Bickley Blast: Arizona Diamondbacks' rise from the ashes is reigniting hope in Arizona sports fans

and Mara boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigley blast on Sunday I sat in a minor league baseball stadium watching the Reno Aces hit two grand slams and scored 21 runs it was the very same day their parent Club completed the sweep Caroline in Boston and I could not help but Wonder have good times ever felt so good now now that might sound silly given the team's World Series Triumph in 2001 but the Diamondbacks were only 4 years old back then and Baseball fans in the valley had zero sense of struggle or adversity now we do and we have seen this baseball team Rise From the Ashes of injury and adversity to become the hottest team in baseball maybe even the best team in baseball and that doesn't happen very often in Arizona we rely have that perfect mix of committed ownership willing to spend a Visionary general manager and a manager who excels at creating a supportive culture and it's all happening now it rarely happens that we can break out foam fingers and say we're number one near the end of a regular season but we're getting close to that point and that is exciting so is the idea of stealing a division title from the Dodgers and can you imagine imine if the Diamondbacks become a bigger nuisance to Los angelinos than the cost of living and rush hour traffic Rejoice Valley sports fans it just might happen all right today's Bickley blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com right now I think they're the best team in baseball I really do uh you know someone say okay here's a million dollars who are you going to pick I probably picked a diamondback that's Bob nigh Andale yes yester with wolf and Luke here on Arizona Sports I got to know mhm did you get a Tristan English Jersey or did you go with Jorge Barosa first of all TR BL Alexander Tristan english's home run was massive it was a moonshot and Jorge Barosa I could not believe again in person how small he is he's not a big guy no did you say hi to Blaze Alexander say sorry we interviewed you an hour before no I I wasn't there in a media in a media capacity I was in a capacity or I might have had a with you had Blaze on right before he got sent down like an hour and a half oh that's right you were gone yeah we and we had an epic interview with him and he was he was great and then like so happy to be back in the majors and be part of the team and they send him down and they bring back Gore Gore Gilmore or something when the moon hit your ey got to tell you I got to tell you after spending a weekend in Reno props to all those baseball players who grind through through that yeah it's the biggest little it's the biggest little city in America B I don't know if you've heard that yeah not a big fan of Reno no no I'm not I um I I walked to the ballpark on Sunday at lot a lot of I had Sunday free I had a real late flight that night and so I'm walking to the ballpark in a beautiful sunny day there's not a soul on the streets nobody cuz they're all in the casinos how was the attendance at the gameing I shot a man in Reno just to watch them die and then I was jealous of him that's how bad things are yeah truck trucky is the move yeah yes you got yeah right it's true so uh yeah so I I think that this is a this is a great moment in time for the Diamondbacks the fact that they are ascending to maybe number one team and this is how you do it folks you make a run to the World Series and whether or not people thought it was a fluke you're proven right now it wasn't and and this team is way better than that team that got to the World Series last year one of those two teams in the World Series last year is proving that it was a fluke and it's not the diamond back it's not the Diamond Back team that has the banner up in their stadium in in Texas and again I'll go back to this normally when a team gets on a run like this and it's sustained for as long as it has been with this team it is a def the definition of smooth sailing everything's going well everybody's healthy everybody's playing great that is not the case with this team we talked about the ninth inning struggles shuffling of the bullpen they don't really have a closer Tor lell still has not come out and said this guy's my closer now we've seen how he's handled it and right now it appears that Justin Martinez is the guy I still am of the belief they would like to get Paul seaal in that role on the health Factor you don't have your best offensive player in the lineup you don't have your slugging first baseman in the lineup you don't have your gold glove catcher who was on the way up after a rough first half of the season and we haven't talked about the Jordan Montgomery situation they went out and spent a potentially $25 million on Jordan Montgomery this year and they've had to relegate him to the bullpen it's a nice problem to have in one way MH but also if you would have said Hey in August Jordan Montgomery that guy that you swooped in and got at the last minute is going to be in the bullpen you would have said this is not ideal so a a lot of these storylines that we've been following all year long don't make sense when you look at where the Diamondbacks have put themselves it doesn't make sense even the first part of the year as these young guys were getting a chance we were like oh man I can't wait for Jordan Montgomery to come join this rotation then they'll be good and now just the opposite worked out I'm interested to see how they use Jordan Montgomery they haven't used him from the bullpen since he went there I don't think he can have a role in the a bullpen no I agree with that I agree this is a b Bullpen guy he's going to have he's going to it's a long long way back for him and if you're the Diamond Backs this is probably the best thing long term as well because at this point I don't think you want him taking that 22.5 million player option whatever it is right now it's it's up to 22 and a half I I you know this continues and he remains relegated to the bullpen he's not going to hit that threshold for the $25 million but he's going to be back next year it looks like he listen again and and and he's pointing fingers too much for my liking whether it's the at the atmosphere at Chase field the swamp um now it's it's all Scott Boris again there was a reporter from Boston who reached out to Jordan Montgomery because at one point in time it really looked like the Red Sox were going to sign him and for some reason it did not happen and he's still he he told the Boston reporter that Scott Boris butchered it and it prompted a Scott Boris response and Scott Boris was above board and he said look he's a former client I'm not going to if he gives me permission I can maybe open up and shed some light on this but Jordan Montgomery early in the season talked about hey I didn't have spring training there was that then there was the swamp it's like pitching in a jungle then it's hey Scott Boris butchered my my free agency to the point where Blake Snell who was in the same boat basically as Jordan Montgomery as Boris clients who are on the sideline for way too long to their liking Blake Snell's come out and said I'm sorry he feels that way Scott's been great in this he's been open and honest with every offer I had like every situation is different and I know some people are criticizing Blake SN like don't comment on somebody else's free agency it's a it's a double-edged sword the difference in the in the scenarios is Blake Snell is in a much better place because he figured it out in his first six starts with the Giants he was terrible in his last nine starts he's been otherworldly teams are hitting 111 against him in his last nine starts so he's obviously in a much better mental place and that's because for a Delta Bravo he's a really good [Laughter] pitcher but for a pitcher is he a really good Delta yeah so listen I'm um intensely excited about these next two series because it's a heat check for this team it's a heat check for this Market it's it it's it's everything right you Flex now you put these two teams in their place oh I'm excited man next Tuesday would be a fun show and I say that cuz we're off on Monday Labor Day last day off forever if listen if this team ends up sweeping the Dodgers we might be called in on Monday we might might be thanks for watching Bley and marada click to see the latest Bley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports