PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Diamondbacks Turn To Jordan Lawlar OVER Eugenio Suarez At Third Base This Season?

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Is it time for the Arizona Diamondbacks to turn to the farm system for another otpion at third base over Eugenio Suarez? How likely is it that the option could be Jordan Lawlar? We are joined by the voice of the Reno Aces, Nash Walker, to discuss this and more from the D-backs minor league system. We also unleash our MLB Power Rankings for this week and check in on who the next player will be returning from the IL now that Geraldo Perdomo is back.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to the CircleK Studio and the D-Backs podcast right on PHNX. My name is Darren Maudea, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is occasionally known as your Thunderstick, my vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And of course, we are here in Studio K presented by Circle K. Head to any Circle K Arizona location where you can get any size polar pop or Froster for just 79 cents now through September 3rd. Jesse, big night for the DeBacks. Great to see you. really can't see you around the swear jar.

There we go. Now I can actually see it. That makes a lot of sense for the swear jar to be right in between the two of us. I feel like at times the things you say make me want to curse. But not after last night. Last night was a fun win. And of course, we are very excited for the Diamondbacks to finally be on a roll. We're also very excited to have not only Heraldo Pardomo back, but other members of this

organization. Jordan Walker started last night for the Reno Aces. He had himself a big night. And to talk about that and more. in regards to the Reno Aces and the Diamondbacks minor league system. We're joined by our friend Nash Walker from the Reno Aces. Nash, what's happening, buddy? Great to see you.

Good to see you guys. I will not be depositing in the swear jar today. I'll leave that up to you. Yeah, I'll take care of that. I usually contribute to that, but of course, we do appreciate you being here, man. Of course, Nash is a play-by-play broadcaster at just 23 years old. You make me feel absolutely ancient with that. I'm 24.

I'm an old man now. 24 now, yeah. But that's where you got your start at 23. I mean, tell us a little bit about your journey and how it is that you came to be a play-by-play broadcaster at your age. Yeah, the, the debacks, like, I remember watching, of course, like, I've been into baseball and major league baseball since I was little. But I remember watching, like, I love Justin Upton. I loved A.J. Pollock. Like, I remember those debacks teams obviously love Goldie.

I remember following the debacks, but I never thought, I'm from Minnesota. I never thought I would like work within the org or like close to the D-backs. It just was, it never went through my head. But as they say, like in your career, you never know where it's going to take you. And it always works out in the end. So I never saw it actually coming to Reno. I never even heard of Reno, but I got the job last year. And I really have come to just love and like I've become a D-Backs fan.

And like you guys know how that is following the team every day and and just being in the weeds and feeling like you're part of it, I've become a D-BACS fan in a way that I never thought I would these last two years, but it has been such a pleasure to be here. Nash, you mentioned you're from Minnesota. I don't hear as much of a Minnesota accent as maybe. I've lived in Reno too long. I've lived in Reno too long now. My mom is from Minnesota.

So I, like, being around her side of the family, I know what like the most extreme version of a Minnesota accent sounds like. And yeah, you're not, you're not quite there. I guess that's okay. I never want to lose my O's. I'm hoping that I still have my O's a little bit, but I have been, I think I've been in Reno too long at this point, which is fine. I'm a Reno resident.

I got my Nevada license. We're all sad. I'm a Reno resident. Well, I guess we have to talk about Jordan Lawler. I mean, he's sort of the big storyline right now with your team down in AAA. Of course, missing the entire season up until yesterday with a ligament tear in his thumb. He came out, had a big story. really, really nice game to get his season started, three hits, a double a home run.

What did you see from Jordan Lawler in his first game back? It was very similar to when he got called up last year. His first game, getting called up to AAA last year, he hit a home run. It was against Las Vegas. I'll never forget it because I remember hearing so much about him. And he was 20 at that time and came up and immediately hit and just looks comfortable. You know, some guys, you've run into a couple, you know, at AAA. And it's a different feel.

But with him, he just has. looked comfortable since last year at this level. And the debacks called him up knowing that he was comfortable and that he was going to dominate at this level. And I think that's the expectation now is he just looks like one of the best players in AAA on day one. And that was the expectation coming into the year. We didn't know about the injury until very late in spring training. But I felt that he was going to be one of our best players on opening day, if not the best player on both sides of the ball. And that's what we saw in game one. I think he's just so impressive to come back after that long and get your timing in the first game. And I asked him after about his timing.

He said, I felt he feels really good. He feels like he's locked in because I don't know if you guys remember, but last year he got off to a really slow start with Amarillo and then went on an incredible run at double A, which then moved him here and then to the bigs in like a month. But he has come out swinging right away. He looks awesome. We do know that Tori Lovolo, oops, me, do the Tori Lavello the other day did say that there's a good chance that he most likely is just going to be getting reps at shortstop. with some reps at third base, but it sounded like the majority of his time

would most likely be at shortstop. Seems like a little bit of a crowded field there with the talent that they have. How likely is it do you see that he plays maybe more third base than Tori might be letting on or maybe more than we're anticipating to possibly just be available should the Diamondbacks be looking for someone else

to play that position? Yeah, you never know what's needed in the big leagues and that can always change. when you have someone like Lawler who's 21 clearly is a shortstop. I mean, anything you read about him, anything you watch him play, he can play shortstop at a high level. And so I think you may be hesitant to move him off of short because that's where you're going to get six, seven wins potentially.

Not that he couldn't do that at third. But I would hold out on that just because I think he's going to be a plus shortstop in the big league. So it makes sense to have him play short here every single day because you have some shortstop prospects who maybe you're fringy short stops. Jordan Lawler is not a fringy shortstop. I think he is a shortstop.

And you know that you're going to get the most value out of those up the middle premium positions. So there's nothing he can't do, right? Like he could move over to third and he could be a plus plus third basement too. I think he's going to be a great defender wherever he ends up. But for now, he looks like a plus shortstop defensively. Another, another big story in Reno for you guys, Adrian Del Castillo. We've been talking about him pretty much the whole season.

And the numbers have just been outstanding pretty much from day one of the year, it feels like. What do you think it's been different for Del Castillo this season? He's been the biggest, I don't want to call him a surprise. It's not like I didn't think that he could do it. But the biggest breakout probably this year by a mile is Adrian El Castillo from day one has been raking. Honestly, part of it is he finished last year with us, was a little bit slow at AAA to start. He was below league average and was kind of working through. playing time honestly like hosie was getting time then hosy went up and then you know we had p jiggins for a while

in the middle of the summer last year the catching spot was more rotating last year but since day one he has hit and he's played catcher or dh almost every single day but he went played in porto rico in winter ball and then he got called early for work with the debacks in arizona he got called in like january to go play before spring training then he had a full spring training he basically never stopped hitting and I think he just continued to get better throughout the entire winter. And what you've seen from him, he's always been patient. He's always had a good eye at the plate. But he's been so aggressive early in counts.

And he's hitting the ball hard. Everything he hits is hard. If you look at expected batted ball numbers in the PCL, it's like, dealt, dealt, dealt, dealt, everything is Del Caffeio because he just, he hits the ball so hard in your ears. You don't even have to see those expected numbers. You just have to listen because every time he swings the bat, it is exploding. It's not really striking out.

I mean, everything you would want to see from a young hitter, he's doing it. He's holding his own against lefties. He's not striking out. He's drawn more walks lately. But now he's mixing the walks with the power. The biggest thing for me, guys, was on, I think it was Sunday. It was either Saturday or Sunday in Tacoma. They walked him.

And it was 2-0, but they walked him. And that was that moment where you had it and you thought to yourself, like, okay, he's the best hitter in this league. And that's how I felt for probably a month now, or it's like there's nobody better in this league. We've seen everybody now. I follow it on a daily basis. Del Cassio is the best hitter in the PCL right now.

And he's getting walked, hitting for power. Now with Lawler and Dell 2, 3, scary lineup. Well, how's he doing behind the plate? Because obviously, we know that's just as important with a catcher. But, I mean, you know, that that's something right now that the Diamondbacks, his offense is something they could use. Is he ready potentially to be able to call games at a big league level? Yeah, they've been pushing him on the basis for sure.

getting pushed on the bases. We've been really lucky to have Jose and Del because, as you know, Jose Herrera is such a great defensive catcher and nothing happens on the bases in front of him. I think Del's gotten better behind the plate too. You know, I think there were questions last year about, you know, is he a DH? Is he a catcher? Is he a first baseman? Everything that I've seen this year is he's been really good behind the plate. He has been getting tested, but you're seeing him throw guys out, you know, second, third time in a game. He's just sick of it. He's like, I'm going to throw him out now. They're out at second base. But he has looked. solid behind the plate, at the plate, the best hitter in the league.

And when you put those two things together, I think he's been the most impactful player this season, maybe at AAA, honestly, he's been that good. Tell me about the PCL, Nash. We hear so much about how hitter-friendly it is. And I imagine it makes it more difficult to evaluate hitters, to evaluate pitchers as well, given the elevation in so many of these different places. Is it, do you think that's overblown at all, that narrative? or is it pretty much exactly as we hear pretty much all the time?

Well, and we always hear about Reno, right? Specifically, a place that like it's just hard because guys go down there and all of a sudden they hit 400. Yeah, I think it's maybe overblown here. Although, yes, the air is thin. We're high. We're in elevation. It's 95 degrees this week. The ball was flying last night.

The ball does fly here. It flies in Las Vegas. It flies in Albuquerque. It does. But I always lean on. Let's compare it to the league. You know, you may hit 3.30 in the PCL and your weight of runs credit plus is 97. Like that's just the way that it goes in this league.

So I always look at compared to the league average. I like to lean on that. And like someone like Dell, I think is at 140 or 40 percent better than the league average, which gives you that sense of everybody else is hitting in this league too. You know, how is he doing compared to the rest of the league? And then the other thing, too, is the expected numbers. I think you have to lean on the expected numbers. And with Del Castillo, again, is a great example.

there haven't been cheapies for him. Maybe one or two cheapies, but he's got 26 doubles this year. You know, he's like eating up the gaps as well. So you kind of have to lean on the expected numbers and lean on what you're seeing as well on batted balls. Yes, the ball does fly in this league. There's no question about it. But I think you can you can discern and figure out like, is this a mirage or is, you know,

are they hitting the ball hard consistently? And that's the biggest difference. You hear this, Derek? He's talking about WRC plus. expected stats. You're my kind of guy. No, I didn't hear that. I just tuned right out once he went into the, that kind of stuff.

No, I completely understand. And it makes sense, especially in a league like that, where the part factors are, you know, obviously a big, big reason why some of those guys have those numbers. But I know one guy that his name has become very popular with Diamondbacks fans is Christy on Mena. I know he had a couple of rough starts lately, but he looked outstanding this season. And at times has looked truly brilliant. I mean, what are your thoughts on the youngster?

Yeah, I think for him, you're seeing growth. But also, when you're around him, he just seems so much older than 21. He's so much more mature than that. You read that about him too, but it's true, like being around him every day, being on the road, watching him. And I asked him about that too. He said he's always hung around older guys. So he feels older himself. But on the mound, really fascinating from just a baseball lover to watch him.

And like, I love pitching. I love the art. I love the battle of a hitter and a pitcher. Mena, his fastball has gotten destroyed this year. It's gotten hit super hard. But it's so fascinating because everything else is plus plus. The curve is nasty. The slider has been the best slider in the league this year.

If you look at, you know, across the board, Mena's slider has been wipeout, which wasn't the case last year when he got called up to AAA. But this year is taking a big step forward with that pitch. He's working through when to throw his fastball, when to use certain pitches and counts. This is such a development time for him. But as an arm, I think D-Backs fans should absolutely be excited about the potential for him.

I think he's just working through when to throw pitches, you know, when to attack. He told me a couple weeks ago, I want to get outs quicker and counts because he wants to go deeper into game. So he's trying to throw that sinker more, get some ground balls. He's working, tweaking, and getting better every single start. And I think you're seeing him grow from day one here. He can get swings and misses. He said my strikeout rate is down because I'm trying to get more balls and points. play to get quicker out. He wants to go six. He wants to get into the seventh. And that's the

development from a young pitcher. You mentioned the fastball. That's something we've been tracking for a while. I know the Velo, it kind of popped up in spring training. We wondered if, oh, my gosh, does Christiane Manet just throw to like 95, 96 now? And that's just who he is. I know that hasn't really carried into the regular season at Reno. Looking at kind of the movement of the pitch, it seems like, it seems like in terms of the vertical ride and whatnot, that it wouldn't be terrible. necessarily. I know the elevation is certainly a factor there as well, where you see pitches have more of that life. Fastballs have more of that life, you know, closer to sea level than at elevation. Do you think it's, you think it's the, the velo being a little bit lower or the life maybe being

diminished by the elevation or just not being there quite as much? Or I guess maybe it could be a command thing. Why do you think the fastball is getting hit like that? I think it's all of it, Jesse. Honestly, everything you said, I think sometimes his fastball command has waned in starts and you've seen that he'll say that too i'll say it all depends on my fastball command because if he doesn't have his fastball command nothing else is really going to play as well as when he's you know in the zone with his fastball commanding the pitch so i think at times it's all of those things you mention i think sometimes it's command sometimes it's where where he's pitching are we in las vegas are we in tacoma that's more of a pitchers park those things matter another

thing with him and i think you've seen develop throughout this year if you look at his splits right righties and lefties have hit him really hard lefties are hitting a lot of homers righties are doing nothing against him but the change in oklama city okc they stack they stack lefties against him in this league too you'll see five six lefties in a lineup when he's on the mound and so he's working through that as well on his change up was nasty in okay c if that change up continues to develop now you're looking at three potential plus secondaries the curbaal was already there the slatter is taking a big step forward. And then if he has that change, which is 89.90 that was getting swings and misses a ton of them in Oklahoma City. Now you're really building. And I think that will help his fastball as well.

If the changeup continues to take steps forward like it has, you're going to see that fastball get better, I think. D.DLS, DDS, Davis and Dalo Santos, doctor of dental surgery. No, DeLos Santos, of course, is a guy that obviously a lot of Diamondbacks fans have known about for a while. You know, we had what happened with the Rule 5 draft. And now ever since he's come back to the organization, he has been a fairly incredible player, almost feels like a guy, like at one point who was a top prospect in this organization, kind of blossoming this year finally. But it also happened after he came back to this organization, which is a great time for it to happen.

What have you noticed about him and what are your thoughts on him kind of maturing here and looking like, like one of the better players in the Pacific Coast League. Maturity's the word. I think maturity is the word. In his at bats, though, you're seeing maturity. Last year, he drew 25 walks all year at Amarillo. It was 125 strikeouts, 25 walks last year. The biggest thing with him is, is he drawing more walks.

Because if he's drawing walks and he's spinning on pitches, he's going to hit 30 homers. You know, and if he can hit 240, 250, he's going to strike out a lot. That's just the type of hitter he is. He's going to K a lot. He's aggressive. He's a big right-handed slugger. He's going to strike out a lot. lot but that's okay if he's got a 10% walk rate and he's hitting 240 with 30 home runs like that's a

great bat to have in the big leagues so that that's the fine line that he's walking i think but you've seen that maturity this year much more drawing more walks i think he's almost at 20 i think he's at 19 already and we're in june on the season that is super encouraging to see him walk more see him in these at bats joey crable you guys might know him from baltimore was in the orio's bullpen But he pitched in Tacoma last week. And Davidson had this at bat where he just battled, battled, battle against a major league arm in Crable, who's got really good stuff, is right-handed.

You know, it's right on right. He's tossing in sliders, trying to get him to chase. Davidson battled drew a walk. And he had two home runs in that game, too. But Lolly, our manager, said after, that was the best out bat of the game, even though he almost totaled 1,000 feet in homers. The best, the best point of parents was the walk we drew late

because that showed the maturity and the growth that he's had. It's so great for him to be seeing these arms too. I mean, he has seen good, you know, major league arms who've been in the majors this year, who are throwing sliders, throwing fastballs, mid to upper 90s from the right side. This is big for him. Like it is for Mena, it's just important to be at this level, I think, for him. And to see that growth. He's only 20.

He'll be 21, I think, in a week or two. But he looks really comfortable. Last thing for me, Nash, it seems like one of the cool things about your job and just about AAA baseball in general. is that you get big leaguers there on rehab assignments pretty regularly. Jordan Montgomery, of course, made a couple starts for you guys early in the season before coming up. And I'm also curious specifically about Geraldo Perdomo, who I know it was just a handful of games, you know, not a ton of time down in Reno.

But what is it like having a guy like that around for a few days? It seems like players here, for sure, we talked about this a lot yesterday. Players here, coaches here really seem to value having Perdomo around. He was with us, I think, for three days, and you knew he was there. Yeah. Fantastic. For everything you hear about him, I think is true. I honestly didn't know a lot about what people say at the big league level about his makeup and his leadership and his energy that I think you and I have heard that they miss in the big leagues.

So I honestly didn't know about that. I had never met him before, but he was great. I mean, super, super energetic off the field was, like I said, you knew he knew he. he was there. I mean, he knew he was there. The guys love him. I could see why in the majors, he's a beloved figure. It was cool to have him. I mean, I said he can stay as long as he needs. I'm glad to see him. Yeah, exactly. I'm glad to see him back up there. But he's a character, really, really cool guy. It was that it is fun to be able to meet them and see what they're like, you know, in a baseball environment. It's really cool. He was great. Jordan Montgomery had a hard

time putting into words exactly what it was at Geraldo Perdomo. did for him out there last night. But it was, you know, just kind of cheerleading, just encouraging him. And like, again, I think that sometimes that's not something that your teammates always do, especially with sincerity. And I think Pardomo is just so sincere with his energy and his positivity. And I think it's a bit infectious to be around that guy. He, uh, we had a, I don't know if you guys like follow the Aces social media,

but we had a, pick your favorite jolly, pick your favorite jolly rancher. and Perdomo at the end, like, takes a whole, he was the first one, took a whole handful. He says, I love these. I love these. I'm like, bro, you can't take the whole bag. Other people have to fix them. But that is a good example. And then he would, he got on the bus after and he's like eating like sweet tarts or something. Like he just loves the candy. And then I said, I was going to bring him from Charlie Ranchers back because I had half a bag left from him taking half the bag. So it's just like funny things like that that you find out and like learn about these guys. But I, I could see that for sure. I think we figured out the key to his positivity is sugar, right?

Yeah, there you go. Keep them all sugared up. Before we let you go, I did just want to ask you, what's life for a ball player like in Reno? Because a lot of times we get to hear from these guys about getting the call, either getting the meeting with Lolly or getting the phone call or whatever. But a lot of times, these conversations involved that they were sitting at a blackjack table or in a casino at the time. Like, it's always kind of funny to me to think of a.

ballplayers sitting there and essentially hitting the jackpot without actually hitting the jackpot in a casino. Is it is it a strange life to live in a city like Reno and be an athlete? People always always ask me that too. They're like, I hope you're not at the casinos too much. I don't think you notice you're here less when you live here. I don't know what it's like for them, like how often they're in there, what that looks like. I'm not in there a whole lot. But I guess from the outside, it definitely, it seems that way because it's like a mini Vegas. It's the biggest little city. You look down to it.

It's like a mini strip. Yeah, it's a mini strip. Yeah, it's a mini strip. I prefer ours to Vegas. Yeah, it, I could, I could see that. I could see that. I don't know exactly what that's like to get. You know, I haven't talked to them about getting the call at the blackjack table, but it checks out. Well, Nash, we appreciate your time so much.

Make sure to follow him on Twitter. It's a Nash Walker, your Nashwalker 9? I believe. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not super active, but I'll retweet you guys. I'll support the show. Yeah. More importantly, make sure to catch some Reno Aces game. Make sure to catch him doing the play-by-play.

Nash, we appreciate your time so much. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you. Good luck. All right, man. Oh, man. I'll tell you, the Reno team is a fun team to watch, especially offensively. It's not going to, there's no shortage of runs being scored when you go watch a Reno

Aces game, especially at greater Nevada field. But we did have some more news about minor league guys, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do a little roundup here real quick. We had some prospect promotions that came through yesterday. Someone will probably be asking Nash about soon is Yilbert Diaz because he was promoted from double A to AAA. Somewhat odd timing there, Derek, because I don't know if you saw the box score from Yulver

Diaz's last start in Amarillo. It was not pretty. I think it was an inning in two thirds, eight earned runs, four hits. four walk, something like that. Not exactly a great way for him to finish his time in Amarillo. Yeah, that's pretty bad. But is the idea there that, because we know he's had a good season so far, is the idea there that results sometimes don't matter at a minor league level

when they're really just looking at development and where a guy actually is at, he could still have a bad outing like that without necessarily meaning that let's pull back and keep him here. Yeah. Yeah. My guess is that they had pretty much made the decision to, to bring him up to AAA before that start even happened. And yeah,

it probably didn't matter really how the start went. Yeah, not a great way to finish his time there. But he still had a strikeout rate of, I think it was 34.2% during his time in double A, which is really, really high. So some command issues that popped up late during his stint there,

but a 433 ERA and AA. As we were talking about with Nash, I mean, even more so in Amarillo, that's an absurdly hitter-friendly environment. So good numbers, really for Diaz at that level. And now we'll get to see what it looks like in AAA. Another prospect promotion that came through kind of the other,

the other more significant, I guess, one of the more notable ones would be Landon Sims going from single A Vaisalia up to High A Hillsborough. DeBacks took him 34th overall back in the 2022 draft. It was a big time closer in college. People might remember just electric stuff. But he had Tommy John surgery during his, final year in college and diamondbacks took a chance on him it's taken a while for the stuff to

come back dbacks have converted him to a reliever he has spent pretty much this entire season pitching out of the bullpen and it started to look really good for him his last i think it was his last seven outings he had 20 strikeouts in 10 inning so he's been striking out or had been striking out about half of the batters that he faced uh to finish off his stint in by celia so he goes up to to haya hillsborough now and that hillsborough hops team has has been killing it when it comes to starting pitching. Yeah. They currently have a 2.54 starting pitching ERA as a team.

Jesse. Yeah, that's pretty outrageous. The Northwest League is not the Pacific Coast League, but a 2.54 at any level is really impressive. Joe Elvis last night, eight innings, three hits, no earned runs, one walk, eight strikeouts. He has a 1-5-ERA on this season, and has a starting pitcher for the Hillsborough Hopps.

We've talked about Spencer Geising a little bit and how incredible he's been at that level this year. I believe his ERA is at 171 for the year. They've had some other guys contribute in a big way also. So, yeah, that 254 starting pitching ERA, Derek, is the lowest starting pitching ERA for any minor league team above the rookie level. So like single A and higher.

Wow. It is the lowest. And yeah, again, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Not at all. Some of the more hitter friendly environments, but still a really, really impressive number.

Andrew Pintar continues to do well for the Hillsborough hops on the offensive side of things. He's currently slashing 291, 390, 493. And again, like you said, like that's, that's one of the better offensive players on the hops. So that kind of gives you an idea for where those guys are at, a, as far as the offense is concerned. Yeah, the, yeah, Hillsborough is definitely the, the offense.

We have not seen put up the kind of numbers that their pitching staff has, certainly. But yeah, Pintar has been a good story for them this year, fifth round pick back in 2022. They've converted him from the infield to the outfield. That was a decision that was made last year. Talk to DeBack's farm director, Sean Larkin about this a few weeks ago.

And he was like, yeah, we just decided to sort of stick with the decision that the previous regime had made. And, yeah, it seems to have some athleticism. and we'll see if he's able to stay in center field long term. I think that's still to be determined. But with an 883 OPS, that'll certainly play just about any position on the diamond. Talk about Jordan Lawler getting a home run last night. And his return, Drew Jones hit a walkoff home run last night.

And he continues to look better this season. Yeah, Drew Jones is he's still pushing things in the right direction for sure. He hit that home run off a barn. I'm not sure if you saw the replay. that yesterday that was uh yeah apparently there's a minor league uh facility in single a that has a barn in right center field and it hit off of a bar in right center field yeah it's it's must it's must watch material um and this was big too i mean the uh rawhide were down five to four this was a two run homer uh that turned i guess what could have been a loss into into a win off win um so yeah

a big uh big hit there for drew jones he continues to to be moving in the right direction for sure his season slash sign is 27399 416 uh you know on the whole his season at single a is not is still not jumping off the page exactly but uh he got off to such a brutal start over the first two weeks if you look since then his numbers have been pretty good that that on base percentage is intriguing to me yeah like that's pretty solid if he's seeing the ball like that there's something there and he's definitely moved it in the right direction from how bad it was at one point this season for sure but even last year it was like he he had a 353 OBP with a 238 average throughout his minor season last year.

So he clearly just has a knack for having good plate discipline. And if he can keep pushing this average up, because recently he's been hitting, you know, in the mid-300s, you know, getting it from low 200s all the way up to 277. Like, if he's continuing to hit like that while seeing the baseball as well as he is, he could be him. I mean, maybe he is the prospect that we kind of thought he was going to be. Could be him. It could be him. Well, you are you and you are him. And we thank you for being here on the PHANXports YouTube channel. Yeah, that's some great analysis right there. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, we implore you to do so.

Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our wonderful shows on this network go live. Drop us a like. We always appreciate when you do that. Of course, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we appreciate you guys as well. We love our listeners. Make sure you're subscribed over there on your favorite audio podcasting app. Leave us a review. Those five-star reviews, definitely. the world to us. When we talk about five-star reviews and five-star products, of course, we have to talk about Shady Rays. Shady Rays has been rated five stars by over 300,000 people, and there's a reason for it. Shady Rays is a premium sunglass company that offers a premium product that doesn't cost you what premium sunglasses typically cost you. Their shades have durable frames and crystal clear optics, making them the perfect choice for all outdoor adventures. And of course, if you live here in

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Of course, also get yourself a pair of sunglasses and then enjoy patio season out of illegal peats. It might be 112 degrees right now in Arizona. But they got shade. They got shade and they have ice cold margaritas, which of course will probably melt in that kind of heat. But they also have an indoor part of the restaurant, which you can. can enjoy their wonderful food and irresistible drinks there or take it to go. But you'll miss out on Damon being there if you take it to go. So, of course, make sure to get some piping hot queso and share with Damon and enjoy yourself.

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And of course, I'm ready to be hurt again, Jesse. I know that the Diamondbacks aren't going to be on this list, but let's talk about who is on this list. I will say, Diamondbacks aren't too far away from being on this list. They're sniffing the list. Because, yeah, I mean, it feels like they're still about maybe. like eight or nine teams that you can pretty clearly consider good in major league baseball and then there's kind of everyone else so very true with a even less than the national league side my god yes yes absolutely uh but yeah running through these real quick we got the yankees at number one phillies two

orioles three dodgers four guardians five brewers at six the seattle mariners at number seven uh Atlanta braves at eight Kansas city royals nine and then i had the san diego podres at number 10 could have gone a few different directions there. People might be angry that I don't have the Minnesota twins at number 10. They are a few games, a few games over 500. The Padres, just one game over 500 right now. But I don't know. Which team is in the playoffs right now?

Are either team in the playoffs right now? Yeah, I think they both are. Okay. Yeah, the American League's third wild card spot is, yeah, I believe it's the twins at 35 and 32. So even in the American League, you don't necessarily need an outstanding record right now to be in the playoff picture. But yeah, what stands out here, we've got the Brewers moving up three spots. Yeah.

To number six. Explain yourself. I didn't really realize that I did that until right now. But I don't know. Like it just the Kansas City Royals are, or sorry, not the Kansas City Royals. The Atlanta Braves are just not playing particularly good baseball right now. They have dropped considerably. They are only six games over 500.

They are, they have gone four and seven over the last couple of weeks. So, yeah. the Braves are trending downward for sure. And the brewers are just kind of staying afloat. You know, they're just kind of hanging in there. They're 39 and 28 right now. They do have a better record than everyone below them. So I don't think it's outrageous to have them at number six.

But yeah, I mean, it feels like there's sort of two tiers here. There's like the elite teams at the top, which is probably just Yankees, Phillies, Orioles, Dodgers. And then there's the clearly good teams here in the middle. guardians, brewers, mariners, Braves, royals is probably where I would stop that. And then it's just a whole lot of mediocrity around Major League Baseball. That's sort of the state of the league right now. And again, that's a good reason why when you are a Diamondbacks fan, there's no reason right now to be looking at the wildcard standings because they're in it enough. But things are going to change every single day.

And there's going to be weird instances like Elise is addressing and people in the chat are addressing about how like this Padres team. We just faced got swept by the Angels. And again, that's the, like, last night's win was great, but don't get me wrong. The Diamondbacks have been at times incapable of scoring more than four runs. So it is not out of the question that with what the Angels did last night, it could have been enough to beat this Diamondbacks team, right? So, I mean, realistically, I mean, it goes back to what I was saying yesterday about the Reds. It makes me, it's the reason why I'm so thankful the Diamondbacks caught them when they did, because you saw some Reds shortly after that beat some very, very good baseball teams and kind of rebound from where they were at,

at least as playing as terrible baseball as they were when the Diamondbacks, you know, faced them. Yeah, the Reds have kind of come around. Yeah, and not only that, but they faced them at the right time and they've got the entire series season out of the way at the right time. And yes, baseball is weird. Ryan, you're right. Elise, you're right. Baseball's just weird. And that's the way things happen.

The Dodgers kind of beat the Yankees there in a marquee matchup, you know, between those two teams. That was a fun series that I think a lot of people were into. We also had the London series that was split that felt fairly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But I mean, just because especially the split. Like it really does feel like that series just didn't even need to exist and, you know, whatever. But it was great to see baseball obviously being played in London. And I know that that's definitely something that's catching on there. It's great to grow the game for, you know, a country that doesn't necessarily play it, but is growing.

in interest over there right but again we would be probably in trouble with Shane if we don't talk about the Mariners yes we would be in trouble with Shane 39 and 30 they're 8 and 4 over their past two weeks so they're not bad yeah they're finally getting their run differential a little bit higher still leading that division Shane saw me making this graphic oh he he wanted to be angry did you see that like where do you have them where are they yeah what do you do with the mariner's logo the mariners are the mariners are plus 11 in terms of run differential, which I think is actually, that is the worst run differential of any team on our top 10 here.

But it also feels like with the Mariners, they're just the kind of team that's built to win a lot of low scoring close games. They have Brian Wu back. Their starting rotation is just sort of absolute insanity at this point. The bullpen is very good as well. And they continue to not score all that many runs. Julio Rodriguez, for all we've talked about Corbyn Carole. like Julio Rodriguez's numbers are not that much better.

I think he has an EAR, an OPS in the 60s right now. So they need to get him going. They need to get some of the guys they acquired over the offseason going as well. Josh Rojas can't do everything for you can do most things for the Mariners offense. He can't do everything. I thought he could do everything. Maybe he can do everything. I don't know.

But yeah, the Mariners are a good team. Josh Rojas for Gino Svarez. Who says no? The Mariners too. Just straight up. Yeah. I would definitely say no. Yeah, I would say no to that.

A couple of, but, but what if we were like, what if we were like, hey, but like Josh Ross is ours? Yeah. You don't think that's convincing. He's from here. Yeah, he's in Arizona. You don't think that's convincing, Jesse. You guys already had, you know, uh, takebacks or no takebacks or whatever. I mean, like switchies.

I don't know. No reverse card. Yeah. Yeah. Who no reverse. Please, you know, reverse card this situation. No, because then we have to give Josh Ross back for Cewald. And then that's yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's going to save you play the reverse card. You don't get Gino back. Yeah, that would be an interesting situation. Yeah, a couple of other things to stand out to me. The Yankees, we had them at number one again. I just wanted to say that Aaron Judge is in like Barry Bond's sort of range right now.

It's crazy. He is slashing 309, 437, 712. 712. He is slugging 712. 712. And that's after he had a pretty abysmal April by his standards. Oh, my God. I don't have it in front of me.

But if we were to look up Aaron Judge's stats since like around the end of April, the beginning of May, I'm pretty sure it would be very Barry Bonds-esque. He's been that level of good over the last month and a half. Luis Heel, who Diamondbacks fans might remember, the Diamondbacks faced him in like the first week of the season. And he has gone on to just have an outrageously good season for them, a 204 ERA, 093 whip as a starter. a 137 opponent batting average, which like doesn't even feel possible. It'd be interesting to see how they approach him moving, how they approach things with him moving forward, that given that his innings total is climbing,

I think it's possible they move him to the bullpen or have to come up with some kind of a way to limit his innings down the stretch. That'll be interesting to follow. And then a Philly storyline that stood out to me this week is that J.T. Romuto is having surgery to repair a small tear in his right meniscus and that is certainly a certainly a big loss for them sounds like something that he didn't necessarily need to have but the Phillies decided to go for it this allows him to use the All-Star break as part of his recovery maybe be able to return immediately after the All-Star break

so yeah I mean the Phillies are in such a good spot I don't think you worry too much about them without Real Muto but I worry about how Phillies fans are taking that fake buster only tweet from the other day. That's what I worry about. Wait, which one? There were a lot of fun fake Buster only tweets the other day. That said that they had traded for Luis Robert Jr. Oh, oh, was that? Okay. Yeah, that was one of the ones.

And that really crushed Phillies fans, like in a way that I can't explain enough. Fake Buster only also tweeted out that Francisco Lendor had been traded from the Mets to the Oakland A's. That was another favorite of that. Well, he also tweeted out that Shohay Otani has been banned for life. That's just about not a mistake. That's probably the best.

Well, not to mention the fact that we had him tweet out, I don't know who this buster person is, and then immediately start tweeting out traits, which was hilarious to me. I have an Aaron Judge stats I want to read because I just did some research on it real quick. And it's unbelievable. In the last 28 days, that's four weeks. He has 110 plate appearances and he's hitting 442 with a 555 on base percentage and a 1-1-1-6. slug 1-1-16-lug yeah 1671 OPS 1671 OPS in four weeks that's not like a small sample size it is not that is not but anyway I'll tell you what you can get a small sample size of though is our friends at OGs brands because it only

takes a small amount by the way to get you exactly where you're going with OGs OGs has a wide variety of products that I love very much with the you know Of course, a wide variety of effects, including they have a sleep edition gummy, a happy balance gummy, indica, setivas, whatever you're looking for. They also have a wide variety of strains and flavors, and their flavors are delicious. Right now, you can check out their two newest products, which are their OGs at naturals, which are made, or vegan gummies, made with live rosin, and their big OGs, which is a bigger version of their most popular version of their Pegs, Raspberry RSO. So to learn more about OGs G's G summies and where you can find them, head on over to OGs brands.com. be 21 or over to enjoy and please enjoy responsibly. Also, speaking of enjoying things responsibly, make sure to check out Circle K. It would be irresponsible of you to not stop

by Circle K and not only get yourself a wonderful froster, which again comes as part of my contract or, of course, a polar pop. You can get one of those for just 79 cents right now. And if you are part of the Inner Circle, you might even get it for free or even cheaper than 79 cents, which, I mean, 79 cents is basically nothing as it is. So join the Inner Circle. for free right now by downloading the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But when you do join the Inner Circle,

you'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips. And you'll also get a wide variety of free products. Buy 5, give a 6-1-free, a selection of Circle K products in the app. So join the Inner Circle today. Before we get out of here, we did want to give you a quick injury update. Some injury updates from Tori yesterday.

Jesse, I know you were out there. What's going on with Alec Thomas? I feel like he is kind of next in line here to come back. Yeah, yeah. Alex Thomas is getting close, continuing to progress with his running. Tori said that if all goes well, he will DH in a complex league game on Thursday, which is tomorrow. I don't think he's going to need too much time, maybe a few games in the complex. He's been hitting this whole time, right?

He's been hitting this whole time. Yeah, and so I guess maybe it's a few games at the complex, maybe a few games in Reno as well. you could very well see Alec back in the majors within the next seven to ten days i think that's pretty realistic do you think he will be back in time for the fillies series uh philly series is what the 21st to the 23rd we have two more games here obviously today and tomorrow you mean his sons huh you mean his sons meaning his sons yes that's why i need alec thomas to be on the field at the bank in philadelphia that honestly might be like if i were just if i were just a you know a betteman which i'm not He is absolutely not.

I would, yeah, I think the 21st to the 23rd is pretty realistic. Yeah. Will he raise the flag on a field beforehand? The vibes couldn't be better. I mean, will he go out there and raise the flag? I'm just saying. Another guy that I would love to be back by that Philly series, but seems like that might be too soon is Zach Gowan. Is that too soon to hope for Zach Gowan to retrain?

Yeah, I think it probably is. Okay. Zach Gowan threw a bullpen on Tuesday. Tori said he's going to throw another bullpen on Friday. and then we wondered could he just go straight from bullpens back into the majors, given that he hasn't missed all that much time, but Tori said he is going to have to build back up a little bit, most likely, via SIM games, I think.

How many would you think that would take? Yeah, I think my guess is that it will be two at the least. I'd have a hard time seeing it be less than that. So could that be 15 days from this Friday? Yeah, so if it's, yeah, I think that's pretty much exactly what I would, what I would guess. So Friday would be a bullpen. And then I think, I think you could go three days after Friday.

He could do his first sim game. And then he would need five days from them for the next sim game. And then five days from then to actually return to the, to the diamond back. So I think, I mean, we're pitching here against the twins. Yeah. I think, 25th, 26, 27. Yeah. I think the twin series is a, is a good, rough idea of when that could happen.

but still some boxes to check between now and then. That's very, very good news. What else you got? You got anything else? Yeah, a couple of other ones. Miguel Castro threw a bullpen on Tuesday as well. He's going to throw another bullpen on Friday. I'm not totally sure where they're going to go from there with him,

but it sounds like he could be back in the majors before too long. Merrill Kelly is out to 75 feet with his throwing program. Eduardo Rodriguez out to 105 feet with his throwing program. Tori said that they expect to get some imaging with Erod at, some point here in the in the near future to to check on the lat and see how how things are progressing there um as far as the timelines for those guys i think nick picoro had had reported the other day that merrill was ahead of erod which was kind of surprising to me um but yeah you're still looking at at all-star break probably a little after the all-star break uh for for both

of those guys at this point oh man that's an exciting time for this team though to think about those guys coming back and this starting rotation being at 100% once again I bet that That's very exciting for Jordan Montgomery. He can't wait to have, you know, his guys back and helping out. And honestly, right now the bullpen probably can't wait to see some starters that can give them some length once again. But that alone should be enough to give a lot of Diamondbacks fans out there hope for the rest of this season. And honestly, if the Diamondbacks can kind of keep up what they did last night here over this next eight games, you know, I think things can be looking very good for this team. Don't expect them to win all of them, but there's a good chance that they could come out, you know, with maybe five or six more wins out of this, you know, series or these games and then have that be pretty reasonable.

But we will keep you posted. Of course, we will be back tomorrow with a postgame show. So make sure to keep it locked right here. Join us back here. Jesse's going to go watch some baseball tonight. I have to go to Costco. So, I mean, one of us is going to have a much better evening than the other person. I love Costco, man.

What a place. It's like I just give them my wallet, though. You know what I mean? I'm not getting out of there for less than $300. Oh, no, yeah, you walk out of there, like, your wallet is crippling. Next thing you know, you're like, I bought a boat. Like, why did I buy this small canoe?

It was just off sale. But it was such a good deal. It was such a good deal. It was a canoe like dollars off. Come on. Kirkland signature. It's a good brand. Of course, we thank you guys for joining us.

Max isn't going to be out of us. Oh, he's going to be serious with us about this whole segment. But we do appreciate you guys joining us. Of course, make sure to follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with the Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon, is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G.

And we, I keep hitting this table. Of course, are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, thanks to Nash Walker for joining us. Thank you to all of you for joining us.

Of course, go Diamondbacks. We will see you back here for our post-game show tomorrow. And in the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful night. Thank you again for tuning in. remember kids baseball is fun but it is so much more fun when you find a suitable replacement potentially at third base