PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are the D-backs done making offseason moves? Also Ivan Melendez is ascending in prospect rankings

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks may be done making offseason moves, and we discuss if fans are satisfied with the roster. We also take a look at where Ivan Melendez is ranked on MLB Pipeline’s top first base prospects list, and Jesse reviews another Christmas classic, Die Hard.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.comFOCO: 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% offChitown Cornhole: Go check out their website chitowncornhole.com and make sure to follow them on Instagram @chitowncustomcornholeboardsWhen 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 there and happy Friday. Welcome on in to a special Friday edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. This guy is the thunderstick. He's Jesse Friedman. And of course, this show is your number one source for Arizona Diamondbacks News and Fun. This show is also brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app,

America's top rated sportsbook app. Jesse, I'm a little excited, but I'm also a little disappointed. There's some new prospect news out there, and of course, everybody has their opinion, but they had to go and make me sad. Also, in other news as far as making me sad, according to a Steve Gilbert article's latest article,

it sounds like the Arizona Diamondbacks may be done making off-season moves, and I wanted to get your thoughts on that possibility. Yeah, so the exact, and this was an exclusive one-on-one, that Steve did with Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen, he said, so the question was, are you still working on some things? There's still some time before camp opened. So could there be any other additions?

Mike Hazen in response said, yeah, my expectation is from a reality standpoint, which is one of my favorite phrases, honestly. I'm definitely going to use that. From a reality standpoint, you're probably looking at non-roster invitees at this point, but in some cases, there could be some trades that happen and there's still opportunity for us in the free agent market, too. So it's hard to say we're still actively looking for help, strength to the bullpen specifically. So I don't know.

Just the first couple sentences of this, like from a reality standpoint, you're probably looking at non-roster invitees at this point. You know, he does add the caveat. They're still working on some things. But it is a little bit of a change of tone from what we last heard from Mike Heisen during the Zach Davies press conference. He had those bullets still on the gun, didn't he? He might have at least made it sound like it's possible that there were still bullets in the gun, whereas at this point, his initial reaction. to that question was at this point, non-raster invitees, although we are still working on a couple of things. So we at least have to consider the possibility that this roster that the Diamondbacks have is going to be the roster that they go into spring training and eventually opening day with.

I feel like Mike Hazen has been fairly, fairly honest with us, fairly open about a lot of things. Even stuff he can't tell us. At times, he looks at us in the media and goes, you guys know the stuff, the stuff that was said. the teams we were connected to or players we were connected to. So he doesn't shy away from, you know, that that. He hasn't denied the Danesby Swanson or the Xander Bogart's career. He sort of made it sound like those things were in D. Yeah, but I also can't confirm that for you.

That's also the other side of that is that he couldn't like openly tell us. Right. Especially considering that those deals didn't happen, you know, it doesn't do anything for them to openly admit that they were pursuing these guys. Could you imagine if, could you imagine if, if MLU. LP GMs just came out and and we're like obligated. They were obligated to tell you everything. Well, we shit the bed this off. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. We were talking with the Royals earlier today, but they, they were completely overvaluing Scott Barlow or whatever and you know, yeah, no, unfortunately that's not how it works, but it would be, it would be fascinating if that's how it worked. I do feel like the Diamondbacks could be done. I don't feel like that there is extra moves to be made. Of course, we've talked a bit about the reliever. are still on the market.

And if anything, I'm fairly satisfied with the moves they made to improve position players. Yeah. But I would say if there was one area that I wish that they would have maybe pursued a bigger name or maybe some more talent would have been obviously for the bullpen. I do think that Mike Hazen feels like some of the pieces that didn't work out last year, just kind of had a bad season, some of the players, Mark Melanson, namely being the big one there, I'm sure. But I think that they're expecting a bounce back season from a couple of guys.

and I think that's the reason why they might feel like their bullpen, you know, isn't going to be nearly as much of a detriment to the team as it was last season. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the, if you're trying to, you know, if you're looking at just the boxes, the debacks were setting out to check this offseason, I think the position player ones, like you said, you feel like, I mean, maybe Evan Longoria wasn't at the top of your priority list or your wish list this off season, but there are no other holes for the team to fill positionally,

I don't think. I think they have a lot of depth at pretty much every position at this point. But yeah, the bullpen is certainly the big question. You know, you get Scott McGuff, you get Miguel Castro. But do you necessarily feel that with those guys in the fold that, you know, what was arguably baseball's worst bullpen a year ago is is going to bounce back just with, you know, the addition of those two guys? I don't know. I don't know. I think it's a little, it definitely airs on the side of underwhelming. It's not super convincing. Scott McGuff is interesting. Just the numbers he put up.

I think it's the biggest question mark. Yeah. We don't know him, right? And we don't know what he can do. It's much like a minor league player, much like a lot of these guys on the prospects list that we talked about yesterday and that we're going to talk about today. It really is, it's one thing to judge them based on how they performed at a minor league level or in another league. But playing in major league baseball is obviously a different animal. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And I mean, there's so many other wild cards too. I mean, they brought in Cole Solcer, who was really good a couple of years ago,

not so great last year. You know, you could maybe look for a bounce back there. They did get Carlos Vargas from the Cleveland Guardians in a trade, although he's only pitched in the minors up to this point. Justin Martinez is still in the fold. So, you know, maybe he comes into spring training and impresses and is able to land a role. So there are, there are some more interesting options than the team has had in the past. We're not, we're not, you know, banking on a 38-year-old to hold things down at the back end. I guess Mark Malanson is still here,

but I don't... He's still there, but I don't think he's the front runner for, you know, a back end roller or the closing role at this point. Which honestly, once again, is a good thing

because we've talked about the competition and how that kind of can bring out the best in these players, especially during spring training, right? So Mark Malantan, the only person he was really competing with was Ian Kennedy.

And before they even took the field, Ian Kennedy was already in press conferences, admitting that he had, accepted a setup role to Mark Melanson being the closer. So it was a foregone conclusion at the beginning of last year what Mark Malanson's role was going to be. I feel like him having more of a fight, more of a competition for that closer role,

is going to help bring it out the best in him. And I mean, hopefully, look, obviously we're all disappointed with his season last year, but you can only imagine how he as a performer as an athlete feels about his season last year. So the desire is there for him to have. a bounce back year, but, you know, he is on the wrong side of, you know, age-wise in this, in this league. And that's something that, again, might factor in as far as who ends up being the closer. And I do like the fact that it could be anybody.

I like the fact that there will be a competition for it going into the season. But, yeah, I mean, I guess I could say for the most part, I'm satisfied with their moves that they've made. It sounds like you are for the most part. Do you think the bullpen is still the one area that you would like to see some more? like to see one more move and I still I'd love to see Andrew Chafin. I would love to see Andrew Chafin would put me over the top like for me to

discuss my satisfaction about this I would it would be a resounding yes if they added Andrew Chafin to this bullpen. Are you disappointed that Araldus Chapman did not come to the Arizona downbacks I believe three point three point seven five million dollars I think is what he got from Kansas City I don't I don't like that they did that I mean but again it's you see this is what I was talking about you don't like that the Royals did that? I don't like that any team did that. I don't feel like O'Raldus Chapman, you know, obviously we know what we heard from his time with New York and how it ended. We know

what he has been through in the past and what, you know, like, what his past transgressions are. Not the only one. It's just like Trevor Bauer, though. It is. Trevor Bauer is going to get picked up by a team. I don't know if, well, I don't know. You're right. It's going to happen. It's going to get picked up by a team. People are going to be mad about it. The anger is going to subside. Oh, you're saying Trevor Bauer is going to get picked up by a team. It might not be this season. It might not be this season. They might, he might, obviously, there's too many obviouslys in this episode. Excuse me for that. I will say this though. He doesn't need to play financially. We know what he's getting paid from the Dodgers for the season. That's true. He doesn't necessarily

personally need to play because he's making income in an excessive amount. However, he could stack that money. He could still get paid from another team. Right. I think the sooner that he gets picked up by a team from his standpoint, the sooner he can get past this and people will start just looking past it and forgetting it. It's going to happen, though. I know it's going to happen.

I just hope that we as Arizona Diamondbacks fans don't have to deal with that at all. Yeah. I don't want to have to kind of overlook what someone has done in the past if they can help a team win. I don't want to do that. Yeah, Brian says so if Chapman can get a deal, so can Bauer. Yeah, I mean, it's hard for, like, I know for sure that Bauer is just perceived differently. And bringing in Chapman is not nearly the PR nightmare that bringing in Bauer would be. But I also can't necessarily give a great explanation from why that is.

Time? Time, I guess. Different. I mean, the incidences were different. I don't necessarily want to get too deep into that. But yeah, it is interesting. I mean, you would think that in some ways they should be in the same boat, but they're really not. I mean, there are people that receive that same level of scrutiny.

And they didn't even commit a crime, right? The Diamondbacks re-signed Zach Davies. A lot of people know about what Zach Davies went through in his personal relationship because it was put out there. It was widely broadcast. And it did cast him in a bad light. But, again, that's not really, there wasn't a crime. I'm committed. It was just kind of more of a bad look for him personally and makes him look in a lot of people's eyes like a bad person, right? That's that that's a little bit easier to overlook and

re-sign a guy like that rather than either of these guys that we're talking about. It's not even the same category, but it is, it is to a certain degree public scrutiny and how people feel about that person and about the team that they're a part of. So it's just based on, you know, how much of a PR nightmare a team is willing to take on. Yeah. But I don't even mean to throw Zach Davies in with those two guys. I think that that's a bad comparison, but the reason why I bring him up, obviously, is because he does have a negative reputation out there based on personal things he's been through,

and none of it was, none of it was a crime. Yeah, I think his situation is pretty different. Oh, vastly different. The other thing with Chapman, is that he missed a workout, a team workout with the Yankees prior to the postseason starting. And I don't think he would have won a spot on their postseason roster anyway. So my guess is that maybe Chapman was just like, yeah, I'm not going to make it anyway. So I'm not going to bother showing up with this workout, which is not a great, like, you know, team first mentality.

It doesn't make you look like you care about the team or player. No, no, it's not good. And so I think even that might be more what's on people. people's minds right now with Chapman than, you know, some of the things that happened in the past. Speaking of Zach Davies, he will get his number 27 back, which was very briefly occupied by Drey Jamison. The nerve. The nerve, the audacity.

Seth Beer is still not number 30, which we fucking are not going to get any sleep until we got that happened. Jameson now switches his number to 99, which by far is the coolest number in baseball, I think, that you could wear. I mean, is it the coolest number in any sport? In any sport, 99 or double zero. I don't like double zero. I love double zero.

Love me a double zero. Who, like, has there been any good double zero? I don't know. I don't care. He's a double zero. At least 99 makes you think of Rick Vaughn, right? 99 makes me think of Jay Crowder. Let's go.

Who is not particularly beloved among Sun's fans right now. He was, though. We loved him. We had shirts of him and stuff. Stuff changes fast, but anyway. That's a bold move. Like 99, if you're picking 99, you know you're going to be the player who's wearing number 99.

Yeah. And Drey Jameson is really going for it. I think Taiwan Walker maybe was the last guy to wear 99. Taiwan Walker did wear number 99. That is true. I don't know. My memory's not as bad as you claim it is. There's something about Taiwan Walker though that like it just fit.

Yeah. I don't know. I couldn't have imagined Taiwan Walker wearing anything other than 99 somehow. He was also double zero for a different team. So yeah, when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays, he was double zero. Let's go. Weird. Super weird.

He's got good numbers. 4499, 99, 99. Let's go. Taiwan Walker knows what he's doing. In other news, baseball prospectus released their list of the Arizona Diamondbacks prospects, or all prospects, I should say, and the Arizona Diamondbacks prospects were not quite as high on that list as baseball America valued them. So, again, it's one of those kind of situations where we take a look at this and decide if we

really care about one person's opinion versus another. Right. And there weren't as many prospects because, like we talked about, Gabrielle Moreno isn't going to be featured on a lot of lists considering he is no longer considered a prospect. I also feel very dumb because Aaron Judge does wear 99. Yes. I did know that, but for some reason that didn't occur to me. Did you say out loud on this show, what player wears 99?

Like, callously? Like, what good player? Did you say that? I mean, let's just move on. So, yes, D-BACs, prospects, baseball prospectus. For some reason, and this fascinates me, baseball prospectus does a top 101 prospects instead of 100. It's like, come on. Maybe they've just found scientifically that there are 101 noteworthy prospects.

Because let's face it, 100 is kind of like, I mean, it's a nice round number, but it's kind of an arbitrary number when it comes to prospects. Like there's nothing magic about 100. I mean, there sort of is. But anyway, so Corbyn Carroll comes in at number six for baseball prospectus, which is quite a bit further down than number two over with baseball America. He has guys in front of him, Gunner Henderson, who is pretty much widely considered the best prospect in baseball right now. He got a little glimpse of the majors last year with Baltimore was outstanding.

So I don't have any problem with that. Jordan Walker, number two. Are we playing the show on the show? Is that what's happening right now? Jordan Walker is number two, who we saw in the fall league. We've talked a decent amount about him. James Wood, the outfielder for the Washington Nationals. He's number three, not a name I've seen in the top five as much.

Francisco Alvarez considered potentially the top catching prospect in baseball with the New York Mets. Number four. And then L.A. Dela-Cruz is number five. the Cincinnati Reds, Corp and Carroll coming in after that. So it's interesting. Baseball prospectus, I feel like their list just tends to be a little different. I don't have any, like, data to back this up. But it just feels like baseball perspective seems to have a different view on things

than a lot of the other places do. I think it was Anthony Castrovins on MLB.com that wrote about how, when he was deciding on his predicting the winners, he even put out there what his logic was on deciding it. And that was, it's never who you think it's going to be. Winners for what? For certain year awards, like when he selected Tori La Molo and Zach Gowan,

as manager of the year and as the Syung winner. And I think that that right there just goes to show you that sometimes even if the analytics or everything else is pushing you in one direction, sometimes these predictions just kind of are based on a feeling or based on something they read about a guy or whatever. It really is just somebody's opinion. And I know that we want to get excited about it

when we had five guys in the top 30, but I don't feel like we should drastically feel differently just because a different website now values those guys not nearly as high, right? I will say I've been a subscriber to baseball prospectus for a while. I highly recommend. So they do a podcast for all of their, I think it's top 10.

I think they do a top 10 prospects list for every team rather than top 30. And they do a podcast where they talk through why they ranked those players where they did and they talk about every single player. Honestly, it was any DeBax fan who listens to that podcast is going to come away slightly depressed. I'm just going to say that. Baseball prospectus does not think as highly of a lot of these guys as I think a lot of other sites do.

And as DeBex fans probably do, they had some concerns about Corbyn Carroll. You know, they talked about last year he kind of swung and missed a lot. He didn't hit the ball super hard. You know, he doesn't have as much power as some people think he does. And then, you know, the list kind of went on. They had some concerns with Jordan Lawler and his defense, his arm strength. It wasn't nearly as glowing of a review as we've seen from it feels like everywhere else. So I'm not really surprised to see these players come in where they are.

Jordan Lawler, number 24 for baseball prospectus at shortstop, of course, Drew Jones, number 33. And then Brandon Fott, who was number 27 on the baseball America. list that we discussed yesterday. He is at number 83, according to baseball prospectus. So a pretty big difference there. You know, looking back at baseball prospectus's old lists, you can see at times that they were at some points very accurate. And at a lot of times, they were kind of all over the place with how highly they rated guys. So are you looking at their list from past years trying to pick out all the mistakes they made? I'm not going to do that to them. They don't deserve that. Because MLB pipeline has always had it right.

I know every single year. Baseball prospect is they just, they need to get it together. Get all your shits. Why don't you know the future websites? What the hell? You claim to know the future. Anyway,

we do know the future around here. And what we do know is you're going to become a pH and X diehard member. There you have. If you haven't already done so, because of course you've got to get Jesse's wonderful articles that he locks behind a paywall just to be greedy and mean. Not at all. He really loves giving away everything for free.

Actually, we were talking about the. yesterday how Jesse probably had the most unlocked content on the website at one point because we were just trying to make sure everybody could get down on this wonderful content. And it's mostly unlocked. So don't make Jesse's wonderful stuff over on go phtonx.com, but to get access to all of it, including a free t-shirt like this good boy Cody Coyote behind me and all of our free merch, or not free merch, but all the merch that's accessible to you. And you can get a free piece every year as a member over at p.nx locker.com.

You also get 20% off your orders going forward as a member. You also get access to our members-only Discord as well as discounts at some of our partners. We have our events, obviously, that we're going to do discounts for as well. But all sorts of goodness. So make sure to join us over here as a diehard member. If you're here right now in the chat, we appreciate you guys for being here. Make sure to subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel if you haven't done so already. Leave us a review.

Leave us a thumbs up. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of the shows go live. If you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting out, subscribe to us there if you haven't done so, and leave us a review there. We appreciate you for doing so. We'd also appreciate you guys for checking out Underdog Fantasy, because they do daily fantasy sports differently. You can draft a team up to five of your friends. And of course, whoever has the highest scoring squad for that night can win some cold, hard cash, not to mention the pickum game that I constantly gloat about winning $1,000 on pitch counts. This baseball season, we ride. We ride. together on pitch count. So make sure to join us. Get yourself the Underdog Fantasy app or go over to underdogfancy.com. Sign up with our promo code of PHNX and Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. And make sure to take advantage of that. Again, I made my money on my very last bet that I had and it was because Underdog hooked me up with that extra $100. We ride together around

here on the Underdog Fantasy app unless we're playing each other. And then it's very awkward around here because everybody hates each other. Nobody wants to give anybody advice or any information being passed along, but that's what sports is about, right? Hating your friends and your coworkers. So get down on the underdog fantasy app right now. Speaking of hating things,

there's some things not to hate when it comes to prospect ranking. Sorry, I have to interrupt you. I have a trivia question. I have to ask you first. Please. So the debacks, apparently, I did not realize this, had one player who wore number 99 last year. One player that wore number 99.

One player who wore number 99. Kenyon Middleton. I have to say incorrect because his first name is Keenan, not Kenyon. But you did, but you did. Shut up. I got the answer. I got the answer. I'm impressed.

I'm impressed. I know stuff, Jesse. Believe it or not, even though I act like I don't on this show. Speaking of knowing stuff, we knew that Ivan Melendez was going to be an incredible future prospect for this team. When we did our draft show, we were super. super excited about him being drafted by the debacks. And he continues to impress an MLB prospect rankings. We touched on him a bit yesterday,

but obviously the Hispanic Titanic, best nickname that you can find. All of sports, really. Tell me another better nickname in baseball than the Hispanic Titanic. I don't think I can. Like, I don't think I can. I didn't think you could. It just, I mean, the rhyme and like, it's just the Titanic.

It's just not, it's not cliche. it works. It's not, you know, if I'm going to critique it, doesn't have the best future connotations. You know what I mean? Like, it makes me think like we're going to get excited about it and then it's going to be a bust, right? Like, that's going to have the Titanic ended up.

The tie a little bit. Anyway, that's fair. That's fair. Well, right now he is very highly ranked because MLB pipeline has him listed as the eighth best first base prospect in all of baseball. And looking at his numbers, of course, we know that he, we know he rakes. We know he has some power.

But it's very exciting to think about, again, the future of this team when you factor in Melendez and that you could potentially be here as soon as maybe the end of next season. Yeah. Yeah. So apparently, Ivan Melendez was actually number five on the last time that MLB pipeline did this list. So I guess he technically moved down. But he is still in the top 10. And I wouldn't read too much into that. It's not particularly surprising.

He played some games in Visalia this past year for the debacks or for. for the for the vice a rawhide. And he had 207, 349, 368. So it wasn't, you know, it wasn't an incredible showing. And obviously for a right-handed hitting first baseman, you need the bat to play. I mean, that's where his value is going to come from. For sure. I talked to Josh Barfield about Melendez, Deepak's farm director at the end of the season.

And he told me that apparently they had Melendez at like a 900 expected OPS over the last month, I want to say it was. of his stint with Vysalia this year. So for whatever that's worth, maybe there was some bad luck baked into those numbers. He didn't strike out much. Altogether, he only had, he had 20 strikeouts and around 100 played appearances,

which is relatively low. So he didn't strike out a ton. He walked a decent amount. It wasn't like he was overmatched, but for some reason, the results just didn't quite translate yet. So I don't think there's any big concerns there yet, though. I think at 22 years old, and obviously he still has his progression before him.

But there is something very exciting that the Diamondbacks have building here, right? Yeah. We've talked about how many guys they've had in the top 100. We've talked about all of those guys. But Melendez is kind of an underrated infielder a bit based on his numbers. His numbers definitely went down in 2022 everywhere he played. I mean, he had a much better year in college at Texas, but... That's not necessarily surprising.

Yeah, no, not at all, but college isn't exactly the best competition level that you can find. Not compared to pro baseball. Yeah, or even like early single A, you know, like everything is much harder once you get into the major league system, playing minor league games against other professional baseball players. But there definitely is the excitement there around him. And I think that he could be looking, he could be that future that the Diamondbacks have beyond Christian Walker. We talked about the ridiculous idea of trading Christian Walker, which neither one of us think is going to happen, but it was floated out there. There isn't really much behind him at this point. Until you get to Ivan Melendez.

So it's a reason why the team really does need to, you know, look at Christian as being their guy. There isn't really somebody else right now within the organization to take that spot. There's also, I mean, I guess there's Davis and De Los Santos, who a lot of people suspect will eventually transition from third base to first base. So that is something to at least keep an eye on. But yeah, I mean, you know, De Lo Santos unfortunately didn't look great in the fall league. I think there's quite a bit of doubt among prospect of evaluators at this point that, you know, his swing will translate to the big league someday. Still so young, so you're certainly not writing him off at this point. But, yeah, I mean, Melendez is.

Melendez was absurd in his last year at Texas. It was crazy. 32 home runs, 94 RBI in 67 games. He hit 387, 508, 863, and he walked more than he struck out. And that's against pretty decent competition. So, yeah, I mean, he was, you know, he won the Golden Spikes Award for a reason. I mean, that's the college baseball equivalent of the Heisman. So he was very, very good.

and unfortunately for the debacks that didn't translate into the miners right away, but this next year is going to be a big one for him. You know, maybe starting the year in Visalia, but having a shot to, you know, get up to Hillsborough, maybe even AA potentially if things look good. He's one of those pretty advanced college hitter types that you figure could advance pretty quickly through the system. So this is a big year coming up for Ivan Melendez.

He was actually originally drafted by the Marlins in the 16th round, prior year and he went back and kind of betting on himself there like baseball players can do when they reenter the draft and worked out going from the 16th round to the second round uh substantially better money there and uh honestly you know i don't want to knock the marlins but i feel like you know he his his position improved as far as teams that kind of have an idea of where they're going and where their focus is as far as young talent goes no knock to marlins fans that are out there And I know none of them are watching this program at this point. We have a very large contingent of Marlins fans that tune in for sure.

Blue Jays fans and Marlins fans. We just can't keep them away. Speaking of fans, by the way, we do have some information to share about the Arizona Diamondbacks fan fest being canceled, but we kind of have to hold off on it until things are official. But we should be able to share that with you on Monday. Some interesting things there and some things Jesse and I definitely want to discuss when it comes to that because you definitely going to be some people

that have some opinions about it. Of course, we thank our friends at Four Peaks. Somebody in the chat said Derek knows things, and he's drinking. Derek drinks Four Peaks, and he knows things. That's the best way to describe me, I guess. My favorite beer, of course, it's a toss-up between the Hop-Not IPA and, of course, the Joy Wow Joy Bus.

I got to hug the Wow Joy Bus out at our tea party event, by the way. Four Peaks brought out an actual joy bus. There's an actual Joy Bus. Wow. Volkswagen, Joybus. And yes, I did hug it. Is it just filled with Joybus? No.

No, but that would be better. Okay, yeah. If you just opened the sliding door and there was just like piles of ice with just beer in it. Yeah, there you go. Anyway, I can't wait to try their new beers, though. They have two new beers we've been talking about.

Their recreational juice dank IPA and their staycation super juicy IP. I'm a big IPA fan myself. So I can't wait for our last Wednesday. days to be back and they are back. We will be out there at the A Street Pub on January 25th. And all of our PHNX shows will be live and in person throughout the day. Enjoy $3 beer specials. Enjoy their delicious chicken tendees. And of course, enjoy us doing our shows and hanging out with you guys. We are always excited to do that. So make sure to come by and say hi. We are excited to be out there.

Five days away. Five days away right around the corner. And of course, this season on baseball, we are riding with game time because we don't know what plans we have. and we don't want to buy tickets that we have to figure out a way to get rid of. We don't want to have to compromise events. Your family's going to hit you up at the last minute. Now you have to decide between going to a baseball game and losing money on it or going to see your family. Forget all that. Wait until the last minute.

Procrastinate with Jesse and I and use the GameTime app. You can save up to 60% on tickets when you buy them at the last minute. And that's not just for sporting events. That's for concert shows, games, everything. Everything that you need to buy tickets to you can find over at Game Time. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. And of course, go get your tickets. Go wait.

Go wait. Go wait. Stop and wait. Wait until the last minute and get your tickets. But, of course, do that over at GameTime. Jesse, huge GameTime fan. He made me convert even before we were partnering with them. So thanks to Jesse for helping me save money.

It's the most aesthetic like third party ticketing ass out there. He loves it so much. Yeah, it's just very beautiful. It's very beautiful app. And speaking of Jesse's opinions on things, it's once again time for Jesse to discuss with us a movie that he has never seen. It is time for another edition of Jesse hasn't seen it.

Let's go. Jesse hasn't seen it. We're doing die hard. We gave you this assignment a while ago. Die Hard, of course, one of the best action movies of all time. And of course, one of the best Christmas movies of all time. I had to do it. But of course, Jesse, one of my favorite things

about this is while you were watching this movie, you simply texted me, it's rad. And that's, uh, I like that I got so much joy knowing you were getting joy from it. What are your thoughts on this film? Well, first of all, so I watched it. I watched it this morning. And I will say the blood was a little much for, you know, it's like seven, like seven a.m. waking up like, oh, this is just, this is just brutal.

This is gruesome. Um, but, uh, I spent a lot of time thinking about, what makes a movie a Christmas movie, right? Because is it just that a movie is set at Christmas time? I feel like that's part of it. Or do you need there to be like Christmas is part of the plot? Like we're having Christmas parties or Santa's coming over, those sorts of things, right? Correct.

Which I would argue this movie probably doesn't have. Although I guess there is a Christmas party and that's kind of where the whole thing starts. Correct. So ultimately I came to the conclusion that I do think this is a Christmas movie. I do think this is a Christmas movie. Multiple reasons because it checks off the boxes for you. First, it takes place during Christmas. It takes place during Christmas.

It's an absolute must. There's no Christmas movie that can not take place during Christmas. Yeah, that's the baseline. That's a starting point. You need that. But like you said, Christmas can't merely be a background to it. There has to be Christmas themes. there has to be Christmas things shown.

There was a Christmas party. We did come out to the coast to have a few laughs, right? And, you know, get together. And a part of getting together was getting together for Christmas at this office, Christmas party. Yes. Not to mention the fact that there was a dead man with ho-ho-ho written on him and a Santa. Yeah, Mike. So that fucking puts it over the end right there.

That I literally wrote that down is one of my points. I believe the exact words are now I have a machine gun. I was like, there it is. That's all the evidence we need. It's a Christmas movie. But even more so, I still feel like if, okay, so if a movie only has like a scene in that's a Christmas time, not a Christmas movie. But if any movie takes place and like the entire duration of the film is Christmas time, I feel

like I'd still be inclined to call it a Christmas movie even if it doesn't really plan in the plot at all. So I'm kind of an extremist when it comes. comes to what is a Christmas movie and what is it. But that's just me. So let's, first of all, Chris Milton says P.HNX is a Christmas movie. Of course we are. It's always Christmas time around here.

It's always Shark Week on this show, too, by the way. But let's take a look at Jesse Sliders for his ratings for this movie, because this is where he really starts to put things into perspective. And I couldn't agree with him more on this. First, plot is at 76. And of course, that's very high for you. You are very critical. Yeah, that's pretty high.

Critical of plot, right? These are all high. Yeah, plot 76, characters 82. Let's go. Let's go. I want to revisit plot, though, really fast. Okay, okay. Was, what were your thoughts on the shooting out the glass and John McLean walking around

barefoot and all of that? What were your thoughts on that as like part of a movie? Because to this day, it's still one of my favorite things that like a villain does in a movie to the hero that's like adapting to the situation and trying to get the one up on him. Interesting. I honestly didn't even put that much thought into that part of them. Yeah, that didn't even really stand out to me that much. It's kind of like a famous thing that a lot of like when they do a parody of die hard,

they typically make sure that's included. That's what they do. Interesting. There's a yippie kai has to be included in a parody of it, you know. And of course like a lot of times there needs to be, you know, just some of the things like some of the catch praises and such. Sure. Sure.

All right. Let's go back to those sliders. So, yeah, we have 82 characters across the board. Everyone's fascinating. Hans Gruber, one of the best villain names I've ever come across in a movie. Argyles Ride 85 Quality Quality Vehicle. Yeah. I had to throw that in here.

That's fantastic. Rather than dog and him, of course, we have dog in John McLean. Off the charge. 99. There's no getting around that. He literally is the dog in other people. That's how much the dog in him is. Pretty much.

Yeah, he was the dog and him and every single hostage in the building. Rewatchability have a 57, which our producer. So that's probably the lowest thing. Yeah, our producer, Leah Merrill was very critical of that. She was a little bit put off by that. And she actually convinced me to raise it to a 67, but apparently our graphics expert, Sean DePaz didn't get the memo. So it still says 57.

But for all intents and purposes, it's... We'll knock it up 10 just in our minds here. But why was that the lowest thing you gave? You feel like it's just kind of a one-time watch versus... Yeah, I think because I do classify it as a Christmas movie, I don't like... I guess I would still maybe watch it during, you know, when it's not Christmas time. I guess I could. So what you're saying is that's like the flip side to being a Christmas movie.

That's the double-edged sword. Yeah. On one side, yes, you're a Christmas movie, but on the other side, now you can't. I'll only be watched between November 25th and January 1st. And after that, you're irrelevant to be the rest of the year. Yeah, well, I don't know. Because now that I hear it out loud, I don't know if I feel that way. Like in a few months, and if I knew someone who hadn't seen Die Hard or whatever, I'd probably still be down.

Because the Christmas vibe doesn't, it's not so big a part of the storyline that you feel like it's just out of place. If you watch it in the middle of summer. Which I guess you could say is a reason why people say it's not a Christmas movie. Yeah. More of a movie that takes place at Christmas time. Yeah. Versus it being a Christmas time. I acknowledge the seasonality of the movie is maybe less important as it is with, I don't know, Miracle on 34th Street or something.

But yeah, so read-watchability is a little bit lower, but it's still above average. I would definitely be down to watch it again. And overall, I have an 81, which for me is quite high. That's very high. I'm actually quite surprised by that. Might only be San Lot has had a. higher overall than that. Fantastic.

So there you go. I don't feel like we would be doing our due diligence if we didn't talk about Bruce Willis and unfortunately what he's going through. He has a condition for those of you that don't know called aphasia. I believe it's what it's called. Yeah, I think that's. Ophasia. And he basically has a speech condition.

It's a language disorder. It also affects his memory. It kind of started when he was doing some of his more recent movies where it was rumored people in production thought he was just not remembering his lines or not taking the time to learn his character. And apparently that was definitely not the case. It just, it's sad. I love Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis to me is one of the greatest action stars of our generation. He was great. He's great in this movie. He's great in so many movies. But this is. I looked up a list of every movie that Bruce Willis has ever been in. And I don't think I've seen a single one of them outside of

this. So, but now I now I have some motivations. Like, okay, I feel like I have to go. Hudson Hawk. That's one of my favorite Tom Bruce Willis movies that people don't like. But I will say this. I think the appeal for Bruce Willis is he's kind of similar to an underdog athlete, right? Like somebody that we get behind because they're not an Aaron Judge or they're not like, you know, it's the everyman concept. I mean, like there were a lot of big, like, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone and stuff during that time frame. And like there's just something, especially in this movie of Bruce Willis being this badass that's relentless

that the dog in him is at fucking a thousand and he's still just this kind of normal wisecracking kind of every man and I just I think that's why I always loved him so much you know like it's one thing to be behind Arnold Schwarzenegger you know in a movie but Bruce Willis

is a little bit more relatable as far as I'm concerned he's the Stephen Kwan there you know the Dalton Varshow right there you go Gabriel's his weird fact about Bruce Willis all his movie posters have his head tilted like 45 degrees for some reason. Wow.

We're going to have to do the research on that. I'm going to said Jesse on that one. And I want you guys to your mission. That's Jesse's mission. Your mission is to tell Jesse what furniture he needs beside Chase Lounge is because we joke about it, but I'm getting concerned. I'm getting concerned. I'm going to walk into his place.

And all it's going to be is Chase Loungeers. There are a couple of small chairs in there. Are they Chase Lounge shape, though, Jesse? They loosely resemble it, but they're pretty much normal chairs. You need to get regular furniture. Okay. We need you to get some regular furniture at morefurniture.com. Save big on the best furniture, not just Jesse.

Jesse will save big, but you save big too on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture. And of course, they have their white glove delivery service, which Jesse was up until 3 a.m. putting together furniture? And that's never going to happen at Moore Furniture. You're never going to be up until 3 o'clock in the morning putting together stuff. They're going to bring it to you already built, and they're going to be wearing white gloves when they bring it in your house. Assembling furniture, I hate it more than I hate making my lunch in the morning. Yeah, I'm making it until 11 to eat it.

I knew that was going to come back. Oh, man. But anyway, also, if you guys haven't done so already, make sure to download the Draft King Sportsbook app. If you're an existing customer or a new customer, you can get down on their bigger payouts with the Draft King stepped up same game parlayes, boost those NFL winnings up to 100. percent with each leg that you add. You can also download the Draft King's Sportsbook app as a new customer. Use our code of PHNX and bet $5 on the NFL divisional round. If you do, you will get $200 in free bets instantly no matter the outcome of your game.

Only at the Draft King Sportsbook app with code PHNX, minimum agent eligibility restrictions apply, see show notes for details. Don't forget to opt in on all of those great offers that the Drafking Sportsbook app has to offer. They're up there at the top. You might hear about things. You might even stuff we talk about in the promos, but unless you opt in, you can miss out on some of those deals. So make sure to do that. And just also as a pro tip, sometimes it's free money that when you go to place your bet, you have to kind of add it as a promotion.

But it'll be in there. So keep an eye out for all of those offers that you are eligible for. Of course, we thank you guys so much for being here. We appreciate you guys being in the chat. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Kv man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N Friedman. our shows at PHNX underscore Dabacks, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter,

Instagram, and Facebook. On behalf of our producer, Damon, Jesse and myself, we always appreciate your time. Thank you guys for stopping by and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When you come out to the coast, we'll get together. Have a few laughs.