PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Biggest questions for the Arizona Diamondbacks as pitchers and catchers prepare to report

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

We can hardly sleep knowing pitchers and catchers report next week! We recap the Arizona Diamondbacks biggest questions as they head into spring training and answer a super-sized edition of Mailbag Monday questions.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY),If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, 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. $200 in Bonus Bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. Promo code req. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Bonus must be wagered 1x and stake is not included in any returns or winnings.Super Boost: Valid 1 Odds Boost Token per customer after opt-in each day for eligible Super Bowl LVII prop markets only. Token must be used BEFORE placing eligible bet between 6-9PM ET daily. Odds boosts and prop markets will vary. Max bet limits apply. Tokens are non-cashable, non-refundable, and cannot be withdrawn. Boost Token expire daily at 9PM ET. There are no restrictions on the funds a customer will receive if their bet wins. If their bet loses, they will not receive any reward. Offer period valid 2/6/23 - 2/11/23. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms.OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/. Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNX_SPORTS15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comChitown Cornhole: Check out Chitown Cornhole at http://chitowncornhole.com and make sure to follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chitowncustomcornholeboards/Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. Order by February 8th for guaranteed shipping in time for Valentine’s Day.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.

Oh, I'm not ready. I'm not ready for this week, Jesse. It was already a long weekend. I don't know if I'm ready for this. Anyway, welcome in. Hello. You come in wearing sunglasses with that attitude? I'm so hung over already, Jesse.

Welcome into the PHNXD Backs podcast. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as a party animal. This guy next to me, he's the person that keeps me in line. He's also the thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. You just went that hard over the weekend. You just getting ready for the Super Bowl? Is that what's going on? That's not.

The parties don't start on Friday. They start like two weeks beforehand. And I am too old for this shit. But welcome in, guys. This show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. America's top rate sportsbook app. They also throw one hell of a party. Let me tell you.

But of course, we're baseball. And we just want this whole week to end. We are baseball. I can't hang anymore. You're right. Yes, I have had too many OGs. But baseball, we're excited. Guys, baseball is back next week.

We cannot wait for pitchers and catchers to report. Of course, we're very excited. We're very excited to be out there at Salt River Fields covering this team and seeing kind of what has changed. I know that last year, when we were still in the lockout, we had the minor league camp. And it was kind of interesting to see the development that some of the guys had. Alec Thomas, I remember really sticking out to me because he had grown in size. It looks like he had evolved to his next form, not his final form. but is next evolution.

And of course, we have a lot of big storylines heading into this spring training that we still kind of need answers to that the Diamondbacks will hopefully have answers to before we get to the start of the regular season. Some of this stuff, though, isn't things that will be answered just yet. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. But there are some big storylines for the Diamondbacks as we roll in to spring training. And I know the biggest question is who will be part of the Diamondback starting rotation once we hit the regular season? once the season starts. There seems to only be one spot available, if we're being honest, if they do go with a traditional five-man rotation.

Yeah, I mean, theoretically, you've got Gallin, Kelly, Bumgarner, Davies, right? I think those are your four. And then it's a matter of filling that fifth spot. And yeah, it could be Brandon Fott. It could be Tommy Henry. It could be Dre Jameson. It could be Ryan Nelson. And, you know, there's some other guys who are getting spring training invites as well.

So there's a lot of different directions. they could go there. People who are wondering, I know there are people who are angry that I just said Madison, Bumgarner as having what I believe to be a pretty solid spot in the rotation. I do think that's how they're going to go. But even that is, I think, could change if Bumgarner really struggles and maybe some other guys separate themselves. And I think that's something that we're not going to see until the regular season.

I don't think that they're going to judge Bumgarner's status for the season until we get there. But it does really feel like the team is trying. trying to have an open competition for the starting rotation. It's something that Tori talked about when we had them on the show. But I think as Michael McDermott says, Jameson and Nelson are the leading candidates. I think that's definitely the case. Both of those guys proved themselves last year,

and I think they both deserve to be part of that starting rotation. That's what makes this kind of odd. Not attacking Zach Davies in any way, shape, or form, because he did bounce back and have a much better season last year than his previous. But it seemed like, to be honest, the Diamondbacks didn't really need to bring back Zach Davies with the potential starting rotation that they had comprised of young guys from their own farm system. I mean, I think it's pretty straightforward. If you're picking between Nelson and Jameson, I mean, last year, Ryan Nelson at a 1.47 ERA,

Jameson at a 1.480RA. It's obvious. So the decision is, I don't even know why we're, this isn't a question, Derek. We already know the answer to this. Clearly it's going to be Ryan Nelson. The stats don't lie, folks. The stats don't lie. If that was the case, both of these guys would be their number one and number two starters.

That's fair. Even have to be a discussion. Yeah, Ryan Nelson's your opening day starter for the D-Backs against the Dodgers. There you go. But more storylines do involve the starting rotation like Brandon Fought. When does Brandon Fott get the call? And how will he factor into the rotation and the D-BAC's plans? More importantly, will he use the song, I fought the Law and the Law One as his whatever music that he's going to come out to?

But Jesse, Brandon Fott, do we have a little bit of a problem with personnel with how much starting pitching the downback's could have? I mean, you never have a problem with it, right? I mean, you can never have a problem with having too much starting pitching. According to everyone. Yeah, the devaxes have this weird thing where they think that you can never have too much starting pitching and everyone else in the league does it? No, that's something that everyone agrees upon, right? So, yeah, I don't think it's a good problem to have. But like we talked with Tori about last week, I mean, it is, it is a problem in the sense that, like, you might have more guys who are deserving of that spot than you can actually give spots to, right?

And that does pose a bit of a challenge with, like, who do we send down? You know, do we want to move guys to the bullpen? It sounds like the debacks are a little bit hesitant to do that. So they're going to have to make some tough decisions no matter what. No matter what. And the starting rotation does impact the bullpen because in the related kind of department who moves to the bullpen. to help solidify their relief pitching, right?

Yeah. We know that those guys, any number of those guys could bring quite a bit of, of, I guess, I want to say experience, but talent to the bullpen that they don't currently have.

So it's not a bad problem if we do see some of those guys end up moving to the bullpen, especially the younger guys, because I know that they tend to like to get them that experience in the pen. It just worked out so well

for Jameson and Nelson last year that I have a hard time seeing fought, you know, for instance, getting called up and put into the pen when we know about not only how good of a season he had last year, but also next year.

Michael McDermott says their starting pitching depth can complete pretty quickly in the first half. Chaconi Walsston and Jarvis have not pitched in Reno yet. That's a great point. And honestly, that's the biggest thing about this team is depth, not just at starting pitching, but they do have depth at a lot of positions. And I think that that's something that they're kind of banking on.

Again, like you said, it's a good problem. It's not a bad thing to have all of this pitching depth when it comes to starting rotation because we've seen how the diamond backs have been decimated by injury in the past and that's something that they're trying to, I think, to prevent, you know, going forward. Like they know the future is here. They know these young guys are ready, but do they put them out there, you know, this early? Do they rely completely on them without a backup plan? Should they not, you know, have success, find success when they first get called up into the regular. or in the main

main roster this season. The scars of that 2021 season, man, they're still there. The devs have not forgotten about that. And you can see how they're, you know, they really have gone out and made sure that they have enough starting pitching depth.

To Michael's point, I mean, you could see the depth kind of depleting, you know, if some of these guys, which frankly, we don't know how, you know,

Ryan Nelson and Dre Jamison are going to hold up long term. We haven't seen Brandon fought pitch in the majors yet. So there's a lot of questions. marks with these guys. And you could, I could see a situation where somehow the debacks wind up not having enough arms, but I think they have quite a bit of insurance, at least compared to past years. I am the Larry says I'm really high on Ryan Nelson. That fastball is insane above average

secondaries. Throw strikes, check, check, check, check and check and double check. You're absolutely right. Just those, yeah, I mean, if those secondaries are for real, I totally agree. Ryan Nelson has a well above average like big league fastball, and I think probably has for years. I mean, it's like mid-90s, it has great ride. It's pretty much everything you look for in a four-seem fastball. Those secondaries are for real, which a little shaky at times last year, but you can kind of see what scouts are talking about. It's pretty exciting. It feels like most of the early questions do surround pitching. There are some questions about some positions on the team that are going to get answered, I think, and figured out as the season progresses, again, it's not a bad

thing for them to have depth. But, you know, there is questions like, does Alec Thomas remain in center field. We've already seen Corbyn Carroll projected as the center fielder of this team for the future. So just got to wonder if that's going to be something we see or how long that takes or if that transition even gets made. Right. You know, we also have Carson Kelly, a thing that we brought up quite a bit. How long does he remain their everyday catcher? We know that he's not going to be that with Gabriel Moreno being a part of this roster, but how long does he remain kind of number one on on their depth chart, right? Right. And I think that's something that plays out based on how, they performed this season.

Same thing with third base. Who emerges as their kind of everyday guy, who emerges as their number one third baseman on their death chart. I think we know like all the other positions, kind of where we're going to see guys fall at. But there's still some questions there when it comes to the veteran guys, like they have like Carson Kelly and Evan Longoria versus, you know, the future of this team like Moreno and maybe Rojas,

maybe Emmanuel Rivera. We don't know who is going to kind of get solidified in that role at third base just yet. Yeah, I think, think catcher in third base those are kind of the main positions that are like we kind of know who the guys are going to be but we don't know exactly how that how that playing time is going to be split up between them just yet uh so yeah carson kelly gabriel moreno i know everyone's excited to see morano play i have a feeling we're going to see more than this season uh just because it is bad more than anything else i mean if even if the debacks want carson kelly to be their primary catcher

up front. Maybe it's a 60-40, maybe it's a 70-30, something like that. You still have ways to get Gabriel Moreno's bat in the lineup via the DH. He actually played a bunch of random positions for the Blue Jays last year. I think he played third base. I think he might have played some outfield as well for them. Gabriel-Merano is athletic enough to play some other places. I don't think the devaks are going to do that, but they could at least use the DH spot to get him some extra at bats. Well, those are just some of the storylines, obviously, some of the more important ones that we'll see as Diamondbacks head into camp next week. I can't wait for it. I'm having trouble sleeping.

There's all this Super Bowl crap going on around us. We don't care about the Super Bowl, man. Are the Cardinals in it? No, then I don't. Pitchers and catchers reporting is your Super Bowl. That is our Super Bowl. You're right. I mean, it could definitely be the highlight of the year.

I don't want to say, why did I say that? The best thing about the Super Bowl, though, is that it, means that like I know I know that some of our listeners like football and I do respect that but I also have to say it kind of gets like football like out of the way a little bit you know once once the Super Bowl's gone then it's like all right time is up our time is now you still got the NBA yeah so got the NBA uh and the NHL we still got some hockey stuff going on somebody somebody cares about that read the world yeah right over there Leah this Phoenix anyway but it's a it's for me the Super Bowl is a time when it's like, all right, this is when baseball season kind of starts to become more center stage, not center stage. I mean, the NBA playoffs is going to be huge.

And baseball does have this problem where like, you know, May and June. The NHL playoffs are also going to be huge. That's true. It's the end of our social lives, even though Jesse's social life revolves around baseball, but it's the end of my social life. My social life never really began through the whole off season. Here's the problem is I should be resting this week in preparation for the long, long baseball season ahead. And instead, what am I doing? I'm out at timeless parties and I'm going to illegal...

I'm going all over the place. I can't believe this. And I need a nap, Jesse, is basically what I'm saying. But I am going to head out to Four Peaks, of course, because, you know, we always spend time at Four Peaks. We'll be there every last Wednesday of every month. And I'm going out there to enjoy myself some recreational dank IPAs, as well as a staycation, super juicy IPA.

You can get all of that Four Peaks, as well as have a wonderful beer in time for the Super Bowl. And in fact, stock your refrigerator with Four Peaks Brewing Company beers in time for the big game and enjoy it. Or head down to the Four Peaks 8th Street Pub and watch the game there. The Super Bowl is around the corner. So enjoy a nice Four Peaks beverage during the big game. Make sure you're 21 and over and enjoy responsibly. Also, download the Underdog Fantasy app now. Get down on some Underdog Fantasy.

You can make the big game the day that you crack the lid on Underdog Fantasy and be an overdog against five of your friends, as Jesse would say. You can draft some squads And the highest scoring squad Wins Cold Hard Cash You can draft up to six NBA players You can draft NFL players You don't have much time for that I want to draft the Kelsey Brothers

Against each other I just I want to pit the Kelsey Brothers In some form of combat against each other They're going to be at some media event tonight I wonder if we'll see them like just I don't know Just a sparring event you know Or maybe at least like at the boxing matches Where they give like the you know the fight card kind of

You want to see a box match between the Kelsey brother. I want to see some sort of physical combat between the two of them. I want to bet on it too in some way. I will take them as part of my Underdog Fantasy teams for sure. And you can do that too over at the Underdog Fantasy app. Make sure to check them out. It's easy to get started.

Go to Underdogfantasy.com or download the app. Sign up with promo code P.HNX. An Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. Jesse, you know what we do on Mondays. We've talked about it. We've talked about every month. Every month is Black History Month on this show. Every week is Shark Week.

every day is there a day. And of course, every Monday, we go to the mailbag. And of course, we have a little change to the mailbag going forward. During the season, we're going to switch formats here at the PHNXDBACs show to do a little bit more postgame stuff. So mailbag Monday isn't going away. We're still going to have it on off days on Mondays, and we're going to still do a mailbag Monday question every Monday. But we are not going to be able to do the huge amount of questions that we always get. And we always appreciate you guys for sending them in. So just to kind of give you guys that. update, but in honor of that, in honor of that change, we're just answering all the questions today. So, Leah, let's hit that music. I'll have a box. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go out. Elizabeth says this is the only good thing about Mondays. You're damn right. You're damn right.

It is. Can we get our first question here, Leah? All right. We got from Brian Abdallah who says, where do we expect the biggest improvement from last year to this year? Jesse, I'm going to let you handle that one. Where do you see the biggest improvement? I have a couple spots in mind. The first one that comes to my mind is the catching position. I think if we see a decent amount of Gabriel Moreno and he is as advertised, I'm sure there's going to be some growing pains there. But frankly, the debacks got bottom five production from the catching position last year. And that's why they made this trade to bring in Gabriel Moreno. This year, again, Again, you're not going to see Moreno get 600 plate appearances or something like that.

But I think with him in the fold, I think hopefully we see Carson Kelly bounce back to some extent as well. He really kind of hit rock bottom last year. So between those two things, that's the main position that I have in my head. Other than that, I think I see like incremental improvements kind of across the board. Like I think the bullpen should be a little bit better. A little bit better. I think the rotation with, well, I don't know.

I don't know if they did enough to that bullpen, Derek, for me to say it's going to be a lot better. I think it's going to be a little better. I think I can at least confidently say that. The starting rotation, I think there's potential for that to be a little better. I think position players just all the way around the diamond. I think everything should be a little bit better. The catching position is the one spot where I'm like, you could be a lot better at that spot. Yeah.

Bullpen for me. And I don't say that confidently. Is that wishful thinking, Derek? Or is that your expectation? Here's why. Here's why. Last season, we can both agree that we thought the bullpen was not going to be a problem for this team at all in 2022, which is a laughable concept now at this point, right? So with that being said, I feel like it's different. It's not like they went into 2022 knowing they had to address the bullpen. It didn't do anything about it. And then it blew up on them. And we were like, see, we told you. No, the bullpen was just trash. But we didn't think it was going to be. They picked up the guy that had the most saves in baseball. or National League added him to the bullpen.

They also picked up another closer. We had an abundance of closers. It was almost like the same way that we're talking about starting pitching now. So it's that same thing of being like, how much is too much? Obviously, there isn't too much, right? You think you got a problem solved

and not only do both of the guys that you added to the bullpen end up being unreliable, but it just seemed to like spread and impact the rest of your guys, right? Yeah. You had injuries to guys like Kyle Nelson, right? when they were, you know, proving to be pretty damn good themselves.

He also had Joe Mantipli, who was excellent in the first half and kind of fell apart after his all-star appearance. He still did, though. He still did. And that's why I'm not trying to knock him. You can only have one walk the entire season for so long. I know, right. That's true. That's true.

I am really attacking him in a way that he doesn't deserve to be attacked. But I think that with the pieces they added, I think with the bullpen knowing that they were a shortcoming next year and trying to prove themselves. And I think with the addition of whatever ends up. happening here in camp and their decisions with the starting rotation is going to improve the bullpen. And I think that when you talk about a team that lost a bullpen that lost over 40 games, I think things are going to be different. You know, and I think that it's going to be one of those situations where I don't feel like this team is going to be very patient with it all either. I think they were much more patient with it last season than they ended up being with this season

because they thought it was going to work itself out. Now it's more of an immediate fix. It's kind of like having a slow-making tire versus a tire that completely blew up and split up on you on the freeway and there's no parts of it left to put back together, right? I'm not trying to say the bullpen's that bad, but that's kind of what it feels like right now. I think they have they have like fewer allegiances in my mind. Like last year you came in knowing that Mark Malanson was the guy and you were going to give him a really long leash after the season he just had at San Diego. Similar story with Ian Kennedy.

He wasn't the closer, but he was a setup man and you were going to have a long leash with him and the debacks did. And by the end of the year, Ian Kennedy graded out as, one of the worst relievers, if not the worst reliever in baseball by some metric. So they don't have those allegiances this year. And going back to our earlier storyline kind of discussion, who is going to be the closer for this team is definitely a storyline going into camp. And that's a big one for spring training. Yeah. And are they going to have one closer? We know Tori likes that. Yeah. But we also know that Mike Hazen and a lot of the front office is kind of more okay with it being

a closer by committee, especially with the options that they have right now in the bullpen. So I know we're posing more questions and we're supposed to be answering them. But sometimes that's the way it goes on Mailbag Monday. What else we got? Brett has the answer. Kevin Durant would be in the week. Oh, Kevin Durant. Yes.

Kevin Durant. Yeah. We can get three innings out of him easily. I know he has a fucking wicked fastball. Plus he throws shade like nobody. We get him on the show. I'll wear nothing but sunglasses all the time. Leah, what else we got?

All right. Spencer O'Garage says. assuming a resigning would be Garan Dam T. I'm going to throw the dam in there. I love this question. What would you give up to trade for Otani? How much can Arizona afford to subtract and still improve the roster?

I would give up everything for Otani. I would give up Zach Gallen. I would give up Chase Field. I would give up the bullpen cart. I would give up Baxter. I would give up Guy Fieri's restaurant. I would give up

the entire top section. The 20 like the last 20 rows of Chase Field I would give that up. I would give everything up for this guy. Are you kidding me? Otani. You think the angels want the Diamondback Stadium? I don't know. It's slightly used but it's still got some value there. I would give up all

their first round draft picks for the next five years. I don't give up all of it. You realize that none of that is really how trades work. No I know I don't care. I'm throwing stuff out there. No, in all honesty I would give up the world for Otani if you were talking about it being a guarantee signing and trading kind of thing. It seems ridiculous because it's kind of the position the angels are in.

Do we keep this guy that is special, but you're going to end up having to pay him so much money that it's going to make it damn near impossible to build around him? You just do what other teams are doing right now and just spend a ludicrous amount of money around a guy like that. It feels like the angels are inevitably going to lose him. That, it just, it feels like this. I mean, they shouldn't.

Like, there's no reason that they necessarily should. Yeah, give him all the money. I don't, yeah, I don't necessarily disagree with you that that kind of seems like where things are trending. So I have a bit of a hot take on this. I, so like, I mean, this question is sort of a, it's sort of an odd hypothetical, right? So I guess I have to kind of clarify some details. If the Diamondbacks have the money to afford Shohei Otani, what they should do is they should not trade form right now. They should wait until next off season and they should sign them as a free agent

and keep all their prospects, keep Zach Gallen, keep Jordan Lawler, keep all of the pieces that the angels would want for even one year of Shohayotani. Keep all of that and just go get Shohayotani next off season. That's what they should actually do. If that's not an option and for the purposes of this question, if it's just like looking at making a trade, you can't sign him as a free agent, and you have to make, you have to make a trade and then you resign him afterwards. I would probably trade, uh, I would probably trade Jordan Lawler. I think that would be maybe where I would, where I would. Jesse.

Wow. Showing. Showing. For saying Zach Gallin, what the hell is happening here? I don't, I don't think you, I don't think you trade for show Hey, Otani. And, uh, I mean, at that point, I don't know why you're doing it because you're, I mean, you're just trading away one. ace for another ace. And granted, showyotani obviously brings everything he does on offense. But

I don't think you want to trade Zach Allen in that universe. Although, I mean, that's fair. Like, I could maybe see entertaining that as well. But my point is, I wouldn't trade a whole bunch of stuff for Shohei Otani, even if you knew you were going to re-sign him for a couple of reasons. The main one being, if the Diamondbacks have Shoi Otani on the books for $40 million or $50 million a year, which is probably what he's going to cost. The debathe back. are not going to have any room in their payroll for anyone else, right? It would be a serious issue for them. For the sake of this question, maybe this is some alternate universe in which the diamond back suddenly have money and we're not concerned about that.

No. He pitches every fifth day and then in between he's in the outfield. That's the way that I'm running Otani out there. We're going to get our value out of him is what I'm saying. We're going to get our money's worth. Jacob Franklin stopped by the chat just to say the debacks are signing six foot seven Jacob Franklin to a minor league deal. You heard it here first What's the point of this tweet?

Are you just bragging how tall you are? I feel like that's all that was Was a humble brag on how tall he is? I think he's just trying to like advertise himself as a viable major leaguer And you know being six foot seven I mean what is he O'Neill Cruz You play some short stuff I don't know

Don't we still have like some sort of like Ownership rights over Jacob like wouldn't Can he just be signing with the debats? Wouldn't they have to like? Oh yeah Wouldn't we have to like No you're right you're right The debacks would have to buy out Jacob's PH&X contract, I think, is what would have to happen.

Thank you. Thank you. Which, yeah, I mean. You're not ready for that kind of. You're not ready for that. I don't know if I'm necessarily expecting a pro sports franchise to be the ones that would buy out Jacob's pH and X contract. But, you know, I mean. There goes with his tall isms again.

Yeah, I figured. What else we got? With the championship, Kyle Dannen asks, with the championship window starting to creak open ever so slightly, is it a wild? Whoa. How long do you think the debacks have to win a championship with this core before we are forced to disassemble it and build anew again? And who from this core do you think we'll stay for the next rebuild? Kyle, we're already doing that. We haven't even gotten to the promised land yet.

We're already disassembling the team. I don't know. What would you say, Jesse? I think till 20, 28, 29. I don't know. Is that how long? The core is? scores assembled for?

I mean, so I think the the main guy that I'm thinking of is Zach Gallen and that he's here through 2025. I don't think you're going to resign Zach Allen, as we've discussed in the past. And so that, I mean, that's the main guy that you're looking at losing. So from that standpoint, you've got

three more years before Zach Gallin potentially walks in free agency. Beyond that, though, like a lot of the guys we're talking about are going to be here for a pretty long time, right? Like Corbyn Carroll, is six years, right? Jordan Lawler hasn't even started his six year clock yet.

A lot of the guys we're talking about and that fans are getting excited about are long-term assets that haven't even had a year of service time yet in a lot of cases. So it really could be a while with this core. But, yeah, Zach Allen, you're probably going to lose him after three years. I guess that's the biggest name. But more than anything, yeah. I mean, these guys are going to be here for a while. I think you have some time.

I don't know if I'm talking about a championship window opening or closing or anything at this point. I mean, I guess we could get there at some point, you know, if a lot of things work out. But you have some time. You have some time with these guys. I think I think Carmen Carroll is the guy. If you're talking about a guy that sticks around, I feel like he's the guy that Diamondbacks are going to hopefully, you know, he will be good enough that they will want to. continue to build around and keep around in the future. I guess he would be 2028,

2028 after 2028 would be erratically be when Corbyn Carroll becomes a free agent. So if I have to pick a year, I guess that's, I guess that's the year. That's that 2020, 299. All right, now we're on the same page. What else we got later? You're, oh, Gabriel. Oh, that Gabriel asked, you're a rookie and it's your first day in the locker room.

Which deback do you want to have a locker next to? And who would you be most scared to be next to? This one's all you, Derr. Obviously, it's mad bum is the scared one, right? I feel like Madison Bumgarner would be by far the scariest human being to be around. You want to make small talk? Good luck with that. I hope you are familiar with what's going on in the PBR.

And I hope that you know everything about horses and knots, is what I'm saying. But I just think it would be very intimidating to be around Mad Bum. As someone that is around Mad Bum, I find myself still to be very intimidated by him. even when he's smiling. When he's smiling, it's even worse. Like when he's smiling, that's what I'm the most scared, right? But person that I would want to sit next to, I feel like Carson Kelly would be a great locker to be next to. I think Carson Kelly would take you under the wing. Now, here's the catch with that. If I'm remembering the layout to the clubhouse last year, that that locker would fall right in between Mad Bum and Carson Kelly. That's where you would be over there in this corner area. So good luck with that. What locker? We're talking about having, didn't he say locker? Wasn't the question about, did you?

Oh, oh, okay. Are you not paying attention again, Jesse? No, no. Like, yesterday was fucking 11 or Friday. Like, my God. Anyway. No, I thought you're like, are you talking about a specific locker? Yeah, because Madbom and Carson last year, weren't they over kind of next to each other?

Wasn't there like one locker in between them that that would be in the locker? Right. I'm just saying I don't necessarily remember who was there. And I don't know if you can just waltz in and take over that locker. I'm not saying we're, it's a fictitional fucking. Okay. All right. All right.

I'll stop. What is happening right. Right. right now. My God. Yeah, Carson, I think that's the key. There's also like an easier area over by Corbyn Carroll. I felt like like Buddy Kennedy and Corbin Carroll's lockers were kind of over on this other side. I think that would be a safe, non-threatening place to be. But I think they kind of, they tend to put the younger players sort of off in that corner where, you know, where the intimidating media people won't come and ask them questions, such as Derek and I. Yeah. Yes.

Oh, yeah. They like to keep a safe distance between, you know, young guys. Especially this guy over here. Right. Especially when Buddy Kennedy shows up and we're dapping each other. Oh, we're like, hey, buddy. And like everything. They're like, no, you don't get to ask questions yet.

I don't care how well you know them. They do keep me away. But that's probably it. I mean, I don't know. Is there anybody else that you would think of as a good mentor that you would want to be next to you? I think, I think Evan Longoria would probably be. Oh, that's a great pick. That's the first name that comes to my mind.

I mean, the man has played 15 years in the big leagues and knows a thing or two. So if I were a rookie young player just being called up, that's who I would want to be next to. That's why he's the thunderstick. He knows this stuff. Make sure to grab yourself a PHNX Diehard's membership. That way you can read all of his stuff, never miss what Jesse has to say as well as our other wonderful writers around here. Gerald is great sometimes. Other times he has weird opinions about movies and shows.

So we need to iron that out still. But also Howard and who else? Craig Morgan? Craig Morgan. Craig Morgan. Yeah, I've heard of him before. Anyway, make sure to grab yourself a dihardt membership. You get wonderful merch from our PhNX Locker.com every year like this hat,

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as well. Make sure to sign up for that today over at go phtnx.com. We thank you guys, of course, for being here in the chat. Appreciate everybody stopping by the YouTube channel. 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 when any of the shows go live. If you're listening to us on your favorite

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questions presented by the folks at Moore Furniture, we want to remind all of you that Jesse is still not properly furnishing his home. So please make sure to shame him on Twitter about the ridiculous amount of Chase Loungees. He showed me an order for him. There were seven Chase Loungeers on there. I don't know what he's doing, but I honestly can't wait to see how it ends up, really. And you'll get your invites. This is what you have to do. You go on Moore Furniture's website and you find things and send Jesse the exact link. So then no effort for him. All he has to do is click add to cart.

Yeah, exactly. Let's make this easy on them. I'm not spending any money on something that's not a Chase Lounge, though. So if you have additional furniture around your house that you'd like to donate, I'm willing to accept that. Or if you go on the more furniture website and just order me stuff and deliver it and do the white glove delivery, have it brought over to my house, then I will consider using it in place of some of the chase lounges I've already acquired.

But he drove, he drove 85 minutes to pick up a chase lunch. I don't know what's wrong with this guy. I did. Yeah. You saved big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture. com, whether you're buying it for yourself or buying it for Jesse Friedman. But I do not endorse purchasing anything for this guy because he's uncrateful. We've seen the way he acts.

So anyway, we got more mailbag Monday questions. What do we got, Leah? Will the patch, Kevin Simeon asks, will the patch be for all jerseys home and away? And the patch, obviously, that he's referring to, is the Event patch, right? We know the patch. We know you know the patch. The patch that destroyed the universe. But there it is.

There's the patch right there. Will that patch be on all of the home and away uniforms? That remains to be seen. That remains to be seen. There's another part of that question. Can we put that up, Leah? We also have any chance. Will fans have to buy jerseys with a patch on them?

That I don't think so. but I imagine there will be authentic jerseys available that do have all of the patches, including sponsor patches, like we've seen out of the Phoenix Sun's authentic game, right? I would think that merchandise would sort of be included in the deal. They would sign with Abneth. They would want whatever they're putting on the actual game uniforms.

They'd probably want it on merch to. But yeah, we don't know for sure on that yet. And I mean, sometimes with the patches, they are only available for you to purchase the patch separately. Like for some of the, commemorative patches that they have on the jerseys and such i've seen those in the in the team

shop the abnet patch is like a special edition that you can you can buy separately i don't like it but i respect it i'll tell you that much we're still awaiting the arrival of the avonet uniform yes the full on alternate alternate road jersey that was that was that was version number eight of our tweet i think something like that yeah you need you need to come with a few more by the way i don't know if you've looked at the retweet Look, I was not planning on that blowing up the way it was. I won't lie, you folks. I wasn't, didn't have that many Photoshop's.

If you don't know what we're talking about, we put out a tweet on, is it Friday? Is that the day? Yeah, it was. That basically said for every 10 retweets, we will make the Diamondbacks Avnet patch bigger. And then Jesse asked me, are you sure that we're going to get enough for you to use all 10 of those that you did? Yeah, we didn't really know, because Derek kind of got a little head start. made some of them. We didn't know how many we were going to use.

And then after about 20 minutes, poor Derek was just sitting in the corner of the day on Photoshop. That was my life. It was pretty great, though. If you haven't seen the thread, you should go check it out. So I don't know about the patches. I don't know their availability. And to be honest, one thing that we saw that came up from Reddit, friend of the show, Josh Hunt pointed out he had a redesign himself of the patch that removed the black square from

the behind, from behind the logo. which looked much better, obviously. But to be honest, what we thought would be the issue with that is that it does blend in extraordinarily well to the jersey at that point, almost too well. Like the Motorola patch on the San Diego Padres jersey right now is probably the best blend of using team colors, the logo, making it circle,

making it just kind of look like something that's part of the jersey that's not that obtrusive. There are ways that they could redesign it where they get the benefit of it standing out a bit more than taking the black square off the back of it. But according to the Reddit post, somebody that works for Aet said that they are possibly redesigning the patch.

So it'll be interesting to see if they do. I feel like something as simple as making it circle really would help cut down on how large that patch looks. And the last part of Kevin's question was, I'm sorry, also any chance we sign another veteran player by spring training. I don't think so.

I don't think that we're going to see anybody signed at this point. But who knows? I'm not, there are still a lot of players available on the market. Guys that we've actually talked about, we wanted the Diamondbacks to pursue. So anything could happen, but it does feel a little bit like they're done at this point. Yeah, there's still a few relievers out there that I think could be a fit. But it kind of feels like if the debacks were going to make that move, they would have by now.

Yeah. And also based on the most recent comments from Mike Hazen, which came out of a story that Steve Gilbert wrote a few weeks ago, it didn't really sound like it was something the devax were. we're going to do. If they made any moves, it sounded like it was going to be through trades. And so I think that's, if anything, we might see that. But my guess is the debacks, you know, peruse the trade market, asked about some guys out there, some relievers they were interested in.

And they probably quickly came to terms with the absurdities of the asking price for, you know, controllable younger relievers. It is a pretty crazy market, usually. And let's be honest, we've talked about this before, but the diamondbacks have, there's no benefit in them revealing that they're going after guys if they're unsuccessful with it. It, you know, like what we've seen this offseason quite a bit, especially with every team that tried to sign Carlos Correa, it can make you just end up looking a little silly if the thing doesn't go through.

So I don't know, but I think that it's probably very slim chances that they do pursue anybody via free agency, at least at this point. If it is, it's a reliever. I can pretty much say that confidently. I think I would agree with that, too. All right, what else we got, Leah? Jacob at Jacob Schult 2 on Twitter. Ask which D-BACs player would you not let date your daughter and which D-BACs player would have the green light.

I'll answer the second part. I don't know. I want to know if this is Anthony Totry asking this question secretly. Is this a Tootry burner account? Because Tootry was going around the office asking us if we would let him date our daughters. And of course, I was like, my daughter's 11. you monster and he was trying to say hypothetically. And people were

like, I don't have a daughter, but no. I mean, we all said no. Everybody said no. I said he would steal her 401K. That's what I feel like would happen with Tocry would date my daughter. But part of this question is which D-BACs player would you not let date your daughter? And this, this is

hard because I feel like this is going to insult someone, right? No matter what. But if I have to, I have to say Alec Thomas. And I don't give you a real reason why Alec Thomas. That is a utterly shocking answer.

Alex Thomas, I'm going to tell you why. In my opinion, Alec Thomas looks like a heartbreaker. Alec Thomas looks like he is going to break my daughter's heart and she's never ever going to recover from it as long as she lives. How do you identify? Until I introduce her to Corbyn Carroll. And then that's who I'm letting date my daughter is Corbyn Carroll.

How do you identify it? I'm Brett Johnson. with me. He said it's got to be Alex. See, I don't know. It's just something. It's a feeling deep down inside. Why do I look at Tootry and instantly want to say no? I don't know. He's a good guy. He's got a good job and a good future ahead of him. I just feel like he's going to commit some sort of white-collar crime that's going to put her in jeopardy, you know? Is it something about like the way that Alec Thomas catches five balls? Maybe.

Swings it like does it have somebody to do with his baseball skills? No. No. I just, I feel like he's just too handsome of a fella. So are you maybe saying that players with high ground ball rates tend to be more heartbreakers? That's yeah. Maybe. Maybe that's what I'm saying. Maybe I'm worried he's going to go back to Reno and not stick around in time. Maybe there's going to be a lot of back and forth.

I don't know. I just really feel like he's going to break my daughter's heart. That's what I feel about Alec Thomas. And I thought that since the day I first met him from just looking at him. I was like, it's a good ball player. Heartbreaker, but a good ball player, right? I think Jake McCarthy just solid, solid dude through him through. You know, solid duty.

Yeah. Like Jake is the kind of guy I'm going to ask my daughter, how's Jake? Right? You guys made any plans for marriage or anything? Like, I would be pushing the envelope with Jake, I think, a little bit. I would be like, let's get this figured out, right? You guys, you're adults now. You love each other.

Why can't we make this shit official? Let's do this, you know? That was true. Gabriel says dating anyone but Alec would be a downgrade. See, that's the problem. When dating Alec Thomas, you've reached your business. pinnacle of good looking men that you're going to date. And then after that, it's all, it's all downhill from there. I don't know. Roll the prodomo. Solid, solid, solid guy. Yeah,

just seems, seems, you know, very wholesome. He's reliable. Yeah. He's going to be loyal. He steps up. He steps up. He stepped up. He stepped up last year. All right, what else we got, Leah? What would your walkout entrance song me? I know. I think he means B, but we're going on with me. What would your walkout entrance song be? Jesse, you got one yet? You know, I have a view. I have a works and I think you're going to make fun of me for them. Of course I'm going to make fun of me. I think lean on me is like the best song. Jesse.

Oh my God. Jesse. I think it would be hilarious because let's be fair. Lean on me, the vibe of lean on me is not really the vibe of a normal walk-up song. But there would be something so beautiful about just the like discomfort and confusion in the stands. And it would be oddly confident too, right? Like you're almost saying, I fucking got this. Don't worry.

The rest of you guys couldn't get on base, but I'm going to fucking take care of business. But it says it in like a folksy kind of like slow way. Either that or you got a friend in me. Oh my God, yes. That's actually great. I'm just going, you know, the most wholesome, the most whole, you know, I don't need to be pumped up.

I just need to be. I'm relaxed. I'm cool. I'm calm. I just need to be me, you know? So that's what I would go away. It's great. It's great. You have totally ruined my choices because mine were actually serious good songs. Like, Spirit in the Sky by Norman. Are you saying Lean on Me is not a serious good song? No, it's not good. No, no one's actually doing that. But Spirit in the sky is the greatest baseball song ever that ever existed. And I don't know why. Maybe it's just because they put it in so many movies and I just, my childhood is attached to that as the theme song to it. I can't answer it. But I love Spirit in the Sky and that would be. But I currently come out as a pro wrestling manager.

your industry baby. And that is an incredible song. Can you sing it for me? No, I can't. Because there's some trumpets, it sounds very triumphant. It's more about the musical part of it. It's just the beginning of it. It sounds very much like someone of importance has arrived.

Oh, so is this Edwin Diaz-esque with the trumpets? It's a little. It's got a little bit of some, a little bit, but it's a little Naz X. But it's mostly the instrumental part of the beginning. He also says some cool ass shit to start it off, so I like that as well. But also there's cohesion between my pro wrestling personality and my baseball player personality. So I feel like that makes the best, most sense. You know, I got to have one brand.

Leah, what else we got? Jim Mitchell says, I'm excited by the offseason moves and the development are young prospects, but I'm still worried about bullpen depth. Will there be any movement in the bullpen before the season starts? Yes, I think there will be movement in the bullpen. Definitely. I think before the season starts, I don't know, like we said, we don't think it's going to be acquiring new players,

but I do think that it's definitely going to be movement within the organization, whether it's from the miners, whether it's from these guys that they have ready for the starting rotation, that just end up going there. But I think that we will still see some pieces added to the bullpen. I mean, yeah, like externally, I don't know. But I agree that, you know, the debacks are going to come in and they're going to have a competition in spring training.

And it will be a very interesting competition. It will almost be more open-ended than, any bullpen competition I can really remember because there just isn't that contingent of like veteran like you know they're going to be there guys. There's just a lot there's like some talent, you know, I mean like like I said earlier, I do think the bullpen will be a little better this year, but but it's not really clear who those guys are going to be. It's just that the general, the general talent level available to them there feels higher than it's been in in past years. And there's some exciting arms, right? Justin Martinez, Carlos Vargas, guys that throw a

hundred miles an hour, you know, stuff we haven't necessarily seen recently. So there's more to pick from and it should be interesting to see how all that works out. All right. What else we got, Leah? The Don's Bread question of the week. If you had to choose someone from the debacks to host Saturday Night Live, who would you choose and who would be the musical guest? I'm going with Tori. I think Tori Lovallo would do an outstanding job of hosting Saturday Night Live.

I didn't think about that. And I also think that Tori would, like he would be into it. You know, this weekend we saw Pedro Piscal be the host, and he killed it. He did an excellent job from, you know, obviously from Last of Us and other things. But there was an effort given, you know. Yeah, he laughed in most of the sketches, but it's better than being terrible. Let me just tell you. I would be so bad at that.

I am not good at containing my laughter. That is not one of my specialties. I feel like I have a couple guys in mind. So I think that Carson Kelly would be it pretty good. Yeah. Just his general personality. He's just very relaxed and just sort of, you know, comfortable in his own skin. I think he would enjoy doing something like that as wild as it would be Carson Kelly

accurately doing that. So yeah, that's the first thing that comes to my mind. I think Merrill Kelly maybe has some similar, some similar vibes. There's a lot of Chris Elliott jokes to be made, considering Chris Elliott was on Saturday. That's fair. That's fair. There you go. There's a great connection there.

Yeah, I think he just has a similar, like, you know, he just started having a good time. And I think, you know, I think people watching would have a good time, too. Yeah, Brett Johnson says that Mario parody was great. It was absolutely outstanding. I watched it like three times. It was so funny. It was way, why, since when did Saturday Night Live do stuff that, like, had a budget? That was wild to me.

But I'm giving Tori some sort of country artist to go with Chris Staples. Somebody like that. Carrie Underwood. I don't know. I don't care. I don't like country. Sorry, most of you. But I'm just throwing that out there.

But I'm sure Tori would do a great job. Carson, too. That would be great. Plus Carson, right? Carson. Johnny Carson. There's that. There's that.

I'd bring in Bill Withers to play Lean on Me personally. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone. All right. Well, that would be outstanding. I would watch that Saturday Night Live. And I think that's all we got. But we thank you guys so much for your questions. Always appreciate you guys stopping by.

Don't stop giving us mailbag Monday questions just because we have to kind of limit it. We still want good ones and we're still going to be answering them every Monday. We just can't do as many once we get around to some of the postgame coverage. Once we get games to talk about, then we've got games to talk about. And that's happening soon. We'll still answer plenty of questions along the way. We appreciate you guys. And of course, make sure if you haven't done so already, Super Bowl is here.

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Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. Void in Ohio, see show notes or detail. And a shout out to our new friends from the Spaghetti Shack by the, the way, who stopped by with some delicious spaghetti today, and we had a chance to check it out. Of course, they are ASU alum owned and operated, so forks up. And of course, we appreciate them

and all of their wonderful food. Like, spaghetti is just one of those things that it's just it's wonderful. It makes you feel good. It always feels home-cooked, and it always feels like it's made with love. And of course, they make it with love over at the spaghetti shack. The meatballs were incredible. They really were. Fantastic.

Spaghetti Shack is a community focus. Two-go pasta concept started right here in Tempe, Arizona by five lifelong friends. We know something about that around here at PHNX. I don't know if I'd call Saul a lifelong friend though. The jury's still out on that one. Espo maybe, but Saul definitely not. But we are currently serving Tempe and Queen Creek and hope to come to your neighborhood soon.

So keep an eye out for Spaghetti Shack if you are in the Tempe area, especially any of our friends here for the Super Bowl. By the way, keep an eye out for meetings with the mayor. I'm giving you all of you outer towners tips on the best ways to spend your time here in Phoenix for the Super Bowl. So it should hopefully keep you safe, keep you from spending too much money and keep you fed.

But make sure to follow us on Twitter. In the meantime, I'm at Kapp underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for giving us your questions and being here in the chat today.

We always appreciate your time. On behalf of Leah, Jesse and myself, we love you, and thank you for being here. And remember, kids, Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you let Jake McCarthy date your daughter.