PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will The Diamondbacks OVERTAKE The Dodgers In Heated NL West Race?

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Dalton Feely from Jomboy Media joins us to discuss if he gave the Arizona Diamondbacks super powers considering the team has not lost since his visit to Chase Field. We are also discussing if the surging Snakes can overtake the Dodgers and the Padres for the NL West Division crown, where the D-backs land on our Power Rankings for this week, and more on the upcoming series with the Tampa Bay Rays.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Gila River Resorts & Casinos: YOU DO YOU at Gila River Resorts & Casinos. Visit https://playatgila.com for details.Mint 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!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.Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to https://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/allcity and use code PHNX for 10% off!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.

Ski, ski, and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Dback podcast right here at Studio K, presented by our friends in Circle K. My name is Derek Montia, of course, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me, Jesse Friedman, aka your vice mayor and your Thunderstick. And we are proud to be joined by the official good luck charm and some sort of piece of magic in Dalton Feeley from John Boy. Sir, welcome in. Thank you so much for joining us.

then, of course, snakes alive to you. Oh, my gosh. Snakes alive 100%. I'm surprised you guys aren't mad that I left Arizona after seeing three games. Oh, we're furious. No, we're mad. We actually tried to call and cancel your flight. There was a debate about, like, taking things to another level and calling in some sort of threat.

Well, we really tried. We were okay with you leave. Well, Derek was okay with you leaving Arizona, but he was trying to get you rerouted to Tampa Bay because that is where the Diamondbacks are. He pointed that out to me. He was like, why does he need to stay here? Let's just send him on the road with the team. And if I was Tori, I would have packed you up and taken you with us because the Diamondbacks have been unstoppable since you visited Chase Field. And man, this team has just been a whole lot of fun to watch since the end of June.

I mean, best record in baseball, them and the Padres fighting pack and fourths in July 1st. Padres of 19 and 3, 9backs 18 and 3 in their last 22 and 21 respectively. it's been one heck of a race, but quite frankly, obviously, biased eyes here. The dimebacks have been absolutely electric and they proved it once again versus the last three games in the Philly series and the sweep versus Colorado. Dalton, you witnessed, I mean, all of us witnessed a pretty crazy moment on Friday with Adrian Ducasio hitting that walkoff home run. I believe that was your, that was your first day at the ballpark, right? At least for at least during, for this trip. That was when he sprinkled the magic on the field or whatever he did.

Sprinkle the magic. I know you posted a video on various social media platforms of like you reacting in real time to that happening and it went like semi-viral. What was what was that experience like for you? Well, it's so funny that it was on the first pitch too. I was talking to a couple of security guards right behind me. And I'm like, I have to get my camera out because if something happens, I want to record it because this is going to be a great moment. And oddly enough, ADC first pitch, Jeff Hoffman, see you later. I went nuts. That was awesome. Everyone in the stadium went nuts. And it's funny, I didn't have like this crazy setup with my camera.

I just used like the Snapchat filter where it's the double screen. So you have my face in like most of the screen. And then the circle that showed ADC smacking that ball like 10 rows deep into right field. It was electric. I did get made fun of by Trevor Plouf on talking baseball. He said if you're going to do that, you have to have your face in the bubble and not the field. field's got to be the big thing. And I said, you want all of this.

What do you want me to tell you? Well, it was an exciting night, man. And I mean, right now this team, like, again, that's just an example of what we've been talking about here a bit, how this next man up mentality just creates what seems like a different hero every night. Jake McCarthy, though, has been that guy for this team more often than not recently. I mean, what a transformation Jake has made just in regards to, because, because, you know, becoming the player that he has versus the struggles that he was experiencing a year ago.

Yeah, I mean, since the All-Star break, he's been arguably the hottest hitter in the National League. He's batting close to 400, if not over, after the series versus Colorado from that stretch on. It's been amazing. It just seems like every moment he's in, regardless of how big or small, he's up to the challenge. We saw it in the walkoff, first Colorado, with bases loaded. He slaps one down the third base line, scores two. everyone gets excited and celebrates. He, we saw two versions of Jake going into the year.

We saw 2022 Jake where he played like 99 games and had like a 280 average and he looked really good. In 2023, he had his struggles, was sent down. And 2024, I'm happy. I'm very happy to see that it's 2022's version of Jake, if not even better compared to last season's Jake. Because he's been quite frankly one of the best pitchers in baseball right now. Our big question today, Dalton, we're, of course, we're going to be able to definitively answer

this question. And that question is, can, will the diamondbacks overtake the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West? Obviously, that gap has closed a little bit. The Dodgers finally lost the game yesterday, both D-BACs and Padreys, gain a game there. It's down at two and a half games as of right now. I know the Dodgers and Brewers are in the seventh inning. I think the Dodgers have a one-run lead as of this moment. But that gap has closed pretty significantly.

I think fan graphs, it gives the D-backs, like a 14% chance of, winning the NOS, something like that. Stupid computers. Yeah, stupid computers. They don't understand the vibes of the Arizona Diamondbacks, right? Where is your vibes chart? I don't think Dan Zimborski has vibes built into the algorithm. You're do you dogg him in there?

No. Well, then I don't know how accurate your assessment can be. So, so yeah, the question, what I'm curious what you think, Dawn. How realistic do you feel it is for the Diamondbacks to actually overtake the Dodgers and win the NOS for what would be the first time since 2011? I think it's very realistic. And I'm quite frankly shocked that it's 14% or roughly 14% via fan graphs for them to do so, which are only two and a half out and there's six weeks of baseball to go.

The debaq still have a lot of divisional baseball to play. So I think it's a very realistic thing. I think it's closer to 50% if not, you know, around that range. I will say looking at the Dodgers roster, they're getting healthy again. Mookie just came back. He slotted back into right field. Monsi's going to be back any day now. The pitching is where the question marks are going to be for the Dodgers. And if that's figured out, I start to get a little worried. And I'm like, uh-oh, the Dodgers are back.

But at the same time, staying in-house in the Diamondbacks case, they've played fantastic baseball. Like, yes, you're watching what the Dodgers are doing. But if you keep winning, you're going to catch your, you're going to at some point make up some ground. So I think it's very realistic they can catch the Dodgers. It has got to keep doing what they've been doing. What concerns you down the stretch? The Diamondbacks are obviously in a good position right now with the wild card race, right? Like, you know, they proved last year that you just need to get in in order for you to do something.

But at this point, is there anything that you're worried about in regards to what they have left ahead of them? I think health is always the first one. Kattel being banged up, Walker being on the IL, Merino being on the IL. So getting those guys healthy coming to the playoff stretch, making sure they're 100% before. the comeback. We saw Ketel try to come back from that ankle injury on Monday where he aggravates the injury. Not a great look, not ideal,

especially for an MVP candidate because he is the guy right now of a heartbeat outside of Jake McCarthy, who has been fantastic. Outside of injuries, I guess, rotation too. Like if Monty pitches like he did yesterday, that gives some high hopes. I'm worried

about how Durably can be the rest of the year because Fought has pitched a lot of innings. Ryan Nelson has done a lot of I'm curious if they move them to the bullpen officially now. If the rotation holds true, I feel really good about this team. Last thing for me, Dalton, I'm curious just about your experience at Chase Field. I know you were there, I believe during the World Series last year, you got a taste of what it's like probably at its best.

You know, I covered these last few games against the Rockies and it didn't have the same feel as it did over the weekend against the Phillies and understandably so. Not that I would have expected it to feel that way. But, you know, there were a decent number of Phillies fans in the stadium, as you'd expect. But it also felt like, especially on Saturday when there were 46,000 people in the building or whatever it was, it was very hot. But it was also a pretty, you know, it felt like a pretty electric environment. What was your sense of just the ballpark and kind of the vibes in the stadium with the excitement around this team? Well, Jesse, it sounds to me that it sounds like,

I brought the energy and the vibes to Chase Field. And you're saying it was gone after I left. That's what I've heard. Exactly what I heard. That's all I heard there. Like it was like what can we do to get you back to make sure the vibes are always like this? Because you're obviously to blame for how good the vibes were. Exactly.

I think it was really cool to see. Obviously it was an exciting series because you're playing the Phillies who were the best team, the National League, by record going in. that weekend. It seemed like a playoff atmosphere. It was like the NLCS rematch. The Phillies have been really good this year. Obviously they've been struggling since the All-Star break, but especially Saturday, as you mentioned, there was like 46,000 people. It was the giveaway day. The dimebacks jumped out into a massive lead. And prior to Gallen and Marte's injury, the first four innings were, the vibes were amazing. Like you just hear everyone cheering and yelling and everyone

standing up going nuts after run after runs going in. on Saturday. I hope the rest of the year, if they continue to play well, fans continue to show up because I think the dimebacks feed off of that energy. And I think most teams try to. Like when you have a lot of people in the stands rooting for your team, you want to play well in front of your team and that energy continues throughout the season. Well, some players for some franchises kind of get spoiled by the fan support.

You know what I mean? Like obviously Philly's fans were trying to dunk on us for the attendance at like Thursday's game and such, right? But, you know, unlike a lot of people that root for that team, you know, Diamondbacks fans have jobs, right? So, like, there's that. But there's also the idea here that, like, yeah, like for the Diamondbacks, they don't get that support. They really don't. So, like, when that building is full and it's rocking and it's filled with Diamondbacks fans, like it is special to them. It means something because of the fact that they don't get it all the time and they don't get it regularly, even during weekend series, even against big teams.

But the success of this team is kind of building, you know, this community. And you can feel it. It's changing. That building is not as empty as it used to be, even during a series against the Colorado Rockies. And, you know, of course, that's that's us getting there. We're getting there. But, I mean, we also have had a chance to see this team have an incredible amount of, I guess, luck when it comes to the next man up mentality due to the injuries.

Who has impressed you the most that the Diamondbacks got to fill in? for one of their injured players. Like ADC, we got Josh Bell, you know, all of those kind of guys that have kind of been asked to step up due to the circumstances. I would say ADC because I think when he's called up for how well he's played through his first week in the MLB, not even, you know, for his whole career, he just debuted that this week has been amazing for ADC, having the double in Wednesday's game versus Cleveland for his first hit and first RBI

in his first at bat, which is awesome, the walkoff. A name I want to throw, we've talked about this guy from a majority of the nine back season, but it wasn't based on injury, but based on performance. Justin Martinez has been fantastic, and he slides into the closer role after Paul Seawald and Ryan Thompson have had issues in that spot. And Justin Martinez has come in in the last few days this past week and has looked pretty good in that role. And hopefully he continues to look good in that role because electric. All right. I got one more for you and then we'll let you go. but I want to ask which member of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization,

and this doesn't matter who you met, could be the social media guy, could be the front office, could be a player, who's going to make the best blitz ball player? Oh my gosh. So my quick sidebar to that is me and Ryan Thompson are doppelgangers, only he's like four inches taller than I am.

I throw the exact same way, that arm slot. Arm slot, I've seen it. Yeah, so I think, biasedly I might say Ryan Thompson, but I don't know. That's a interesting one. I would want to kiss up and say you guys would make a great tandem. Well, there we go. Well, that brings up the important follow-up,

which is if you had to pick between the two of us, who would you want on your team? He has to always do this. Well, guys, it's great talking to you. I think the flip. It's fine because you're going to go with Jesse. It's going to hurt my feelings. It's fine.

You know what? How about this? You guys send a video to me and I'll do my scatter report and then I'll give an answer. We're going to do that. We're going to go out to a park out here and sweat our asses off to make sure that happens. But Dalton, we thank you so much. Not only for the luck that you brought to this team and all the good vibes, but of course, for your continued coverage and everything you guys do over there, John Boy, you guys do a tremendous job.

We love watching everything you guys do. Likewise. It's awesome to meet you guys in person too and not just social media. which is really cool and I will always be following and watching our snakes and you guys. So thank you so much. Boy, we'll have you back soon. We'll talk about the playoffs here soon. Let's go World Series, baby.

I love it. I love it. Thanks, man. Appreciate you. Thanks, Dalton. What a great guy. Always the best. Always the best.

Talk to Dalton. Of course, this show would not be doing this thing. Of course, if we weren't backed by our friends at Bet365, make sure you download the Bet365 and use code PHNX 365. When you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And like, it's crazy because Dalton really did like just bring a kind of special like magic with them. Like, and this team has been experiencing it for a while. But I mean, they've just be, it's like it's like they start to do one thing well, right?

We started to get on the path of like, wow, they haven't lost a series in a while. They're either winning them or splitting them. That's kind of, that's kind of nice. That's kind of new. They've gone on a nice stretch. And then like now it's kind of converted over them. to them literally not dropping games winning six in a row. And I mean,

it's just been a special stretch for this team. And it needs to be, right? Like right now is the time to take advantage of the teams that you have ahead of you. You have two teams that haven't been playing great baseball this season before you have to take on the Boston Red Soxx at Fenway. So now is the time to stack some wins. Yeah, I mean,

if I'm a D-BACs fan right now, like maybe I let Dalton go home for, you know, a couple weeks, a little less than a couple weeks, you know, let him rest up a little bit. bit. I would organize a GoFundMe for like a hotel and flight ground and all of that now, right?

I'm kind of thinking like the Mets series. So the net, I mean, the Diamondbacks are not back at home for a while. Their next homest stance starts on August 27th. You've got the Mets for three games. And then you've got a four game series against the Dodgers that weekend. And it feels like if you're a D-Backs fan is in your best interest to ensure that Dalton Feeley is in the house for that series. So, you know, maybe if we get out in front of that, we can, yeah, start a go-fund me. Yeah, just got to start planning ahead. That's all I was saying. Got to secure the W is what they have to do here.

But the Diamondbacks, like you said, this is the longest road trip of the season, I believe. Most of the time they only go for like two series. And this is a three, basically three series, the two in Florida and then the one in Boston. Yeah, it is very long. And there's a couple of off days in there as well. They're obviously off today. They're off next Thursday between the Marlin series and the Red Sox series. And they have another off day on the back end of the Red Sox series before that Met series at home starts

on the 27th. So yeah, it's going to be a little weird, Derek. We're, we're, I'm not traveling at all for this particular road trip.

So I'm just going to be, I'm going to be, I'm going to be so sick of you. Hanging around here. And, uh, we're going to be sort of covering the team for, from afar here for a while.

But at the same time, you know, after, uh, you hear the disappointment in his voice. He doesn't know what to do with himself without going on the road. That is true. That is true. But I've also come to realize,

especially now that we're in mid August that, you know, a few days of not being, Being with the Arizona downback is not the worst thing in the world put some food I haven't gone grocery shopping In entirely too long there I basically have not taken care of my household at all unless you know he's not drinking water He's so dehydrated. It's absurd, but anyway Of course we thank you guys for being here in the ph. NXports YouTube channel Make sure you subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already sign up for notifications that way you don't miss one ever any of our shows go live and we are doing breaking shows all the time when when news breaks

I think someone said we fix it one time, but we don't really do that. We cover it, though. So make sure to sign up for notifications. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe over there. Of course, we love it when you leave us review. That feedback means the world to us. So drop us a review. Most importantly, for my self-esteem, hit that like button if you are here right now in the YouTube channel.

And always do that. I mean, like I said, Jesse, he doesn't care. He's fine. Well-adjusted individual. Me, not so much. But speaking of dehydration. Zbiotics is something everyone should check out when you know you're going to have a fun night ahead pregame with Zbiotics pre-alcohol because you know how terrible you can feel some night sometimes after a fun night right it's a fun night of drinking we're having a good time in the next morning we have to pay for it well pre-alcohol is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic it was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking and let's face it after a night with drinks we don't bounce back like we used to I know I don't but of course With Zbiotics, you can, and here's how it works.

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I got some questions on here. Alonzo in the chat says, thoughts on Floro, finally having a clean inning. How should we look at that? I still think, in my opinion, that these guys were recently traded from one team over to another. I talked a little bit about the human element with Jordan Montgomery yesterday, but there is that to consider. You know, it does take a matter of settling in sometimes. And luckily, the Diamondbacks and the guys that they acquired at the trade deadline have that time. I think we already are seeing it out of AJ Puck.

And that might have been what we saw out of Floro. These guys are quality pitchers that have been putting up consistently good numbers all year. It's just, again, a matter of kind of sometimes those changes kind of disrupt your life a little bit. Yeah, it hasn't been great for Dylan Floreau since the Diamondbacks acquired him. No questions there. I mean, he's given up four runs on nine hits and five. five innings pitch so far. You know, I mean, if you were expecting Dylan Floro to come over and maintain an ERA of

2.06, which is what it was with the nationals, I'm not sure the numbers necessarily back that up, right? His strikeout rate is quite a bit lower this year than we've seen in the past. His VLO is down a little bit. This was not a, you know, an eighth inning arm for the diamond backs necessarily. This was a guy who's here to add some depth. You know, the debacks have had a lot of games this season where they were down by maybe a couple of runs and then rather than going to their,

their, you know, better back end bullpen guys. They're sort of a bullpen. They turn to some of the other guys in their bullpen and the opposing team. Just that, you know, two-run lead grew into a seven-run lead pretty quickly and suddenly it just wasn't a game anymore. Yeah. Dylan Flores the kind of guy who can step into a spot like that and give you a much better chance of keeping the lead where it is.

And, you know, with how good this Diamondbacks offense is going, there's, you know, there truly is no lead too big enough for. for them to overcome at this point. So I think Flores going to be just fine. You know, he had the one bad game in particular where he gave up three runs against the Phillies. That was sort of a blowout win anyway. Not too concerned there. Well, some of those blowout wins, by the way, have made making some bets on B.

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At Bet365, must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 180 next step, text next step to 53342 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. Also the best app to do a Nerfion. They always have the best odds. Yeah. I mean, Beth365 does have the best odds. I know it kind of sounds like a guy telling his girl that he doesn't talk to anybody else.

Correct. I get it. But like genuinely, I don't talk to any other sports books. Right. Because my sports books has the most voluptuous odds. Right. That's a great way to put it. I love the voluptuous odds.

And don't bet on ners. Nerfee's on the Diamondbacks because they score a lot of runs in the first inning. But of course, because of the run... You can Urfee or you can Nersey. Yeah, there you go. The nursey is underrated. No run. The juice is a little less voluptuous, but it's still supple.

And that's something that the Diamondbacks absolutely do a lot. But of course, make sure to watch PHNX bets and get all that great information. I will say, though, the offense is a big reason why the Diamondbacks have made the surge that they've had. When you look at the starting pitching ERA, relief pitching ERA for this team as a whole, not great still this year. But they've had some bad times and they've had some better times. And that average kind of leads them to be like kind of in the bottom third for both of those categories. It's not really a reflection of how they've been pitching lately, but it is a reflection of how the season's gone for them as far as, you know, their pitching is concerned. But let's take a look at the MLB standings for where the Diamondbacks are at, this wild card race, and those divisions.

things are heating up. There's a lot, it's just like the wildcard race was at one point, Jesse. A lot of teams all kind of very close together with very similar records. Dodgers leading the way here in the National League with a 71 and 50 record. Philly's there in second at 70 and 50. It took them forever to win that 70th game. Brewer's leading their division at 68 and 52. And then here's the wild card race, Diamondbacks and Padres, tied at 69 and 53.

both teams have a four-game lead on the Padres, who are 64 and 56 in the final wildcard spot. And then in the hunt, you have the Mets, two games back, the Giants, four and a half games back, and the Reds at four and a half games back. Both of those teams, the Giants and the Reds, they both seem like they're fading there a bit. And, I mean, even the Mets haven't been playing as good as they did over the stretch where they were really in the thick of it. But anything can happen. A lot of these teams are still very, very close. It's just nice to have the D-backs have that cushion. and to be talking about them going after the division

more than going after a wild card spot at this point. Yeah, you know what kind of blew my mind earlier today when I was working on our power rankings, which we'll get to here in a few minutes. The Diamondbacks are not very far from having the best record in baseball. It's crazy to say. Feels very, yeah, very insane to say that

given that the Diamondbacks were four games under 500, like a month and a half ago. But yeah, the New York Yankees had the best record in the league as of the start of play on Thursday today. And they are 72 and 50. And the Diamondbacks are 69 and 53. They are three games right now behind the best record in all of baseball. And so, yeah, you're getting to the point where it just feels like,

and, you know, I think last week very much cemented this for us. There's no team that the Diamondbacks can't beat right now, right? I mean, go in, you sweep the guardians on the road. They had the best record at that time. You take two out of three or three out of four from the Phillies at home. And that was on the road, by the way. The guardians don't lose very often at home. If you look at their home, you know, road splits.

They're 38 and 30 and 20 at home even after getting swept by the Diamondbacks there. So, yeah, I mean, the debacks are not just like, oh, you're in a good spot to make the playoffs now. You're like, you have a fighting chance at, you know, challenging for the best record in the league at this point, which is, again, just wild. to say based on where this team was, you know, 40, 45 days ago. Well, I will tell you this. The Diamondbacks right now, I mean, the Dodgers, according to fan graphs, have a much better percent chance of winning the NL West. But the Padres and the DBACs are hot on their tail.

And the Dodgers have dealt with a lot of injuries this year. They've dealt with a lot of stuff with their roster. Even with how much money they spend and everything that they have going for them, they've had a lot of inconsistencies with their pitching. and they've had a lot of injured players this year. Yeah, they really have. And it's not to say the Diamondbacks haven't, right? I mean, I think you can go to just about any contending team in the league at this point.

And it feels like they've all sort of been decimated in their own way. It's been sort of this unfortunate underlying narrative the entire season, that there's just been a lot of marquee players that have spent time on the injured list this year. But yeah, the Dodgers, you know, River Ryan, who's a good arm for them, is having Tommy John's surgery. so he's obviously out for the season. They did just get Mooky Betts back from injury. In a typical mooky bets fashion,

he had two hits in each of his first three games. No surprises there. He is back and certainly a big boost for them. But yeah, I mean, when I think about this bigger question of like, can the Diamondbacks do this thing? Can they actually overtake the Dodgers in the NL West? I mean, the odds are certainly stacked against them, right? I mean, there's no question like a two and a half game lead.

It's not big, but it is, I mean, you have to outplay the Dodgers by at least three games the rest of the season. I think that's much easier said than done, given that they are starting to get healthier at this point. But it's certainly not impossible. I mean, I look at like the Dodgers rotation versus the Diamondbacks rotation. And it's not super obvious which one you would rather have at this point, right? I mean, it's Tyler Glassnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Jack Flaherty, they just acquired in a trade. I don't know exactly what their fifth rotation spot looks.

like at this point. It's a decent group now that Glassnow and Kirshah are in there, but I mean, Kershaw is not exactly, you know, the Kershaw of yesteryear at this point, as we saw in the postseason last year. So the gap between these two teams talent-wise does not feel all that great to me right now. Yeah, you're right. And when you look at the schedule ahead, the Diamondbacks have things maybe arguably just a little easier. I don't know how you would want to consider it but the Dodgers coming up to playing the diamondbacks play the cardinals next then the mariners Shane mariners yeah that's uh that's that's that's that's three w is right there man damn all right well it's so bad guys it is so bad but then they play the rays and then the orioles

before playing the diamond back so they have some tough teams in there and whether Shane wants to throw the mariners in there you know what i'm going to i'm so upset i was just enjoying you know some snakes talk. I just like it's I like convinced myself that I never even cared about the Seattle Manors and then you brought it up and I'll probably do it again before the end of the episode. And now my day is ruined. Yeah, you're right. I have no appetite.

I'm never, I'm not going to eat the rest of the day. I'm going to go to bed hungry. Hey, all of us though are going to be rooting for the Mariners when they play the Dodgers. So at least you'll have us on your side kind of during that time. But yeah, I mean, again, the Dodgers, they, they've been playing very good baseball. That's what makes this whole thing. Yeah.

So infuriating is no matter how good the Diamondbacks are, the Padres and the Dodgers still have been playing equally good. Maybe the Diamondbacks have a little bit of an edge, but it's still not enough to really change much in the division. We were talking on Southwest Bias today about whether or not it really even matters to win the division or not. Like for the most part, again, we saw what the Diamondbacks did last season. As long as you can get into the dance, you can make the thing happen, right? And I mean, as far as the wild card is concerned, the last two World Series, National League World Series winners, or National League pennant winners, has been from the final wildcard spot with the Phillies and the Diamondback. So, you know, there's that. But like Jesse, we'll point out, I mean, you still don't want to play an extra three game series that anything could happen in.

And you would like to have that buy, despite the fact that it does have a little bit of a kind of a, kind of a, attachment to like the layoff not being a great thing for playing in the playoffs yeah i i think that's he thinks it's insane i think it's loser talk if you're if you're like if you're the the dodgers or the or the braves last year and uh and you're blaming losing on that i just on days of rest it's a it's a bad look yeah we got more time to rest than the other team it's just not a strong i don't know because baseball just is like that i mean basically which baseball is like that. Play each other.

I mean, they, they do. Like, I think they actually did do some of that. And we saw the Diamondbacks doing a little bit of that, I believe, between the wild card round and the Dodgers series. They were out at Dodgers Stadium, like the day before that series started, you know, doing at least a little bit of light work against each other. But, yeah, I mean, when I think about this NL West race, if you're the Diamondbacks and you are going to do this thing, you probably have to make your move.

in the next two, three weeks, I would say. And I take that with a grain of salt because baseball, it's random. Who the heck knows? All of those things will hold for sure. But given what you outlined with the Dodgers schedule, right, they are finishing up a series with the Brewers right now. They've got the Cardinals over the weekend, which is a decent, a decent team, right? And then the Mariners are a good team.

The Razor, okay-ish. but then it's the Orioles and the Diamondbacks. They've got the Angels, then they have the Guardians after that. So that's a pretty tough stretch here for the Dodgers over these next two, three weeks. After that, the Dodgers have a pretty easy schedule to finish the year.

They play nine of... Pretty much the Braves and the Padres are the only tough team on their schedule. They play nine of their last 12 games against the Marlins and are the Rockies. And that's a pretty good situation for them to rack up a whole bunch of wins pretty quickly.

Yeah. So yeah, I mean, a lot of this is going to hinge on what happens from, what is it, August 30th to September 2nd when the Dodgers are here in Arizona playing the diamond backs for four games. If you're the debacks and you want to pull this off, it's probably going to be because you took three out of four or maybe even found a way to win all four of those games. That's an opportunity where you can sort of take this situation in your own hands and go out and, you know, try to find a way to.

get this thing. Meanwhile, the Padres are no slouch. We know how well they've been playing. And they are a team that's just getting stronger and stronger. The bat players that haven't been playing well are playing better. They're getting guys back from injuries. And overall,

the Padres are team to be concerned with, not with them impacting the Diamondbacks playoff opportunities because they just have that last series of the year against them, which could prove to be very critical. It could even, that could even determine playoff seating potentially at that point. But they're going to be a very tough team. to contend with in the playoffs for sure and that's why that's a really good reason that you want to

avoid the san diego padres at all costs there in that first round yeah and if the season were to end today the diamondbacks would be playing the podres in the first round i think they have the tie breaker right now so technically i believe that series would be played at chase field but um yeah the podres are totally a factor in this thing as well i think fan graphs likes their chances to win the division a little bit more uh they view the current podres roster i guess as being ever so slight slightly more talented than the Diamondbacks roster. They give them like an 18% chance to win the division versus 14 for the D-back, something like that.

But yeah, they're another team that is starting to get healthier for sure. We have Joe Musgrove who just returned for them a few days ago. He is a pretty big piece of their rotation. He's not been good when he has pitched this year, but I think some of his injuries earlier in the year may have factored into that. U. Darvish remains a big question mark for. the rest of the season. I think he's dealing

with some family matters right now and was already trying to work his way back from a groin strain and then there was I think some elbow inflammation after that. That continues to be a saga. We don't know how that's going to end. But they did get Joe Musgrove back and that in and of itself is a pretty big step

for them. Known baseball GM, Elise, in the chat says so you're saying we should be living and dying with every win from here until the end, the season ends, right? Yes, that's exactly what we're saying. And make sure to tune in for our postgame shows every single day. But yeah, I mean, this race is going to be something to watch

and it's exciting because the Diamondbacks don't feel like a team that is on their heels like the way it was last season. Coming off of July, heading into August, heading into September, they started playing better baseball, but it doesn't mean that they were actually like you were confident about their chances. At that point, we were just hoping for them to make the playoffs to kind of, I guess, finish the season on a high end. know, right? Like just as an achievement, we finally overcame, you know, the past bad seasons and

now here we are, you know, moving into a point where we're actually making the playoffs and succeeding a bit. And then we went on the craziest run that I've ever seen a baseball team go on. And of course, that could still happen again for this team. But now this team feels different. This team feels, like we said, you feel confident about their chances going in to playing any team in baseball, especially with those series against the Dodgers and the Padres still on the calendar up ahead. But of course, that's, you know, it's kind of unbelievable. I mean, and again, the one thing that the Diamondbacks have over the Padres

and the Dodgers, at least right now, is depth, which is something I don't think I'd ever really say about the Diamondbacks over the Dodgers, because the Dodgers just always seem to be able to produce, like, some other player to, you know, step in for an injured player and have that guy be even better. And now the Diamondbacks are the ones doing that. Yeah, I'm fully expecting Tommy Edmund, who the Cardinals, or who the Dodgers acquired from the Cardinals at the trade deadline.

He's about to come off the injured list. It's going to become an MVP. Yeah, he's at, I mean, you can lock in a 900 OPS the rest of the season, right? No, I bet the Dodgers, they are getting some pieces back. Like Max Muncie, as Dalton said earlier, is about to come back. Tommy Edmund as well. It should be a nice depth piece for them. Yoshinovo Yamamoto is obviously a really important part

that rotation. His situation is unclear. It's a left rotator cuff strain that he's been trying to work his way back from. But I think I saw somewhere there's a timeline of late August or at least September. So it seems very possible he could come back this season if he doesn't deal with any more setbacks or anything. So that's a roster that could be pretty darn formidable here, especially if they get Yamamoto back at some point. So to wait and see. see here, Derek. Well, apparently, speaking of comebacks, the Brewers tied the game with the Dodgers, and we are all Brewers fans right now.

That's for sure. But I believe the Brewers just took the lead. Oh, let's go. Let's go. Is that the bottom? If you were wondering, the Mariners lost today. Okay. We don't care about that.

Are they playing the Padres or the Dodgers? Okay. Just wanted to let you know. All right, that's fun. Let's take a look. Speaking of all these other teams at our power rankings for this week. What? Because I think you guys are they going to be very excited.

about this right here. You need to pick a lane, Shane. Do you want to talk about the Mariners or not? I mean, seriously. I told you. You brought this to you. Yeah, we did this to you. Yeah, we did.

They're right. I'm sorry. This is a beautiful site. Do not adjust your smartphone or your computers at this point? That is the Arizona Diamondbacks on our power rankings at the number four spot. It took too long for us to actually put them up as high. They deserve this before now. But the Diamondbacks, let's face it.

Let's face facts. Let's be honest. The Diamondbacks are one of the best goddamn teams in the league, folks. That's the truth. And that's how they're playing right now. They have the best record, not one of the best records. They have the best record since the All-Star game. Don't muddy it with these other teams that don't have as many wins as them.

They've been playing incredible baseball. And they made their debut on our power rankings last week. And here they are at spot number four. I feel like it's normally my job in the situation to, like, You write like be the realistic guys like no Derek like I need to bring you down to earth a little bit on this Nope that was it was it was it did the power it was like guess where they're gonna be I'm like seventh thing yeah yeah I wound up putting them a little higher than uh than I then yeah yeah yeah like I said earlier the debacks are three games away from having the best record in baseball and power rankings are not just about who has the

best record. Like, it'd be a pretty boring exercise if we just pulled up the standings and did one through 10 with the standings. Who has the best run differential? That's pretty much it, right? I could be guilty of doing that a little too much at times. But yeah, power rankings are about like, who do you not want to play right now? And you do not want to play the Arizona Diamondbacks right now, right? They won 10 of their last 11 games. They won 17 of their last 20. This is maybe the last team in baseball that you would want to be playing right now. And that doesn't mean we're necessarily going to put them number one i still you know we still kind of keep the bigger picture in mind like the yankees you know their run differential is uh about 40 40 points higher than than the diamond backs i still think that's

that has some some merit for sure i mean won sodo doesn't stop hitting home runs right now it's insane yeah Juan soto has been unbelievable four home runs and four at bats basically in that series is outrageous but at the same time like when i look across the landscape of baseball right now we don't have a team that's on pace for 100 wins. We don't have that team that has really separated itself as like, oh, you know, that is a juggernaut come playoff time. That team doesn't exist. And that's why the Diamondbacks are sort of just up here in the mix, basically on the same level in my mind as the Yankees and the Orioles and not quite the Dodgers, but pretty close. Like the gap here just isn't very big.

Well, let's take a look at that power ranking again because the New York Yankees do top it off at one. Dodgers there are at spot number two. The Orioles are at number three. Then the Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by the Padres, which honestly is a pretty good call because these teams have been Spider-Man memes staring at each other over the course of this stretch

where they've both been so good. And then they beat the Phillies. So rightfully so, the Diamondbacks are above the Phillies. And that feels good. I'm sure some Phillies fans would lose their mind seeing this. I mean, the debacks, the gap between them and the Phillies, if I can pull this up, is not very large at all. The Phillies are 70 and 50.

They're 69 and 53. So that's two games. You back for two games behind the Phillies. And they just took three out of four in pretty decisive fashion. The Phillies are just not playing good baseball in general. I know there's a lot of narratives about Kyle Schwerber saving their season with a grand slam in yesterday's game that helped them to a comeback win over the Marlins. but that was against the Marlins. So I think they're, you know,

the Phillies still have some more work to do, I think before they're back being the, the potentially juggernaut team that they looked like they were earlier in the year. The Houston Astros that were not ranked are up to number seven on that power ranking. They have been nine and three over the past two weeks and they are another team that you do not want to play right now.

They are very hot. They're automatically going to be in there. I'm staring at Shane's face while I'm saying. They're automatically going to be, You might want to cover your ears for this, Shane. The Astros are going to be in the ALCS, right? I mean, this happens every single year. And I know there were some doubts early in the season with how terribly, how terrible they were out of the gate.

But the Astros are starting to do Astros things. They're 10 games over 500 at this point. They've won eight consecutive games. So they are playing very good baseball. And then, yeah. Can I just ask you a question real fast? Why did they put Robbie Ray in the ninth to face Jordan Alvarez? I don't have an answer for you on that.

That was two years ago, Shane. That's like the eighth time you've asked me that question since then. Yeah, he asks a lot, at least once a week. He does this every Friday. That's four times a year. That's once a quarter. That's not that bad. Notice that since the Phillies or since Diamondbacks beat the Phillies and the Guardians,

both of those teams are broken. They were in the top five, but now they aren't any longer. Guardians drop down to eighth, and then Brewers round things off at number nine with the twins in our final spot at 10. And the twins are still a very dangerous team. I mean, the AAL still has a lot going on as well. But right now, this NL West race and like basically it's kind of like a four-team race right now for the wildcard until, you know, maybe one of these other teams pick it up. But and that's what could happen.

There's a lot of games left to play amongst all of these teams that are in these races together. So there's a great chance for any team to make up some ground here. Diamondbacks still play the Mets. They still play the Giants. they play the Dodgers, they play the Padres, all of these teams that are kind of surrounding them right now, they still have games left against them. So last time I asked you to make a prediction,

you wound up looking like an absolute genius. Yeah, I don't know. And apparently you just can tell the future now. I should just retire with that one and just not make any more predictions. But I feel like we have to test this out one more time. And I have to ask you, what does your heart tell you, Derek? Are the Diamondbacks going to win the NL?

West Division and do the thing and overtake the Los Angeles Dodgers and the and the poddred. I'm going to give you a bold prediction, which as we know, my bold predictions don't tend to be very good. But I will say your bold predictions track record is not nearly as good as you're just regular predictions. I think just regular prediction. I think you should regular.

I think you should regular prediction. I think you're regular prediction. My prediction is that by the time the Arizona Diamondbacks are done playing the Los Angeles Dodgers here at that four-game series, the Arizona Diamondbacks will be leading the National League West by two games. Wow. That was a pretty bold, that was a bold prediction, but you're not putting it in that category. I'm not putting it in that category because here's why I think that is I think the Diamondbacks

are going to continue to stay hot. I think they have some teams that they're playing in between now and then that have no reason to put up a fight other than pride and to go out. Like they're not playing anybody. The Boston Red Sox, they're, they're, they're a decent team, but they don't really have anything left to fight for. I don't think at this point, right? I mean, you know, they're, this is a chance for the Diamondbacks to really stack wins.

And of course, I don't expect. The Red Sox are two games out of the wild card right now. They still have a decent. They still have a chance, right. Yeah. So like I said, that's the one team on the schedule between now and then. They also play the Mets. And I don't know.

I mean, ever since. since Dalton Feeley went to Chase Field, I think he reversed jinxed, right? The whole bad energy from Frank the tank being there. Like that was what he counterbalanced. Yeah, I hadn't made that connection. Maybe Paul Seawall. Maybe see like, okay, so like grimace or don't feely. I'm going with Dalton.

So I think that things might be turned around for this team. And they, you know, in regards to playing the Mets, playing some of those teams that, again, in between now and then could give them problems. But I don't know. I don't expect them to win every game. I don't expect them to go on some sort of insane winning streak. I do expect them, though, to win the series against the race and win the series against the Marlins. And, of course, in doing that, there's a good chance that with how close this race is,

especially if the Dodgers lose today, that, you know, the Diamondbacks could be very close. If not, you know, right there when they play each other. And I mean, especially if the Diamondbacks are still as hot as they are when they play the Dodgers, I would say advantage D-backs. So the baseball gods were unwilling to tell you what the end of season outcome was. But they were willing to tell you what it was going to be. It doesn't go that far, Jesse. All right. All right.

It's like. You know, like it's. Your E-Rod prediction was like a few days in advance. Yeah. It's like anything. Like the farther you get from the source and like the more out you try to go. It's like it's, you know, there's a lot of. static and such, but we'll see what happens, of course.

Make sure, speaking of which, speaking of static, speaking of going out places where you don't get a reception, if you do go any of those wonderful places, especially in this state, like this man did, this man travels all over the place and then sends me gorgeous pictures of parts of Arizona that I didn't even know look like that. Where was that, Greer, Arizona, last year? Yeah, shout out Greer. Amazing. Well, take some amazing equipment with you, take an amazing cooler with you.

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I need to know if you can. Yeah, not reliably. You don't want that responsibility put on me. What do you meaning here? What part of, are you talking about like from scratch? Yeah. Wow. Oh, heck now.

No, I don't believe he could at all. I don't believe he could do this at all. Also, shout out to our friends at Chicken and Pickle, which might be a little bit more Jesse's speed. He might not be able to make a fire, but he will smoke you in ping pong, and that's the truth. But check out Chicken and Pickle because they have so much to offer. Pickle ball courts, of course, all sorts of other fun, outdoor, indoor entertainment complex with a casual chef-driven restaurant and a sports bar. And, of course, a whole bunch of fun. Great place for your gatherings.

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So do not miss out checking out chicken pickle. What do we got here, Jesse? Of course, we have the Tampa Bay Rays on Tamp ahead. And, I mean, this team not very good, but still causing a lot of problems for teams. I mean, again, you can't underestimate any team, as you saw with the Rockies, the Diamondbacks, aside from one game, didn't really, you know, dominate the. Rockies. It was close victories. And of course, Tampa Bay Rays are a team that you shouldn't shouldn't take lightly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the Tampa Bay Rays have managed to be basically

around a 500 team this year. If we look at their team numbers for the season, they are 59 and 61, entering this three game series with the debacks starts on Friday. Minus 56 run differential. That's not great. They are three and seven in their last 10 games. They've been scuffling lately. they do have a 4.11 team starting pitching ERA, which is fifth and all of baseball, a 382 bullpen ERA, which is 11th. Their team OPS is just 26 at 677. This team is a bit limited offensively. And then they have four outs above average, which is 13th. So they're roughly league average in that regard. Well, we have the probable pitchers to take a look at for the series. And even though the Diamondbacks haven't confirmed this,

official yet. They still have a bunch of TBDs in these spots. We pretty much got confirmation from Tori that Ryan Nelson will start in game one of the series with Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly or basically the starting rotation going in order from that point which would be Gallin and then Kelly. Yeah, yeah, this isn't

official official but it's basically official. Yeah, Ryan Nelson against Ryan Pepio in the Friday game. Pepio, of course, the big piece that the raise acquired in that Tyler Glassnow trade. He's been pretty good for them this year.

I believe he's going to be coming off the IL to make that start on Friday. Then it's Zach Gallant against Jeffrey Springs on Saturday. Springs was very, very good two years ago for the raise, had Tommy John surgery early last year and just came back from that a few weeks ago at this point. So he's been all right with a 461 ERA so far. And then in the finale, we get Merrill Kelly making his second star back with the Diamondbacks post-injury. He'll go against Taj Bradley.

who was sensational earlier in the season. I believe he missed a couple of months with a strained pectoral injury, was very, very good initially, and is sort of cooled off lately. He has a 3.49 ERA. So from a starting pitching standpoint, not really easy at all for the Diamondbacks, but again, this raised team, they traded off a whole bunch of pieces at the deadline. There's no more Randy Rosarena. They traded off some bullpen pieces as well,

Esoc Prades as well. So the debaks are fortunate to be playing the raise now as opposed to two and a half weeks ago when all those pieces were still here. Well, we will have game one tomorrow. We will bring you our post game show after that. So make sure to join us back here. And in the meantime, we hope you guys have yourselves a wonderful evening. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K.

Of course, Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Today we had Shane Dief on the ones and twos. And his mariners are his mariners. I told you I'd bring it up one more time. But of course, you can make sure to follow our show at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And like I said, come back here tomorrow night for our postgame show. Until then, hope you guys have a wonderful evening.

Behave yourselves and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When the Dodgers lose baseball games, let's go.