JR Interview with John Gambadoro

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One year upgrade requires Go 5G Next plan, financing new qualifying device, and upgrading in good condition after six months with half paid off. It is the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. We've talked about it a lot this week. We got a little bit of a shock, a little bit of a surprise. The Arizona Diamondbacks are going to the World Series to take on the Texas Rangers. Someone maybe not surprised, someone who's seen the entire season kind of play out and take them to a World Series is someone joining us from 98.7 FM out in Phoenix, holding it down for them. It's Jon Gambadoro. How are you, my man? JR, how you doing, my friend? I got no complaints. I guess the first question is, for everybody who's finding out about these Arizona Diamondbacks, are you surprised?

And what has kind of taken them over the edge here? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, no, I'm not totally surprised. I did, you know, on my predictions, I thought they'd beat Milwaukee and I thought they would crush the Dodgers because the Dodgers, yeah, they didn't have Walker Bueller. They didn't have their top pitchers, right?

They didn't have Gonsolin, they didn't have Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw as the shell of himself. So I thought that they would beat the Dodgers. I didn't think they'd beat the Phillies. I didn't see them beating the Phillies. But you got to remember, JR, what a lot of people say, oh, this team won 84 baseball games, it's the worst team.

This is a different team. And they started with Madison Bumgarner. They got rid of him after four starts. They had Zach Davies. They cut him. They got rid of Nick Ahmed. They got rid of Carson Kelly, Josh Rojas, Andrew Chapin. Like, they reworked this team on the fly as the season was going along. And they ended up with a pretty good baseball team. So I don't think we should be shocked that the Diamondbacks are in the World Series. This is not the team that started the season.

It's a much different team than the team that just won 84 games. John Gambador is joining us here. The JR Sportbreeze shows CBS Sports Radio.

He holds it down on 98.7 FM out in Phoenix, Arizona. You talk about some of the players that they were able to bring in and have been impact players. I mean, I didn't even see Paul Siewald coming on to contribute in such a way. What has he meant to this team as they've decided to kind of throw him out there and say, hey, man, finish up these games for us? You know, the Diamondbacks were going through this, JR, they were going through this terrible stretch where they went 16-34. From June 13th to August 11th, they went 16-34.

That's a 320 winning percentage. They had like a 10 or 11 game losing streak. They were not playing good. Mike Hazen, and I talked to Mike Hazen at the time, you know, they were going to make some trades, try to make the team better, but they weren't going all in. Like, they didn't look at this team and say, I'm going to trade my top prospects to go get Jordan Montgomery.

I'm going to trade my top prospects. They didn't go after Berlin or Max Scherzer. They liked their team.

They're definitely a year ahead of schedule, but the most important thing they did was what you just mentioned. They got Paul Siewald. It was the worst time ever. They couldn't find a closer to save their lives.

It's been this way forever. I mean, as long as I've been here in Arizona, they've had a really hard time finding somebody to close out baseball games for them. From Matt Mantime, Ziegler was good. Brad Ziegler was good, but they really struggled there.

Once they got Siewald and Ryan Thompson, Tampa Bay let go for nothing, nobody picked him up. The Diamondbacks got him. They reworked their bullpen. It was amazing. The weakness they had, the biggest weakness they had, they had a terrible bullpen.

It was atrocious. And now it's like the strength of this baseball team is how good their bullpen is. It's incredible. But it's all new guys. Thompson's new. Siewald's new. Gingkel's not. He's been great all year. But bringing in Paul Siewald, a great trade by Mike Hazen, enabled them to bump everybody down.

Gingkel in the eighth, Thompson in the seventh, and they just kind of reestablished order for them. Well, listen, man, I want to ask you about this dude. He's 23 years old. He's going to be Rookie of the Year. It's Corbin Carroll. When you think about a young organization like the Arizona Diamondbacks, and you think about a dude who's 23 years old, does he have a chance, and God knows how long he's going to play, is there an opportunity for him when it's done in, I don't know, 10, 15 years to be the best player that this organization has had in its young history?

Yeah, I think so. I think the best homegrown player they've ever had is Paul Goldschmidt, who they traded away a terrible trade for them, Luke Weaver and Carson Kelly from St. Louis. They couldn't afford to pay him. But what they did is they took this rookie and they gave him an eight-year contract. He's locked up until, I think, even 2032 is the first time he could be a free agent because there's an option year in there for 2031. He signed that contract.

He locked himself up. He's making over $100 million as a 23-year-old kid. He's got a chance to be one of the truly great baseball players. The speed, the power, the willingness to do whatever it takes, he is a special, special baseball player. He's going to be the Rookie of the Year.

He's going to run away with it. Look what he did yesterday, J.R. I mean, he was the reason they won that game yesterday. He was the reason with the three hits, the stolen base, the big sac fly, the RBI single. His fingerprints were all over that victory. He's a great player. And that's what Mike Hazen had to do when he got here. He had to redo the entire minor league system.

And he did it. Alec Thomas, Corbin Carroll, Brandon Fodt, and the trade that he made for Gabby Moreno. This team is young. They're exciting.

And they're going to be relevant for a number of years because of how many good young players they have. John Gambadore joining us here at the J.R. Sport Reshow CBS Sports Radio.

John holds it down on 98.7 FM out in Phoenix. You named a lot of players. We saw what Fodt was able to do out there on the mound. And Corbin Carroll having an amazing postseason here.

No fear. There are a lot of these players who have been anonymous. I remember being in Phoenix for the Super Bowl earlier this year and walking around Chase Field.

And you look up at some of the photos and the names and you just go, man, they got a ways to go to build and get to relevancy. And months later, here we are, they're going to the World Series. Is there another player that America, that people listening to us right now, that they need to pay attention to in this World Series and into the future for the Diamondbacks besides Carroll? You know, their top prospect is on the roster, Jordan Lawler.

But he doesn't play because Perdomo, Geraldo Perdomo has been so good at shortstop. It allowed them to get rid of Nick Ahmed. Nick Ahmed was part of the Justin Upton trade. He was the last piece standing from when they traded Justin Upton to Atlanta.

And Nick Ahmed had been the longest tenured Arizona Diamondback. And I'll tell you, it was kind of sad because they cut him. I mean, they just let him go. They let him go. He wasn't doing a good job. He wasn't hitting left-handed pitching.

They let him go. Perdomo has done a great job. But Gabby Moreno is very much going to be, in my opinion, the next Nadia Molina, the next Pudge Rodriguez, the next truly great catcher in this game. He is great defensively.

He's tough as nails. He's got a good offensive game. I think Alec Thomas may be the best defensive centerfielder in baseball.

And I'm not kidding. I really don't think I've ever seen anybody. And the Diamondbacks have had Devon White. They've had Steve Finley. They've had Chris Young. They've had really good centerfielders. Thomas may be the best. It's hard to sit there and say one guy. Brandon Faught, he pitched 12 games in Reno this year, and he's pitched four games in the postseason. They've won every one of them, and he's been terrific. So J.R., to be honest with you, man, it's four or five guys. It's hard to name just one. There's four or five guys that America's going to find out about if they haven't already because these guys are so good.

Well, Jon, let me ask you two more questions here. Who the hell do you got winning the World Series? Are you going to take the hometown Diamondbacks to beat the Rangers, or you still think they got some more climbing to do?

No, I didn't think they... And I was honest with you, right? I picked them to beat Milwaukee. I picked them to beat the Dodgers. Wasn't surprised that they beat the Dodgers the way they did, sweeping them. I thought Philly would get them, and they were up 2-0. I thought Philly would beat them. I do think they're better than the Rangers because I don't think that the combination of Vivaldi and Montgomery are as good as Wheeler and Nola. And who knows what you're going to get from Max Scherzer, the former Diamondback, by the way.

Who knows what you're going to get from him? The Diamondbacks have Gallen, Kelly. They got Fod. They'll pitch a bullpen game in game four. Their bullpen has been lights out, and they just... They play baseball the old-fashioned way. Move a runner over. Get a sac fly. Bunt the guy over.

Steal a base. They didn't hit a home run yesterday, and they won the baseball game. Like they can win games in a lot of different ways that other teams can't. They're terrific defensively, sensational defensively, to be honest with you.

I think a lot of guys that are Gold Glove candidates and caliber players. So there's a lot to like about this baseball team. They just... And they're very, very well-managed by Torrey Lovello. They execute. They execute. So I'm going to take Arizona over the Texas Rangers. Not a hometown decision.

I think that they will find a way to win because that's what they've been doing lately. Yeah, it's been fun to... And we talked about this last night on the air, how the Phillies, it was pretty amazing how they were just smacking home runs all over the place and that they were having success with it. And that's all good and well until you don't. And we see where the Phillies are. Last question for you, John, as we get ready to move on. There's a lot of conversations, a lot of commentary about this is going to be the lowest-rated World Series ever and who wants to see the Diamondbacks and who wants to see the Rangers.

What do you say to that? What do you tell America about what is likely going to take place over this next week? Man, if people are going to miss out on watching this World Series, they're insane. I mean, do you realize how great these baseball games have been? Chatel Marte with a walk-off hit in Game 3, Alec Thomas with a pinch hit tying a home run in Game 4, Gabby Moreno with the base hit as they had this unbelievable comeback in Game 4 to beat the Phillies, a bullpen game and they win, Merrill Kelly, four home runs in one inning. What they did, the heroics of Game 7, you're missing a good baseball team if you decide you're not going to watch this.

I don't buy any of it. I mean, I really don't. I mean, I understand that certain portions, you know, if you're not a diehard baseball fan in New York and L.A. or Boston or some of these teams aren't in it, you may not be tuned in.

But this is a drawback team, J.R., this is a team that will bring people back and make them love baseball, you know, the way they did when, you know, Ricky Henderson was stealing bases and just the way that they play the game, they play it the right way and they're exciting and they're young and they're fun and, man, if you decide not to watch this World Series, you might miss some incredible baseball. Hey, John, I appreciate you taking the time to hop on. Where can people follow and keep up with you, all of your work out in Arizona?

Yeah, ArizonaSports.com is our website on Twitter or X, whatever they call it now, I'm Gambo 987, so that's pretty much the main thing, that's probably my main source of interacting with people besides my radio show, is Gambo 987 on the old Twitter. Hey, John, I appreciate you hopping through. Let's talk to you again, win or lose, good deal? You got it, J.R., take care. My man, thank you so much, John Gambadore, for joining us here on CBS Sports Radio, host on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM out in Phoenix, Arizona. They've always been nice to me out there when I've been in the area. Thank you, John, for coming through and I'm going to be tuning into the World Series and I really do appreciate what he said and we did talk about this last night.

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