PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Bobby Witt Jr.’s deal makes Corbin Carroll extension with Diamondbacks look like a STEAL

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

The Kansas City Royals massive 11-year, $289 million contract extension of superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is the talk of baseball. We are discussing how this deal make the Diamondbacks contract extension of Corbin Carroll look like an absolute steal. Also, with spring training on the horizon, we are tier ranking Cactus League ballparks!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 into another edition of the PHNX feedbacks podcast. Right here on BHNX, my name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am the mayor of this joint. This man next to me is your vice mayor, my thunderstead, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Of course, we got Father Overlord Jacob on the Ones and twos. And we are so happy. It's all his fault that we're late. But of course, we're so happy that you are here, no matter if you got here on time or if you're late,

I'm sure Cogs is going to be late. We know Coggs is going to be late, but a big ski to you, Connor, and a ski to you all. A big ski to the Arizona Diamondbacks front office, Jesse. A big ski to them for getting the Corbin Carroll deal done. And when I say that, I mean his contract extension done when they got it done. Because had they waited, it may have gotten very expensive and it may have cost them even more after the recent news of Bobby Witt Jr.'s extension with the Kansas City Royals. Oh, it certainly would have cost more, a whole lot more. Originally, I thought you were saying ski to the Diamondbacks front office for

Knight signing Clayton Kirschaw to a one-year contract. I mean, a ski to them for not signing Clayton Kirschaw as well. We could start out there because our friend Clayton Kirschaw, aka the in-cell, aka our spy in the Dodgers organization, is still a member of the Dodgers organization, Jesse. you know, that's always something fun to have happened because the Diamondbacks obviously have owned him. We know Clayton Kershaw is the son of Christian Walker, of course, and just happy to have him back. Yeah, yeah, the last time Clayton Kershaw pitched in a Major League baseball game, it wasn't great. For his team, we...

Oh, in fact, the team shop has that memento of that. We have that right here. This is, uh, go, go get this right now at the Chasefield team shop. See, we thought this might have aged poorly because if Kershaw maybe was with another team, this picture might not be so impactful. But he's back. So, hey, this is, uh, this is still a very current picture. It's not outdated at all.

I, I do genuinely wonder like what the, what the Dodgers assessment is of, of how Clayton Kershaw pitched in that game. Because it was, I mean, It was bad. It was another level of bad. The Diamondbacks were just hitting the living daylight out of the baseball. It wasn't just like, oh, commands a little shaky, you know, the life on his fastball is not there or whatever. It was a concerning sort of outing, at least if I were in the Dodgers front office, I was like, all right, this, you know, this could be not necessarily the end of Clayton Kershaw's career, but it. It certainly did not inspire confidence in Clayton Kershaw's ability to continue to pitch moving forward.

Granted, he had a pretty good regular season. Like, if you look at Clayton Kershaw's regular season numbers from last year, his FIP wasn't quite as good. Some of the peripherals weren't as nice. But, I mean, he still had a sub three ERA, which is very, very good. And certainly you'd certainly you'd want to bring that guy back. So I wonder kind of what their assessment was of him. But I'm not too surprised about him coming back. it frankly wouldn't have felt right for Clayton Kershaw to be pitching in any other

uniform than that of the Dodgers. I know there was some talk of him going to the Texas Rangers, sort of a hometown, kind of a deal there, but that never seemed to pick up too much steam. By the way, his ERA in last year's playoffs, 162.0. What's his ERA in his career in the playoffs, though? His career in the playoffs actually is not great. Terrible, but not as bad as you would think it would be. He has a 4.49 career ERA.

But he has 12 years, 22 series in the playoffs. So he has a lot of time in there. And he has performed well at times, just not performed well in big moments. I mean, he's had some very good postseason starts. Like you can't, you can't look at. I mean, Clayton Kershaw has pitched a lot of postseason games. It's not like he's been terrible every time out. But yeah, that, I mean, that game against the Diamondbacks was very much the culmination.

of Clayton Kershaw's entire postseason career, where he just hasn't been as effective. And it'll be interesting to see what he's able to give the Dodgers in 2024. He had a fairly significant shoulder procedure that is going to keep him out for, I think, at least like the first half of the season. He won't be available to the Dodgers until the second half. But, I mean, the last thing that, you know, the Diamondbacks needed was for the Dodgers to add more starting rotation depth than they already had.

if there were a day where Clayton Kershaw were healthy and all of the other Dodgers starters were healthy too, it would be very frightening. I mean, it would be Yamamoto, it would be Walker Bueller, it would be Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller, Tyler Glassnow. Like if the Dodgers ever have one turn through the rotation that is those five guys, that is outrageous.

I mean, Bobby Miller is probably the worst pitcher on that list. I guess maybe it's Kershaw now. Those guys were number two. starter types, you know, maybe number three, but probably number two starter types in 2023. So, yeah, there's, there's an outrageous amount of talent in, in that Dodgers rotation right now. I think the in defense of Kershaw, the one thing that is terrible about Major League Baseball is how you can go through 162 games season. Yeah. Be a good pitcher. And then have your reputation determined by a couple of games in the playoffs, right? And that's kind of what's

happen to Kirshall. Like you said, he has been very good at times during the regular season, but that does kind of become his reputation now, especially with his last performance against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It'd be interesting to see when he comes back, you know, what version

of Clayton Kirschott we see, but for now, welcome back. Happy to have you. Yeah. Happy to see you. Gabby Moreno is not disappointed with the news, I'm sure. I'm guessing Christian Walker, He popped a special bourbon on behalf of this occasion.

Speaking of popping special liquor, of course, we did talk about Bobby Witt Jr. signing that contract extension with the Kansas City Royals. It's a gigantic extension for a very talented player. The exact kind of guy, you build your franchise around, the exact kind of guy that the Arizona Diamondbacks are building their franchise around. But now with looking at this extension, this massive extension, you've got to be thinking. thankful once again that the debacks got the job done with Corbyn when they did versus after his rookie of the year season and definitely after seeing some of these other deals that other players were getting. Bobby Witt Jr. in 2023, he slashed 276, 319, 495, 30 dingers, 96 RBI.I.

He had 49 stolen bases of 5.7 foire and just an excellent, excellent season. Like everything you would want out of a player that the world's drafted as highly as high as they did. Yeah. I mean, Bobby Witt is a really good player. I think some people might, you know, you see he is on base percentage for his career being, you know, 307. That's not, that's not very good, right? Like Bobby Witt is maybe he doesn't have the plate discipline that Corbyn Carroll has. Sure.

But he's a freaking really good baseball player. I mean, Bobby Witt, a career OPS of 770 in 2023, though, it was up to 813. As you mentioned, almost six wins above replacement. A lot of that comes from his defense. He's an outstanding defender. I know Corbett Carroll did 25 homers and 54 RBI. Bobby Witt did 30 homers and 49. Sorry, 25 homers and 54 stolen bases is what I'm trying to say.

More RBI than that. Yeah, I had a lot more RBI than that. Bobby Witt had 30 homers and 49 stolen bases. kind of right there in the same neighborhood, both very impressive. Witt was caught 15 times. He wasn't as efficient of a base dealer as Corby and Carroll. But yeah, Bobby Witt does, you know, not quite everything that Corbyn Carroll does, but he's probably a better defender.

He plays a premium position. Corbyn Carroll's capable of playing some center field, but he, you know, he's not really getting much opportunity there. Whit is an extremely, extremely valuable player. Especially on that team. He is the most valuable team on that player. and it definitely makes sense. The most valuable team on that player.

Oh, yeah. We're both a mess. We're just the way. This is welcome it. Words hard sometimes. Okay. But Corbin, again, that eight year, $11 million deal with a club option for one more year, $289 million, with a club option for $3 million, is that right?

So if they extend it, it's another $3. It could go up to 14 years. Which is outrageous. That's insane, man. I mean, do we have a little comparison graphic between these two guys? Of course, this is the breakdown of their yearly deals and how once again crazy Bobby Witt Jr.'s extension is versus the breakdown there by Nick Piccoro of Corbyn Carroll's contract.

Yeah, it's a little tricky to do like an apples to apples comparison because Bobby Witt has two years of service time now. Corby and Carroll has one. So they're really offset by like one year. Also, Bobby Witt signed his contract after two years, whereas Corvin Carroll signed his contract before even reaching one year of service time. So it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison

if you go year to year. But if you think about it in terms of like when these guys are reaching free agency and whatnot, you can kind of draw some comparisons. As far as the three arbitration years, Both of these deals include the full three arbitration years for each player. Bobby Witt is making $7 million in his first arbitration year, 13 in his second, 19 in his third. Corbin Carroll is making $10 million in his first year of arbitration, then 12, then 14.

So they're pretty comparable there. Bobby Witt, I think, is making $39 million total in those three years compared to 36 for Corbyn. So pretty similar there. But once you hit free agencies, you can see here with Bobby Witt, the number, I mean, the third, 35s just go on for forever, Derek. Yeah. There's just so many years on this deal for Bobby Witt Jr. Corbyn-Carrul, the Diamondbacks bought out two years of free agency at 20 million each.

With Bobby Witt, the Kansas City Royals are buying out seven years of free agency, four of which, as you could see there, have player options attached to them. So Bobby Witt has a lot of ability to kind of leave whenever he wants to if he decides. to do that. So, yeah. Why would you? Like, I mean, who knows? Like you said, the value, $35 million today is not what $35 million is. Who knows? Who knows? Right. But my God, I mean, it gets to a point where, like, you have to be a special kind of athlete and a special kind of person to receive a contract worth that much money and still stay focused on the task at hand. Typically, the task at hand

is performing at a level that is going to get you that kind of contract in return. But now that you've received it, how do you respond? You know, what we saw out of Corbyn Carroll after getting that contract was him doing everything he could to bring home that rookie of the year award so that the Diamondbacks would get that additional draft pick. He spoke about it several times about how important that was. Like the rookie of the year achievement was a great achievement, but for him, in his eyes, the bigger goal was what that draft pick could do for the franchise.

What we saw was Corbyn immediately exceed his value, right, after receiving that contract. And again, it shows what kind of person he is. And Bobby Witt Jr. is the same kind of character. I don't expect to see him, you know, all of a sudden drop off on production. I wouldn't be surprised to see him motivated to try even harder in 2024. I just think from my perspective, I am not that kind of person. If you give me $35 million like guaranteed and it's my decision over the next couple of years, man, you're lucky if you're getting $2.25 out of me in the wedding average, you know, like I'm going to be eating snacks and I'm just going to be chilling like because that's that's how it is. See, players, you know, again, they have to stay motivated.

They have to continue to be worth that kind of, you know, money. And I mean, it goes beyond just the fact that you've been given it. You know, there's public scrutiny. There's the fans. There's a lot of things involved there. but it's not always the case that every athlete that receives that guaranteed money lives up to what a team paid them for, right? And that's the reason why. It's it's really hard to stay motivated after you've essentially hit the big payday you've been seeking.

Yeah, I mean, going back to some of the numbers here between these two deals, Bobby Witt will be 34 years old when the guaranteed portion of his deal is done, whereas Corby and Carroll will have just. turned 31 if the diamond backs exercised the club option. Yeah. He would only be 30 with the guaranteed portion. So the Royals. So this is Bobby Witt's like big contract that a lot of players are seeking. Yeah, this deal. Corbyn Carroll could still get his big, big deal after that, you know, after this one was up.

Right. Which I guess is maybe part of, you know, maybe Corbyn that benefits him in some ways. Like he could still get like a seven, eight year deal when, you know, when he's 30 years old. that is possible. But then there's the club option, which it certainly seems like the Diamondbacks are likely to pick up. So you're probably looking at Corbyn being 31 by the time he reaches free agency. And you can still get a big deal at 31 if you're a star level player.

But yeah, the guarantee here for the Royals goes basically four years deeper into Witt's career than the deal that the Diamondbacks gave Corbyn Carroll. And all of those are at 35 million per season compared to 28 million. So, yeah, it goes back to what you said earlier, if the Diamondbacks had waited to do this. I mean, this would have been like the Diamondbacks not only, you know, passing on the extension last year, but letting Corbin have another, you know, pretty solid MLB season. And then after two years of Corbyn Carroll being in the big leagues, the Diamondbacks approaching him about an extension, you're going to be paying a heck of a lot of money at that point based on what we've seen.

That's a great comparison. So great job front office. They continue to do good things for this team. And again, that's the reason why I think it was important for ownership to kind of open up the pockets, open up the wallet a little bit for Mike Hazen to go out there and add to this team during the offseason like he did. He has proven that he is savvy in making these moves and building towards the future. And again, this deal isn't bad for Corbyn by comparison. You know, the one aspect about it, like we said, is that they did buy out those two years. There's things involved where Bobby Witt Jr.

Had to go through those, you know, a couple of years that Corbyn essentially had his contract start like right, right away, essentially, right? He gets out of it earlier. Right. And he still gets a fairly substantial deal that is worth his value. But he's definitely worth more money. And would have received more money had this contract extension taken place after, you know, after this wonderful season that he had. I mean, come on. Rookie of the year and a World Series run.

And fifth an MVP voting. Any one of those three things would have been enough to say like that's going to be, you know, something that drives up his value. But all three of those things together makes it no doubt that he would have received money. I mean, I think another way to think about this is I don't know if the Diamondbacks do it. If they had waited to extend Corbyn Carroll until right now, I could see a scenario where the price tag is just so high that the team just decides that it's not, it's just not something that they want to do. Not because Corbin isn't worth, you know, a substantial investment. Or he's not receptive

to it. It's just like, it's like a stock. Yeah. Right? You got to sometimes buy at the right time. Sure. You got to wait for a player's value to kind of be within your range that you can afford it. Zach Gallen is a perfect case of that because his value right now is far too high. And the Debacks of that ship is sailed. Debacks have waited too long. Now they're going to, if they do do it, they're going to pay a heck of a lot of money for it. Yeah, I mean, and that's the thing is, is it's not to say that both sides, that gallon has been very open about wanting to stay here.

It's just not if the money isn't right. Please. Not if you can get more money elsewhere, which is inevitable. One more thing I want to say on this is I just think it's really good for baseball that the Kansas City Royals, the small market team that has had a pretty good off season. Like, they actually spent some money this off season, but they're not the kind of team that spends a ton of money. And they went out and they said, hey, Bobby Witt Jr. is our star player.

He's the centerpiece of our franchise. You know, he's someone that we want to build this team around, you know, no matter what the future holds. And the Kansas City Royals are going to pay Bobby Witt Jr., $35 million a year for a whole lot of years. Yeah. Like, they had to make an enormous commitment to do this. But this trend that we've seen throughout the game of these early career contract extensions

is allowing teams that previously would not have been able to hold on to their star, centerpiece franchise players. Those teams are now starting to hold on to those players a little bit. Julio re-sign, you know, is with the Mariners for forever. Corbyn Carroll with the Diamondbacks wit with the Kansas City Royals. I think it's really good for the game. You're absolutely right. And it's one of those situations where when those young stars start to reach the end of that contract,

It just becomes, all right, which one of the big market teams is going to nab them up? Yeah, yeah. It's like, all right, how long till Bobby Witt is a Yankee, right? Like, that's the game that we used to always have to play. And who knows? I mean, with that contract, who knows if the Royals are going to continue down a path where they are going to be good enough for that to be, you know, to be a contract they can afford.

If that's the case, then they could end up turning to one of those teams, like the Yankees or the Dodgers to trade him over so that they can take over on that. But I'm just, that's the darkest. There's a no trade clause. Oh, hey. Come on. You're waving that for you. You know, you're waving that.

Go be part of the super team known as the Dodgers. I love talking about the darkest possible timeline. Apparently you do. Well, we appreciate you guys being here for all of this negativity on the Ph. And Xports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live.

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And right now, when you open a free checking account online, you get $200 in bonuses, get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Jesse, I saw the median rental price was near $2,000 in this country right now. It's disgusting. And I'm glad, once again, that Desert Financial helped me get started on my home ownership journey because that's not something I can afford now at this point. But we're all jealous of you, Oh, yeah. Don't even get me started on my interest rate up again.

Across the port. Yeah, I know. It's wild. Yeah, it's like 7% of you. It's wrong. Yeah, I got 2.75%. Yeah, we don't want to hear about it. Anyway, what we can do, though, is we can talk about spring training being right around the corner because it is right around the corner. Cannot wait to be out in the sunshine. It's a dreary day here in Arizona today, but it's going to be bright and sunny before we know it.

We're going to, I can't wait to be sunburned out at Camelback Ranch before I know it. But we did with spring training right around the corner, we did want to take a look at some of the Cactus League ballparks and do a little tier list ranking. Of course, we love to do this. We love to pit things like ballparks against each other, decide which ones are the best. So, Faj, if you would, can we get to our tier maker for ballparks? All right, here we go. We got our tier maker for ballparks. And Jesse, you already told me before we started that we were going to,

disagree here that we were going to have some arguments yeah there there will probably be there will probably be some i i'm ready for this but i need to mediate you might you might i might yell at him and call him names that he's not going to be able to call me back because he refuses to use that kind of language on this show but uh we will see do we want to start where do we want to start out here do you want to just go in the order that's down there at the bottom we just got to go ballpark by ballpark all right so camelback ranch camellback ranch speaking of getting sunburn out the sun oh My God. Camelback Ranch falls for me in the hell tier. Wow.

I hate Camelback Ranch. I do not like. This is just because the Dodgers play there. Well, I mean, it's a little bit of that, too. Like, it's a dash of that. And it's a little dash of the lack of shade. Look at that ballpark. Where can I hide from the sun in March in that ballpark?

Nowhere is the answer. nowhere along with like 1,500 other people along that like right like underneath the the sweets over there. That's about it. It's a nightmare. The press box at I'm inclined to grade Cactus League ballparks by two things because of my job. Proximity to my house and quality of press box. You're a monster. Those are the only things I care about.

We are trying to do my rankings solely on those two things. All right. Camelback, I live in the Scottsdale area. So Camelback Grand is on the other side of the world. Very far from you. And the press box is not great, Derek. The windows don't open. No.

Which is kind of an archaic thing at this point. You got to have at least windows that open at this point. A lot of ballparks like Salt River Fields have like the windows that slide and make it so you're, it feels like you're basically just outside with everyone else enjoying the game. It's delightful. But yeah, Camelaback Ranch doesn't have those things. I'm pretty sure last year I had to see. sit behind like a pillar.

Yeah. And so my view, they have like pillars inside of the press box that just like obscure your view of the game. So based on those two things, it's not my favorite place. I am still a little bit hesitant to put it in the helltier because I think it's a pretty nice place to see a game. But the sun is an issue. The stadium, I don't know the exact details, but the stadium was built at a weird angle.

Fan enjoyment. Yeah. It's like it's pointed right. at the sun somehow. It is, like it's specifically designed for you to just be in the sun the whole time. Which is a, which is like one of the more,

like spring training in Arizona's delightful, but it can be not so delightful if you're baking in the sun. Yeah. On like an 80 degree afternoon at the ballpark. You basically just like can't sit in your seats for very long. So yeah, I think hell is a little, I think it's a little excessive,

but if you're going to, I won't argue too much with you if you want to put it there. Yeah, we got it. Look, some need to be put in the hell tier and that's how it goes. And that's what we're starting off with. Very positive, very positive outlook by putting them in the hell tier. Gabriel says I would only ever consider a camelback for a night game.

Michael said that. Gabriel called it heat stroke ranch, which is very. The mountain views are nice. If you're like, I guess at least from like up in the press areas is nice. You're just looking for stuff to say. It has some good things. Like I don't think there's any ballpark in the cactus. league that's truly just awful.

But I don't know. I haven't heard what you're going to say about all the others. We got to make a tier list here. Okay, so what's the next ballpark? What do we have next? Good year ballpark. Oh, good year ballpark. Oh, good year ballpark.

I like Goodyear ballpark. I actually have the good year ballpark as an A. Really? I do. Wow. Okay. All right. What do you got, Jesse Friedman?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I would, I don't know if I'd call it in it. I'd probably give it a B. You've spent a lot more time, though, at some of these places than I have. I covered one night game there last year. Again, by my two criteria. Very, very far from home for me. Press box. I remember being very cramped.

So I'm not too happy with it from that perspective. But it did seem like a pretty nice place to see a game. Okay. So where are we landing on it? Do we want to put it in B? Do you want to... I'm okay with putting it in B. Again, it's not, I just, I like, I've always liked Goodyear.

I don't know. I think it's a B. I think it's a B. All right, let's put it B. It's solid, but it's not like, I don't think Goodyear ballpark is that great. I guess the criteria is, are there, like, obviously you've got your S-tier ballparks, and I think everybody knows where we're headed with those, but like, are there ballparks that are not S-tier ballparks that you think are better than Goodyear?

Hmm. That's a good question. Like you know for me like for me like the epitome of an A tier and you'll get there like for me Scottsdale Stadium's an A tier ballpark. See I like good year. I don't think you're going to like what Derek has to say about Scott'sdale Stadium based on our discussions before the show. Oh like there's a lot not to like about Scottsdale Stadium. But I love the food at Goodyear. I I love just some of the.

design aspects of it kind of being a little bit more small. I'll let you have this, Derek. We'll put it in A. Okay. Jacob, move it up. Move it up to A. What do we got next? Thank you.

I appreciate that. We got surprise stadium. Oh, I would put surprise stadium in health year based on the drive alone. Yeah. It's terrible. It's so awful. I don't like the drive to surprise stadium, mostly because it tells me when I get off of the freeway or whatever that it's three and a half.

miles away. Yeah. But somehow that's never good. That's never good. That's never good. It takes 45 minutes for me to get there. And I don't want to attack it because there's great like surprise actually is a beautiful ballpark. I'm not even joking. Yeah. It's nice. It does not belong in the hell tier. So we're going to have to move it. That's that's a little unacceptable because it is very beautiful. Now I will say surprise is designed to look like the ballpark at Arlington, I believe. That's where the Rangers. Yeah, the old, the old one. The old one, yeah, right? Kansas and Royals.

It sure doesn't look like whatever, whatever that thing was that I had to watch the World Series in for those few days is supposedly fancy and new. It was not. That is a terrible, that toaster is awful or that, whatever that. Not even a toaster, it's a shed. But yeah, I will say there is something. I'd heard shed. I hadn't heard a toaster. I kind of like that.

It's, it's, I'll tell you this. The surprise renovated their stadium and made it like. Like, that's what I like is, like, one out there. And I've said this about spring training ballparks. Like, keep them, like, you can keep them small. You can keep them quaint. But you got to keep renovating them. You got to keep figuring out things to do.

Like, and there's difference between what Scottsdale is doing with their goddamn party patios and all that stuff they're adding. But, like, surprise has the largest scoreboard now in the cactus. Oh. So things like that, I think are cool. So I'm on a bump. I'm not, I'm going to take the drive out of the consideration. I think surprise belongs in the B tier. Okay.

I think the location does kind of get me. It does, right? Because it is, I mean, I guess it was built before Arizona had freeways. No, don't. And so they just didn't know where the freeways are going to be. Don't do that to me. They just put it in the middle of nowhere. The D-Backs used to play in Tucson.

Let's just put this in perspective. That's true. It's everything out west that way. When we went to Phoenix Raceway, the drive there was fine. It was once you got off on Avondale Avenue that you lost a day of your life just to get from there to the raceway. All right. We can put it in B if you feel. Yay.

I feel like I'm getting my way with everything. It's not going to be like this the whole way. All right. Take over on this one. Peoria. Peoria. I need to hear your thoughts. Peoria, I remember there being just tons of.

traffic when I was trying to get there. Yes, because of Arrowhead Mall. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's in a, it's in a very, there's, there's a lot of cars around. There's nine million things to eat in that, like in that area. Like restaurants. Yes. Fast food places.

I can't speak much to the food at the ballpark. Maybe you can, but there are a bazillion food options around the stadium. I thought it was a, I thought it was a reasonably nice place to see a game, though. it feels like a it feels like a beer a C to me. I don't know if you have a strong preference on this. Bioria is by far the closest ballpark to me and I hate that. I hate that Peoria is this closest one to me. Mostly because of the lack of food options in the ballpark versus all of the food options around the ballpark.

Now one time they did get for the press in and out burgers and they brought them in the press box and they just had them there for you to grab one and eat and that is still a very memorable happy day in Derek Montea's life. I will not put them in the hell tier, but I still think that they have terrible food options. I still think it's a rundown ballpark compared to a lot of... How? It's just run down. It's just run down. It looks old.

Okay. That's fair. See. I mean, like, they are all very, like, they all have their own charm and stuff. And yes, there's a bunch of old ballparks here because of how long the Cactus League has existed. But like that's why I think surprise deserves more respect because even with that ridiculous drive, they still have done an amazing job of keeping that extremely white ballpark. And I don't mean that on a race thing. I mean it's a there's a lot of white to that

ballpark. And they just, it's a very clean looking ballpark that's cool and it looks like it's like you get there and it has all the bunting and it's everything. Like surprise stadium always looks very, very nice when I go there. And I like that. I like that celebration of baseball. Peoria is not even trying anymore. Peoria got out of bed. Their hair is still messy. They put on some house slippers and some sweatpants. And they had a spring training game.

You know, that's what I feel like when I go to Peoria. All right, that's fair. So Peoria is a C. Yeah, I'm fine with it being a C. Yeah. All right. Is that Tempe Diablo? Tempe Diablo.

Oh, Tempe Diablo has a soft. I have a soft spot for Tempe Diablo. I think we all do. You grew up in the Valley going to baseball games. The backdrop is pretty. And the backdrop. The backdrop is pretty late. For me personally, though, when I was in high school playing baseball, watching my siblings play baseball, pretty much all of our home games were at the backfields of Tempe Diablo Stadium.

So I was a spoiled, spoiled brat in that sense growing up. That's crazy. Granted, no high school kid is ever going to hit the ball out of a backfield at Tempe Diablo Stadium because straightaway centers like 425 feet. It was a little oversized for a high school game. But yeah, I've always thought the Tempe Diablo was a solid place to see the game. You've got the mountain kind of right there kind of looking down on it. You've got the freeway in the background, which is a little bit of the vibe in and of itself. This feels like at least a B to me.

I'll allow you to decide where exactly you want to go. B is exactly where I had it. So for all the reasons you listed, I mean, again, there's just a lot of history. I think we've all gone to a lot of baseball games there. Again, if you've grown up in the Valley, so B feels right for me. Okay. All right, we have Salt River Fields automatic S tier. Yeah.

There's no question about it. It's elite. It's elite. Like the only complaint about Salt River Fields at times is a lack of food options. But they seem to rectify that really fast with their ability to have like vendors come in and just set up little tents on the concourse and such. And I think it's something that more of the ballpark should do. I'm not sure if they do. I know when I go to them, it feels like they're pretty limited.

For food just being such a big part of the baseball experience, and for those stadiums having spring training games for such a short, condensed period of time, I would think that they would take advantage as much as possible. Now, I do get it that they are trying to make you go buy their food, like at their vendors versus having the other options. I think that's why Salt Riverfields kind of does a better job at times with that. But if you go on the wrong day, none of those. those vendors are there and then it's just sad.

But still, Salt River Fields is beautiful. It's right next to Jesse's house. So it automatically is an S-tier. It has got amazing press box accommodations. And it's our home. Like, honestly, I think the biggest thing for me about Salt River Fields being an S-tier is that we get to spend a lot of time like exploring it and traveling around and seeing all of the training facility that is there. And there's just a lot of cool things for athletes.

to go there and train and a lot of a lot of different area just big there's a lot of areas for their different levels of of players all you know have their space and train it yeah it's it's delightful if we had a tier higher than s i would put it there um i guess that's as high as we can go we don't even know about the lab they won't even let see the lab that's true there's the lab and we can't see the lab so that's a whole other level there's some equipment there that we're not allowed to see but yeah i've talk to some people in the industry about this and there's no question like all of us reporters broadcasters like the people who work in the game saw river fields is not only uh potentially far and away the best stadium in the cactus league so in park is is certainly in the conversation as well um but

the the best spring training stadium in in the in the country i don't think any i haven't been to florida i haven't seen any of those parks but from what i've heard they they don't really compare to saw part of fields yeah i agree and i think that there's a lot of things that they could have done differently that they didn't like as far as making it even you know more seating and all that stuff like i i love the fact that we still have the grassy area for people to sit in i love the fact that it has like all of those little aspects that you love about going to a spring training game in one of the most modern facilities it's just a great place to watch a baseball game saw river fields might be like the Diamondbacks having Salt River Fields.

I don't know if there's anything that the Diamondbacks have that other teams don't that is better than Saw River Fields. Like it is, I mean, I guess the Rockies have it too, but it is fantastic. It's the advantage like they've talked about with Jock Peterson, building a home here and everybody wanting to live here.

There's that advantage of you get to live here year round. You don't have to go somewhere else for two months for your spring training and for all of that kind of stuff. And like, that's just a great advantage. to not only have such a superior facility to train at, but also to have it be right here where you, you know, live that you don't have to travel to go to it.

Should we just do Sloan Park as an S tier now while we're talking about it? Yeah, I think that's fair because that's the only other one that really compares. It really is. I mean, I... You think Sloan is S? You're not putting Sloan like a step below in the A category? Well, I mean, I would love to make all of the spring training ballparks lesser than Salt River Fields because I feel like they are.

But in honesty, well, like, I hate the, I, you know what I hate about Slow Park? Are we just talking about? We just talk about, such you're talking about like your little press gripes. How far we have to walk from the press box to get to like the clubhouse for the interview and where that walk is and how lost I get every single time. But that's just because sometimes I'm like Mr. Magoo. I will say Sloan Park, though. What's beautiful about Sloan Park is how much of the Chicago Cubs, you know, Wrigley Field that tries to bring here. and the Chicago Cubs vibe it brings here.

Like, I think Surprise does that a bit with the, with obviously, with the Texas Rangers. Yeah, they're trying to make it look like a little baby Wrigley field. Yeah. Because they know there's so many Midwesterners. I went out there one time to just pick somebody up. And when I was out there, I saw people like on a, like, the spring training games weren't even happening.

And people were just out there taking pictures with like the sign and stuff. And like, I think their team shop is open year round. there, they are playing to their fan base that lives here in Arizona, and it is a big fan base. Chicago, people from Chicago come here, like everybody else from like the northeast goes to Florida. Like this is where they come to vacation. This is where they come to retire. People from Chicago love coming to Arizona, and we love having them. People from Chicago are awesome.

I went to Chicago for my first time, and I couldn't believe how much I vibed with the people out there. It's mostly because I like talking to strangers, and so do they. but that's a whole other thing. I just think that it was a very smart move. You lean into that. It's the same reason why when you look around at a lot of the eateries that have come here to Arizona in the last five years,

you got Lou Malnotties, you got, you know, Portillo's, you got all these places. They're trying to make all the Chicago people feel welcome and comfortable. Well, I mean, they're tired of hearing them go, man, back in Chicago, we got this Italian big place, right? They're like, we just don't want to hear it anymore. You know, like that's what they did. But they did that with the stadium.

I think it's successful. Whenever you go out to Sloan Park for a baseball game, it is packed. Like I rarely see other stadiums. I think Scottsdale is probably the only other stadium I see as actively packed with that team's fans as Sloan Park. You know, those two stadiums for the Cubs and for the Giants, they just have a tremendous following at those ballparks. And that really makes some kind of a unique experience to visit. The chat disagrees with you guys. The chat thinks it should be a step below.

I would like I would like to propose that halfway between A and S is the letter J according to my calculations. So maybe we we add a J tier. And S load park there. S junior tier. Yeah, yeah, exactly. S junior. Another W tier because don't they fly the W when they take a win? No.

No. I'm not doing that. I'm not going that far. Not pandering. What else do we got? For now we can just leave it. Do you want to move it down to A? We'll let the chat have their say here.

We can put it down to A. Put it down to A. We'll cater to them. Okay, let's do it. Let's bust it down to A. Sorry, sorry Cubs fans. Suck it. All right.

And then we got Scottsdale. You and I might fight. You and I might fight. Hell tear. You're putting Scott'sdale and Hells here. What is your problem? No, actually, again, if we're going based on press box experiences, I have.

It is pretty bad. I have a terrible press box experience most of the time. But then they feed me free food. They used to feed us Don Charlie's when that was open. And that makes you forget all about all of the other stuff. Yeah, they have this whole snack area. Diamondbacks, what are we doing? They just have like trail mix and little bags of Ritz bits and such.

Yeah, but it's because there's such a small amount of space in the Scottsdale Stadium press box. They have to make up for it. People are going to be like standing around. They're like, all right, at least we'll give you. food. You need nourishment in order to stand for nine innings, basically, is what they're telling the people in the press box. Yeah, no, I honestly don't have a lot of problems with Scottsdale Stadium from a viewing standpoint.

Like, I think to go there as a fan, it's kind of a fun ballpark. But I agree with Danielle where it's like to work it. It's a miserable experience. It's very old. It's very antiquated. There's a lot of bugs. I've never worked it. I don't get the bugs.

There's so many bugs there. And like, there's just a lot of, there's a lot of things, like, getting down to the field is complicated and weird. Like, I don't know. There's just a lot of things there that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But from a location standpoint, I think it's so central to everything. I mean, the old town is accessible. That's fun. I've only ever been to a game on the party decks and, like, those are, like, to watch a baseball game.

The party decks are atrocious. They are hideous. They are hideous. I'm not saying that they're not a fun time. They're fucking hideous. I can't stand looking at them. when we're in the press box. Well, get off your high horse old man.

Yeah, it reminds me. Okay, so like, it's funny because it doesn't break a true Southern California experience over if you've ever been to like neighborhoods along, especially around beach areas. They can't build new houses. Like, you can't, like, sell your house and go buy another big house because they're so expensive and so hard to find that you won't. So people just build these atrocious add-ons to their house to make them taller and bigger. And you see them all over this place.

And some of them look rickety as hell. hell like there was no contractor involved or permits uh but yeah it's that's what the party decks is reminded i've always had a great time so where are we putting at if you won't let me i would i would really close to my house der i would put it in but i don't think people agree with me no because you're wrong and you're an idiot uh so it's in it's in a it's in a like my the location of my house aside it's in like a cool area it's in a great area to like go have some drinks and then go see a ball game it's the only stadium that's in like I guess, I mean, it's, it's like at least semi-walkable, right? Like, there's stuff around it.

It's in like downtown Scottsdale. Lots of parking in old town. Yeah, old town Scotts still, really. Yeah. So I think it's cool. It's cool to have a stadium kind of right in the city like that. Okay. Nothing else is like it in that sense.

Some of the scoreboards there I'm not super impressed with. I get kind of a, yeah. I get kind of like an old school vibe when I'm there. Like, man, I feel like this, this place needs to be modernized a little bit. It's the opposite of what they did with Surprise Stadium, where they made renovations that made it look more modern and such. Like I said, I really don't. I get the party deck area and the stuff they did. I just don't like it.

It's not the kind of renovations that they should have focused on. So, so maybe it's a, maybe it's a C. Let's go. I'd give you B, but I don't matter. But like the logo is elite, first and foremost. It is the best logo of all. We don't care about the logo, Jake. We can't see it.

It's so small. Look at how small. But from our perspective of the games that I've attended, I don't think it's any worse than Tempe Tiavo. Like, all right. Fine. Fine. Let's put it in a B.

That's the highest I will allow to go. At the end of the day, I don't matter. You guys. That is the highest I will allow it to go. I've had pleasant experiences there. Once again, it's because they bribe me with food. And when you bribe me with food, I will bump you up on the tier maker list. It's just a fact.

The stadium, last thing I'll say on Scotts the stadium, it does have like, there's like a sense of intimacy there. that maybe other ballparks don't have. It feels like a toy ballpark. Yeah, there's not that many seats. You feel like you're closer to the, you feel like you're really close to the action, really no matter where you sit.

And I have to factor in the Giants, like, fan base and, like, how electric it is to be there for a Giants game. Like, people really do come out. And, I mean, I felt a couple of times, like that was something unique. You just don't get that kind of presence. You know, other spring training games, whether it's on the weekend or whatever,

you have kind of fans there, you know, and they're just whatever. They're like hanging out, drinking with their friends. The Giants fans were locked in. They were all there. They were in their gear and they were, you know, ready to watch, you know, or, you know, like, root on for every place. So like that part of it, that, I guess that fan aspect was. But you know why they do the party decks? I mean, the whole stadium is basically, it's done by the Thunderbirds.

Who are the people that do the waste management? I mean, they have a huge hand in all of that. So, like, they're like, party, party, party, party. Yeah, we'll bring this to a baseball stadium. Exactly. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Bring, have bands play during the, between the sixth and the seventh inning.

Okay, but talk about that night at Chasefield. Like, any time they do the giant band and right field at Chase Field. Oh. Elite. Yeah. So, like, I think the atmosphere needs to be in baseball 24-7. I'm with you. I'm with you.

All right, we got Ho-Hocom and we have Maryvale. Uh, Ho-Hohom on it. I've spent very little time. I'm there. I didn't cover a game there last year. I think I went once when I was younger to see practice on the backfields. So I'm going to let you voice your opinion on Ho-O-Com. I don't have a strong opinion here. It's another charming Arizona ballpark like it very much reminds me when I go to Ho-O-Com of going to spring training games when I was a kid. That was the only baseball I got in my life when I was a kid aside from my one terrible trip to Dodger Stadium. but they definitely have not renovated it as much as they should have.

I think that's one knock to it. And again, these ballparks, they're rocking during spring. So there's no reason to not, you know, try to continue to modernize these ballparks. And I mean, hell, man, make them, if you continue to do renovations, they become, you know, something that you can use for things other than just spring training games. And that's, I think, a big important part of this. but I do have a special place in my in my heart for Ho-Hocom. I want to say C tier.

Yeah, I think C. I mean, I think I'm on board with that. It deserves better than. Cool logo. Great logo. Cool logo. Absolutely fire logo. All right.

Last is American Family Fields of, what is that saying? The Bonnix. Of Phoenix. Of Phoenix. But it's not in Phoenix. It's America. This is, this is the people. people who are in charge of this ballpark, whomever it is, trying to not brand the stadium off

of the not great part of town that it is in, which is Maryvale. That has always been, in my mind, the primary knock on this ballpark. It is a beautiful place. Yeah. But outside the stadium, the surrounding area is not a good part of town. And it's always been literally just called Maryvale. Yeah. Maryville Park, I guess it was.

It's just Maryville. Yeah. I got to go out to Maryvale. Yeah, and that's not, you don't want to brand yourself that way. So now it's American Family Fields of Phoenix, which is very catchy and everyone loves the new name, I'm sure. But I don't know. This feels like it should belong somewhere in the middle. The neighborhood, the area, the drive for me is a, you know, those are all negatives.

But somewhere in the middle, C, maybe B, I could see this. What do you think? I think C is a fairly accurate. it. There's just not a lot there. Right? I mean, I don't know. I mean, it's also the brewers. And if you're a Diamondbacks fan, it's just hard to like anything brewers related, right? I mean, it's the reason why a camelback is in the hell tier.

And we know it. We know it. That's the real reason why it's there. I think we nailed this. So, of course, you guys let us know how much you disagree with us. I'm sure people on social media will think we've nailed this too. I'm sure they're going to completely be furious with us. So in summary, for people on audio, we've got Salt River Fields and S tier.

We've got Sloan Park and Goodyear Ballpark in A, Surprise Stadium, Tempe Diablo, Scottsdale Stadium, and B, Peoria, Ho-Com, American Family Fields, and C. And then we have Camelback Ranch. All by itself. All by itself, down in hell. Suck it, Camelback Ranch. That's how we feel. Get some shade.

Yeah, get some shade. All right, well, not meaning the throw shade, but now that Damon isn't here, maybe we can plan our boys trip without him to Heila River Casinos, right? Sorry. Sorry, Damon, you didn't include me, and since you're in Las Vegas having a good time, I'm going to take Faj and I'm going to take Jesse. We're going to go have a good time at Heela River Resorts of Casinos. Nobody does it better than Heela River. They offer an authentic and immersive experience. Forget having to travel all the way to Las Vegas to get in on all that action.

That city is a goddamn mess right now. You don't want to be a part of all of that Super Bowl action. You know that they have like 40 other conventions and things going on this week as well. So you're just not going to get anywhere anytime. But what you can do is enjoy a wonderful weekend, wonderful staycation with our friends at Heila River Resorts and Casino, visit their state-of-the-art gaming floor. It has it all with over 800 slot machines, 15 blackjack tables, live gaming tables,

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Of course, I discussed never, never ever trusting Aaron Gordon again. You probably shouldn't either. But by Aaron, you meant Eric is what we discovered. That's right. And never trust either one of those people. Anyone with the last name, Gordon, is trouble. All right. All right.

Stay away from that, but what you can do. Get down with the same game parlay. Of course, with the Sun's team being red hot, it's a great time to bet on that team. What you can also do is download the sportsbook app on iOS or Android or visit betmgmgm.com and sign up using our bonus code of PHNX. Deposit at least $5 in your newly created account. Place a wager in that amount of at least $5 at a standard odds price for me.

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if you already are one. Of course, if you are not, sign up today. What you can do is get down on our offer to get a free shirt from the PHNX Locker.com. What you will get is access to our Discord lounge where we will be having our first edition of my game show squeeze play where I am your game show host. and COGS is going to be one of your contestants if he shows up on time.

We'll see. We also will have some of you guys. We need two more contestants, which I will be picking tomorrow. So make sure if you're a diehard, you are here on tomorrow's show. I'm picking them on the show. I'm going to pick them on the show. I'm going to select them. You have to be here in the live chat to be part of our first edition of SqueezePlay.

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So join us today over here at go phnx.com. Found a funny video of Alec Thomas on Instagram talking a little bit about his future rating, future stars rating on MLB the show? Yeah, this isn't, my understanding is this is not a recent video. Oh, it is not. This is like back a few years ago when I want to say when Alec was in the futures game and MLB the show had like a special card of him or whatever. And so they have all his ratings and he was reacting to his ratings. And it, yeah, it's kind of fine. And it's delightful. This is what Alec had to say about his ratings back then. What up guys? All right, I'm not 175 pounds.

185. Born in Illinois, not born in Illinois, born in Tucson, Arizona. The power, you gotta give me a little bit more power, bro. Come on. Everything else is decent, but the arm, the arm's getting better. It doesn't even matter. We throw through the cutoff anyway. What else we got? Bunt? We don't bunt. We don't bun. There's no need. You can put that out of zero if you want.

Just kidding. Got to have a little bunting skills. I'm saying. Somehow I missed that video when it first happened. He's not wrong about the cutoff, man. That's for sure. We hit the cutoff man now. The bunting thing I might have to disagree with a little bit.

But it is kind of hilarious to see him say that stuff on a team that has, you know, problem or not problem but I mean benefited from like small ball stuff like Alex get your stuff up there right he wasn't necessarily like the foremost member of a bun club but he was he was one of the members we did see Alex now Alex does button he does but now yeah uh so yeah that's kind of funny he did have a night a rating of 94 which it's it's hard for I feel like he shouldn't be too disappointed with that that's that's pretty good if Alec Thomas in valet Thomas right now were like genuinely worthy of a 94 rating i think diamond back fans would be very very happy with that he's he's a bit he's a little bit of a step below

that right now but um yeah he wasn't he wasn't satisfied and i mean no no player is right i would be surprised like no matter how high the ratings are no players are always going to be disappointed with something or other christian walker i remember when they did the video revealing his uh his numbers I think last year for Emily to show. He was pretty okay with it. He was pretty okay with it. Elise says, we don't bunt. Tori saw that and said, bet.

And I took exception to that, is what Tori said. Gabriel O'Ferrera says he's so cute. Yes, he's adorable. That's not wrong. You're not wrong about that. Connor Mormon. Don't bunt hit game tying dingers in the LCS instead. That's also very cool.

Maybe better than bunting perhaps. Sure, sure. Anyway. Yeah. No, he's incredible. great to see that video of Alec Thomas aging very well. And can't wait to see him next week. They're already out there.

The Diamondbacks are posting Instagram pictures of them already out there in training. And like when you see the shot that they post, it's not like one guy. There are a lot of players in the background that you see around there already here at Salt Riverfields getting their training in. So that's very exciting to see. I couldn't help but notice that on those ratings, if I remember correctly, his contact against lefties was actually pretty. decent. So that would be a very positive development if a future Alec Thomas

was in fact what that MLB the show card said it would be. It's no baseball savon page. We know that. We know that. I'm still waiting for MLB the show to have full on baseball savon page. It'd be the greatest day of my life. We would never be able to pry you away from a video game

so. Jesse, it's a entire life on a video game. I would be obsessing over like the like the chase rate and the whiff rate of like every player on my team. Seeing the improvement rates and such. All right. Well, my God.

We thank you guys, of course, for stopping by. Again, we will be back here tomorrow at 1 p.m. So make sure to join us then. In the meantime, you can catch us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Keman with a K. Jesse's at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, father, overlord Jacob. He is at Jacob underscore Franklin for because he's the fourth best.

Jacob Franklin. There's a ranking system that we have not had enough input in, to be honest. He's the fourth best of the ones who have the underscores. Do we know who won two and three are? I don't know his ranking among all of the Jane. No, I know one of them, some sort of astrophysicist or something. Yeah, that makes sense. You're not surpassing that one, but anyway.

We do appreciate you guys, though, for following all of us. Make sure to follow the show at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. when you live in Arizona during spring training.