about, you know, breakups and heartbreak and whatnot. I mean,

Opelite kind of feels a little bit like being a Cardinals fan when you listen to some of the lyrics in that song. And I love Sabrina Carpenter. So it's hard for me not to love the titular song of this album. And I did not mean to say it that way. That is what they call them. That is that. And we need to be real careful there.

I'm sorry. That was definitely walking a fine line. But overall, I just, I mean, women used to spit in my direction with the old Taylor Swift when she was talking about, you know, all the breakups and everything. And now, now I'm the man. I don't get it. Katie Mae says, L.O.L, we can only like women when they're sad. No, well, they make better music when they're sad. Just like guys make better music when they're on drugs.

Do we, is that not? Do we not know that? Adele, when Adele was happy, oh my God, the albums when she was heartbroken were amazing. And now that she's happy, she's not even making music anymore. The Adele example. She's got a residency in Vegas. The Adele example saved you there, Derek, because 100% Adele made thousand times better music when she was going through the struggles of her breakup.

And now, like, it's like, you're going to do a residency. You're going to do all your old breakup songs because you don't even have any happy songs. There's no sadness in my heart anymore. It's just money and love. That's all that she has in her heart. Yeah, nothing in my life to smile about. That's what we need. Yeah, they're going to come for me here quickly.

So we better turn the page on this one and get to the next question. Dude, you're in deep trouble, dude. If the wrong people find this here, you're screwed, bro. No, no, I have to give my honest opinion here. I love Taylor Swift. You do. I know. That's why I was shocked to hear you come at my queen like that.

Damon heard me in the office blasting this album for sure. You're coming at our queen like that? All right. Let's calm down. We just won't stand for it. We're not seeing you at a Taylor Swift concert. Whoa, whoa. I went to the same Taylor Swift concert you did.

Oh, what? Like, the exact same Taylor Swift concert you did. You were sitting in the same arena that I was. That's right. That's right. So don't you dare, sir. I'm sorry. Moving on quickly before.

Now, David's mad at me. You guys got Damon mad at me now. How dare you? You know, my Taylor Swift card will not be revoked on this show. Tron. Third question. Should we expect her at least hope for some better pitching from Fott and Erod next year? Gowan, if he returns with all of this time working with Kaplan, finally caused some success improvement to materialize.

I hope so. And to answer your question, very honestly, it needs to happen. It desperately needs to happen. The Diamondbacks need the Erod and Brandon Fott that pitched the way they did towards the end of this season, especially Erod. over that five-game stretch when he pitched against some of the best teams in baseball and was at his absolute best. It just shows how good he can be. It's just a matter of figuring out the consistency for E-Rod. And I think that, again, there was something about him stepping up when the team needed him to late in the season that also made me feel hopeful. But overall, I mean, yes,

the Diamondbacks need that. They won't be able to survive a Brandon fought and an E-Rod start to 2026 where they're posting a 5ERA. They just won't. And again, that's a big, it's a big part of how the Diamondbacks can get themselves out of this hole. They are most likely not going to be able to go out and pick up the best arms available on the market to help this starting rotation. Fingers crossed at Merrill Kelly is one of those names that they bring in and bring back. But it feels like they're still going to need another fifth starter. They cannot do what they did this season. And quite frankly, they don't have the arms in the minor leagues right now to call upon. I mean, I don't want to see them rush the development of human Lynn or anybody else in order to

just figure out a fifth starter for the first, you know, four or five months of next season until Corbyn Burns returns at the All-Star break. So, but the most important part of that is how Brandon fought. We know what we're going to get out of Ryan Nelson. We know what we're going to get out of him practically every single start, right? So we, we, the, the diamondbacks need it. Will they get it? I don't know. Like I said, it gives me hope that Rodriguez was able to do it late in the season. And I still think that Brandon Fought is, is improving and learning and getting better. But, you know, again, Brandon Fought is starting to be a little bit, and as much as I hate to say this, a little bit like Pavin Smith in the aspect that like you continue to wait for him to get better.

there's glimpses of it, but then it kind of regresses right back to some of the same struggles that we've seen him have, right? And again, that's Brandon Fott. I would like to see him turn the corner and be consistent. He's not going to be a guy that goes out there and probably puts up a two ERA. But what he can be is a very, very good middle of the rotation pitcher that at least has an ERA closer to four or maybe sub four on a good season. rather than 5.25 or whatever he ended the 2025 season with. All right, what else we got, Damon? Our next question comes from Suffer for Snakes,

and they ask with Tyler Lockley or having surgery, will Tristan English, our minor league offensive player of the year, be given another shot at playing first base? After all, he is a natural first baseman, but he can also play some corner outfield. I don't understand what happened with Tristan English. He has probably got, in my opinion, he got the most raw deal,

maybe besides Nabil Khrisman this season. I don't think that he got a very long amount of time. He didn't get a very long leash. But he also, you know, again, he was the kind of guy that for a while there felt like he was going to be a future potential first basement for this team. And the next thing, you know, the Diamondbacks, you know, DFA them. They were able to get him back, bring him back after he cleared waivers. But it does feel like considering what we heard from Mike Hazen, first base might not even be.

addressed at all by the Diamondbacks. Like first base might not be, they might not go out in free agency and do anything to go to fix their problem at first base, which is kind of crazy, right? It feels like Tyler Locklear is still their best option. He will be back from injury before the end of spring training, but they think he'll still need another month to ramp up. So we probably won't see Locklear until May of 2026. And I feel like they think with Tawa and Pavin Smith and perhaps Tristan English, they have enough options there to, you know, take care of first base in his absence. I don't know. I think English's shortcomings have a lot to do with defense and not necessarily his offense. But again, I feel like he didn't really get a very, you know, very much of an

opportunity here at a major league level to prove himself before the Diamondbacks not only decided to move on from him at first base over there, but just completely DFAM altogether. So, I do think that, I mean, again, outside of a few players on this team and you know who those guys are, every job is up for grabs come spring training. And that goes for those minor league guys that get an opportunity to come up here in February and join the roster out there at Salt River Fields and be a part of it. Right? So it's like that that opportunity is wide open.

What Mike Hazen said, though, is that this is different. This isn't guys any longer just getting a chance or whatever. This isn't guys like, oh, hey, you get a chance in spring training to kind of make an impression on the coaching staff in the front office for the Diamondbacks. This is literally come up here during spring training and win yourself a major league job. After they saw what they saw last year, I can't imagine anybody not realizing any of the minor league players, not realizing what a great opportunity lies before them. What a big opportunity, what chance for them to become a big leaguer and for them to start their career, start their major league career, right? You look at a guy like Philip Abner, who I brought up earlier. This man was pitching in Hillsborough to start 2025.

And next thing you know, he's pitching in high leverage situation, striking out Shohei Otani and Freddie Freeman against the Dodgers for the Diamondbacks before the end of the season. It's crazy how quickly his path to the major leagues happened from being in high A to the major leagues. but that can happen for any guy right now. And to get back to the question, Tristan English probably has one of the better opportunities to make an impression and win himself time. How does he get there? I'm sure vastly improving at defense

and working on that through the offseason is going to be key for him. And that's what the struggle is for baseball players is how much do you work out and how much do you rest considering how ridiculously long the baseball season can be. But a guy like English, this would be the time to put in all of the work during the offseason so that he can come in ready for day one of spring training and

take the job, take the job. That opportunity is there for sure. And we've seen it. The Diamondbacks have had no problem parting ways with guys that aren't performing to open the door for guys that are. And again, we're going to not take a quick break, but I didn't want to remind you guys before we get to some more Mailbag Monday questions to join. And I don't know why you would do this, but it's because the community.

It's so we can all be miserable together. Join Bobrock, Johnny Venerable, probably me, probably Shane, probably Damon, I don't know, he loves heartbreak, and the rest of the PHNX crew for the ultimate Cardinals away game watch parties. That's all I know. At he live of resorts and casinos, I'll tell you the best part is when you watch the game slip away, at least you can go down and maybe drown your sorrows in the Buffalo slot machine or over at the, you know, roulette table where red will win you some money, unlike the Cardinals.

Black, black is bad, right? Black lost in the game yesterday. That's why we bet on red. But make sure to join us for the heel of ever resorts and casinos at Wild Horse Pass. Our next event will be out there on October 12th. So join us for that. We have live pregame halftime and postgame shows hosted by our PHNX Cardinals crew, as well as food and drink specials, PHNX giveaways,

and the vibes are always immaculate, no matter how bad the Cardinals are. So RSVP for our Cardinals away game watch parties over at go phtnx.com slash events right now. All right, Damon, what else we got in the mailbag today? Our next question here comes from Austin, who has become a staple, Derek, of these Mailback Monday episodes. Glad to have you here. Do you see Luis Robert as being a good by-low candidate if his option is not picked up by the White Sox? And he actually said a good-guy-low candidate, but I made an amendment there. Yeah, I mean, good guy-low candidate is just as good-by-low candidate.

Some might say it's even a step better. Yeah, I like good guys. And the Diamondbacks like good guys for sure. They really do. What I will say is he kind of does fit the mold. a little bit of what the diamond backs are looking for, right? He didn't have a great season offensively with his bat, but he's an excellent defender, and he's got incredible range out there. His arm strength, average, not too great according to baseball savant, but still a little better

than average. His arm value, a little bit above average, and then, of course, his range is incredible, and he has incredible sprint speed as well. So the problem there would probably be that he feels a little bit like the Diamondbacks outfielders that they already have, quite frankly. They have guys that have good range and good sprint speed. We need some good arms out there. And quite frankly, we need some good offense. However, I do love the idea of giving him an opportunity. And I think that as far as having an additional outfielder, you know, especially a righty, the Diamondbacks could use that substantially. And I just don't know, quite frankly, if he'll be a by-low candidate. I think some teams still believe in him.

However, you know, his numbers last two seasons have not been very good. Slashed 224, 278, 379 with a 657 OPS in 2024. And then in 2025, 223 batting average, 297 on base percentage, 364 slug for 661 OPS. His power has really gone away the last two seasons. But he is an excellent defender. And again, if that opportunity was there, I would love to see the Diamondbacks go for it just to add that additional outfield. I truly feel like they need that.

And that would probably allow them to maybe trade Jake McCarthy, Alec Thomas, or both of them for some additional pitching help that they so vastly need. So again, I don't, and I don't hate that idea at all. What else we got, Damon? Our next question here comes from Flea Ball, who asks, if you were the commissioner, what simple rule change would you make an MLB? I would add the extra bag at first base and silly players have to run on foul territory, but the base is on fair.

Oh, man. Yeah, I kind of like that. I realize that with banana ball, right? They have the base on the outside. They have just two bases next to each other. It just makes a lot of sense. I mean, aren't they doing that in college baseball? Yeah, college baseball as well. But I don't know, man. I think that if you were asking me about one change I would make, ball pits in the outfield so that when outfielders rob home runs, they fall into the ball pit. Oh, that would be amazing. them to go over the wall? Even if they leave the ballpark, uh, it still counts as a robbed home run

if they catch it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If they catch it and fall into the ball pit. Lower fences, a little bit lower fence. So like you got a guy like hurtling into the ball pit. Yeah, like Fenway or something like that. It was a stupid little short wall that isn't even a real wall. Right. It's the best idea ever. I stole that from, uh, from Billy Gill on the Dan Lubbitt's hard show and he pitched it to Jim Leland. And Jim Leland, the most baseball guy ever was like, yeah, I could see that working. That would be electric. Because, Even Jim Leeu and thought it was a good idea. Here's what I see.

The amount of times an outfielder would go over the wall and then sink into the ball pit and then emerge with the ball in hand. But see, like how much know. Just his arm up in the air? See, the ball pit though, interestingly enough, I feel like the level of difficulty of you trying to like make all the balls the exact same size as the baseball. Right. So you know, because they're plastic, right? So I'm not going to act like you're going to know and feel. But like in the moment, if they're all the same size, it'll make it that much.

more difficult for an outfielder that actually missed the ball to locate it because everything is baseball sized around him. You're telling me, yeah, and that might just be a ground rule double at that point, but I love the idea of jumping into the ball pit. Can you imagine the suspense, Derek? Yeah. The dude puts the ball in the air. Yeah.

All you can see is just his upper forearm. His upper forearm and the crowd loses it. Yeah. I love Ernesto's idea to. Ernesto says extra two wins for debacks every year just because. Makes you think. You know, you wonder, like, some people are crazy, but then, like, like, you know, later they're considered geniuses. I think Ernesto might be in that category. For me personally,

I would revoke the pitch clock because I truly do feel like the pitch clock. I like everything else about the changes they made. I like the engagements. I like everything that they've done. I don't like the pitch lock. I think it's stupid. I think the penalties for not being ready fast enough or not delivering to the plate fast enough or dumb. And I feel like it's to blame for a lot of injuries that we're seeing across baseball. I also don't think shedding 15 minutes off of a of a, of, a game is really worth it to have a catastrophic mountain of, you know, Tommy John surgery. We're keeping Andrew whatever in Florida busy or in Alabama busy with all of these Tommy John surgeries that are happening.

And it's all because of the stupid pitch clock. Now, if you wanted to talk about a simple rule that I would implement, it would be, again, from banana ball, but instead of it being the extra base, it would be the fan catching the ball cleanly in the outfield or in the stands is recorded as an out. That's my favorite rule in any baseball league I've ever heard in my entire life. And I cannot stress enough how exciting it is to see that happen in banana ball. Katie May says, I like the pitch clock. I think velocity is the causer.

I don't like ghost runners. So soon. Yeah, I agree with that as well. Maybe ghost runners in like the 12th inning and beyond because nobody wants to watch a baseball game go that long, but I do think that the ghostrunner rule is also very stupid as well. All right. What else we got, Damon? I think we're running up against the clock.

Yeah, we're on our last question here, Derek. So we'll just hit Jarmy Strong, who's our newest supporters club member, I think over here at PHNXD Back, so thank you, Jarmy Strong. Says, my first question as a proud SC member, would a home run dugout Sally boost, team morale, and fan engagement, and why does the right Sally involve Jesse Jr.? Well, J. Army Strong, I know, is one of our newer fans, Damon. And I, yeah, and I think that one thing that he might not know is that we rescued Jesse Jr. From the Debex dugout celebration.

In fact, there's a rescue. He is a rescue. There's a photo that Damon can definitely find of Evan Longoria with the snake draped around his neck. And that that's something that, quite frankly, was part of their home run or of their cellies. I have talked about it on the show before about how much I regret the way that the Diamondbacks don't embrace their home run celebrations because quite frankly, they treat home run celebrations the same way Drew Petzing treats calling offensive plays in the fourth quarter. They're scared of them. They are terrified. They think that these wonderful home run celebrations somehow bring them all of the bad luck in the world.

and I also think a little bit is from Tori LaVolo not liking to, he doesn't like to stunt on the other team. Tori doesn't like to show up his opponent. And again, that might be something that maybe he's overthinking, might cause the entire team to overthink it, but at one time we did have a home run snake. And it was incredible.

And the only player that got to wear him was Evan Longoria. And look how magnificent he looks with him strode across his shoulders. This is where the whole thing started from. One guy. JJ was in his element. One guy one time got to rock JJ. And then that was it. And then they blamed JJ for their shortcomings as an offense and cut his tongue and head off. Awful.

Awful. They also have a vest that I know for a fact hangs in the dugout or not in the dugout in the clubhouse every single day. Every single day. And do they wear it out publicly when they're giving their postgame interviews like they used to? Do they have it in the dugout the way that the Toronto Blue Jays have this badass jacket now with postseason across the shoulders in the back that they wear? No, no, they don't.

They hide it in the clubhouse because they want to celebrate publicly and not put it on their opponent. I will say this, having a home run celebration doesn't seem to stop the Mariners from hitting home runs, nor did it seem to stop the Toronto Blue Jays from smashing the Yankees

in their dumb, dumb faces. So why in any way, shape, or form should we be scared of a home run celebration and not having some something wonderful like this in the dugout. JJ deserves to live his best life. He deserves to live in the dugout. He deserves to go on road trips, be with the team,

be there supporting them every way, every step of the way in 2026. And I quite frankly will petition them to take our mascot stake and take them with him and put him back in their dugout where he belongs because it's not his fault. It's not his fault. They didn't hit home runs. But they did go on a pretty drastic home run drought.

Treat him right this time, though. Yeah, don't cut out his tongue or his head or any of that stuff. Grow up. Grow up. It's not his fault. It's your fault. It's your fault. Blame it on the right person. I mean, we had to perform life-saving surgery on JJ when we got him back. You're lucky my wife's a vet deck. You're lucky she's a vet tech. 100%. Anyway. I also, I didn't see it earlier, Derek. I really rock with Ernesto's idea. It's called

the translator bookie rule. And essentially, if your translator or bookie, quote unquote, commits crimes, you also are responsible for said crimes because you brought him over to this country. All right. That's fair. It's tough but fair. That's just a, I don't know. It's something that Manfred maybe could chew on a little bit. The police already weren't willingness to hear us out on arresting,

maybe they will hear us out on this. So we'll figure it out one way or another. But we thank you guys so much for your time. We love and appreciate you. We will be back tomorrow with another 12 p.m. show, Katie May. Don't be late for that one. I promise I won't say bad things about Taylor Swift. But of course, in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at K-M-N-U-K-M-A-W-K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. We, including Jesse Jr., are all Damon's dogs, Park, Park. Our show is at P-N-X underscore D-Bex, but is always all-roads lead to at P-H-N-X underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Follow K-V-U-M-A-K if you want more Taylor Swift slander on your timeline. Yeah, follow me for more hot takes on Taylor Swift

that I'll never put in writing on social media. media. No, it's going to be on Twitter right now. I am not having those people come from me. I learned my lesson when I attacked an Aquaman poster for how many orca whales they had on it. I will never besmirch of fan bases. I'm not coming after the BTS Army. I'm not coming after Swifties, and I will never, ever, ever, ever choose aside in the great comic book war ever again. I'm clipping all of your Taylor Swift takes and we're posting them from PHNXD backs. You are a monster. At cap underscore caveman, not a fan of the new Taylor Swift album. When you guys wonder why I deactivated my account.

Why? So I don't know what that smoke. Just in quotes, women make better music when they're sad. At cap underscore caveman dissect Taylor Swift's new album. I didn't say women. I said Taylor Swift. Maybe I said all women. You did.

All right. Well, I love you guys. I thank you guys. I love Taylor Swift at her music. That's the most important part. But of course, we appreciate your time. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, behave yourselves.

Enjoy the new album. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you win trades and you don't lose them.