PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Zac Gallen, offense DELIVERS for Diamondbacks in series finale against Orioles

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

After dropping a very winnable game in extra innings on Saturday, Zac Gallen and the Diamondbacks rebounded in the series finale with a big win over the Orioles. We discuss the D-backs offensive breakout on Sunday, the upcoming series at home against the Reds, and answers to your Mailbag Monday question!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.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.

And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is my vice mayor and your thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. And Jesse, of course, the Arizona Diamondbacks get a big win on Sunday. It felt like a very winnable series against the Baltimore Orioles overall, but they were able to secure a pretty huge win on Sunday, 9 to 2 over the Baltimore Orioles. Yeah, the Diamondbacks avoided the sweep, which felt really important.

It would have been a bit of a gut punch to sweep the Cincinnati Reds and then turn around and sort of lose all of that ground by getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles. But the Diamondbacks did not do that. The Diamondbacks managed to salvage that series finale in emphatic fashion, a 9 to 2 win, as you said. Zach Gallen was very, very good in that game, six innings two runs from him. Not a ton of swing and miss, only four whiffs, only four strikeouts, but a lot of soft contact, especially early in that game for Gowan. And he set the stage for, as I said earlier, just a really important and a very well-played game all the way around for the Diamondbacks as they took that one by seven, seven runs over the Baltimore Orioles.

The real milkman, by the way, Zach Gowlin, he was hit 96 miles per hour with that fastball. Yeah. That's something, something, especially considering there were some concerns here early in the season about his VLO being down a bit. But he goes six innings strong, gives up four hits, two earned, walks two, struck out four, still not doing anything. I mean, super, you know, sexy, right? Like the stat line isn't going to stand out to you too much. But this one is very, very good for me. Since 2002, Gallons, 38 starts with six innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed is,

second most in Major League Baseball for all starting pitchers behind Garrett Cole, who has 39. So Gallin has been a picture of consistency for this team as a starting pitcher and continues to be that so far this season. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess the Velo alarms that we were sounding in spring training, I guess we can sort of let that go at this point. He did average 94.2 in that game yesterday, topped out at 96.3. I believe both of those were season. and highs. I don't think, I know we haven't seen Gallen average more than 94.2 on his four seamer. And I don't believe we've seen him throw 96 miles an hour at any point this season up until yesterday. So, yeah, that was a step in the right direction for him. He just continues to,

in some way, show that it doesn't matter a whole lot. Maybe like what some of the savant stuff says about him, right? I'm not the only one who has asked some questions about Gallin's stuff this year. If you go over on pitcher list and other places where they're analyzing pitchers and breaking down kind of what their arsenals are looking like on an outing-to-outing basis, there has been a narrative about Gowan and his stuff this season. But apparently he's just able to kind of go out there and be successful no matter what. It's not like he entered this start with bad numbers or anything. Right, right.

Because the RA actually went up with a six-inning two-run performance. I believe it's a 286 on the year, very, very good. So, yeah, he gave the diamond backs exactly what they needed yesterday. The offense, they did score nine runs, but they didn't come out of the gate scoring runs. They didn't have a hit in the first three innings against Dean Kramer. Looked like we had a bit of a pitching duel on our hands here. But ultimately, the D-BACs offense was able to get to Kramer in the Orioles bullpen. And it was a pretty solid day all the way around for the D-Backs pitching staff.

Of course, Newman got to Kramer. And that's a Seinfeld reference for you guys. But Newman was two for three. He scored two runs. He had one walk, had a double. He continues to be a pleasant surprise for this team on both sides of the plate. I think he had a slow start, but I think so far he's been contributing more consistently offensively than a lot of guys on this team. And his defense continues to be fairly outstanding out there at shortstop. You had a lot of offense breaking out in this one, like you said, even though it wasn't early. They got contributions from all over the place. Cattel Marte is incredibly good at baseball. He extended his hitting streak to 13. games. He still has the second longest hitting streak in baseball behind Max Kepler for the Minnesota Twins who has a 14 game hitting streak. He had two walks, three RBI, six RBI total in this series. Cattel has just, Cotel can't do it alone, but he's trying to at times. And I mean, again, just huge contributions from Cotel in the series. Corbin was two for five yesterday with two runs

scored and he had a double. So Corbyn continues to look much better over the last week than than what we've seen of them early in the season. And just the offense as a whole. We got a home run from Jake McCarthy. Gritchick in a pinch hitting role was one for two with two RBI. So the Diamondbacks got lots of players chipping in here on a big offensive day for this team. Yeah, and especially the bottom of the order, the way that they've contributed, not just yesterday, but this past week as a whole.

You mentioned Kevin Newman over this last week. He's played quite a bit, played all six games, started in five of them. And he went six for 18 at a 924 OPS over this past week. So Kevin Newman has really started to pick things up offensively. We know how big he's been for the team on the defensive side of the ball, filling in at shortstop. And Tucker Barnhart drew a couple of walks yesterday. He's been getting on base a lot.

Jake McCarthy, of course, with a big time home run, which came at an important moment of the game. It was 3-1 D-Backs at that point. And, you know, a two-run lead for this team in the middle of a game especially against the Orioles. It doesn't, yeah, I mean, a two-run lead doesn't necessarily feel all that secure. But Jake hit that two-run Homer, made it five to one, and sort of opened the floodgates as the D-backs, you know, put four more runs on the Orioles after that. Diamondbacks had a really nice series from Justin Martinez, who contributed also from a bullpen in this game.

He and Bowman combined for three innings, zero hits allowed, two walks, one strikeout. It was a nice quiet ending to a baseball game. And yes, the Diamondbacks had a seven run lead, so it's easy for things to go that way. But this is a very good Orioles team that I mean, even a seven run lead doesn't feel super safe when you have more than half of your lineup with an 800 OPS or higher.

Yeah, the Orioles offense, man, is ridiculous. It's absurd. Yeah, I was thinking yesterday, like, would I rather face the Braves or the Orioles offense? Right now the Braves, I would rather face the Braves. Yeah, I think that's pretty valid. But I mean, the Orioles offense is pretty much on that level, right? Like there are, I guess at the bottom of the lineup, depending on who's playing.

Like Cedric Mullins hasn't had a great season. Ramona Urias hasn't hit a ton this year. So there are some guys at the bottom of the order that, you know, maybe feel a little bit better about. but it is very unforgiving at the top. I mean, Gunner Henderson, the season that he's had, Adley Ruchman is always just such an incredible hitter, gets on base a ton.

And then there's so much length in this lineup now with Ryan O'Hurne, Ryan Mountcastle, Colton Couser, and just this enormous young group of Orioles studs that has come up through here. So it's a really fun team to watch. Like, the Orioles are probably one of my favorite teams to watch in all of baseball. And I don't think I'm alone in that.

They're about as fun as any as any team. That ballpark is a great ballpark. Their owner seems like somebody all of us would want as an owner of our team. Speaking of which, Mount Castle and Santander, that's got to be a nice feeling to be there in Baltimore for as long as those guys have been and now have this team being what it is. Right. Like that's it's a whole lot of fun. It's a fun team to watch. But they are, despite them being the best team in the American League,

This was a winnable series for the Diamondbacks. Let's be honest. They dropped game two in what's kind of become a typical fashion this year, just, you know, heading out to a lead and not being able to hold onto that lead. That's nothing new for bad baseball teams. Bad baseball teams get leads. They just can't hold on to them. And, of course, this isn't, this team didn't play poorly in this series.

I thought they played really well. I thought they gave themselves a chance to win. And I thought they hung with, again, one of the best teams in the league, had a great opportunity there to, win the series but uh the diamond backs after taking a four to lead uh they gave up a home run in the bottom of the fifth and then kevin ginkl gives up the game tying home run in the eighth is there something wrong with kevin ginkl because i feel like so far this season i mean again not not to say like like now we're seeing jo man to apply right come back online and be the joe manse apply that he

once was prior to his all-star appearance right sure but it seems like ginkl's kind of now struggling as far as you know consistency and hitting the strike zone like that wasn't that wasn't a really good pitch that got hit for a home run in that game yeah I mean it wasn't a terrible pitch either it wasn't a strike it was it was up

and away somehow I think it was it was a really good swing on it didn't even look like it was going to go for a home run it really didn't it looked like it was going to drop in center field out yeah yeah it was a pretty impressive swing there by by Santander not a great week for for Ginkle overall right he also had the day in Cincinnati where he didn't look particularly good, put Joe Mantiply in a pretty

tough spot. Amantiply was able to get out of it. The Diamondback still won that game. But Ginkle has a 3-3-1 ERA this season. I mean, he's, has he been the ginkle that we saw in the second half last year in the playoffs? No, not quite. But he's still been effective. He's still been good.

And it wouldn't shock me if he kind of turned things around and it was better from this point. Absolutely. I'm not seeing anything alarming. like his velo is fine, the movement on his pitches is fine. It just seems like his command has not been as sharp as what we saw last year. Well, and you kind of expect once Paul Sewell to return for him to, you know, go back into his role and assume the success that he had last last year. And I think that's the thing that's a little concerning is what we've seen over the last two high leverage situations. The Diamondbacks have attempted to use him in.

He hasn't been great. He hasn't been great. And the Diamondbacks weren't great in this game, especially late. They once again kind of the offense, you know, completely evaporates at the end of game two in this series. Diamondbacks offense goes one for 19 against the Orioles bullpen in that game two. Yeah. Yeah, it was familiar, right? Like, D-Backs, they found their way to a lead.

Ryan Nelson, it wasn't pretty, but he was managing to keep the D-Backs in the game. I think he gave up 10 hits in four and two-thirds, but he only gave up three runs. He kept the diamond backs in the game while he was there. He gave up that Homer in the bottom of the fifth. As you mentioned, 4-2 lead became 4-3. And then the D-Backs bat's just went completely silent. After John Means was removed from the game in the top half of the fifth inning, yes, the D-backs went one for 19 the rest of the way,

including an extra innings when they just couldn't. I mean, having two innings where you're not able to score a run in extras is pretty rough. It almost feels like the ghost runner is maybe a crutch for them in some ways. I have to at least wonder that. I looked back over the course of this season, the debacks have not been. They haven't been great next yearnings, but they've been better than I thought. But a lot of that is because of home runs that had been hit. Like Christian Walker hit that big two run homer against the Dodgers that won them,

the B game. Cattel Marte hit a home run in extras, or I think to send the game to extras. It's their weakness, Jesse. a runner in scoring position. That's the problem is maybe if we didn't have the ghost runner, the diamond backs would be smoking teams next year. Yeah. Yeah.

That ghost runner throws everything off. Of course. We do have to give our Kingsnake out here and I can't think of a better person to receive it than Cotel Marte for what he has been doing lately. Again, he has that 13 game hitting streak. He had six RBI in this series where the diamondbacks scored 15 runs total. So Cotel Marte accounted for over a third of their participation. production offensively in these three games.

He can't do it alone, but like I said, he's trying to at times. And right now, Cattel is really dialed in. I mean, this is the exact same. When you talk about guys being the same as they were at the end of last season and in the postseason, this is Cotel that set a major league record for a hitting streak in the postseason right here. I mean, he's just as dialed in at this time. I feel pretty good, man, about my, my bowl's preseason prediction.

I might have sold him short. I think I said top 10 MVP votes for Catelle Marte. I think he's maybe more so in top five-ish territory right now. Might be that guy. He's been pretty good. He has been pretty good. Well, let's take a look at the count, or as some people I think want us in Mailbag Monday to pronounce it,

the count. There we go. Presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. Here we have the Diamondbacks outscoring the Orioles in the series 15 runs to 11. Orioles out hit the Diamondbacks 24. to 22. Runners in scoring position, kind of a push here. Six for 28 for the Orioles, seven for 32 for the Diamondbacks. The Orioles had 214 batting average to the Diamondbacks 219, starting pitching ERA, 5.06 for the Orioles, which the Diamondbacks really did a good job

of getting after the starting pitching in the series. They just, again, it was more the bullpen that they struggled with. Diamondbacks starting pitching ERA 4.32. Then the relief pitching ERA excellent on both sides of the ball. 2.08 for the Orioles 1.74 for the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks bullpen was actually pretty good in this series. That's really the first thing that stands out to me looking at this. 174 team ERA for the bullpen. And it's not like a lot of those scoreless innings were, you know, came in garbage time. There were a few of those innings in the Sunday game because they opened up such a big lead. But yeah, I mean, in that Saturday game that they lost, you can't really point the finger at the bullpen there.

because, I mean, sure, Kevin Ginkle gave up a home run. That was the only run that the bullpen allowed, the only earned run that the bullpen allowed in that entire game. Bryce Jarvis, of course, did allow the game-winning run in the 11th, but that's just the ghost runner's scoring from second base. It's an unearned run. So the bullpen really was very good in that Saturday game. It's just that you have to find a way to tack on some runs.

And that's just something the debacks were not able to do on Saturday. In the Friday game, Logan Allen gave up that one run. that didn't really wind up making a difference in that game either because, again, they just weren't scoring runs in that game. So the bullpen was pretty good against, again, one of the best offenses in the league. All right. Well, of course, we do know all about lying around here. We're a bunch of liars, but the numbers, they don't lie. Jesse, what do you got for the numbers don't lie for this series?

We have the number 354, which is Tucker Barnhart's on base percentage, Derek. Put some respect on Tucker Barnard's name because he's been getting on base all kinds of ways the last few days. He's been having some great at bats too. I mean, just even when he does, like we talked about in the past, just working the count and allowing, you know, allowing himself to wear down on opposing pitchers, see a lot of pitches. And you're seeing it translate over to him having having some success. Yeah. After this game, Tori Lavella, I was reading Teo Mackey's story from the Arizona Republic. and Tori spoke very highly of Tucker Barnhart drawing a walk.

I believe that was in the sixth inning, kind of opening the door for that big outburst for the Diamondbacks. And he pointed at Tucker Barnhart drawing that walk is kind of what set the table for the debacks to have the success that they did in that inning. So, yeah, I mean, he has a 611 OPS. Like, I'm not trying to say that Tucker Barnhart has been this amazing revelation for the Diamondbacks necessarily. But his abats have been really good over the last week.

week and at a time where Gabriel Moreno is not given you nearly as much offensively as you expected to get. Barnhart has at least made it so that in those days where Moreno is not hitting, there really hasn't been that much of a difference at this point, right? I mean, there's not this huge drop-off without Gabby being in the lineup. Barnard has actually has an higher on base percentage than Gabby Moreno does at this point. So yeah, he stepped in and steady defensively and pretty steady offensively too. Well, of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHNXports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, we implore you to do so. We'd love it if you drop this a like. And of course, sign up for

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They can get you started as well. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 right now. Well, of course, you know what we do around here on this show. You know that every year on this show is our year. Every month on this show is Black History Month. Every week on this show, Shark Week. Every day on this show is Earth Day because we recycle.

But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. All right. First question comes from Travis Moore at Moore for me on Twitter. He's our Iron Man, of course. Did I lost my job again, Derek? Yeah. Okay.

Did you? Oh, yeah, you did. You did. You're right. We haven't been doing this for very long. I'm not very good at that. And I also like to talk a lot. You know that.

But Damon, please, can we get the first question? No, I mean, it's cool. If you want the first question, you can have it. Please, Damon. I just wanted to. No, please, Damon. Would you mind reading the first question? Our boy, Travis Moore, always our first, you know, lead off hitter king that we have over here on our mailbag Monday.

Solid question to ask you mentioned Tommy Troy as a potential future answer for third base. Is that the best spot for him for the organization to get the most out of him? He's been getting shots at third base, second base, and shortstop so far, I believe. And I think he was mainly a shortstop at Stanford. Well, yeah, I think so just based on what the Diamondbacks are going to need in the future and the prospects that they kind of have. have over there, right? I feel like it's the fastest way for him to get up to the majors and to be able to contribute to this team, especially considering that we know, you know, Gino most likely will just be here for the one year, might be here for two, but most likely we'll just be here for one.

So the diamond backs are going to have to start looking at third base and not only for next year, but beyond that. Tommy Troy, interesting situation. The diamond backs have used him actually exclusively a shortstop. He has not played an inning at second base or at third base. so far in the minor league since joining the Diamondbacks organization. However, at Stanford, he played all over the place. It was madness. In 2021, Tommy Troy played 23 games at second base, five games at third base, nine games in left field, and only two games at shortstop.

Oh, what? And then in 2022, we played 23 games in left field, one game in left, or 23 games of second base, one game in left field, four games in right field. And then, yeah, he also played a little bit in the Cape as well. And he played exclusively third base in his last season at Stanford. So he actually played almost no shortstop at Stanford and has played exclusively shortstop since joining the Diamondbacks organization. Based on what I've seen, but more so what I've read, I am not a scout, it appears that

Tommy Troy is going to be better suited for third base in the long run, just given his defensive ability. Not that he couldn't hold his own at shortstop, give you some meanings there. I think it's a position he could play in the majors if needed, but ideally third base and second base seem to be the better fits for him. They're also in Fangraph's recent prospect report on the Diamondbacks. They mentioned that the debacks could give him a look in center field, not necessarily that that's something they are planning on doing, but something that they just could do given Tommy Troy's ability. They have a them as an 80 grade runner. Apparently, Tommy Troy is just outrageously fast, which is not something I was

I was necessarily aware of. Tommy versus Dre Jameson right now. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. They have Tommy's an 80 grade runner. So I imagine that race would be, uh, would be pretty close. Uh, but yeah, I'm guessing it's going to be second base or third base when all is said and done. No surprises for now, though, that the debacks are giving him as as as long of a leash at short stop as they reasonably can to kind of See what he can show out there, but I don't necessarily think he's going to wind up there when all said and done. All right. What do we have next there, Damon? Next question comes from Corby, Corby.

We know he's a fan of the show. For sure, yeah. Friend of the program. Taking a look at the new stat-cast swing data, what jumps out at you about the Diamondbacks hitters? Did any players or stats surprise you? Expanding on that, what do you think the future implications will be of this data being public? Well, I think one thing that stood out to me is that could tell Marte is very, very, very good at baseball. Yes.

Do we have the, do we have the numbers? Yeah, that'd be fantastic. Yeah. So this was like, I think they said it was going to come out on May 13th, which is today. But they definitely released it earlier than that. So I think I might have seen it on Saturday, which made Saturday like Christmas morning to me basically. Oh, I know you were so excited. I've been waiting for the bats he was he texted me at like midnight and was like are you excited for tomorrow and I was like what what are you talking about me is that we know that they have this data and they just refused to give it matter of when they're willing to allow us to see it I'm just picturing Jesse like staying awake all night just like staring at a ceiling fan just so excited like he gets to 2 a.m. and he's like you know what I should just stay awake the whole time now at this point what's the point of even going to sleep so we now have we now have we now have

bat speed data, which is, which is, yes, it is amazing. And you can see it here. We have it for you, for those of you joining us on the YouTube side. So Christian Walker has the highest average bat speed of any Diamondbacks hitter. For some context here, they're taking the top 90% of swings. So they're throwing out the bottom 10%. Which I think makes sense because sometimes hitters have, you know, if you get really fooled on a pitch or something, you might do like kind of half swing when you're not really showcasing your true bat speed in that. So they throw out some of that, go at the top 90%. And they're measuring the speed of the bat at the point of impact.

And they're looking at the sweet spot of the bat, just so people know how this is done. So Christian Walker's at the top at 74.5 miles per hour on average. League average is about 72. Corbyn Carroll is right behind him at 74.4. Jock Peterson at the three spot right there at 74.3. So yeah, that's the top three. What's a sword, Jesse? A sword, yeah, yeah, that's an interesting one.

A sword, I mean, a sword is like, it's a baseball term that is sort of loosely defined as like a swinging strike where the hitter looks awful. That's sort of the general idea. But they found a way to quantify it. And I think they're taking like the bottom 10% of bat speed swings. around the league. So if you're really fooled, then as I said earlier, you're probably going to do like a little sad like half swing thing or something. It's like 10 miles an hour or whatever. I average, I think like 50 swords per game and I will be the show. Yeah, it's yeah, I'm the sword king problem myself. And then Matt Vaskersian's just in your ear talking shit to you.

It looks like a caveman swinging a club up there. That's my favorite. Gino Suarez leads the diamond backs and swords with 10. So no, uh, no huge. surprise there necessarily. Another thing that's interesting here, they not only have bat speed, but they have swing length, which is basically just, I mean, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's how far does the bat travel from when your swing starts to the point of impact when you make contact with the baseball. So it's not only a matter of how fast you're swinging, it's how efficient are you swinging. So theoretically here, the shorter the swing, the better. And that's where Corbyn Carroll really stands out most. You see him at the top in bat speed or second place in

speed at 74.4 miles an hour. You also see him with a swing length of 7.1 feet, which is not the lowest on the team, but it is one of the lower marks, certainly lower than Christian Walker and Jock Peterson, who are at 7.5 and 7.6. So, yeah, this, more than anything, Derek, I think at least one of my big takeaways from this was it makes a lot of sense why Corbyn Carroll is so good at baseball. Yeah. And a lot of sense why we still should believe that Corbyn Carroll,

is going to figure this out because you compare where he is in these numbers with other hitters in the league. He is very clearly a special case where he has a very powerful swing but also a very short swing at the same time. Right now I think the big problem with Corbin as he discussed, as we've discussed has been more of that flat swing rather than it being his bat speed or anything else. Right. Meanwhile, Cotell Marte from the right side, from right-handed side is averaging at 77.2 miles per hour third highest of any hitter with at least 100 swings behind jean carlo stanton and o'neill cruz so pretty crazy pretty crazy could tell and i mean katel it explains it cutel's ability at the plate right now he just can make adjustments uh he he can find a way to contribute at some point in the

game that 13 game hitting streak uh i feel you know is is just an indication of how good he's been and we've talked about it at length that katell has been at times the only consistent offensive member right now of the starting lineup. But now we're starting to see you guys come back online and hopefully today we can see the Diamondbacks take advantage of that Reds team that they were able to

sweep you know a week ago. Hopefully they can stay hot after the win against the Orioles. I know I just want to say one more thing I think. Oh, he had another part of his question. Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Corbyn Carroll I think also asked us yeah, this last part

expanding on that, what do you think the future implications will be of this data being public. This is a really interesting question, and it's something that, you know, Saris over at the Athletic, you had a really compelling story today about a whole bunch of information about this new data that we have

and also the question of how it will affect things. He basically made the point that any time data in the past has been made available to the public, within a few years, it becomes, those data points start to get better, basically. So if you're going to reveal data to the, the public, suddenly people are going to start targeting that as the thing that they want to improve upon.

So we've seen that with velocity, right? Once that became public, we've seen it with spin rates and stuff like that as far as pitches are concerned. Once that became public, suddenly everyone was trying to increase those numbers and get them to be better. Same with launch angles and exit velocities. The moment that those are made public hitters are trying to change their approach to maximize those things.

And so I expect the same thing will probably be true here. Now that people know what Corbyn Carroll's bat speed is and what, you know, L.A. Daly Cruz's bat speed is and John Carlos Stanton and all these numbers, people are going to, not universally, but some people are probably going to try to target these things as what they're going to improve upon as hitters. So it will be very interesting to see how that unfolds here over the next few years. Not to mention that a lot of baseball fans are like Mr. Friedman here who waited very impatiently for those numbers to drop. And yes, I will be trying to improve my bat speed now that. You better. But baseball is a stat-driven sport at times. And stats are what make it more fun to watch.

It's what makes us as fans feel more knowledgeable about the game. And, I mean, it is internal information that teams and players and coaches are aware of. It's just not something that, you know, I guess they felt was necessary to make, you know, to reveal to the public. I don't think it's going to have any bad implications. I think it allows people to maybe utilize this information. with like their fantasy baseball teams and just enjoying the game of baseball more. I don't think there's any downside to it.

I do think it's funny though that when there is information like this, that's available that they don't release to the public. Like that to me is more of the kind of hilarious thing because if you already have these websites filled with data and stats, then why not make that other information, I guess, available. Yeah, yeah. Give us everything.

Give us all of it. All right. What else we got there, Damon? Question number three comes from Alice, D-Backs underscore Alice. What do you think will happen with Jake when Alec comes back? He's been doing pretty good recently, especially with that Homer yesterday. Do you think Tori will think about switching him and Corbin out for right field? Well, I think we already see that Jake is not in today's starting lineup.

So I think Tori's already answered that question for us. No, I mean, Tori's going to do what he's going to do. I think Jake is a very versatile weapon for this team. And I don't think it's going to be a matter of Jake needing at bats because I think Tori will find a way for them to get Jake at bats if Jake continues to hit. I just wonder what I feel like right now Jake is going to be the guy that sticks around. I'm not sure what it means for other players on this team. But when Alec comes back, I feel like you want to keep Jake here and keep them available not only to play in games, but available late in games for his speed, for his versatility for everything that he brings offensively and defense. Yeah, it's tough, man. I mean, once, once Alec Thomas comes back, it doesn't make Jake McCarthy

irrelevant or anything, but it does lessen his role for sure. Yes. I think we would still lean today that Pavin Smith would be the guy who would be the odd man out if they did make that move. I don't know that for sure. But even if, you know, even if Smith does go out and Jake sticks around, it's going to be harder to find him opportunities because if you've got a right-handed pitcher on the mound, you're going to have Alex Thomas starting, and you're going to have Corbyn Carroll starting, and you're probably going to have Lordus Gurriel starting as well.

Yes. I guess you could make a case that Jake should start over Lordis in some of those games, but I don't think the debacks are going to go down that road, at least not on a regular basis. So I could see him sticking around on the major league team as an extra outfielder, but it's going to be,

it's going to be tough for him to get super regular opportunities. I guess if you pinch hit for Alec Thomas with Randall Grishick, like late in the game, facing a tough lefty, then maybe Jake McCarthy comes in after him to play some outfield and maybe getting a bat later in the game. There's still a route for him to get some opportunity, but yeah,

it's going to be tough. Well, and we said this about Blaze, right? It's kind of a similar situation with Blaze and the way Kevin Newman is playing. It feels like when Geraldo Perdomo does come back, that Blaze is kind of starting to become the odd man out there a little bit, despite the fact that he's been very good at the plate.

He just hasn't been as well-rounded as Kevin Newman is. Kevin Newman defensively already makes you want to have him there backing up Perdomo more than Blaze. But now with Newman's bat kind of coming around and him contributing offensively like he has, I mean, I really feel like what we're probably going to see is Kevin Newman stick around as the shortstop backup. But all that remains to be seen. Who knows when these guys actually come back? Who knows when Alec Thomas actually comes back with the setback that he kind of had? And who knows what the Diamondbacks will need at that point?

I feel like it's such an ever-changing situation that we could talk about it. But by then there might be other injuries or whatever that might happen because this team has some pretty bad luck this year. What else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from Flea Ball 27. He says, why does Tori refer to runs as points? I think it's mostly because he's trolling us. Yes, that is, that's what it is for sure. Tori has a lot of Toryisms that he refuses to change on.

Yet at times, I feel like the reason why he sticks to them so much is mostly because it bothers Steve Gilbert. That's my answer on most things, is that he does it because it bothers Steve Gilbert. Or because it's an inside joke of some sort of Steve Gilbert. That's also very true. There are a lot of inside jokes, many of which we are not a part of. So we just know that when they say it, they snicker and they look at Nick or Steve or somebody and then we go on about our business. Yeah, I don't know.

I've asked myself, I've asked the same question in my head for sure. You know what bothers him. Maybe I'll just ask Terry someday. But yeah, yeah, you heard it here first that we don't call them runs in this game, Derek. That's what I've heard. I also the other day said one of our starting pitchers got nicked up. I think that Tories, Tories, Toriesms are starting to, like, spread to me in my vernacular, and I don't like that. I don't like other people influencing what I say.

Yeah. Anyway. I didn't think it was possible to influence the way that you do. Oh, oh, Jesse. Oh, Jesse, you have no idea. I'm still a sponge. What else we got, Damon? Next question comes from Ryan.

Rv.080495 on Twitter. That was a mouthful. We call him Ryan bunch of numbers. Yeah, Ryan bunch of numbers. when Jesse's when Jesse gives his numbers for the count can he please do it in the accent of the count that's what we were doing earlier from Sesame Street from here on out please and thank you yeah well I guess Derek's on top of it 246 ha ha ha ha there you go yeah I mean the count is our like like for usually for post game shows that's what we did it earlier with the the numbers

he wants you to give all the numbers like that that's the way it works yeah numbers don't lies. That's the thing that I do. That's separate. But, uh, you know, you don't watch the show, do you, Ryan? That's what Jesse's trying to say. Don't accuse Ryan at that. That's what Jesse's trying to say right now. Ryan sending in mailback questions. Get involved. Elise is throwing some Toryisms our way. He's a little banged up right now, so I wanted to get him off his feet. Stop it. I hear that phrase in my sleep sometimes. All right. What else we got? We got a last question here. Last question. From Peace of Yoshi, our number one hater. At what point that we consider that Kevin Newman is the best player on this team?

I've already considered it. I don't know. Like Jesse said, the bottom half of the lineup, the bottom, you know, those guys have actually been doing some work at times where you can't say the same at times about the rest of the lineup. But I don't know. Kevin Newman, I think, is like Kevin Newman kind of reminds me of, sorry, Ryan. Ryan.

We love you, Ryan. Ryan is here. Ryan just sick to his stomach in the chat. He's like, what the fuck? All right. Kevin Newman reminds me of Jake McCarthy, whereas Jake McCarthy at times didn't. He just seemed like a guy that was just here.

And then based on his play and what he's done for this team, he kind of, you know, you want him here a little bit more. You want him here a little bit more. And I think that that's right what we're seeing out to Kevin Newman. I mean, for the most part, I don't think anybody wanted to bag on like Jace or or any that's kind of had to fill in here with these injuries, but at times it's a little frustrating to watch guys struggle, you know,

the way that some of these players have struggled for this team. Newman has not struggled at all. Defensively, he was always kind of offering something. And now, like I said, the way that his bat has been performing lately, I'm hard, it's a hard idea to get rid of him at this point

or to possibly not have him be there backing up Perdoma when he returns. Yeah, I mean, he's a couple of really, good games against the Orioles, right? Four for seven with two doubles, a triple, and a walk in the last couple of games of that series, which were great. I mean, Newman has a 247 on base percentage for the season. So I wouldn't say that offensively, he's necessarily giving you a ton on the hole this

year, but defensively, he's been fantastic. His shortstop defense has been excellent. Baseball reference has him as being more 0.6 B-WR at this point in, you know, 77 played appearances that's really not not much time at all so it speaks out good his defense has been like he has been a valuable player for the diamond backs on the hold this year because sort of out of nowhere he's playing a really really good shortstop something that he hasn't done as consistently in the past so he's been a super valuable asset for the diamond backs for sure and it's a fun name to scream in your living room when he does something good you know it just is again i'm showing my age with my Seinfeld references but we do

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What do you mean? Would you further explain that? I'm just saying there's a happy balance. OGs that could make a Sunday just perfect, you know, could really make a Sunday where you have to do all the work around the house like laundry and make eggs Benedict. I don't know how to fucking make Hollandaise sauce guys. But you know what? I got through it. Thanks to OGs.

Honestly, that's a good answer. That's a really good answer. I'm just saying. The time's just flying by as you're running every errand. Yeah, it did. There was a lot of dishes I had to watch. But of course, OGs made that all of that better. They make life better sometimes.

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They gave me a free bag of OGs. So that's the quickest way to my heart. Give me edibles. and I will absolutely love you. Of course, another thing that you can do to go straight to my heart is take me to any sporting event. And, of course, a great way to save money on that is with Game Time. Game Time, you can save up to 60% off buying last minute tickets for sports, concerts, comedy shows, and so much more. You can save even more with exclusive in-app deals on select seats ahead of the game,

as well as your chance to see what your view is going to look at from a seat you're about to purchase. So you can completely take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime, download their app, create an account and use code P.HNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, we do have an upcoming series, like I said earlier, with the Cincinnati Reds.

And we just play them, Derek. We did. And I mean, of course, like I said, when we swept them, this is a great time to be playing them. Because this team is not as bad as they've been playing as of late. So, of course, this is an opportunity to get some wins while they are struggling because, who knows, if you have this spread out what another series could look like with them at a different time. But let's take a look at the probable pictures for this series. We're actually a little familiar with a few of these guys. Well, like you said, we just saw them.

Yeah, I think, I believe Graham Ashcraft is starting tonight for the Reds against Jordan Montgomery. They might have done some shuffling there. ESPN. You sons of bitches. Yeah, yes. They'll get you every time. Yeah. Yeah, okay.

We'll talk about this after the show, boys. Yeah, I mean, Jordan Montgomery making another start today. This is, of course, his second home start for the Diamondbacks. His first one didn't go so well. So, you know, good opportunity for him to try to bounce back here. And then we get Slade Sacconi again, the man who has the 084 OPS again. the first time through the order. Excited to see what that looks like on Tuesday.

And then Brandon Fott, pitching the final game of this series. Fott I was looking the other day, Derek. Brandon Fott has allowed either two or three earned runs. And I want to say it's five consecutive starts. He's basically just keeping the Diamondbacks in the game every time out right now. He hasn't really dominated much. I know there was the 11 strikeout game against the Seattle Mariners. Give up two earned in that game.

But yeah, two or three earned in every start going back to April 12th. So D-BAC should at the very least have a chance to win that game on Wednesday, be right in the middle of it. So it should be a good series. And as you said, this Reds team, as we saw last week, not playing so great right now. I'm chalking Jordan Montgomery's first start at home up to the bees. I'm blaming the bees. That's fair. And I think that we'll see a much different Jordan Montgomery tonight, hopefully.

We see much different George Montgomery tonight. The other three starts all on the road have all been pretty darn good. They have. So that's a pretty reasonable argument at this point. Let's take a look at this Cincinnati Reds team at a glance for this season. They are 17 and 23. And like I said, they are one and nine in their last 10 starts, which a big reason why now is the time to jump on them and try to just, you know, capitalize on how poorly they're playing. They're minus 5 on run differential.

Starting pitching ERA is 3.91, which is 14th in Major League Baseball. Relief pitching isn't very good at 4.22. That's 18th. 653 OPS. They're really struggling offensively. And that's wild considering what this team was able to do last season offensively. They're gone through it. And in a similar fashion that the Diamondbacks have gone through it this year.

That OPS is 25th in baseball. They have minus 11 defensive runs saved. also tied for 25th in Major League Baseball. So again, a team that isn't playing very good baseball right now, and the Diamondbacks, honestly, they held their own against the Orioles. So they should come into the series confident and know that this is a good time to pick on a team that, like I said, isn't nearly as bad as those numbers indicate. Yeah, I mean, they've lost 10 of 11.

They've lost 13 at 16. The Red started the season 14 and 10, which is crazy to think about. They made an appearance on our top 10 power rankings at one point, I believe. I know. We used L.E. Dela Cruz, of course. We did. Yeah.

I mean, they were one of the more exciting, interesting teams coming into the year. Lots of, lots of Diamondbacks Reds comparisons, of course, that were made about, you know, the kind of season that they could maybe have this year, trying to do sort of what the D-backs did last season. That hasn't exactly happened so far. But it is still a pretty talented team. And their starting pitching is good. They're starting pitching is right around average, a little bit above league average.

average keeps them in games. The offense, as you said, is really just what's lagged behind for them recently. And you figure that's going to turn around here at some point as some of their young hitters kind of come around. So yeah, should be a good series. And a series, it's very winnable for the Diamondbacks as they try to continue pushing things in the right direction. The Reds also lead baseball with 72 stolen bases. They do. Yeah, they have this man named Deli, Dela Cruz. Are L.A. Dela Cruz? Yeah, Dela Cruz has 25. He's on bases deal 100 bases, Derek. I don't know.

I don't know. I feel about that. He's already halfway to second. Like just in general, he's so tall that if he lays down, he's halfway to second. I honestly, like, I was almost talking about this with you earlier, Jesse.

But like, obviously he's so fast, you know, 100th percentile speed type of fast. But that really does make an impact when he's diving head first into second base. And he's so big. And he's six foot five.

Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It's such a huge advantage over like a Corbyn Carol, for example, when he has a foot on him and probably way bigger wingspan. Yeah, wingspan is huge. But of course, it's a great night to get out to the ballpark, watch the Arizona and Diamondbacks, hopefully take care of business against the Cincinnati Reds team.

Before we get out of here, I did want to say that based on the leak, I definitely don't think the Los Angeles Dodgers deserve to be the first team in baseball with two City Connect jerseys because the new one is awful. It's atrocious. I haven't seen it yet. It's really bad. It's pretty bad. It's really bad.

And it's got specs on it. It looks like it is. It is pretty atrocious, Jesse. Like, I don't understand how, you know, a franchise that has so much history. And I guess so many resources needs to, I guess, play it safe with how bad their city connect jerseys are. What do you think? Yeah, it's a little dull. It's dull.

It's a job. I don't like the D. When they redesign logos on a lot of these jerseys, like the Cleveland Guardian. just released their city connect loved it loved it had a classic classic styling to it a lot of references to the guardian statues once again that their team is named after as well as other you know Cleveland centric things but have you seen that alternate logo on the sleeve for what the Dodgers one oh it's tragic oh it's yeah it's terrible yeah it's one of the worst logos I've ever seen the specs are an interesting idea the pop-tart specs

pop-tart specs correct that's uh uh uh Skeletor the Great says Dodgers took a look at the 80s mall food court and said, and we're like, yeah, this is it. And that, that's it. Yeah, absolutely. You fucking nailed it. You absolutely nailed it. I was going to say, yeah, it doesn't.

It's not a very modern looking design. It looks like they're, yeah, they're like trying to go back. But see, like lean into it if you're doing some sort of classic throwback design like the Guardians did, right? Like they have the true 70s like stripes down the side. Don't get me started on how hot piping is, but that's a whole other topic. But of course, hopefully all the Arizona Diamondbacks are wearing jerseys tonight that look like the rest of the team's jerseys. No problems there with Fanatics or Nike.

But, of course, we will be back tomorrow night with our postgame show after Diamondbacks take on the Reds in game two. Make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs.

Park, Bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but of course all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You got anything else? That's all I got. Let's go watch some baseball. Weird media schedule today, but we love it because it gives us extra time to get out there. So thank shout out. Shout out to the Diamondbacks PR staff for giving us a little extra time.

We appreciate it. Usually it's the other way around. Usually they make like right now while we're doing this would be when they had like a press conference or something. but appreciate them doing that for us, of course. We also appreciate you guys being here so much. We will see you tomorrow night. Have a great afternoon, evening, and in the meantime, we love you. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Cotel Marte goes on these crazy hitting streaks.