Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Hopscast, hosted by Jen Ellis, co hosted and produced by Sonny Fono.
Each week we'll take you behind the scenes during the 2026 Hillsborough Hops baseball season.
Anything can happen in minor league baseball and we'll bring it all to you. From exclusive interviews with players and coaches to roster updates, player call ups and even the craziest plays of the week. It's all right here on Hopscast.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: My favorite team.
Who's your favorite team? We are rolling.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: Ah.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: What up you guys?
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Welcome back to Hopscast. We are in the building.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: That's right, the beautiful Hops ballpark. And the weather decided to show up for us today and be nice.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's going to be a hot summer all the way the rest of the way.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you know what hot means? That means that balls jump out of the ballpark. So hopefully we'll see some home runs.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, let's get some offense going, get some souvenirs out into the crowd.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: How's it going? We took the road trip week off. They had a 4 and 2, 4 and 2 road trip to Everett and they broke out the bats a couple of those games. 11 runs, 12 runs.
And it seems like the pitching's been holding up. We're going to have a little chat with Seth about a bunch of new guys that came up.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah, we got a bunch of new guys that are a couple of guys making their Hops ballpark debut tonight. J.D. dicks. He was one of the.
I think he was in the first round last year. First round pick last year. We'll ask Seth about that. And then Jacque, you and Carlos Viranda. Those are a couple of new names. We'll be asking Seth about those guys and. And then we're also going to talk to our good friend Tyler Zickel because you know, we're playing the Vancouver Canadiens this week. That is my favorite Northwest league team north of the border. And you know, you and I both worked for them. So I've always got a soft spot in my heart for the Canadians and we love Tyler, he's a great guy. So we'll get to talk to him about it too.
[00:02:03] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Excited to talk to Z. He's been doing a home run derby event as well that he travels for. So I wanted to get some information about. That looks really cool.
And yeah, Tyler welcomed me into minor league baseball. I worked for the Canadiens doing music for them during the COVID season when they were here in Hillsborough. So I was a Proud Canadian for about four, what, four or five months?
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah, something like that. Yeah, me too.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: That's where we really forged our relationship in dynamics. So it's. It's nice to see the Canadians back in town. It means we have to allow a little extra time for anthems.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Yes. I personally love the Canadian anthem. When my wife Laura and I went to see the Canadians in Vancouver at Nat Bailey Stadium, it was the most beautiful moment. And I don't think I've seen a moment like that here yet with the Star Spangled Banner. But with O Canada, for some reason in that venue, everyone was standing up and everyone was singing and it just gave us chills and I literally was crying. It was really beautiful. Like the way they take so much pride in O Canada there at Nat Bailey Stadium. It was amazing.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I still got to make my way up there for a game.
Been wanting to go for the last couple years. It's just so hard to play catch up on the off weeks to be able to schedule a trip up there. But I definitely want to get up there.
Yeah, I thought maybe take the train just to make it easier. But there's only one train that goes all the way to Vancouver. It's just a whole thing. So if you're gonna go up to Vancouver, check out the Nat. The food looks amazing.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, it is. It's so good. I had a Katsu hot dog. I remember that was really delicious. And then they have that giant like three foot long hot dog.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, you know, I would definitely try to take that down. Do not. What if you do that, can you just do three?
[00:03:51] Speaker A: If you do.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: If you're doing like the 99 and 9.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: If it's like a three foot long hot dog, you could just eat three of those, right?
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. That'd be done.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: So, yeah, we've got the Canadians in town. It's pretty exciting. Feels good. The weather's good. Summer's here we are.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: We have not seen a walk off Bach anywhere yet, but we're still have that out in the universe if it happens anywhere. Not just here, but if that happens anywhere. We got our. We're on the lookout for it.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: We had the bases loaded a couple weeks ago. And how did the walk off? Came with Kason Cunningham's comebacker. His first hit and he bounced it off the pitcher. His first hit as a hop and it was just like a right off. The pitcher dribbled off the mound, scored the winning run. I was, I was hoping for that bulk I was holding my breath. You pointed it out to me too. You're like, hey, we're. We're in there with the walk off ball, so.
And you're on the PA for three nights this week and how many on the next week?
[00:04:49] Speaker A: I'm doing PA on the 30th and the 1st. So June 30th and July 1st. One of those is Women in Sports Night. I. I think it's the 30th is women in Sports Night.
So.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Okay, so, yeah, and then we've got a bunch of themes coming up this week. Sonodorus game on Sunday, country night on Thursday, Star Wars Night, which I've got some special content for Star Wars Night. And yes, of course, our correspondent Toasty has contributed to that. And she'll be in the house and she'll be interviewing different people here for
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Star wars night, taking her little grogu around and everything.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: It's our little grogu.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Pardon me.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: It is her. It is hers, though. I. I got it for her for Christmas.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: So. But it's our child. Since.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Yes, you birthed it.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Since we've just exchanged stepchildren.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: That. That's our.
Our ugly Baby, as he's known around the house.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: He's adorable.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: So. All right, well, let's go find Tyler. Let's see what's up with Zick, and then we'll try to catch Seth too. We'll see these Tuesdays we've been trying to record, and we just got to kind of chase everybody down right up to the wire. So.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah, there's lots of stuff going on, so go track them down.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Let's go. House.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: We're back. We are joined by the one and only Tyler Zickel. He is the play by play for the Vancouver Canadiens on radio and tv.
[00:06:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: And so we got Tyler Z Zickle in the building.
Man, he's got many titles, actually. I know that he also hosts a home run derby event that we want to find out more about, but what's up, zck? Welcome to HOS Ballpark. We're so happy to have you here.
What do you think? What's in store for us?
How's your team? Who's the guy we're looking for? We got all kinds of questions for you.
[00:07:07] Speaker D: I'm so stoked to be here. Thanks to the both of you. This is. Is an honor and a privilege and to be here. First of all, I can't believe it took this long for the Canadians to come to their former home. Away from home against Qualadon Valley. But good things come to those who wait. And man, oh man, Seth gave me a tour back in January when things were out. No, 70% done. But to be able to see them, to be able to see all of the hard work that's gone into this ballpark, is incredible. It reminds me a lot of a AAA stadium or a place that even big league baseball could be played. On my short tour of the Fin product just coming up here right now. So really stoked to be here, really excited to watch these two teams battle it out and not a lot of chances for the season hops to play each other. Only 18 games on the docket between these two teams, so we'll see how it goes.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Is that an unusually low number? Is that a travel thing? Do you guys play Spokane more games or ever more games to proximity? Or is it just kind of a scheduling quirk? Because I'm not really sure how any of that works.
[00:08:09] Speaker D: I wish it was that simple and you'd think that the schedule makers would take that into account. But we still haven't been to Everett, and they're only two hours plus away from us, the same way Eugene is 90 minutes, two hours away from y' all here in Hillsborough. So for us, 18 games against any opponent is a small amount, but it's only six teams in the league, right? So it only creates so many matchup scenarios. So an opportunity to see a team a few amount of times I think is going to make this season series between the Hops and the Canadiens that much more intriguing. Whereas I think it's Eugene that plays the Canadiens 36 times. That's like six different series. In fact, I know that we play the Tri City Dust Devils 36 times. We go there four separate occasions to go to Pasco. So by the time we get to August and September, that could change some of the experience for both the teams because you get used to seeing all the guys even with all the promotions. So we'll soak up these 18 games. I'm glad that we get to come to y' all twice instead of y' all coming to us twice. Matt's already been up once and that's it. So I'm excited to live it up here twice in my proverbial backyard since I live in East Portland.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So you're still based in Portland?
[00:09:12] Speaker D: Yeah, still based in Portland.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: And that's where your family, your lovely wife and your baby are. So that's cool that you get to be at home and in your own bed for a few of these games.
[00:09:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I always circle and my wife Kate always circles the Hillsborough series on the schedule. In fact, the next time we're here, It'll be her 30th birthday week, which will be great. Gonna celebrate it here at some point. But to be able to not just sleep in my own bed, but wake up next to my wife and my son and be able to, you know, do all the daddy duties and the hubby do list and that sort of thing. So to be able to just be a part of home life and work life all wrapped up in one. I always love coming to Hillsboro.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Sorry about the little bit of a technical difficulty here, but yeah, man, thanks so much for making the time for us. So who are the players that we're looking at?
The Hops and the Diamondbacks organizations had a huge youth movement. A bunch of guys from our 21, 20, 21 season are in the bigs when we all worked for the Canadiens together.
David Schneider probably being the most recognizable name. Spence to the fence is now with the Pirates. Addison Barger is up with the big league club now too.
But so do the Blue Jays have as much of a youth movement going on as the Diamondbacks?
[00:10:28] Speaker D: I would say not quite the same way. You look at the team that's in Toronto right now and it's guys who are established stars who are powering their success or lack thereof. But you know, right around 500 these days after all those injuries that beset the Blue Jays roster, obviously Vladi is the centerpiece. You've got guys like Dalton Varsho and Andres Jimenez who are veterans. Okamoto just coming over from Japan, being able to make an instant contribution. He's fantastic. The outfield defense is not nearly as good simply because they don't have the same kind of corner outfield players who have been consistent. So a long winded way, say more established veterans, both stars and everyday grinder type of guys for the Blue Jays. Not quite the same way. Seeing the guys like Tommy Troy hitting home runs for the Diamondbacks, I remember when he was in this league just a few short seasons ago and to see just even a small amount of former players, not just from the Canadians, but from the Northwest League in general, go up to the major leagues and have success. I think that's so cool. We get to be a part of everybody's journey in a small way. And so for us on the Canadiens roster right now, the hottest hitter maybe in the entire organization is Tucker Tolman. Plays all over the field. Thoman is or was the Northwest League player of the week until this most past month, this most recent Monday where they announced another one. And so Tolman this month I was just looking at his stats. His OPS is in the 1400s and not to get too, you know, crunchy baseball analytics with anybody, but anything north of 900 is considered very good. North of a thousand is Lee. He's in the 1400s over the last 16 games in the month of June. So Toman is the hitter to watch. Tonight's starter, Nolan Perry, number 15 Blue Jays prospect. He is certainly one of the more buzzworthy arms in the Blue Jay system right now. Had a great month of May and was named the Northwest League pitcher of the month last month. Had two weeks where he missed his starts. Just dealing with some lingering, you know, soreness from the previous star. Had been working five innings consistently. So Nolan Perry making his second consecutive start after that two week layoff. The Iowa meat truck is back. Payton Williams. Many astute Canadians and Northwest League fans will remember the 6 foot 5, 260 pound first baseman from Johnston, Iowa. He is back just on a kind of a sort of finding himself mission this year that the Blue Jays sent him on. He started in single aid Dunedin after spending all of last year in double A New Hampshire. Now back with us. Played about 35 games. Hit two home runs last week in Spokane. His first two home runs as a Canadian this year, including one that went 459ft. He's always a treat when he comes to the plate and the bullpen's thin right now for the seas. It was a very curious series in Spokane. Tons of home runs, tons of hits for both teams, tons of runs.
So we'll see how it all shakes out here in Hillsborough at a slightly more hitter friendly park from what I've heard than the old RTF Ron Tonkin Field. It's always Ron Tonkin in my heart.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah, we, we still call it the Tonk over there. Yeah, House ballpark is I guess it's pretty hitter friendly, especially out to left field.
325 in the corner there. That's where we've seen a lot of power from hitters like yes, El Soler who had his first home run just straight between the flagpoles. He just put it up like a field goal and it just went straigh straight through and that was for a walk off win.
So that was our first home run here in the, in the building. It was pretty cool.
Yeah, the. That guy's so big. Peyton Williams is so big.
He's Like a, A nose. He could be a nose tackle on a most football, most NFL team. So cool. We don't want to take too much of your time. I really appreciate the information stuff. Why don't you tell us though? Because I see sometimes on social media that you'll just be like off to some major league ballpark for a weekend and you're doing this home run derby thing. I'm not exactly sure what the event's called. Fill me in, dude. Tell me what's going on.
[00:14:02] Speaker D: So this is an event that Major League Baseball has been incubating for almost five, maybe six years now. I think actually maybe just before COVID they tried to do the first ever iteration. It had been called Home Run Derby X from its start to just the end of this last year. Now that MLB has sort of proven the concept, they have rebranded as mlbx. But essentially it's a three on three home run derby event that includes defense. So there's a little of an over the line aspect. The field is a similar shape, so like a triangle that extends out from a raised hitting platform. Where for example, we're going to Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia as part of the All Star festivities. That events on July 12th. I'll be there for that. Very stoked on that. But you set up the hitting platform, say in the middle of the infield, and then you hit out to the outfield. Fans can be of course behind the wall, but then you set up to three defenders on the opposing team. You can catch balls that don't make it over the fence as points. But then for every home run you get points as well. You can also go on a hot streak where you get five balls for double the points. And if you hit it through the uprights, which are in dead center field, based on the way that the field of play is aligned, you get double points as well. Or like essentially like a grand slam actually. So four times the points. So it's a cool little thing that MLB has really started to put its weight behind. This year we'll have a Philadelphia theme. So Jimmy Rollins will have a team, Ryan Howard will have a team, Shane Victorino will have a team. And then they're doing a Braves mix in as well to play up that rivalry. So Andrew Jones will be a captain of a team as well. And then they'll get professional softballers, including probably some members of the Cascade who are going to be a part of this event come July 12th.
And sometimes college players or even local players will participate based on wherever the event's being held. So I feel really lucky to be a part of it. This is my third season doing it and it's just great to go represent. Yes, for myself, but also for the Cs at the major league level, albeit in a non traditional way. But it's very grateful, I feel very grateful that is to be able to do this and be the Canadians broadcaster.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, and talking earlier about, you know, Sonny Fono saying that he sees you on social media doing all these awesome things. One thing that I really just have to shout you out for, that I loved. During the World Series, you were chatting with, you were in Dodger Stadium, you were chatting with David Schneider, Snyder and with Addison Barger. And you mentioned to both of them that they were two of very few on the roster that actually played their home games in Hillsborough in 2021 and were familiar with both Nat Bailey and being here in Hillsborough. So I was like, yeah, he's shouting out Hillsborough at the World Series.
And then David Schneider hit that leadoff home run in that game and his dad was wearing the goggles, the. What are they called?
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Google.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Google goggles or whatever.
Oh man, that was so awesome. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. But yeah. Oh, that was so great. So I mean, how, how does that feel when. I mean, because I know that you, you love going to the major league ballparks and everything and getting to, to have that experience. But tell us about that being at the World Series.
[00:16:54] Speaker D: Well, first of all, it was just an incredible run for the Blue Jays from a very poor first half of the regular season. They got so hot down the stretch, obviously made the playoffs, did what they needed to do in the early rounds. And as I continue in my, what is this now, ninth season in the Blue Jays organization. I know a good bit of people amongst Blue Jays brass. And so I saw that there was a potential first for the alcs for the Blue Jays to come to the west coast and play in Seattle. I live in Portland in the off season, as I said. So that's a short drive up by five. Even if I was in Vancouver, it'd be a short drive down. So they clinched to go to the alcs and I thought, I'm going to ask if I can get media credentials to go to the American League Championship Series. I got the yes from the Blue Jays, who hooked me up with their contact at mlb, Got the official credentials through Major League Baseball's office in New York. Pick them up at T Mobile for the first of the three games there, I covered all three games, commuting back and forth between Portland and Seattle for each one because I'm trying to ball on a budget when the team is paying for it. So just being there and representing, I was wearing my SEIZE gear and seeing the guys, everybody was surprised in the best way to see not just me, who they know personally, but somebody from the minor league affiliate on the field with credentials making content doing all that stuff. So those were three great games to be in the building for the Eugenio Suarez grand slam was wild. I could, I can still still feel my bones shaking from that moment. As much as it sucked to see from a Blue Jays fan and employee perspective. But then they wrap up that series, I'm thinking, wait a second, I might as well just submit for LA in case they win. This was maybe like halfway through the series, I thought, let me submit for those credentials on the west coast. Only if the Blue Jays make it to the World Series, not any other team, they win the AL title and they are going to Los Angeles. So I end book a flight, do all these things. Thanks to the company for making sure they expensed it and had a chance to spend those three days in LA where again surprising people with our presence and with my presence, just soaking it all up. And to be in person at first of all, the 18 inning game, that was wild to see Shohei Ohtani pitch in the World Series. I'm from San Diego originally and I'm a huge Padres fan. I'm a Dodger hater as well, but after watching Shohei in person, I have a begrudging respect for what he's able to do, especially in big moments.
And so covering those three games as a baseball fan, it will always go down as some of my all time favorite baseball memories. I went to college in Los Angeles as well, so got to reconnect with some friends, ran into some college people at the game a couple of nights. And so just to be able to be a part of that whole process and then for the Blue Jays to become two feet or one oddly bouncing ball away from winning the World Series, pretty wild. And so I think this can go down as arguably the greatest World Series certainly of this millennium and a top five of all time.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:19:35] Speaker D: And to get to have witnessed three games in person and to know people personally who participated it in it, a true treasure.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:41] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: I love it. I love it. That's so awesome. And we always talk about how fortunate we feel to get to see these guys at this level and follow them and watch them make it to the big leagues. And then, you know, I always feel like a proud auntie and I'm like, oh my God, my Davis Schneider is in the World Series by Addison Bar. You know, I mean, I love those guys and I just have like a soft spot in my heart for the seas and you know, of course for the D backs as well too. I mean like watching these guys, like you said, Tommy Troy and I mean some of these guys that were just here last year, Ryan Waldschmidt was here last year. He's, you know, trolling the center field now.
[00:20:14] Speaker D: He beat us up.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So I, I, we both love seeing that. So I'm glad that you mentioned that as well. Being able to, to watch the guys, you know, move up to the big leagues and see their success from there.
[00:20:25] Speaker D: Yeah, this is a special place. Y' all are special people. It's so great. There are so many HOPS employees who are still holding it down from working back in 2021 for the Canadiens. And that's what makes Minor League baseball special. This would definitely be worthy of my final thought because despite the corporatization of baseball at the big league level, and now we see it at the minor league level, the contraction after Covid Diamond Baseball holdings of which the Canadians are a part of, and we have had nothing but a great experience with dbh. But people may look at that and see, oh my gosh, this corporation is buying up scores and scores of minor league teams. What does that mean for the future of the game? Well, who knows? It's easy to forget that this is a game, but it's also a business. So we certainly have to understand from Major League Baseball's perspective, they view this as a product, excuse me, and as a product, they want to control as many variables as possible. Now we get to benefit from that. That's why we're sitting in this beautiful new building. That's because Major League Baseball required this. We have stuff going on at our 75 year old ballpark. The NAT in Vancouver, bringing it up to standard as much we can given the limitations of a three quarter century old facility. And so the relationships now are the thing that makes Minor League baseball unique to what it is. These cross organizational relationships. Hops and Canadiens, Eugene and Hopps. I know it's a quite a friendly and sometimes not so friendly rivalry. We do our thing with Everett, we've had back and forth with Spokane over the years. Tri City is playing some of their best baseball of the HI era. Doug Taylor, their voice does A great job representing them. This entire league for me, even though there's only six teams, is truly one of the jewels of minor league baseball. And I've now been in three different leagues and I would say that the Northwest League, as small as it may be, is quite mighty. And to be a small part of it and to get to share it with the two of you and the rest of the league, truly a special part of my career.
Yeah.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Thanks so much for joining us. We'll. We'll tag you in the social post and put your Instagram, if that's all right, in the, in the comments and we'll see you next time. We hope that you guys have fun while you're here and looking forward to seeing you in the fam. Man, thanks so much.
[00:22:31] Speaker D: Thanks you guys go sees.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Okay. We are with Seth Hoyland. Hello, Seth. Thank you for having us back.
[00:22:59] Speaker C: I gotta follow up Zickle. There's no way I can.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah, right, I know. Well, maybe we'll switch it around when, when Sonny Fono.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: Yeah, put me first.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, put you first. Well, thanks for coming back and being with us. We're back at Hops Ballpark for a new series against the Vancouver Canadiens, who we all love and know well. But we wanted to ask you about the new guys on our roster because we have a lot of new faces at Hops Ballpark tonight.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of new faces in the lineup.
A pretty, pretty big transaction log over the past couple weeks. But I mean you look at a lineup that no doubt is the most talented on paper, I think in the league, maybe one of the most talented teams in all of minor league baseball. Honestly, I know that's saying a lot out of 120 teams, but there's not many teams you're going to find that have four first round picks on them. And that's what we have right now, including three first round pick position players, which is extremely rare. So Slade Caldwell, obviously he's been with us his second year with us. He was the 29th pick in 2024. And then we just added JD Dicks, he's a 20 year old infielder. He was the 35th overall pick the same year as Slade's pick. So they were just six picks apart from each other. And then case in Cunningham, he was the 18th pick in last year's draft. And then Patrick Forbes, he's a starting pitcher. We'll see him on Saturday. He was the 29th pick in 2025. So very loaded team. And That's. That's just the kind of, you know, the big names, I guess, per se. But there's still a lot of other players who have contributed who maybe aren't necessarily top prospects. I mean, look at Alberto Barriga. He was one of the best players in the league to start the season, and he's nowhere to be found on any prospect list, so.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:35] Speaker C: You just never know.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: He got bumped up immediately.
[00:24:38] Speaker D: Almost.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Yep, yep. So he's in. He's in Double A.
We got a couple new catchers to go along with Kenny Castillo, who's been playing very, very well. I think he's batting right around.300 on the year. He's putting together a great season at the plate, but it seems like almost every night there's another top guy who's just out of the lineup just because there's that many guys that you can kind of plug in. So, yeah, definitely a good problem to have.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: So we got tonight. Our catcher is Carlos Viranda.
[00:25:04] Speaker C: Yep, yep. He's another good one. He really is very similar to Bariga. Kind of an undersized catcher. He's 5, 10, 200 pounds, young catcher out of Venezuela. He's got a lot of pop. He had a home run in Everett, but kind of having a breakout season as well. Kind of like Barriga did, just in low way. So be my first time seeing him, but chatted with him a little bit before the game. He's a. He's a fun. A fun guy to be around. And definitely him and Kenny will get a fair share of the starts behind the plate, but I hear good things about him. And as far as the bat goes, it sounds like it's not much of a downgrade from Parika, which is good. No, nobody will compete with Barriga's arm. I mean, he has one of the best arms, probably the best arm I think we've ever seen. We. We're all in agreements over on the. The broadcast side that there's not many better arms that you'll see behind the plate. So I don't know about defensively, but with the bat at least. I don't think he's that much of a downgrade from Barriga.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Right. And Cabeza is also about the same size, too. Are they? I mean, like, how.
[00:26:04] Speaker C: Yeah, they're. They're both. They're both undersized catchers I haven't seen.
He's a little bit older, but all three catchers, Venezuelan catchers, so we should see him at some point. And Kenny will be the dh, too. Just because of his bat. So I think he's the DH today. It'll allow Cabeza to get in there a little bit more. But again, you look at the position players and there's really, really no drop off anywhere. So Jose Mejia has been a little banged up, had a foul ball go off his foot. So he missed three games in Everett. But he's really starting to get the bat going since he was called up from Visalia.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And we also have Jacque Yosef.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: Yeah, he's tonight. Yeah, he's a really exciting. Another young player. He's actually from Curacao.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:44] Speaker C: Which you don't see very often. Obviously the Joneses from. From there as well. But yeah, y. But he's. Yeah, he's another exciting player. He had a home run in Everett, but a mix of power and speed and covers a lot of room in the outfield.
So I think like Avery is the odd man out today and he's a Diamondbacks top 30 prospect. So there's a perfect example right there of just any given night you got got. I mean, it kind of puts a good pressure on the players though. They know, hey, you're not performing. You got someone ready to come and, and play right. Right after you.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: So you might not know, but was Jacque on the World Baseball Classic team?
[00:27:20] Speaker D: I.
[00:27:20] Speaker C: That. I don't know. I would assume so because I don't know. Yeah, yeah. For the Netherlands, I believe he actually was because Drew was on the team and then Andrew was the. The skipper there. I think he was. And then Wallace Clark was on team Great Britain and actually the manager for that team, Brad Marcelino, he's one of the Diamondbacks hitting coordinators. He's in town this week. So he was the Great Britain manager last year.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Very cool. Right on.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: So, yeah, no, I'm definitely looking forward to this week to, you know, obviously again, you look on paper, but two and one start to the second half. The second half started on Friday. We had a tough walk off home run on a cheap home run at Funko Field, which was a 340 foot walk off home run to right center just is not fair. But hey, it happens. We move on and I, I feel pretty good about our chances in the second half. I think it's. It's going to be. Going to be a tough team to beat and we're looking for our fifth straight series win, so hopefully we'll have that. Go Hops.
[00:28:16] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Go Hops. Thanks, Seth.
All right, cool. Thanks for listening to this episode of Hopscast. Hosted by Jen Ellis and co hosted and produced by Sunny Phono. Join us again next week as we take you inside the 2026 Hillsborough Hops clubhouse. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe.
