BOMBSHELL: Why Zac Gallen Is the Right Choice for Opening Day Starter

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Aaron Judge. Welcome to MLB The Show 26. The greatest game in baseball is back, whether you're a gamer or a baseball fan. This one is tough to put down. Jump into franchise mode with your favorite team. Build your roster, chase a pennant, and see if you have what it takes to win it all. It's the closest thing to being in the big leagues yourself. Use it MLB The.Show slash Lockdown and use Code Lockdown to unlock a pack for Diamond Dynasty. Internet connection required. Preorder now on PlayStation 5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. MLB The Show 26. Own the show. Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here, because your support means everything, and if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return. Check out the Every Day or Club.

1:01You get ad free episodes of your favorite Lockdown show, access to a members-only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. Breaking news from the Arizona Diamondbacks that a new opening day starter has been decided after Merrill Kelly went down with a back injury, and it is unsurprisingly for his fourth consecutive season, Zach Galen. You are a Lockdown Diamondbacks. You're daily Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up and welcome to the Lockdown Diamondbacks Podcast, the show where we talk nothing but the D-backs every single day, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. I'm your lifelong D-backs fan and overly obsessed host, Damon Biggs.

2:02This episode is brought to you by MLB The Show 26, visit MLBThe.Show, slash Lockdown, and use Code Lockdown to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Pre-order now, available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. We are going to be talking about the big news. Zach Galen has been named as the opening day starter, not a huge surprise, after Merrill Kelly is unable to do so because of injury. We're also going to be talking about Corbin Carroll's first game that he played yesterday against the A's, and then we're going to finish the episode talking about that game and why we lost so bad and kind of breaking that down a little bit because there are some things that I am not worried about or some things that I am worried about and we'll get into all of that. First, let's talk about Zach Galen. Zach Galen, it's pretty easy to kind of point and say, well, Zach Galen didn't do very

3:02well last year, so why not Ryan Nelson, why not anybody else? If you look, his ERA was 4.83 with a record of 13 to 15, 15 losses to 13 wins. Are we sure? Well, yeah, I think so because opening day 1, a big part of opening day, being the opening day starter is experience as a big part of it. Zach Galen has the experience. Merrill Kelly has the experience. Ryan Nelson, Brandon Fought, they just don't have it yet. I do think that Ryan Nelson will be an opening day pitcher at some point, but I don't think it's this year. It could be next year depending on how well he does and depending on how well Corbin Burns does and everything like that, but this year, I think Zach Galen is the right choice.

4:04As soon as Merrill Kelly went down and we knew that he wasn't going to be starting anymore for opening day, I kind of immediately knew and I think you did to most of us knew that it's going to be Zach Galen. I think that's just the correct choice. I wanted to quickly look at his 2025 numbers over on baseballalmanac.com because they actually break it down by the game and by the month because we all know that Zach Galen did better in the second half of the season than he did in the first half of the season. What were the exact numbers? How exactly did he do? Let's go ahead and take a look at that right now. In March, the first month of the year, he pitched a 5.08 ERA. He averaged, well, I guess I don't really have average. Most of these starts, he went six innings, five innings. He had a few where he didn't quite complete five, but that was the most.

5:05The least that he pitched was four and two-thirds innings. The most he pitched was five or six and two-thirds innings. He started the year against the Yankees going into the seventh and didn't give up a single run. Only three hits. He started out strong, but then he gave up five runs in less than five innings and just kind of went from there. His worst outing was probably that one against the Orioles. He also had one where it was six earned runs and six innings, so not super great. Not a great start. 5.08 ERA. Not very good. April, he had an ERA, a month ERA of 5.50, so got even worse. On average, he was still pitching about six innings. The least he pitched was five and then we had a handful of five and two-thirds. We had a six and we had a seven against the Metz where he gave up only one earned run

6:07in seven innings. But good outing there, he also gave up one earned run against the Metz earlier in that same month and six innings, so two good outings there against the Metz. I guess we'll play the Metz, make sure Zach Gallon pitches, but he gave up, I think his worst outing was against the Rockies at home, by the way, where he gave up six earned runs in five innings pitched, so not a good outing there and he gave up six runs against the Pirates, six runs against the Rockies, four against the Cardinals, four against the Dodgers, so not a good month for him in April. May, it just kept getting worse. In May, he had his worst month of the season with an ERA of 6.23. Not very good. And he's facing two of those appearances where against the Rockies and the White Sox and

7:10both of those just so happen to also be his worst outings. He in five innings gave up seven runs against the Rockies and then his next appearance gave up five runs in five innings to the White Sox, both at home, by the way. So struggled big time in May, couldn't really catch a break and now his best outing he gave up one run in seven innings against the Braves and that was in Atlanta. So I guess you know, he just pitches better on the road, apparently though, I don't know, not really, at least in these first couple of months. So yeah, March, Rough, April, even Ruffer, May, Horrible, June, better, basically matched his March ERA in June, he had a 5.10 ERA, just a little bit, a little bit higher than

8:14in March in June, he pitched, by the way, in all of these, he pitches five to six, he pitched six outings in April and the other ones, he's pitched five in June, his best outing was he pitched six innings against the Padres in San Diego where he gave up zero runs. So not too bad there. What are he gave up one run, zero earned runs, I should say. And then he also had one against the Giants at home this time where he only gave up one run in seven innings. So a pretty good outing there, honestly, started the month off pretty well, but then he gave up six earned runs in five innings against the Angels, he gave up six earned runs in six innings against the Astros and then four earned runs in six innings against the Pirates. Not very good, a little bit better, not by much. Now in July, we had the trade deadline.

9:16This is where things started to turn around because as soon as July came around, he gives up two earned runs in six innings against the A's, one earned run in six innings against the Rockies, so gets retribution there. His worst outing was against the next outing against the Rangers where he gave up three runs in five innings. That was his worst in July. And then his best outing in July was against the Dodgers where he gave up zero runs two hits in six innings pitched, eight strikeouts, a very impressive day, a very impressive month of July for Zach Allen, he threw an ERA of 2.57. So phenomenal month of July after rough first four months. And then in the month of August, or sorry, am I mixing stuff up, oh, I am reading this

10:17graph wrong, my apologies, I've been one month behind. So April was 5.8, May was 5.5, June was 6.23, July was 5.10, this graph is very confusing, I'm sorry. And then August was his really good season, was his really good year, or his really good month. And now I'm all, I'm all scatterbrain now. So the month of August, he had a 2.57, absolutely great. And that makes sense because it's after the trade deadline. And then the month of September, he regressed a little bit, he, his, he had his best game was against the Rangers where he gave up zero runs in six innings. The next game he gave up five in 6.2 against the Giants, so not good, not great there. But then against the Giants, the next game, this is by the time, by the time this was going on, I was hosting the show, so now very fun, I remember all this, remember reporting on all this. He gave up one run in six innings against the Giants after that, and then three runs in

11:18seven innings against the Phillies, pretty good outing there. The reason that his ERA is where it is, he ended the month with a 4.20 is because his very last start against the Padres, he got blown up, gave up five runs in four and one third innings, which kind of tanked his monthly ERA there. But I did do those calculations. If you take that last start out, which I know you shouldn't do that, but if you remove that last start, we had just got, you know, we're getting eliminated as rough. You remove that, his September ERA goes to 3.16, which is very acceptable, and a lot closer to his August number, sorry, yeah, his August numbers. So the month of August and September, Zach Galen was pitching really, really well. So if that's what we can expect from Zach Galen, moving into the 2026 season, then he's

12:23our guy. And also, he shut out the Dodgers, he didn't shut out the Dodgers, he got the win against the Dodgers, gave up zero runs in six innings at Dodger Stadium. So I think he might be the guy to get the start at Dodger Stadium on opening day. Last time he played him, he did pretty darn good. So I don't hate those chances there. Also Zach Galen, since he's staying here, we kind of talked about this when he went his contract ended, but he has the third most wins in Diamondback history at 65. And he has the third most strikeouts at 1,100, or sorry, 1,017. Brandon Webb is second with 1,065. So there's a very good chance that Zach Galen passes Brandon Webb and has the second highest strikeout count in Diamondback history. Super exciting. Let's go and talk about Corbin Carroll because he had his first appearance in a majorly

13:27game in spring training after breaking his hand. How did that go? Well, let's go ahead and talk about it. College basketball is nonstop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night from early tip-offs to late night west coast shootouts. There's always action on the board. And now, Fandool is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. You can build any college hoops parlay you want. Rivalry games, ranked matchups, whatever fits my read. You can mix spreads, totals, and player props to match how you see the slate playing out. Then you can apply the profit boost and instantly bump up your potential payout. Go safe, go bold, ride with the team you've been following all season. It's your parlay, your style. Now, just with more upside to it, head to fandool.com to get started. That's fandool.com, fandool, play your game.

14:30It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is kind of a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with stacks of papers, emailing back and forth, and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade into a TurboTax. Now it has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot. And just like that, you're done. Your TurboTax expert works to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. It's the relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing your taxes are being handled right. Head to TurboTax.com slash local to find a store near you and book your appointment. All right, everybody. We're back, and I wanted to say as always, thank you so much for making lockdown diamond

15:31backs. You're first listen of the day. I really appreciate it. Now that we're getting back into the regular schedule, I hope I can be a part of your regular schedule once again. So thank you so much for being here. Let me know by the way, in the comments, where do you usually listen to the show? Do you listen? And I say comments, by the way, if you're just listening to this, the best way to leave a comment for me to see is to go to YouTube and leave a comment on this video, or quite frankly, any video, and you get it. So let me know in the comments of a YouTube video, yeah, where do you listen to the show? Do you listen to it in the car? Do you listen to it at work? Do you listen to it while you're in meetings and you're supposed to be paying attention? Let me know. I'd be really curious to hear that. And maybe I can cater it a little better to your situation so I can be like, you know, don't run that red light and say, say things, slow down. Don't hit people in the crosswalk, things to help you in your day.

16:36That's what I really want to do. Anyway, by the way, you guys, if you've been thinking about joining the every day or club, now is the time because you get right, you get ad free shows, you get access to our group chat on Discord, which is super fun. But if you're signed up before the NCAA tournament tips off, I know this is a baseball, baseball podcast, but the NCAA tournament is coming up. And if you sign up before then, you get our every day or club bracket, or you'll get access to our every day or bracket club pool on Discord for a chance to win Lockdown merch. It should be a lot of fun. And you can use code March, like the month or, you know, the verb, I guess, they're spelled the same to get your first month free. So if you go to lockdowndiamondbacks.supercast.com or you can tap on the link in the show notes below, you can go sign up and it's super fun. And it's free. That's awesome. So anyway, Corbin Carroll got his first start and I was watching very closely and was kind

17:43of like initially disappointed. He went over three and so you'd be forgiven as I hope I am forgiven for being a bit like bummed out that, you know, nothing really happened. Wasn't surprised. It wasn't like super, you know, super crushed or anything, you know, he's coming back, his hand, he's still dealing with that. He is healed from, you know, from what I've been able to gather, but there is still a good level of discomfort. It's not like he can break the bone again. They took the bone out. So it's not like that's going to be a problem. There shouldn't be any complications with the like health or, you know, his hand or whatever, but, but it hurts a little bit right now. And so that's to be expected, but something that is very interesting to note is that in his first at bat, he grounded out to second. Not good, right?

18:43Well, he hit the ball with an exit velocity of 113.6 miles per hour for reference. He only hit two baseballs in fair territory, harder than that in 2025. So that's actually really crazy because a big worry with this surgery, specifically this procedure is that players, hitters tend to lose power when they recover, when they come, you know, when they come into recovery. And so that was a big worry. And here he is, his first at bat hits the third hardest hit ball in the last year. So that doesn't seem like it's going to be much of a problem. It sounds like the problem really is going to be just he's getting the timing figured out again. He's getting just comfortable with that.

19:43The pain is there, but it's manageable. He said he said it felt fine. Obviously, it's not going to feel perfect, but manageable. I'm just trying to work through it as best as I can and be sure I'm ready to go. He specifically did not want to elaborate on what he was feeling. He said he didn't want to talk about it, but it's been one month to the day since his surgery and he's already back. You remember like a six month waiting period is what that was supposed to be and he's already back. So not too bad. He didn't wear a brace or anything like that when batting, but he did use an axe handle bat, which is basically just it doesn't have a round knob at the bottom. Because according to him, it was less painful. So he's using that. He's not sure if he's going to use that going forward or if he's just going to use it for a little while, he's not sure, but he's just taking it as time goes. Now I think now Corbin Carroll is hoping to play 10 games in spring training, which would

20:44be great because I think he does need, I think he does need that. Just like every other player has needed the time to kind of warm up and get back into it. He's going to need that if he wants to go into the regular season, looking good, feeling good, you know, all that kind of stuff. He is probably going to be playing DH a few more times before he is ready to start playing defense, but he should be good because it is in his hand, his catching hand. And so that's just another element that I'm sure he's working on to try and get that to get that going. They asked Zach Galin about his return though, he said, he laughed and said, I think he's just one of those guys that his presence in the lineup and on the field just makes sense. Sorry, just makes everybody that much better. Guys are excited. He's back. So that's pretty cool. Anyway, let's go ahead and talk about this game that Corbin Carroll played in, right?

21:45Because that's what happened, right? Let's talk about the game, even though we probably don't want to. But stay here, don't click away, don't swipe away, even though the game didn't go exactly how we wanted. We have a lot of time pack, a lot to talk about. So don't go anywhere. Today, I'm thrilled to be talking to you about our sponsor, MLB, the show 26, the greatest game in baseball is back with its newest installment. Baseball fans are going to have a hard time pulling themselves away from the game as a kid obsessed with baseball, but it was never really all that good at it. MLB, the show has always been my personal outlet to experience the game like never before, to be able to insert myself in the show and experience the ups and downs of a professional baseball career with road to the show has been beyond enjoyable for me throughout the years. If you're a gamer, a baseball fan, or just want to enjoy America's favorite pastime in a new, exciting way, you are going to love MLB, the show 26 plays your favorite team and

22:49franchise players and see if you have what it takes to win your own world series. Visit MLB, the dot show slash locked on and use code locked on to unlock a pair, unlock a pack for use in diamond dynasty, internet connection required, pre-order now available March 17 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X and Nintendo Switch rated E for everyone. Now the diamond backs played, the A's should be an easy win right on paper, no, it wasn't. The A's ended up taking, going away with it, winning the game 13 to 3. Now I know we've been saying, well, you know, we don't really worry about the opposing team score because we throw out, you know, double A, triple A, non roster invites out there and they give up a bunch of runs and there's not really anything we can do to control that

23:50and it's not something that really affects the team overall. What we look at is the offensive numbers, the problem is, and I'm usually very optimistic, you know, this, I'm very, you know, I try and spin everything in a positive way and I will be doing a good amount of that tonight, don't you worry, but the pictures that gave up the runs were our major league pictures, not all of the runs, but like our major league pictures gave up a good number of those and then our offense didn't really do anything, not much at least. So what happened exactly, well, I'll tell you what happened, the, the diamond backs are currently one that most of their, a lot of their, I'll say a lot of their good players, a lot of their all-star players are currently playing in the World Baseball Classic. By the way, I saw the video of, I got the notification and saw the video that yesterday

24:56I could tell Marta crushed a home run for the Dominican Republic and then I went and watched the video and realized that he hit it off of Eduardo Rodriguez who was not happy to give that up. So kind of funny, hopefully Eduardo Rodriguez takes that energy and, you know, doesn't give up anymore rounds, but that was pretty funny anyway. And then if there aren't playing the World Baseball Classic, they've been injured. So we haven't had a lot of offensive production as of late and then are, and then the other thing is that the A's were playing all of their starters. Like their, their curts was in, Lengaleers was in, Soda, Soda Storm was here, Rooker, Muncie, Wilson, like these guys were all playing and they played the majority of the game too. Like I think they had all but two at bats for the most part. So it's not like offensively, you know, offensively it was kind of stacked towards the A's.

26:01Now the A's I think are going to be a much better team this season than they were last season. So that's a little bit of consolidation as well. But another issue though and I'm not really going to, I can't really dance around this one too much is that our pitchers again were a major league pitchers Ryan Nelson got the star pitch three and one thirds innings. I don't know is that plural three point one innings. He only gave up two hits and one walk. But he did also give up three earned runs with two different home runs. So not the best outing from Ryan Nelson. He did have four strikeouts which was pretty good but not, yeah, not his best outing for sure. Then we had a handful of other, you know, minor league guys come in. We had Zane Russell come in and give up another home run. And then Isaiah Campbell came in got one out so that was pretty good.

27:04And then we had this first name Thomas Hatch came in and Thomas Hatch, it primarily he played 11 games out of the bullpen last season had a 5.82 ERA. So he's kind of like trying to get a spot in the major league roster but he did not earn that spot today. He pitched two innings gave up three earned runs on five hits and a walk and five or two of those five hits were home runs. So the A's were just crushing the ball. Ryan Thompson then came in so Ryan Thompson, okay, major league pitcher is going to be like our cornerstone of the bullpen. He comes in, he gives up two hits and two earned runs. He gave up a double followed by a single followed by a wild pitch. So not a great outing for Ryan Thompson either Kevin Ginkgo came in couldn't finish the

28:06inning. He technically didn't give up any earned runs but he gave up two singles and then he had a throwing error which resulted in a run and then a deflected ball that of hit like he reached out tried to feel that deflected the ball and resulted in a second RBI. So Kevin Ginkgo didn't do super great either and then Philip Abner came in and thankfully he pitched a clean inning got a strike out zero hits zero runs but yeah not not wonderful not wonderful from our guys that are supposed to be really good I mean you know really good I guess not even really good but just the argument I've been using all spring training has been well they're not major league pitchers so they're going to give up runs against major league hitters and that's fine. These are our major league pitchers and they're giving up runs the only the only thing that kind of softens this a little bit is that they were pitching against the A's major league

29:12lineup. So it's not like they were giving all these up against you know double A single A guys they were giving these up to to Muncie and Brent Rooker and and and Nick Kurtz and you know all these guys so that helps a little bit but really I mean not much they're going to be playing against major league players in the regular season so they need to be able to do that. I wasn't able to watch the game physically unfortunately so I don't know exactly how you know like how they looked but I can tell you that I can look at their pitch count Ryan Nelson through 56 pitches in 3.1 innings 37 strikes Russell came in who gave up a home run and another hit he threw seven pitches seven strikes at least that's good hatch through 38 pitches and 24 for strikes but again he gave up three earned runs Thompson

30:15pitch 22 pitches in an inning 17 for strikes so at least like they're hitting the zone I guess but it sounds like they're just giving them cookies or something I don't know. Ginkgole 24 pitches 19 strikes and an Abner 20 pitches 13 for strikes so yeah they're not wonderful but again the Diamondbacks are kind of playing they're giving their their minor league players their chance to shine they're letting them show what they can do and I think that will be good for them in the long run that'll help build up that that that depth and we're going to see a lot of these guys next season as major contenders but the Diamondbacks really I mean sounds it sounds bad to say it but they're not really competing to win spring training games right now because you know their lead off hitter is a guy who has a broken hand he's you know granted it's Corbin Carroll but he's batting with a broken

31:16hand Ildemar of Vargas is and and Paven Smith and Jorge Barrosa are the only other major league players that played for the Dbacks and Vargas went two for three hit a home run Barrosa went one for three and Paven Smith went one for three and like other than that there was one other guy who I did not recognize Danny Seretti who got a hit a home run actually scored the third run so good for him but I think that was the only other hit nobody else got a hit Seretti got his home run Paven Smith got a single Jorge Barrosa got a single Ildemar of Vargas had a single and a home run that was it so it's kind of frustrating when you get like games in a row that are like this but again you look at who's missing and it starts to make sense so that's just that's just how it is obviously you'd love it if the Dimebacks had the kind of depth where they

32:20were just their triple A guys were competing with major league guys for sure but yeah that's just that's just not how that's just not where they're at right now and it's a bummer but that does not say that they're out for the that doesn't mean that they're out you know for the count so they still have they still have a shot they still have a chance and I still am pretty optimistic about their their 2026 so anyway but let me know what you think is this like a big red flag for you or do you see like okay you see hopefully the way I see it is just this is spring training they're still just getting started there are a lot of players that won't be playing momentum is a big deal you see these pictures giving up a bunch of runs would they be giving up that many runs if it was a closer game I don't think they would be so it's it's it's all just part of it and it's a different game during spring training than it is during the regular season so we really don't know

33:23and if you look at the stats from spring training wins last year versus the regular season stats they don't line up at all or at least the the the win-loss ratios they don't line up so I wouldn't be too terribly worried about it myself but let me know what you think maybe I'm maybe I'm maybe I'm being maybe I'm being overly optimistic but I'm sure I'm sure you'll tell me in the comments anyway thank you so much for watching and for listening thank you for following on x instagram facebook and tiktok at lockdown diamondbacks we're on youtube as well as every other place you get your podcasts if you want to see more of me you can find more of my youtube channels and projects at my website slackshack.tv and if you never miss an episode remember the everyday club is built for you get locked on diamondbacks ad-free plus the members only discord access and more head to locked on diamondbacks supercast.com to join the club thanks again and I will see you tomorrow

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