PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Diamondbacks’ TV arrangement for 2024 is coming into focus

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Where are we going to watch Snakes baseball in 2024? We are discussing some breaking information from Evan Drellich of The Athletic on who will be broadcasting Diamondbacks games in 2024. We also discuss if the D-backs will regret not making a move for Gary Sanchez and what Corbin Carroll would have to do to be an MVP candidate next season.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Arizona Lottery: Visit AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Let Someburros cater your next meal big or small! Order online or find one near you by visiting someburros.comWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX feedbacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of this bunch of monsters in this joint. This is my vice mayor. He helps me keep everybody in line. He's your thunder stick. It's one and only Jesse Friedman. Of course, we're also joined by our comptroller.

The one and only Jesse Jr. is here. Great to have him here as well. Just, oh, he's looking, it's looking handsome today, that guy. Yes, Jesse Jr. does have his own shot on today's show. Correct. And for those of you joining us on audio only, you're missing that. You're really, you're really missing out. It's a reason to definitely watch the show on YouTube and not just listen on the audio side,

but you should subscribe everywhere that you can subscribe. Of course, we thank you guys for being here, whether you're on the audio side or whether you're watching us live right now on YouTube. And we do have some interesting information that's kind of developing about where we can watch some Arizona Diamondbacks games in 2023. Are you saying we have. TV news, Derek? Do we have TV? Do we have actual TV news to discuss today? I don't know because we still have to figure out what this means in regards to what this

article from the athletic is stating. Essentially, it would appear that the, that Major League Baseball is going to be broadcasting Arizona Diamondbacks games. They are one of three teams that MLB will be broadcasting next year. What that means remains to be seen as far as the availability and where those games will be broadcast, who they might partner with to broadcast those games, but at least it would appear for 2024 that things may be, they may remain unchanged as they were once MLB took over midpoint of last season.

Yeah, this report kind of went under the radar a little bit. I think this was found within an article that Evangelic wrote a couple of hours ago. This article is about Rob Manfred making some comments about a half-league streaming service that Rob Manfred hopes Major League Baseball to have up and running by 2025. It would be difficult practically to get digital streaming rights for all 30 teams. So it sounds like they're hoping for around half the league to be involved. And it wouldn't just be like MLB.tv, this would be, you know, in market availability would be a thing. You know, so if you were in any of those 15 markets, you would be able to watch your teams,

your team's games as well as the other team's games outside of your market as well. So that's really what the story was about. But yes, within this story, Evangelic has a line that says that Major League Baseball will broadcast games for the Diamondbacks, the Rockies, and the Padres. As you said earlier. So, yeah, I mean, this is sort of news we've been waiting for for a while here. I don't know if it is, as you were alluding to, like, the full scope of TV news that will get this offseason.

There are still some questions to be answered about, you know, what is available? ability look like. You know, if you are a cock subscriber or whatever, you know, what, what does this mean practically for you? We don't know that entirely yet. But Major League Baseball took over Diamondbacks broadcast about midway through last season. And it always seemed like, you know, the most likely outcome was going to be Major League Baseball just continuing to do that. And now it looks like that is, in fact, what is going to happen. So as it stands right now, it seems likely the DeBacks games will be available on MLB.tv in market for $20 per. month like that's what they did last year yeah last year they had the 1999 per month thing which got you

in market access to diamondbacks games it wasn't included if you were already an mlb.tv subscriber it was an extra thing you had to pay you could also just buy it as a standalone service without having mlb. i assume that that would continue for 2024 that wasn't part of evangeloics article but that's the way it was last year and if mlb is doing it again i imagine they would probably have something at least very similar in in 2024. There are a lot of things developing. There are a lot of things cooking when it comes to the sports world and streaming services. We do know that the Warner Group and Fox and ESPN are coming together for a new streaming

service that will feature MLB games and it will be broadcast with all of those services that you might have, whether it's Max or whether it's ESPN Plus or whatever, you'll be able to watch those games there. We also know that Amazon has shown a tremendous. amount of interest in bailing out Valley Sports and trying to get them out of this situation, but not just out of the kindness of their hearts.

Amazon isn't just some benevolent hero in this situation. They are doing this with the purpose of obtaining streaming rights for whatever sports teams that they can as well. Right now is a weird time. The ballet sports situation with a lot of teams

in a lot of different leagues, not just a major league baseball, kind of set the market value. at a certain amount and then basically, which seemed very high. Like teams were getting paid a lot of money for their regional sports rights. And, you know, of course, what ends up happening is it doesn't work out for Bali business-wise. And that's why they are no longer, you know, in this game. They're trying to do everything they can to get out of it.

I still find it amazing that like Sinclair Broadcasting Group was able to essentially create Diamond Sports Group and then have it be another extension farther away from them with taking the Bally name. And like it all, when all of a sudden done, they paid money for a Bally name, right, that they'll be able to walk away from. But the Bally Group,

which is still going to be involved in gaming and casinos and hotels and such, is still going to take some sort of reputation damage on that whole thing. And they're not involved in any way, shape, or form. So, hey, be careful who you license your name out to, kids. That's the lesson of today.

But more importantly, we need to know where Diamondbacks games are going to be. be there has been no update on exactly what streaming services they will be available or if there will be any change. It feels like the way that MLB took over kind of seamlessly last year is kind of what they would do again this year, right? Like they've created an additional channel. Everything the infrastructure is in place for them to continue to broadcast Diamondbacks

games, Rockies games and Padres games, all in the same manner that they did last year, which like I said, it was a pretty. seamless transition. We didn't really have a lot of bumps as far as like, oh, hey, where do I watch it now? I know some people suffered from that. I know some people, as we discussed yesterday, are dealing with like the dish network thing and couldn't watch games or whatever's going on there. But I don't think that was related to this. It's just MLB did a good job of stepping in and broadcasting these games. Yeah, I think it was relatively seamless last year. And yeah, I mean, I think Elise asked a good question. I wonder if the debacks are getting any increased revenue from

this or more than, you know, when Major League Baseball took over last year. That's a really big factor. Like the Diamondbacks, their TV revenue is really significant for them. It's something that when we talked with Ken Kendrick a couple months ago, he didn't seem overly concerned about it. He talked about how the Diamondbacks would have a very viable TV deal. But at that point, he talked about a potentially multifaceted approach, you know, involving multiple different partners and I'm not sure if this news necessarily means that that's out of the question. Maybe it's possible for the Diamondbacks to also be partnering with someone else. Yeah.

You know, maybe as far as the distribution of these games is concerned. So this isn't, this isn't necessarily, you know, the complete solution from a broadcasting perspective for the Diamondbacks. It just seems unlikely. It seems like the value here is too high for the Diamondbacks to turn to like Arizona family sports or one of those kind of broadcasting channels that we'd be weird like yeah if it was a free if the diamond backs were to go um on like a non-cable you know just like a free over the air uh situation that would be a little odd at this point because major league baseball is asking people to buy a subscription service to have paid access

to these games most likely we assume um and so that wouldn't really make sense if there was also a free option to watch games at the same time so i'd be pretty surprised if there were really was a significant free option when when all is said and done it makes the move to put the sons on that channel like that much more of a iconic move by matt ishbia for people to to love him as an owner because the sons also could have been on an option I'm sure where they got more money than maybe that they were getting to this you know getting from this deal on cable on satellite something like that and instead they're broadcasting their games for free you know on on channel three which is just, it's great because we all, we all want to watch our sports.

We all want to have access to our sports. And I think at the end of the day, we want to take some comfort in knowing where those sports are going to be available to us. You know, the streaming landscape is changing all the time, you know, with these companies merging and becoming one, changing how much they charge, changing what's, you know, what's available to them. I'm going to have to watch a WWE on Netflix now, Jesse. They struck a deal with Netflix for like billions of dollars.

So that's where I got to watch my program. wrestling things are things are changing all the time and I think it's it's realizing that the streaming rights for something like a sports team or even like the w wd very very valuable and especially for a streaming service that needs that kind of anchor something that you know is going to bring people in every every day all the time you know Netflix is one of those streaming services for instance that you go on there and you can kind of watch everything you've missed out on in like a few weeks and then cancel you know the service and then get it again maybe a little bit down the road like there's There's options like that with some of the streaming services where you can catch up on their content and not need to continue to pay month after month after month for it.

When your sports team is on that streaming service, you have to keep it. You have to watch your team there. And that's what makes things like these teams, you know, regional sports streaming rights so valuable. Yeah. I will say as far as the Sun's situation is concerned, I don't find Sun's broadcasts, at least personally, to I'm not an expert in this, but I don't think they look as good as they used to. The national broadcast, in my opinion, tends to look better than the sun. That's fair. You kind of take a step back in terms of quality when you go that route of just going on the non-cable, at least what we've seen

from them. It did just the graphics on the screen and whatnot. I think the quality is a little bit lower. Whereas when Major League Baseball took over Diamondbacks broadcast last year, I think it was actually a step up from what Ballet Sports, Arizona had been doing. There were, There were more camera angles, which of course we saw. I think a lot of it, the complete product looked really good all the way around. We have noted Suns expert who can't. He has to be on every goddamn show today. It's Espo here to talk more about the Suns, as if they didn't just have two and a half hours

straight of Sunstock. I didn't talk about the broadcast, for God's sake. I talked about trades. I'm talking about the broad. Am I Jesse Jr.? Yeah, now you're Jesse Jr. All right. That's okay.

How do we feel about Roy so, Nexon? That's not what I'm here to talk about. You bring up the broadcast. And I think you're 100% right. Why the Diamondbacks look so professional and crisp is because MLB used the same exact graphics package and transitions and all that that they use for MLB stuff on, you know, and use that throughout the teams that did that. The Suns created all that in house, their own music, their own graphics.

And I think you do take a step down in that case. Because when you're with a ballast, they provide you. you, here's all the packages. You just tailor it by changing the, you know, the logo and all that. Jacob could probably tell you more, but you tailor those things. So I think you do take a step down. I think that's a valid point in what you got to think about with that. But when Matt Ishbia does that, right?

Like, what he's trying to do at the end of the day is kind of win people over, like, in this transition phase from like one ownership group that was very problematic to like him now being the owner, right? So, like, there is the case that the Sons could have probably received more money elsewhere, but they chose to do this as kind of a benevolent move in a way. Definitely. Well, okay. Maybe in the short term, benevolent, fine.

I agree. And it's good PR, but this is the future. You have a local over-the-air broadcast and a streaming option. You take whatever money you're going to get from the local broadcast for the older demo that you're not going to reach with the streaming package. And then you hope that you basically get people used to paying $20 a month, $30 a month to access their team. And it just happens in perpetuity. So then you're taking all that off the top at that point.

This is the future. And he just looked at it and went, let's get in there three, four, five years before the rest of the people do it, get some good PR for it and test our fortunes because we can afford to do that. I think my biggest question is, does Ken Kendrick feel like he can do that or how important was that money that was coming for balles that you need to find that sort of vehicle? It feels fairly important. And I mean, obviously there's a difference there between the Sons and how they fill that building up at the footprint center versus, you know, the attendance at Chase Field at times. There's a lot of things to be said there. But definitely, we do know that production can take a step down.

And we've experienced that with Jacob back here behind the ones and twos with Damon gone. We know all about what it looks like when the production crew. Damon never set up a Jesse Jr. shot. Let's get that Jesse Jr. shot in real fast. Let's get that. Derek, can you give us a voice for Jesse Jr.? Hi. No, something like that.

I don't know. I said earlier he probably sounded like, how are you guys? Something like that, you know, I think very cartoony. but I will also say that thanks to working here, thanks to working with Jacob and our wonderful producers, we do have an idea of how much work goes into all of those cool graphics that you do see on screen when you're watching any sports game, right? The Suns aren't great, but they did get the music right.

Yeah, that's true. The Valley music got pretty monotonous after a while. It did. That Sun's music that they have rolling on their broadcasts, it does not get old. Granted, it's only been a few months. but I have not been tired of it. It's very classic. Also, it reminds me of like at one time I was watching an NFL game and down on the scorebug,

they just had like a little like light bouncing back and forth, like kind of shining on the two teams logos. And it infuriated me because I was like, some producer had to do that. He had to take time to make that for what purpose. Like it's so just not even something that needed to be done. But of course, hopefully we will see the. The quality not drop off no matter what the option is. And honestly, I think with MLB broadcasting at least knowing that in 2024, I feel like we're going to just see everything kind of be the same as we saw towards the second half of last year.

Yeah, the quality is going to be good. That is the big win for sure with Major League Baseball stepping in, as I think you can say with confidence that the quality will be about as good as it can be. I thought the broadcast looked great last year after they took over. They really did. We'll see how the pre and post game situation kind of evolves. I know those those elements did change a little bit. Yeah, somebody somebody said that that they're out of market and an extra they have the extra innings package and the only thing that really changed was pregame and post game, which I think changed for all of us, right? Like they used to have a more robust Valley sports pregame and post game and it kind of got reduced down to kind of like a 10 minute pregame kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, Valley was creating other content too. They would do interviews and things like that.

and other stuff. Whereas I don't know if under Major League Baseball you're going to see quite as much of that. But hey, that's why we're here. I was going to say I have a solution to that. Us, we can be your free game and post games. So make sure to keep it locked right here. A great way to do that is to become a diehard because if you do, you can join us tonight at 7 p.m. in the Discord lounge where I will be hosting the very first edition of SqueezePlay.

We got three contestants. They're going to be competing for a free t-shirt of their chance. choosing from the phnx locker.com and the questions are absurd so get ready for some fun should i give them one of the questions now so the guys can kind of prepare because i don't know if they're here or not but cogs is here so i'm going to give if you are here and you're playing in the tonight's game cogs i'm going to give you one of my questions is who is the least problematic host at phnx and it's not jesse that's i'll tell you that but okay of course uh you'll get all of this wonderful content that we're offering

and everybody has to offer. They were just doing a Discord chat with Flex and Espo just a minute ago. So join us today over at goPHNX.com. Become a member. You get all Jesse's written content. You get access to our Discord lounge. You get discounts with our partners, discounts to our events, and so much more. So sign up

today. Of course, another great place to check out is our friends at some burros where you can go to some burros and get some amazing Mexican food. They were voted. Arizona's most loved Mexican restaurant. They have party platters. They have everything you need to feed you, your family, your friends, everything. And also, they have a very convenient drive-through, some incredible breakfast options, some amazing coffee. You can go there

all day long. So make sure to check out their locations throughout the Valley and in Flagstaff. You're never far from delicious, time-tested Sonoran-style recipes, lovingly prepared since 1986. You can check out their newest locations in Goodyear, Peoria, and the one up by me on I-17 and Joe Max, or visit somburos.com to find one near you. And I have to say it that way every single time now because Jesse like out accented me the other day. And I can't let that happen. So I do I have that. I don't know much Spanish, but he nails it.

The words that I do know, I say them properly. Correctly. Which I feel like I get more props for than I should because it's part of learning the language. It is. You don't get to like English by. So of course, you know, you know for sure that he knows what he's talking about. Yeah, clearly because I studied abroad for one semester. in Budapest, hungry.

That means I'm the expert on all accents of all languages. And time test and are in food. You know, you're definitely our expert. But let Sombros cater your next meal, big or small, order online or find one near you by visiting somboros. com. OGs brands, by the way, another great way for you to relax. They have amazing product line. And if you're not just, I'll tell you this much, sometimes you're not looking just to relax.

Right. Some people, I've had people tell me, like, those, those. edibles they make me so sleepy they put me to sleep check out a sativa from our friends at oh geez those sativas can sometimes give you a little pep maybe some energy maybe a little happiness in your life they have all sorts of different strains to try and they have all sorts of different options for you including their sleep edition gummies if you are looking to get a great night's sleep so make sure to check out everything they have to offer to learn more about OG's gummies and where you can find them head on over to ogies brands.com right now

Derek, before you get into your next subject, can we just talk about something that I noticed somebody point out in the chat? What's that? Jesse's wearing a hat. I am wearing a hat. It's a Phoenix on that. They asked if it was the first time Jesse's ever worn a hat on the show. It is not the first time. But it has been a while.

Yeah. And it is partially because I just got a haircut recently. And he doesn't like it. They were just cutting hair and cutting more hair. And I was wondering if I was going to have any hair by the end. of it. It's a horrifying experience to watch in real time as you're sitting there in chair. Once they start cutting off entirely too much in one area. You know that it has really tell them to stop at that point. Yeah. And so I thought about wearing a hat earlier in the week. But at that point,

I had such a small amount of hair that it would have just straight up looked like I was bald. So now we've we've reached the point where there's at least enough that kind of peaks through. I've learned something about Jesse this week. Yeah, he thinks it's important that hair peaks out of the back of your hat for some reason not the back necessarily just like the sides the like just I've never somewhere at least in my life felt like that was a necessity in order to not know if someone was bald but I don't I my hairline is is is getting worse by the day so what do I know about but you have facial hair though I do it's it's different it's a little it's a little bit different yeah and my facial hair uh used to be used to be a darker color before I start doing the show

with you. And it went great, very fast. It went gray extremely fast, mostly during the lockout, but anyway. Jesse Jr. can be a little over the top sometimes. He's a little extra. Yeah, for sure. Well, we do have to pose one question because we have information coming out now that our beloved backup catcher that we, just like me with J.D. Martinez, it was a certainty he was going to be a part of this team. Gary Sanchez is signed with the Brewers on a one-year, $7 million deal with a mutual option for a $7 million. second year. And we do have to ask the question if the diamondbacks will regret not signing Gary Sanchez there on a one year $7 million deal. That seems like a fairly good value for a guy that

could have solved more than one problem for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, absolutely. We talked about Gary Sanchez and I think someone brought it up on a mailbag question one day. And I was like, yeah, I like it. As long as like if the Diamondbacks had gotten J.D. Martinez, Gary Sanchez was probably a little unnecessary at that point. I mean, he still could have been your backup catcher, but you're maybe shooting a little higher there than you need to. But if the diamond backs were getting a left-handed designated hitter, which they ultimately wound up doing in Jock Peterson,

Gary Sanchez made a lot of sense. He can, you know, he can back up Gabby Moreno, and he can also take some of those D.H. at bats against lefties, or he could catch against lefties and like Gabby Moreno, get some D.H. at bats, I think it made sense all the way around. He ultimately goes to the Brewers. One year, $7 million. dollars there's a mutual option apparently for 2025 in there as well i think it made a lot of sense for

the diamond backs and i'm still very curious to see how that spot shakes out for them like who's dhing against lefties what is that what does that ultimately look like because right now the the options that they have they are not particularly inspiring at the moment well and the brewers already have william coln treas at catcher right so why do you have to do that i have to say it like I have to say it like Bert. And he's a very good catcher. Offensibly. Like he,

it's kind of at times one of those situations with Gabby Moreno felt like, okay, well, we have our catchers. So we really don't need that good of a backup. But Gabby isn't going to play every single game. Like we said, ideally you would like to see Gabby probably get like close to 40 games off during the season. And that's not,

that's no just a handful of games. That's a lot of games that in theory you would like to see him not behind the place. So it would be great to have somebody like Sanchez who like I said earlier solves a couple of different issues for you when you see the brewers go after him and have him backing up a guy that's slash 289 367-4-57 last year with a 5.4-4-4 then you you kind of think like well that I mean again the brewers aren't going to have William Contreras start you know all 162 games. So like you do need that guy. You also have him as that DH option as well with slash. What he did against lefties so like I don't know there's a lot to like there the value seems fairly good at seven million dollars for one season like that does not seem like you're asking too much and also like you said they didn't get J.D Martinez so this guy now completely compliments their lineup versus You know before it would have been a little bit redundant to have two guys that were probably gonna Have similar you know slash lines both with the same you know strengths. Yeah, I think like just as a backup catcher Gary Sanchez like that's

maybe a little overkill. I don't know if he would have been interested in a role like that. Sure. Like, oh, I'm going to play 40 games. Great. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, Gary Sanchez at 267, 304, 680 against lefties last year. If you can get that guy in your lineup against lefties on a pretty much everyday basis, that's really big.

I mean, the alternatives that the Diamondbacks have in that spot right now, you know, you're talking about Emmanuel Rivera. Weiss Daniel Rivera, get it right. You're talking about, you know, Kevin Newman, potentially, if he makes the team, who did have good numbers against lefties last year. But neither of those guys are, you know, I'm not so sure that Gary Sanchez can have an 1,000 OPS again against lefties this upcoming year. But neither of those guys are on his level, in my opinion, in terms of what you'd expect

offensively against lefties. So it would have been a significant improvement. It also, I think, I think you just feel better like in games where Gabby Moreno sits entirely if he's on the bench, you know, and not in there as a deal. H or anything. Yeah. Yeah, I think you feel better

about Gary Sanchez being, you know, in the lineup still in those games as opposed to a Tucker Barnhart or Jose Herrera. We saw last year how big, you know, of a disparity there was between

Gabby Moreno and Jose Herrera. And as a result of that, how, you know, the Diamondbacks record in games with Gabby Moreno versus games with one of their backup catchers in, there was an enormous difference there.

And I don't know if the difference would be that drastic, necessarily going forward. But I think it's important for, you know, for any team to have a, a viable backup catcher. Like not just someone, you know, from AAA, you can kind of plug in there. But someone who has experience and can hit a little bit and. Look what happened last year, Jesse.

Yeah. Look what happened last year. How like not only was it incredibly, like, insightful. Or like, you know, just forecasting that the, the potential to have Gabriel Moreno be the player, was last year just to make that trade and and have that done prior to cars and kelly being injured was was was like mike hazing could see the future you know what i mean like that that's a completely different situation because if they attempt to make a trade like that after carson kelly is injured teams will know that they have the diamondbacks in in a in a position of of being able to take

advantage of them a little bit they're desperate to catch her at that point you're not going to get gabriel moreno and lordis garelle junior in a trade yeah i think that's trade was only going to happen in the off season. Oh, well, no, no, but I'm just saying, like, let's say hypothetically, Carson Kelly was injured in the off season and they knew that they would need to make a move for a catcher because they weren't going to have Kelly to start the season. Just in general, if the information was out there that the Diamondbacks have lost their starting catcher due to injury and now they're trying to pursue one, it allows other teams

to be a little bit more, you know, it allows Diamondbacks to not be in a real position to negotiate well with other teams. But now, I mean, you know, of course, they're not in a great position should anything happen to Gabriel Moreno, right? Like now they do need to be thinking about that because it isn't just a handful of games. It's a lot of games that he could start.

And I mean, in this case, Gary Sanchez would have probably been in there in every lineup against lefties. So probably would have been starting, you know, at least just as DH for that purpose alone, close to 30% of the Diamondbacks games right there. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he would have gotten a decent amount of playing time. There was some question on at least on my end going into this for him of like is is Gary Sanchez willing to take a role where he is clearly the backup catcher and you know not like the I mean he had a good season last year all things considered it was it was a bit of a roller coaster ride for him he was on a few different teams but he wound up being a really big factor on that Padres team he was Blake Snell's personal catcher yeah the guy who won the one the Cy Young award made some enormous strides defensively his defensive metrics were actually quite good in 2023.

So coming off that, I was like, I don't know if Gary Sanchez is, you know, wanting to back up for someone. And it turns out he was okay with that. As long as, you know, in Milwaukee, they're in a similar position as the Diamondbacks where they do have some DH opportunity available. And he's going to, he's going to be able to contribute there as well. Castle Freeland with a great point says, thing that bothers me about Sanchez is he has a 3.04 on base percentage versus left-handed pitching despite hitting 267, despite to have a

680 slugging percentage, right? Like, that's crazy. But, yeah, I mean, I view that. Like, Gary Sanchez isn't a perfect player. I'm not saying you get Gary Sanchez to hit third against lefties. But, you know, you can put up with a 304 on base percentage in the six or seven spot in your lineup. Yeah.

If that guy is also slugging 700. Like, that's okay. You're willing to, you're willing to make that trade off. What does your lineup look like if Gary Sanchez was in there? Yeah, I think he would probably, he would probably hit seven. most likely. It would be, you know, it would be Cattel and Carol in some order at the top. Gabby Moreno maybe in the three hole as he was toward the end last year against lefties. I like that. Christian Walker cleanup, Lordus Curiel in the five hole.

Eohenio Swares hit six. That's a pretty, it's a pretty formidable top six in line up against lefties. And then I think it'd be Gary Sanchez in the seventh spot. And yeah, there might be some regression in his performance against lefties. The on-base percentage is it going to be great. But there's still in my mind a big difference between Gary Sanchez and, you know, an Emmanuel Rivera, a Kevin Newman, someone who don't really know what you're going to get out of, as well as the ability to have him as your backup catcher in general, as opposed to, you know, a Tucker Barnhart or Jose Herrera, just someone with more experience and more hitting, more hitting ability.

And to Castle Freeland's other point about, you know, the issue of you don't want to take Moreno out of the lineup against lefties in the first place. That wouldn't be part of this at all. Moreno absolutely should be in the lineup against lefties every single day. But you can have one of those guys catch and one of those guys, D.H. So it would be it would be both of them in there together. In my mind, that's kind of the ideal fit. But we're not going to get that.

The Diamondbacks opted not to make that move. So we're sad. And if we're asking if the Diamondbacks will regret not signing Gary Sanchez, the answer most likely is yes. But hopefully not too much. Hopefully they find some sort of option to back up Moreno. know, and maybe it could be an option similar to Sanchez that kind of can fill some of those needs. There's just not a lot of guys available on the free agency market. After Sanchez, there's not a ton available in terms of backup catchers. It would be through trade, which.

It might, it might be. I wouldn't be surprised if it's Tucker Barnhart or Jose Herrera. Those guys just kind of fighting it out. And, you know, we interviewed Tucker Barnhart. He's a great guy who has, you know, definitely has an ability to build rapport with pitchers. That's a really important thing, too. Yeah. So yeah, you know, if he can get the offense just turned up like a slight notch from from where it was last year, he would be a terrible option in that spot by any means. Well, now that we know where Gary Sanchez landed, we know where Blake's Snell will land. So that's an inevitability that now Snell will sign with the Brewers.

That's, of course, the truth. That seems a little far-fetched. I'm just going with it. Well, Elise brings up there in the comment, she says it's the Snell comment. Scroll back up there a little bit, Jacob, if you don't mind. His mouse is My mouse definitely died in the middle of the shows Elise said it's still wild that Snell and Monty are unsigned

Less than a week away from catchers reporting And yeah, it is still It is wild. It is wild. Scott Boris clients, the top four free agents still remain unsigned essentially And they're all Scott Borer's clients. So yeah, That's great.

I feel like I was thinking about this with at least Cody Bellinger The other day. It seems abundantly clear to me this is my speculation. But I feel very confident in saying that Cody Bellinger is just not, Scott Boris is just not getting what he wants right now. Like he's shooting for the $200 million over, you know, 8, 10 years.

He wants the big deal. Cody Bellinger, his surface stats were really good last year. But it's just not out there for him right now. I think a lot of teams are looking at the underlying numbers with a guy like Bellinger and being like, we're not going to be the team that gives him, you know, that gives him $200 million. $1,000. Maybe Bellinger lands on a more incentive-laden, shorter-term deal when all is said

and done. He goes out there for another year and tries to prove it with better underlying numbers and try to get a bigger deal next offseason or something. And maybe that's not just the case with Bellinger. Maybe, you know, Matt Chapman certainly has his, you know, he's an excellent defender, but offensively didn't hit much after the beginning of the season. Blake Snell, there's the whole walks narrative like all these players kind of have their own little flaw built in maybe not so little flaw uh well i imagine is that's holding up the market for them that flaw also is the size of the contracts that they want right right teams right now are hesitant to give that kind of money long term to a guy uh that again we've seen it in baseball quite a bit that doesn't live up to those kind of

contracts uh i think it's weird though because there are teams committing huge amounts of bunny to players that play in Japan and trusting that they will that they will be able to be that level of a player here in Major League Baseball and they're probably not wrong about that but it's funny that they're willing to trust that yet they don't want to trust the current Sy Young winner to be a guy that you give a long-term deal to

it's understandable though like you said some of the numbers definitely point to like a regression coming up and the last thing you want to do is sign some guy to a huge deal that then becomes a league average player after that, right? So yeah, I get it. Does that give Debex fans hope for Zach Gallen? A little bit maybe. I mean, I don't know though, because pitchers tend to be, you know,

pitchers tend to be viewed differently based on their age and things like that. I think Zach Gallen will just be at that perfect period in his career for him to receive that big contract. But yeah, I mean, you're right. There is some hope there. There is some hope that Scott Boris is made. maybe continues to ask too much and maybe his guys continue to remain on the market. Perhaps that changes something. I think I think Gallin is going to be a much more, maybe not much more,

but definitely a more attractive free agent than Blake Snell is right now. It's the consistency, man. Blake Snell literally, yeah, he just won the Sigh-Young, but Blake Snell had an ERA over four a couple years ago, which granted, I guess Zach Gallen did too. But, Zach Gallen, okay, like one thing that made me instantly fall in love with Zach Gowlin, which I'm not alone in this is the fact that he came in, he set that record for starts in a career with giving up three earn runs or less. That is like it's not perfect.

Like three earn runs every game. That's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But what it is is consistent. And you knew what you were getting out of him. And it felt like this was a guy that was going to come in and was going to give you that every single start that he went out. Eventually he came back down to earth, right? And eventually he was not that consistent.

But that consistency, I think, is one. thing that a lot of pitchers are missing you look at their numbers from season to season they go up and down dramatically they've had great years they've had bad years and sometimes guys especially in baseball will continue to get paid a lot of money for having one really good season because everybody thinks that they're going to get back to that level sure you know even if even if they do regress yeah yeah i mean gallon gallon just through 210 innings not counting the playoffs i mean blake snell has never thrown more than 180.2 which happened back in 2018 he was at 180 in 2023,

Gallen will be a year younger than Blake Snell is right now. And Gallin is not likely to have led the league in walks in his walk year. So, yeah, I mean, not to say that Snell is not a desirable free agent by any means,

but Gallin just doesn't have like any real flaw. Like there's no, he pitches deep into games. His ERAs are consistently low. His peripherals are consistently strongly strong. He had the one kind of off year in 2021 where he was hurt on, you know, several different occasions. But outside of that, he's really been the model of consistency. Elise says no other city can let Zach live out his golfer dreams at the waste management. That's a fair. That's a fair point.

Jacob, do we still have that picture in the queue or is that gone on the other computer, but I can get it into this one if you want. If I was available, I just, I did want to see the mascots pointing and laughing at Zach missing a putt because four foot. That was part of it as well. Yeah. The athlete, we're just becoming, we're becoming an athletic podcast right now. Oh, it is in there.

Let's go. Let's throw that guy up on screen. There we go. Yeah. Living his dreams. They need to stop. He does not look like he's living a dream right there. Living his dreams.

He looks like he's very angry. It is hard enough to miss a put like that when you are by yourself. Yeah. I mean, you want to throw your club. When you're with your buddies, let alone when you're out there in front of all of these people and whatever the hell that what is that fiesta bowl mascot is it a son what is yeah i can't i can't remember his name terrifying i don't want my mascots to scare me spirit spirit yeah that sounds about right he's horrifying yeah spirit sounds like something from a horror movie that we'd call it but anyway uh like i

said we are becoming an athletic podcast now basically because uh they did publish their rankings or their grades of all of the team's offseason moves. And the Arizona Diamondbacks received a B on their offseason. And I think that that's what a lot of people watching the show that voted in your in your vote felt like. I felt like B was the most popular answer, especially after the Jock Peterson move. So yeah, I think we were spot on. I really don't. That's not terrible.

I feel like they were very close to an A. And I think when all is said and done, maybe Jock Peterson. makes people, you know, eat their words a little bit. And maybe he proves to them that picking him up wasn't a. I feel like his attitude is already in a, you know, a great place as far as, you know, the things he said in his introductory interview and, and everything like that. But yeah, like Cog says B plus feels about right. And, yeah, I'm not too mad about what they did.

I just think that, again, they're, they're maybe, maybe a Jorge Soler instead of a Jack Peterson would have been the thing to get him an A outside of that. Yeah. They've done everything that they need to do. accomplish this offseason. I think I have them in a minus. That's probably what I would give them personally. Yeah,

getting a Soler or a Martinez, that probably would have pushed them into a plus territory for me. But it's still been an excellent offseason for the Diamondbacks for sure. It's so crazy where we are from last off season. You know what I mean? Like there were still so many questions about this roster. If guys were going to live up to their potential, you know,

who was going to play? Are we going to see Gabrielle Moreno play regularly and things like that? what kind of guys Lord is going to be in the contract year? Like they, they all kind of stepped up and exceeded our expectations. But now you have the Diamondbacks becoming a very complete team this offseason. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, and I think if you go back to the beginning of the off season and kind of what we were expecting the team to do, they've far exceeded that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we were talking. There was a report from Nick Picoro early in the off season that the team had around $20 million to spend.

And so we were trying to figure out, Like, all right, how do you get a starting pitcher, an outfielder, a DH? Like, there's a lot of boxes to check for $20 million. And the team ultimately spent far beyond that, right? I mean, Eduardo Rodriguez, like, if you, if I had told you at the beginning of the offseason that the diamondbacks were getting, Eduardo Rodriguez, you might not have even had to hear much more to at least give them a beat for the off season. Yeah.

Like, Eduardo Rodriguez is a better starting pitcher than I think we were really expecting the team to be able to get. And not only did they do that, but they got Eugenio Suarez, who's a perfectly, you know, a perfectly solid option at third base. A code of projections be damned. Exactly. You know, they brought back Lordus Curiel, which is another thing. We didn't really expect them to want to spend that money. So there was going to be another need that they were going to have to fill as well and where were they going to get someone to replace Lordis, considering that he was a top five outfield available in the free agency market. Like, how do you

replace that production of a top five outfielder of what is available out there. Yeah. Anyone, anyone calling it a B, I think got a little bit greedy, honestly. At least, at least like, I mean, say what you will of like how much MLB owner should be spending. Like, you know, the Diamondbacks should have spent 60 million or whatever. I'm not here to comment on that. But, but yeah, in terms of like what was a realistic outcome for the team, the Diamondbacks did

far more than what really any of us, I think, saw happening. and yeah, it's got to be at least, at least I can maybe see a B plus, but I would probably go a minus for me personally. All right. Well, we do want to give a shout out to our friends over at BetMGM Sportsbook. If you are going to be watching the Super Bowl like all of us are this weekend, make sure to get down on the BetMGM Sportsbook app. Of course, you can get down all those wonderful prop bets. And you can also get some free bonus bets from us by signing up and using our code of PHNX. deposit at least $5 into your newly created account.

Place a wager in that amount of $5 or more at a standard odds price. And once you have done so, you will receive $158 in bonus bets regardless of the outcome of your wager. And remember, we ride with Blue Gatorade. So sign up right now for bet MGM and use that bonus code of PH&X. Once you place your first sportsbook wager through the sportsbook mobile application for at least $5, you will receive $158 instantly and additional winnings regardless of your wager's outcome. Check out the show notes for full details. and now listen to Shane talk about the disclaimer. what you're saying is Shane is one of Damon's dogs.

Bark, all right. Also, we thank you guys for being here right now on PHNXports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Drop us a like. We always appreciate you doing that. Make sure you sign up for notifications that way you don't miss when any of our wonderful shows go live because sometimes we just go live at 3 o'clock instead of 1 o'clock like we're supposed to.

So make sure to sign up and do all that. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe there as well. Leave us a review. We always appreciate those five star. reviews. Big shout out to Desert Financial Credit Union because I, once again, am living in a home, and it wouldn't be possible without them. I don't know if I could afford a home anymore. It's very difficult to afford a home in today's market, but Desert Financial Credit Union can definitely help you there. They offer checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment

options, and so much more. They have your best interest in mind, and they have our community's best interest in mind. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest most trusted local credit union. So when you open a free checking account online right now, you can get $200 in bonuses, get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. All right, Jesse. Well, we know Corbyn Carroll is our MVP, and there's no doubt about that. But there's a good chance that in 2024, Corbyn Carroll could once again be an MVP candidate

like he was at several points last season, it felt like. Like I felt like his name was realistically starting to come up. as a real MVP candidate. And, you know, MLB.com was discussing today some dark horse candidates as far as they were concerned. They did list Corbyn Carroll as being one of the contenders for the National League MVP award. But it does seem like there are some definitely some big names in his way now that could potentially prevent that. Mookie Betts, obviously Ronald Lacuna. We now have Shohei Otani in the National League.

So that's fun. And Fernando Tatease was another one of their. candidates that they could see definitely winning most valuable player. I feel like, you know, again, I don't know if the Diamondbacks need one single MVP candidate. Like I know that sounds silly to say that, but I'm just saying

like the Diamondbacks are a team right now that are constructed to have a bunch of guys give a really good, you know, put up some really good numbers, put up some really good performances, and win at a team level. It doesn't mean Corby and Carroll couldn't get recognized for that, but I just also could kind of to see how some of these other guys are going to be that superstar level for their team, whereas Corbyn is probably going to be right there with the likes of Cotel Marte and such,

even on his own team potentially. But how can he stand out and what can he do next year to improve on a really good rookie season that might get his name up there for an MVP? Yeah, I mean, there was a point, as you said, I mean, there was a point during the 2023 season where Corby Carroll was very much in the thick. of the NL MVP conversation. Granted, it was earlier in the season. It was in the first half.

You know, he wasn't quite as good. And in July and August, no one on the Diamondbacks was very good in those months. But, yeah, I mean, he really showed in the first couple months of the year that he could be right up there with anyone in this sport. And I do think that's the case. I do think that Corbyn has the ability to at least contend for the MVP award on a year and year out basis.

In terms of actually winning the thing, I think he's probably going to have to hit a few more homers. 25 is, I mean, excellent. But to win the MVP award, you probably want to be somewhere in the 30s. RBI as much as, you know, there's not as many people looking at the traditional baseball stats anymore. I do think that matters some. I'm not sure that he could win with 76 RBI like he had last year. you know, it's going to have to be probably considerably higher than that. And part of that is just a matter of where he's hitting in the lineup.

I mean, if Corby and Carroll is hitting the leadoff spot, it might be hard for him to drive in, you know, 100 runs or something like that. So, yeah, I think it's possible. Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't rule it out. He's most likely he's going to have to do it. Like you said, maybe getting to that 30 home run mark. That's not that far off from where he was last year, right? He could get like 30, 35 homers.

If the RBI's can jump. bump up a little bit. 40 stolen bases. Yeah, wins above replacement is always going to be, is always going to be king. So, you know, I mean, none of these other, these other stats, like if you have a decent lead in wins above replacement, I think you can win, you know, you can win the MVP award, even if, you know, Matt Olson hits 48 home runs and you're in the mid 30s or something. So he doesn't have to lead in everything, but probably needs some gains in those areas.

and then he just needs to probably lead the league in war. It seems like that's kind of the baseline requirement to win the award. Yeah. It's going to be difficult. But again, it's one of those things that maybe if we put a draft pick as a prize for winning the MVP, maybe then Corby Carroll would do it, right? Because he doesn't want to do it just for personal, you know, acclaim, personal acknowledgement. There has to be something to help his ball club and the franchise in the future.

on the line so that maybe we dangle something like that in front of them and that can get them across the finish line uh i think corbin of course is going to continue to be an incredible player and it's it's kind of weird when you talk about being guilty or being greedy about the what we what we got as far as uh the the off season and free agency i feel like it's greedy to ask for more of corbin carroll than what he did last year and i hope historic rookie season where he won the national league rookie of the year but again it is going to take a little bit little bit more than that in order for him to be considered the MVP. It's not it's just not necessity. The Diamondbacks, if the Diamondbacks get out of the Corby Carroll what they got out of him last year,

we're all going to be thrilled with that. And this team is going to be definitely on the path to success for sure. But yeah, I can't wait to watch baseball. I just can't wait to watch baseball. Today it was, the weather was terrible outside today. Yeah. And luckily, Jesse hit me up with some good news by telling me that the forecast for next week when pitchers and catchers report much, much nicer. It looks lovely. It's sunny. 75 degrees. more degrees like every day. Let's go. Yeah, it's going to be great.

I think Coggs does make a good point on this. War means Corbyn needs defensive value. That's great. I do think there's quite a bit of room for improvement in that area. Not to say he was, not to say that he was a bad defender last year. His range was well above average, but we all know it.

He doesn't have a very good arm. And that kind of nullifies the defensive value he adds with his wheels, his ability to just, you know, get to a lot of balls like the guys can't. So finding a way to bring more value defensively, whether it be, you know, improving his arm just a little bit. I don't know how much he can realistically improve in that area or just like becoming an absolute monster in terms of getting to everything. I mean, theoretically with Corbyn Carroll's speed and athleticism, it feels like it feels like he. I mean, I'm not sure there's a ball that, you know, other guys can get to that Corbin also, also, you know, couldn't, right?

Like Corbett should be able to be basically near the top of the league in terms of defensive range. If you can find a way to really make strides in that area, that could help a lot. Speaking of the weather being beautiful next week and getting out and seeing pitchers and catchers reporting, the Arizona Lottery is introducing a unique new ticket promotion called Arizona Adventure. And there are three ways to play and win big in this promotion. One way is to play with the Arizona Adventure lottery tickets featuring three iconic landscapes. from around Arizona and these tickets can have prizes up to $50,000 but you can also check in at geolocated adventures at 10 destinations across the state and that that's what gets me excited about

I love the idea of going on a little little geocash adventure jesse and of course there's all sorts of different locations here for you to check in at you can visit azeaadventure.com for details and directions on how to get to these locations and how to check in once you do at destination coordinates on the website can also enter ticket It's online for a chance to win $1 million in cash in Arizona travel prizes. So do not miss out. Arizona lottery is not just about playing games and winning prizes. It's also about giving back to the state and its communities.

Take an adventure with the Arizona lottery. Visit AZadventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona lottery for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes. Well, we still don't know if there's an illegal Pete in Las Vegas. So we have no idea how Damon is doing. Jacob said he's fine. I don't believe that. I don't think he's fine. I know like when he doesn't spend enough time at Illegal Piz, he definitely wilts away and gets very sad and pale. It's incredible. But that's only because Illegal Piz has the best patio to eat on. It has the best stuff. It has best

strongest margaris has the most irresistible bowls, tacos, salads, burritos, nachos. The reverse nachos still haven't tried that. I feel like I'm missing out myself. The more that they talk about it, the more I need to check out the reverse nachos. Of course, there's the pipe and hot casso, custom cocktails, beers. Legal Pete has everything you want. It's a fast, fast, casual dining environment, but it has everything you need to enjoy a meal with your friends or your coworkers. So take advantage of Illegal Pete's weekly deals.

Kick the Monday Blues with $3 margaritas all day long or ease your way back into the week with $2 tacos every Tuesday. Do you work in health care or education? Because if you do, you can take your team to lunch at Illegal Pets every Tuesday and enjoy buy one, get one free entrees. and don't forget to unwind after a long day at their happy hour with 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. happy hour happening every single day. Illegal Piz is your go-to spot for burritos, buddies, and beer.

Well, that's all I got. I'm glad I made it through the show because I'm still a little hungover from pro wrestling last night at the Footprint Center. But Footprint Center remains an incredible venue, by the way. That's why Jesse's wearing the hat. He's a big fan of the Suns. We're also a son's a big day for this Sun. It is a big day for the Sun.

We're also a Suns podcast, right? Big fan of Royce O'Neill, solid pickup. Oh, he's going to add a lot of defensive value to that team. And this is why we are PHNX Suns Jr. podcast. So if you want to hear more about this, I mean, get down on the audio show, which we're just going to talk about Sons the whole time. That's all we're talking about. Yeah, we're going to explain how Royce O'Neill is like the Geraldo Perdomo equivalent for the Phoenix Sun.

So stay, stay tuned. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, father overlord Jacob is going to be found. That's Jesse Jr.

We refuse to let him have a Twitter account because he probably needs a Twitter account. He does not need a Twitter account. It's a terrible place. I don't want my baby boy on there. But you can follow Fajj at Jacob underscore Franklin 4 because he is the fourth best Jacob Franklin and known in existence. But of course, our show is at PHNX underscore DBEX. And all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore

sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for stopping by. We will see you tomorrow. We hope you have a wonderful day. And in the meantime, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you actually get Gary Sanchez for $7 million a year.