PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Zac Gallen start for the National League in the 2023 MLB All-Star Game in Seattle?

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

Zac Gallen is a clear All-Star, but does he deserve to start the game over likes of Clayton Kershaw and Marcus Stroman? Plus, Diamondbacks star rookie Corbin Carroll is making history by earning a starting spot in the All-Star Game at such a young age. We also discuss who SHOULD be starting in the All-Star Game around the league, our latest MLB power rankings, the Diamondbacks' reported decision to recall outfielder Dominic Fletcher and much more.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Swing for the Fences: https://promo.betmgm.com/en/promo/sports/swing-for-the-fences 3-Ball Challenge: https://promo.betmgm.com/en/promo/3ballchallengePlace your first bet offer and receive up to $1000 back in Bonus Bets if it loses with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER CO, DC, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY) Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA) 21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Kansas, Nevada, New York, or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Teabacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your former mayor of this place. I'm still sad about that. This guy is your vice mayor. It's also your thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, at least you have the Father's Day shirt on. I have the Father's Day shirt. I'm very much enjoying this Father's Day shirt.

And you know what, just because I'm feeling kind of nice, I might have an extra one for one of you out there as well. So stay tuned to how you can win that shirt. But did we mention that Corbyn Carroll is an NL All-Star starter in Seattle, the town where he grew up? I'm not sure if you've heard that before. But my God, this is an exciting time to be an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and an exciting time to be a fan of young Corbyn Carroll. This man is doing things that not a lot of players in their entire career. have done. He is the 10th rookie in National League history to be named an all-star. And he is the second outfielder in D-BACs history to start an all-star game since

Luis Gonzalez. 22 years ago. Bang, bang. Let's go. That was the year that Gonzo hit 57 home runs. I remember that. Did the whole World Series. I was actually alive when that happened.

Yeah. I was also alive there. I know, but I mean, I remember it. I was of drinking age. Well, I wasn't of drinking age, but I was drinking. Anyway, Corby and Carroll just amazing. And of course, we can't get enough of the fact that he is a starter. We know he deserved to be a starter.

But again, it's hard to get that recognition when not only do you play in a market like the Arizona Diamondbacks market, but also when you are such a young player to have the baseball world kind of take notice of you. He didn't win it by close margin. He won it fairly significantly. Yeah, I mean, he probably deserved more votes than Mookie Betts and we're going to get into some of the... That's hard though.

I mean, that's hard, right? Mookie Betts has a lot of name credit. He does and he's been around for years. So people know him. Not only do they know him, but he's been consistently a good player for years. I felt like Corby and Carroll getting close to the amount of votes

that Mookie Betts got. I get what you're saying. Numbers wise, Corby and Carol deserves to be the starter above. Maybe, you know, probably only second to Ronald Acuna Jr. But this is fun still. And he is the eighth all-star starter in D-BACs history.

He is the eighth. So the other ones, I don't know, do you want to try to name them? Or should we just be boring? And I'll just read them. I mean, I imagine Paul Goldschmidt. Paul Goldschmidt, that's one. I imagine Randy Johnson. That's two.

Kurt Schilling. Three. Gonzo. Four. Justin Upton? No. Whoa. No.

Never started. Wasn't All-Star. Didn't start. Brandon Webb? Brandon Webb. No, didn't start an All-Star game. Cattell Marte started one, right? He was the Diamondbacks only player that year.

So, what was that? Five? Where are the other ones? So we have Matt Williams in 1999. We have Jay Bell in 1999. One of the best hitters I've ever seen. That would be, yeah, I don't know if I would have remembered that one. And I think we have everyone, right?

William Schilling, Marte, Gonzo, Bell, Johnson, Goldsmith, Carol. There's your eight. Wow. That's a pretty elite list when you talk about Arizona Diamondbacks history. And again, surprising. Justin Upton, never a starter there. But Corby and Carol, again, absolutely a starter and deserves to be.

He's doing some crazy things this year. And honestly, our entire world almost fell apart yesterday when we thought he might be injured. But things look like they are fine. Corbyn Carroll is fine. And he will be able to make that all-star start. Yeah, and we are still waiting on some news. Some of you might have seen the report from Robert Murray that the diamondbacks are calling up Dominic Fletcher. But we don't yet have a corresponding move for that.

So the D-backs are bringing up Fletcher as far as we know. We don't know. You know who the corresponding move is, you guys. I don't know if anyone knows what the corresponding move is. You don't think it's going to be paving? I think people want it to be paving. I don't know. If we got a vote going, it would be a landslide.

I'm still leaning toward. Damon is very doubtful. It's pavement. Pave and Smith. Remember, after the apocalypse, it's just going to be Pavin Smith on the Arizona. Diamondbacks and cockroaches left. I'm still leaning toward Brandon Fott being sent down after his start.

Yesterday, and the D-back skipping him the next time, or skipping that spot in the rotation the next time through, and then going with a bullpen game sometime around July 8th, heading into the All-Star break. You don't think they're going to get fought another opportunity. I would lean. toward no at this point, but I don't know. That's not from an inside source. That is just my

my personal speculation at this point. Yes, we try to make it clear when we're speculating around here. I don't think they'll send down a reliever. That's the move that would surprise me because the Diamondbacks just got seven innings from their bullpen yesterday. Correct. And that feels like a weird time to be going with a seven-man bullpen instead of an eight-man bullpen. So I'd be pretty surprised if they went that direction. Well, in regards to the All-Star game, we now know what Corbyn Carroll is going to be dressed in when it comes to him making his start in Seattle. Here are what the All-Star Game jerseys are going to look like. We still, we have no confirmation 100% that these aren't some sort of practice jersey or whatever.

And the reason why I say that is these are very Seattle Mariners, colors. I don't know what you're talking about, Derek. There's a damn, there's a compass. There's a compass for the age, Jesse. This is wild. But I kind of do love it. I love the idea of the jersey and the colors and the everything they do with the imagery being related to the, you know, the stadium and the team that they're playing at. But it's vastly different from what we saw in Los Angeles last year.

In Los Angeles, we saw very much a neutral colored jersey. All of the jerseys looked at. They had the team name of the player across the front. And the National League was like white with gold and the American League was black. with gold. Very classy looking. I really liked last years. And I don't,

I don't hate these, but man, these are very much Mariners colors. Yeah, the way that Major League baseball described it, they,

like, released an article after the jerseys were unveiled. And they say the 2023 jerseys feature a print that blends elements

of Seattle's neighboring ocean, forest, topography, and the movement of air. So that's how they're, so they're kind of viewing this not as having

anything to do with the Mariners, but just like, the general. That is a wild. But I guess the Mariners' colors are also sort of based on those things. It's in the Northwest. So we have a compass. It's got to have a compass attached to it.

But no, I mean, I don't know. I don't hate those jerseys at all. I kind of like it. It's just, like I said, it's quite different from what we saw in Los Angeles last year. Those L.A. jerseys were pretty sick. Those were sick, man. Gold is just an underappreciated, underused color on uniform. Yeah.

And I mean, not yellow, but gold. But gold, specifically, because they can make some awesome gold. I told you about how I kind of fell in love with the mariner. sparkly silver that they had in their numbers during spring training because you really do like the sparkles. Oh, the sparkles are beautiful, man. And the Diamondbacks have sand as one of their colors and they're not using sparkly sand beige. Like, what are we doing here?

Add a little gold in there. It'll look great. Find you someone who looks at you the way that Derek looks at a glittery jersey. He's not wrong. He loves the sparkliness. He's not wrong. Jesse, what other Diamondbacks players deserve to be? be joining Corbyn Carroll in the All-Star game. And we did clarify this because I know this has

been asked of us. But Lordus Gurriel Jr., unfortunately, does not have any different chances of making it in. I know that some people have asked if he's now a reserve because he didn't get voted in as a starter. That's not the case. At this point, Gurriel just basically goes back into the pool with all of the other players to be decided by his fellow players as well as the commissioner's office. Yeah, it's interesting, man. I don't, I don't think Gurriel does. He deserves it, frankly. He did a home run yesterday, which was good to see. You're going to say that in front of my hair. You're going to say, I'm going to make my hair out so you talk to say bad things about Lourdes in front of my hair.

Say it right to your hair. Say it to my hair. Yeah, Lordus Gureel does not deserve to be an all-star. And I'm sorry for whatever ramifications that I'll have for your, you know, taking care of your hair and whatnot. Who does that? Yeah, outside of, outside of Gurriel, I think, who doesn't deserve it. Can tell him, God, we got it, Jesse. You don't think he deserves it.

Leave the man along. I think Cotel Marte at second base. I think he just kind of has to be in at this point. Luis Arias was named the starter. And I think he very much deserves that. We're going to get later in the show into some guys who were named starters and maybe didn't deserve it. But I think Louisa Rias is one decision that fans absolutely got correct.

Cotel Marte should be the backup at second base. Really no question in my mind at this point with the season that he's having. Look at his OPS. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just under 900, which, I mean, yeah, if you compare that with other second basement around the league, a few guys who have had nice seasons, but it's really far and away right up there with, with Luis Reyes. Heraldo Pardomo, I think, should probably be an all-star, which is a little, is a little bit,

a little bit crazy to say that coming into, you know, with where we were with Heraldo Prudomo coming into the season and where we're at now, but I think he deserves it. I saw somebody's tweet that went viral yesterday because he said the fan voting should be abolished. And he basically had a screenshot of Orlando Arcea's numbers. And yeah, it got like 4,000 likes or something like that. If you compare Arcia, who has had a really good season with the Braves with Geraldo Pardomo, Perdomo basically just beats him in everything. All of the like slash line numbers, his wins above replacement number is higher as well.

So, yeah, I think you could make a case that Prodomo should be starting at shortstop in the National League. That's not going to happen, but I do think he should be in there as a reserve. I still think Merrill Kelly has a shot, although it's right on the edge. We're going to talk about Zach Gallen later in the show and where he stands and all of this. But yeah, Merrill Kelly right now is kind of right on the edge. Obviously, at this point, it doesn't look like he would be able to pitch in the game. So what you kind of have to hope for is that he would be selected. and be replaced by someone else who would get that opportunity.

I think he has a decent shot to do that. The other guy we should mention is Christian Walker, who at this point is really right up there with Paul Goldschmidt as what I view to be the second best first baseman in the nationally. That one could kind of go either way. Those guys are really close in their numbers at this point. So a little bit hard to say, I guess if they wind up with three first basemen in the National League, which I don't think normally happens,

but if they were able to fit three, Freeman, Goldie, and Christian Walker, are all deserving. Christian Walker just doesn't really get the credit he deserves defensively, especially, but he's just such a well-rounded player that I feel like he, that's something that needs to be taken into consideration when looking at his numbers. I think he still leads all first baseman and outs above average. And he just continues to rake. And he's got a killer theme song.

I don't know if you guys heard it, but it's based on the Walker, Wopper commercial. Yeah, yeah, Burger King or something rather. Yeah. Merrill Kelly with the injury. I mean, maybe Merrill does deserve it, but at this point, Merrill is probably not going to play in the All-Star game, even if he did get voted in.

It would be pretty wild for the D-BACs to like put Merrill in the All-Star game before he's pitched in like any other game. We were saying that about Corbyn, because they could have put maybe potentially put Corbyn on the 15-day IL and then his first start off the IL. They still could put him in bubble wrap and put him in

a ice chest until eventually that All-Star game comes around because we need him to start in Seattle. Goldie against Walker real quick. Goldie's at 285-374-489. Walker's at 281-345-5-29. So you're getting more slug with Christian Walker, but you're getting more on base with Goldie. The overall OPS for Walker is just a few points higher.

So it's really close. You're also getting better defense out of Walker. This is true. He's the best defensive first baseman in Major League Baseball. But the one person who absolutely should be starting in the All-Star game is Zach Gowan, because the milkman delivers and the milkman deserves to start in the All-Star game. There is some questions about who else could potentially start, and we actually have some numbers to show you exactly how Zach Gowan stacks up against the best pitchers in the National League. But I think you'll see for yourself that Zach Gowlin does have a case for being the starter. Yeah, absolutely has a case.

before we get into some of the comparisons, we'll just start with Gowin's number. So he on the season is 10 and 2 with a 3.02 ERA, a 109 whip. He has 22 walks, 108 strikeouts, and he leads the National League and Fangraphs wins above replacement.

A lot of that is because his FIPP is extremely low, and he just has really, really good peripherals to go with those numbers. Obviously, his last start didn't really do him any favors. He wasn't great in that game. That definitely hurt his case a little bit. But at this point, I think it's a conversation between Gallen and three other guys. Those guys from me, Derek, are Clayton Kirshaw, Bryce Elder, and Marcus Schroman.

Now, Clayton Kirshah recently was injured, correct? Clayton Kirshah, yeah, I believe he left his last start against the Rockies early due to some, he said his shoulder felt cranky, which I don't really know what that means. I get that. Yeah, I guess you, yeah, Derek obviously knows what the cranky shoulders is cranky almost every single day, so that's a great way to put it. But chances are they're not, especially with their issues with starting pitchers being injured, they're probably going to be precocious with maybe not, maybe talking him out of that, even if he does kind of get that nod.

Yeah, it sounds like they just don't know at this point. They're saying that, you know, I think he got like a cortisone shot or something, and they're hoping the inflammation will go down and he'll be able to make his next start, maybe just like a couple days late. But they also, both Clayton Kershaw and Dave Roberts, have not ruled out the point. possibility that they should just put him on the guy on and get him back after the all-star break. As you said, they've had a number of pitching injuries this year. They can't risk that if they're seriously trying to continue to compete in the NL.

But here's how Clayton Kershaw and Zach Allen's numbers stack up. This is the guy, Derek, where I think if Kershaw is healthy, I think there's a pretty decent chance that Clayton Kershaw should start this game. As you see here on your screen, Kershaw 10 and 4 with a 2-5-5-5-e. ERA, a 105 whip. He has 24 walks and 105 strikeouts compared to Gowlands, 22 walks and 108 strikeouts, really similar across the board. But a 2.55 ERA, you know, that's about half a run lower than Gowens. Both of these guys have really excellent peripherals. If Clayton Kershaw is healthy, I don't think it would be unreasonable for him to start over Zach Gowlin.

However, like we said, there's a good chance that he's not. And even if he's healthy, they still just might be precaution with him. Similar to the way the Diamondbacks might have I've had to hold Corbyn Carroll out if his injury to his shoulder was more substantial, right? But there are two other options that they could go with guys that have some pretty damn good numbers this year. But maybe not, I don't know, maybe lacking in a couple of areas. I know Bryce Elder is somebody that not a lot of people are familiar with. And he doesn't quite have the number of wins that Zach Allen has, but his numbers have been pretty good this season. Yeah, I mean, pitching for the Braves, you know, that definitely helps on the wins front.

He only has one loss. him. He only has six wins. But yeah, for the ERA junkies out there, I mean, a 2.44 ERA. He has one fewer start than Gowan, but they're pretty neck and neck in terms of innings per start. The peripherals here are pretty different, though. Elder has a one-one-three whip compared to Gowlands 109, 28 walks, and 79 strikeouts compared to gallons, 22 walks, and 108 strikeouts.

So my guess is that, you know, even if you wanted to make a case that Elders numbers were better than gallons overall, which like I guess the ERA clearly would make that case. The combination of Elders peripheral is not being great and the fact that just like nobody knows who Bryce Elder is frankly, right? I mean, he's never heard of this man before in my life. He's this 24 year old right now who just kind of came out of nowhere this year and he's had an outstanding season for the Braves. But if you just kind of look at the history of the All-Star game and who the types of pitchers

who tend to start in this game, typically you're going with guys who have. have really good numbers in the first half. And also guys who have some sort of established major league career, right? It's not that hard to have a few good months in the big lease, sort of at the beginning of your career. So I would be pretty surprised if Bryce Elder got it, even if the numbers would make a case for that. And the last candidate is a future Arizona Diamondback himself.

So he's going to be part of our starting rotation. So if he starts, it's still not the worst thing. but Marcus Stroman from the Chicago Cubs. 2470 R.A compared to Gallin 302. He could be the new hottest local man, hottest, you know, local sexy symbol there if he comes to Arizona. But yeah, no, I mean, the Chicago Cubs have had quite the one-two combination with him being the one there.

And he has been extremely good for them for kind of a mediocre team. Yeah. They don't deserve him. Right, right. No, of course not. Yeah, I mean, Justin Steele's been really good for them too. He missed a couple starts, so I don't think he has a super realistic shot. But yeah, Stroman, the fact that he's healthy and the fact that, you know, he has an established track record in the big leagues.

He's not normally the best pitcher in his league. This is definitely a new level that Marcus Stroman has reached this year. His peripherals do not hold up with a 2.470. As you can see here is 35 walks and 85 strikes. I believe his FIP is somewhere in the mid-3s. Pretty much all of the other ERA indicators are somewhere in the mid-threes. But Marcus Strowman, the last few years, has kind of had this uncanny way of outperforming what all of those other metrics would say.

He has like a 60% ground ball rate, which is really incredible. I think if Kershaw is not healthy, if Kershaw is not willing to pitch in this game for whatever reason, I think it probably comes down to Gowan and Stroman. it's pretty close Derek. I think it could kind of go either way. The peripherals say it should be Zach Gallen, the surface level numbers say it should maybe be Marcus Stroman but it really could go either way

between these two. And Stroman might get the edge there based on just the fact he plays for the Cubs, right? I mean, I hate to say that, but sometimes the bigger market pitcher, the bigger name, might get that respect. But Zach Gallen has

been perceived by many analysts in baseball as one of the best pitchers in in baseball. So I don't feel like it's going to be a lack of, of, you know, knowing about them, especially considering that this vote falls on the coaches and the players in the front office or the commissioner's office, right? So it's going to be interesting. And I think, honestly, Zach Gallen has a really good chance to be there when all of a sudden done. But it would really help his case to just kind of put an exclamation point on his first half over these next couple starts. He could kind of just bounce back from, from, you know, the six innings, four runs that he was

last time out against the race. I think that would, that would really help. So yeah, I mean, it really could come down to the wire here in terms of just how these two pictures trend in their last couple starts. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, there's recency bias there. So of course, you know, in his last start, that gallon was not very good there for one single inning. So hopefully he can get things back on track. The Diamondbacks are calling up, like we said earlier, outfielder Dominic Fletcher. We still don't know that corresponding move, they might be calling up the wrong Dominic. I'm not sure. We've, we've kind of been wondering when we would see Dominic Canzone. But that's fine because Dominic Fletcher will get a chance to face off against his brother, David Fletcher, this weekend against the

Angels. So that's going to be fun. Yeah, yeah, David Fletcher was in the minors for the Angels not that long ago. He just got brought back up, I believe, a few weeks ago. So yeah, very wholesome, right? Dominic and brother on brother violence. Yeah, brother on brother violence. They played in the World Baseball Classic together as well. And when Fletch was up with the D-BACs earlier in the season, we talked to him about his relationship with his brother and what kind of conversations they were having

and Dominic's first few days in the big league. So I'm sure I don't think that had anything to do with this decision that there was that kind of fun story this weekend with the D-Backs in Anaheim. But it doesn't hurt, right? No. It is kind of a cool setup. that Dominic, it appears, we'll get that opportunity. But did they possibly, I said it jokingly, but did they possibly call up the wrong Dominic

with the way that Canzone has been playing? Was it maybe a time to give Dominic Canzone an opportunity at a major league level? It's tough, man. I mean, if you just look strictly at their offensive numbers, then yeah, Canzone has better offensive numbers this year in Reno than Dominic Fletcher does. I do think defense is kind of an important factor here as well, with Corbyn-Carrill, potentially being down for a few days. We kind of feel like that's sort of the impetus for this move.

You kind of want someone who can play a decent outfield, right? You don't want Gurriel and Pavin Smith, you know, playing a bunch of corner outfield here in the next few days. Obviously, you know, you still have Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy there as well. But, but yeah, I mean, Dominic Canzone isn't on the 40-man roster. Dominic Fletcher is. The debacks have kind of done this thing for a while where it feels like there, you know, You know, there's one guy who just kind of gets the opportunity before the next guy.

And once they move past that first option, then that's where they would get to the next option. And unfortunately, this organization just has so many left-handed hitting outfielders that Dominic Canzone probably did deserve an opportunity by now. But I don't think he's, I don't think he's going to get it. Hopefully we see him later this year. Well, we will have more minor league highlights for you. We're bringing back the diamond mine. We'll have it this weekend. We'll have some great highlights from all of the minor league teams this weekend or this week,

including Josh Rojas finally hitting his home run. Unfortunately, Josh Roas has not been doing so well at the plate. Otherwise, I think he's hitting 190 for the Reno Aces. And just really struggling where when you look at the rest of the Aces lineup, there's barely anybody hitting below 300. So it's kind of bonkers by comparison. But hopefully Rojas can get back on track down there or up there. Where are we?

Up there in Reno? I don't know, wherever they're at. I guess up there, I mean, it's higher elevation, and it's like geographically north of Phoenix. Okay, yeah, up there is going to work. We're doing up there. But anyway, we thank you guys for being here

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takeover events. Check out the events page in our show notes to find dates and tickets and you can follow them at Four Peaks brew or go to 4Peaks.com slash events to stay up to date on everything for peaks. Major League Baseball announced the All-Star starters yesterday evening, but we all know

that the fan voting process sucks. And so who really should be in the All-Star game? is the question. And of course, Jesse has a great breakdown, both of the National League and the American League, as to who are the starters and who should be the starters. Yeah, so we'll start in the National League. We're going to start by just looking at who was actually chosen. So what do you think of the outfield? Let's start with the outfield first. Did the people get it right in the outfield? So we have Corbyn, Carol, Ronald Okunia Jr. and Mukie Betts. Those

are the three. I'm going to say they got two out of three right on this one. All right. I think Acuna and Corbyn Carol, those are the clear cut guys who should be at the top there. You have bets biased. You're against Moogie Betts. I am not against Moogie Betts. I am not at all against Muky Betts. But I think if you compare Muky Bet's numbers to, frankly, one of two players, Juan Soto or Fernando Tatis of the San Diego Padres, I think I would go in that direction.

My personal pick here is Juan Soto, just given the fact that Fernando Tatis missed the first few weeks of the season due to his suspension. Obviously, that's not helping your team much. Absolutely. So that kind of swung things in Soto's favor in my book. But yeah, I mean, if you look at their offensive numbers, Mookie Betts versus Juan Soto, there's frankly just no comparison at this point. Mookie is a significantly better defender.

I will say that. But overall, I think Soto's been the better player this year. Infield, we got Freddie Freeman at first base. I had a hard time seeing anybody better than Freddie Freeman over there at first base myself. Yeah. And then Louisa Rise. I don't. Again, Luisarise is a player that's absolutely been on fire this season.

And like we said, second base, that's a fair, a fair all-star starter. Yeah, I think they got the right side of the infield right here. Freddie Freeman and Luisarise, there's just no, there's no arguing. But then there's the left side. Then there's the left side of the infarter. field in the National League. So they have Orlando R.C. at shortstop and Nolan Aeronado at third base. We already touched on shortstop a little bit.

I do feel a little crazy for saying this, Derek. I think some people might, you know, might accuse me of like, oh, you're the guy who covers the D-backs, of course. But you all know, all of you that watch this show knows that Jesse Friedman is the most irrational Homer fan that you've ever met. Correct. In your life. So go ahead.

Give it to him, Jesse. Heraldo Ferdomo in my book should be the starting shortstop. in the National League. And like I said earlier, if you compare RCA with Pardomo on pretty much every stat, I think RCA might have a slightly higher batting average, although RCA's had a really rough couple weeks at the plate. Those numbers are probably pretty similar at this point. But Pardomo is a much higher on base percentage.

He has a higher selling percentage. He has more war. Perdomo maybe not quite the defender that Rcia is, but certainly holds his own on that side of the ball. I just think that, you know, if you're okay having your starting shortstop only have, you know, about 200-ish at bats or so, which is what both Arcia and Perdomo have at this point, then I think Perdomo is the choice. Danesby Swanson's the other guy that I think is a candidate here for people who are super averse to, you know, starting a player who hasn't played in, you know, pretty much all of their team's games. I guess you could go with Swanson, but he wasn't even up there on the voting, to be honest. No, it was, I mean, the phase two, the finalists were Francisco Lendor and Orlando Arcia, and Lendor did not deserve to be in that, in that group, in my opinion.

So you're saying that the vote is a popularity contest? Um, I mean, sort of. There are, there's also an, I mean, I wouldn't say Orlando Arcia is like, oh, everyone, everyone knows Orlando Arcea. There's organized fan bases that really support their team. And to be honest, there's a lot of the rest of us that we talked about this. Like, do you go in and fill out your all-star ballot and just automatically make it all Arizona Diamondbacks players? Or are you fair? Do you give it to other guys? I mean, in phase one, I completely understand Diamondbacks fans just going through the list and finding their players and giving credit where credit is due. Sure.

I did that in the national, if I'm being honest, I did that in the National League for probably 75% of my National League ballot. But then there were other positions where I just felt there were other people more deserving of it and had a hard time not giving them my vote. You know, and honestly, as much as I want to give it to Diamondbacks players, I also want to see players across Major League Baseball that deserve it, get that credit and get in. Let's take a look at the American League starters and give, wait, do we finish up on the national? There are a couple, a couple more. Let's go back to the National League. I think they nailed Sean Murphy behind the plate.

That's fine. Third base, though. Third base. Yeah, Nolan Aeronado has just not been himself this year, frankly. And I just don't think that Nolan Aeronado really deserves that opportunity. other guys that I think there's multiple guys that you could put in front of Aeronado in this race. But I think J.D. Davis should probably start from the San Francisco Giants, which again, coming into the year, I don't think anyone would have expected that J.D. Davis would be starting in the All-Star game over Aeronado and Machado. But, yeah, I mean, offensively, J.D. Davis has clearly had a better season than Aeronado. He is not at all. The defender at third base that Aeronado is. But if you look at wins above replacement numbers, things.

that take that into account. They still have Davis as a more valuable third baseman this year. The other thing here is DH with J.D. Martinez being the choice there. I have Jorge Soler of the Miami Marlins slightly edging out J.D. Martinez, even though Martinez has had a good year in his own right. Yeah, I agree with both of those, I think. And I agree with Sean Murphy behind the plate, that's for sure. What do we got now for the American League, Damon?

All right. Aaron Judge. Yeah, probably not. He's only played, I believe it's 49 games on the season. And, I mean, you know, that's about 60% of the year. He hasn't played in about a month. So I don't think Aaron Judge should be like a viable option, frankly. And so I- Shouldn't even be allowed in there.

There are other, like, if it was a really weak field, then it would be like, all right, sure. I mean, maybe Aaron Judge is more valuable in those 49 games than other guys have been in the entire first half. I mean, I guess that could have some merit. But Luis Robert really having an incredible year with the Chicago White Sox. I think he absolutely deserves to be in there. Yordon Alvarez, I also have, although he has missed some time.

I think it's a small enough period that he's missed that I think he deserves to be in there. And then Randy or Rosarena, I do have in mind. So I would replace Trout and Judge with Robert and Yordon Alvarez. How dare you? Trout can never be removed from the All-Star game. Do you know that? That's how Major League Baseball works. Jesse. Mike Trout has to be in the All-Star game. What else we got for the infield?

So the infield, I think the right side of the infield, again, apparently. Correct. And is really good with the right side of the infield. Yanni Diaz at first base, Marcus Semyon at second base. There's limited options sometimes. And when you really look at the difference between the best first baseman in the league and the rest of the pack, it's, there's quite a gap. Yeah, Diaz is clearly the choice there. And Marcus Semyon, according to fan graphs, I mean, Marcus Semyon's at 3.2 war and the next highest second baseman in the American League is Brandon Drury.

Old friend, Brandon Drury down at 1.8. So, Semion is almost doubled up the next highest guy in Windsor replacement. So they got that right. But Derek, once again, we go to the left side and that's where we maybe encounter some problems. Corey Seeger is the choice here at shortstop. Corey Seeger is tough because he is sort of an Aaron Judge kind of a case where he has not played in that many games.

I believe it's somewhere in the 40s. But he's been so good in those games that you could maybe make a case. He's deserving of that opportunity. I have Bo Bichet. That's my choice. I agree with Boba Chet. I also have Jose Ramirez at third base, and there's no question there. Jose Ramirez should absolutely be starting over Josh Young,

even though he's had a good season. Jonah Heim and Shoah O'Hautani, those I think they got. Shohei Otani should also start on the mound. He should DH and he should start. And that's how it should be. And then he should remain in it is DH for the entire game. Don't remove him. There you go.

And that's, yeah, I think I concur. Like, look, I mean, I know going purely based on the number sometimes seems a little bit, I mean, whatever. But that's the way we can create new stars, right? And sometimes the only way that the world gets to see these young guys is on a stage like the All-Star game. It's why it's important to try to vote for the guys that deserve it the most, right? But we have some other judging to do. We're not just done judging players. We're going to judge whole teams and franchises

because here's our MLB power rankings for this week. And we have a new number one, Jesse. We finally have a new number one. First time in doing these power rankings that we have a move up at the top. The Atlanta Braves just like don't lose anymore. They don't. Apparently.

I know the raise just took two out of three from the Diamondbacks. But yeah, the Atlanta Braves. They didn't look great in that two out of three. Let's be honest. We watched it. They probably should have lost two out of three instead of winning two out of three but that's how baseball works so i'm not going to

try to make that case any longer but the braves have been incredible yeah they absolutely have they're nine and one in their last 10 it won five in a row they're on an absolute tear uh for the people joining us on audio i'll just do a quick rundown and we can highlight a couple things uh so we have the braves one raised two rangers three orioles four diamond back still at number five which i think they've been there for like four weeks at this point uh and then the marlin sliding out to number six huge move astro seven dodgers eight giants nine and then the phillies wow making their first appearance at number 10 why the big jump for the marlins from 10th to sixth because the marlins Derek are 48 and 34 at this point the diamond backs are also 48 and 34 the marlins are on an absolute tear right now

they've won five games in a row their starting rotation is really proving to be a force to be reckoned with and they've got some hitters. I mentioned Jorge Solair, who I think should be the starting DH in the National League. And they've had some other guys step up as well in that offense. Of course, Louisa Rye is being the primary guy there. I'm glad the Braves are doing so well because I don't know if we can live in a world where two Florida teams top their division, you know.

Yeah, that just doesn't feel right. That's not something that sits right with me at all. I don't like that one bit. But the Arizona Diamondbacks, I think that's fair for them to still be where they're, at, but they are in danger of dropping down in those power rankings, I feel like. And they really need a solid finish here up until the All-Star break. And it's not going to be easy, but hopefully they can take advantage of a Pirates team that had no problem beating up

on the San Francisco Giants, as well as some other tough tests before we get to the All-Star break. But make sure that if you have any tough tests in your life, you're fueled up at Circle K, which is the best place for you to get your coffee, your beard snack selection, and premium gas. Don't sleep on the circle K snacks. And again, do your best to free Tiny Derek from his prison inside of the gas station pump. But get your cheap gas there. Get your polar pops, which stay cold longer there. Get your ice coffee for just $1.89. Monsters and Red Bull. Get Red Bull 3 for $8. Monster $3 for $6. $12. 12 packs of beer for $9.99 and so much more. Make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff. Right now, text PHNX to 31310 to join their SMS subscriber club and get a buy one, get one free

offer on 32 ounce polar pops, head to circlek.com slash door dash locator to find CircleKs near you. And while you're there, grab some Four Peaks beer. They have a wonderful variety of Four Peaks beer at Circle K. You can also head over to Forteachers.org today to nominate a teacher and to give them the credit that they deserve. Kids are back at home for the summer, but not for long. They're going to go back to school here before we know it. And Four Peaks is donating school supplies to teachers around the valley. They are also giving out. some wonderful prizes, including $11,000, $1,000 cash grants. And one lucky teacher will win a Teachers lounge, renovation provided by Four Peaks.

To thank a teacher, go to Four Peaks for Teachers.org and complete the form to enter the chance to win. Nominations are due today. So do not wait, do not hesitate. Go right now to For Peaks for Teachers.org and complete the form. And of course, Teacher Tuesdays are back at the 8th Street Pub. Every Tuesday through July, bring a valid teacher ID, and you will receive $4 pints of KiltLifter. Wow. Hasey and Hopnott.

a parent of a child that just completed elementary school. Thank you. Thank you sincerely for all that you do for us, for our kids and everything. So again, 4Peaks for Teachers.org to nominate, check out at 4Peaks Brewer, 4Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery, must be 21 or older to enjoy 4 Peaks and please enjoy responsibly. The Arizona Diamondbacks Backs play the Angels tonight. They are in Hanaheim. I'm hoping they're there. The game is exclusively on Apple TV Plus. It is. Is that what it's called?

Is it Apple TV Plus Max or no, just Apple TV Plus? Yeah, it's the Apple TV 11 Pro Max plus. There we go. There we go. But, I mean, of course, it's another Apple TV Plus game, which we know some people are not in favor of and some people don't mind so much because it is kind of an interesting, different take from our normal Valley Sports broadcast. But how do fans feel about it?

Let's take a look at our poll that we had. a screenshot of the vote. And people dislike it. Yeah. People do not like it. It was really interesting. So yeah, we have 18.7%

saying they like it, 59% saying you dislike it, and then 22.2% saying they are indifferent. I don't like that 22.2%. You're indifferent. Make a decision. Hop on, buddy.

You either like it or you don't like it. This is not an indifferent thing. I don't like that. You should have had to pick one or the other. I'm sure it's still would have. have been a landslide in the in the direction of dislike it but uh yeah what what i don't i don't know what is it to be disliked is it the i think the broadcasting is probably a big part of the reason why people dislike it um if you are here in the chat and you dislike it let us know how you feel

about it because i'm just curious i know that a big part of it like the broadcasters at times have completely sounded like they have no clue who this team is that they've never seen them before and maybe we just get very used to the familiarity of our broadcasters knowing this team the way they do. Yeah, I think that's definitely part of it. I know that Apple TV Plus is, you know, they brought in kind of some of their own people to do their broadcast. It's definitely a different field than what you get, you know, with Steve and Bob. But yeah, I was amazed at how many people commented on this and said, finally, I get to watch a Diamondbacks game. Yeah.

There are a lot of people out there. Apparently, at least that was. or, you know, that voice their opinions on Twitter who said, like, I don't, I'm not paying for whatever streaming service it would take in order to be able to watch Valley Sports. But I do have Apple TV Plus or I'm going to go get the free trial or whatever. And now I can actually watch a game. On the flip side, I think the people who don't like it, they don't like the fact that it is an exclusive, that if you have Valley Sports, Arizona, if you're already paying the premium

for cable or for a streaming service, that you just have. this game like taken away from you right and in that sense you could make a case that the apple tv plus broadcast isn't good for baseball in a sense right because it's it's not helping people get to these games it's keeping people uh get to these games more than it's more than it's helping them but you also understand like from apple standpoint they want it to be exclusive like they want people to be getting apple tv plus just so that they can watch this game so there's a lot of factors here it's the same concept as to like why people have said the streaming services like Apple and their shows are so short. Sometimes they only do like 10 episode runs.

Sometimes the episode is only 32 minutes. It's like they just need you to subscribe. It doesn't matter how long it is. It doesn't matter how many episodes of the show they give you. But if you want to watch that show, you have to subscribe. So they don't have to work very hard on their end. It's not like the old days where a network television show becomes popular. And then it has 25 episodes so that they,

They can get more advertising revenue from sponsors and partners. This is different. This is a subscription-based model where they're not, they can make the show 17 minutes long if they wanted to. And you're still going to subscribe to watch it if you want to see that show. Same thing with this. If they know that you're a baseball fan and that you're going to maybe subscribe just so you can see those games you're missing, hopefully once you get your foot in the door, you like some of the other offerings that they have as far as, you know, other shows, other sports that they broadcast. and things like that.

I just don't know. I don't know at times if hijacking a team's broadcast is going to make for the best relationship between you and potential fans, right? And that's like you said, that's how some people feel when they are already paying for the package in order to watch games,

but they don't get this one unless they have now a separate streaming service, which, you know, I get it. But hopefully you all get to enjoy the game and hopefully the broadcast is wonderful. Maybe they'll do their research and actually know, who the Diamondbacks players are and things about them.

Here's a start. Christian Walker built all of his furniture in his house. There you go. There you go. Evan Longoria, he's on an all like chicken and rice diet right now and he hates it. But he looks like a tank. He absolutely looks like a tank. Let's take a look at the probabilities for that Angel series.

It starts with the game on Apple Plus TV or Apple TV Plus Max 11 Pro tonight. And of course, those probabilities are. They're coming soon. They're coming. I can maybe say some of them from memory. Oh, there we go. We have Griffin Canning against Tommy Henry tonight, and then we have Tyler Anderson against Ryan Nelson on Saturday.

And then as we talked about yesterday, a fun pitching matchup on Sunday with young Reed Detmerz going up against Zach Gallen. I really feel for Reed Detmerz being one in five with his good. Was it 3.770? All right. As good as he's pitched this year. And Tyler and Tyler Anderson's 4 and 2, Griffin canning 6 and 2. Yeah.

I guess if you play for the angels To step up when Detmer's is out there But not this Sunday The offense can suck this Sunday as well Because we need Zach Gallen Have a good showing And make that final push for the All-Star game Uh

Zach Gallen would have one more start after this Prior to the All-Star game, is that correct? Yeah, yeah, he would definitely have one more start Um Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out here The Angels were on a bit of a run Now they've kind of hit a rut I think they've lost two games in a row

lost six of their last 10. So maybe the debacks are sort of catching them at a good time. And we know, as we talked about earlier, that the Angels have not third well against lefties this year. They're 8 and 14 on the season against left-handed pitching. And Tommy Henry is that. So we'll see if that decision that the diamondbacks made to push Tommy Henry to start in this series and have Brandon Fott go against the raise.

We'll see if obviously the first part of that did not pan out with Brandon Fodd starting yesterday, but maybe they get a good outing tonight from Tommy Henry. In regards to some of the comments in the chat, we have some good comments why people do and don't like it. Nicholas said just having to subscribe to something else just to watch one single game. Hoping I got a free trial available, though. And then above that, I can't see who that is, but it says, I honestly don't like when some, Ernesto says, I honestly don't like it because some people don't have Apple TV

Plus and can't watch it without an Apple device. I know Apple TV Plus isn't available everywhere like most streaming services are, which is fairly short-sighted on Apple TV Plus's side. But yeah, I mean, I get it. The lack of availability, and again,

especially if you already get the games and now you have to find some other way to watch it, it sucks. Also, it's Friday night. You guys have lives. You have better things to do. You can always not watch the game. And that's going to be fine, too. But... It's time for Friday beers, right there. Time for Friday beers.

Yes, we need Friday beers with Tori back up there. Speaking of which, though, a little schedule change next week, we hope you all have a wonderful July 4th. We are going to have a wonderful July 4th because we are not going to have a show that day. We're going to be off on July 4th, but we are going to be bringing you a very special episode of this podcast next Sunday. Jesse will be in Seattle for the All-Star Game. He will also be in Seattle for the MLB draft. So we will be bringing you our draft episode next Sunday.

Sean and I here in the studio locking it down here. Jesse will be in Seattle. We'll bring you the Diamondbacks pick and so much more that day. So make sure to join us for that. We hope you guys have a wonderful weekend, by the way, and you guys enjoy yourselves. Maybe you should take a long weekend too. And if you do, make sure you download the BetMGM app. It's a way for you to have fun with sports on the go wherever you're at this 4th of July holiday. And they had their BetMGM swing for the fences promotion. How do you get this offer? You do it in three easy steps. You log into your BetMGM Sportsbook app on iOS or Android.

You play the BetMGM MLB free to play game until September 7th. Be a batter. Pick an area of the strike zone. And that's it. You'll either single, double, triple, walker, walker, walker, home run, all that kind of stuff. Or you'll pop out and you'll receive a prize associated with that type of hit. You can play once a day and prising must be used on MLB. It does expire in 24 hours. So do not wait.

And you can get all sorts of bonuses on your bets there. If you haven't signed up for the BetMGM app yet, use bonus code PHNX. There's a few different offers depending on. where you live, but for our Arizona audience, place your first bet offer and receive up to $1,000 in bonus bets if it loses with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for full details and now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Disclaimer, 21 plus to wager, visit betmGM.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Nevada, New York, and Ontario. Gambling problem,

call 1,800, 800, Gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Louisiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778, Hope, N.Y, or text Hope, N. 369, New York. Call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona. 1-800-5-2-2-4-7-0-Cansas, Nevada. 1-800-3-2-7-0-0-0-0-1-0-1-7-1-7 for confidential health, Michigan. We did see some people were going to that game in Anaheim. We're very jealous of that. We would like to be there as well. And if you are in the area, I don't want to check out that game or any baseball games the rest of this season.

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That is all we got. Again, we hope you guys are having a long holiday weekend yourselves. Make sure to join us back here on Monday for Mailbag Monday. Well, not me. I'm going to, I'm kicking it out of here. This guy's going to take over for me on Mailbag Monday. But get us your Mailbag Monday question. We haven't had Sean for a whole week. He did not. Man joins the show. He goes to Nashville. Does not start a family. Like went there to start a family. Disappoints us. We wanted grandchildren. Failed? He failed, basically. He failed at his goal.

But we will gladly take him back and we will help him find maybe a family here in Phoenix, Arizona. Until that, you can follow all of us on Twitter. Maybe you can help us find Sean. Sean is looking for a family. Yeah, he's still looking for a family. You need someone to take him in.

Yeah, we'll find, we'll figure it out. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Sean deposed at Sean underscore to pause. That way you can help him find the family. Jesse's at Jesse and Friedman. Damon, the maniac behind the Mac is a Damon dog, D-AWG and you have to bark when you, when you follow him. That's how it goes.

Our shows at PHNX underscore D-Bax. of course all roads lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for joining us. We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you put the right guys into the All-Star game.