PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Win #354

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing the D-backs winning their third series in a row, Torey Lovullo becoming the winningest manager in franchise history, and all the fun from the Los Angeles Angels' no hitter over the Tampa Bay Rays. 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 to another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX, and I am joined by my vice mayor, the one and only Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Derek, the Arizona Diamondbacks are three games over 500 for the first time since 2019. And it is wild given the way this team started. Three years. How good things are going right now.

It's pretty crazy. I don't understand it. You don't understand it. Neither one of us can explain it. But what we do know is that the Diamondbacks have not lost a series since April 24th through April 26th against New York Mets. This is their third series win in a row, including now five out of six from the Miami Marlins. And they are on a role that we didn't even see coming. We said nice things about them. We were cautiously optimistic that they could get out of the kind of, kind of, of hitting rut that they were in and some of the bad luck that they had at the beginning of the season. But now, here we are, Diamondbacks, like you said, three games over 500. And I have no explanation for it. Of course, we'll get into it, though. And this show that we will get into it on is brought to you by the fine folks over at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX. And new customers can get down on the NBA playoff action by betting just $5 on any NBA team.

team to win and you will get $150 in free bets if they do look to turn that small bet into a big payday over at the Draft King's sportsbook. Jesse, this team has been playing some pretty impressive baseball. We had said that at times they were putting things together. We had, I think all season have talked about how good the starting pitching has been, but we've often talked about the other components that are required to make a baseball team competitive, just not all running right at the same time, not all working together. Now they seem to be running on all cylinders. And I think more importantly than anything else,

they believe once again that they can win baseball teams, or games, teams win baseball games against teams. There are teams. There is. There is. Yeah, but no, man, I mean, what are your thoughts so far on what we've seen out of this team? Another impressive win today, a pretty thorough victory over the Miami Marlins. It all starts with Madison Bumgarner.

I mean, he was a little shaky out of the gate, gave up a couple runs in the first inning on a Jorge Soler to run Homer. And after that, he just kind of settled in and looked a lot like he's looked throughout the season. I thought this was one of his better games. He only walked one. He had five strikeouts, six in a third innings, six hits, just two runs allowed. So, yeah, more of the same from Madison Bumgarner, which is fantastic news for this Diamondback team. I mean, when you talk about Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly and Zach Davies and how good those

three have looked this season, Madison Bumgarner has really been right there with them. And this four-headed monster in the Diamondback starting rotation has been very, very impressive to start the season. But another thing that comes out of this game, Derek, is the diamondbacks are no longer a last place baseball team. Colorado Rockies got pounded against the San Francisco Giants today. And that means the diamond backs are for what it's worth. The diamond backs are now in fourth place.

And get this. The diamondbacks are tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the last wild card spot. So for those of you keeping track of the playoff picture, 30 games into the season. There you go. The Diamondbacks are right there right now. If you're not excited, get excited.

That's what we're saying. If you're not excited, get your blood pumping. 30 games in. Yeah, I know. It's a long season. A lot of games still to play. But I think it's exciting to see what they've been doing. And I think it's encouraging that Madison Bumgarner once again gave up runs early,

but was able to bounce back and keep the, the team in the game, right? Keep the Diamondbacks close. In this case, it didn't take long for them to tie it up. All of this action happened in the first inning. But then the Diamondbacks really just kind of put their foot on the pedal and did not stop offensively throughout the game. Had a couple of big innings that really broke things open.

And I mean, looking at the Marlins versus that first series where even when the Diamondbacks were winning, the Marlins were in the game. The Marlins look dejected tonight. They looked lost. They look out of it. And most importantly, they looked like the Diamondbacks looked in the first two weeks of the season. Now the Diamondbacks kind of have a different swagger to them. They have a different level of confidence.

And you can see it all over the field when it comes to this team. I mean, I think the Marlins are just sick and tired of playing the Diamondbacks at that point. I mean, we were sick and tired of playing the Mets, God damn it. We had to play the Mets like a billion times to open up the season. You know, so yeah, no, I know how that feels. But at least, you know, unlike the Marlins, we were able to jab back and hang in with the Mets a little bit better than the Marlins have been able to because, yeah, five out of six losses so far with one more still to go is, has been a pretty rough two series against the Diamondbacks. It's just nice to see the Diamondbacks bully someone and beat them up. You know, it's nice to see this team that, I mean, after last season, people lost all faith in their ability to win baseball games.

You know, zero confidence doesn't even, that's not even good enough to explain the amount of confidence people had. It was a negative confidence level in this team, right? But now what we're looking at is Tori Lovolo, setting the record, the winningest manager in France. franchise history at 354 wins. Here's something I found interesting, Jesse. We think of his tenure being much longer than Kurt Gibson, but Kurt Gibson only had 10 less games so far than LaVolo. LaVolo is at 738, Kurt Gibson, 728.

But obviously, Tori Lavello has an entire season still to go, and we'll probably pad that lead considerably, the way this team is playing right now. Yeah, it's really similar. I guess Kirk Gibson would have been from 2011 to 2015, I want to say. And so Tori Lavello's made it just a little bit farther than Kirk was able to make it. But yeah, I mean, Tori Lavello, we've always known as a guy that players love. There's never going to come a point when the players are asking for Tori Lavello to be removed as manager.

That's just never going to be something that happens. If Tori Lavello ever loses his job as a manager, really with any team in Major League Baseball, it's going to be because, you know, the organization is unhappy with his in-game management, with something relating to, you know, actually putting up wins at the end of the day, right? It's never going to be an issue with his ability to form relationships with players and, you know, get them on his side. That's never an issue. And so now that the Diamondbacks are starting to actually accumulate wins, it feels like,

and we talked about this the other day, it feels like Tori could be here to stay for a while. I mean, I think it's entirely possible that Tori Lavello becomes not just the longest tenured manager in Diamondbacks franchise history, which he already is, and not just the winningest manager in franchise history, which as of today, he already is. But he really could become kind of a mainstay in Arizona. and I think that would be a welcome site for a fan base that's used to seeing the Diamondbacks move on from managers after about four years each. It's been pretty consistent over the life of the franchise,

and I don't necessarily think that's healthy for the team culture. I don't think so, especially when, like you said, he is so beloved by so many of the players. I bring up the fact that Eduardo Escobar, a man who no longer plays for this team, said at one point that he would die for Tori Lavello during a very awkward interview that kind of made the entire room stop for a moment when he said that because he said it with a level of sincerity that every single person that heard him say that believed him, right?

It wasn't a ha ha ha ha, I'd die for that man. You know, it was like, no, I would die for Tori. You know, it was like one of those. And so like that's the way players feel about him. Like you said, in some cases, that's not a great. great thing because sometimes, you know, ownership, the front office might find that, you know, maybe Lavello and the players are too close and maybe that's affecting some of his managing. I will say at one point in his career, he's probably guilty of that.

But I feel like the approach that we've seen him take this year is the right approach. And I think that that's probably helped to kind of. has sift through the talent they have to find the guys that they can rely on to help them win baseball games, right? Yeah. And I think the fresh set of opinions coming in from Joe Mather, Brent Strom, and Jeff Bannister helps as well. You're no longer hearing the same echo chamber of the same people you've been getting feedback from for the past two seasons. Now you're moving on to a very elite high caliber set of coaches that probably have zero reason to sugarcoat things for you or to hold back about their feelings on one guy or another.

And I don't believe that that's part of Brent Strom's DNA in any way, shape, or form, right? But again, in bringing those coaches up, you can't help. But once again, acknowledge their presence and their impact on this. team. The things that we're seeing from this team pitching and hitting, it's not, it's no, it's, it's, it's no, it's, it's, it's no, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, down and brought in these coaches that you and I have been talking about all offseason long, right? We, we, we, we couldn't, we couldn't, we couldn't have asked them personally to go get, as a matter of fact, I think I did and they listened and that's why they brought in

brunch, but like, literally, I mean, we couldn't have asked them to bring in better coaches. as far as the track record for improving teams. And now again, the Joe, Joe Mather thing was funny to me because a lot of people, after that first month, wanted Joe Mather to lose his job. And it's going to be interesting to see how that opinion changes throughout this season as the Diamondbacks still,

you know, have a ways to go to get back on track, but are doing some pretty incredible things, you know, Cotel Marte during his nine-game hitting streak was hitting 406. Yeah. So unfortunately that hitting streak was snap today. It was snap today, two walks and no hits.

But I don't care about things like that. I realized that today. I know we're going to get to there was a no hitter today in baseball. All I could think was the Diamondbacks had two no hitters last season, right? I'm not going to, we're not going to. There's not even. There were two games where no hits. were registered. And then you can't argue that whether or not we call them no hitters or other things.

But the point is, is that during one of their worst seasons in franchise history, they had two no hitters occur. And it doesn't really mean anything, does it? Like Tyler Gilbert isn't part of their rotation right now. And I mean, it has zero impact on how last season went in the grand scheme of things. I wrote in my piece about things to enjoy with this team this year was to enjoy the moment. enjoy things like that. Enjoy that opening day walkoff that we had from Seth Beer, who went on an unfortunate historic drought for this team. Seth Beer hitting going 0 for 35 currently,

which is the longest drought by a non-pitcher in franchise history. So that's unfortunate, right? But that's why I was saying at times you just have to enjoy the moments, right? And enjoy the wins, enjoy that series win against the Dodgers, things like that, because those moments, as far as I was predicting at that time from that article that I wrote, which wasn't long ago, it was like two weeks ago, Jesse, was basically trying to say, like, that's what we have this season, right?

Moments like this, with Tori Lovela winning 354 and becoming the winning as coach. And honestly, even this stretch, who knows if it's going to last? And, I mean, again, I don't think that right now we can get two. high on it. But also, I think you and I pose the question, why not? Right? Like, baseball is just weird like that where guys can come out of their slumps. Guys can start improving. And most importantly, what we're seeing out of this team is just great pitching that is keeping them in every single baseball game. I mean, great pitching is everything, right? I mean, you can, you can be flawed.

You can be deeply flawed in a number of areas of baseball. And if you have great pitching, it will take you far. And I think that's what we're seeing this season with this team. You mentioned earlier that, you know, today was more of a commanding win, a bit of a different feel than what most of the wins over the last couple weeks have been. I think some people have maybe suspected that, okay, the Diamondbacks are hot, but they're also winning like every single 50-50 ball game right. now, this might not be sustainable for the long term to win, you know, every single one run game

that they find themselves in. This game wasn't like that, right? I mean, a nine to three win. Caleb Smith gave up a run in the ninth inning that gave the Marlins that third run of the game, but it was a complete game by the Diamondbacks. I mean, Jorge Solair homered in the top of the first, and it was pretty much all debacks the rest of the way. The Marlins offense struggled quite a bit against Mad Bum, as we mentioned earlier. And up and down the Diamondbacks lineup, they just got contributions from everywhere. Cooper Hummel had a nice game.

Jordan Looplo continues to destroy left-handed pitching, as he's done throughout his career. And I think it's- Again, there's something that was missing early on, right? Yeah, right, right. We're spending an entirely right-handed lineup up there with the exception of one, maybe two guys, if even that. You know, they don't even think they had two-bad.

an entire like like an entire left-handed lineup against. I'm sorry, entire left-handed line. Yeah. Right, right. You know, and, and that's the,

that's the thing is, is that they've been missing the variety in their lineup. And it just goes to show the impact that Ahmed and Luplo have made, you know, coming back that, that was part of the reason why they didn't have success. Once again, injuries were kind of keeping them limited as far as options go.

And once a lot of this success, honestly, started happening since those two return to the lineup. It really has. It really has. And I mean, I think it's funny how the Diamondbacks lineup against righties has looked very different than their lineup against lefties.

I mean, the Diamondbacks have a lot of regulars that didn't even play in this game, right? David Peralta didn't play. Dalton Varshow didn't play. There's a lot of guys that were used to seeing every single day that didn't even play in this game because the Marlins started a, lefty on the mound. And the diamondbacks have a very different plan of attack when there's a

lefty on the mound. And it seems to be working. I mean, Cooper Hummel in the leadoff spot, Jordan Looplo, Cotel Marte over the last few years has been basically the best hitter in baseball against lefties. Carson Kelly, of course, would be in there against lefties. Obviously, he's dealing with the strained oblique. So he'll be out for some time now. But yeah, Tori Lavello is certainly not afraid to mix up the lineup in order to get the matchups that he wants. That's something that's really developed in him as a manager over the last couple years, that he's willing to, you know, sacrifice playing time for a particular player if it means getting the matchups that he wants.

And it certainly worked in this game. And I mentioned writing over at go phtnx.com. Obviously, if you guys haven't done so already, we would love you to check out our website over there at go p hnx.com and maybe check out a membership if you're not a member already. We have a couple of membership options and hope you enjoy both of those options. Mostly we want you to become an annual member. That way you stick around for the year and you'll get yourself an annual membership for just $60.

That'll get your free t-shirt also over at the p.nx locker.com. We also have our month-to-month membership that you can get in your first month is just 50 cents if you take that option. Both memberships get members-only discounts over. at the PhNX Locker.com, as well as members-only access to our Discord, where I am not very present lately because I have been going from one thing to the next constantly. I had my daughter's, my daughter, Lily Montoya, her concert tonight. And being a dad and a wrestling commissioner and a sports writer slash podcaster slash host, it's very demanding, you know,

a line. Yeah, it's fair. So I apologize for being a bit absent, but I remember we were going to play a bingo game based on how bad the Diamondbacks were going to be this year. And I don't know if we need to do that anymore, but maybe we can play a bingo game based on how good they are this year and still give away some prizes in our members-only Discord. So make sure to join that. If you haven't done so already, join our family over here at PHNX. But Jesse, yeah, the starting pitching for this team has been incredible. We talked about it. quite a bit. The second best ERA in all of Major League baseball behind the Dodgers.

I don't know where the Dodgers are currently at, but the Diamondbacks came into tonight's game with a 2.32 ERA. That's going to go down a little bit based on Madison Bumgardener's performance or I don't know. It's actually, what's wild is that after. Yeah. After, yeah, six and a third. I know Bumgarner's ERA is going to go up a little bit from like 1.5 to 1.

point seven, I believe. Yeah, something like that. Still very good. Still the best ERA he's had after this number of starts in his career. And I mean, again, the contributions that they're getting from the starting lineup or from the starting pitchers is, is incredible. I mean, it's something that I don't think we expected. Zach Gallen has a 0.95 ERA, the second best ERA in all of baseball. Merrill Kelly's 1.22 ERA is the fourth best in all of baseball.

and Madison Bumgarner now, like I said, 1.7, not sure where he's at, but he should still be in the top 10 for starting pitchers. And that's, I think the important thing is, is that the consistency, the Diamondbacks have had at starting pitching allows them to have now three starting pitchers in the top 10. I think at one point we talked about three in the top five for Major League Baseball. So it's just been an impressive, consistent effort from these three guys. it really has it really has and i mean the starting rotation as a whole has just been incredible

we'll have to see whether umberto castianos uh is able to hold down the fifth spot in the rotation i think that's the only spot that's really in question moving forward but even he's pitched well lately i mean five and two thirds three runs you'll certainly take that from your number five starter that's what he did in the game yesterday so um yeah i mean we're to that point where That's a bad outing for starting pitching. We are. We are. And like you said, last season, we would have taken a guy going over five innings

and not giving up more than three runs any day of the week with how bad and inconsistent starting pitching was. I think that once again, like today with Madison Bumgartner and like we've seen with Merrill Kelly in the past, I like how these guys can give up early runs and not have it meltdown for them. You know, you almost see Yeah, it's true. You almost see them kind of clutch up and,

and dig in a little bit and go harder and they find their groove. I think that Brent Strom once again is a big part of that. I think Brent Strong just has an incredible effect on starting pitching. I've seen them do it to the relief guys, right? Like some of those relievers, you feel like stuff is going to really go to shit here in a moment after giving up a couple of hits and loading the bases. and somehow Brent Strom comes out and says a couple of words to these guys,

and they find the confidence and the will to get themselves out of these jams. It's impressive, and I think that he really should be, you know, credited for what this team has been doing. The Diamondbacks have a little different approach lately with their pregame meetings with Tori Lovolo. It used to be Tori before every game, but now this year, Tori is going to come out and talk during like the first game of the series and they're going to give us other coaches like Strom and Jeff Bannister and Joe Mather as you know to speak to instead which I yeah honestly I find to be great because some of those some of those pregame uh you know meetings uh interviews with the toy lovolo are a bit bland after we've already talked to him about you know the series for two days already and for two pregame shows. shows two post game, you know, the shows kind of deal. And now here we are on a third day talking

to them again, right? So the ability to hear from these other coaches that like we've been talking about have had such a major impact on this team is pretty enjoyable for me. Today, you had a chance to hear what Brent Strom had to say. And you said he had some pretty interesting things to say about this team's success. It really, one of the biggest things that he said that stuck out to me has to do with what you were just talking about with the Diamondbacks rotation's ability to bounce back after a rough first inning and not unravel through the rest of the outing. I mean, that's a huge, huge skill to have as a starting pitcher. And he talked about specifically, I thought it was funny, he talked about the Merrill Kelly game.

If you remember the Merrill Kelly game when he threw eight and two-thirds innings, he was won out from throwing a complete game. Mark Mullins and wound up coming in and getting the final out. and Brent Strom told us this story. He said that when Merrill Kelly warmed up for that game, it was a disaster. Apparently Merrill Kelly that day in the bullpen through one of the worst bullpins that he has ever thrown. His pitches weren't really working. And the Diamondbacks were a little bit concerned about how long he would last.

Brent Strom said, you know, we thought it might be a long night once we saw what Merrill Kelly looked like in the bullpen. And sure enough, Merrill Kelly was a little bit rough coming out of the gates. He wasn't strong in the first inning. That's when the bulk of the damage was done against him. And then he settled in and he threw almost a complete game. And that's a skill that is huge as a starting pitcher to be able to not have your best stuff in the bullpen. And Brent even said that Merrill Kelly didn't even have his best stuff in the game. Like his stuff wasn't even good.

he was just commanding the baseball so well that he was able to get away with it. And that's a huge, huge thing for Merrill Kelly to be able to do that in a game where he didn't have his best stuff. I think that's a trait that a lot of these guys in the starting rotation have right now is their ability to work through when they don't have their best stuff and get out. I mean, like you said, Castiano's has been for a guy that's just recently conversational. to a starting pitcher, he's been pretty damn reliable. You know, I, I think that there's still people like myself that would like to see Corbyn Martin or somebody else kind of come up as that, you know, and wow us as that fit starter out of nowhere.

Sure. Someone with like a high higher ceiling, maybe something like that. Yeah. Right. Someone with more impressive stuff. But I mean, Humberto Castiano's is just one of those guys that like that, that's, that's what you're going to get out of them. I mean, every once in a while, he's,

going to have a bad bad outing but you're you're going to get three runs or less given up and a lot of occasions he's going to put zeros up on a lot of innings you know and he's going to do that consistently uh but he works through when he's not having a good game and he's not i mean when it when his stuff isn't there the other team's got him figured out early on uh i i just i think that my expectations have been so far exceeded you know from from this team and mostly it's it's the consistency. You know, I think that even when they were bad,

they were consistently bad, right? Like they were bad in the same way. They were like everybody in the lineup was able to walk, but nobody could hit the ball. And then all of a sudden, you know, we have this influx of guys getting aggressive, all at the same time,

putting some things together. You know, like we said, Loplow and Ahmed returned to the lineup. And that was a big, jolt of energy, you know, a big injection to this team for them to come back. But we also had these guys just, you know, wake up all at the same time. And I mean, I don't, I don't, I have no idea what their ceiling is right now. You know, they, they did the job that they needed

to do. They've lost some tough games this season to some tough teams. But to be honest, right now, this team is on the exact kind of role that you want to see, you know, and look at what happened with the Rockies. The Rockies had a super hot start, and it's kind of fizzled away, and they got beat up pretty significantly tonight. They were kind of on the opposite end of what this, how doubt this game went for the Diamondbacks. I don't know what to say.

I don't, I feel like I've been hurt before, Jesse, and I don't want to, I don't want Okay, well. But, well, I have, I have a. question. I have a question for you then. So do you think as a fan of this team, at what point do the expectations change? Like at what point are you no longer satisfied with 70 wins or 75 wins because that's a big improvement over last year? At what point do you expect the Diamondbacks to actually be a 500 baseball team or above 500 and you're disappointed if that doesn't happen? that's a great question uh what's wild is right now they're only four and a half games back in

the n-l west right here we go so what i'm saying is is if the diamondbacks who just leaped over the rockies tonight for their first basically the first time that they're not in i mean they weren't in last place after opening day but pretty much after that they drop from that point down all the way down to the bottom and that's where they've sat this whole time uh if if the diamondbacks get to a point where they are battling with the Dodgers record-wise for the National League West for longer than a week, right? I'm not talking about like, hey, look at, you know, they're, they're game and a half back and or they're half a game back.

Like, I mean, the Diamondbacks somehow. What is, what is battling? Is that like within, like within a game? Like, I would say within a game. I would say if the Diamondbacks for like, a few days held first place in the National League West. Wow. Okay.

Well, you're asking me when the expectations change. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, I mean, I can't see them changing if we,

if we get up to third place and kind of hang out there, but don't really go much up past that. Okay. So, okay. That makes sense. I mean, I think really what I would be looking at for my expectations to change

would be a run at the division. which is a very difficult division. Like that, that's, that's more difficult than shooting for a playoff spot. You know, the division is incredibly difficult to win. The Diamondbacks right now, I mean,

they didn't do great against the Padres, but they won the series against the Dodgers, right? So they, they just got to take it one series at a time and not, again, not put too much, you know,

go too far down the line. Right now, you know, they have a chance. to sweep this series against the Marlins and then a very, very winnable series against a vulnerable Chicago Cubs team, right? You pounce on that. You start winning the games and the series that you should at this point.

The teams that aren't doing good, the teams with losing records, I think that would start changing my perception about this to where if you start, if all of a sudden we saw them tank and have a 75 win season, it would be a disappointment. because right now at this point, I'm already starting to feel like a sub 500 season. Yeah.

Would be a bit of a disappointment. And that's crazy because this is May. This is May. It's May 10th, Jesse. It's not we're not even halfway through May. So these are, this is, this is all crazy talk.

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So May 11th is the final day to get them at Zen Leaf locations exclusively. After May 11th, you can find them anywhere. You can find OG's brands. And if you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEZBrands.com to find OGs near you. And Jesse, again, I feel like I should offer, you know, some OGs gummies to everybody on the Tampa Bay Rays team after the way that they got beat by the Los Angeles Angels today. it was a 12 to nothing thumping, but more importantly, the angels had a no hitter.

They did, they did. Yeah, the angels really, they really took it to the Tampa Bay Rays. Well, and Rie Gettmer is a rookie, by the way, an angel's rookie.

And I know how excited we would be to see one of our up and coming prospects come up here and do something like this. And we did with Tyler Gilbert, which was fun, again, talking about that no hitter. this Reed Deppermer's kid, he's pretty good.

I mean, what's really significant about this game, though, is that Brett Phillips pitched, I think it was the eighth inning for the Tampa Bay raise. Brett Phillips, of course, is an outfielder. And he faced Anthony Rendon, and Anthony Rendon decided to bat left-handed instead of right-handed. For the first time his entire career. For the first time in his career, he is not a switch hitter. That's never been Anthony Rendon. So he bats left-handed, and Brett Phillips,

throws him a 54 mile per hour, nothing ball. That was like below the strike zone. And Anthony Rendon tags it for a two-run home run and what was undoubtedly one of the best plays in baseball so far for the season. It was incredible. It was incredible. Like, you know what it reminded me of? I often talk about the old MTV rock and jock baseball and basketball like events that

they used to have. And mostly because they were, they were like. like, you know, they were a weird mix of like an all-star game and a celebrity event. But more than anything, it was always just fun, right? It was a lot of fun. And I mean, that's like watching the, the clip of this, everybody's kind of laughing when he gets up there. The broadcasters are laughing. He's kind of laughing.

You see the guy on the mound laugh. Everybody's having a good, like, it was just, it was just funny to them at this point. Can't help but smile with moments like that. This is all that. What's going on? Then he hits a home run. And it just makes the entire moment. go from comedic to like an instant classic, like iconic,

like an iconic baseball moment. And again, hats off to Detmer for the no-hitter. And that's why I brought it up earlier is I was just thinking when I was looking at that, how insignificant the no-hitters ended up being for the Diamondbacks last year. As much as I covet that, and I would love to see like Zach Gowan go out there and throw and no hitter. As much as I wanted to see, you know, Merrill Kelly finish up that game and get that complete game. In the grand scheme of things, I just want to see this team working like a well-oiled machine. You know, I want to see them be able to just have everybody achieving in their roles,

coming out, doing, doing what they need to do to get business taken care of, especially the bullpen, because right now it feels like that's their Achilles heel. That's where we still have a lot of question marks. I just think Mark Melanson's too good for him to like melt down and be bad. I think we've seen a couple of bad outings, but he's not going to be perfect. He's just going to, you know, hopefully be more consistent than that going forward. I mean, I think he's, I want to say he's six for seven and save opportunities, which is really pretty impressive for. Yeah, he just had the one blown the other night. Yeah, just the one blown save. And yeah, I mean, I don't think he's really had great stuff this year to be frank compared to

what we've seen from him in the past. And to be six of seven and save opportunities, I mean, you know, he's, he's doing a lot with a little right now. And, and I'm sure as the season goes on, we'll probably see Mark Malanson get a little bit more comfortable out there. Um, you know, he's a veteran. He knows what he's doing. The velocity's down a little bit. The spin rates on his pitches are down a little bit. But I don't think you're, you're too concerned about him at this point. But yeah,

I mean, the Diamondbacks bullpen ERA is 28th in baseball. Their starting rotation ERA is second. Their bullpen ERA is 28th. So fortunately for them, you know, overall, your starting pitchers throw a lot more innings than the bullpen.

So, you know, you'd certainly rather be near the top of the ranks on that side of things. But the bullpen is still, still a work in progress for this baseball team. Arizona Diamondbacks continue to be the most profitable team in all of baseball. Right now, they still rank at number one, Mets number two. You mean like in terms of in terms of like people betting on them,

not in terms of like the organization being the most profitable? I was going to get to that. Yes, I was going to get to that. I was going to say buy profitable. I mean betting on them based on a $100 bet by Covers.com. the Diamondbacks up to this point will have won you $899. So that's a, that's a cool. It's almost $300 more than the New York Mets,

the next nearest team. So they're doing a great job. Is that 100 like, is that $100 every game, like $100 every single game you're betting? Yeah, I believe it's $100 on them to cover the spread based on the odds and what you would receive back in a payout for a straight forward bet. Yeah.

Right. Yeah, so 899. That's that's a, that's a big number. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. And you can bet on the Arizona Diamondbacks over at the Draft King's Sportsbook. It's a good, good time to do that with the way that this team is on a role. Also, new customers can get down on the NBA action by using our code of pHNX. You can bet just $5 on any NBA team to win their game and you will get $150 in free bets if they do. New and existing customers can get down and create your. own parlay by combining multiple bets that will give you more money and a bigger payout. Right now, all customers can bet place at the same game parlay with three or more legs and get a free bet back up to $25 if one leg doesn't hit. You know what that means? Make that $25 bet, swing for the fences. If a leg doesn't hit, let's be a little bit more conservative and try to win.

Come back, come back the next round and win it, just like the Phoenix Suns, right? They got beat up a bit in Dallas, but they came back and spank the Mavericks tonight, just like they're going to do and get the job done hopefully here in game, what, six. So, yeah, I think that they're going to do it. So if you want a team to bet on, there's the team to bet on. But maybe, I don't know, I'm not 100% confident on them going to Dallas because something happens when they get there. It's just like they travel through some sort of multiverse dimension thing. I just watched Dr. Strange today, so prepare yourself for lots of multiverse references going forward this week.

But of course, you don't have to wait for me to tell you about the multiverse to get down on the Draft King Sportsbook app now. You can use our promo code of PHNX and new customers can bet $5 on any NBA team to win their game and get $150 in free bets if they do. That's promo code PHNX only at the Draft King Sportsbook. 21 and over only Arizona only gambling problem dot 100 next step new customers only minimum $5 deposit required eligibility restrictions apply see draft kings.com slash sportsbook for details Jesse that's all I got diamondbacks and sons won on the same day once again proving that nobody has to sacrifice anything for the other team to be successful no amper no losses no none of that we can all we can all prosper we can all grow Unfortunately, the coyotes got the third pick in the NHL draft, which was kind of a downgrade considering that they were the second worst team in the NHL. Tank season did not work out for them, just like it didn't work out for the Diamondbacks,

who went for that number one spot and ended up at number two. But I think we'll still get very talented players. We'll see how things turn out. I mean, that's not that far away. So the draft chatter is right around the corner. corner. We'll have it for you right here. That's right. And things are exciting because if this team can stay this good and can continue to add pieces like Alec Thomas, who had two big hits today, two RBIs,

smoking, exit velocities with little, little fire emojis next to it over on baseball Sabant. I'm just very excited that I'm tweeting out exit velocities. Yeah, all the exit villos from our main account, they're all from Derek. And it's incredible. You guys have no idea how happy. makes me oh man that's good stuff well the diamondbacks are making me happy so i feel like i need to spread the joy this team is exciting go watch this team what are you waiting for go buy a serpientish jersey get yourself a black rock coffee uh chick fillet remember is still closed on sundays but uh get yourself the versus dog by the way by the way jesse i forgot to tell you guys this i mentioned this on twitter but

we here at the PHNXDVax podcast, we're about a lot of things. We've told you, of course, every week here, Shark Week, every day, Earth Day. On Mondays, we do the mailbag Monday thing. But we are the official home now, Jesse, of your versus dog information.

Really? I know every hot dog for every team that will be featured at Chase Field this season. I'm excited to keep you guys updated. By the way, I know our friends at the Colorado Rockies podcast on DNVR wanted to know what the Rockies dog was. It had red onion, green chili sauce, which they did predict it would have, sour cream and jalapenos. For this particular series with the Marlins, Jesse, they have a black bean puree, shoestring French fries, and a mojo moho sauce.

I don't know how you guys say it in English, but, uh, It's kind of like this garlic, olive oil sauce. It's very good. I love it. And I think it sounds like a delicious hot dog. But yeah, some incredible hot dogs, they really did do a good job of, I think, honoring every single city, every single visiting team that will be here at Chase Field this season. So, yeah, we'll keep you last grader. We've got, we've got Chicago.

We've got Chicago coming up. We do. We do that. Of course, the Chicago Cubs dog is your traditional. Chicago dog. It's got sport peppers on it, neon relish, tomato, pickle, yellow onion, mustard, and celery salt. So again, if you need any other reasons to come out to the ballpark, remember the versus dog isn't just for opposing fans. The versus dog

it's for all of us. It's for all of us. It's delicious. No, there's no, there's no limit to deliciousness and everybody can get down on that. But of course, you can follow us for all of your versus dog updates on Twitter. I'm at cap under Caveman with a K. I will be the one tweeting out exit velocities. He is Jesse and Friedman, who will be the one just proudly looking at me and being excited about all of those kind of tweets. Of course, our versus dog updates will come from at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads lead to at pHNX underscore sports. And that is on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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We just randomly get excited about sports and decided to go live. So make sure that you don't miss any of those updates. Of course, we thank you guys, again, so much for checking out all of our sponsors and for signing up for a membership over at go phnx.com. on behalf of Jesse and myself. We appreciate your time, as always, and remember kids, baseball is fun, but holy shit,

it's so much more fun when the Diamondbacks win.