PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Drey Jameson makes his case for the starting rotation in second start

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

With only one spot open in their starting pitching rotation, the Arizona Diamondbacks have some tough decisions to make between their trio of young pitchers. Drey Jameson didn’t make that decision any easier with a stellar second start of spring training. We’re also discussing where the D-backs farm system was ranked by Baseball America and why the Czech Republic WBC team is going to make one hell of a movie someday.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 PHNX: Make sure to get your hands on our new “Slim Valley Reaper” t-shirt! Go to https://phnxlocker.com/products/slim-valley-reaper now!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 BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.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/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. BONUS bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded.  See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballlterms.Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: All the best fantasy news and updates at https://rotowire.com/phnx OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBB15” 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.comRoman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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. 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.

It's sports day. Welcome in. Come on in. It's all the sports. We're doing all the things. And we're here too. We got a small audience here. Of course,

welcome in to the PHNXD Backs podcast. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of this insane insane asylum. This guy over here is the vice mayor, also known as your thunder stick, the one only Jesse Friedman. The biggest, you know, Arizona sports news of the day,

Derek, is Drey Jameson, who threw two solid innings in the Cactus League game today. against the San Francisco Giants. The coyotes, very quiet day for them. They did. Certainly nothing happening in the sun's world. Sons are playing a basketball game.

Yeah. I don't think the Cardinals have made any coaching hirings in recent days either. So it's pretty much just all diamond backs. It's spring training. It's our time. Their time is up. Our time is now. You know how that goes around here.

But of course, this show's brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. America's top rated sports book app. Yes, we know it's Kevin Durante. You guys are probably here just because you didn't change over your YouTube to the watch along. But thank God for those of you that stuck around. We're very excited, though,

because the Arizona Diamondback starting rotation battle is heating up. And Drey Jameson is not making the decision any easier on the front office when it comes to who exactly is going to get that fifth rotation spot. He was so good today. So good. Dre Jameson, six up, six down. Kind of an odd situation. We didn't mention this in recent days.

but Drey Jameson pitched on three days rest today. Four days. Well, I mean, it's all semantics, right? It's like he pitched one day short, whether you want to call that three days of rest or like technically a pitcher normally pitches on four days of rest. I would argue because there's only four full days between their starts. But anyway, I'm getting, I'm getting bogged down in the weeds here.

The point is that the point is that Drey Javison pitched on one fewer day of rest today than he normally would. We didn't really ever get a straight answer from the Diamondback. on exactly why this was. We didn't get a straight answer from Drey Jamison himself. He said he didn't know. He basically just said, yeah, I don't know why this happened. It's like kind of a weird move, especially early on in spring training.

You're very careful with with guys' workloads. You want to make sure nobody's throwing too many pitches too early, that there's kind of this natural buildup process. So kind of a weird move for the debacks on that front. But Dre Jameson pitch an outstanding game today nonetheless. The Arizona Diamondbacks have obviously an excessive. number of pitchers on their depth chart right now. When you look at their starting rotation,

it currently consists of nine guys. So they just have to do a nine-man rotation. That's all that we're saying. Yeah, Tori is going to go with the nine-man rotation, obviously, and it's going to just shock the baseball world. No, they have literally a four-man rotation just of the younger guys that are technically vying for this spot. I mean, we have Tommy Henry, Ryan Nelson,

and Dre James and Brandon fought. Right now, they don't really need Zach Gallin, Merrill Kelly or Madison, Bumgardner to really pitch. Zach Davies, it was good to see him. That's a,

that's a hot take. They don't need Zach Gallin to pitch. No, but you know what I mean. They're fine. They have enough. Excuse me. Let me finish the sentence in spring training.

They don't need them to pitch in spring training, right? Like, they know what they have out of them. And honestly, they can have them pitch in the back lot games or in the YBP. There's other ways to give them opportunities to make sure that they're fresh,

and they're ramping up, but also not having them in some of these live games where they're not going to really pitch very many innings anyway. Yeah, Merrill Kelly is set to pitch on Friday. We also have Ryan Nelson making us start tomorrow. I don't believe the Diamondbacks have announced who's starting this weekend. We've been told that Madison Bumgarner is not there yet, that he will not be starting this weekend. I don't believe Zach Gallen will start this weekend either. He's there. He just means he's not there yet as in starting.

Right. Yeah. He's at Salt River Fields. Oh, yes. Yes. No, he has arrived. We have seen and talked with Madison Bumgarner at this point. But yeah, as far as appearing in an actual Cactus League game, it's going to be a few more days for him. But yeah, we've been told that there are no injury concerns or anything like that. Both Zach Gown and Madison Bumgarner, per Tori Lavello are 100% full go. He said that very confidently today. So I wouldn't be too concerned just yet that we haven't seen those guys in games. What do you need to see out of those guys anyway, right? I mean, I mean, out of Madison Bumgarner, you probably need to see quite a bit. No, I mean, of course, but we know how they're already leaning. We know what direction they're leaning, right, as far as those decisions go. So pretty much Merrill Kelly is the only one of the four that actually needs to get ready because of his participation in the World Baseball Classic. And again, because of that upcoming WBC, it really does feel like the Diamondbacks are just kind of ahead of the schedule overall. But today's start was impressive because Drey Jameson obviously is one of those four guys that is vying for that final starting rotation spot.

And not only did he look good, but he kind of got better as his outing went on. It was a very short outing, only two innings. But he struck out two in his second inning of work. He had an incredible strikeout of Piscotti, right? Stephen Piscotti, man, he really carved him up. I know it's won at bad and Stephen Piscotti is not exactly. exactly the cream of the crop in the National League at this point. But it was still, yeah, I mean, he just dotted the glove.

He threw a high fastball at 97 miles an hour. That's how he got the strike out of the Scotty. And it was that high in the strike zone, you know, fastball that Stromie absolutely loves. And he's making sure everybody does. Brent Strom loves him a high fastball. You know that. But it was also the following strikeout of Giants catcher, Roberto Perez. That was especially interesting because

Drey Jameson went down 3-0 in the count and ends up striking Perez out. And this guy over here asked Jameson what his thoughts were when he was down 3-0 to Perez. And he had what I've been calling an unnecessarily aggressive response in a situation that didn't call for it once again, which is what he's just, he's just, he's just frequently aggressive in situations that don't call for it. That's Tray Jameson's kind of personality, but here's what he had to

say about going down 3-0 and having the batter swing at his pitch. Don't swing on me 3-0. No, no. That puts fire in my blood and something clicks when that happens. So it's more of like, I'm not going to

walk this guy. So, yeah, I mean, you just fight and when someone swings 3-0 on you, it gives you a little more edge and you attack even harder. I love it. I love this answer so much. I felt like he was going to attack me in that.

Yeah, I thought he was going to hit Jesse. I really did swing three. Oh, that wasn't me. No, this is a this was fascinating though because I don't know like at least I personally haven't viewed a hitter swinging three oh as being like a like a super gutsy thing or like a slide at the pitcher. Yeah, like some sort of attack on them because obviously the idea there is that that you should keep your bat on your shoulder and see if you get the walk.

Yeah. It's something we don't see. often, but I don't necessarily think that like, oh, if you swing 3-0, like the pitcher's going to have it out for you or anything necessarily. But that clearly is how Dre Jameson views this. Trays on the mound going, you son of a bitch, right? So don't ever, that's a warning. Don't ever swing on his 3-0 pitch.

But the things, honestly right now with these starts for Jameson, Nelson and Fott, especially is that every start seems critical at this point. And again, Jameson was asked about. you know the competition and what he you know what he's doing out there what he can do to kind of win this spot you're going to get the same answer out of a lot of a lot of these guys i mean they can only control what they can control but at the end of the day they all are trying to go out there make an impression and so far uh these these these these last couple of starts between fought and jameson don't don't help solve the problem at all but this is what he had to say about the

competition to be honest it doesn't feel any different i mean i'm going out there i'm competing And at the end of the day, it's out of my control of what happens. I mean, it's in my control what happens all in the field, but off the field and decision-wise, it's not in my control. So I just go out there, I do what I need to do, to the best of my capability, and whatever happens happens. Do you feel any more established? No.

I mean, I'm still the young buck. I'm still fighting for a spot, like you said, but you just take that out of, like, the equation, and I'm just out competing, whatever happens, happens. It's that second part there that I find really interesting because obviously we've talked a bit about the established part of it. And Ryan Nelson and Dre Jameson have done a great job of establishing themselves as viable major leaguers with their performances last year. But, you know, for him to say he doesn't really feel that. I mean, it's understandable.

He didn't have a lot of starts. He really still has a lot to prove. It just, you know, you would feel like he might have some sort of at least a little bit of a leg up on the competition when it came to, especially Brandon Fott, who still hasn't pitched in the majors. Yeah, yeah, I was a little surprised by this as well. I mean, he only threw, what, 24 innings in the big leagues last year? So it's not like Drey Jameson, you know, through 100 innings or anything. So I understand why he still kind of feels like, you know, he along with a lot of other guys, have to come in and prove it.

They don't really have any guarantees or anything coming into spring training. However, I do think that Drey Jameson does have maybe some leg up coming in, just the fact that the Diamondbacks have already called him up. already has had success in the big leagues, whereas Brandon Fott has yet to pitch in the majors, and Tommy Henry has yet to have a whole lot of consistent success in the majors. So I feel like he maybe has a little bit of a leg up, but from his perspective, maybe he doesn't view it that way, right? He's coming in and thinks he's basically starting from zero and has to prove every opportunity that he gets. It's probably a pretty good mindset. There's a reason that Dre Jameson is a pro-athlet

and I'm, you know, sitting here doing this. So yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you fully agree with that. I fully agree with that. I fully agree 100% with that. Well, here's the thing. Dre Jameson has lived up to a couple of things.

Ben in the comment says it's don't fuck with Dre Day. Look, that's a, that in general is a tough moniker to live up to, right? Being called Dre, having all the comparisons to Dr. Dre, obviously, Dre Day, the chronic. There's a lot of things there, right? Here's the other thing. He also adopted that 99 number. which as we've told you, we talked to him about and he fully understands what that means

and he's fully ready. And he wears full shoes. And he wears amazing shoes, by the way. Actually, today we were given, it was like they were still bright and amazing, but they just weren't the normal, over the top, incredible shoes that were used to seeing him wear. They were still pretty bright and colorful.

They were awesome. When I asked Ray Jameson about his shoes after the game, I got confused between the cleats that he wore on the fields and the shoes that he wore like after he took his cleats off, which were very ordinary looking. So I was very confused from it. I was like, there's no way you wore these in a game.

And sure enough, I was confused. And they were still very colorful. And I think you had like the Indianapolis skyline. Yes. On the back part of the shoe as well. Yeah, it's hometown.

Indianapolis. Yeah. And spoiler alert, I don't know if I should tell people this, but apparently his Scooby-Doo design is on the way. Apparently. I threw that out there. I put it out there.

Breaking news. But I love his attitude that we've gotten to know him, the more that this man is 100% going to back up every comparison to Dr. Dre and every rap song. You know, Dre Day, by the way, for those of you that are curious, I was very young when that song came out, but that did not keep me from shoplifting it from my local warehouse records because I was too young to purchase it due to the parental advisory sticker.

So there you go. That tracks, Derek. It does track. It does track. No surprises. Yeah, like, you're not going to stop me. You know that. Today I didn't even have a pass.

and I still got into the stadium over there. But that's because, you know, there's two things. People find me charming. Older people find me charming. Women find me charming. And especially older women, they definitely find me charming. But I can't wait for the start of this season because, of course, the Diamondbacks start on the road in Los Angeles.

It's going to be an incredible test right out of the gate for them just to see how they look and how they can compete one of the best teams in the division. Hopefully, Jesse and I, can get on the road, jump in a car together, go on a road trip, and go see this team in Los Angeles because I love road trips. And more than just loving road trips, I love stopping at convenience stores here in the valley to load up for road trips. Jesse, what are you picking up when you go in to a convenience store for a road trip? Gas station, convenience store road trip food. Yeah, that's a good question.

Well, I'm definitely hitting the restroom, first of all. That's a no-brainer. See, that's so responsible of you. Yeah, but I'm just saying I should not have expected anything less. Arguably the best way to judge one of those places is by the quality of the restroom. He's not wrong. I mean, you could go with what other, like maybe because some of those, especially when you're on a long road trip, they have the places to eat inside, you know, like fast food restaurants.

But Jesse's right. You can really judge the quality of a convenience store by the restroom and by their snacks. And by the snacks. I guess the snacks are pretty important. Of course, we know Jesse's occupation prior to this. And those of you that know me know that prior to this show, I was a certified snackologist. I went to the University of Snackology. And along with my friend Tim, we actually had a system of picking, eating, and raiding snacks that we stole from a completely other podcast.

And we rated snacks. And I am an official snackologist. So I'm proud. I am proud to announce that. We here at PHNX are partnering with the good folks at Circle K. And I will be getting all the snacks. Look at this thing rolling in behind me. It's just snacks.

I just ask for snacks and snacks roll in. And they're here. We got some kettle cook chips here. And this is what's happening. You got to maneuver it. I also, wait, give me some of these. I want some of these blue sharks. These are amazing too.

So shout out to our friends from Circle K. We are so excited to be officially partnering with the good friends, good folks at Circle K. We're allowed to open these, right? They're not. These aren't stage snacks, Jesse. These are real goddamn snacks. And they are delicious and they are amazing. And we thank our friends at Circle K for providing them.

Of course, you know where Circle K is. They're all around the valley. They were featured in one of the greatest movies of all time, Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. I watched that film at a Circle K was one of the greatest experiences of my life. While I was there at the Circle K watching a movie that featured the scene in Circle K at that Circle K in Tempe. I was chatting with the writer of the movie in England. It was the most surreal experience I've ever had. But of course Circle K has brought me so much joy in my life.

And we are excited to partner with our friends at Circle K. Check out your local Circle K for the best coffee, beer, and snack selection. Of course, highly rated snacks coming from a snackologist. These are like, they have like their own brand of chip. And they're amazing. And they're very good. They're very good. Peatrings.

Yeah. No, I mean, seriously. Sometimes the big companies, they forget. They forget how to do snacks right. Circle K, they know how to do snacks right. Not only that, they're the official partner of Arizona Diamondback. So happy to partner together with our friends from Circle K. Look out for freebies and giveaways down the road.

And of course, my ratings on their wonderful snacks because I got to get those out there as well. But shout out to Circle K. We are so excited. Make sure to text PHNX to 31310 to potentially win a $500 gas card. Check that out. It's like the most valuable giveaway item we've ever had by far. I can't enter that. No, he's saying no, but then he's like, he's on the fence about it.

But I can't watch it. What he's saying is you can text the number and theoretically you could win, but they're not going to give it to you if you do. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. But you guys can win and that's who it's all about. So make sure to text PHNX, the 310 to win $500 gas card. Like you said, that's the most valuable thing. And also maybe, I don't know, maybe stop and get some snacks while you're there.

Yeah, it might also be a good thing. Snacks, top, top notch restroom. Oh, yeah. And the gasoline works. Yes. So the gasoline does work in your car. It causes it to go. Also, you know, they have the one thing that I forgot about when we put in our little order of

of Saul going and picking us up some snacks was that they have all sorts of hot food, which I haven't eaten. all day. My day has consisted 100% of snacks, which is kind of okay. But they have tequitos. They have hot dogs. They have all sorts of wonderful things. So make sure to check out Circle K. You know what you got. Shout out to them, of course. And we are very excited to have them as a partner. Also, we thank you guys for being here. We know you guys have better things to do tonight. We understand. It's fine. We wouldn't have held it against you. But those of you that are here, God bless you. Thank you so much for being here. If you haven't done so already, make sure to

subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, sign up for notifications, that way you don't miss what any of our shows go live, even when three of them are going on at the same time. You can also leave us a little thumbs up just to let us know that we are, you know, kind of doing a good job and that, you know, again, you have other things to do, but just drop that thumbs up and Jesse will feel great about it. Also, if you're listening to us now on your favorite audio podcasting app, which I'm assuming most of you are at this point, but make sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you haven't done so already. Thank you guys so much for that.

Of course, I'm getting through this night and the fact that Jesse and I have to sit here on the other side of a pillar, not being able to see the Sun's game and how KD is doing by drinking a delicious beer from our friends at Four Peaks. Of course, there's so many sporting events just going on right now in this office, let alone in the month of March. Spring training tours are going on right now at their 8th Street pub all throughout March. So make sure if you're here in town, if you stop it in or if you just, if you live here and you want to go check out the 8th Street pub and get a tour, make sure to do that over. At Four Peaks, you can check out their events calendar at at FourPeaks.com backslash events. And you can also follow them on social at Four Peaks Brew. Our friends at Four Peaks will be out at the M3F Festival, March 3rd and 4th.

Grab your tickets at the M3FFest.com now and enjoy, excuse me, and enjoy a while we eat beer while you're there. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy responsibly. Well, Jesse, we know that the Arizona Diamondbacks have a good farm system. we know that their prospects are very highly rated. We've been talking about it nonstop throughout the offseason. But Baseball America released today their top five farm systems in baseball. And let's take a look at where the Diamondbacks ended up.

It's a pretty good position, right? Right? Cozied up next to our friends in Baltimore. Those darn Orioles, man. They're always just a step ahead of us, it feels like. But very interesting here, obviously, a very good sign that the Diamondbacks are rated so highly. the second best farm system in baseball, according to baseball America.

But there's some things here that I don't like, Jesse. Obviously, both- You don't like the team that's number three? Yeah, basically. That's basically it. I mean, Baltimore, Arizona, and Cleveland have a lot of things in common there, right? But these other two guys don't like that they are who they are and that they are also on this list.

The Dodgers and the Mets, both being two of the top five highest-spending teams in baseball with the Mets taking that crown this year. I believe, I don't know, it's between the Mets and the Padres. I think the Mets still spent more money, but man, the Padres seem to also be trying out, do them. But yeah, Jesse, not great that two of the best teams in baseball already roster-wise and financially are also two of the best farm systems in baseball. Yeah, I mean, I think there's really three teams that there's kind of a consensus as being a top-tier farm system in baseball, those are the Orioles, the Diamondbacks, and the Dodgers, which is, which is one, two, three for baseball America.

Correct. But if you look at all the other lists that have, that have come out, those three teams are in the top five for all of them, except for Bleacher Report. They have the Diamondbacks at number 12, but it's Bleacher Report. So, no, I don't want to take a shot at Bleacher's one. I want to take a shot at Bleacher's report. Shall I? I mean, should I, don't, don't be, don't be in, let me put you in the same category as

a Pocoda guy. Let me tell you that much right now. Right. Yeah, the beef with Pocoda will live on for quite some time, I'm sure. But, but yeah, the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks and the Orioles, all consensus top-tier farm systems. The Mets was a bit of a surprise for me. I haven't really seen the Mets rank that high.

Anywhere else. Really, anywhere else. Yeah, I think Bleacher Report had him seventh, but that's about all I've seen with the Mets. And they're obviously drunk, so I don't. Clearly, yes. Counting what they say. No, I mean, the reason the debacks are so high, is because of all of this talent that's like right on the brink of making the big leagues, right?

I mean, it's not rocket science, right? When you have Corbyn Carroll, obviously, is being either the number one or number two prospect in baseball, depending on who you ask. Baseball America counts Gabriel Moreno as still being eligible for their prospect list. So they're probably factoring him in as well. Which is a big reason why the Diamondbacks overall are so high with the number of prospects that they have on baseball America's top 100. Yeah. And then, you know, I mean, the list goes on, right? Brandon fought. Ryan Nelson and Dre Jameson didn't make many top 100 lists, but they're probably right just barely off the top 100 if they didn't make a top 100. So there's a lot of depth here for the debacks of potentially

high-level impact talent that's like right on the brink of the big leagues. It will be interesting. I do have to say it will be interesting to see what happens like mid-season when a lot of these guys graduate off of this list. Like Corby and Carroll won't be a top eligible to be a top prospect for much longer, most likely. Brandon Faw, Dre James and Ryan Nelson, those guys are kind of all in the same boat. So this could change in the relatively near future. But for right now, I mean, you're going to, it's hard to find a better collection of top

tier major league ready talent than what the diamond backs have. I think we'll still see Drew Jones and Jordan Lawler continue to be ranked very high. But like you said, after that, it really, there really is going to be a drop-off. And they might be more like 10th or something by mid-season. I think it'll still be good, but I don't think it'll be great anymore at that point. And I think that there's other things to consider too besides just those big names. We've seen a lot of Dominic, both Canzon and Fletcher, this spring training, the Dominics. There's a Dominic's only field at one point.

There's also, you know, Bryce Jarvis and a lot of other names that we doubt we will see on the Major League roster this year. Blake Ralston, another interesting name for sure. And that's been considered very high on the Diamondbacks prospects list for for a while now. So I think those guys will get more of an opportunity once these players graduate. But yeah, I do think that they have some pretty special talent, kind of, you know, scheduled down the line that some of those guys are still going to be in the minor league system. It's just once fought Carol and Moreno are off this list. You know, again, there's a chance that the Diamondbacks might only have the remaining two or three. guys ranked in the top 100 prospects list after that point.

So yeah, but I don't care. I don't give a damn. I'm not like there, there's going to be ups and downs with every team's farm system. And the fact that the diamond backs were in such a bad position before Mike Hazen took over as GM of this team and where they've gotten to how long their team has now had a farm system that's been in the top 10. And more importantly, how these guys now are turning into elite baseball players at a major league level, right? Like that, that for me is the thing that's more telling is the fact that the guys that they've called up in the last year, Alec Thomas. I mean, Jake McCarthy obviously was called up at the end of 2020, but still, he really emerged last year. The pitching duo of Jameson and Nelson, like there's just a lot of young guys that have come up and found success.

And I think that that's something that is a credit to the coaching staff and the Diamondbacks ability right now to help these guys make that transition from minor league. pitcher to major league pitcher. And in some cases, like with Drey Jamison, finding more success at a major league level than he even did at a minor league level. Which doesn't really make any sense. His major league ERA was one fifth of what it was in AAA last year. Yeah, I think like there's this really interesting comparison between the Diamondbacks and the Orioles.

And we'll probably like dive into that in full force in a future episode. I think it's an interesting thing to talk about. Especially over the last three season, it feels. like these teams have been, you know, the, the AL and NL versions of each other, basically. That's basically what, like, I constantly, I feel like I constantly hear that. Like, oh, the Diamondbacks are like the Orioles of the West or something like that. But I think even from a farm system standpoint, the teams are also in kind of a similar boat, right? Gunner Henderson is the Orioles version of Corbyn Carroll.

Yeah, he's always one or two right next to Corbyn Carroll. Right. On top 100 list, Gunner Henderson and Corbyn Carroll are like right there. and then Grayson Rodriguez is their top pitching prospect. He projects to be excellent. Could have a really big rookie year for them. Sort of along lines that Brandon fought, maybe Rodriguez is a little bit more highly touted at this point,

depending on who you ask. And then their third ranked prospect, according to, by most accounts, would be Jackson Holiday, who, of course, was taken first overall right in front of Drew Jones in this first year player draft that we had last year. Oh, man. We were, we were, we were apt about that.

It's weird, like how these teams are just, they're kind of lining up constantly. Yeah. But I think the Orioles are in a similar situation where once Henderson and Rodriguez bounce off prospect lists, then, you know, it might, they might have a similar outcome where maybe their farm system isn't ranked quite as high once those guys graduate. Well, we want to thank you guys again for being here. We know it's a busy night here. There's a watch party going on within feet of us.

our normal studio B was was stolen from us by the coyotes crew which we're not going to forget anytime soon Ryan Ryan remembered about the pizza. I didn't even remember about the pizza Ryan, but you know what for an honor of Ryan let's go ahead and are we doing it. Yeah, let's drop a pizza emoji in the chat. Everybody that drops a pizza emoji in there, I will enter your name into and you know what Ryan's right like on a night like tonight. They deserve it. The guys they do. The people that here in the chat, you guys deserve it more than any other night because there are so many other shows you could be watching, things you could be watching. Kevin Durant, I don't know if you've heard, is playing for the Phoenix Suns now and his debut is tonight. I don't know why I told

people that. Yeah, you're not doing us any favors right now. According to a report I just heard, he is not playing. So you should stay here watching this show. But of course, if you drop a pizza emoji in the chat, I will enter you into our drawing for a free 20 inch pizza from our friends at Mountain Mike's, a 20 inch pepper. pizza. So drop a pepperoni pizza in the chat and I will add you guys to the list. Of course, Jesse, you know, Jesse, uh, Jesse can attest to this. These chairs are really comfy. Uh, we're not out here in this studio enough to be honest. And, uh, I'm kind of glad our studio got stolen because we're sitting in the big chairs tonight. And these chairs were provided to us by our friends at

more furniture, uh, who have incredible furniture. And, uh, of course, are one of the best places in the valley for you to get your stuff. Jesse has finally hopefully started buying normal human adult furniture, but I don't trust him. He says he has and then he looks very suspicious afterwards that makes me believe his house once again is just filled with Chase lounges. But of course, you can buy Jesse furniture or at least suggest normal adult furniture for him. Check out morefurniture.com and talk about, of course, wait, Ben says, oh, never mine. I'm vegetarian. Ben, my dude, it's good. We will, we will arrange for you to get a non-peperoni pizza if that's the case. So don't worry about it. We got you hooked up. But of course,

morefurniture.com is where you need to go get your furniture, whether you're a vegetarian or not. Of course, they have the white glove delivery service that you can get not only furniture brought to your home, but set up for you so you don't have to do a thing. Save big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to morefurniture.com. And again, not only did we have to, have Circle K as a new partner, but we here on this podcast are very excited to be partnering with our friends from Roto Wire. Yes, Roto Wire. It's baseball season.

And you can get your latest fantasy baseball news from Roto Wire, a pioneer fantasy sports for over 25 plus years. If you are playing fantasy baseball, you need their help. Let's be honest. I've talked about what an exhausting fantasy season baseball is. But of course, Roto Wire makes it so much easier for you. They got mock drafts galore. They have an Ask the Expert function.

They have premium fantasy draft kits and so much more. So not only, not just baseball, but they have fantasy advice on everything from golf, golf, fantasy golf, Jesse, soccer, NASCAR, XFL. If someone get me invited to your fantasy XFL league immediately, because I need to get in on that. But for a limited time, Roto Wire is offering a free two-day trial to our listeners. And when I say free, I mean 100% no strings of attach free. Just go to rotowire.com slash P-H-N-X or Fink's for Zach Gowan to register. No

commitments. They're so confident that you're going to love their stuff that they want to, and you'll want to get a subscription plan that they aren't even asking for a credit card up front. So you can go get that two-day trial, take a sneak peek behind the paywall, and when the trial is done, you can decide if a roto-wire package is right for you. So make sure to check out our friends over at Rotowire, especially all of you baseball. Fantasy baseball fanatics. Jesse, I do have a movie that I want to pitch to Hollywood. Maybe the ending isn't written yet because, of course,

we still need to see how this whole thing plays out. But the Czech Republic baseball team in the World Baseball Classic may have already won my heart over, Jesse. There is a movie to be made. There is a movie to be made. The Czech Republic will join Australia, China, Japan, and Korea. and Pool B, and they will play in Tokyo. Now, the Czech Republic, as Jesse was filling me in on, one, they're, they're, what is it? It's a qualifier, right?

Yeah, there's like a qualifying tournament that they had to participate in and wins. There are a bunch of other teams vying to participate in the WBC that ultimately were not allowed to because the Czech Republic, one of the teams that won the spot. Now, the teams from last year's WBC automatically get a place in this year's. And then there were four spots that were playing spots. Yeah. So you've got you've got four different pools, right, A, B, C, and D consisting of five teams each. And in each pool, four of those teams, as you were talking about, you know, played in the 2017 WBC.

So they were automatically just retained their spot. And then each pool has one team that is newly qualified. year. And so for Pool B, that is the Czech Republic. The reason why this is such a big story is we've talked about how the participation in the WBC has made some of these teams into absolute all-star teams. The Dominican Republic team is crazy. The United States team is insane. There's just, there are these, you know, all-star teams all around baseball, including Spain's team, which was considered to be very, very good and a favorite to win their qualifier against the Czech Republic. In fact,

they had beaten the Czech Republic previously by a score of 21 to 7 early in the qualifying play and these two matched up again somehow in the in the advancement round and the Czech Republic won against Spain and advance now the Czech Republic

hasn't produced a major leaguer since 1952 at least 1952 I don't know exactly what the story is there They didn't even have their own league established within the Czech Republic until 1979. But yeah, I don't know who that's actually talking about. We'll have to like go back and figure that out. But yeah, it's been 70 years.

The current team right now is comprised of, and I don't know how to say this without insulting them, but ordinary dudes. Is that the best way to say it? Like doctors and construction workers and people that have ordinary day jobs and such. They all, apparently basically every member of the Czech Republic's roster, they don't play baseball full time. They're just like, they just have normal jobs. Like us. So we have, and I wish I could actually pronounce these names, but I'm not going to try. Don't even try.

I would just utterly get you there. But we have a sales rep, who is the captain of the team. We have a designated hitter who is a financial analyst. We have a high school geography teacher. We have a real estate agent. We have one player who doubles as the team's media coordinator, which is hilarious. Yes, that's incredible. So I guess he just gets to reject all of his own interviews.

He just makes it so he's never available to the media. And yeah, and there's also a neurologist on the Czech Republic baseball team. So, yeah, like whether the Czech Republic really can hold its own in Pool B with those teams that you mentioned, Australia, China, Japan, Korea. There are some pretty good teams in there, especially, I mean, China, Japan, and Korea, honestly, all three of those, I think, have at least some chance of winning the WBC. Australia may be a little bit more far-fetched. But, yeah, I don't know if the Czech Republic is necessarily, you know, favored to win or anything.

Now, that would really be a movie. We're going to have to get moving on that movie. Now, man, this has cool runnings written all over it. because this is just one of those stories that is incredible. And, you know, like you said, they launched their own league in 1979. It's the Czech Republic Extra Liga. I think that's how you say it. They have eight teams and they even have their own baseball cards.

So, hey, there you go. That's incredible. They really do have their own baseball cards. But if you guys haven't done so already, by the way, drop a pizza emoji in the chat and I will enter you into the drawing for a free pizza tonight. If I were that high school geography teacher, I'd be handed out. my baseball card. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Well, you know, I gave you my card and you hated so much. He hates that he has a trading card. I begrudgingly, I do you think it's still in my wallet. He has in his wallet. See, we love each other. He might not act like it, but we really do. But yeah, this is just an incredible story to watch. I mean, if you don't really care much for the WBC, but in general, you're looking for

an intriguing story. This is it, man, because again, these guys are really as every man, team. as you can get and considering the talent that they're up against, like the one thing that they have going for them really is the fact that they just want to win. I don't know. I mean, like representing your country and stuff, I think is important to a lot of these players, but these players have other things going on in their minds, right? Like they're thinking about the season, finishing up spring training when they need to get back with their teams. Some of the players, you know, like Alec Thomas telling me the other day that it was easier for him to make that decision

because his pool is playing here in Phoenix, made me realize like, oh, my God. Like, if the United States was in a pool that was in Japan, like, I wonder how that would have impacted how many guys we saw participate in this, right? Yeah, I mean, the debacks have a few players playing for Team Italy. The Tori told us, I don't know if it's today. It might be, like, within the next few days,

those players are leaving camp a little bit earlier than the other WBC participants. So one of the Dominics? It is, yes. I want to say it was Dominic Fletcher. I think Mitchell Stumpo is part of that group as well. But they're departing spring camp here with very shortly because they're playing in Taiwan. And so it's a little bit more disruptive for them than it is, as you're saying for Alec Thomas or Merrill Kelly or one of those guys. Ryan H in the comment.

So let's get a PHNX team together to play against the DNVR Gibronies. I'm 100% in. I'm 100% in. Like we're playing, are we playing wiffle ball? Are we playing real baseball? I don't anything. Any sport. Any sport?

Any competition. Drey Jameson has me pumped up. I'm fucking ready to go. I don't care. I want to beat somebody in something. Like, let's put money on it and let's go. I'm ready to go. Don't you dare swing on Derek in a three-o-counter.

Oh, my, don't you dare swing on me in a three-o count. And you can test me at a place like Optane Raceway and Mavericks, but let me tell you, it's not going to end well for you. Unless you're Jacob, who's surprisingly good at cart racing. That was still surprisingly good. He's so big. I just got to take a shot out. I don't like that.

It doesn't make any sense. It's a tiny race car. You know, I just didn't expect that. But of course, you can meet your friends or maybe surprisingly lose to them over at Octane Raceway. Plus Mavericks. Mavericks has an incredible arcade. They have bowling.

They have all sorts of stuff. They have daily specials including on Wednesday. It's winning Wednesday. Half-price arcade games all day. In my opinion, the best day to go. Saturday through Sunday, 50% off signature bowling before noon. So get up early, go out, have yourself some fun. More importantly, they have all sorts of drinks specials,

all sorts of great food to be had. One of the best burgers I've had was at Octane. So make sure to check that out. Book some fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks, cart racing, virtual reality, laser tag, axe throwing. Jesse will not go ax throwing with me. I don't understand why. Bowling, arcades, great food, drinks, all of that.

They've got it all. Bring in your spring training ticket stub, and you will get a free $10 game card. So check out Octane Raceway.com and Mavericks.com to learn more and save those stubs. It's right around the corner from Saw Riverfield. That's right. Yeah, he's not wrong. It's a whole, there's a whole day of fun to be had over there.

And here's the thing. You want to save on tickets? Go to gametime.com. What are you doing? I had a friend ask me, I need spring training tickets. I need them for as cheap as possible. Do you have any options? And I sent him the link.

And he was like, come on, man. And I was like, no, go check it out. Tickets for his particular team that he was looking for were $4, Jesse. Wow. $4 spring training tickets. And we've talked about how expensive spring training tickets can be. So make sure to check out game time.co because guess what? Because of how expensive there are, there are a lot of open seats in a lot of those stadiums.

Plus, you know how it goes. It's spring training. People up to work. So ditch work and go out and see a spring training game. and then go to Octane Raceway and Mavericks and then, you know, play some video games, have some food. Game time right now will save you up to 60% on tickets

when you buy them last minute. So procrastinators rejoice. And the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. I need to go out and get myself a Czech Republic WBC hat immediately. I don't remember their house was pretty cool. I think.

I wasn't. I don't even know if it was on that list because I think that the, I'm not sure if the qualifiers were on that list. there were some hats that were particularly left off but i don't know who and that also i also heard that list we uh looked at was a little weird because some of the teams actually have redesigned their hats since then but one more thing for you guys before we go when we're while we're talking w bc uh their rules are weird as shit and i don't know what we're going to see but uh should

it come down to a tie in some of these pools uh they have a really really strange one of deciding this. Damon, do we have that graphic? All right. So I think it's great. Yeah, of course you do math teacher. Let's fucking look at this. They went with this as the tiebreakers.

Lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in games between the teams that are tied. What the fuck, Jesse? I don't even know. Can you put that into into some sort of formula for me? Because I don't understand this. I'm just, quotients are powerful, Derek. I know as a, as a, yeah, you know, you know that. I know, no, I mean, the, the beauty of dividing the numbers is that, you know, if you, so in the numerator, we have, uh, the, uh, runs allowed.

Oh, I hate this so much. This is, this is where my eyesight is failing me. Derek. Can you, can you, can you read that top line for me? I feel like, I'm like a, wait, one or two. Read me number one. All right. Lowest quotient, a fewest runs allowed. divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in games between the teams that are tied. Right. So you want, I mean, you want the runs to be as low as possible, and then you want the outs to be as high as possible when you divide two numbers. If the top number gets lower, then the quotient gets smaller.

And if the bottom number gets higher, then the quotient gets smaller. No. So it's like if you have two numbers that you want to be moving in two opposite directions that dividing them works pretty well. Yeah, no, this is wild. I don't know. Maybe it was somebody who, I don't know, had like their PhD in math or something who came up with this because it's a pretty hardcore stuff that I don't think most fans would possibly understand. I hate it so much.

I hate it so much. But yeah. And then, I mean, the third one is also interesting. The highest batting average in games in that round between the teams tied. Fuck run differential, right? Why would we do that? Yeah. That's just too easy.

That's interesting. I mean, that's actually kind of controversial to use batting effort as a tiebreaker because, you know, some teams are able to do a lot of damage without necessarily hitting for a high average. Kyle says, excuse me, what in the hell am I looking at? Just have a bragg it. My guy, no, my guy, this is just for if it's tied, right? This is if it's tied. Whoever wins, it's not the team that scores the most runs. No, stop it.

We're not. If you score four, the other team scores three, you didn't necessarily win. We have to take the quotient. No, yeah. The game still worked the same way. That's just how we settle ties. I think Damon's got the hats back up. So let's take a look at that.

There they are. The Czech Republic hat, that's pretty fire. That's down there in the bottom row. A lot of great hats there. I still love these hats. But I don't know, man. Israel's pretty hard. Netherlands is fire.

Of course, Puerto Rico is always an incredible hat. But I'm kind of biased when it comes to that. Any favorites for you there that I didn't already. covers. That Czech Republic one, I think it's worth getting. Yeah. And it's like,

I mean, for me, like I personally wouldn't buy a hat just because I thought it looked cool. I would want to have some sort of attachment to the brand. Correct. I think that's probably how a lot of people feel. And now,

now I got an attachment. The Czech Republic, you can attach pretty easy. I'm ready to root for it. I mean, he's got like plumbers out there playing, you know, field and ground balls.

I love it so much. It's an incredible story. I love it so much. I like the Australia had a lot. Yeah, the green, a green, yeah, they've always had a solid design. I just hate the USA logo so goddamn much. Yeah, it's still the worst one, unfortunately. Man, it sucks.

It sucks because they're going to be good this year. But make sure to catch that, of course, if you're here in Phoenix, you have the luxury of going and checking out the WBC in person. Make sure if you haven't gotten tickets already to grab those tickets on game time. And of course, you can get your tickets through our link in the description. So make sure to do that. We thank you guys so much for being here. Of course, before we go, it's pizza time.

If I'm not mistaken, I only got four emojis. Am I right? Damon, can you do a double check on me? Make sure I didn't miss any emojis. I got Jeremy, Zona, Ben, and Ryan. That's it. Any more emojis before I spin the wheel? Kyle, you want to get in on this?

I don't know if you're still around, but we're going to give away a free 20-inch pepperoni pizza to our friends at Mountain mics. And I'm going for it. Let's go. Let's do it. This is for the people that you guys deserve it. You guys deserve it.

So let's get this going right now. And Ryan is our big winners. So congratulations to Ryan. The guy who reminded me about the drawing wins the pizza. So that is not at all in any way, shape, or form. Jesse can see, right? Jesse. Jesse confirms as the second party.

There was no tampering. There was no tampering. But of course, we thank you guys so much for being here. Go watch Kevin Durant play some basketball. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs,

but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys for joining us, as always on behalf of Damon, Jesse and myself. We appreciate your time and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When your team trades for Kevin Durant, let's go!