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Jesse Friedman

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Born and raised in Phoenix metro, Jesse’s sports broadcasting career began at the age of 12 when he impersonated D-backs radio voice Greg Schulte on FOX Sports Arizona as the Arizona Diamondbacks Kidkaster. He started writing and podcasting about the Diamondbacks shortly thereafter, and has been doing it ever since. Now, Jesse is a podcast host and writer for PHNX Diamondbacks. Jesse has a math degree and a journalism minor from Azusa Pacific University in Southern California.

Less than three years after departing via trade, Andrew Chafin is returning to the Diamondbacks, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Saturday. The deal, which is reportedly pending a physical, is said to be for one year with a club option for 2024. While Chafin’s curly hair and mustache are every bit as dazzling as the day he left the…...

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Diamondbacks bullpen member Kevin Ginkel shakes hands with catcher Carson Kelly after converting a save at Oracle Park.

If they only had a decent bullpen, the Diamondbacks would have made the playoffs. If I had a dollar for every time I have seen or heard a Diamondbacks fan say those very words, I might have been able to beat Mat Ishbia’s offer to become the next owner of the Phoenix Suns. The claim is understandable. Diamondbacks relievers took a league-leading 41 losses in 2023. The average big-league bullpen lost 28 games. That’s a difference of 13 games — the exact number of games by which the Diamondbacks trailed the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League wild card race. But pitcher losses are a fickle stat for a number of reasons that I won’t detail now. Based on win…

Fans cheer on the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

February is here, pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks and the Arizona Diamondbacks will start playing games later this month. Baseball is (almost) back. Shortly before the 2022 season, I undertook the disheartening task of asking Diamondbacks Twitter what it wanted to see from the team. I received over 100 replies and wrote a fun story consolidating those responses into general themes. If you didn’t see the story last year, it’s still worthwhile to go back and see how fan expectations have evolved. For the Diamondbacks, a lot has changed in the last year. Fans have gone from hoping for even the faintest glimmer of hope following a 112-loss season to doing an obligatory happy dance every…

Jurickson Profar is unable to catch a home run ball by Diamondbacks third baseman Emmanuel Rivera.

I know I write about baseball for a living, but I am convinced that the Major League Baseball home run is the most awe-inspiring event that happens routinely in any sport. To hit a home run, a human being must (1) correctly identify the trajectory of a 2.9-inch-diameter spherical object traveling at nearly 100 MPH, (2) ensure that the bat...

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Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed gets a force out on Starling Marte at second base.

Anyone who saw more than a few Diamondbacks games in the mid-2010s knows that Nick Ahmed diving for baseballs has been a fixture of the franchise for nearly a decade. Typically, in a matter of milliseconds, he gets up and delivers a strike to first base. But in 2020, during the second iteration of spring camp prior to a 60-game season, one particular dive didn’t feel right. “We had that new turf installed over at Chase Field, and I didn’t slide,” Ahmed said. “When you dive, you normally land and then slide a little bit. I dove and just stuck, and I felt my shoulder jam up really bad.” In retrospect, Ahmed now views that moment as the first chapter…

Jake McCarthy reacts after hitting a double against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field.

Entering 2022, Jake McCarthy was a promising depth piece for the Diamondbacks. He was lightning fast. He held his own at all three outfield positions. He was still only 24 years old. But even then, prospect evaluators made little mention of the University of Virginia product. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t be a big leaguer — he broke into the...

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The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate clinching the NL West division at Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks.

In many respects, the Los Angeles Dodgers are Major League Baseball’s powerhouse franchise. They have won nine of the last 10 NL West division titles, many of them by a mile. The only year they did not win it in that span was 2021. That season, the Dodgers finished second in the NL West behind the 107-win San Francisco Giants....

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Evan Longoria hits a single against the New York Mets at Oracle Park.

From 2008 to 2013, Evan Longoria was one of the 10 best position players in baseball. He got MVP votes in five of those seasons, he made three All-Star teams and won two Gold Gloves. He hit .275/.357/.512 in 3,419 plate appearances. And by the end of that stretch, he was still just 27. A decade has passed, and Longoria has fallen off the Hall-of-Fame trajectory of his early days in the league. Nonetheless, he’s still accumulated 7,500-plus plate appearances with a 120 OPS+, a feat that only eight third basemen in MLB history have accomplished. The Diamondbacks believe he still has something to offer, particularly for a team as young as theirs. “Evan was someone we pursued all offseason,”…

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