PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are Diamondbacks offseason additions enough to compete for NL West crown?

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

LET US COOK! Jordan Shusterman from the Baseball Bar-B-Cast podcast joins the show to discuss the offseason moves across baseball and if the Diamondbacks did enough to compete in the NL West. We also discuss Joc Pederson’s cybertruck, a possible leak of the Phillies City Connect jersey, and more!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Let Someburros cater your next meal big or small! Order online or find one near you by visiting someburros.comWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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.

coming to another edition of the PHNX feedback podcast right on P8X. Of course, I'm still your mayor, PHNX without my vice mayor, the one and only, Derek Montia, but I have found a suitable replacement. As many of you know, I am kind of just still auditioning people to replace Jesse for whenever that happens, because that's inevitable, right? But I'm very glad to be joined by Jordan Schusterman from Cessvitis family barbecue and the baseball barbecast. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for stopping by.

This infuriates Jesse, by the way. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Wasn't Jesse missing last time I came on too? And yeah, okay. All right, I'm not misremembering that. No, you're not. I enjoy.

Jesse does a good job, so I don't want to do too well here. But I do appreciate the invite. I'm excited to talk snakes. I know. I know. Well, I fabricated an imaginary beef between the two of you, but he really does get very angry with me that you keep coming on when he's not here because he is a huge fan of what you guys do over there.

In fact, he was just telling me about listening to the Mike Faron podcast, and that's when I broke the news to him that you were coming on and, again, made him very angry. But you were abandoned by Jake. I was abandoned by Jesse. So we have each other here to talk some baseball. But I did want to get your thoughts on just, you know, this offseason, the moves that have kind of happened. It's kind of been a weird offseason. We've had a lot of money spent by the Dodgers, obviously.

We've had more interest. I feel like in big deals, like, international. national players than I've seen before as far as like signing big long-term deals. And then the rest of the off-season's kind of move slowly. Yeah, no, I think that's totally fair. Obviously, we're still, we still have, you know, for arguably premier free agents kind of sitting out there. And it's kind of hard to find where those guys are going to land.

We just keep circling back to those same handful of teams. And I think that's kind of exactly the way Scott Boris was always going to play this once he kind of identified that that's how the market was going to act. But, I mean, I'm, I've. I'm excited to come on here and talk to a team, a pot of a team that, you know, has been fairly aggressive. And I would argue still has some opportunities to, to improve. Maybe even in the next couple of weeks, we can maybe get into that.

But I do think that it's just been so refreshing and good to see them take the momentum, you know, from the postseason and carry forward the way that you would expect most teams would do coming off of a postseason run like that. But that's not how every major league team has acted certainly recent years, unfortunately. Right. And like I've said, there's, there's time. where it's kind of just almost a gesture in good faith to try to show the fans that you are building on the success, but it's not, it maybe sometimes it doesn't really seem like a real plan

is there. Sometimes teams abandon the roster that maybe had success and try to upgrade and bring in bigger, bigger names. These moves feel a bit savvy that the Diamondbacks have made and it really feels like they addressed their weaknesses that they had. And they had a number of weaknesses. It's still amazing to us at times that the team made it as far as they did, you know, in the office or in the postseason, right? Like what they did was incredible for us that watched them all year long. It's not like they had a lot, you know, a lot of things changed, but mostly it felt like, you know, the bullpen being able to be a strength instead of a weakness was what kind of carried them over the finish line and even helped them out a lot in the postseason. But then things just seem to go their way. That's the way it seemed to go.

Yeah, and I think that, and I do want to get to the bullpen here in a little bit, but I think, again, you contrast it to a team like Texas, who obviously ended up winning. They've been relatively quiet this winter, and, you know, they are much more complete roster. Obviously, they've spent, they've already spent a lot of money. They've already had, you know, they have a really strong core. And then we have see guys like Evan Carter and now Wyatt Lankford coming. So, like, there's a lot to, you know, look at their roster. and be like, okay, there's less to fix there. But they stood patent even still more than I expected.

And I know that there's, you know, TV deals hanging over all these teams and maybe that's influencing some of the spending. But I generally think that most of that, not that it's not important and that it's not relevant. The teams want to spend the teams you're going to spend. And I think the D-Bax share team honestly showed us that, right? Like if they had lost to the Brewers, would they have spent all this money this winter? I don't know. I mean, I like to think so.

But I'm glad if for whatever the reason is, you know, That's kind of the nature of ownership in baseball. Sometimes owners want to spend it. Sometimes they don't. And you can't always necessarily figure out, you know, what is going to, what's going to spark that. But for Arizona, it's definitely a fun time right now. And I've said, like, sometimes, you know,

the spending money isn't, you know, obviously done the right way. It's how you spend it, not how much you spend or, you know, what you spend. But like, yeah, it does feel at times like, you know, you really don't see teams make this many improvements, especially a team like the Diamondbacks. It does feel like the postseason run had a big impact on what they were able to spend. And you're right.

Like if they were lost to the brewers, I don't know if they would feel like now is the time to add. Being that close and you're like, wow, we got that close with bullpen games. What if we added? What if we added in Eduardo Rodriguez? What if we gave you a third basement instead of having it be a little rotating carousel over there

with Evan Longoria being like at times the best third basement that we had. So it definitely felt like that was Mike Hazen's M.O. You know, during this off-season. And I mean, obviously, Jock Peterson is the most recent move that they made to fill that DH spot. And we actually have Peterson, we got Jock Peterson's official press conference yesterday. This is what he said on watching the Arizona Diamondbacks playoff run kind of from a distance. I think it is, it's not a coincidence.

It's like some people handle chaos better than others. And to take down the Dodgers who is an incredible team. And then the Phillies, it is, I wouldn't say that that's luck. I think that's being able to adjust and adapt to certain situations, changes. You're down for a little bit. And somehow your guys stick together. and it's a core group of guys that really have a fight because those are two incredible, incredible teams.

So there's no one person that's leading the way. It's all 26 guys pulling on the same string with one common goal. And I think that's a lot more powerful than a lot of superstars of their team. So you can really tell that they have that and they leave their egos at the door while having fun doing it. So it looks like they have a lot of fun. fun on the field and like I said I'm excited to be a part of it and try to help in any way I can. I really like that thing he said about the 26 guys pulling in the same direction, right?

Because he has been on some big teams. He's been on teams with very high expectations and things didn't go their way. Obviously, like, he understands that that whole thing. I mean, we kind of joke about Tori's, you know, post-game speech and the connected and dangerous thing. but it's true. Like the team being connected and being a dangerous team kind of is what feels like is different between a team like the Diamondbacks that made it as far as they did last year. And some of those teams where you go out like a Padres team or a Mets team and you spend a lot of money and you don't end up getting the results, obviously, that you were going after.

Yeah. And I think that like if anyone knows what he's talking about when it comes to this stuff, it's Jack Peterson. I mean, he's been in as many postseason games as, almost anybody that we have, you know, that's not on the Astros, right, or Dodgers. We've seen him, of course, with the Dodgers for a long time. We saw what he did in Atlanta.

So he understands what those teams are like. And obviously, certainly the Dodgers in Atlanta, although Atlanta had kind of an interesting group when they wanted their run in 2021, you know, you could argue a lot more household names on those teams compared to Arizona, but he still understands what it takes, you know, to win in the postseason. Of course, that's the added bonus on top of what I think is a pretty

pretty impressive regular season resume over the last handful of seasons, you know, that Jock brings, especially bringing, you know, a left-handed component to the lineup that I think, you know, at times, you know, outside. I know, of course, Catelle Marte was just a force in general from both sides of the plate, but he's generally better right-handed from what I know. And obviously you have Corbyn, but that kind of left-handed power is something that I think really not only will play better in that ballpark than I think it has in San Francisco. go recently, but also just in general to kind of balance out that lineup. So, you know, if the debacks

are making the poses in the end, you're going to be like, you're looking, not that they didn't just gain all that experience together, and that's great. But Jack Peterson, he's played in so many of these games. And I'm sure he misses that feeling of playing in those games, even just being away from it for a couple years. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you're right. Like, that's something I've tried to tell, you know, fans about like playing, you know, half of your games in San Francisco isn't the best for your power numbers isn't going to sometimes show the you know the show those home runs and those numbers but it doesn't mean it's not still there um and honestly like diamondbacks fans weren't thrilled with the move uh obviously you know he's exactly you know he's another left-handed outfielder

like there is a feeling that we got already you know what we had in a way in a dh but obviously you know the experience that's something that we don't really have and that we're losing in evan longoria and also the fact that Mike Hazen brought up the middle of their lineup has gotten pretty right-handed now with Lordus Guriel Jr. returning. You have now A. UNios-Wasres being added to the middle of the lineup, so he feels like they didn't need. And this is something he had even said before they got jock that they didn't necessarily need to go after a right-handed bat

for their power bat. They just kind of needed to find somebody to fill that DH role. But what were your thoughts on seeing the debacks get Peterson and bring them in? Yeah, I mean, I guess I see, oh, we already have it. And by the way, it still feels like there could be a trade on the, you know, we still have McCarthy. We still have Dominic Fletcher. I don't know where he fits in. Alec Thomas, you know, based on that, of course, defense and, you know, his moments in the postseason, that's like, he's clearly the center fielder.

But I don't know, like his offensive track record, obviously, in the regular season is spotty at best as well. So all of that is to say, John Peterson is a DH. Okay. Like I don't we don't need to see him in the outfield and like what he can provide offensively on a deal like this for a team that isn't going to necessarily. And I understand. I totally get wanting J.D. Martinez. But I do I think that the thing like the left right balance isn't really important to managers. It's not just, you know, from the front office, you know, analytics perspective building a lineup.

Like managers care about that. I promise you Toro Lavello was would love to have a lineup where he can write in more left-handed hairs. And so even if he is an everyday DH, I still like this fit a good bit. Of course, you know, you can dream bigger with a guy like J.D. or Solair or of the like. But I think that this is this really, this really works nicely. So again, it's still a lineup that, you know, there are still some questions with it. Suarez, of course, as a Mariners fan, I'm awfully familiar with. I love the guy.

I know the red flags. I know he's going to strike out a ton. I still think it's an upgrade for what they had, a third base. so that's why it's still a good move. But we'll see. It is going to be interesting to see how these guys kind of like what order do you see those guys in because of course you have those franchise pillars in Carol and Marte offensively. And Gabby-Rano, you know I'm as big a fan as anybody.

I'm curious what kind of offense we can expect from Gabby in 2024. So where does he fit in the lineup as well? Well, I mean, they were like tied for 22nd in Major League Baseball and home runs last year. And again, it doesn't this even the Jock Peterson edition, it feels like, yeah, it's more power. But it's still like, you know, you're projecting maybe, you know, 20 home runs. I mean, that would be probably a fairly good projection. And still, that's not going to be the guy that completely takes over. But with kind of the balance of how many guys can get you somewhere between 20 to 30 home runs,

it feels like what Peterson was talking there, more like the 26 guys all pulling in the same direction, right? But he also talked about wanting to get better and playing the out. field and play and just prove himself, also prove himself against left-handed pitching. And one of his reasons for coming to Arizona was because of Dave McKay. This is what he had to say about Dave McKay and kind of what he's been able to do for other players. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of good outfielers that you guys have. But I think one of the main reasons, their first race outfield coach, Doug McKay,

Dave McKay. I've got to know him over the years playing against, and I've heard so many good things. She needed an action. I've seen him help. A lot of guys steal a good amount of bases that are necessarily like speedsters. I've seen him make huge improvements in the outfield with some guys that weren't as good, and I've seen him really lock in some of the guys that are more skilled out there.

So even if I don't get a lot of opportunities in the game and on the field, I'll be putting the work in with him. And then when the opportunities present itself, make the best of them and go from there. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So, yeah.

And I, so I'm glad he acknowledges. Like, listen, I see how many opportunities I get, you know, defensively. Obviously, I don't think that's going to be plan A pending injury. I mean, again, it's a position. he can still play in the case of injury. And maybe you have some flexibility if you want to D.H. Gurriel and stuff like that. But I am so glad to hear him mention the stolen bases because this is something we hit on when we talked about Jock signing on our podcast, which is that Jock, again, it was 10 years ago.

But like, Jock, when he was coming up, like, he was his athletic guy who went 30, 30 in AAA. he doesn't have 30 steals as a major leaguer. Okay? He stole 30 bases in AAA back when they were with Albuquerque. And now he's stolen, you know, he basically stopped running as soon as he got to the billings. He's gotten bigger. He's focused on the offensive profile. I totally get that.

But if this is a guy that's going to get 500, 600 plate appearances and he's going to be on first base a lot, like, come on, Jack, you can steal 10 bases, you know? I know, I know it's not the biggest steal. the world but I would love to see that like especially when you're running behind like Corbyn carol like we saw Catea not even have to try to steal bases last year because he was just all the focus is on Corbin so if he's on first and Corbin's taken 30s like I'm gonna waltz in the second right now is what I'm gonna do you know so it's like 100% it's just it's funny to see players like Jock kind of see the Diamondback style of baseball and and say like I want to I want to play there but I also want to play like them like I want to steal bases I want to do that stuff you know

and I want to have more value than just being a DH. Even if he doesn't get many opportunities, that's a, like, I guess, you know, as a fan, you can't want more than that as far as like an attitude coming into this situation. Totally, yeah. Now, and again, like, I know you look at the sprint speed and you're like, there's no way this guy's going to steal basis,

and that's fine. He literally stole zero this past season, okay? Like, his career high is, like, it seems absurd for a guy who was running so much in the minor leagues. But anyway, so that's interesting. And then as for the defense, like, that's just a matter of like he, most DHS don't want to be DHing all the time, right? It's that simple. I mean, you look at last year, he plays 37 games in the outfield, starts 23.

Like, I imagine for him, like, that's the amount he wants to be out there. Is that going to work out in Arizona? Maybe, maybe not. I don't, maybe he can become a more, you know, competent outfield. Again, I don't think that's that important. But I just, it was just cool and kind of funny to hear him bring up the stole. basis because that's something I've thought about since he was a prospect. Yeah.

No. And I mean, like I said, it's just funny to hear him bring up, like, wanting to work with Dave McKay. We talked about the coaching staff quite a bit. You know, people are huge, players are huge fans of all of these coaches, right? Brent Strom, Jeff Bannister, Tori, Lovallo. But Dave McKay is like one of those guys that gets a lot of credit from players that are on the team.

And, you know, he's beloved throughout baseball. But you often don't hear players coming over saying like, oh, yeah, working with Dave, that's one of the things that, like, I really want to come over here for, and that's really cool. He also discussed wanting to work with Tori, and I think that's more understandable. Tori is just one of the most, like, lovable coaches in baseball. I feel like just he's the kind of manager that as a player you want to play for, and, you know, Jock expressed that here in the press conference yesterday. Yeah, I got to do a Zoom with Tori, and it seems like an incredible,

Incredible human, a great baseball minds. I don't know, I'd like to do a lot of research, and I don't know, I've been fortunate to be with a couple different teams and baseball is a small world, so everybody kind of knows someone or something, so ask around, and, I mean, everyone loves this guy. Every single person would run through a wall for this guy, and sometimes that's a little tough, especially for a manager, because they're not necessarily everyone's best friend

because there's only eight positions, nine positions out there and 26 guys on the team. So 15 of the guys don't get a play. And sometimes some guys think they should be playing and whatnot. But I've heard he handles everything. He communicates really well. He's up front, honest, and he wants to win. He's smart.

So I'm really looking forward to playing for him, picking his brain, learning from him. So, yeah. And again, I want to run through a brick wall for Tori Loblo, but that's a personal feeling. So it's like to hear someone else express that, I was like, yes, same. But do you feel like that's Tori's kind of the perception of Tori outside of this team? Totally. And like, again, talk about, you know, stock up from the postseason. I mean, it wasn't just, you know, the D-backs players, but I think it really gives,

gives managers an opportunity to show what they got. And of course, it's like, yeah, you win a bunch of posse in a series in a row. People are going to think you're a genius. Yes. But I know it's it is that simple in a lot of ways. And that can turn just as quickly. I mean, I asked Tori, right? He went from, last year, right?

In June, people were like, get this guy out of here. So obviously, we will forever be trying to figure out, you know, how important manager are, but in terms of the relationships, I think it does speak, though, with Jock talking about kind of checking his references and checking, you know, checking it with people who've worked with him. Because as far as players are concerned, they don't care at all about in-game decisions. You know, I know. Okay, let me rephrase that. That's not going to be the first thing they're thinking of when they're thinking about playing for someone, right? That's what the front office cares about. That's what the fans care about. If you're the player, it's like, do I like this guy?

someone I want to hang out with for six months. And do I want to, you know, trust, you know, to put me in position to succeed? And in that way, you know, I think, I think Tori's earned a lot of respect over the course of his tenure in Arizona. And then clearly that translates to two guys who are coming over to the team for the first time. And speaking of guys coming over to the team for the first time, you are very familiar with Gino, aka A Heueno Suarez.

What can Diamondbacks fans kind of expect? We know he should expect not to play. 162 games in a Tori LaBolo lineup ever as a player but what can we expect out of him as a third baseman I'm so glad you start there because the two Gino stories I'll tell one is what you just referenced right the 162 games yeah and I happened to be there last year on his day off so it was when the mayhairs were on a road trip in Cincinnati and it was again just a long stretch and it was It was like, all right, it gets finally time. Like, you got to take a seat.

And he still ended up getting in that game, which, like, wasn't even a competitive game. That's how he ended up at 162, but I believe he only started 161. But the other story that's, I think, more illuminating of kind of Gino as a player and as a person as a teammate, is something I'm looking forward to in a couple weeks, hopefully heading down to Arizona and covering some spring training. I remember last year showing up to Mariners camp very early in camp, I think it was before players were officially supposed to report or position players anyway. And I happened to just be in the Mariners Clubhouse when Gino showed up for the first time. And just watching him like go to every

single player and like, you know, reconnect and reunite whether it was, you know, a teammate he'd have for multiple years, whether it was just like some random reliever that he was meeting for the first time. He was like going around to the media members and like making he, I can't even, it was just such a such a performance, but like so genuine. Like this dude is as good as it gets in terms of in the clubhouse. And like he is as cliche as you'll hear it 100 times with the good vibes only stuff. Like he lives that. Like that is no joke.

It is a real vibes guy. Yeah. There is no. It is totally authentic. And everybody loves him. But obviously it's like, okay, well, is he going to help the baseball team win? That is certainly what matters the most.

And, you know, it helps that again, you're working from, you know, all due respect to Evan Longoria and Emmanuel Rivera, like this. was a weak spot, right, last season, generally for Arizona. Right, there was no doubt about it. And so I think that it helps that Gino is not necessarily coming in and needs to be the guy, right? He should be able to hit sixth, fifth or sixth or seventh. And it's possible, you know, when he's on a heater, which you even saw last year at times, he had a stretch of 10 straight games with an RBI, which I think was a franchise record.

And you're looking at me, you're like, what the hell does this guy care about RBI's for? That is not a small thing. Like if you are driving and runs that consistently, like there is a knack to that. And I think that like the power does does come in spurts. Obviously you look at the batting line and you can kind of take that away from him. And that's the thing. It's not just the strikeouts. It's that the quality of the contact has decreased slowly over the last couple of years.

And I think that's where Seattle was a little bit wary of continuing on with him as they're starting third basement. But again, when you talk about the ballpark improvement, you talk about the durability, you talk about maybe even most importantly when we talk about the overall value, Gino's played a hell of a third base last year, hell of a defender. And that's something that he didn't necessarily have points earlier in his career. And he's really brought that. So at the very least, you have a durable, really good club at third base.

It's going to hit you 25 home runs. The strikeouts are going to drive you crazy every once in a while, but it shouldn't be that important in this lineup. And that should still be a clear improvement over what they had last year. I think the one thing that you said there that is the most important is the Diamondbacks just go through these stretches offensively where it feels like the entire team is impacted, right? And obviously, a lot of times it's the opposing pitcher that's impacting the team like that and not just necessarily everybody in a slump at the same time on one day. But sometimes it feels like that.

Like sometimes it feels like the team collectively goes through a slump. And that's kind of what's good about hearing that about Gino. Like the Diamondbacks are able to kind of manufacture some runners on base in such at times with Corbyn Carroll and with Catell hitting at the top of the. lineup but then all of a sudden you'll just have the rest of the guys not be able to do anything and and like there that that happened far too often last year where the offense just kind of felt flat like that that feels like a really important addition not to mention the fact we talked about power earlier and what jock can do gino is tied for sixth in major league baseball and home runs since the start of 2017 now it's very selective going back that far sure but i don't care like that's a big

sample that's that's a long time and that's not a guy who you typically hear of being in the top 10 for home runs in baseball over that period of time. Yeah, no, 100%. And again, like, you know, how much being in Seattle impacted is his totals in general. But I'm glad you mentioned, you know, the style of having Carol and Marte and guys like that at the top of the order who can make stuff happen or Thomas sometimes. Like, that's something obviously the Mariners had in Julio. But other than that, like not as much speed occasionally they had some of their bench infielder. like Dylan Moore and Tim Haggerty and people that Debex fans don't care about.

But the point is, I can imagine Gorvin Carroll and Cattlemore and say, like those are exactly the kind of guys you want on base when Gino's up, you know, a guy on second, you know, with one out or whatever. Like that's something, that's an opportunity I have seen him thrive in. But I do just think that the baseline of performance, especially when you consider the defense and the durability is really exciting. And I think it was a great way for them to take advantage of the early stages of, a bizarre offseason for the Mariners.

Yeah, it really was. And I do still have some questions for you about that. But known baseball GM, Elise, we don't know what baseball team. She's a GM for, but we figured out she's a GM. She has to be. She knows far too much about baseball. She says addressing the black hole at third base was one of my favorite hazing moves from the offseason.

I was going to ask you, what do you think was a bigger move, bringing in Gino or bringing in Eduardo Rodriguez? Obviously, both were big needs. the Diamondbacks had a huge need to bring in another starting pitcher, but they bring in a guy that's a number three caliber, you know, starting pitcher in this lineup and in this starting rotation along with Brandon Fott, also being kind of a number three caliber. So like obviously both of those moves do to very different things for this team,

but which one do you think might have a bigger impact? I think it's Erod. The way I've thought about him and I know he's had some strange times, there have been some interesting situations with him on and off the field with the trade that he declined. He's had some injuries. Of course, he said, I mean, he had a very serious health issue during 2020. Like, these are, this has been a tumultuous, you know, a few years for him in a lot of respects. At the same time, if we're just talking about the pitcher and the talent and what he's shown when he's been on the field,

I don't think he's not different than Jordan Montgomery. I really don't. And I know Jordan Montgomery is going to get a lot more money because the agent of Scott Horace and because he just pitched at an amazing postseason. But if you, like, let's just say the second half of last season had never happened. And there was no postseason. And like if we were evaluating George Montgomery and Erod as pending free agents in May, I think we would be saying pretty similar things.

I know Montgomery has been pretty durable. But in that sense, like, I just think that the reason I say that is like, I think this can be a pretty damn good deal. You know, I think that he can really be. Like, again, what I'm not saying is, oh, I think he can be a World Series hero and carry you for three months like Jordan Montgomery. But again, like, I just don't think the true talent level is that different. And that's why I really like this move. I like that's why I like them being aggressive with early and securing that deal early on.

Because I just think he's, I just think he's a good, a really good mid-rotation pitcher, which is what I think George Montgomery is. I just think he's going to get like way more money. And when you're comparing those things, I think it puts them in a pretty good spot. Yeah, you're so right about that because, again, I mean, baseball is so funny considering that we will pay a guy millions of dollars more for hitting the ball 5% more than another guy, right? And like starting pitching can be like that too. I think that I like the fact that they did it early on, but there's still like a question of if they should go after another starting pitcher. They do have Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson who both, you know, were very good for them at times last year in the starting pitching role. Plus some other young arms that haven't had a chance to, you know,

make their major league debut yet. I mean, from your perspective, obviously, we know that you kind of just really need four starting pitchers when you get to the playoffs. Or three. Or three, or three? Maybe sometimes two at times. I don't know. But like, is that a need?

Or do you think the Diamondbacks should just allow those young guys to kind of compete for that spot and not really address that when they still have some more positional needs to kind of fill? Yeah, I would not consider it as much of a need. Like, I'm honestly curious about your opinion on whether they should add to the bullpen. Like, we had this heroic performance, you know, we watched them, you know, because it wasn't just that at the start of the postseason, it was like, oh, they don't have enough starting pitching. It was like, who the hell is in this bullpen? Right. And I don't got to tell me about how awesome Paul Seawald is.

Right. I love, you know, Kevin Ginkle and some of these guys. But, like, I am kind of surprised that, and there's still a couple options out there. So maybe there is still room to add like a, you know, a Ryan Brazier or like a Jake Deekman. Like whatever. I'm just throwing names out there. Sure. I honestly see the bullpen as a as a group that as impressive as they were.

Like I don't mean it's just like that's a group that to run that back 100% is kind of surprising to me. As it which is what I'm looking at right now. I'm looking at the depth chart and it literally looks exactly like it did in October. And I understand why it's like, oh, great. Well, that was the best bullpen we've ever had. Okay, great, that's nice. Yes. First of all, let's also remember when we talk about like the moves that they've needed to make

and the reason why they were aggressive is that they weren't that good in their regular season, right? And so that's a long year. To barely get into the playoffs, they had all these other things happen. And so that's where I kind of see, not to mention the bench, and I'm sure some other spots that you could identify. So I think that letting the young guys kind of duke it out for that five spot feels like an okay move. Not that it would be a bad idea to sign a Michael Lorenzen or whatever. But I just think that Erod really solidifies that group.

And with what we saw from Fott, you've got to feel pretty good about those four. And that's most teams. Most teams right now, forget the postseason. Even going into the regular season, you're really only feeling good about four. And so not that it would be a bad idea. But I would honestly rather that. And again, some of those higher leverage guys have kind of come off the board already. But I think I would rather see.

them kind of bulk up the bullpen with some with some fresher guys there well and i think you make a good point i think the reason why there has a tint to address the bullpen and i i think they will i think that the jock peterson move allowed them to still just have a little bit of extra money like they still have madison bumgarner on the books they still have some other contracts to fall off right and i think uh like that's why they even though they spent the money they did they still have to be a little conservative at least this year uh the the the bullpen though kind of came together late and the additions of Ryan Thompson calling up Andrew Saul Frank, those two guys were excellent. I don't know if Saul Frank is the success he had is sustainable.

It didn't appear based on his peripherals that it was a sustainable success. Ryan Thompson was different because he was DFAed by the Marlins. And when the Diamondbacks picked him up, you know, his stats didn't look great. But then you look back and you're like, well, he didn't pitch a lot of innings. And he really just had two bad games that then that ballooned up his ERA. and made things look worse. The Marlins obviously had a lot of things going on, so there were things that they could do.

But like there was something about when, you know, Ryan Thompson came over that I think, and they credited like the entire bullpen for the fact that it was a lot of different looks, a lot of different arm angles, just a lot for, you know, an opposing team to have to deal with when they're changing those guys out. The biggest thing, though, was Paul Seawald.

Paul Seawald coming in. And I mean, it's not just his ability to close games. It's not just his, you know, how talented he is. It's like once Paul Seawald came over, everybody else knew their role. And, you know, it just had everybody chill out. Like, we talked to, you know, a couple of different guys from the bullpen. And, you know, they kind of had the idea of like they didn't know what on any given night when they were going to be called on to go on the ninth, especially with Tori Lobolo doing this bullpen by committee thing.

So it was just an uneasy feeling for them. They had no idea what they would be utilized or when they would. be utilized. Once Seawald came in and once the guys were having the success, Ginkold found the success he had, it's like everything just kind of fell into place within like two weeks of him being there. And I get it. Like you probably still want another left-handed pitcher in the bullpen. But like the setup that they have right now, like you said, is the best bullpen they've ever had. They've never had a bullpen they could rely on in this way, almost historically in this franchise's existence. It feels different. And I think like,

Again, that was why Tori, especially in Brandon Fott starts during the postseason, was so quick to call on them. He trusted them so much and he believed that they could get them, you know, through any game at any point. Obviously, didn't always work out, especially there in the World Series with Seawald. But again, this is just a bullpen. I think that they pitched a lot during, you know, October. They pitched a lot during September. So they had a lot asked of them and they delivered for the most part. But yeah, I mean, I'm with you.

I think that an addition is probably still on the horizon for this team. Yeah, I think that's the way I look at it is if you're sold on Seawald and Ginkle, like, hell yeah, you know, like I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. But it takes a lot of guys to get through the season. And, you know, again, you're going back to the postseason in the World Series. Obviously, the Rangers had a lot of the same questions going into their postseason run. and they had, it required some heroic performances from LeClerc and from Josh Spores and even Chapman with the ridiculous up and down that he had.

And we saw, we wondered, okay, but they make a move and we see them go out and get it like a David Robertson type, David Robertson, you know, signing him. And again, do I expect the debacks to give a reliever or $11 million? No, no, right? Like, obviously that's another one of the strength of this bullpen is how cheap it is. That's good. Like that's not a bad thing. Yeah, and that's fine.

And the other thing, as you can always say, is just like, hey, you know, maybe Ryan Nelson is a badass reliever, you know? Like, we don't know yet, right? And that's possible that he can settle into that role. And someone else ends up winning that five spot. Maybe you sign a start or whatever. So I do think that there's just room to add on the pitching side here, likely in the bullpen. And again, you know, a lot of guys have come off the board over the last few weeks in the relief market, but I could imagine, like you said, that then they're making a lease another

remover too. Well, we appreciate you guys being here right now in the PHN Export's YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a like. We always appreciate that. Gabby will tell you to drop a like at some point during the show.

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besides what the hell is jake doing going to a football game in the uk like he's in manchester yeah yeah all right i'll forgive him then uh but uh overall i mean hypothetically if you were an n l west fan here uh what are your feelings about you know the moves the dodgers make and and how do you cope with them do you do you say wait until i actually see this or do you just get into a fetal position under your desk and cry. Okay. So the one, like there is an element of it that is impossible to ignore. And it's not just like, oh, my God, they're spending more money than we've ever seen.

And now they have Otani and blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's also like just knowing how good the infrastructure is. Yes. That's like, that's the part that would drive me crazy, right? It's like, okay, great. Now we know they're spending level to levels we've never seen before. deferrals or not. But like James Outman,

you know, like James Outman, that he was like one of their best players last year. So if they're going to keep churning those guys out, then you are maybe have some trouble. And the reason I say that is because James Outman makes me think that

if right now, if you look at the Dodgers like upper levels, it's about as thin as it's been for a very long time. Yes. Now, there's some lower level prospects that are going to end up on top 100 lists if they're not already there now, but in the next calendar year and you're going to be like, oh, great. You know, here they go. But like, if you look at doubling AAA now, it's not quite as stacked.

And so the depth is maybe not as much there as it's been, in my opinion, in terms of like the youth and the depth. Now, again, that's while saying that like that doesn't mean that there's not going to be some dude that pops up from AAA that isn't on a prospect list. That's going to be awesome because that's how the Dodgers. work. I understand that it's got to be exhausting and difficult. At the same time, I mean, if you can imagine how sweet it was to kick their ass in October, now it's just elevated times a billion, right? And so, I mean, it's just, and that's baseball. And by the way, that applies to the regular season as well. Yeah. You know, because, listen, am I going to pick against the Dodgers in the regular season? No, obviously, right? But like, even individual series,

it's just they now they have brought that on themselves where it's like people are expecting okay yep we go ahead go in 120 games if not your disappointment and that's absurd for any baseball team no matter how famous their lineup is so i'm excited to watch it i think it's it's good for baseball from the standpoint of like people are going to be more compelled to see them lose as much as to see how good they are yeah they're dry i understand yeah if your team is playing them you want to go see the dodder and you want to see your team kick their ass you know but it's also a matter of like they are there's

enough players on this team that you want to see. Like, I don't know another franchise in baseball that could have survived losing the caliber of pitchers they've lost due to scandals, due to players behaving badly outside of baseball, and still have been the team that they were, still bring in guys like David Peralta, you know, and have them contribute, still have guys, like, still have a team full of guys that, like, you look at on paper and you say, this lineup does not scare me at all and have those guys still win 100 games, right? That's the impressive thing, especially about last season.

I gave them a ton of credit for that because I don't know a lot of teams that could lose a Julio Urius and a Trevor Bauer in the years that they have recently and still just kept things moving on. And all right, well, we'll bring up another young guy and we'll bring up another young guy. And oh, yeah, we lost this guy due to injury. We lost that guy due to injury. All right, well, we'll keep, you know, like most teams would have been decimated last season and the Dodgers still found a way to win. I mean, the, the satisfaction in the

playoffs of beating them was, was the best thing ever, especially when they really started to click late on and they just kind of ran away with the NL West. But it, you know, you're right. It's, that's the one thing is that in the playoffs, it felt so good to finally, you know, beat them and beat them so soundly, right? That was something that every Diamondbacks fan needed to see. Was it even, wasn't even close. I mean, And they just, they just whooped on them real quick. And it was, and honestly, I mean, if it wasn't already true, that's what most of America will be rooting for, right? In future.

Now, now I will say, and I know that I'm obviously generally going to be player positive no matter what. Otani's approval rating is pretty high. Like, I can't imagine. I know that this signing with Dodgers does make him less likable in theory. But like, I think for the most part, neutral people will be rooting for a time. especially since he's never been in the postseason. But beyond that, I mean, just with the amount of success that they've had, I think it's just it's going to be, it's going to be something, something to be hold.

They're the least hateable super team ever. Yeah. Yeah. Freddie Freeman. Like, these are, I love with these guys. And even like Yamamoto now. Like, I want Yamamoto to be awesome, you know? Like, I'm not really for that.

Like, there's all of this. There's so many versions. So again, I understand like there's something. And of course, you know, Padres fans don't want to even, they're giant people. I get it. I know that there are, most fans harbor a lot more sports hate than I do. So I get it. And I'm not going to tell fans how to be, but I do agree with your point that in general,

even over this whole run, it's, it's been hard to, to hate it. But now it's just with the spending and with just kind of the super team element. But that's what they bring on. And like that's, that's with those, with that roster, you know, comes that quote, unquote, burden. And that's fine. That's not a bad thing for baseball at all. I got a couple more baseball moves for you before we let you go. But the Orioles were sold reportedly yesterday or are being sold by the Angelo's

to a group led by a couple of billionaires. And people are very excited about it. Orioles fans are very excited about it. First of all, what a time to sell this team, right? Like the future couldn't be brighter for that organization right now. So I mean, like talk about like selling high. That's a great thing for an estimated 1.725, billion dollars but what does this mean for Orioles fans like and and why do we immediately assume that

new billionaires coming in replacing the old billionaires are going to somehow be better billionaires uh we shouldn't assume that so very fair question i also i'll also uh somewhat punt this answer to friday when jake mince my uh podcast co-host and orils fan lifelong oriels fan will be able to speak on this much more directly and personally. For sure. But you mentioned what a time to sell. What a time to buy, right? I mean, this is a team.

Yeah, what a time to buy. Right. Yeah, I mean, this is as bright as a future as you're being. Now, it's not like we haven't seen the Orioles spend. But that was more under Peter Angelos than John. John who's been running the team more so recently a little bit, a lot more frugal. And so, yeah, it's a huge deal. Right.

And maybe honestly, just to tie it back, like, again, we can't, we don't, it's so early in this process and knowing what, how much the new owners are going to spend. Who knows, right? But in theory, if there's more flexibility and more willingness to go, it's what we just talked about with the Dodgers. The infrastructure that Mike Alliance has built in Baltimore is about as good as you could possibly hope. And it's not just the fact that they have drafted high, but to nail basically all of those picks. And then to have the farm system and the kind of the player development apparatus that they have is that's terrifying. Right. If you're talking about if you're in ALEs and oh my God, what happens when the Orioles spend. Yeah. I'm not saying they're the Dodgers and we're not bringing in Guggenheim and, you know, having a $300 million payrolls. But even $150 million is going to go a long way for a team that is already in quite a healthy position. Yeah, absolutely.

And I mean, again, ownership is just such a thankless position because no matter what, like, people just think you have like the worst intentions and like you when when you're a new owner it's exciting we you know the future is the the possibilities are endless you're going to come in here and you're going to do all these great things and then you're around for five years and we hate you and we want to come out of torques and torches you know Steve Cohen is a pretty hilarious example right I mean he comes in and does spend all the money and they suck and it's like his approval rating is still pretty high because there's so much confidence in the willingness to spend and all that stuff.

But yeah, that said, don't feel bad for owners ever. No. No. Let's let's not get too out of way. But I agree with your point, though. It's like, especially like the expectations when you have a quote unquote bad owner that's on the way out. And you're just like, oh, it's a miracle. This next guy will be perfect.

And it's like, yeah. Let's see. No, and he moves your team to Las Vegas. That's what happened. Speaking of ugly situations, we got one more thing before I let you go. and this was a leaked, potentially leaked picture of the Philadelphia Phillies City Connect jersey. And I'm not sure if you have had a chance to see this yet. But what are we doing?

What are we doing here? If this is real, what are we doing here with this? This is pretty, pretty, like, okay, I am fine with crazy color combinations, but this is a brewer's jersey. This is a brewer's jersey. You could have done this in Kelly Green and had it kind of be an Eagles kind of thing. there's a lot of option you could do but i hate or i mean like anything because philly is such a big sports town that i think you could have instantly been a hit with any kind of like orange you know uh flyers type colors or maybe any eagles colors but uh yeah what what is what are we doing here uh one of my

one of my favorite people uh one of my good friends matt is a huge philly's fan and he texted me this picture and said this would infuriate me if it's real giving me 12 you travel ball vibes So I think that kind of that kind of sums it up on top of your point, which is that just like, how would you ever know this was Philadelphia? Right. Like, so I think that's maybe for talking about it as city connect. Like I don't know how this is connecting to the city, which brings me to the I actually don't believe this is real. So that's where I. Okay.

All right. I mean, I don't know what if I'm wrong. Like I have no idea how this stuff gets out or who makes that makes up. Like if it's felt like I have no idea. Right. Right. It's like so far like just bizarre. Like it looks like it's like Harry Potter font.

Like I am really weird. Yeah. Really weird. So that's you nailed it. It is Harry Potter font. I was like haunted house font was what I was thinking. But yeah, Harry Potter font is much more on. Like yeah.

No, I mean, I get I know we go far out there with like the city connects stuff. And like. Which is fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm fine getting goofy with the jerseys. Yeah.

It's I'd rather that than like the complete nothingness that we get for the Dodgers and like the giants who like barely change anything about their uniforms or the cubs right like I'd rather get weird with it but this is so far away from anything that you'd expect that it's hard to take seriously okay if it is real I have to ask you what's uglier that or what we might think might be Jock Peterson's new cyber truck do we have that from Instagram he posted this a few days ago and this is definitely real I'm not sure if this is actually his or not. But I mean, you don't post a picture

of a cyber truck in a driveway and then not have it actually. I would guess this is not that I know John Peterson that well, I would guess this is real. Like, I don't know if this should be concerning or not. Like, I don't want to judge

a person. It's definitely going to be a car that stands out in the player parking lot because aside from Coutel Marte, all of our guys seem very conservative on their choices of vehicles. Yeah, think about this way. When you have the money that you have as a major leaguer, this doesn't need to be your only car. Right. So I can imagine a big leaguer like Jog Peterson just being like, hey, I wonder what that's like, let's get it, you know?

Like I'm an invincible truck. It's not like, I'm like, this is my car now, right? Yeah. Like, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he is going to be driving that all year. But that's incredible. I do believe it is his. Yeah. Not that that's like sourced. I just do believe Jack Peterson would buy one of these. Okay. Yeah. But I'll let you know if I go to DeBack Springtray. I'm sure you'll be there too. I will have to scout out the parking lot and see if we see it there.

For sure. For sure. It's a you're not going to be able to hide that. We're going to see wherever it's at. So, Jordan, I appreciate you stopping by, man. I look forward to having you on again when Jesse isn't here. And I know it's just going to infuriate him more. No, we actually, we got to get you on when Jesse's here for sure because we We love you guys. We appreciate you for coming on. And thank you for doing what you have done for as long as you've done it for.

Absolutely. And let's be in touch when I'm out in Arizona. Maybe we can go grab some burritos, make something happen. Because I have more, I have more D-backs, like thoughts and questions, but I'll save him for Jesse. Let's go. Yeah, he's probably the person to ask about that. I can talk to you about casting the Diamondbacks movie and other joking snake-related stuff. But no, Jesse will be the brains around here.

But again, man, thank you so much for stopping by. My pleasure. Thanks so much. All right. We'll see you next time. Yeah, again, I really just did that as everybody knows to drive Jesse nuts. I mean, I don't mean to make it sound like I use Jordan in this case because he's a tremendous individual, a great baseball mind, and one of the best people I could have co-hosts with me. However, yeah, most of the things I do are motivated by upsetting Jesse Friedman. And that one was definitely one of those decisions. But again, if you want to check out other things that might infuriate Jesse or at least make him question their decisions, make sure not miss any of his content. Check out Jesse's articles.

Become a diehard today. You'll get access to everything Jesse has to write. You will get access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be in Arizona sports band, so much more, including a free t-shirt from Ph.NX Locker.com, as you know, you get access to all of our wonderful event discounts and discounts with our partners and so much more fun stuff. So remember, next week, we're going to have our first edition of Squeeze Play, which is our diehard only game show on the Discord. I will be hosting that. Cogs is one of our first contestants. We need two more. Are you wearing a bow tie?

I'm not going to wear a bow tie. I'm not going to wear a tie. Boaties are more fun. A t-shirt and a tie. A bow-ties are more fun. You're right. If we get Ken Rosenthal on this show, I will wear a bow-tie. 100%.

I will absolutely wear a bow-tie. Do you hair and lime green? That's, Ken Rosenthal has normal colored hair. I don't know why. Why do I have to dye my hair lime green if we get Keshen Rosenthal? Just because Gabby jumps off a bridge doesn't mean I'm going to dye my hair green. I mean, Lord is this purple hair, so you've got purple hair. Look, I made a bet, a foolish one, the one that I regret very much, though, and my scalp does to this day.

But that doesn't mean I'm just going to go around crazily dyeing my hair and offering bets to get sexy red tattooed on me. But what is up with people in tattoos in this office? Or, like, affecting, like, permanent change. It's mostly because I'm a 42-year-old man and I don't have much time left. So offering to mark up my body is really just honestly, like that's the thing that doesn't impact me that much, but people think is crazy. But meanwhile, Matt is out here not getting his tattoo. You at least have five years. If I drink enough water.

Sure. Sure. And maybe if I eat more OGs, maybe. Because people are like, eat less OGs. I say, eat more OGs is what I say. OGs has launched two brand new products to make my life better and make your life better. If you are vegan, there's the OGs vegan with live rosin in it. It's called OGs naturals.

You also have the big OGs, which, of course, is the thing everybody's talking about. Everybody's making weird accusations that I'm eating one hole that's a hundred milligram piece in one sitting. You definitely did. Look, it's perforated and it could be eaten in like over time or much like a pizza is preferated. You can fold a pizza in half and just eat it as a large. zone, right? It's, it's, it's, it's up to the buyer on how they choose to use it. But regardless of how you eat your big OGs, make sure to check them out. They are a mega version of Peggs, raspberry orange RSO, one of the company's most popular products, which I'm a huge fan

with. Sometimes people have had problems with edibles not working for them, especially if you've had like, if you have an appendectomy or you've had your gallbladder removed. I found out that these things impact your ability sometimes to process distill. Distill. Distill. I don't know. I'm not saying that's right. That's interesting. Yeah. So Rick Simpson Oil actually is like an alternative. It's made in a different way.

And sometimes if you haven't had success with edibles, Rick Simpson Oil might be the way for you to go. But to learn more about OG's G G G G's gummies and where you can find them, head on over to OGsbrands.com. And of course, tell them Derek sent you because they'll be like, hey, the guy that eats the big ones by himself. We like that guy. Also, Bet MGM.

I don't know who's doing bets around here with Damon, not around. But make sure that if you can, can get some betting sources. You know what? I think Asph was about to do it after this show. Send Damon a tweet asking him for his best bet projections. And then you can go over to bet MGM Sportsbook right now. Sign up using our code of PHNX and you will get $158 in bonus bets instantly,

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Is it Damon? Talk about the disclaimer. because I said preforated. My pro. Okay, English is my second language. So you guys are all committing a hate crime right now. I'm just telling you that. I am just telling you that.

This is a hate crime perforated. And it is. For all the time that you spent in Puerto Rico. Yeah. Well, I mean, it was my primary language, which I don't speak Spanish anymore very well at all. But of course, tomorrow Jesse will be back to also antagonize me

about how I pronounce words. And I will also have a, chance to, I don't know, do this one more time. Welcome him with a warm embrace. Give me two seconds. Give me two seconds to cue this up. I tried to keep this a secret. I'm not, I'm not, look, I'm not trying to say that I, you know, need to hug Jesse

when he comes back. That's definitely the opposite of what I want to do. But he will be back tomorrow. We have lots of fun stuff plan, like I said, including the upcoming game show that we're going to have, squeeze play. Jesse's very curious is how that works. and I'm not telling him either. But make sure if you are a diehard, you stop by for that.

We have all sorts of other stuff planned. A big part about being a diehard is telling us what you guys want to do. So make sure you drop in the Discord, maybe some games that you would want to see schedule some takeovers for this season because we usually do the scheduling kind of like, you know, a blind rat. You know, we just kind of whatever. This one, that one, that one. Like Rat Leon?

Yeah, like Rat Leon. Yeah, of course. but your input is always valued, of course. Also, Jacob and I were talking about, you know, what days do you guys want us to do this show once the regular season starts. So never forget that the Discord. And no, you cannot vote for all post games.

Oh, yeah, that's no. Jesse, Jesse, he's telling that to Jesse. He's not telling that to you guys. I know you guys are understandable that we can't do every post game show throughout 162 games. It's 162. But Jesse doesn't understand that.

He doesn't understand. Oh, yeah, trust me, I'm still recovering. the playoffs. I believe at one point I drank an entire bottle of champagne and took my shirt off. But of course, that exists. And since that exists, and since I'm not going to have a chance to play this without him stopping me, let's get Jesse doing the Greg Schulte thing one more time in here. Can we, Jacob? Should Mark Gray, say Darren Sutton, welcome a young Greg Schulte into the broadcast booth.

Greg Schulte and Tom Cadyani welcoming you to our Arizona Diamond Bank's broadcast booth. with your ad chase field. Paul Goldschmidt's gonna be the first batter up against Jan Qualls, the former downerback, and he comes in to replace Corey Luey for San Diego. First pitch from Quas on the way to Goldie and that's a strength on the inside corner and won the count. Goldie on the season with seven overs and 19 runs banded in. The stretch and the pitch by Qualls, and there's a drive!

Way back to right feet! You know, Alarpo is way out of here. You can't touch him all Paul Goldschmidt, as he has a long home run to Deep Bryant Field to give the out of backs a four-three lead over the San Diego Padres. Yep, I think so. He's never going to go on vacation ever again.

He's never going to be, not going to be in this room with me. Of course, I had to get that in one more time. Ernesto asked, was this film last week? No, that was filmed in 2021, obviously. So shout out to my co-host. Can't wait for him to be back. But in the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore K-Maven with a K.

If you want to follow him, he's at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, on the ones and twos today is Jacob Franklin, aka Fageage. You can follow him at Jacob underscore Franklin for because he's the fourth best Jacob Franklin in existence. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

please don't tell Jesse that I started this show two like two days in a row he'll be very upset with me but in the meantime we thank you guys so much for stopping by we appreciate you and remember kids baseball is fun but is so much more fun when Jesse is on vacation