PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are MLB’s Blackout rules going away? Also, are the D-backs leaving Chase Field?

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

MLB’s loathed local blackout rules may be changing, and we are here for it. We also discuss if the D-backs are leaving Chase Field and if they have closed the gap on the Los Angeles Dodgers. We introduce our new segment, Arbitration Conversation, where we will negotiate the value of ordinary household items.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY),If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visitccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN OH/ONT. Eligibility restrictionsapply. Free bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as free bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms. No Sweat: Valid 1 offer per customer per day of NFL 2023 Wild Card Round. Opt in req each day. First bet must lose after opting in. NFL bets only. Paid as one (1) free bet based on amount of initial losing bet. Max $10 free bet awarded.Free bets expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Last Wednesday’s are back! Join our PHNX crew at the 8th Street Pub on January 25th as all of our shows are live and in-person throughout the day. Enjoy $3 beer specials and come say hi to us. Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNX_SPORTS15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comLiquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen 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.

Hello and welcome in Debacks diehards to another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. This guy next to me, he's your vice mayor. It's the one and only thunder stick Jesse Friedman. We are not the subject of today's show, nor are the Diamondbacks the subject of today's show. No. It's all about Arizona iced tea. It is.

It really is. That's the real star of today's show. And we don't even have a sponsor. dealership deal with them. So I have no idea what we're doing. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah, we'll see. Well, you'll figure out what we're trying to do here. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Drap King Sportsbook app. America's top-rated sportsbook app. And before we get to all of that important conversation that we have to get to,

we actually have some news coming out, which we have discussed in the past. We have discussed the possibility of the Arizona Diamondbacks moving away from Chase Field. And according to a recent article from Nick Bacoro with Derek Hall, that move might be more of a possibility than we were speculative. on according to the article and according to derrick hall the debacks are exploring other sites in maricopa county and he seemed to stress that which is a good thing because we do know that there were some rumors about the diamondbacks potentially moving out of arizona which is very bad for us as far as business goes but jesse what are your thoughts on this article and some of

derrick hall's comments yeah i think uh nothing to earth shattering here necessarily um it sounds like more than anything else. Derek Hall just kind of stress the urgency of the team figuring out what their future plans are. The debacks lease at Chasefield goes through 2027. After that point, they don't currently have a home as of right now. So there's a lot of things to be decided here in the next few years. And I think they would like to make those decisions sooner rather than later if they could. Obviously, if building an entirely new facility is on the table, you're going to want to start building that. It's coming pretty fast. Relatively soon. I guess they could, you know, they could extend Chasefoot a little bit longer if they needed to. But yeah, the timeline here,

I think is reaching kind of a sense of urgency where these things really start to need to happen. Unfortunately, Derek Call did not make any mention of which sites within the Phoenix metro area were under consideration. But as you said, they're all in Maricopa County, which incidentally, I believe Maricopa County is the largest county by land area in the United States or at least one of the largest. So that doesn't narrow it down much. But I think we do have, you know, we can kind of suspect. We can speculate on a few different places. It did mention the region next to Salt River Fields.

We've talked about that in the past as being a possibility. That was just kind of Nick Picoro, kind of his own speculation, which we've also talked about. But yeah. We've speculated the same way. We have speculated the same way. We know what the Diamondbacks want. We know what baseball teams now want. We've talked about that Colorado Rockies Coors Field and just how not only beautiful,

the ballpark itself is. That's something that might be a little bit more out of reach for us ever here in Arizona. No matter what they do with the new ballpark, if they do build a new ballpark from scratch, we'll need to take that into consideration, considering how unbearable it is here in June and July and August. I mean, I've been to Phoenix Rising Games and they start at eight, nine o'clock at night sometimes, something that late because they're trying to start as late as possible. And it was still sweltering heat. It was still just miserable.

and that's on dollar beer night, Jesse. Welcome to Arizona, especially during the summertime. Summer sports in Arizona. Great thing. Great thing. I mean, you know, we can, apparently we as humans can control the weather now from what I've heard. So I don't know. We'll figure something out soon enough. But one interesting thing about the article was that Derek Hall did say that regardless of what their plan is, they are going to take care of the roof repair issue, which is estimated between $4 and $5 million. I think that right there kind of explains why it's it's it's it's a bigger cost than we probably could have even speculated on and you know it seems like they are going to take care of more than just possibly the the one problem with it. Oh yeah. I think the roof repair is like between three and ten million dollars. They don't know exactly how much that's going to cost. He did say that

the debacks are going to do that roof repair whether they stay at Chasefield or not. So we wondered before I think you made the comment, you know, if you're about to sell a car, you're not going to put new rims on it. No, I'm just going to crack the odometer and turn it back. So maybe it gets more value on it. But yeah, it sounds like that roof repair will happen eventually so that the debacks regain the ability to open and close the stadium during games, which I think would be huge because as of right now, unless it's cool enough outside and they know for sure it's not going to rain, they can't open the roof. And so we basically saw the roof closed for almost the entire season last year. But yeah, I think in terms of the cost, $400, $500 million, that's obviously a lot of money. The cost to build a new stadium, roughly $2 billion maybe.

So you're talking about it, you know, maybe four times as much. But I don't know. I mean, it kind of goes back to your car analogy in some ways. Like, how much money are you willing to put into the car? If the car is, like, kind of old and, like, not maybe the best car around, how much money are you willing to put into it where it's still worth keeping it around? Right. you get to a point where

is it just going to keep breaking down even if I fix the roof is there going to be a new problem with one of the panels are we ever fixing that panel is that one panel there's still one bum panel at Chase Steel I believe it's like when your car has that passenger side window that doesn't work anymore and you just decided well that stays

closed now that's the way that things work when they get that old but Nicholas in the comments I want to say Beatty but baddie is way cooler so I hope that batty is the way it's pronounced. But Nicholas in the comments that a stadium out by talking stick would be so sick, get the view of the mountains in the background, plus the connection to Salt River Field. It's perfect. I think that's why it's easy to speculate about it, not to mention the fact that if you have been out there,

you know how much land is available out there on the Salt River Reservation. So, I mean, it's, there's something to be said about not only the possibility of the stadium being built there, but other entertainment district type, you know, places, you know, centers, whatever. connecting it medieval times is out there on the other side of the freeway you have obviously all the other stuff top golf talking stick resort there's just a lot of stuff to do out there a little bit south you got like I fly like I said and the other that other like parking lot filled with that's where like the aquarium is over there honestly a little butterfly place I'm a lifetime member by the way of Odyssey Aquarium

I got really I got a membership to be a lifetime member before they opened and I honestly one of the best things I've never I've never been yeah it's a great aquarium it's a very good aquarium uh and honestly uh I think that just that connection to all of that stuff even if it's not right close next to it it's still closer than when you go downtown and you try to find things to do that are near the ballpark unless you're going to like old willie's taco join or whatever like right next door or you know guy fierry's fraudulent uh place there in the middle until he fucking meets with me it's fraudulent jessie he didn't even show up at the opening it was just there be a

satellite? Oh, anyway. But anyway, they have an incredible district, I think, over there. And it could be something definitely appealing. It's never going to change for the Diamondbacks. The Phoenix Convention Center isn't going anywhere. So I don't think that they're ever going to have that availability. They can build some stuff.

Like, they've gotten permission to build, like a little entertainment district sort of thing around the immediate stadium. Right in that area. But there's just not a lot of land. No, there's not a lot of land. And what are we doing? Are we taking out the big rolling ball? art thing that they have there? That can't go anywhere. No, you can't take that out. You need to build around that.

There needs to be a restaurant where I can sit at a table right next to that. And then I'd be cool with it. But he says, he says Beatty. Yeah, I thought it was Beatty. But Badi, I'm going with Badi. Anyway, that's not the only thing that we have to talk about because Jesse has an incredible diehard piece up on go phtonx.com. And it explores the gap between the ears on the Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers. And believe it or not, no matter how much you want to hate Jesse for even writing this article. It is far more encouraging than you may think. So make sure to check out that piece. Somebody on Twitter, I think, accused me of being a homer, which is kind of ridiculous because I wrote like 3,000 words and it's like more mathematical than anything else.

And it's incredibly complimentary of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yeah. Yeah. But it does address the actual fact. And the fact is that the Los Angeles Dodgers, at least in recent memory, haven't really been this I guess susceptible to losing the National League West. They've never been kind of in this position where, to be honest, the gap has kind of shrunk between the Diamondbacks in L.A. I'm not going to give away Jesse's article. You've got to go pay for that and read that. But one of the main points is that the lack of offseason moves by the Dodgers

contribute strongly to the Diamondbacks being able to catch up in the division. No, it's not going to be easy. Yes, the Dodgers are still a very good team, and they have some of the best players in baseball, not to mention the thing that makes them very good is their starting rotation and their bullpen. But it really is probably the one time where the Dodgers didn't further distance themselves from the Diamondbacks in the offseason. And instead it feels like the Diamondbacks moves kind of paired with them looking like they have a better idea of the direction they're going in and who their core is and who they're building around. It kind of feels like the Diamondbacks are catching up a bit with the Dodgers.

The Padres are now taking on that role of being the Dodgers and spending. excessive amount of monies, money, but they still haven't proven anything yet. I don't think in the division until they start winning and proving that they're, you know, spending that money correctly. I still am not particularly worried about them. But the road ahead is- You're not worried about the Padres? No, I'm not worried about the Padres.

You're not worried about Tatis coming back on Soto, Mani Machado. I will worry about the Padres when the Padres play baseball and are a very good baseball team. That's fair. I mean, they haven't, you're right. They haven't risen to the level that I think a lot of people have been expecting from them in the recent years. I mean, they knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs, right? Yeah, you're good in playoffs.

As far as they go, I feel like that was them achieving the next step, you know, and they are. They're building towards that, and they didn't slow down. They continued to add to their team. They made their team better. The Diamondbacks also made their team better, you know. And that's, it's just one thing that's another reason why I think 2023 is going to be a very exciting season to watch. even if they didn't close the gap that much, guess what? They still don't play the Dodgers or the Padres

nearly as much as they have in the past. So that's another reason why even if those teams are still much better than the Diamondbacks, there's still a good chance that the Diamondbacks could be competitive in this tough division. I will, yeah. I mean, so the article does kind of a deep dive and goes position by position. So like at first base, right, Christian Walker, Freddie Freeman. Okay, obviously you take Freddie Freeman there. Although the gap is not actually as large as maybe you would think it is.

Christian Walker had a really good year last year for the debacks. But yeah, I kind of went through every single position. And the overarching conclusion is that the debacks and the Dodgers on paper right now, very roughly, maybe 10, 12 games different on paper as far as like what kind of win total you'd project. Derek, last year, the debacks and Dodgers separated by 37 games. The year before that, the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers separated by 54 games. So you're looking

54 games But on paper And again It is just on paper I want to stress And I understand the skepticism Of you know People wondering like

Okay Are the D-backs really only 10 games behind the Dodgers All of a sudden I think there's a There's like actually a case For that Just given that the Dodgers

Have lost so much They haven't replaced That much of it Their starting rotation is good But it doesn't have The depth that we're used to seeing it have I think You're relying on Noah Cinderguard

You're relying on Tony Gonsolin, who was excellent last year, but that was something like he had never really done that before. Clayton Kershaw gets hurt a lot, even though it continues to be spectacular. There's just a few more kinks in the armor for the Dodgers than we've seen in past years. And you have the debacks who are on the rise, right? I mean, we're expecting some of these young guys to take that next step forward. So, you know, whether this materializes in the end, we'll have to see. But on paper, that gap has closed quite a bit this offseason.

Well, that's the most optimism you're ever going to get out of this guy. So frame it, write it down. I don't know what you need to do, quote him. But make sure to get yourself a diehard membership so that you can read that entire piece and Jesse's logic behind all the things that he just said. And that's very exciting because, again, when I saw that headline, I just wanted to punch him in the arm. That's really what I wanted to do. I didn't even want to read it.

I was just like, great, here we go. but he does make a very good case as to why we can expect the Diamondbacks to compete with the Dodgers this season. Get yourself that membership. You'll get free merch over at the PHNX Locker, a hat, shirt of your choice every year that you're a member. You also get 20% off all orders. You get access to our members-only Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona Diamondbacks fan or any Arizona sports fan. You also get access to Jesse's wonderful writing as well as discounts with our partners and so much more. our wonderful tea party event had discounts.

That was a great event. We thank all of you guys for coming out. So more stuff like that if you are a member. Make sure to subscribe today. Also, we thank you guys for being here right now in the PHNXports YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe here as well. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live.

Leave us a little thumbs up. We always love that. You know, this guy loves that. It's his favorite thing in the world. I do love that. And of course, if you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there. Whether you watch this show or not,

just subscribe, download it. Nobody will tell. I won't tell anybody. Just download it anyway. And also, leave us a review. Leave us a five-star review. We love that. We love reviews, because reviews really are the true way to know the worth of something. And that's what our next segment is all about. We are very excited to introduce a new segment right now during MLB arbitration season. Welcome on in to arbitration conversation. Jesse and I. This has been months in the This has been so long. We've been so excited for arbitration season. It's our favorite time of the year. Some people love Christmas. Some people love opening day. Jesse and I, we love arbitration season. It's what we live for. But of course, arbitration is terrible. It's an awful thing that nobody should

ever have to go through, having an agent or someone argue on your behalf of your worth while your team tries to argue down that you aren't worth nearly what they really want you to know that you actually are worth, but we decided instead of hurting someone's feelings like I did saying I wouldn't want to arbitrate with Michaela on yesterday's show, we decided to hurt an inanimate object's feelings, and we decided to go with one of my favorite things that you guys see me drinking and sometimes dressing as on this show. And that's a can of Arizona iced tea. So, hello, Arizona iced tea with the Big Z, by the way.

The star of the show. It's the real star of the show. And Jesse and I today are going to take the position of arguing for and against this can of Arizona iced tea is worth. I am going to take the position that this very can of Arizona IST is worth 99 cents. Right. And just to be clear, this is all like a pretty perfect analogy with the actual Major League Baseball arbitration process, right? We talked about it yesterday. Like the debacks are going to put in their number of what they think Josh Rojas is worth. And then Josh Rojas and his agent put in their number. And then an arbiter has to come in and decide

who's telling the truth. So that's what we're doing with this. And there has to be facts put behind it as production numbers, maybe statistics, war, things like that. Oh, we're definitely going to talk some more. Oh, we're definitely taking war on this. But I think I'll go ahead and allow Jesse to kick things off. Oh, I have to go first. Do you want me to go first? I'll go first. I think you should go first. You know what, I'll go first. Because my argument is simple. This can of Arizona iced tea is beloved. Everybody knows everything about what to expect here. It's not a real healthy ice tea, right? We know that. We know what we're getting. We're getting a can full of sugar here. This one in particular is the Arizona iced tea with lemon flavor. They do have an Arnold Palmer, but let's be honest, this is basically

an Arnold Palmer. It's tea, it's lemon, there's a ton of sugar in it. That's what it is. But anybody that knows their value knows that your value is as good as someone is willing to pay for it. So if you go out there advertising what your value is, then people cannot potentially value at more than you're worth. And everybody knows that this goddamn can of ice tea says right on the printed. It's not even, it's a printed part of the can that it's worth 99 cents. Jesse, would you turn the can you? I will acknowledge that that is. Let's get, let's get it take a look at that 99 cents. We all know that. We all see that. When this company makes merchandise, they include that 99 cent label as part of the merchandise. You can get a shirt or a hoodie with that on there. And now,

Any independent artist, anybody who has ever worked a gig, knows of a very important rule, Jesse. What rule do they know? That rule is that when it comes to payment, you should never advertise what your rate is, right? You don't go in and you don't answer the question, what's your rate? You ask the question, what does the gig pay? The reason why is because no promoter, no company,

if you go in and say, I charge $50 a show is going to give you $60 a show. They're not going to give you $70 a show. They're not going to give you $100 a show. Jesse, they are going to give you $50 per show. True. And this can proudly wears on its chest, on its sleeve. The fact that it's worth is $0.99. Is it worth more?

Maybe. But obviously the can doesn't think it's worth more. Are you making my case? Because I feel like that's what's happening right now. I'm not. My point that I'm making is that this can is literally worth $9,000. 99 cents because it tells me out loud shouting that it is worth 99 cents. You're saying the can speaks to you.

I'm saying the can is always, it speaks to a lot of us, Jesse. I mean, the colors, how vibrant it is. The fact that it claims to be from Arizona, when it is in fact, Jesse, from Woodbury, New York. New York, really? I didn't know that, huh? This can is, it's cultural appropriation of the Arizona. of the design of our of our state culture. These are frauds, Jesse.

These are frauds from New York claiming to be from Arizona. Thus, there can should only be worth what it says it's worth. And that, Jesse, is 99 cents. I rest my case. You rest your case. Okay. So I feel like about half of the arguments that you brought up could really be used in my favor, frankly. If we look at this beautiful Arizona iced tea, yes, I acknowledge it does say 99 cents on it.

But how much did you pay for it today, Derek? I paid $1.59 plus tax. You did pay $1.59, didn't you? And I also paid $1.59. And the reality, Derek, is that no matter what the can tries to communicate about its worth, the reality is you still paid $1.59 for it. And it's just fundamental economics that the way that things are priced has nothing to do with what, like, the company says that they are actually going to be priced. It has everything to do with supply and demand and what they can actually get people to pay for it.

And once again, how much did you pay for this? I paid a dollar in $0.59. I didn't. I don't feel like I have to say much else other than the fact that maybe, maybe there was a day when Arizona iced tea was worth $99. And that's exactly what, you know, that's the most they could get for it. If they charge more, then they wouldn't be able to sell as many. Wouldn't be worth it for them. But Derek, have you done grocery shopping lately?

Have you seen the prices of eggs at your local grocery store? Don't get me started on egg on Jesse. Are you aware? You're trying to get me riled up now. Are you aware of the impact on, of inflation on our economy and what is going on in the universe right now? This Arnold Palmer, this Arizona iced tea, may have one. once been worth 99 cents.

But unfortunately, it is now worth exactly what you paid for it, Derek, which is $1.59. I rest my case. I need to counter argue and say something about that. And that is there is a company that uses, as you know, an image that is thus given to a can company that then they make that image and then it gets printed on the can. Sure. Sure. Yes.

So at any point, based on fluctuating markets, this company could have removed this 99 cent label from all of their cans. Yeah. And they probably wouldn't have been less recognizable on it because that's what it's actually worth. It wouldn't have been any less recognizable. We wouldn't know it's not an Arizona iced tea. We wouldn't say, hey, without the 99 cent sticker, that bitch is a fraud. We wouldn't say that, Jesse. We would never say that.

So thus, why? does the maker of this drink, the can, the one that they made this can, tell us it's worth 99 cents, so much so that they committed it to part of their design. We have a designer in here. Sean DePaz, he's here right now. This isn't a separate label, my man. No, it is not. This is part of the design of the can.

Am I wrong about that? You are right. Isn't it not an easy thing for you as a designer? Don't you think they have that saved as a separate layer maybe on a Photoshop file? You would hope so? just lift that right off of there? Yeah, you would hope so.

If they don't, that's a bigger issue. Right, with fluctuating markets? Yeah. They would take it off there. Honestly, a good point.

It would be worth whatever. I had never thought about the fact that they could just take the 99 cents off and no one's going to miss it. No one's going to miss it. You'll just say that used to have this sticker on there. You just know though, like sure, but practically speaking, like they probably have printed so many of these and they're not going to just throw them away because

they still say 99 cents. They're going to use all of the ones that say 99 cents. And then maybe a, Eventually, they'll adjust the price if they have good evidence that it's actually worth more, which I suspect they might have to do pretty soon. I will say. Ferrer says we need hard Arizona's tea, by the way, that exists. I will say, I have seen Arizona's.

I have seen Arizona's without the 99 cents on them before, printed differently for different prices, for different distributors. Don't you have an exhibit B to present? Well, I don't think I need to because... That's insulting. Make your goddamn cage, Jesse, briefly. Can we get it? Can we get a two shot on the can? I acknowledge, I acknowledge with what you're saying that, you know, yes, they could, they could change that it says 99 cents.

And they, you know, and they haven't chosen to do that at this point. But the reality is that the thing is worth what people pay for it, Derek. And you paid $1.59. And a lot of people are paying $1.59. As I told you, as we were walking over here, I was like, because I don't want to go get a $6 coffee. So you know. And I think what Sean just said, though, about the fact that we've seen. Arizona iced cans that don't say 99 cents.

Allegedly. Or I believe Gabriel also mentioned in the comments earlier, he's seen gas stations cover up the 99 cents with something else. That just goes to show like, oh, maybe there is some hesitation about this thing actually being worth what you're saying it's worth, which it is clearly not actually worth. It's a reseller markup. It's secondary market markup and I don't like it. That's what Ryan's asking.

It's not from the manufacturer, Ryan. It's the store selling it adjusting the price. If you want an exhibit B, I can give you another. I can give you an exhibit B. Would you please exhibit B? Yeah. So my exhibit B is this can, which is, you know, allows the old Diet Pepsi. This, okay, yeah, I'll put on the extra, the extra shot.

There we go. There we go. You can see, Derek, just looking at this beautiful two shot that we have, you can see there is a significant size disparity between these two cans. You'll notice that this diet Pepsi, a standard can of soda 12 ounces, Arizona iced tea, this is a massive can. This is a 23-ounce can. There is almost twice as much Arizona iced tea in that can as there is Diet Pepsi in the standard soda can.

Let's face it, in 2023, you're going to have a hard time finding even one of these, even one of these Diet Pepsi cans for 99 cents. When I purchased this Diet Pepsi over at this place downstairs, I paid more than 99 cents for it. And it is about half the size of the Arizona iced tea. You are going to be hard pressed to make the case that Arizona iced tea is worth actually less than what I just paid for that Diet Pepsi, which is significantly smaller. All right. And now I have one last counter argument to your presentation of this can. Do you know what the most important part about the Diet Pepsi is? I don't know that it's not as good as Diet Coke. At least that's what

that's a Matt would say. No, it's that that Diet Pepsi doesn't advertise it. I don't know. It's that diet Pepsi He doesn't advertise its value on its fucking can, Jesse. It doesn't say that it costs 50 cents. So thus you feel shafted paying $1.10 for it as you did. Sure. I acknowledge that the fact that the Arizona IC says 99 cents makes it very painful when you have to pay more for it. But you still have to pay more for it because that's what it's actually worth in today's market. So in relating it back to our original point and what this arbitration conversation is all about.

The arbiter would clearly rule that it's worth $1.59 because that's what you just paid for it. No, it wouldn't because that would be claiming that that's what I paid for it based on last year's value. But if I came into the meeting with my client, Arizona Ice-T as its defender, and said, this player is worth $1 million and he's wearing a shirt that says it, how is that player expecting to get $2.25 million, Jesse? How in the world? How in the world can even get one and a half million dollars when he is wearing a shirt that he had made by yescustoms.com that says, I am worth one million dollars.

I acknowledge it would be really bad for Josh Rojas. It would be bad optics. To come into the arbitration room wearing his shirt that says he's worth less than what he's asking for. But at the end of the day, Derek, we all know how the MLB arbitration process works. They don't care what T-shirt Josh Rojas is wearing when he walks in them. room, all they care about is, okay, what are players in the current MLB market making who have similar statistics, who have performed in a similar capacity to what Josh Rojas gave the Diamondbacks last season?

That's what they're going to base their decision off of in arbitration. In this case, that decision based on current market value is going to lead you to what you just paid for it, which is $1.59. You stupid, stupid man. Oh, there we go. The insults. Yeah. Now we really know.

Because the one thing that you'd forget is that an arbiter is a human being. And that human being is supposed to gather facts and make a decision. And they are supposed to go back, let's say, to a room where they're going to put all their notes together. And they're going to start analyzing stuff. They're going to start looking at Josh Rojas' stats from 2022. Sure, of how he's progressed along in his career and the value that he's added to this team. I'm sure comparing him based on his war to other team members. as well as other players in his position

is something this person would calculate in. But you know what, this person would sit there and not get out of their head? The fact that Josh Rojas came into that meeting wearing a shirt that says I'm worth $1 million, the arbiter would just be like, why did he do that? I can't stop thinking about it.

Like, I have all this data, but he wore a fucking shirt that's like, $1 million. You're really saying this person with a law degree is going to waltz in there and be like, I can't get over that dang t-shirt. I'm just saying that that would be a hard fact to get over. as a human being.

Why would that person put their own value on their shirt and try to shortchange themselves? I don't have an answer for that, Jesse. But all I know is that means it's worth what they state it's worth. And this can is worth $99. That's what it's worth. That doesn't make any sense.

We should have the people to decide. I think that's the only way. Vote up there, maybe in the chat. Maybe we'll get going on Twitter. There is now a poll in the chat. Who won the arbitration conversation? Derek or Jesse, go ahead and vote. Yes.

Vote now in the general. chat, let us know what your thoughts are. And in the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and just say, I've not had any OGs today. This argument was made purely on logic and sense, and I feel like I won this one. But of course, when I do a victory lap, I am going to take myself some OGs because they have a wide variety of strains and doses, and it's my favorite edible in the entire state of Arizona. It's also the number one selling edible in the state of Arizona. So to make sure to check out our friends at OGs. And mostly check out their brand new, happy balance ratio flavor.

CBD and THC, something that someone, this genius at a dispensary explained to me about the way that CBD grab onto T cells or something like that, I couldn't even fucking begin to explain this to you. And again, this person probably should be working on their PhD instead of at a dispensary. No knock to a dispensary. They just knew way too much about science and stuff. to be working there. But this brand new ratio flavor basically helps you experience all the benefit of THC without so much of the high.

Apparently, CBD helps to kind of neutralize that out. It's not something I like the euphoria part, but not everybody does. So make sure to try out their new happy balance flavor. Their flavor is strawberry's and cream. So I can tell you right now it's going to be delicious. And as always, you can find them at your local dispensary with your bud tenders who are actually geniuses. Must be 21 and over to enjoy. And also check out our friends if you enjoy making sports a little spicier,

especially with your friends. Make sure to check out our friends over, my goodness, I apologize, everybody. Check out our friends at Underdog Fantasy. Underdog Fantasy gives you multiple ways to play fantasy sports with your closed-off group of friends with people that you don't even know. Or you can get down on their pick-em game where you can select over-and-under-and-end. for all sorts of different sports. The more that you add on, the more legs you add on, the more money you can win.

So make sure to check out our friends at Underdog Fantasy. If you go there right now and use our promo code of PHNX, Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. So make sure to check out. Of course, there are different picks available for your team's players in an upcoming game over at Underdog Fantasy. Oh, Jesse. I love the, I love all of the,

options that we have for like apps like Underdog Fantasy to make sports more fun. But more importantly, I love the streaming apps that allow us to watch sports wherever we go. I've experienced that I've never missed an NFL game because no matter what, I'm already subscribed, not even to my own knowledge to some streaming service that has them available, which is fantastic. But one thing Major League Baseball has always suffered when it comes to streaming games and watching games wherever you live is blackout rules. Blackout rules suck. Local blackout rules are the absolute worst.

Everybody can attest to that. It's universally hated. I don't think that there's anybody besides maybe local market regional sport networks that like blackout rules. You think you have it bad. Imagine living in Buffalo, New York, where you're in the market of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toronto. Oh, shit. I didn't even think about that. Both New York teams. The tri-state area is probably just a nightmare. There was like six different teams I couldn't watch when I had MLTV back home. Well, I've heard people in Las Vegas. have problems working Diamondbacks games and people that live like in the kind of area between

here in San Diego and here in LA. But hopefully that will all change very soon because MLB announced that they have hired Billy Chambers, which was a long time, well-respected regional sports network executive. And he is taking over as vice president and local media in MLB. It sounds like it's almost a new position that's kind of being created. But the reason why this is important is sports business journal says that Chambers main duty, his main thing to tackle here is to figure out how the league can take back control of local regional sport networks, rights and the blackout rules and all that stuff, which is just an absolute must in today's day and age of streaming. If MLB ever wants to stay relevant and gain viewers and keep their sport growing as it stands right now,

people have no problem just not watching baseball. But if you make it less accessible, I would have a big problem not watching baseball. I know you would. That's just that's just that's just. Well, because it's kind of your job, right? Because you wouldn't really, I wouldn't trust your, your decisions here if you didn't watch baseball. No, it sucks because obviously a lot of people are unable to subscribe to like direct TV or or, you know, Cox or whatever that's going to provide the local sports.

And you want to subscribe to a streaming service just to watch maybe the thing you want. watch. Maybe you're not a Suns fan. Maybe you're not a Cardinals fan. Maybe the only thing that matters to you is watching the Diamondbacks and you can't really do that without paying essentially bally's in some way to do it. Yeah, right. Yeah, it sounds like a big part of this is that frankly, regional sports networks are having big problems as well. Yeah. And so there's an element here of like Major League Baseball kind of stepping in and sort of saving the day in a sense. An article from Sportsbusiness Journal.com about this. They wrote,

this hire is the clear sign that MLB has decided that it needs to take a more active role in producing and distributing its games. Baseball execs believe that it will gain control over many of those rights controlled by Diamond Sports. And Diamond Sports is the parent company that ultimately owns Ballet Sports, Arizona, as well as a number of other regional sports networks that carry MLB games across the country. So, of course, we talked a couple of months ago about potentially diamond being in financial hardship extreme financial hardship there there might be some

news to come on that front in in the relatively near future but for now it seems like major league baseball is is stepping in and kind of trying to get out in the front of whatever might be around the corner it's it's funny because baseball has so many unwritten rules and it's one of the things that a lot of people hate especially people that aren't very familiar with the game those of us that are we accept those unwritten rules and we even forget that there's something silly that could be changed. But, you know, we talk about arbitration. Talk about blackouts. These are things that other sports don't put their players through and don't put their fans through. You know, it's just... I mean, I don't think is Major League Baseball the only

sport that has blackout issues? I don't, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure there's some restrictions because, of course, like when I watch an NFL game, like on direct TV with the package, if it's being shown here locally on CBS or Fox. Right, right. Then it's blacked out on the NFL is just so different in general because it, it doesn't have like a regional sports network

structure like every game is nationally televised. Correct. In some way. Which channel it's on. Well, or it's regionally based based on where you're at on which game you're going to get on Sunday. Right. That is true.

You know, our friend of the show Rock was just complaining to me the very last week of football season that he didn't get to watch the Cowboys because the Cardinals were on. Yeah. Yeah, you know, whatever. I don't care about him where's Cowboys. But anyway, that was, it's because they won and I hate him right now. But anyway, I will say that the one thing that MLB constantly faces is that there are things like

this that people just are turned off by when it comes to watching sports and trying to keep up with their teams. And to be honest, yeah, they, you know, they have something to fix here, especially considering that their extra innings package is restricting people that don't even live in the state from watching it. Daniel brings up, I remember all the Cardinals' home games being blacked out growing up, you're absolutely correct

because they had to be a sellout in order to be on TV. So what was worse was, we wouldn't even get another game. If it was blacked out, they would just show paid advertising or whatever in that time slot when it was supposed to be a game on. It would also happen in Buffalo, and it got to the point where like the rich people in the city would just start buying

a bunch of tickets and giving them away. Oh, just so it was sold out. It would be on TV. Yeah, yeah. God bless those people. That's insane. God bless those people. But yeah, MLB definitely has this to fix.

And at least it's good that they're addressing it, right? They very easily could keep going the route that they're going. But I think that with the regional sports networks experiencing the financial crisis that some of them are experiencing, I think stepping in is the right call. And again, they have a sport that they have to worry about getting in front of people, you know. Not only that, but. it's the longest sport of any of the sports, right? It has the most games of any sports. So it's definitely a priority for them.

And they, you know, of course, extra innings is great and all. But if you can't watch the team that you're paying to watch, then what's the point of even getting it? Right, right. Yeah, I think there's actually a kind of a crucial connection here to what we were talking about earlier with the Diamondback Stadium, you know, decision and kind of what's around the corner for them. a big issue, at least from what I can tell.

This is more speculation at this point. We haven't seen the team talk about this. But I have to suspect that the Diamondbacks have some level of doubt about whether their regional sports network contract could be compromised at some point. Just because, like, clearly the amount of revenue that is being generated there is not what it needs to be for those companies to continue paying how much money they're paying to teams like the Diamondbacks in order to have the exclusives. rights to show their games.

There was an article that came out yesterday with Reds president Phil Castellini, who is not one of the smarter baseball executives by a number of different sources. That's sort of clear news at this point. There's no really no really debating that. But he made a number of controversial comments, which was all written up yesterday by Trent Rosecrans over at The Athletic. And he's, he's, you know, disputed. to just a number of things about the way that Major League Baseball operates.

And, you know, is a big reason why the Cincinnati Reds are seen as a team that's not really spending any money, doesn't really plan on spending any money. Cincinnati Reds fans want new ownership. They want new leadership in no small part because of, you know, these kind of comments being made. But one of the things that Castellini talked about was regional sports networks. And he said, so this is talking in particular about advertising on U.S. uniforms and how the Reds received way less money for this than the Red Sox did in particular.

He said it was awful. The biggest part of his presentation was his analysis of where the game's going, which is basically the regional sports networks are going to fold and it's not sustainable. These aren't Castellini's words. These are someone talking about Castellini. So he's talking about a big part of Castellini's mindset right now is that regional sports networks are going to fold and that they are not sustainable moving forward. And I have to suspect that the debacks might be having some of those same thoughts, which

is fair to a certain degree, right? It's a, if it's something that you know because it's not like they're the only ones that know this, it's kind of knowledge that regional sport networks are experiencing issues when it comes to financing. Right. So obviously there is something, you know, to at least be concerned about. It's kind of like what we were talking about with building a new stadium. Yeah.

If you're planning on moving when that leases up, then there needs to be some progression very soon. Like we're talking three years, four years away from, you know, their contract being up with Chase Field, right? They're at least being up with Chase Field. Four, four seasons there. Four seasons. Four seasons. Oh, yeah, including 2027. Yeah.

But yeah, right? Like, I mean, that's not a lot of time for you to build a brand new stadium from scratch if that's the plan. So you kind of need to be thinking ahead about that. They could extend. They could probably extend the Chase Field lease to, you know, cover however much time they needed to build to build the stadium. Yeah. I'm sure Maricopa County. would be happy to do that because who else are they going to, what are they going to do with that once the Diamondbacks leave? It's going to be sold off and destroyed and changed into a, you know, high rise or

something like that most likely. That's the, that's probably the saddest part about the Diamondbacks. That's true. Potentially leaving Chase Field. Yeah. And Derek Hall talked about that, like just the sentimental, like, connection to that ballpark that a lot of fans have, even though it's not, you know, it's not Oracle Park. Like, it's not course field. It's not a marquee baseball facility. but still a lot of memories that have been made there. And I think there would be some heartache to leaving that place. The million dollar question, or I guess really the billion dollar question,

the two billion dollar question is how are they going to fund this thing? If they are going to go the route of building a new stadium, they don't have currently a way to fund it that I am aware of. Of course, there are different ways that you could do that. I don't think the Diamondbacks are interested in pursuing any situation where like people are taxed, you know, like where everyone is taxed. You could, you know, charge a tax within the facility. I think they might be open to that.

Yeah, like the coyotes are doing. But I don't think the debacks really want to pull like public funds from, you know, every Arizona or anything like that. So they need an investor. They need someone to come in and help out with this. And as of right now, I don't think they have that. Well, and we did hear at one point that they were looking for a new minority shareholder, potentially, and who knows how that could impact funding.

Yeah. and what could go behind a new building. Obviously, what we talked about, the coyotes, the coyotes facility is being privately financed. And the sales tax from businesses that would be at part of that facility would go towards paying for it, which seems like a really reasonable plan. I think it is. I think it is. The debacks just need.

And they also address some of the rumors about ownership and whatnot. And Derek Hall, you know, stressed that Ken Kendrick has not. no intentions of selling. He loves owning a baseball franchise. He intends to keep it in his family moving forward. But he did acknowledge that there have been some conversations about selling off a minority share of the franchise. But he also said that that's not unusual. That's a pretty normal thing for them to do. And there's certainly some potential that if they bring in a minority owner, maybe that person could help fund some of these things if they have the means to do that. Or we could just take some time to remodel Chase Field like they did.

over across the street and make it a better facility for everyone. What do you think like what is the ceiling of Chase Field? Is there a certain amount of money that you could put into Chase Field where it becomes a top 10 ballpark, like a top 10 baseball facility? I don't know because I'll say I never imagined, and I've said this before, that they could have made the footprint center into what it is. And I really, I can't tell you how much better the changes made that, you know, as far as a building to go attend concerts, basketball games, all of that stuff in. It's legit now.

Yeah. It's legit. Yeah. But I don't know. I think that obviously the idea there is that building a new stadium from scratch, no matter what, is going to cost you three times the amount that it's going to to renovate Chase Field. Four, four times, five times probably. And the one thing that everybody can agree on about Chase Field. is that there's too many goddamn seats in that building anyway.

So it makes it easy to take some of those areas out, make some more standing room-only areas, make some more areas for, I don't know, shopping, maybe convert part of Chase Field into part of that shopping district that you want to have right there on the facility, you know, in that area that they don't have a lot of ground to do that with, right?

Yeah. I don't know, but... Ben said it's a retractable ceiling. It's a retractable ceiling. Yes. Brian Abdallah says no chance Do you mean I'm renovating? I'm guessing you're meeting renovating

I get that And again I didn't think that my I didn't think that the renovation of footprint center Was gonna make it as wonderful as it did to be honest So I think there's a difference though That just gives me that that hope but you're right I think there's a difference between basketball and baseball Like in the NBA

stadiums don't have as many unique factors right Like a basketball arena is a basketball arena. And you want the seats to be nice. You want the suites to be nice. You want some cool hangout areas. But like the general structure of the facility just is what it is. They just kind of have a blueprint for how to do that for the NBA.

The MLB is just different. Major League Baseball is just different in that every ballpark looks different, feels different, right? You have more creative freedom with what you can do with a Major League Baseball facility. And my personal opinion on this is that no matter how, much money you throw at Chase Field, it's going to have a bottom tier feel. Like all of those unique factors. I just don't see.

Like how are you going to like what kind of money could you put into Chase Field to make it so that it doesn't have this airplane hanger vibe when the roof is closed. You know, like I don't I don't know what you do. Like how do you change that? You fucking add a twisty slide to the pool. Okay. All right. Fair enough.

Fair enough. And then Baxter, much like Bernie up in Milwaukee, has to slide down the slide. every time they had a home run, right? Into the pool. So you want to turn it into Miller Park with a pool as opposed to what you're saying? Hold on. Hold on. No, I want to steal something from every ballpark, right?

Okay. That stupid fucking outfield wall, we're putting in a green monster, just a big green monster. Sorry, all of you folks in left field, those seats are gone now. You might sit on top of it, maybe up at the very tip of time. You're putting a green monster in left field. Yeah. There's already almost a green monster in center field. I mean, like, that's essentially what it is.

It's going to be bigger than Boston's. That's a terrible idea. They should not hire you to do any of the roof more. That alone is a key. That loan is clutch. But that's the thing. Like, you can't. You just can't.

Jesse, have you never fucking turned your air conditioning all the way up in your car and your sick rap four, but then drove around in July with the windows also down? Yeah. And do you know how much money they'd be wasting by doing that with a facility that large? They're not going to do that. Whatever.

The thing is that Chase Field having their, attractable roof system that it does. There's not a lot of natural light coming in. And there's just no way around that really. Like you could deck out the suites. You could make, you know, you could have all sorts of great hangout spots around the stadium. You're not changing the fact that Chasefield just kind of has this like indoor mall vibe to it.

It definitely needs new lighting. It does need new lighting. That was one of the things that Derek Hall mentioned. It needs the cool like light show when there's a home run. Yeah. And we need a giant snake mascot Right? That's not just one person It's six people

You know like the dragons and like you know In like China like Asia the dragons Sure right you know I mean like paper dragon right But just a snake right I don't know call whatever the fuck Have him eat Baxter the very first day he shows up And then Baxter's just gone forever Now that would be something to see

That would be something to see everyone should come to that game Another thing we talked about is, of course, I made this argument back when we were talking about where would a minor league or a team go here, a minor league team go here in Arizona. And I said, Bisbee, because Bisbee is home to one of the oldest ballparks. Warren Ballpark. The Warren Ballpark. 1909, I believe. It's one of the oldest, if not the oldest, active ballparks in all of the United States, all the world. I mean, in what sense is it active?

It holds games. It has games at it. It's not just like a place you go visit as like a historical landmark. Sure. There's active games that are still being played there, right? Not like professional games, I don't think, but games. An idea we came up with before the show started is that the Arizona Diamondbacks need to hold games there. They need to have retro throwback jerseys from like the 1800s for the Diamondbacks that never even existed.

And yes, before you ask, they're going to be purple and teal with copper trim. That's the only way that we're doing. Wouldn't it be wild if the conclusion to this is the Diamondbacks move, not out of Arizona, but out of Maricopa County. To Bisbee. To Bisbee Arizona. To play in this. I mean, you could deck out, you could deck out that stadium and modernize it.

And it honestly could be incredible. Yeah, it could be. But last I checked, the population of Bisbee, Arizona was probably not enough to support a Major League Baseball franchise. I just think it could easily be. The ball would fly, though. You got that elevation going. It could be a field of dream situation, though, where the dynamite.

Backs play an exhibition game there. That would be cool. That would be cool. That would be cool. That would be cool. That would be cool. But we're way off track now. And that's what we do on this show.

I hope everybody voted. Do we have a, do we have a tally on the vote? Yeah, do we do. We do. What's the, what's the right? Hold on. Let me find the results real quick. With.

Shouldn't be close. Shouldn't even be close. Six of 11 votes. Oh, that's very close. So with a one vote margin of victory. Derek Montia. Yeah. Let's go!

My God. Let's go. You guys don't understand basic economics. I just say I cut my mouth shut because they didn't want to influence anything. I 100% agree with Jesse. Oh, boo. So we're tied. And I have two burner accounts, so if I had voted, Jesse would have won.

There we go. Just say. Glad you didn't. I'm glad you didn't. Well, I'm going to take a victory lap with my friends from Fort Peak Brewing Company. Of course, they have the best beers. We know that. Local beers.

They have brand new beers for you to try. And make sure to join us. Last Wednesdays are back. So join our P.HNX crew at the 8th Street Pub on January 25th. We'll all be down there. We'll all be doing live shows and in-person stuff throughout the day. Enjoy $3 beer specials and come say hi to us, most importantly. It's a week from tomorrow.

Free hugs. They also have brand new beers, recreational juice dank IPA and a staycation super juicy IPA, both of which I will be trying, of course. So make sure to join us down at Four Peaks Brewing Company at the 8th Street Pub. If you can't join us, grab some. wherever you get your beer join us remotely and of course must be 21 or over to enjoy and enjoy responsibly both brian and ben say they didn't vote but they would have voted for me so there's there's your two extra votes plus sean daniel said you're welcome derrick as if he didn't really

want to vote for you but he just did it out of sympathy so i think we all know who the real who the real winner is here. But anyway, if you guys haven't done so already, download the Drafking Sportsbook app. If you're a new or existing customer right now, you can take a shot at an even bigger payout with Draft King stepped up same game parlayes. Boost your NFL winnings with each leg you add up to 100%.

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See, show notes for details. Jesse, I made myself a little money. This weekend, I got some action on the Bengals, and I won on the Giants. How many Arizona iced teas could you buy? I could buy, based on your calculation. If hypothetically, you got them for 99 cents. For 99 cents, I could buy 149. Okay, okay, nice.

So I'm very excited about it. In real life, you could buy about $0. 90 years. Look, I wish the drafting sportsbook app just went ahead and translated your financial credits into, you know, into Arizona ice teams. It would be great for me. But of course, we thank you guys all for being here, for being here in the chat. We appreciate it so much. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at cap underscore Kman with a K. This guy's at Jesse N. Friedman on Twitter. Our show is at Ph.NX underscore DVACs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you again so much for being. here on behalf of Sean, the MVP, Jesse and myself. We always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't advertise

your value on a T-shirt in your arbitration meeting.