PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Geraldo Perdomo’s Knee Injury DERAIL the D-backs’ HOT STREAK?

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks stay hot, steamrolling the Colorado Rockies 9-0 to continue their red-hot run in the NL West. Nolan Arenado went yard with a grand slam against his former team, Michael Soroka delivers a dominant scoreless outing in his return to the mound, and newly acquired Zack Littell helped complete the shutout in long relief. But the celebration comes with a major concern: Geraldo Perdomo left the game with an apparent knee injury. How serious is it, and could the D-backs’ on-field captain be forced to miss significant time? With Arizona playing some of its best baseball of the season, could another injury derail this team’s momentum? We also have good news on the injury front, with multiple reinforcements getting closer to returning to the lineup and pitching staff. Plus, we have to address Bryce Harper once again finding a way to cause trouble with his Cameos. 0:00 SkeeYee & light that cactus up!!!  4:00 Geraldo Perdomo exits game with knee injury  20:50 Will Perdomo play tonight?  23:30 Michael Soroka's return  32:55 D-backs take game one vs. Rockies  38:30 Jordan Lawlar starting rehab assigment  49:00 J-Mart back soon?  1:05:15 Bryce Harper in trouble WITH U.S. CONGRESS?! Five debates. One ballot. Rank your G.O.A.T.s and rep your city: https://gophnx.com/the-goat-debate/ JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ 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/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes 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 40% 2+ pairs of 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! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It might have been last night, but the Diamondback steamrolled the Rockies nine to nothing, so we're turning on those cactus lights and celebrating both Michael Soroka's return and Zach Little's debut. But did we lose Geraldo Perdomo? We're talking about this, all of this right now. Don't you go anywhere? Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondback show. Love from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K, and occasionally known as Flavor Town.

My name is Derek Montea, occasionally known as Dirty Derek Mysterio, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. Thrilled to have you guys here and thrilled to be talking about the Diamondbacks absolutely whooping that trick last night, beating the Rockies by a score of 9 to nothing. I am thrilled to have you guys here. I'm thrilled to be joined by my dog, your dog, and everybody on the D-Backs dog, Damon dog, aka Damon Farrell on the ones and twos, bark, bark to you, Damon. Is whooping that trick something that you guys used to say back in the day?

A whooping that trick is a current pro wrestling chant that people are very fond of. And again, Damon, like a 1970s. Damon saw me today in this wonderful outfit and was like, that's a lot, Derek. That hoodie is a lot is what he started off with saying. And then, again, unfamiliar with Trick Williams's entrance, which I'm not surprised about. I'm not surprised about. Damon's not well-versed in the world of pro wrestling. In fact, he already turned in his residency.

If the 2027 lockout turns this into the PHNX wrestling podcast because that's going to be a rough time for him. But this is currently the PHNX Diamondback show and we are brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Of course, go download that GameTime app right now, create an account and use that code of PHNX for $20 off your first order. And come on out to watch the Colorado Rockies get worked by the Diamondbacks once again tonight because that is what happened last night. and the debacks absolutely decimated the Rockies. I'm going to start off with saying this. Obviously, Damon, we said the thing yesterday. We said there's a good chance that this is some sort of weird trap game.

No disrespect to the Rockies. They have beaten some good teams this year. They've caught some teams off guard. They have their wins against teams that are above 500. They're just in general a team that you should beat and you should at least win the series against. But we know this Diamondbacks team tends to have an impressive showing against a more difficult opponent. And then they come in against a team like the Rockies and Tendu almost play down to their competition.

But that did not happen yesterday. Michael Soroka returned to the mound. He shoved on a limited pitch count and he gave the Diamondbacks four in a third inning scoreless. But he also got replaced by new relief pitcher, Zach Lattel, who also shoved and gave the Diamondbacks four in two thirds. inning scoreless to beat the Rockies there by a score of 9 to nothing. This was the D-BAC's sixth shutout of the season, and the Diamondbacks actually have scored eight or more runs in three of those shutouts this season.

And it is also the sixth time in franchise history with three-plus shutouts in a season, scoring eight or more runs. It definitely feels like when the Diamondbacks do have these big games where they shut an opponent out, their offense also wakes up and delivers in a big way. We needed this. I think the Diamondbacks needed this.

I think coming off of the series win over the Dodgers, your confidence level has to be at an all-time high. Your confidence level has to at least feel like you can beat any team in baseball. And this team, as we are going to cover later in this episode, is only getting better. one one, it feels like one day at a time, this team is getting better, especially with the return of Michael Soroka. And you could say the same thing about the addition here of Zach Ladell. And we're going to get into all of that.

But most importantly, Damon, the Arizona Diamondbacks are now 64 and 56. They are a season high eight games over 500. Send little Geraldo Perdomo up Mount 500. No, what, no, no, what is happening? Yeah, Perdomo couldn't make it up 500. At what cost did we win yesterday's game? Geraldo Perdomo did leave with an apparent knee injury, and that is probably the biggest negative to yesterday's loss.

He left before the left, fifth inning with left knee soreness. Now, the good news is that the knee, that Geraldo Pardomo was reporting soreness in is not the knee that he tore his meniscus on and had to have surgery. That was his right knee. So overall, the not, you know, that's good that it's not the same knee that he injured previously. And there's some more encouraging news according to Tori Lavallo last night. He had said that

Geraldo Pardomo had already been dealing with some soreness in his left knee. He felt it again during last night's name making a throw in the third inning, and he was removed simply as a precaution. He said that no imaging was planned and that Lovolo characterized him as potentially a 50-50 call for today's game, which is excellent. But also, I don't really feel like there's a big need.

That was bad. Why did I have to say that? Big need to rush him back. I will say overall, Perdomo is very very very, valuable and very necessary to this team. I don't want to see him miss time. And it does kind of feel like the Diamondbacks are on a roll right now. So I don't know what the impact could be of not having Prudomo in the lineup.

His defense has been stellar. He has been actually putting together some great at bats lately. And I just feel like, I don't know, any change to the chemistry here overall could jeopardize things. I'm very satisfied to hear the update from Tori that the, you know, that it sounds like it's day-to-day. That's what Tori characterized it. And he also said the 50-50 thing about Perdomo. But Damon, you just can't really factor in at all what a loss Heraldo Perdomo could be at this particular time for this team. Even if it's just a short-term loss, it just feels like this is a terrible time to once again experience another injury.

but this time to our captain to, I mean, I know, I know Nolan Aronado was the heart and soul recipient, but the heart and soul of the Diamondbacks is Herald Operdomo. The heart and soul of my life. Some people would say he's my muse. You, you. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't seem like it's too bad, right, Derek? Like, I think we want to get out there and preface it by saying it shouldn't be too

debilitating of an injury, hopefully. but that being said, it comes at a bad time. And it feels like it always happens in these games where we're blowing the other team out. Yeah. Doesn't it? Like, I tweeted it last night, Derek. I said that there, it feels like there's some sort of packed with the devil that this organization has where it's like, cool, you guys can win a game stress free. But it's kind of cost you an important player on the team in the process.

and it's always, it feels like it's always, you know, Corbin on a swing when you're up seven or Gabby, you know, like sliding into base or Perdomo in this circumstance. I think it happened after he made a jump throw. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken. A really good jump throw. There's pictures of the jump throw. And he got removed almost directly afterwards.

It's always these most really inconsequential plays and you lose a integral piece. Hopefully it's not too bad. But yeah, it comes out of a time when you're really rolling as a team right now. And people in the chat for the most part are taking the precautionary message as well or route as well. They would rather see him miss time right now than aggravating it. But when it comes to Pardomo, again, it's the fact that it is a knee. It's the fact that he has injured his knee before or his other knee. It's the fact that, again, this is just a guy that right now, like I said, is putting it together.

In the month of August, Perdomo's been slashing 368, 442, 579 for a 1021 slug. Right. So, I mean, missing a couple of days could be fine, but he has been an integral part to this offense. And he's been doing it kind of in a quiet way where it doesn't really feel like Domo's getting necessarily the game winning hits. But, you know, for instance, in that loss to the Dodgers, he was the guy that got himself into, you know, scoring position in the third, you know, in the ninth. allowed, you know, Corbyn to bring him in. And it just feels like overall it would suck to lose Perdomo right now when every game is critical for this team.

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Brian asks, how is it stress-free then? I guess if you want to play the semantics game, I'm just saying that it was a blowout win. And it feels like in these blowout wins where the game is not really up for grabs. Like the Diamondbacks felt like they had that one from about inning number two on, right?

Yeah. There had to be a. thing that happened later in the game that brought us all back down to earth a little bit more. So I'm sorry I didn't explain that properly. Yeah, no, 100%. I thought that I went without sin. Right. I, it's, yeah, it's just really unfortunate, um, timing on that.

Vargas looked good when he moved to shortstop, uh, which I, I was a little bit, you know, I, I, I didn't necessarily think he was going to make those plays that he was making that double play, uh, at the end of the game was really nice on his end. Uh, Kattel was, you know, those, some. of those double play turns were unbelievable. As night at a Katel. And really, truthfully, the Diamondbacks played just a really good game, all things considered. But, yeah, I think Geraldo Perdomo is, you know, obviously, you know, means more to the team than just what he brings to the lineup.

Right. He's a, you know, a leader on the field. Tori's called him the coach of the team, like when they're out there in the infield or just playing defense. So he means a lot in terms of the mental fortitude of the team as well. And I think that that's what you mainly don't want to see get derailed here when he is not playing a cup game or two. They have players returning, like I said, that we're going to go over. So it does really feel like, you know, you have a lot of positive momentum for you, not just because of the 9-0 win, but just in general, right?

So it feels, again, like another loss to this team, even a short one due to injury might be that thing that just once again kind of demoralizes you, right? Yeah. These guys are all big boys. They're all motivated. They all know to come to the yard ready to play every day. And I'm not suggesting otherwise. But again, you can't help but throw your hands up if you experience another injury, especially to somebody that's important to this team in multiple ways that Perdomo is. other guys are important due to their play due to their presence due to maybe you know what they're batting right now but like damon said

perdomo is important to this team in so many other ways that it's just that kind of loss is it feels like it would leave a bigger uh you know crater in this team than anything else but yeah shout out shout out to brian he wasn't trying to be he who no no brian is a good a good guy you didn't request that tory be fired because of bradomo's injury so that that that's separates you right there. True. That is true. Killer X would be calling for a trade here because Jerry quit on the team. Well, yeah, and Lovallo should be fired for not pulling him out prior to the knee injury for knowing that the knee injury was going to happen. Yeah, how did he not know? How did you not know that he was going to happen? You should have pulled him out in the second inning. Brian just likes to give me a hard time sometimes. That's what Brian does. That's what Brian does. We're happy to have Brian here. But Brian also should give the Rockies a hard time for the way that the Diamondbacks whooped that team last night. Nolan Aronado did it to his former club, and you love to see that.

First inning grand slam was enough. That's all the Diamondbacks needed as far as offense was concerned. 380 foot shot to left field. It was his eighth career grand slam, his second Graham slam of this season. And then he added another single and a stolen base. And that was it. Like I said, there was more offense, but that's all the Diamondbacks needed. And for doing what he did to his former team and being what he is for this team,

Nolan Aronado is absolutely our king snake for yesterday's win. Again, two for four, one Grand Slam Hotel, or Hotel Grand Slam Home Run, one stolen base for RBI. And then again... How about the stolen base? The stolen base. Like, can we talk about... I mean, do we got to get it?

Can we get real-time footage? I need that stolen base clocked. I need to know what the time was from first to second. I have a feeling... He has four stolen base. basis this year. He's on pace. He's on pace, Derek. If he gets a fifth one, it'll be the most stolen basis of his entire career in a single season at age 35. Oh, love it. I mean, let's get two. Let's break that. See what happens when you get here and you start working with Dave McKay?

You reach another level, Damon. You reach another level. You honestly do. I mean, Dave McKay really is a wizard. Aronado is now hitting 242 with a 755 OPS. Pretty good. Feels like he's only getting better ever since they added his best friend, Lars Newbar, to the team. Once again, the power of friendship remains undefeated. And so does this team still pretty good. Moreno, two for four yesterday.

Great to see Catelle Marte. Go two for four yesterday. I have a multi-hit game. It does feel like Marte putting together some much better at bats, taking more pitches, just everything looks better there for Cattel. Also another guy that seems to really be putting it together right now, Ryan Waldschmidt, the man looks great. the plate. I mean, he's just taking some really good at bats. It feels like his

desperation swings are down. You're not seeing him strike out nearly as much. He went two for three yesterday with two runs scored and a walk and his batting average is up to 290 this season with a 748 OPS. So shout out to Waldy. Not only did he deliver that very important soul-crushing walk-off home run to the Dodgers, but it's really starting to feel like he is a guy that is working out multiple ways. He had an amazing catch yesterday and just continues to do the thing. And the Diamondbacks, again, defensively, were incredible. They've been incredible.

They remain incredible. And this team is just getting, you know, the right play behind them. You know, it was the Diamondback's seventh game since 2016 of turning four plus double plays. and they were turning them left to right behind Michael Soroka yesterday. They're 19 and 9 since July 9th, which is the best record in the National League over that span, and they're tied with the Philadelphia Phillies there for the National League, second nationally wildcard spot,

and those Padres still won't go away. We could use the Brewers to step up and win some games here against the Padres for us. And again, this is just the Diamondbacks, not just beating the Rockies. They already took the season series here from the, Dodgers and then they follow it up by absolutely hammering the Rockies here. This feels like their offense is starting to get on a stretch, nine runs, 10 hits, zero errors.

And then again, the Diamondbacks were up to seven nothing just after two innings in yesterday's game. So just beat them, beat them in every aspect of the game. We also had history take place, Damon. What happened? It was the first time ever, according to the broadcast, where we had Gabrielle, on Gabrielle crime. It was the first time in baseball history,

in MLB history, where a batter named Gabriel faced off against a pitcher also named Gabriel. It's a kind of hard-hitting facts that you're going to get when you tune into the PHA next time and Beck's podcast right there. You're damn right.

That's what we deliver. That's what we bring. Shout out to Brett Hansen for tweeting that out so that my eyes actually saw it instead of a little tiny... Some people like, you know, like underlying baseball statistics. Sure. And expected stats. expected stats and some people like hearing about the first Gabriel and Gabriel matchup in.

It will be history. I like history. What can I say? I'm a history buff. Everybody knows that about me. Yeah, you guys are more math nerds. I'm kind of more of a history buff. No big deal.

I like learning about the world. I think really what it comes back to, though, is that the 9 to nothing victory is good. Perdomo injury, not so good, but at least everything we've heard is very encouraging. And for the most part, we don't know. if he's going to miss today's game. But again, I think based on the comments in here that a lot of people would be okay with that and just letting, you know, Perdomo get back to 100%. There are still a lot of games to be played and still a lot of important series ahead.

This road trip coming up after this series with the Rockies is going to be difficult. They take on some really, really good teams, including the Atlanta Braves and literally the hottest team in baseball in the Boston Red Sox. So they need to be at 100%. And again, there are some reinforcements that might be joining them on that road trip when that starts. But before that, we're going to talk here about the dual-headed threat that was Michael Soroka and Zach Lattel yesterday. And we're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere you are watching the PHNX Diamondback Show.

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to shop local. So head on over to brandedbills.com and use our code of BBPHNX15, and you will save yourself 15% off your first order. Back to our, I guess, show topic here. We got an update from Steve Gilbert's article. This is a quote from Tori Lavolo from last night based on Heraldo, Prudomo's injury. And Tori said he's a 50-50 call tomorrow, meaning for today's game on Tuesday.

We might give him a rest tomorrow or the next day, and we know we have an off day on Thursday, but he should be fine. So great news overall with that last portion. However, Damon, I mean, I guess the point here is you feel confident that the Diamondbacks are going to not only win this series against the Rockies, but perhaps sweep it. However, you never, you just never know how, you know, losing Pardomo can impact your lineup or your team, even for a short amount of time. So, yeah, I could just be mentally depleting for a little bit, but. I think they'll give them today off.

I agree. And if they win, I think they'll give them tomorrow off. And then he'll be back for the Atlanta series starting on Friday. That's what I predict will happen. Tori did proceed that by saying as well that, uh, he, He had some soreness that he was working through in the pregame that he knew about. Yeah. And that they were, once the team was up by a good amount of runs, that was when they pulled him.

So it does seem as though it was more precautionary than anything and that they're kind of just going to make sure that one of their star players is going to be long term available for this team. And that really in the short term, it's not that all that concerning. There is some discussion in the chat here about Gabriel versus Gabrielle versus. is Gubriel. Gabriel? Gabriel. Yeah. I don't know.

I think I said it five different ways myself during this episode overall. So. Gabriel. Gabriel. Moreno? I like Yule. I just want to call him Yuley. Shout out to Jay Hartwell.

I saw his message earlier that said this is his first time catching the show live. So welcome. Welcome in. Grab a seat. Welcome to the party, pal. We're going to talk pitching right now. because Michael Soroka and Zach Liddell were awesome. And man, what a debut for Zach Lidel.

What a return for Michael Seroca. Neither guy went very long due to the stupid-ass rules of baseball. Michael Soroka, unfortunately, didn't pitch long enough to get the win in yesterday's game. So, Zach Lattel picks up his first win. But overall, these two guys were incredible yesterday. And again, this might be the most important development from this game, is the return to Michael Soroka, makes his return after missing roughly six weeks here

with a left glute strain, aka, you know, it's pain in the butt. He had a pain in the butt. But he goes four in a third inning yesterday. He gave up three hits, gave up zero earn runs, walk three, struck out four, was limited on his pitch count to 80 pitches max, and he reached that there at four and a third innings.

He was at 77 pitches. So he got pulled from this game, despite the fact that he was having himself an excellent outing. But he did get himself into a little bit of trouble there in the fifth inning. So it wasn't just because of his pitch count. He did, you know, again, they did want to make sure that they didn't let this go sideways on him, right? They wanted to ensure that this first outing was a good outing and also that they ease him back into this. And so far, so good, man, because four and a third inning scoreless is a great return.

then they didn't have to use anybody else other than Zach Lattel who immediately made his presence felt on this team. I don't know if the Diamondbacks have had a long relief option that was as good as Lattel looked yesterday. Literally joins the team after being released by Washington and has already endeared himself to us. He goes four and two thirds yesterday, giving up two hits, no earn run, walk two struck out to.

He entered with runners on first and third. second and the fifth and immediately got out of trouble with a double play. Then he finished the game, including another double play to end the ninth, and he gets the win in his debut. Zach Ladell is one of three D-BACs relievers to toss four or more scoreless innings in their debut with the team. And both guys were outstanding. Both guys just immediately made an huge impact for this starting rotation.

Lattel, you can't say enough about what he did to give this taxed bullpen a break. Just an entire day off tomorrow or today for today's game, there might be limited usage. They could get through this series with relievers possibly not pitching until they get to Atlanta, especially with that off day on Thursday, you just feel very good about where this team is going to be during that road trip. Not only are they getting reinforcements returning from the injury list, but they have guys that are going to be fresh and ready to go

when they go to take on Atlanta and the Boston Red Sox. And again, this Zach Lattel move might end up being one of the best moves of the year besides the Diamondback signing Michael Soroka. Right? Zach Lattel, at least to me,

has, besides the addition of a first baseman slash DH, helped satisfy the lack of moves that Mike Hazen made at the deadline. And he did that without the Diamondback needing to sacrifice any of their prospects in order to bring a guy like that over. We talked about his numbers yesterday. We talked about his numbers when they DFA'd him and I was salivating over the DBAs possibly adding him. He has better numbers in relief than he does as a starter.

And overall, he had himself a great May. It feels like there were bumps in the road for him. I think he was on, you know, a Washington Nationals team that has had some changes to it, but still has been very, like, first. the most part for the first half overachieved. And, you know, again, he was somehow a casualty of that due to the fact that he was outperformed by some of his teammates. Felt like the nationals were trying to perhaps get something for him, you know, at the trade deadline, but much like what the Diamondbacks experienced with Zach Gallen at last year's trade deadline, they probably

didn't receive the offers that they were looking for. And then they DFA him immediately because of the other, you know, moves that they made at the trade deadline. So I, I, I, I, I will say in this case, it feels like this is an incredible pickup. And even if he isn't a guy that comes out and, you know, blows the doors off of opposing teams as a reliever, he still was able to give the Diamondbacks this. And he can still give them more games like this between now and the end of the season, helping this bullpen kind of recuperate from a long season of overusage due to necessity. So I can't say enough about the pickup here of Zach Liddell.

I think we have their pitch charts. Let's take a look here first at what Michael Soroka was doing so well yesterday against Colorado Rockies. Through a lot of slurves. That slurv man was looking good in yesterday's game for Michael Soroka overall. And I mean, he is a guy that usually kind of relies on his secondary stuff. He threw the slurve 32% of the outing and he complimented it with the four seam, which he threw 27%. It maxed out at 94.6 miles per hour.

At average 92.8, which is down about a mile per hour from his yearly average. So that's encouraging as far as him almost being back to 100% and him almost being able to hit that yearly average of 93.6 miles per hour. He got four whiffs with the slurve, two whiffs with the forcing fastball. He threw cutter, change up, sinker, sweeper, all of those he threw below 15%. of the outing. He got a whiff on the changeup, got a whiff on the sinker, but that was about it. But again, that slurve, that that periwinkle, that beautiful, gorgeous periwingle color there, did a great job at kind of dotting around that, you know, that bottom left edge of the zone, staying outside of the zone, staying away from batters, traveling away from batters, more importantly. So just a good,

good pitch that worked really well for him all night long. And again, just a great return to the mound here overall for Michael Soroka. He had eight whiffs on the night. And again, short outing due to his pitch count kind of ramping up there a bit in the fifth inning. But four strikeouts overall. Meanwhile, Zach Lattel, let's look at his pitch chart. He was a bit more efficient than Michael Soroka. He utilized his splitter,

as his primary pitch and his four-seam fastball. Those were the two that he threw. He also threw the slider, 18% of the outing, but the splitter was 44%. Those four-scene was 36%. He got five whiffs on the splitter and his fastball maxed out overall at 93.1, but he throws a fastball that averages 91, 92 miles per hour. So that's what you're going to get out of him. I think with Letell, he did get some swings and misses, but it's all about the ground ball outs. It was about the, you know, double plays he induced. It's the fact that, again, I think what is going to work so well for Lattel with this team and as a part of this particular pitching staff is going to be the fact that it seems

like his ground ball rate is good. And like, that's what the Diamondbacks are trying to do this year. They're trying to pitch to contact and get batters to make weak contact. And that is something that Lattel hopefully can do as a member of this staff. And I know that he didn't get very many whiffs or hasn't got. many whiffs this season on his fastball. He's right there with Zach Gallant is one of the worst fastballs in the league as far as that is concerned. But I don't, again, we don't need that. What we need is soft contact and that's something that Lattel can definitely bring to this team. But

those additions, these guys returning are very encouraging. And this is for a team that already has a lot of positive things surrounding them right now. They're playing some Excellent baseball. Their defense is solid. Rookies like Walt Schmidt and Herardo Carrillo have contributed phenomenally to this team. And they're getting better. They're getting better because they are getting some big names back and that is going to contribute overall to the success of this team. I still, you know, I still want them to go with the hot hand. I still want them to play guys that deserve that playing time. based on the way they're performing, but overall, you know, with Jordan Lawler coming back and the pitching staff getting much better, even better than they currently are, you have to be encouraged right now by this stretch from this team. And again, what they could possibly do once everybody is back, everybody's fully stretched out, and everybody's 100%.

But let's take a look here at the numbers from yesterday's game. These numbers were fun. I love to look at this particular by the numbers. Diamondbacks win this one, 9 to nothing. Lars Neubar, loving every minute of it. Jake McCarthy, not so much. Extra base hits, the Diamondbacks had five extra base hits. The Rockies had zero.

The Rockies were 0 for two with runners in scoring position to the D-backs, four for 13, and a 309 batting average. The Diamondbacks had 32.3% of their contact was hard hit. The Rockies had a 22.7% hard-hit percentage. Expected batting average for the D-backs was 339 to the Rock. Rockies 289, and both teams went 0 for one on ABS challenges. Not surprising in a 9-0-0-0, because this one was 7-0-0 very quickly after the second inning.

So it's very understandable that nobody wanted to use challenges and everybody just wanted to get this game over with as fast as possible. I didn't. I was having a good time until the fifth inning when Damon started doing prayer circles about Pardomo's knee injury. and well i mean i'm sorry am i not supposed to use our our power no i get it i get it i'm just saying that that that ruined my night a little bit it's not necessarily your fault but if i were up on the blame game i might light up the damon light is what i'm saying that's all i'm saying you're

you're damon light you just you want to light up the damon light i just want to light the damon light i just want there to be a damon light there should be there should be a there should be a there should be a Derek light too. We should just accuse each other every single loss is one one of us. We'll throw, we'll just generalize it and put a podcast light on there. Is it our fault? Did we do this? Did we bring this upon us? I mean, we are to blame sometimes. Don't forget. Don't forget that the words that I say on Twitter do impact that baseball team no matter how far away they are when they're playing

another baseball team. And you know what? We have a survey that you guys can take that'll give you an opportunity to complain about us impacting the baseball game in such ways. We're going to talk about that.

And then on the other side of this break, we're going to talk a little bit about some reinforcements on the horizon. We're also going to talk about Bryce Harper and his goddamn camios causing problems once again. Don't you go anywhere you're watching the PH&X Diamondback show.

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entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. So let your voice be heard. Take the survey today. Go on over to go phnx.com slash survey. That's go phnx.com slash survey. And look, it is summer and it can be a good thing. Because right now, if you're thinking about upgrading

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Hurry in today and choose no hassle, no pressure, no nonsense, choose Sanderson Ford. All prices are plus tax title license, $5.99 dock fee and dealer ads must finance through Ford Motor Credit on approved credit. See dealer for qualifying vehicles and complete details. offer expires August 31st, 2026. We got you the injury update on Perdomo. Hopefully, I saw one person upset about it. Hopefully it doesn't upset more of you. I know, I know.

It's a short injury stint, and luckily, Prudomo is okay. But again, if something happens to a main character on this team, we have to talk about it. We got to talk about the impact, especially losing Perdomo, even for a shorter amount of time, what that could do to just kind of, like we said,

derail the hot streak that this team currently is on. But on the flip side of things, there are some additions, some returning reinforcements that could not only aid that hot streak, but could help this team get even hotter. And one of those guys is playing today for the Amarillo Sod Poodles. That is Jordan Lawler, who will play today and tomorrow for the AA Amarillo Sod Poodles. He will then be reassessed after Wednesday, and he could join the Arizona Diamondbacks outfield

on their upcoming road trip in Atlanta or Boston at the latest if there are no setbacks to Lawler who on Saturday went two for five with a run scored. He did have three strikeouts, but he did have a stolen base damon, which is very encouraging for a guy that had a hamstring injury. Yeah, I mean, it's, I feel like Jordan Lawler has been really, really good this season in the very, very short amount.

of time that we've actually got to watch him play baseball. Yeah, that's what it feels like. And I hate, I hate that overall. I hate that caveat that you just said, I don't want to blame Jordan Lawler for him getting hit in his hand and having his hand broken and missing time due to that. But you could say that Lawler has had a ton of injuries in his time. You could also say that about Michael Soroka, who had never experienced a glute injury before and now had that to add to his resume, which pretty much,

includes I think every leg injury you can imagine. So let's just hope that this is the end of it for Lawler and Jordan can stay healthy and stay on the field. Yeah. And as Brian puts here, like no more hit by pitches, it feels like that's the part that sucks is right now. It's not even the like the soft tissue injuries that are keeping him out. It's that, you know, he's getting thrown inside and pitchers are wild and then they break his wrist. Stop hitting our Jordan Lawler. Yeah.

And so I just want to see Jordan Lawler get to play in a game. extended period of time because as, as I said, like, I think this is really the first signs of true life that he's shown as a major leaguer. Everybody had a lot of expectations for him as a prospect for good reason because he tears the cover off the baseball. And, you know, I think that a lot of his underlying stats and whatnot look really good. But he's struggled with hitting breaking pitches thus far in his career. And then this year, we've seen like a big improvement in that in such a short sample size. that on the one hand, I think it gives you a lot of confidence that he truly is the player that he was expected to be.

But on the other hand, you can't put all your chips in that basket when he consistently misses game time. And as I keep saying, it's a short sample size. It's not like he's done it for an extended period of time. So we just need Lollerback, healthy, and him to be consistent. And I feel like that's an extra weapon for this franchise that, you know, like, you know, as we keep talking about, every guy that is providing anything outside of your stars is such a cherry on top

because, you know, it just feels like those are the guys that are kind of changing this team's season right now. It's Tim Tawa. It's Gabby for the entire year. It's known Aranato when he keeps putting the ball over the fence. Those are the guys that are almost leading us to victories. It feels like more than the Corbyn's and the Catals right now. Well, another guy that's been responsible for a few wins himself

is Max Keppel. And again, we don't know how Max Kepler is going to factor in, especially as we move closer to the final month of the season. Kepler, as we have discussed time and time again, is ineligible for postseason play due to that 80-game PED suspension. But he not only has done it with his bat, but his glove, I still think of that amazing catch that he had out there in left field to rob a home run, right? But we're moving closer, like I said, to the actual, you know, date of October coming around. There's a good chance that at this point with a fully stocked outfield, right? You have Kepler out there. You have Barrosa.

You have Ryan Walshmidt. You have returning Jordan Lawler. You have Corbyn Carroll, right? Now it would be a good time to get Corby and Carol off of his feet for a game or two so that he can have a little bit of a break as much as he probably would hate that. And again, kind of refill his tank a little bit. Give him just some time off at least if just one game. And then you can start making those other roster move decisions, right?

And if one of those decisions, because there has to be a corresponding move here. And looking at the roster, it feels like the three moves you could focus on for when Jordan Lawler returns is either Max Kepler being DFAed, Jorge Barrosa being DFAed, or Tyler Locklear being optioned, which our guy, Chris from Phoenix brought that up to us on social yesterday. And I do think that with- Shout out to Chris. Shout out to our guy, Chris. And shout out to the fact that, like Locklear has not been playing very much.

So the fact that they get to keep him in the organization by optioning him and also, you know, again, have Tim Tawa playing some pretty good first base over there, then maybe that's the move that they make. I still don't know if they're going to keep Locklear, you know, as the first baseman going forward. But it feels like he should get playing time one way or another in optioning him would at least allow him to still, you know, start every day for the Aces. Yeah, yeah, certainly. I mean, I think, you know, he played really well in the very short stint that he was asked to kind of take on some of those duties at first base. But with the way that Jimothy has been playing recently, it's just hard to take him out of the lineup. I think Tori writes in Jimothy and Sharpie first name that he puts in there every single day. I hate that meme so much.

Derek, it's your best meme, maybe ever. I can't believe I made it. And it's because of this live chat. It's because of this live chat that Jimothy's town. exists. And now someone wants me to make a Jimithi Jawa. And I love Star Wars. You think I'm not going to make a Jimithi Jawa? It does that. Come on. Jimity Tawa is so funny. It's crazy. You guys are insane. I mean, you have to show him that. Like, you have to get his thoughts on the on the Jimothy Tawa meme.

It's embarrassing every time I show one of these players a meme. Every single time it's That should be the least embarrassing one because I bet you he'd get a kick out of that. Pranoma liked the Frogdomo one, but no one else seems to. So whatever, but he's the only one that's ever liked one of the memes. Yeah, no, no. What do you think, though? Do you think, what do you think the likely option here is overall? I still don't think Jorge Brose is very likely, even though I know a lot of people have kind of wanted that.

I think the Max Kepler thing does make sense, even though you still have a lot of games to play. So you still kind of want him to be here to help you. Doesn't it feel like you need that left-handed bat, though? It does. It does feel like that. So that's why I don't know. I don't know. You know, I think that, like, we got to be of the mindset as an organization.

We're not, we're not expecting to be in the postseason yet. Long way to go before we're in the postseason. We've seen, and, you know, I always tell. Things are way too closely. I always tell people 100%. I always tell people in, like, 2024 wasn't as bad of a collapse as everyone makes it out to be. You obviously had, like, a 98% chance of making playoffs. But I think you won something like 11 games in that last month of the season.

And the problem was is that the other teams you were competing with just didn't lose any games. Yeah. And that's kind of what's happening right now with the Padres. Yeah. Yeah, the Padres is playing good ball. God damn thing they did. And so, I mean, except for when we split with them, right? But yeah.

But yeah, they're playing good ball right now. We still split with them. I know. We're destined to do this forever, I feel like. It's just these two teams, man. But, yeah, I mean, I think that we need to approach this, the rest of this stretch as every single game matters. And if there's going to be a game

where there's a right-handed pitcher and you need that left-handed bat in the lineup, that power bat of Max Kepler, I think that he needs to start and then we worry about what we got to do in the postseason with his roster spot when we're in the postseason.

Whereas, like, Barrosa, he's really a pinch runner and a defensive sub. And a lot of people, and I kind of agree with them, like the defensive sub stuff is maybe a little bit overblown. Like I think that the guys that he goes into replace have looked really good. Ryan Walschman looks incredible.

Almost every game that he goes out there and plays center field that's like this, does he need to be subbed out of these baseball games? No, he's making wall climbing catches like once a night. I think usually it's the, it's him coming in as a pinch runner and then staying in the game as a defensive replacement. Most of the time, but there's been a, and maybe it was a couple weeks back,

but there's been a handful of times where Tori has put him in in the eighth, ninth inning in center field. Barros is great though. He is a good outfielder. Yeah. And again, he even got, you know, obviously got picked off that one time at first base so you could say what you want about his pin-rowning. That happened to me once in a baseball game.

And let me just say, when you're a pinch runner and you get picked off, coach is not happy. Was coach Figgie on the, on the, no, no, this is high school. And I got. Henry would have made you run laps over that. I got told no leads, no leads in Little League when Henry was. my coach when Coach Henry was my coach. But you have to stand on the base there.

But yeah, I got picked off probably the only time in my high school career. And my coach literally told everybody in the post game that I was the reason that we lost the game. He said when you have someone getting picked off in the fourth inning killing a rally, that's how you lose a baseball game. And I just sat there like this the entire time. But yeah, that's a tough look. All of that to say, I just think Jorge Barrosa, matters less as a defensive sub.

Like the impact that he could have there is so much less than Max Kepler starting in the lineup versus a right-handed pitcher. So for me, for that reason, I think I'm risking DFAing Barrosa and I'm trying to get him back in the organization to call up as a playoff addition to the roster when you can expand rosters. That's another good point to make, right? That's another way that you can look at it is there's a good chance he would clear waivers and come back to this team.

but there's still that risk, that inherent risk, that you're going to lose him by DFAing him. That's why Tyler Lockley being an option makes sense because, again, that's the only option of these three that keeps the player in the organization and still allows you to bring back Jordan Lawler overall. But the roster crunch issues are real, and it's not just with those players.

Justin Martinez has been assigned to AAA Reno today, and according to this very sexy tweet from John Gambadoro, It looks very much like Justin Martinez, a player who Damon refused to believe even exists until he sees him on the mound for the Diamondbacks with his own eyes in person. I thought he spontaneously combusted, Derek. I'm not going to lie.

He says, John Gambadoros says, looks like Justin Martinez will get one or two more outings before returning to the Diamondbacks next week on the road. I would expect either the final game of the Atlanta series on Sunday or first of the Boston series Monday. I love it. Welcome back. Go.

The demon is back. J. Mart is back. Get this man back into my life. And again, there's got to be another corresponding move for that one, Damon. I mean, Phil Babner, he feels like even though he's the only other lefty besides Brandon Garcia, you probably might feel good about Justin Martinez getting ramped up to the point where maybe he can take over some of those closer duties and allow Garcia to be the lefty in the pen. If he's on the team, he's a major league pitcher.

we're not ramping him up. You know what I mean? Like if he's going to be on the major league roster, he's got to play the role that he's expected to play on the major league roster. And Justin Martinez is the damn closer. I think that, yeah, I think that's exactly what it is.

Like Brandon Garcia is now opened up. We can use him situationally, which is ideal for this team. It's what we talked about with Puck for a long time too, where it's like you don't want to use Puck in that ninth inning role solely because when you're playing the Dodgers and you got O'Tonnie, Freddie Freeman and I don't even know

who the hell else whatever other All-Star they put in that one of those spots I guess it goes what Otani Pahez Freeman typically and you got two lefties

there sandwiched by the righty you need that lefty to attack Otani and Freddie Freeman who are two of the best lefty hitters we've ever seen so I think that that's that's easily the you know kind of you know opens our

what we can do up in the bullpen a lot more when you have Brandon Garcia available for whatever, and you have Justin Martinez, pigeonholed that nine spot and also that ninth inning spot, but also Derek, I think that this bullpen in the Mike Hazen years in particular, which we've really struggled building bullpins, as we know, has significantly benefited from having a pigeonhole closer.

Like I feel like whenever there's, even when it's Paul Seawald, it works for a reason. It works for a reason. Even when it's Paul Seawald, It feels like it changes the entire psyche of the whole bullpen. Whereas like when these guys don't know what they're going to do on any given night, that's when we've had our most disastrous bullpen. So that's where like remember in 2023 before we got Seawald,

we had Miguel Castro and Scott McGuff closing games. And they were okay. And then they fell off a really, really steep cliff. But there's like this bullpen didn't get good until Ginkle started slotting in as the setup man. Ryan Thompson was in the seventh spot and Paul Seawald was closing out ninth inning. So that's kind of where I think that it easily opens you up to just being a little bit more flexible with your lefty specialist. I just think overall, you know, one of the debates that we could have about Paul Seawald was was it Seawald himself that solidified the bullpen or was it merely the idea of who was closer? Was it merely the designation of a closer?

Because Seawald was fine, and he saved plenty of games and was great, and I will be one of the people that stands here and says that the Diamondbacks don't make the 2023 postseason without Seawald or have the success that they had. Yeah. However, every single reliever that we talked to told us the same thing, whether it was Kevin Ginkle, whether it was Joe Mantiply, all of these guys said the same thing, which is just that they came to the ballpark every day knowing what their role was going to be. and it wasn't going to be a surprise about where they factored in. Now, maybe eventually you just get used to Tories system of chaos in a way and not knowing what inning you're going to pitch in or how you're going to be used or if you're a high leverage guy or a low leverage guy

or if you're going to be the closer that night. But it definitely seems like it was just more of the concept, the idea that somebody was the closer and other people were the setup guy and other guy were the sixth and seventh inning guys, and one guy was the long reliever, it feels like they have those pieces now, especially with Justin Martinez returning. Yeah.

But, again, it's up to Tori to be the manager here and make, you know, make that call and give these guys at least some sort of idea of what their role is going to be, right? You could designate Justin Martinez and Brandon Garcia both as your closers. You could say those are the two guys. One of you is going to be closing a game on any given night. and the other one is going to be used in either a setup role or Garcia's case,

he's going to be set specifically against the left-handed portion of the lineup like you were talking about with the Dodgers. But you have flexibility, but you can also end that flexibility. You can still have, you know, roles. You can still have guys know what their job is going to be on any given night, right? So plus we have Ryan Nelson who will start his bullpren progression sometime in the next seven days, according to Tori Lavallo, and it feels like, I don't know how Ryan Nelson is going to factor in, but it feels like a healthy Ryan Nelson in the bullpen increases your weaponry,

increases the arms you have there and gives you an even better chance at winning games. I don't know how the exact math works out with the expanded roster and what you would do. I need to maybe look at it on a, you know, written down notes app or piece of paper, but I would presume that that would almost maybe put Zach Lattell's spot up in the air a little bit if Ryan Nelson was to actually be back in throwing well, but we're a long way from that standpoint. No, you're right about that. What happens is on September 1st, which, again, the Diamondbacks are able to add two more guys

to their active roster as of September 1st. So that could be those guys, right? It could be Ryan Nelson at that point. it could be Corbin Burns and Corbin Burns again is another guy who is on his way back to this team he threw a 25 pitch bullpen on Friday and he continues to

fight to get back on the mound this season Zach Gallin and Corbin Burns will throw their next bullpens today so that's where we stand as far as the returning starters for this team and I have no idea how Zach Gallin

is going to factor in should he return at the same time as Corbin Burns because Corbyn Burns, Eduardo Rodriguez, Michael Soroka, that sounds amazing. But Brandon Fott and Merrill Kelly, they have those other last two spots. And Brandon Fott has been pitching lights out. There's no reason to move, Fought. And I never thought in a million years, if we were sitting here at the end of this particular season talking about who the odd men out were, those two guys would be Merrill Kelly and Zach Gowan. That's crazy.

But comparatively... I mean, I could have told you it might have been Zach Gowan, but if you... But if it was two or three seasons ago that you said that, I would have been like, man, that feels like, it feels like watching like your, I don't know, like that dog dig that, like that sand hole, you know, like that video of that old dog where you're just like, man, we're still trotting out those two

and they're just crushing the team. But at least Merrill's eight and nine, you know. He has some games where he is good enough for the team to win. He's been awesome lately. He's really shoved lately. And again, when we get to, if we get to the playoffs, if we get to the postseason, we know that they're probably only going to go with a four-man rotation anyway. There's a good chance that Gallen could be designated for assignment before the end of the season.

And then, again, Merrill Kelly is still there as part of the starting rotation, but doesn't necessarily have to be called upon or, I don't know. They have depth. But I feel like if Merrill Kelly with the way he's pitching lately is your worst pitcher, in your starting rotation, we are a playoff team 100%, and there's no doubt about it to me at all, at all, no doubts. Yeah. Because that's, I mean, Merrill has really been pitching well.

Aside from the cramps issue he had the other day, he's been shoving. So good things are happening for this team at the right time. And again, as we also said yesterday, this is all happening without Corbyn and Coulin-Carrill-Marté being what we know them to be. And Corbyn Carol's best month in his career is August. So if Corbyn-It's hot. We're 11 days in, so he's got to start moving. I mean, like I said, Corbyn and Geraldo Perdomo, their numbers, people aren't really

giving them credit, but Perdomo's numbers in the month of August, pretty damn good, Damon, pretty good overall. And Corbyn Carroll, he's been really coming along as well lately. I don't have his numbers right now in front of me, but I will here in like two seconds. So just give me a moment. Well, I saw filibuster, we call in the industry. Yeah, you got a filibuster a little bit for me here. But, yeah, going from August for two to today.

Carol, let's see. He is, get this ad out of here. Oh, never mind. We won't talk about how Carol's hitting in August. He really does have to pick things up. You're right. No, he's actually been having a bad month so far. 179, 279, 23, 359 this month, right?

Good game yesterday, right? I mean, over, it feels like over his last five or six games, he only has one or two games without a hit. What about last seven? Derek, I'm going to try to help you out here. You're going to go last seven on me? All right, that's probably a good call. That's probably a good call. Well, I mean, let's just cherry pick a stat to make it seem like he's doing better.

No, last seven, 192 with verse 622 OPS. I mean, Derek. Last six, last six, last six, 227, 3209 for 729 OPS. Does that work? I don't know. Yeah, no, I mean, that's the point, though, is this team has been carried by the, like, five through nine hitters in the lineup. And if Corbyn Carroll can somehow be what Corbyn Carol is and what we know him to be,

If Catele-Marté can turn things around and be what we know Cotell-Marte to be, there's no doubt in my mind that this team might truly be one of the most more dangerous teams in baseball. And Killer Rex says shoving is a bit disingenuous. Well, Merrill Kelly, let's see, dating back to July 4th, 5 innings, 2 earn runs. Next game, 7 innings, 1 earn run. Next game, 5 innings, 1 earn run. Next game, five innings, two earn runs. Next game, five and two third innings, zero earn runs.

Then he had that stinker against the Guardians where he gave up five earned, and then his last outing, five and two-thirds and one earn-run. So pretty good, dating back to the beginning of, you know, July. So he has a 2.82 ERA over that particular stretch. I would say that that's not too bad. He had a 195 in his three starts in July, or five starts that he had in July. And then this month of August, you know, he's only, he's only had two starts, like a 506 ERA, which is obviously not great, but it's not like horrendous either. So recently last month, he has a 308 ERA, which is very good.

So, yeah, he's been pitching well for about a month now. And those teams were the Brewers, the Padres, the Cardinals, the athletics. Solid teams. I mean, not the A's, but yeah. A's are still pretty offensively solid team. If they're at home, yeah. Their pitching sucks. But let's take a quick break.

on the other side of this break, let's talk about something that has nothing to do with the Arizona Diamondbacks and more to do with Damon and my hatred of Bryce Harper, nickel and diming people for cameos. Yeah, I mean, just everything about... Yeah, everything about the Phillies. They're a poverty franchise who are not going to make the playoffs, as I said, during Mailbag Monday. And we're going to talk about why Bryce Harper is now getting them in trouble with Congress, thanks to his cameos. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback. show. Well, big shout out to Shady Ray's. I love my Shady Ray's, and that's because I need sunglasses that have my back. I need a sunglasses company that says, Derek, you're not an old

fool for losing your sunglasses constantly. We'll get you out a new pair, which is what I do. I do lose my sunglasses almost all the time. I mean, Damon's seen it. I find new places in this office to leave my sunglasses. He'll be like, why did you leave them on the bookcase over there? I'm like, I don't know, because it's a fun game I play of trying to actively lose my sunglasses. I'm testing the folks at Shady Rays. And they always come up with an A plus grade because, of course, if you lose or break your Shady Rays, even on day one, they got your back with a brand new pair of Shady Rays coming out to you. They are an amazing sunglass company that make an amazing product.

Their frames are amazing. They got a wide variety of styles that will make your face look beautiful. Plus, they have some polarized lenses that will protect your eyes from this sun that's trying to blind. you and also make you look adorable while doing so. So check out their entire lineup over at ShadyRase.com. ShadyRays is eyewear that has your back. Go to ShadyRase.com and use our code of PHNX50 for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. And if you want to come watch the Arizona Diamondbacks beat up on the Colorado Rockies,

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and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply again create an account and redeem code p h nx for $20 off download the game time app today damon what time is it game time it's also rank week time rank week is here true it's coming and today i think today tomorrow last day you can get your votes in on august 12th but what is rank week rank week is our annual vote from our diehards where we let you guys decide on who you think the best hoops player of all time is, best QB, best athlete. We got biggest Phoenix slash Arizona villains in history and the best uniforms in Arizona team history.

And over this last week, we've been conducting a goat vote on all of those topics, and you diehards have been given us the answers that we seek. If you want to join, you can. If you're not a diehard, join today at go phtonx.com slash join to get your voice heard. You can vote once and make sure your voice is heard before voting closes tomorrow.

on August 12th, share your I-voted sticker on social. Let us know that you participated. Our results will be revealed during rank week, which kicks off on August 17th. So check out the link in our show notes. Damon, before we get out of here, we've talked already about Bryce Harper and his cameos. We've talked about him being a bad guy. There's no other way to put it. I'm sure Bryce Harper does lots of charity work.

I'm sure there's people in his personal life that love Bryce Harper. Tax write-offs. But you're not going to get that from Damon and I. Damon and I hate Bryce Harper on this show. And we hate Bryce Harper for multiple reasons. Not just the ones we've listed. We hate Bryce Harper for trying to stand on business to the commissioner of MLB in the biggest tough guy manner

that was a joke that we've ever seen. But more importantly, lately, we've hated Bryce Harper for his cameos. As many of you may or may not know, we talked about on an earlier episode how Bryce Harper had been essentially charging people $1,000 for a cameo where he couldn't even be bothered to film it like at the ballpark or in front of a wall while he's not driving. No, he does it while he's in traffic on the freeway. That's when Bryce Harper will do your $1,000 cameo.

And we couldn't figure out which one we hated more. I mean, from a content perspective, we hated that he could even be bothered to find a wall to stand in front of. There's so many brick walls in Philly, but he also couldn't be bothered to charge a reasonable amount for his cameo? No, no, it's Bryce Harper, so you need to pay $1,000. Well, now we come to find out that Congress is mad at Bryce Harper for his cameos, because a couple of a Democratic senator from Connecticut, along with two House representatives, want MLB, and its MLBPA to prohibit, prohibit promotional deals with betting operators, such as a personalized greeting featuring Philly star Bryce Harper that was sent to a VIP gambler by a sportsbook.

Now, we don't have the details on the purpose of this cameo. We don't have the details on why the sports book sent it to them, but I have my suspicions because according to a lot, lawsuit. In November of 2024, FanDul sent a cameo video featuring Harper to a VIP customer, and that customer sued

the sports book, claiming that it had taken advantage of his gambling addiction. So it almost sounds, if I'm speculating, like perhaps this person used to be a large better on the app, and he stopped. And as part of an

enticement to get him back on the app, they sent him a cameo featuring Bryce Harper. That almost seems like what's going on here, and I'm sure more details will come out about this. Harper, meanwhile, has denied knowing that Fandul was going to use the video for said purposes or that the circumstances were going to be involved getting a VIP customer back. Now, baseball does allow players to do promotional deals with betting operators, as long as they do not authorize the use of their name, uniform number, image, or likeness. And that's the reason why, like, Bryce Harper couldn't do these cameos at Citizens Bank

park or in the clubhouse or anything like that, right? But again, that's just in this case to advertise, promote, or encourage betting at any baseball game or event. But he could still do it at home to do all of that stuff. And according to the collective current bargaining agreement, that is not allowed. But it is allowed for them to do promotional deals with betting operators. And the MLBPA has expressed actual interest in removing those restrictions during ongoing negotiations for the CBA. So they don't even want them to be held from using their name like this

or team logo or number or whatever. But yeah, I mean, here we go with Bryce Harper now, once again, being involved with his cameos, being just ridiculous. And you know what? You guys are bringing up the fact that Bryce Harper is literally the only human being

I've ever seen in my life that pours the toothpaste directly into his mouth and then uses his brush to brush it. So I still don't know what's more egregious. This or the toothpaste thing or the $1,000 cameos, but I feel like maybe all of it is a little bit of egregious. Yeah, that's what I think. I don't have a whole lot of thoughts on this particular matter,

if I'm being honest with you, Derek. Like, I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than a dumbass like myself could possibly. This is why my mom, I have my mom as the lawyer who I just sense smart things too. And I say, hey, hey, mommy, explain this to me, the dumb guy who's your son. I know. And so. Oh, honey, meho, I love you. I'll tell you. It's just, that's, that's my, my, uh, my relationship with my mother. But it's because in general, right, the idea here is that sports gambling is already as tempting and as addictive as it could potentially be. Yeah. And all of these companies have done what they can, whether it's because of regulatory impacts or just in

general trying to like have morals as a you know as a company that's involved in sports gambling right they their their job is to encourage people that have a problem to seek help and they're encouraged they're they're supposed to encourage people to do this stuff for fun and again to not try to entice them to constantly come back when they take time away right there was a time where if you were signed up for a gambling app they they advertised to you a bunch if you stopped using it. I feel like that's gone down. I feel like I don't get, I get normal offers all the time from all the gaming apps, but I don't really feel like I specifically get ones that are trying their best to just get me back into it, right? But when you're talking about this situation,

this was a personalized VIP experience catered to one specific customer. And that, whatever this was, because we haven't seen the cameo, nor do we know what the actual like intentions from Fanduel were, that seems to be more about them going to the links of getting a baseball player, perhaps this better favorite baseball player, to make a cameo for them just to be like, look at how much we love you. We got Bryce Harper to do a thing for you. And that right there is like, hey, we're trying to grab you and bring you back because we're showing how much you mean to us as a customer.

If you're talking about a retail store that you bought a shirt from, that's fine. If you're talking about a company involved in sports gambling and this customer wanted to break away from it, then I do think that there's a case to be made here that, you know, enticing them with a high-profile athlete like that in a personalized message is a step too far. I think that Bryce Harper just isn't a total moron for just involving himself with a gambling company when it clearly is written on the topic. Yeah. You're like, do you not know what you're saying? You're saying it out loud with your words, buddy. But also watch it back.

But you're Bryce Harper. You're a millionaire. Like maybe you have a public standing. Maybe watch back your videos before you let them fly. For me, though, Derek, and I said this from the beginning, what fires me up about this is that Bryce Harper is he's, to me, like, it's just a, it's a microcosm of people with money right now in society that just can never get enough money. Yeah. I'm Bryce Harper. I signed a hundreds of million dollar contract.

Right. But I need to charge people thousands of dollars on cameo because I don't have enough. And that's the part that bothers me where it's like whatever happened to just relaxing in your off time, you can still invest and let your money build. No kidding. But just why are you on the freeway putting other people in danger, driving your car, recording the video? You need money that bad. And this is the same jackass dare. who's going to say dumb shit like this.

I don't know if people will like this, but I feel like only losers complain about what the Dodgers are doing. I think they're a great team and a great organization. I wonder why, Derek. I wonder why the guy who makes a MLB mega contract and who literally is so money hungry that he is now in trouble with U.S. Congress doesn't like the idea of adding a cap and a floor that would essentially create a sandwich of a,

in more of a middle class of MLB baseball players instead of having a bunch of impacted negatively. A hundred percent. And that's why I stuff like this is just like I want people to stop sending me that quote and acting like it should mean anything to me. Bryce Harper is being completely self-indulgent when he says something like that. He's only thinking about himself. He's only thinking about the guys that make as much money as him and sign these mega contracts. He's not thinking about the Zach Cozarts of the world who are out there on Twitter, today or yesterday saying, you know what would have helped me?

A cap and a floor. As a baseball player that had a career that was succinct and maybe wasn't at the top for very long, I just can't stand a guy like Bryce Harper who is trying to act like he knows better than everybody else about how the cap system should work, but then is also just like clearly all about his own buck. It's not about anything else other than that. So that's where I need you to keep your. thoughts to yourself on that kind of stuff, buddy.

I don't really care if you're going to get in illegal trouble. Just don't tell us how baseball should be. Again, they're worried about their money. That's what entirely too many people in this world are worried about, their own money and how things impact their pocket and not truly how it's going to impact the role players of MLB, not how it's going to impact guys that maybe they liked playing for the pirates and they want to continue playing for the pirates. but now they have no choice but to go play for the Yankees or the Dodgers or some other teams

simply based on the fact that, well, this is what you do. This is the next logical step in life. And that's like where everybody kind of goes wrong. But in this case, I'm more faulting Bryce for being so cameo happy that he's not even paying attention, apparently, to what he's doing in his cameos or where they're going or the purpose they're serving. When you're just rattling these off, like you said, like if you're just banging them out while you're driving on the freeway in your car, It's really easy for you to not know that you did one for Fandul and a VIP customer that somehow does violate the rules that are in place here overall as far as, you know, that kind of stuff are concerned. But the bigger point of this is that Bryce Harper is a scumbag that charges people a thousand dollars for cameos.

And drives his vehicle on the freeway while he records him and posts them. Right. And SkyMax says, how about a cameo sitting on the pot? That I would value and cherish forever. Are you kidding me? And you know what? Like, Killer X, I'm not disagreeing with you. Imagine being a guy who pays money for that.

I'm not saying that that's not nuts as well. Very true. Again, I don't really care about Bryce Harper's hustle as much as I care about him taking the moral high ground over like Rob Manfred trying to, and again, like, be mad at Rob Manfred all you want for other things. But this will help save the game of baseball. And Bryce Harper is not about saving the game of baseball. He's about making as much money as he can and as short of amount of time as possible.

Other guys like him. Correct. That's what it's about. He makes that clear with things like this. Yeah. That's my total thoughts on it. Just don't save me with a spiel about how you, oh, we're the M-O-B-P-A and we're not going to let them strong-arm us.

Okay, bud. I mean, you're all about how much money Bryce can make. That's, at the end of the day, that's the truth. I'm also with you, though, on the cameo aspect. If you are somebody who pays that much for a cameo, then you deserve what's coming to you. Sure. You're a loser. I don't care.

Gumbag behavior, but I also saw the other day that someone complained about attending a fan event, Damon. It's a WWE fan event, but it's like the fanatics event in New York or anything else, right, where you buy meet and greets with athletes. And then when you go to said beat and greet, you come to find out that you have to stand in line for an hour and a half in order to get up there to the athlete and do the meet and greet. And now people are complaining about even stuff like that. And I kind of laugh about where we're at in this world where you kind of have to know what you're getting

into beforehand. Something like that used to be free, though, is kind of the point. I know. I trust me, in my lifetime, it was free for sure. But also go, like, look at his cameos first and see the quality that he's putting out. And when you see him doing them while he's driving on the freeway half ass, then maybe just maybe you don't want to spend your $1,000 hard earned dollars. Well, and let me be clear.

As far as like what Scotty Mac put in the chat there, I don't think that that's egregious at all. I think that spending $1,000 on getting a Bryce Harper one is egregious. Yeah, a thousand percent. If you're, if it's a reasonable price and it's getting his dad and one from Keith Hernandez. It'll make, it'll make your pop smile. I completely understand that. But like, a thousand dollars is absolutely obscene.

You deserve everything coming to you from that standpoint. That's all right. I'll stop white knighting for those people 100%. But I'm never going to stop white knighting against Bryce Harper for sure. Remember when he cold cocked Gabby, Marrero? In the NOS. No, now you're just getting, look, we're almost done, and now I'm angry.

Now I'm fired up. Now I'm in the red. Anyway, we thank you guys so much for your time. I love you, appreciate you. We will be back with a post-game show tomorrow, Killer X. Until then, you can follow us on social media. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon dog with a DAWG.

But as always, we are all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sport. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Hit that like button before you get out of here. Follow us on social. Come back tomorrow for our post-game show

after the 12-40 game against the Rockies. Then we'll have another 12 p.m. show on Thursday and another post-game show on Friday. So make sure to join us for all of that stuff. Until then, I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your Tuesday. Enjoy yourselves. Let's watch some baseball. Let's get another win tonight.

And until then, hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day. Behave yourself. Scotty Mac, you gorge. just son of a bitch. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't charge people a thousand dollars for cameos, Bryce Harper.