PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arbitration Calibration

Episode Date: October 13, 2021

On this episode, Jesse and Derek discuss how good the MLB Playoffs have been so far, the comparison between the D-backs and the Tampa Bay Rays, and what will happen with some arbitration eligible players. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. And of course, this show is brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX. And simply for betting $1 on any NFL game, you will get $100,000. you will get $100 in free bets instantly if either team scores a point. I know that's a big if, but that if has been around for a long time.

So there hasn't been a zero zero time in over 50 years. So go get that drafting sportsbook app and get your free bets now. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Of course, I am joined by my co-host and friend, the little unit, Jesse Friedman. We're going with the little unit now, Derek. Now, Lillian, yeah, you drew comparisons to Randy Johnson while you were here. Everybody said it was young Randy Johnson walking around. And you gave yourself the nickname, not me.

But how have you been enjoying the playoffs? Because, man, they have been a blast. Yeah, it's been fun, man. I mean, there's really nothing like, you know, at the end of the day, just sitting down on the couch and watching some good postseason baseball. And I know the Diamondbacks are Diamondbacks aren't in there, right? Which we've talked about. It's sad.

But frankly, Derek, we've known the Diamondbacks. were going to be in there for quite some time now. I think we've all kind of gotten over it at this point, right? At least on some level. Well, I mean, I think, yeah, especially this year, there weren't very high aspirations for this team, even going into the season, right? So, you know, their division looked pretty dangerous,

like it was going to be an uphill climb for the Diamondbacks, and it proved to be worse than we even had nightmares about that they could have been. Like Mount Kilimanjaro sort of fine. Yeah. Again, though, at the end of the day, you know, I get going to the playoffs is exciting, but we already have quite a few teams that have made their exits. And, you know, there's quite a possibility that we could see some more tonight. I'm not sure where they are at in the current game that's going on.

But I know that the White Sox lost to the Astros today, the Astros move on to their fifth consecutive ALCS, which is impressive. It's only the third time in baseball that a team has done that. The Braves back in the Smoltz-Matics era, where the last team to do it, I believe that's the team. But then we also had, obviously, the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Red Sox. Red Sox win and move on. So the ALCS is set between the Red Sox and the Astros.

And our buddies over at the DNVR Rockies podcast are are wondering, if this series is just going to have like drones shooting balls out of the air and you know telegraphed plays and they're going all out on the cheating bandwagon on this. I propose this question on Twitter but I wanted to ask you

how long are the Astros going to suffer this reputation loss? How long do they have to be good for to prove that they're not that they're not this cheating team that essentially everybody has labeled them as? Yeah, I think

I think that's a tough one. I don't think it's ever going to go away, to be honest. I think we will always kind of, I mean, a team does what the Astros did. And you're just never, I mean, it's like guys who, you know, who use PEDs, right? Guys who've taken steroids, they never really get out of it, right? Like, there comes a point in their careers where we accept that they're no longer doing it, you know, and maybe there's a little bit more appreciation for who they are as a player when that time comes. but it's not something you ever forget about.

I've seen Diamondbacks fans who refuse to cheer for the Milwaukee Brewers, despite our man Eduardo Escobar being over there, because Ryan Braun was using PEDs back in 2011, which was a decade ago. He no longer even plays for the Brewers, to my knowledge, or at least he has no significant role in the organization anymore. And yet it's still a thing. Like Diamondbacks fans still won't even cheer for that baseball team

because of what happened with one individual player literally a decade ago. So I don't think the Astros ever can get rid of it. I think they can just prove, as they are now, that even without those kinds of things, there's still a pretty darn good baseball team. I think there's organizations and fans of organizations that won't get over it. I think Dodgers fans, for instance, will never get over what the Astros did. And it will only get compounded if the Dodgers, you know, don't have any further success. You know, if the Dodgers get bounced out of the playoffs here by the Giants,

which is a strong possibility after the Giants went up two to one, they're going to probably sit back and yell at Astros fans again, or the players or the organization, I'm sure, because they still feel like they have a valid gripe. And I can't really argue otherwise, you know, especially when I am a fan of the Phoenix Suns. And to this day, I still hate Robert Orie for. Absolutely. Every Arizona sports fan does. Yeah, that's never going to go away.

No, it's never, right? And so, like, again, when I think about my hatred for Robert Ori, I think, yeah, it's probably not going to go away. So anyway, kudos to the Astros for still plugging along and being a good team and who knows, probably finding new ways to skirt the rules. But whatever, that's hearsay. That's hearsay. But Jesse, what do you think about the playoffs so far, though? are you surprised by the Braves and if the Braves go on to win the series, is that probably your biggest upset so far? Or would you consider the Giants upsetting the Dodgers as an upset? I think, oh, that's tough. I think for me, honestly, the Giants beating the Dodgers would be a bigger upset,

which I know sounds crazy because the Giants and the Dodgers were literally separated by a game in the standings and the Giants had the better record. But to be honest, just looking at the Giants roster and looking at the Dodgers roster, I'm not at the point where I'm still skeptical of the Giants, right? Like, I don't need them to prove it over a full season. Like, they've already done that. But at the same time, I mean, this Dodgers lineup man is just absolutely ridiculous. I mean, AJ Pollock bats like eighth for them every night.

And he would instantly be the best hitter on a bunch of teams in baseball, right? Literally every single Dodgers hitter would bat third for the. diamond backs after Cotell Marte, like literally all of them, right? So the Giants are also great, but I mean, it's Evan Longoria. It's, you know, it's Brandon Crawford. It's guys who've had excellent seasons, but guys that I don't necessarily think the same way of as, you know, Trey Turner and Mookie Betts and guys who've been stars for a really long time in this league. The Braves and the Brewers was kind of a close matchup for me. I like the Brewers in the series, so it's still an upset for sure. But, but honestly, if the Giants finish this off, I mean,

I mean, kudos to them, man. There's something about that. There's something about that San Francisco orange in the playoffs that just allows them to go, you know, farther every single time they get there than a lot of people expected them. And it was such a close game. That Brandon Crawford play, robbing mooky bets was so important. And, I mean, it just goes to show how important some of those big runs being saved are, right? Especially in a game that ended up being that close. when you're playing the Dodgers, you can't, you can't give up extra runs.

If you can you can make phenomenal, spectacular plays like that to rob people, it needs to be done. I didn't even know Brandon Crawford still had that in him, to be honest. That was an incredible play. He's incredible, man. I mean, he's not just like their best player and like, you know, a veteran having a nice season. He's a legit, probably going to finish like top five in the MVP voting for a guy that like even a few years ago was like, yeah, he's maybe kind of past his prime and, you know, play some good defense, figured out some things offensively.

But he was never supposed to be dark grade of a player. One player I do feel kind of bad for Derek is Max Scherzer, who allowed one run and was dominant yesterday. And I mean, I don't feel that bad for Max Scherzer. I mean, he plays for the Dodgers. I don't feel that bad. But the man took his first loss in his Dodgers career while allowing one run in a playoff game over, I think he went seven innings.

So, I mean, that's. That's sort of the level that the giants are playing at somehow some way right now is they handed Max Scherzer a loss because he gave up one run and what was a really long impressive outing for him. It's almost Randy Johnson-esque, you know, when he would lose games two to one and three-to-one with no run support but have an incredible outing while playing for this team. It makes me think about, you know, the debacks and everything that obviously they've gone through in the play. their success in the playoffs and such. And I wanted to get to a comparison here in a minute with essentially their, I don't know, you'd say sister franchise or, you know, twin sibling franchise, the race. But they were bounced out of the playoffs by the Red Sox, an incredible series between those two teams,

to be honest. I had a lot of fun watching that. And it, you know, again, some major moments in very close games decided, decided that series. It was super fun to watch. I mean, there were some really intense moments. The game the other day that went 13 innings.

But honestly, this might be, this is probably the biggest upset out of any of the, out of any of the series, because the Red Sox, I mean, they're a great team. They were not expected to do what they did this year.

I mean, they had an incredible season. But the rays are legit, man. I mean, Randy or Rosarina stealing a home and just all of the, like all of the things that they did right in the series to come away with a loss and a three to one loss at that. I mean, I picked the race to go to the,

to go to the World Series, frankly. And now I kind of look like an idiot because they were bounced in the first round by the wildcard team. And, and yeah, I picked the Brewers in the National League. So so far, Derek, I am a complete mess as far as my predictions go. But that's what makes the postseason fun. You never know what's going to happen in this game. Exactly. And they say anything can happen in a one game series, but anything can happen in essentially a four game series or a three game series. You know, we see we see wilder things happen all the time. The Red Sox come in and take care of business with the raise right after losing, what was it, two out of three to the Baltimore Orioles, the worst team in baseball. So baseball is just funny like that. It's just funny like that. But you know what's not funny, Jesse? What's very serious is,

getting your free money on the Draft King's Sportsbook app and not hitting yourself in the face with the microphone. It's another week of NFL. I know we don't cover that on this show, but I watched the hell out of it. Had a great time in Las Vegas watching football literally everywhere I went. Everywhere I went made sure on Sunday that almost every game was on. It didn't matter if it was a comedy club or a restaurant or a concert that I was at. Everybody was putting on the football. And Draft Kings, of course, they are the official sports betting partner of the NFL. And new customers right now can go download the Draft King Sportsbook app, use our code of PHNX.

And for betting $1 on any NFL game, you will get $100 in free bets if either team scores a point. And it's not going to be like some of these baseball games. I guarantee you that the last zero zero tie in the NFL was in 1943. So again, this is a no-brainer offer. I've enjoyed my parlays. I got paid out on a pretty big parlay this weekend. I combined a Cardinals win with a White Sox win, Arizona Cardinals with a White Sox win,

a Cowboys win, and all of that on one parlay. These are the kind of things you two can do. So check out the Draft King Sportsbook app. Combine multiple pets from multiple games or the same game in a parlay. Again, the more legs you add, the bigger the payout. Draft Kings is safe, reliable, and best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your cash whenever you want. Use our code, PHNX, and you'll get that $100 in free bets for simply making a $1

bet on any NFL game where both teams or either team, doesn't matter, either team scores a point, if one point scored a field goal. 21 and over only, Arizona only, gambling problem, dial 1,800 next step, new customers only, eligibility restrictions apply, see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And Jesse, right now, it's the, I know it's not the end of the school year. I know it's the beginning of the school year, but it is the end of the season for the Arizona Diamondback. So I did the unfortunate task of giving them their final report card and their final grades for the year.

As you can see here, things weren't good. You know, things weren't good. They got an effing lunch? Don't even get me started on lunch, Jesse. Did you do this, Derek? Is this you're doing?

You gave them an effent lunch. This may have been my doing, Jesse. So now I just want everybody to know that I follow this up with a pretty decent explanation on all of these grades. And you can find that on go phnx.com. Of course, become a member. You can either become an annual member and get your free t-shirt from phnxlokker.com or you can go ahead and get a month-to-month membership option. And you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. Now, I know I'm looking at this and it still says that members right now get the,

buy one, get one, or buy any college shirt, get any other one half off. But I believe it's 20% off. Yeah, it's 20% off any PHNX shirt, which right now, again, that just shows you what members get. If you go on to PHNX Locker and you are a fan of the shirts, as much as I am, as much as Thunderstick Jesse Friedman is, rocking his. Look at that. Rocking that PHNX DBAX podcast shirt. It's the best one. We get a lot of, we hear a lot about the coyote shirt.

I don't want to hear about the coyote shirt anymore. I don't tell you. It's a great shirt. It's great shirt, Jesse. I'm being honest. You're not going to come and get, people come here for the honesty. They don't come here.

They don't come here for my knowledge of baseball. They just want to hear me blow hard. That's all they want. They want me to say words that we can either argue with or agree with. That's all they want. But I'm going to tell you this much. The coyote shirts fire. You can get lots of fire shirts, though, on PHNX Locker.com.

And again, if you become a member, annual membership, you get whichever one you want for free, except the Coyotes one because it's pretty sold out, but it'll be back in stock. Don't worry. And Jesse hates when I do that. And I understand because Jesse is a hometown guy. He's a hometown guy when it comes to this podcast. And he's a hometown guy when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Now, we have this connection, again, with the Tampa Bay Rays. Seeing them get bumped out of the playoffs might bring a joy to some people's hearts or if you find them to be, you know, a franchise that you can root for. or if you're a Diamondbacks fan, if you feel like we have that connection and you like rooting for them, I'm sorry that they were bounced, but I did pull some information today,

and I thought it was pretty interesting. We've talked in the past, you and I, Jesse, about, you know, what team would you rather have? Right? Which team would you rather be a fan of the success that the Diamondbacks had,

especially early on? Not which current roster would you rather? Not, yeah, no, not current roster. I guess more of the lineage up to this point, right? 23 years into both of these franchises, existence and just what they've done as teams and organizations. And let's take a look here at their records and their titles and everything that they've done.

Very similar records. 1840 and 1946 for the D-backs, 1826, 1958 for the raise, a 486 and a 483 winning percentage. NL pennants, Diamondbacks have that won from that World Series championship year. Rays have two AL pennants. As you can see, though, still some very similar stats. Really the biggest one there, and it's not really listed, at least for me, is how the Rays have had current success over the last few years versus the Diamondback success,

truly being early on. The Diamondbacks have that wildcard birth, and they have the NL West title. But in the last 10 years, the Rays really have been a consistently good team. Most of those championships or most of those wildcard births, and ALE's titles happening in the last 10 years. So I guess with the success of the raise and the way that they've continued to be successful versus the Arizona Diamondbacks kind of high highs and low lows, especially the drought that they're currently in, you know, I mean,

they had the one wild card birth, but what are your thoughts? I mean, looking at these numbers is it, it's kind of weird that these two teams are so eerily similar. I don't know if I would say high highs and low lows for the Diamondbacks. Obviously, I mean, this year is a low low, right? And I mean, I guess 2004 was a low low low. But other than that, I mean, the Diamondbacks are, frankly, I mean, I think if you ask a fan of another team, like, hey, when you think of the Diamondbacks, you think they're good. You think they're, you know, kind of mediocre.

I think people would tell you the Diamondbacks are one of the most perennially average teams that are out there. They've had a lot of seasons where they finished 82 and 80, you know, 84 and 78. If you go through, if you go through their years, they've not, you know, they've hardly ever won 100 games. They've had a couple of very bad seasons as we've talked about at length this year. But for the most part, they're kind of middle of the road. And they've been kind of like that almost every season for quite some time. And frankly, Derek, I think what, what really gets me when I think about the diamondbacks history is that the diamondbacks haven't been predicted to be good and actually followed through with being good since

2003, honestly. 2007, you think about that year, they weren't really predicted to be good. They weren't that great the year prior. That was the anybody anytime year. They won the division. 2011, they were not good at all in 2010. Nobody expected them to be good in 2011.

2017. Of course, the year prior to that, the last chip hail year, they were a mess with Shelby Miller, Zach Granky had a down year. The Diamondbacks, every time they have been good since 2003, they weren't predicted to be. and the times that people thought they were going to be good,

like the years immediately after those, they really weren't. They were actually pretty mediocre. So I don't know. I mean, I guess comparing with the race, you'd take the World Series over anything else. I mean,

that's really ultimately what we're here for. But I don't know. I mean, the Diamondbacks, their history is, I mean, am I allowed to take like the first five years of the Diamondbacks? And then just like,

no, you're not. Okay, all right. See, Zachary Smith here says, tale of two franchises since 2008, rays have progressed while the debacks struggled to be relevant, right? It's still, all of this stuff takes me back again to that stupid Bob Page book I hate and some of the information I learned in there, right? But the Diamondbacks rush their progress and it's worked one time in their franchise history.

Every other time that they've attempted to throw money at this problem and try to progress the team quickly the same way they did. early on, it's been a failure, sometimes catastrophic failure that damage the team and their ability to spend money for several years after that. I just think that the one thing I can say about the raise, six out of the last 10 years they've made the playoffs. The Diamondbacks have made it two out of the last 10 years, right? Two out of the last 10 years, and like you said, those were two years where they were not expected to do well. And in one of the cases, they just got the wild card birth. That's all they

really got. And then they, you know, got swept by the Dodgers. So not even a team that you really expected to do well in the playoffs that year. You just kind of got excited that they made it, right? The, the rays are doing more than that. They're winning a very tough ALE East division. They're, you know, making the playoffs consistently. And more than anything, they're adapting their team from year to year and staying good. Even when they make moves that people say is crazy and they can't believe they let this guy go, they somehow still find new players to step up and become good. I think this is the model the Arizona Diamondbacks want to follow at this point. You know, unfortunately, they still have this tendency to throw enormous amounts of money at

someone like Madison Bumgarner. And that's the part I think that the rays do well that they refrain from they don't fall into that trap they don't spend an extra 10 million a year on a guy who's going to hit 10 batting points higher than someone else that they could have gotten for you know half a million right like there's things like that that the rage just do better as far as managing their team managing their farm system and you know keeping their overall cost low no one really goes out to that ballpark and watches the team during the regular season so they have the same issue that we as as the debacks you know have right they have that same exact issue of financially they're not going to be able to compete with teams that can pack the ballpark every

night and sell merch you know worldwide because of how much of a you know fan favorite they are like the dodgers or the yankees and even in the angrier case it doesn't work obviously lately yeah yeah yeah i mean it's it is really a good comparison because i mean the the hail east is not a very it's not a very nice division to be in. I mean, this season you could arguably say the ALE East was the one division that was worse than the NOS. I mean, I think that's a pretty, a pretty easy case to make. I mean, it was, it's really just the Orioles that were bad in that division. Everyone else was, was an incredibly good baseball team. The one thing that the diamondbacks might do a little bit better, Derek, is as far as just their their situation with their ballpark. I know it, things have been

kind of a mess in Arizona lately. But the Tampa Bay rating, don't play in Tampa Bay. They play in St. Petersburg, and they play in a place that is basically not accessible by much of anyone. And did you hear what their owner said the other day about their owner wants to split time next year between Montreal and where they play now? They actually still want to follow through on that plan. I had no idea if that was ever going to be anything that gained any kind of traction. But it's ridiculous. I mean, could you imagine, could you imagine being on the Tampa Bay raise and like you can't really move anywhere with your family because you're going to play half your games in one place, half your games in another place, then you're going to

have, you know, half of your games on the whole of the season on the road. It's just, I mean, it's an absolutely horrible strategy. So I have no idea what they're thinking on that front. But in every other respect, I mean, the raise, as you said, are are absolutely killing it right now. Please explain something to me. What is this connection with Montreal? The rate, like Montreal didn't move to Tampa, right? They didn't, they're an expansion team. Like, it's weird that, I mean, I've even seen a really cool hat that was the combined logo of the expos and the Tampa Ray's. So I don't know. I think it probably has to do with the facility. Like Montreal has a place for them to play. Whereas other cities that people have mentioned, like, you know, maybe we want a team in

Portland or maybe we want a team in Nashville. Those places might not have like the facility ready to go for them to jump right into. But, but yeah, I mean, my. Montreal at Tampa Bay last night, last I looked at a map or not particularly close to each other. So it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense on any level whatsoever. Well, you know what they can do, though, is if they go on the road like that, Jesse, I know it might be inconvenient, but they can definitely go on to manscape.com right now and use our code of PHNX, get themselves a package for their package. That way, when they travel to Montreal, they can stay, you know, as groomed as that outfield grass.

You know what I mean? Right. By the way, happy birthday, Jesse Friedman. I have to stop in the middle of the manscape ad to tell you that, but I might turn you out one of these grooming kits. I don't know if you got one yet, but we need to get you out your own grooming kit. That way you and I can finally talk about the crop reviver ball toner

and what that's all about. But again, there is 20% off or using R code PHNX plus free shipping. You can get the performance package, again, for your package, of 4.0. It includes the brand new lawnmower 4.0 wireless charger light on the front. Fantastic. Comes with multiple guards. Super, super easy to use. And a very nice package altogether that comes with, again, Jesse, happy birthday. You're getting older. I told you about the ears and the nose that's coming. You get that weed whacker and it's 9,000 RPM motor powered 360 degree rotary dual blade system and you'll get that all cleaned up. I took my kit with me to Las Vegas this weekend. It was

very handy in the travel bag and all that. Yeah, it was my 12th wedding anniversary. So we're celebrating all sorts of things today on the podcast. But yeah, I had to make sure, you know, I had to take, I had to, I have to do that for my significant other and you should too. So again, go to mansecape.com, get 20% off and free shipping using the code, PHNX. And, you know, just take this code again. I, I, they probably don't want me telling you this. Just plug it in anywhere. Any website you go to, just put in PHNX, see if it works. Who knows?

But you can use PHNX on Draft Kings. And I know that'll work for sure on the Draft King Sportsbook app. For betting $1 on any NFL game, you'll get $100 in free bets. Instantly, if either team scores a point, a single point, Jesse. You know, they have to score runs in these baseball games. They're not going to let these go. They're not going to let them tie. And they're going to score, you know, at least one point in your NFL game.

So just bet on the Cardinals. Do that. Go bound the Cardinals. I can guarantee you. Matt Prater will at least hit a 65-yard field goal at some point during the game. But yeah, go use our code of PHNX again. Jesse, I just wanted to talk for a minute about some of these D-BX players that are eligible for arbitration and what you think might happen. We had some estimates that came out from MLB trade rumors.com. And it was very, very interesting to see. Some of them were standard, like you said, but your biggest, I guess, question mark is Christian Walker. He's a, it's an interesting case. I think I lean that they might bring him back because it's not that high of a number, but the number is 2.7. 2.7 million is what MLB trade rumors projects Christian Walker to get. This is his first year of arbitration.

We've seen the diamondbacks non-tender guys before in this process. This is how they lost Taiwan Walker. they decided they didn't want to pay him. I think it was $5 million. It was a little bit of a higher number. But Christian Walker, I mean, it's a bit of a tough sell. I mean, this is a guy who has had a couple of good seasons for the team offensively. But this year, I mean, you just can't have your first baseman have a sub 700 OPS.

I mean, your first baseman has to be the bar for them offensively is higher than everyone else. If they're a below average league hitter, you've got a serious problem on your hands. So I think it might be a little tough. to let Christian Walker go just because he is probably their best first baseman defensively by a fairly wide margin. Maybe Pavin Smith moves into that role and you feel okay about that. But after Pavin Smith, things maybe get a little bit dicey there. But yeah, I mean, this is an interesting one, Derek. I really could see the Diamondbacks going either way on this. You need to get more than, you know, nine home runs or whatever it was from your first baseman

that Christian Walker had this year. 2.7 is not that high of a number. But for the diamond backs, I mean, they're not going to be spending big and they have other guys who can play first base on the roster. So I think this is definitely the most interesting case, like you said. Is there anyone else that you think that might either be non-tendered or might go to arbitration? I think Noe Reemez was another interesting name there. He came in at 1.8 million, which feels like a pretty big win. I mean, Noe Ramirez is, we talked about him a lot on the show. He was really good.

It's not necessarily that common for a team to keep a guy that they got in the way that the diamondbacks got Noe Ramirez. He was just kind of let go by the angels. And the diamond backs were able to acquire him. The diamond backs acquired a number of other guys that way, like Sean Poppin and J.B. Wendelkin. There were kind of, you know, there was sort of a revolving door with their bullpen this year. But Noah Ramirez is probably worth holding on to.

He's had some good seasons in the past. So that's another interesting one, but for 1.8 million, that feels like a, that feels like a, like a pretty good deal for the diamondbacks. Ramirez and Joe Mantiply quickly became the only two guys that seemed like that Lavello could count on out of that bullpen. Yeah. And I think that they still have a lot of work to do with that bullpen. So I, I think that'd be a big mistake. I don't know how it compares. It's like we talked about Cole Calhoun salary and just comparatively to his performance and what other right fielders that.

you know, are on the market or what other right fielders make, you know, the, the team option for him seems high. So we're both pretty doubtful that we'll see him return. But who knows, who knows what happens there. It really comes down to this team lacking depth. And at this point, there isn't a lot of free agents on the market this offseason. So I don't really see them having that availability to fill a lot of roster spots, not to mention based on what Hazen said, it didn't sound like they were going to fill roster spots with very many external candidates. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, yeah, unless you're absolutely right, unless you're looking for a superstar shortstop.

There's a lot of those. Carlos Correa, Javier Bayez, cover story, potentially. The list goes on there. But yeah, the diamond backs, at least the positions of need that they have, there's not, there's not much out there, especially center field. We've talked about that. going to, you know, go pay Starling Marte. There's not really a whole lot of options.

Do it. Do it. Look at me. Look at me in my eyes. Do it. Go pay that man. That's money. Yeah, I know. And it's, again, it's that feeling, though, you know, you talked about the Arizona Diamondbacks in the past, having some of their most success when it didn't seem like they were going to be a very good team, right? If that was ever the case, it's this offseason. I think the expectations for this team were much higher going into this season.

It was more of the doubt of the division rather than it was the doubt of this team really being as bad as it ended up being. People were like, hey, this Diamondbacks team is like sneaky good. You know, I mean, Madison Bumgarner, Zach Gallen, a Luke Weaver figures things out, Merrill Kelly. Like, there's some things to like there. But yeah, those people don't look real smart right now. It was me. I was one of those people. Anyway.

But yeah, interesting to see what they'll do. And again, we're going to continue to see the Diamondbacks deal with this. I don't know how the labor agreement is going to impact arbitration stuff, but there could be an impact there as well. So it's going to develop throughout the winter and whatever happens come December 1st. We'll all see together. I want to remind you guys to jump on social media. If you're watching us right now on YouTube, please go on to your favorite podcasting.

app and subscribe there, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever. And then again, I've been bugging you guys, but let me know what apps you're using on the iPhone because I have no idea what I'm doing with this phone. But also, if you're listening to us right now on the audio podcast on any of those apps, jump over to YouTube and subscribe to us there, hit the little bell icon and set the reminders. You know, get all your Arizona sports in one place at PHNX Sports. And you can follow us on social media. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX sports or underscore sports, excuse me, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Jesse, thank you so much. And a very happy birthday again to both you and Cotel Marte. All I needed for my birthday, Derek, was to hear you do the manscape treat. That's really, that's really, once we got that under the way, It was like, all right. Everything's, everything's downhill from here.

Well, you have a great one, my friend. I hope everybody out there watching has a great one. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. I promise you, when you bet on it.