PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are the D-backs’ Spring Training STRUGGLES a Warning Sign for 2026?

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

The World Baseball Classic has been a blast to watch, but back in the desert the Arizona Diamondbacks are trending in the wrong direction after dropping 8 of their last 9 Spring Training games. Is this just meaningless Cactus League chaos, or is there a point where fans should start worrying that these struggles could carry over into the regular season? We also dive into some lingering beef from the first round of the WBC, including Cal Raleigh vs. Randy Arozarena, and the growing controversy around Team USA manager Mark DeRosa seemingly battling… his own words. And of course, what’s international baseball without a classic bat flip? Plus, we make our bold predictions for the WBC quarterfinals and beyond as the tournament heads into the knockout rounds. 0:00 SkeeYee!  3:45 Spring Training woes  11:05 Bullpen concerns growing  15:00 Do you care about these losses?  22:40 Torey Lovullo's breakout candidates  31:30 More World Baseball Classic controversy!!!  37:00 Randy Arozarena vs. Cal Raleigh  45:30 Mark DeRosa is clueless  53:40 WBC predictions & updates Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While we were having fun paying attention to the world baseball classic, the Diamondbacks were losing spring training games. We are going to talk about whether or not we have to panic now about the results and wonder if these are going to bleed into the regular season. We're going to do that right now. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDVACs podcast, love from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. Happy Friday the 13th to you all.

My name is Derek Montia. occasionally known as your mayor of the HMX. I am thrilled to be joined by you guys. Thrilled to be joined by my guy. Damon Dogg, once again on the ones and twos, Damon Farrell having a big week with his U of A Wildcats

where he's just hoping that that court doesn't injure half of the roster. Breaking news, Derek, as of last night, they changed it. They're going back to the wood. Thank God. I mean, video effects are neat and all, but when you're risking the potential health of your athletes,

I think it's time to make a change. like that. The Big 12 commissioner said that he, after consultation with the four coaches in the semifinal, that three out of the four of them said, let's go back to a wood floor. I would have gone out there with a bat and broken it myself and made them go back to a wood floor once I saw those kids slipping all over the place. But speaking of slipping, the Diamondbacks are slipping, and they've been slipping in Cactus League play. Damon and I are trying to have a good time watching the World Baseball Classic. I know some people in this chat don't care for it. Some people have classified it as fake baseball. I don't even know what that means. I just love baseball and I love

watching it. What I know is having spring training and world baseball classic going on is better than no baseball at all. That's at least how I'm saying that. I actually, I genuinely have not seen that from this chat before. You know exactly who's saying it. It is he who shall not be named and we're not even going to bring him up. What's fake about it? Who doesn't love international competition? How do you not love a tournament? Yeah. I love tournaments. I don't care what it is. I think that's got to be like a USA fan thing, Derek, because like the other teams are having a lot of fun, man, a lot of fun. Well, we're going to get into that because we're going to talk about it possibly being a cultural thing. And when I when I say that, I mean fun.

Fun might be a cultural thing. And we're going to talk about that when we talk about the world baseball classic. People not wanting bat flips. Who doesn't want a bat flip? How do you not want a bat flip? What is wrong with you? Insane. What happened to you at some point in your life where you don't think someone flipping a bat after

you're blasting a ball with that same bat, 430 feet to left field off of a guy that was throwing it at you 95 miles per hour. Like probably someone that's never experienced the joy of ever putting a bat to a ball, most likely. But speaking of the Diamondbacks once again, before we get on to the fun of the World Baseball Classic and people wanting to squash that fun, the Diamondbacks are trying to squash our fun. They are over here playing some pretty bad baseball.

right? They are 8 and 12 so again not a ridiculously terrible overall record but they are one and eight in their last nine games and more importantly than that damon I don't really care about the results of diamondbacks games when half of the roster is playing in the world baseball classic and you have a bunch of prospects essentially filling up your starting lineup and competing for not only potential roles but future roles right a lot of these guys especially guys have already been reassigned to minor league camp, are using this spring to try to, again, keep their names fresh in the minds of the front office,

fresh in the minds of Tori Lobello. And hopefully these guys will be someone that's looked to fill a role here soon in this organization. It could be as early as this season. It could be as early as this same time next year, right? But now is when a lot of those young guys that are playing really good baseball kind of have that, spotlight to make an impression on the organization.

But my bigger concern is that the Diamondbacks have allowed 13 runs three times over these last nine games. And twice in a row, they have allowed 13 runs twice in a row to arguably pretty bad baseball teams in the athletics and the Rockies. Now, both of those teams have young players and a lot of, you know, starting guys that are going to be starting for them during the regular season in their lineup. So there is that. And those guys are, you know, hitting against, yes, some of the Diamondbacks prospects

and some of their younger guys. But in yesterday's loss to the Rockies, two guys that are, that could be very important to this bullpen kind of struggled against that Rockies team. And that's where I'm starting to ask when I'm looking at the results of some of the bullpen pitchers and guys that are, pretty much, you know, almost guaranteed to be in here, be here as a part of the bullpen when the regular season starts, are not having a great spring training, right?

It's spring training. I'm going to say that probably 10 times during this segment. So I know before anybody in the chat needs to remind me of that, that there's no reason to panic. You idiot, these games don't count. You dummy, it's fake baseball. What are you doing, right? Baseball.

But this actually is fake. baseball. This is fake baseball. And I get it. I'm not, I know. I know that the team doesn't panic about this stuff. I know Tori doesn't panic. Nobody cares until we're five games into the regular season and you see these results start to bleed into the regular season. And that's, I guess, what I'm more concerned about right now, right? The Diamondbacks offensively might not be doing much. And they did not do much in yesterday's game. There's not much to talk about there. Tim Tawa had a home run. He deserves his credit. He was the lone bright spot. He went one for two with a home run. He had two RBI scoring Jordan Lawler, who was one for four with a run scored. Tawa also had a walk.

Gino Groover was the only player in the lineup to have multiple hits. He went two for three with a double, a single, and a strikeout. So that is the offense to speak of in yesterday's 13 to two loss. That's it. And what I am far more concerned about is the pitching. Things completely fell apart for this team there in the middle inning, starting in the fourth, fifth, and then the sixth got completely insanely out of control. But Drey Jameson came into the game. He gave off, gave up a lead off triple to Brenton Doyle, who would eventually come around to score in the fourth inning. That was the one run, the first run the Rocky scored. But in the fifth inning, Dre Jameson, he kind of got things back together. He did register two outs, but he also walked to and left the game

with two batters on or two runners on that he was responsible for. He was replaced by Nate Savino, who then proceeded to give up three singles, four runs, and a walk before finally and mercifully getting a strikeout to end the inning. And those runs were charged to Dre. So Dre's line doesn't look great from yesterday. And again, this is a guy that is on the bubble who is competing for a role on this team.

And again, it's very important for a guy like him to have a strong showing this spring. think that this was necessarily the worst outing. I think it was compounded by Savino going in there and giving up three singles, letting all of those runs score, allowing four runs to score total and walking about her before eventually getting out of that inning. But Dre goes one and two-thirds innings pitched. He gives up two hits, three earned runs. He walked three and did not register a strikeout. I bet if you asked Dre, he would have loved for this to be two innings pitched. And if he was going to get those runs charged to him, he would have allowed, like to be the one that allowed that to

happen rather than leaving mid-inning after giving up his second walk. But the bigger concern is the following inning where a guy who is incredibly important to this Diamondbacks bullpen, at least for the time being, had his worst outing as a D-back. And that's Brandon Garcia. And this is a guy that Damon and I have been talking about is crucial, crucial to this bullpen. He is literally their only left-hander as things look right now and most likely will be the left-handed pitcher in the bullpen for this team, the only left-handed option in the bullpen.

He did not register an out in his appearance for the Diamondbacks. This was his worst, like I said, worst inning of work as a D-back. He walked the first batter. He hit the second batter. He gave up an RBI single to the third batter. He hit the fourth batter and then walked the fifth batter with bases loaded to score a run before finally being removed from the game. he didn't like I said he did not record an out he was replaced by Casey Anderson who also fell

apart he gave up two hits and three walks while he was out there uh Garcia ends up going zero innings pitched one hit five earn runs two walks and two batters hit um and you know what it's really uh it's it's it's discouraging because he obviously had that bad outing where he was removed and the Diamondbacks later informed us that he was ill. He came back out and had strong showing so far this spring. I don't want to panic due to this still being a young man and due to this being spring training. You never know what they're working on

or what the purpose of this particular outing was for him, what his mission was. Obviously, the results are important and it's hard not to say that, but you just never know when in any particular spring game during Cactus League play if a guy is just simply working on something that goes for hitters. but it specifically goes for pitchers, right? But again, the Diamondbacks just completely fell apart in that inning.

They end up giving up eight runs in the sixth inning, and a whole lot of them were charged to Brandon Garcia, as well as Casey Anderson. John Curtis eventually made his way into the game, as he tends to do to save the day. And, you know, John Curtis, he's always lurking. and always watching. But I will tell you,

oh, there he is, he's there. He's always there. I'll tell you the pitching results are the bigger problem here. You can't care about the offense. You can't worry too much about even starting pitching overall when you have guys like Taylor Clark starting in these games.

Taylor Clark, a bright spot for the bullpen. And the bullpen does have some guys that have been performing well this spring. Nothing that is occurring right now can really be something that we overreact to, but I can understand fans feeling concerned about the direction this is going. Offensively, sure, this team will be fine. But how fine are they going to be if they need to score 14 runs offensively to keep them in games? The things will change with those guys returning from the WBC,

even with Eduardo Rodriguez returning from the WBC. Oh, and Michael Soroka, who will be taking. taking on Team USA. But what exactly changes about this bullpen? You have Paul Seawald right now in spring training who has a 6.00 ERA. Ryan Thompson has a 7.20 ERA. Brandon Garcia after yesterday's outing has an 11.25 ERA and Dre Jameson sports an 8.44 ERA. And this is this this this sucks. This sucks honestly. And again, this is just spring training. So I guess the one thing we can take away from this is to, you know, not worry about these results, either the wins and losses or even these ERAs. However, it's notable. It's worth keeping an eye on

and it's also worth asking the question like, once again, why do we expect this to be different in 2026 when this bullpen struggled so much in 2025 and there really hasn't been that much change, right? Some guys have been actually pitching really, really well, including Taylor Clark, who started in yesterday's game. He still has a 0.00 ERA, as well as Juan Murillo. So those are two guys that have been at least putting in work so far that have not, you know, again, have not have not faltered yet. You also have Kevin Ginkle, who currently has a 2.45 ERA in Cactus League,

and Andrew Hoffman with a 1.93 ERA. So, I mean, there's some good to balance out the bad. and as good as these ERAs are, I'm sure they won't stay the same once the regular season comes either, unfortunately. We would love them too, though. This would be great to have guys in the bullpen that had ERAs sub three like this. But again, it's definitely worth keeping an eye on. I mean, I know that this team has 12 players participating in the WBC, so the impact of that on the roster is substantial. However, I still sit here and wonder, like, how substantial is it considering the amount of runs that this team has been giving up against any team that they play, except the Seattle Mariners, who they own right now for some reason.

And they're going through their own thing with their roster being depleted. And also the infighting between two of their stars, which we're going to, of course, do our best to make sure we throw some gasoline on that fire, just like the world baseball classic Twitter account did. get to that. But Damon, I mean, I know you're a baseball guy. I know you also are a very overreactionary fellow like myself. So, I mean, does there come, there does there come a point during spring training where any of this matters to you? I mean, does there come a point where you start to really be worried as we approach opening day? Let's say that last outing from Merrill Kelly is bad against the guardians, if that's the case. Let's say Diamond And backs get, you know, run out of their own building at Chase Field before the regular season starts.

Are you starting to get nervous that this is going to be the identity of this team possibly this year? No. I mean, I, listen, I don't really care all that much. Like, I'm not really like maybe this is bad being that we do a debacks podcast daily. But when the spring training games are going on, I'm not even really glued to like what's happening. Sure. I like to like I scroll social media and I'm like, I'll see right away when Jordan Lawler hits a home run and I'll be like, that's awesome. Great.

Love to see that. But from a negative standpoint, I don't really put too much into it. I do think I try to take the positives with what they are. But I don't know if I'm looking at it from a negative standpoint being like, Gabby just can't hit anymore. It's like, no, I mean, let's wait until the regular season starts to realize what Gabby Moreno has in store for us in this 2026 season. but that being said the last couple of over two with a walk and he's currently hitting 179 the last couple of days Derek I have been looking at like like I've just happened to like see the score like on a notification on my phone and I've been like oh my god how are we constantly

giving up double digit runs and I think that there is a little bit of concern there where it's like is it just going to be the same as next year because you're right like the roster is not complete right now, but it's not as if the guys that we're missing are the ones that are going to keep these games low scoring. Yeah. So you're sitting there and you're like, is this pitching staff just a total and complete disaster again, of which it's very possible. That if there's anything that's going to hold this team back, it's going to be probably

the bullpen not being good enough because there's a lot of unknowns in this bullpen. I highlighted Jameson and Garcia simply because of their importance to the bullpen. and I would say, especially in the case of Drey, the importance to him making the team. You know, this feels like Drey is in his same, I guess, prove it, make it or break it kind of season as we've discussed with Jordan Lawler and other guys, right? Like, Drey, Dres had his fair share of injuries and he's had things that have held him back. Whenever he's played at a major league level, he seems to be able to pitch and do well. So it feels like this is finally the time where hopefully his health can align with, you know, his skill set and he can be back and help this team win baseball games by coming out of the pen. However, you know, it also could very easily with the amount of opportunity here and with guys that have major league experience on non-roster invites, it very well could be Jonathan Loisaga or somebody else that gets the spot that Dre Jameson is fighting for.

So that part sucks about him struggling yesterday. And even then at the end of the day, I don't feel like what he did was that bad. I mean, those inherited runners that he left on base, obviously getting charged to him sucks. But, you know, there's no chance that someone like Casey Anderson is going to make this team most likely. You're not worried about, you know, what guys that are, you know, minor league guys or even non-rosster invite guys do as much as the guys you think have a chance of being here in this bullpen. But the Brandon Garcia thing, that's far more detrimental here because it's not like the nine. Diamondbacks have a number of left-handed pitchers that are competing for a spot in the pen. It's not like they have another guy that they can turn to.

It feels like Garcia is going to be incredibly important to this bullpen. And if not, the diamondbacks need to desperately find a left-handed option that could replace him. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's Brandon Garcia and it's Philip Abner, right? Those are the lefties. And that's all you got, it feels like as of right now. So one of them, minimum has to be good probably. One of them might not even make the roster. We'll see.

So as Robert keeps putting in the chat and has been, and as he says, like, you guys have heard me say it before. Robert's been. We appreciate Robert. He's been hammering the table for months of, for a month basically of like, we need a left-handed bullpen arm. And yeah, I mean, it seems like as of right now,

operation, wait for AJ Puck to get back. is in full effect. And I don't know if this team has what it takes to stay afloat in the meantime, because you're going to play as Robert also says, like a lot of really high-level left-handed hitters in your own division. I mean, you literally start the season off against them, right? Like he's talking about the Dodgers. First, I want to say, Robert, I appreciate Robert's comments

and the fact that even though at times he might come off as being negative, he's trying to fix a problem here with this team. So he's giving us input. I love all of you guys in the chat. But I love when, even if you have something negative to say, that you're at least discussing why that's going to be a problem. And Robert hits the nail on the head here when he's talking about, you know, these big bats in this division that we have to deal with.

Right. And it's a lot. I mean, you play the Dodgers three times out of the gate. You have the Phillies coming up. You have the Mets that are going to be a, A very solid team like the month of April is a nightmare. You take on the Blue Jays at home. You have the Padres coming in before the end of the,

or not coming in. We're going to Mexico City. Well, we're not going to Mexico City. People ruin that. And they made it too dangerous for Damon and I to go to Mexico City. I heard in fact, Damon, we are actually the danger as far as going to Mexico City. We were going to the town, Sedona Red and Teal. Oh, we were going to, yeah, I was going to be great.

You know what? We're still going to paint downtown Phoenix, Sedona Red and Teal, during that. weekend. We'll find something to do. We'll just, we'll, we'll, we'll go to, like, Mexican food restaurants and drink margaritas all weekend long and just... It's not the same. I know it's not the same. I'm disappointed too, but luckily the Diamondbacks, uh, yeah, Elizabeth, she says you're not going to Mexico City now. We have been informed that apparently, um, much like the WBC, there's some insurance concerns about Damon and I. Uh, and it's that that has nothing to do with David and I. It has more to do with, uh, you know, the international strife and, uh, the

conflicts going on in this world right now. So, uh, Zabe, you're going to have to carry the team in Mexico. We carry me in your suitcase. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Take Damon with you. Please. He's not going to look, we have a long season after April 26th and Damon's not going to be

able to get it together after that. Like he's going to be so upset after missing that trip that he's just going to be a shell of his former self. People are calling it a season ruiner. And if it comes down to it, I mean, Aspo has some questions to answer. He definitely does. He definitely does. I thought we already had a fun to put together for us to get out of jail,

but I guess that's not the case. Tonight, though, we have Merrill Kelly back. So Merrill the mainstay returns to this team. Merrill Kelly gets his first start of Cactus League played at 605 p.m. tonight against the Royals. Alec Thomas should be returning to the lineup soon. We don't have a lineup yet. I'm not sure if he is in the lineup today. But if he's not back in the lineup today, Alec Thomas should be returning to the lineup soon.

So there is that. And, you know, again, we are excited to see guys come back, even though it sucks that their world baseball classic experience is over. I imagine it's a very sobering experience to come back to, you know, your major league baseball team after hanging out with your WBC team. I compared it to Noah as being like you're leaving summer camp to come home and go back to school, right? Like, yeah, you have friends in both places, but summer camp was way more fun. But Tori Lavello was asked. he appeared on the Rattle On podcast with our guy Steve Zinsbeister over at Debex.com about guys that he thinks will have a breakout season similar to Perdomo and other guys that have had breakouts under his tenure. And Lovallo named, of course, the very popular name to this question, which is Jordan Lawler.

I think the other popular name was Ryan Walschman as well, as far as outfielders are concerned. But Lovallo named Jordan Lawler as a guy that was going to take a big step forward in his major league career. this season, it appears that Lawler has adjusted really well to playing the outfield and the Diamondbacks are confident that he has found his position going forward. So it feels like this is moved from like experiment territory into firm scientific theory now that Jordan Lawler is an outfielder for the Diamondbacks. They finally found a place for him to play. The other player, Tori Lovalho named was Pavin Smith as a guy that's going to take a huge step forward in his major league career and that's an interesting name to point out and that's a guy that of course

I know there's the payman truthers in here that will love to hear that and there's also damon and zabe whom i grown a little bit i just shuddered he did he did but i will say i will say that overall pavin smith you know he has he has the opportunity absolutely it's not to say he doesn't have the opportunity it's him versus carlos santana for playing time right now i mean it's going to be about how he can get better at defense every single day over there first base I mean, again, watching Carlos Santana prepare and play and perform over there should be at least something that helps with his development at first base. But this is up to him at this point. I think if Pavin can find a way to be a solid defender over there.

And, you know, I mean, I believe his bat is going to be better than Carlos Santana. So I think it comes down to how he plays when he's given that opportunity and when he's given playing time. Can I say also something that came about on Saturday, Derek, when we did our thing with our friends over at downtown Mesa. Oh, yeah. Chris Owings said that Carlos Santana is in the cages more than any single player he ever played with in his entire career playing baseball. Like this? Like during camp? I mean, well, do you not remember Chris Owings saying that?

He said Carlos Santana spends more time in the cage than any player I've ever been around. which Chris Owings played, you know, and he was making jokes. Like I've played on more teams than I can even count at this point. Like the dude played it was a part of like six, seven organizations or something like that. And it just feels like, you know, that even though Carlos Santana maybe didn't have a great offensive year this past year, I do think he's the type of player and veteran where, you know, his level and his floor is probably decently high. And getting in an organization that has a player, a bunch of players from his home country that maybe he feels very, comfortable around. And I think that the general offensive vibes around this organization in general,

like it almost lifts everybody else with it. It's the opposite of the pitching where it's like, oh, I'm hitting next to Jerry and Cattell and Corbyn. It's like it's going to make you a better hitter yourself. So I could see Carlos Santana putting in a pretty decent season as well. But all things considered, Pavin Smith is, you know, he should outperform offensively Carlos Santana if, you know, he is the player that the debacks have invested so heavily in. I agree. I agree. And I don't.

I mean, there's always excuses for guys like Jordan, like Pavin, where they haven't really reached their full potential. And a big part of that reason is at bats an opportunity. And that is not going to be something that holds either of those guys back this year. I will say that they might. Let's go Jordan Lala. Woo! They might not have a very long leash.

I mean, because this team. has a sense of urgency, I think, in 26 to do something special and make sure that if this is, in fact, Lavello's final season as manager of this team, that they don't come up short once again and that they give it their all. But I will tell you, I'm excited for both of these guys. And I'm excited to see the regular season start. But again, like you said, Damon earlier, it's hard not to see these results coming up on your phone and seeing them lose by 10. plus runs multiple days. Literally me. That's me every day, Derek.

I'm like, oh, that's interesting. You of A, some Big 12 tournament. Oh, my God. The D-backs are down 14 to 3. It's the third inning. It's not great, but it's fake baseball, right? That's what we've come up with. You're damn right.

We're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We are going to talk about more fake baseball. And the World Baseball Classic Tournament and the culture war that we currently have going on. You know I love a good controversy and you know I love when people are fighting. So we're going to talk about it. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, Heila River Resorts and Casinos wants to bring Las Vegas to you.

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No, that's it. That's it. I think when you do more stuff than when you get to chance, you know, when you're more active than you get to relax, then that's how you feel about it. But that's why I want to multiply my relaxation time and the doing nothing time. That's the important part. Multiply our tickets start just $1 and have prizes up to $5 million. So do not miss out on these wonderful tickets. You can get them everywhere with access to over 3,500 retailers across the state. You can play whenever and wherever you'd like. Love to play with Arizona lottery. Must be 21 or over to play. And look, Damon, I knew, I knew when you get a bunch of countries together and a bunch of different clashing cultures that there was no way we were going to have peace. That's not the way this world works, right? The world baseball classic, it was meant to spread joy and harmony amongst the baseball universe, right? Wrong, wrong. No, it was here to make teammates hate each other.

Idiot. And to have us arguing about bat flips and whether or not Mark DeRosa knew that the team USA was going to be eliminated. But all of this stuff is happening still. And of course, we have exciting games happening today. Damon and I are going to do our best to put together a new bracket now that things have kind of adjusted for the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals for the WBC. We're also going to take a look at our stupid other bracket that we filled out because we're big dummies. I think we're pretty good, though.

Do you want to look at that right now? No, we'll get to that here shortly. We're going to do that when we talk about, we're going to put together another bracket. But first, we have controversy to talk about Damon. Sure. We got people getting angry at each other. We got people getting mad about bat flips trying to tell you what kind of bat flip you should do. Let me tell you no two bat flips are the same.

And that's why bat flips are amazing like snowflakes, right? And I don't care of, I don't care about your feelings on it to each their own. But I will say, who doesn't, how can you not love an electric bat flip? How can you not? I mean, obviously, if it's the team. you're playing against, then yeah, that's probably not going to feel so great. But deep down inside, don't you even smile at that when they hit a solid bat flip after they beat your team?

Like, the bad flips are incredible and they should be a part of baseball. I have probably said on this program for years how sick I am of baseball's unwritten rules, especially when it comes to joyous acts of celebration. Most pitchers will tell you that after they give up a home run, they're not even looking at the guy doing the bat flip. They're doing this fake thing where they look at the outfield wall and they pretend like that they hope that it doesn't go over. And then they just watch their outfielder give a noble like trot up to where the ball is leaving the field.

He kind of watches it go. And then the pitcher slowly turns around and asks for another ball from the umpire, ignoring everything the batter was doing that whole time. So stop talking about it showing up pitchers. And honestly, if you don't want to be shown up as a pitcher, don't give up a home run. and don't be out there pitching because that's a part of pitching. You're going to be shown up a lot.

You're not Nolan Ryan. So let's not get it twisted. But what we have gotten twisted is this idea that there's a right way and wrong way to do things when it comes to the game of baseball. The reason why everybody right now loves some of these teams like the Dominican Republic team is because of the personality that they're showing and how much fun that goddamn team is to watch. I love this team. I knew we were going to love this team. Damon and I have discussed it many times as we were leading into the WBC and the rosters were being discussed how much we were going to love this team.

But they seem to be the focus a little bit of some of these controversies, right? You have Fernando Tatis Jr. who had an electric bat flip that literally sent the island of Dominican Republic. I think they caused an earthquake there. But you had this weird response in regards to the bat flip. Damon, I think we have the tweet without the video. The video shown was a Roman Anthony home run by a team USA member, Roman Anthony, who hit a home run, calmly did a little tiny bat flip,

which 20 years ago probably would have been called egregious and show, show boaty. But this gentleman Jordan Moore quote tweeted it and said, it's so refreshing when players hit a home run do a subtle bat flip and act like they've been there. before. There's so much more tough. This is so much more tough than doing jumping jacks and Euro steps around the bases. Like when did it become about toughness? I've never, I've never cared at all in any way about a bat flip being tough. And I've never really thought about it showing up

the pitcher, even though I can understand how that could be construed as that. I'm not, that's, I'm not even going to argue with that one, right? But toughness, ridiculous. Ridiculous. And the responses to this one, there's a lot of responses about this gentleman liking boiled chicken with no seasoning. I think that's pretty fair. Respectfully, Derek, respectfully. Yeah. In a similar vein to, you know, what you just said right now. I am not taking advice from on bat flips from a man that is white. I'm sorry like I can say that I'm a white man myself I'm I I am I am I'm a Caucasian man uh and I can honestly say Derek that if you have a similar skin tone to me that your opinion on bat flips doesn't really matter well and I don't want to I like I just doesn't really matter I don't want to make it by about that but it it is almost like a weird cultural thing right like like No, it is. I mean, they just, the Latin American players just play the game in a more fun way than the U.S. players do. I don't think that that's like a thing that we is taboo that we can't say.

I mean, doesn't this bleed over, though, into this ridiculous, like, feud, rivalry, controversy, whatever you want to call it, that's happening between teammates here with Cal Raleigh and Randy a Rose Arena. Right? Like, it's a similar thing. Randy a Rose Arena comes up to his teammate who he loves and he respects and he just hugged his parents at the team hotel a few days ago and he wants to shake his hand.

Now, there's a lot that goes into this. I mean, I feel like I've peeled layer after layer back of what's this very seemingly normal interaction and it's being compared to what went on with the Dominican Venezuela game where there was nothing. but love between these two teams. Hugs between Fernando Tatis Jr.

and Wilson Contreras at the at home plate. I mean, and the World Baseball Classic really did throw gasoline on this situation between Randy Rosarina and Cal Raleigh by tweeting this video out. They tweeted this out from the official account. This is what it's all about. And the video isn't just that hug

between Contreras and Tatis Jr. It's also like all the hugs, all the positive interactions that happened in that particular game between those particular teams. And yeah, I don't know. Like, don't get me wrong. I'm a hypocrite here because I've also said like when Robbie Perkins did it, I was like, yeah, fire me up. Be as competitive as you want to be in a competition, you know, in a tournament like this. I get it.

Australia team was trying to be in some upstarts. They weren't here to be anybody's friends. They were here to win something and prove that they belonged here in the World Baseball Classic. I think this situation between Cal Raleigh and a Rosarina being teammates and all is very different. However, Damon, I want to get your thoughts on a couple of these things, right? We have a Roserina sharing that image, right, on his IG. He shared the image of them hugging, which is very passive aggressive that he's still upset about this situation, right? And making a public scene about it as well.

Yeah, absolutely, right? But, I mean, there was two things that I find interesting about this that I don't entirely blame Cal Raleigh about. First, apparently, Cal Rale, who doesn't believe that there's any beef between them and everything's fine, which I would disagree with, said that apparently he told Randy Orozerina that he wasn't going to shake his hand. So a Rosarina In that theory, if that is what happened, Damon, a Rosarina kind of put him in a difficult spot If Rowley already told him he wasn't going to shake his hand And now here he is coming up to him being like,

Yeah, I know you told me that, but shake my hand anyway. Right. I mean, I'm not saying that that makes it any less of a dick move To do that to a friend of yours and a teammate, right? Like me going up to Damon and being like, hey, we got this stage show going on, but I swear to God, do not dat me up in front of Chris Owings. I will, I swear to God, I'll slap you. If you even so much as acknowledge me in front of Augie O'Heda.

Do not. How dare you, right? But there's also this other idea. And I was a catcher in Little League because I was a little round boy. You, meanwhile, were also a catcher. In Little League. Far more talented than I am, I'm sure. I was.

I never got to this stage of my career where I ever had to worry about guys like in Little League. like big timing me right but there's a suggestion that and it's something that other catchers have backed up that when you as a catcher are in your crouch that it's too late at that point for you to shake hands with the batter like we're not shaking hands anymore I'm down here in my crouch and part of that is because of the literal like I'm standing over you and I'm kind of punking you as you're down on the ground I'm big big brothering you right and like trust me this all goes in the same category

you could do a nice little like I feel like you could do like a fist pump out and like glove tap from the catcher down in the squat. Have you ever thought that though? Have you ever thought like as a catcher giving a dab to a batter from the crouch position is like some sort of inferior

like display? Not if they're my friend and you know I think that hypothetically you should be friends with your teammates when I was in Little League I guess like if this is the best example I can give of it, but like you're in a pretty tight-knit community. Like I played for a little league that had a really good all-star team.

I knew all these kids for years. So when we would play majors, you know, like we all got drafted to different teams. So I would catch plenty of times with my friends, would get in the batters box. And oftentimes we would probably crack a joke or I'd say what's up to one of them or something.

Like I never remember a situation where someone was like not cool to me that I knew. when they were getting in the batters box and I was, you know, in the catcher position. So it is a little bit weird. Like I do think that like, you know, maybe getting up and, you know, having to do a full squat and then, you know, tap a guy up and then get back down and delay the game. Like maybe that would have been a little bit much. But I, how hard is it to just be like glove out?

Tap is, tap his fist. And all of a sudden you're just like, how we doing, baby? And then just get back in the box and that's it. I think this is all a central theme, and it's fun. It's a game. It's a kid's game. Jordan says it. God forbid we have fun while playing a kid's game.

A game people, it's a game people, have a little fun. And he's absolutely right. Sorry, I've butchered your thought there, but it is a game, and it is supposed to be fun, and it feels like so many people have lost the plot when it comes to this. However, I will also say that there's this weird thing in sports where when you're ultra-competitive and you've left a legacy somehow of being ultra-competitive but also winning, then at a later time, it's cool that you were like this, right? There's a lot of great athletes that have stories that they've left behind them, including our very own

Randy Johnson, who was not a very nice person to talk to at times, especially on game day, not even talk to. You wouldn't talk to him on game day until he was done pitching that day. But, you know, it feels like sometimes there's this historic legendary legacy. left behind by guys that were super competitive. And those stories are still cool. But I also feel like those are guys that did not give a damn if you thought that they were being an ass, right? Like those are guys that wouldn't even care to ask you your opinion about this,

whereas Cal Raleigh, in a way, is almost trying to make it out like he didn't do anything wrong and that there's no beef here and that him and, you know, Randy are fine. And it feels like, I don't know if that's the case. I don't know. But you also have this kind of being made worse here as time goes on because it went from just a moment to being a thing that's dragging on, Damon, like a Rose Arena tweeting out from his IG. Yeah, he's being emotional about it. Yeah. And he's stoking the flames for sure.

And then you have the World Baseball Classic again, also stoking the flames. But that thing was almost put out. And World Baseball Classic was like, nah, we're going to throw another piece of wood on this real fast. That leads me to believe even more so, though, that Cal Raleigh is like, like he read the situation completely wrong because clearly him and Randy a Rosarina are not cool to the level of that. Whereas I feel like there are other guys where, yeah, you probably would be able to do that. And they'd be like, man, Cal, F you, man. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Oh, yeah. But, like, like, Cal, you're, you're stupid as hell, man. Get back in the box. But, like, Randy of Rosarina, they're clearly like, he's a semi newer addition to the Mariners roster. like it seems clear that they don't have that preexisting relationship or else why would the reaction be as emotional as it has been for randy so in my opinion there like maybe cow raleigh should have read the room a little bit better and been like this guy is not like my my buddy buddy he's my teammate but you know maybe i should have some social awareness and be like yeah

what's up bro good to see you how about just making admitting he made a mistake you know i think that in life, that is one thing as I sit here at my age that I've realized is a superpower. It is almost at times impenetrable for you to simply say you made a mistake and apologize for it. Not even apologize. I mean, in this case, he only has to apologize to Randy. He doesn't have to apologize to the media or anybody else. But it's very similar to what is going on with Mark DeRosa, manager of Team USA, right? This situation continues to drag on simply because Mark DeRosa seems to not want to admit that he made a mistake. And I don't care what you say, Damon,

but if you have a mistake at this level being made where you were not aware of, at least you said, based on your appearance on MLB Network's hot stove, that the U.S. had already clinched a quarterfinal spot and that Team USA had, quote, punched its ticket to the quarterfinals, that was a statement that was flat out wrong.

And that was only backed up even further by the roster that you put out on the field against Team Italy and the performance in general, mixed with your own story about players staying up too late the night before celebrating the Team Mexico victory. At that point, after losing the Team Italy, it would have been simple for Mark DeRosa to simply say

he made a mistake as manager and we were going to come out. Let's hope this doesn't end our run because it would be a travesty if it did. Let's hope it doesn't. And when Italy goes on to beat Team Mexico, you could simply say, you know, we're very prepared to step our game up now that we've, you know, survived

pull play, whatever. Instead, he comes out after the team USA loss and says, I misspoke and I quote, completely misread the calculations, but he claimed he was discussing possible tiebreakers earlier in the day and that he simply said the wrong thing on TV. So now he just misspoke. He knew in his head that it was not,

that they hadn't clinched, even though his lineup didn't reflect that. And then he insists that, whatever. But the criticism kept growing and then he had another media appearance where he said he did know the USA hadn't clinched and his TV comment was quote, just an overly

confident statement. Just admit you were wrong. Just admit you were wrong and move on. It gets to a point where as society we don't even care anymore but the reason why this is stretched on so long. I couldn't care less. Exactly.

I couldn't care less about the Randy of Rosarena thing. In fact, but right before you moved on to the Mark DeRosa thing, I was going to be like, that's all the takes I have about a guy that did not handshake with his teammate. I've, I've, I've out, I've unloaded the clip on, on my takes on handshake gate. I get it's like, it's so stupid. It is. It is. It is. But it, it, it, it, who cares is. I mean, it's obviously. It's obviously. It's a gaffed, but, but they made it through. What? No, I know, but I'm saying, though, like, again, if, if, people have asked why this thing

continues to drag on, why he has to continue to comment on it. And honestly, it's because he just simply wouldn't say that he made a mistake. I think that was probably the crux of it, right? And people like us who keep it alive. Well, it's fair. But then he goes on to say even in that statement that the USA was 2 and 0 entering that game when they were 3 and 0, like there just seems to be a lot of lack of awareness as to what is going on there. Right. But you could say the same thing about Cal Rally. He was misinterpreting the situation as it being competitive tournament. And, you know, again, I don't entirely fault him for what he did, especially considering there's this caveat that apparently he told of Rosarina beforehand. But I think the reason why is because the

Mariners are a very good team with a great roster and, you know, any kind of roster or any kind of like clubhouse conflict like this can definitely make things weird when these guys both return from their teams and have to share, you know, a locker room together for 162 games. It would just be, it would really suck to come off a championship series appearance and feel good about your team and like, where you have a really good shot of potentially making noise next year. And then all everyone will ever talk about is two of your star players, not shaking each other's hands.

Right. Thank God. This is not the STLE Mariners podcast because I would actually be throwing up all over the place. Like you. You got annoyed by Catelle trade rumors. At least that was like interesting where like the entire direction of the franchise would potentially change if that move got made. For sure. This is entirely inconsequential and people will not stop talking about it.

We would probably have like four straight thumbnails of like hashtag handshake gate. Do they hate each other? Question mark. Like it would just be all Randy Rosarena versus Cal Raleigh content. And I would be, I'd be like, Derek, I'm done with this podcast. You're right. I've transitioned fully into being a college basketball podcast. To be fair, I felt the exact same way you're describing when we went through the situation,

finding out that there was a problem with Cotel Marte missing time during the All-Star break, which took a while for that to come out. But once it came out and became a story, then suddenly we were like, oh my God, this is stupid. Let's stop talking about it. but the more we tried to be like, this is stupid, let's stop talking about it, it just grew, it grew. And this is going to continue to grow.

When they come back to camp together, this isn't going away. Hopefully they can both be professionals and move on. It's, again, it's supposed to be about fun. Even in something like this, like just, it's supposed to be about fun.

I think, I will say, I don't even know if a Rosarina's interview was real or if he was joking. Like, yeah. You still go back to that, right?

I will say I do think that skipping games in the middle of your team's season is a lot different and more consequential. than not shaking your teammates. A thousand percent. But yeah. It did get talked about quite a bit and hammered into the ground by Phoenix Media in particular.

Yeah. Including us. And yeah, well, you don't have a choice sometimes but to talk about this stuff when it's hanging over. Like I said, we would have to be talking about the Randy versus Raleigh thing and I would hate every single second of it. I'd be like, what does this matter at all? Throw it in the trash. I don't care if they never talk to each other again.

Have Cow Raleigh hit second and have Randy hit Frick. and fifth. You know what I mean? Like I, they don't even need to be on deck while one's in the, in the box. One's behind the play. One's in the outfield. They literally couldn't be farther away from each other. There's no places that they could be farther away from each other. Well, we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. Damon and I are going to take a look back at our pre-WBC bracket and try to fill out a new one now that we know who is facing off against each other in the quarterfinals. So don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the pH and X Diamondback show. Pure Edibles, of course, is a great way.

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They might have been had Team USA been knocked out of the next round. But let's take a look at what we predicted was going to go down here in the World Baseball Classic. This was, what, a few days before our actual, before the start. of games. I think we had one game that had started at this point. But we chose some good teams to make it. We got, I think everybody there on the right side, correct? We got team USA. We got team Puerto Rico. We got the Dominican Republic and we got Japan. However, USA would technically no longer be on that side now. Instead, USA would now be on the, I guess, second place side over there,

along with Canada and Venezuela. Mexico did not make it in, as well as Australia did not make it in. So Australia would be replaced there with Korea. And then Mexico, obviously, would be the USA spot with Team Italy taking, uh, taking the number one overall spot for pool B. You have Puerto Rico getting the number one spot for pool A along with Canada. We got that one right. Pool C is Japan, obviously, a juggernaut there. Korea making it in as a second place team. And then pool D there with Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. We had moving on to the semifinals USA, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Japan. And then we had in the championship game, Dominican Republic and Japan with Japan, once again, winning the whole thing, as much as we hate that.

So basically, the USA needs to be, is going to be playing Puerto Rico? No, no, no, no. USA is now taking on Canada. So the way that the brackets break down is much differently. So I think what we have here is the we have things adjusted overall here with the WBC bracket. We have here today USA is taking on Canada. That is the way we have Dominican Republic taking on Korea. We have Puerto Rico taking on Italy.

And then we have Venezuela taking on Japan. I feel like there's really interesting matchups here. I don't feel like Team USA getting going past Canada is a foregone conclusion. And honestly, I think Korea, which we don't really feel like we know a ton about, could be a problem here for the Dominican Republic. However, it feels like those two teams are very likely to advance here to the semifinals. And then the winner of those two games would play against each other. So we would potentially have the United States facing off against the Dominican

in Republic on March 15th in the semifinals. Then on the other side of the bracket, we have Puerto Rico and Italy facing off against each other. That one's difficult. That one's difficult, Damon. I want to say Puerto Rico has a chance. However, have you seen the way the team Italy is playing? Have you seen the amount of espresso these boys have drank?

This is a team that is going to be a problem. I have a hard time picking against Italy right. now. And that is me saying that over team Puerto Rico. Very difficult. This team has been playing really good baseball. So I foresee team Italy moving to the next round against Japan who should take care of team Venezuela. Then just in an absolutely incredible matchup there between what you could say is the hottest team in the WBC in Italy taking on Japan in the semifinals. And again, as much as if we were discussing this before the tournament had started, that would seem like an easy matchup for Japan.

I don't know if that's the case. Damon, I mean, Italy has been putting up a lot of runs. Japan hasn't had a problem doing that at times, but it feels like Japan needs that big breakthrough inning so far in the WBC in order for them to do it. Don't get me wrong, though, when that breakthrough inning comes, they score like nine runs. But they've kind of needed that.

they've played, you know, a fairly even game with their competition up until they can figure out a way to get through and break through. But when they do, boy, do they. But yeah, what do you think? Fair to say that Italy versus Japan could be the biggest upset perhaps of the tournament with Italy taking out Japan? I mean, it'd be sick. I'll be rooting for it. I'll be painting my body green, white, and red. But I don't think that it's going to happen.

Sure. I mean, again, it's almost like what I see here of Puerto Rico going up against Italy. Like, Puerto Rico has done an excellent job. I think they still have the lowest ERA of any pitching staff in the WBC. But I also feel like Team Italy just has handed it to some really good teams, right? Team USA, you could argue that they probably should have won that game. I mean, if they wouldn't have made some of those defensive mistakes that they made, if they wouldn't have come out so flat and let Italy take an eight to nothing lead,

I mean, they did end up losing that game by two runs. So I feel like, you know, it's not to say like Italy is unstoppable. However, you know, this is a case where getting hot and playing baseball at the right time with such few games deciding the championship here might be key to winning the whole damn thing. Meanwhile, we got the Dominican Republic versus the United States. I still have the Dominican Republic over the United States. Team USA might have gotten the wake-up call they needed, but I still just think that they have, I don't know.

They do add to their pitching staff, though, now, Damon. And something very exciting as far as you are concerned, Clayton Kershaw is no longer on Team USA's roster. They made a roster change. Clayton Kershaw has been removed. And now Joe Ryan is on the pitching staff. So... Let's go.

Oh, it's not the worst thing in the world. I mean, I can root for my country again. I'll tell you, it feels a little more secure. I wonder if they win the whole thing. If what do they get to take home? Do they get a medal? Do they get something here? I mean, does Clayton Kershaw get a, does he get a ring?

Because I need to know that very much. That impacts my enjoyment of this. But I did want to tell you guys, of course, our diehard offer is still going on. Our diehard sale, they say it's for the football season or for NFL free agency season. I say this sale is to some. celebrate the beginning of the baseball season, but that's only because they don't always pay attention to the things I say around here so I can kind of get away with it. I will tell you, though, $36 for your first year is a hell of a sale. 55% off our normal price.

You save $44. You get full NFL free agency coverage all week. Get access to our Discord, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. You get premium football coverage, premium baseball coverage, premium U of A coverage, premium Arizona sports coverage all year long, percent off merchandise and events, a free shirt of your choice from the store, and of course, complete access to our draft guide, including scouting reports, prospect breakdowns, and analysis. So hop on over to go phtonx.com slash intro and sign up today and join our diehard family. Well, Damon, we got big games, big games this weekend, including tonight.

We got, of course, starting at 3.30 local time here. We got Korea taking on the Dominican Republic, locked in. for that starting at 5 p.m. local time 8 p.m. Eastern. We got United States versus team Canada, and that is going to be a pretty electric matchup. Also, we did get our wish and we get a, what is this? This is a rematch from the gold medal game in the Olympics between USA and Canada and hockey. So, hey, the rivalry is renewed. Puerto Rico and Italy will take on each other tomorrow at 3 p.m. That is noon local time.

And then at 6 p.m. on Saturday, we have Venezuela versus Japan. So hope you guys all enjoy all of that. Can you want this here from my, it's either my buddy, Enrique, who played with me on these teams or my assistant coach, Henry, who was the dad of Enrique,

who watches this show. He said can confirm that I caught in the Liddle. Yeah. His son also was our catcher. See, what I wanted Enrique to say is can confirm that when Damon was a catcher, he refused to shake people's hands. That's what I wanted him to say. Damon was an absolute dick when he played Little League.

He'd fight with everybody. Yeah. But if it's Coach Henry, what up? How are we doing? Good stuff. Hello, Coach Henry or Enrique, former teammate. Yeah. Regardless, welcome into the show.

When you share a name, it's, you know. Yeah, a little difficult. But let's see. got Chris talking about dang while Smackdown is on. I know I am here in my CM Punk shirt. This is a Friday the 13th hat by the way for Jay Army Strong who was asking a little earlier. Of course, of course I have a hat for everything. I will be at Smackdown in attendance tonight. So I'm going to miss out on some of this WBC action. But I look forward to getting home and getting caught up on all of that action as well. Also had to give a big happy birthday to Emily who said

that her birthday was a few days ago, I believe earlier in the chat. Not sure if she's still around, but shout out to you, Emily. Happy birthday. Thank you so much for being here and supporting FH and X. We appreciate you guys so much. But we are going to go.

It's time. It's the weekend. You guys have yourselves a wonderful weekend. Continue to follow us. We will be around on social media. Damon will be fighting with people about U of A, I'm sure.

You can find him at Damon dog with a D-A-W-G at the end. We're all Damon's dogs. Bark Bark. I am at K-M-A-M-W-A-K. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-V-V-X, but as always all roads lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you. We'll be back here on Monday with another 12 p.m. episode and another Mailbag Monday episode. Don't miss us on Tuesday as well. We will be doing a watch-along on Tuesday for the championship game of the WBC. And then we will also be doing a post-game show after that. And discussing all of the great food that we got to try at the Taste of Chase event on Tuesday. So looking forward to all of that.

Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. Can't wait to see you back here on Monday. Until then, behave yourselves. Chris at Smackdown. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you shake your friend's hand.