PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Andrew Chafin has come back home to the Arizona Diamondbacks

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Law and order will return to Chase Field! The D-backs made one final free agency move before pitchers and catchers report on Wednesday, signing LHP and former Diamondbacks Andrew Chafin to a one-year deal. Does the move improve the bullpen enough to change this team’s outlook?BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Grab your tickets to our next PHNX Suns Takeover on March 16th! Watch Devin and Kevin take on the Magic with your favorite PHNX crew. Enjoy fun pre-game activities along with prizes and giveaways. Receive a complimentary PHNX pocket tee with each ticket purchased. Get yours here at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-suns-takeover-at-footprint-center-tickets-541418716957. Diehards, check out the Discord and the Diehard website for 20% off.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. BONUS bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballlterms. No Sweat: Valid 1 per customer. NBA same game parlay bets only. Min 3-leg. First bet after opting-in must lose. Paid as one Bonus Bet Token based on amount of initial losing bet. Max. wagering limits apply. Bonus Bets expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Ends at the start of the final NBA game each day when offered prior to 2/16/23 @ 10PM ET. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballtermsOGeez!: 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.comRoman: 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.

Attention all other sports. Your time is up. Our time is now. Welcome in to the PHNX D-Backs podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. This guy is my vice mayor and the thunder stick, the one and only Jesse Friedman.

Are we just saying the sons are irrelevant now? They got Kevin Durant, but pitchers and catchers report this week, so nobody cares. It's baseball season. See, these, these, people get it. These people all get it. Goodbye foosball. Hello baseball. Hello to you all. Thank you guys for stopping by. This is, of course, your favorite baseball show with your favorite baseball guys. And it's brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app,

America's top rated sportsbook app. Jesse, we have breaking news that is no longer breaking because days have passed, but it's breaking for us because it's very exciting. And that is that the sheriff is back in town. There's going to be law and order at Chasefield. Andrew Schaffin is once again in Arizona Diamondback. Signs a one-year deal. deal with a club option for 2024, 6. What, say, I don't know, 6.25 million. The numbers are confusing because when this was initially reported, Ken Rosenthal, John Heyman, and Nick Piccolo all had different numbers. We're going to, we're going to go with our guy Nick Piccolo, though. So, so it's a one year deal worth $6.25 million. That's the guarantee. There's a $1 million in

potential bonuses for 2023. So Andrew Chafin gets $250,000. for hitting 55 appearances, another $250,000 for hitting 60, and then another $250 for 65 and 70. So you can get all the way up to a million dollars on top of that. And it also includes a $7.25 million club option for 2024. Honestly, Derek, it's a little crazy to me that you were able to get a guy who over the last two seasons has an ERA of 2.29. I tried hard. Yeah, yeah.

It was all you're doing. I know. But no, like, this is a really team. friendly contract for the debacks, honestly. Andrew Chafin turned down a $6.5 million option. Guarantee. Yeah, with the Detroit Tigers. And his base salary is actually only 5.5 with this deal. The reason we call it 6.25 is because there's a $750,000 buyout on the second year option.

So he's really making $5.5 million this year with the chance to earn a little bit more. So, yeah, I don't know if there's a hometown discount situation happening here. Of course, the Diamondbacks drafted Andrew Chaf and he was in the organization for a long time. But he's really a freaking good relief pitcher. This is a pretty good move for the debacks. First of all, obviously, this has to do with wanting to live in Phoenix rather than Detroit right there.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if anyone's debating that. No attack to people from Michigan. I'm just saying I think you guys would agree there. Also, it's one last move that the Diamondbacks made that we were hoping to see them move to bolster their bullpen. Mike Hazen obviously is talked about having more bullets left in the gun at times, but we really didn't see them pull the trigger on any deals after, you know, the last couple of moves they made.

Things kind of went quiet across baseball, to be honest. A lot of pitchers and players, position players we talked about last week that were still available on the free agent market. Andrew Chafin is definitely a name we brought up several times. Yeah. There's a reason for it. I know there's a lot of people out there that remember Chapen's time here with the Diamondbacks not being very successful.

And while I'll disagree with that. I don't think he was ever not a successful relief pitcher. He had his issues with walks. That was the majority of the issue. That's what he kind of became known for a little bit was not leaving. Walking the first batter. Walking the first batter and not leaving without getting that one guy on base, right? But since then, Chaffin's numbers have actually been pretty damn good.

And by comparison to the rest of the Diamondbacks bullpen, he actually kind of slides right in as their number one relief option based on the numbers, at least. Yeah, yeah. So I wrote about this over at go phnx.com. This one was for diehards only. I did a little mini deep dive into some of the numbers with Andrew Chafin and how he really has improved a lot. He's not the same guy that you remember with the Diamondbacks from a few years ago. You mentioned that Andrew Chaffin a lot of times people would talk about walks and how that was kind of an ongoing issue for him in some years more than others. But on the whole, he did walk more hitters than the average reliever back when he was with the debacks.

he doesn't do that anymore. Andrew Chafin now walks fewer hitters than the average relief pitcher at this stage in his career. And his slider, Derek, nobody hits. Nobody hits Andrew Chafin Slider. I couldn't really figure it out. You should check out my story where I kind of go into the details

and how it moves and whatnot. But opposing hitters last year hit 0.85 against Andrew Chafin Slider with a 127 slugging percentage. They also swung and missed at Andrew Chafin Slider more than hitter swung and miss. basically any slider in baseball last year.

So it really is an incredible pitch form. He's lost a little bit of velocity. So that's something that we'll definitely want to monitor. It's about two miles an hour less than what you would have seen a couple years ago when he was with the debacks. But he is a different and better pitcher than he was then. Numbers across the border down. With the debacks, he had a 3.68 ERA.

Down in a good way. Yes. In a good way. Yeah, that's true. ERA of 3.68 in his time with Arizona, 2.30 since leaving the valley. WIP gone down 1.32 to 1.04. His K percentage has stayed pretty much the same. But like Jesse said, the big thing is his walk percentage dropping that from 10.1% to 7.5%.

And it puts him, like, from, he wasn't even league average at 10.1%. Right? He was slightly love. Yeah, the league average walk rate. Yeah, league average walk rate is like, 8.2% something like that. So, so yeah, it's 7.5% over the last two plus years. Yeah, Andrew Chafin just doesn't really walk guys anymore.

And if you check out the article, I have a bunch of heat maps in there of where he's locating his pitches. There's some, they're pretty beautiful, Derek. I'm not, I'm not going to lie. As far as, as far as heat maps go for pitches. For Andrew Chafin's work. I sort of am. I sort of am.

You know, it takes skill to pull these heat maps off the internet, Derek. But, but yeah, no, I mean, just looking at that. them their textbook, right? Like the way that Andrew Chafin is locating his pitches since leaving the Diamondbacks, he's locating them where he wants to. And that's something that he wasn't always able to do back when he was with Arizona. More importantly, the steps that the Diamondbacks have taken forward this offseason are going to fly totally under the radar.

But they've done everything that we wanted them to do. They checked off all the boxes. One of the biggest things we wanted to see them do was develop who they were, who their core was, who are they going to build around going forward. And I feel like that trade, even though it takes away one of the most productive members of the offense and defense at the same time in Dalton Varshow, yeah. It really brings in a player in Gabriel Moreno that kind of defines what their core is now. Like without having that many top prospects all around the same age with the same years of control left, it just gives the Arizona idea of what they're going to build around and who they're going to build around. Yeah.

Excuse me. But it, you know, the bullpen addressing the bullpen, even though they didn't go out and get, you know, the big name arms that some people might recognize or some people wanted them to get, no matter how unreasonable it was to think that they would go after those arms. Schaepen is a big name. And as far as the numbers go, when you looked at relief pitchers left, he was one of the highest guys on the list. And that doesn't just, that's not just for when we whittled it down to who was left. That was from the get-go. he was pretty high up there as far as his war and just as far as his performance level over the last few years. Yeah, I mean, there really weren't that many great relievers available this offseason, honestly.

It's like centerfielders, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's like if you didn't get Edwin Diaz, then, you know, you're not getting one of the top five, top 10 best relievers in baseball or something. That's just not how the free agent market worked out this year. But he really was one of the better guys out there. I think it's a really good move for the debacks. And it'll be interesting to see how they use him, Derek, because as we've talked about, the Diamondbacks don't really have any clear closing options. I would venture to guess that maybe Andrew Chafin could be a guy the Diamondbacks use in that role,

at least part-time. He has eight saves over the last couple years with other teams. So it is a role he has a little bit of experience with. But, I mean, you know, you could also see Andrew Chaffin in a left-handed specialist kind of a role as he's mostly operated throughout his career. So I don't really know exactly what that's going to look like. But with both him and Joe Mantiply and potentially Kyle Nelson will see how healthy he is coming into spring training, at least from a left-handed perspective, you're looking pretty decent

in the bullpen. I mean, Joe Maniply was an all-star, Andrew Chafin, you know, ERA under two, two years ago and ERA under three last year. That's a pretty good duo as far as left-handed relievers go, something that D-BACs haven't had ever. Like, I don't know. Like, when have the debacks had two well above average left-handed relievers on the same roster, I don't know off the top of my head.

When as the debacks actively tried to make their bullpen better by focusing this much on it, right? Like, I really feel like between last year and this year, they know that their weakness is the bullpen. They know that they needed to do something about it, especially after what happened last season. This was a pretty damn good ball club that lost a lot of close games. late because of the bullpen.

And those days are behind us. We're not going to talk about that anymore. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to go like too crazy and say like, because before everyone was like, oh, the D-backs had a good off season, but they didn't do enough to address the bullpen. I don't want to make it sound like because you brought an Andrew Chafin. Now the D-backs are going to have a top five bullpen in baseball or something. It's still average-ish, you know, probably a little below average, depending on how certain

guys work out. But it's not too hard to see this bullpen actually being pretty good. when it's all set. The bigger problem I have is that 10 losses made the difference in the world for this team last year. 10 losses, right? So, and it's not to say that that 10 losses would have put them now as one of the best bullpens in baseball. That would have left them, what, 32 losses or 31 losses? They still would have been around the middle of the –

Yeah, it would have been around the middle of the league as far as bullpen losses. And the debacks were 13 games out of the postseason. So even if you get 10 of those back, you're still on the outside. Look at you get in 13, Jesse, and now the Phillies don't make the World Series. Now the Diamondbacks do. There you go. There you go. All right.

If the D-backs had Andrew Chafin, they would have made the World Series. That's basically what we're saying. That's what we're saying. We're saying that 100%. In other news, that's terrible. David Peralta is a Dodger, folks. Yeah, that's a bit of a buzzkill, right? I don't know.

I just feel like just transitioning right into it and just bluntly saying it. But before we talk about that horribleness, make sure to grab Jesse's piece on Andrew Chafin, and you can do that by getting yourself a dot. hard membership. If you're not already a diehard member, go to go phtonx.com. Get yourself a diehard membership. You can get Jesse's full counts. The heat maps are worth it. I'm just saying. He's really big on the heat. You also get Craig Morgan, Gerald, aka Girth, Howard, and so much more. You also get a free piece of merchandise from the phnx locker.com. You get 20% off all future purchases from there. You get access to our members-only Discord, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan,

as well as so much more discounts with our partners, members-only events and merchandise, and so much more. So make sure to sign up for a membership today. Maybe we can get David Peralta to sign up. You know, maybe he misses us. Maybe he wants to keep up to date on Dback News. But I am sad by David Peralta being a Dodger. I'm actually, honestly, I guess I'm less sad

because it would have made me more sad for him not to get picked up by a team. Like if he signed a minor league deal somewhere or something. You'd be signed a minor league deal or something. Yeah, like that would have probably made me more sad necessarily than him signing with the Dodgers. But sure, I will say that the more players that we know their weaknesses over there, maybe the better. Because now they got J.D. Martinez and David Peralta. And I'm going to hate facing them once again. Isn't it wild?

So like go back to 2017, right? The Diamondbacks headed to the postseason, the last truly fun year of Diamondbacks baseball that's happened all the way around. They're outfield that year, Derek. David Peralta, A.J. Pollock, J.D. Martinez. At this point, all three of those guys became Dodgers. Within not very long, right? I guess J.D. Martinez, it took a little while. He's just now getting there now. And then David Peralta as well, but A.J. Pollock, right? You know, became a Dodger almost instantly after that happened.

So... Is it just to demoralize this? I don't know. I don't know. It's just... I mean, David Peralta at this point, right? Like I understand people are going to miss the personality. And that rightfully so, right? David Peralta, one of the best guys in the game, one of the best clubhouse guys in the game. I think we all agree on that. But he didn't have a role in Arizona, right?

So from that standpoint, it didn't make any sense for the debacks to bring him back. We never expected that they were going to do that. He does make some sense for the Dodgers, right? They have maybe a Trace Thompson, David Peralta platoon set up in left field at this point. So Thompson will probably get the left. these Peralta, I imagine, we'll get the righties. So it's a good situation for him there. But from a D-Bex perspective, it's unfortunate to see another Diamondbacks outfielder go to Los Angeles.

It's a little gross. It's gross. I agree. By the way, we are very excited. Obviously, we know this is our time. Baseball is back. We have our new schedule that we are very excited about changing things up around here a little bit. We are going to be heading out to check out the workouts.

Pitchers and Catchers report on Wednesday. Tomorrow we actually have a fun little demonstration. Like we said, we're going to see if Rob Manfred goes out there and start showing us the defensive shift rules and the banning of the shift. But make sure to join us all this week with our new schedule. Not only will we be coming to you live after the, I guess, the camp, but we have a very special little little Valentine's. Day present for you.

Did I say it right? A Valentine's Dre present? Yeah, that would be on tomorrow on Tuesday. On Tuesday, we got Dre Jameson coming on this very podcast at 2 p.m. So don't miss that. We are definitely going to ask him his best dating tips. That's all we're going to ask him about. That's all we're here.

It's dating advice. And in shoes. Remember that picture of him with the sunglasses? That's like iconic already. And like he hasn't even been around for a couple of days. He wears SpongeBob's shoes, Derek. It's incredible. his shoes. Also, this is the man that beat Corbyn Carroll in a foot race, not once but twice.

Yeah. And can dunk a basketball, like just standing under the hoop. I don't believe that. That sounds like some superhero stuff. Yeah, maybe we can get him to demonstrate while he's on with us. Yes. I need that. See if we can arrange that. It is at 2 p.m. though. I want to emphasize we have never done a show at 2 p.m. So, I don't know. Put that in your phone. Yeah, put that in a reminder, 2 p.m. tomorrow. And don't miss Drey Jameson on Valentine's Day. It's also Galentine's Day. So I'm very, I'm, which way?

Well, what day is Galentine's Day tomorrow? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, it's Galentine's Day and Valentine's Dre. Okay. I don't, oh, there's a lot of love going around. There's a lot. There's a lot of love going on right here on the chat. We appreciate you guys.

Being here, of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, sign up for notification. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. And also, leave us a thumbs up. It's the best feeling in the world. It warms our heart. Also, if you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app,

leave us a review, subscribe to us, do all that stuff on your favorite audio podcasting app. And of course, make sure if you do watch us, also download us. Who says that you can't do both? Shout out to our friends from Four Peaks, by the way. They kept me very hydrated through the Super Bowl yesterday, I will say. So many sporting events in February to keep yourself hydrated. with our friends. Was that a hold there?

Was it actually a hold? It was absolutely a fucking hold, Jesse. Really? Oh, I don't think that. But I hated it. I hated it. I hated that he admitted it was a hold afterwards because by comparison to the things that you see throughout the game.

Did he admit it was a hold? Yeah, he said afterwards that it was hold. But I mean, I think he was just trying to be the bigger man there. Let's be honest. There are nine million plays during a game that do not get called and that one was called and it was bullshit. So you do agree with me. I completely agree with you.

I just thought it was too critical of a call to make it. for it being that tiki tack is really what it comes down to. And unfortunately, it was a fantastic game. It was outside of that. I was so excited for the end of that game. And then it was like, wow, this is the way this football game's going in. Like, that kind of sucks. As stupid as this sounds, one thought I had because of how much I love baseball.

Because Derek, Derek's addicted to baseball and daddy, daddy needs a sugar. You know what I mean? Like, I can't wait for this week to come around. But during this, I thought, this is why baseball is better. Because in a seven-game series, you don't have one play determining the entire series. Right. Now it could. Like the Diamondbacks when they won the World Series wearing this. You guys remember that one?

It did kind of come down to one play because, you know, everything was all tied up and we went to big things. Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit harder for, like with instant replay, it's harder for an umpire to really control the outcome of a full on baseball series, like a full on baseball playoff series. Not really possible. I know there are there are some examples where people would maybe have gripes with that. You know it's better than drinking a beer, though? pairing them with delicious Girl Scout cookies, Jesse. Okay. That's right.

Check out Four Peaks cookie pairing at their 8th Street Pub location in Tempe on February 16th. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. And by the way, if you need Girl Scout cookies, maybe I'm your guy. I'm just saying, I'm not trying to plug my daughter's Girl Scout cookie account here on this particular show because that would make Max very angry that I would do that. But I'm just saying, be on me if you need cookies. That's all right. All right, Jesse.

Well, we might not get to do this much longer. We'll probably get to do it next week. Yeah, maybe? We'll see. Maybe we'll see. But regardless of if we do it or not, every week on this show, you guys, this shark week, every day on this show is Earth Day. And every Monday, we, on this show, we go to the mailbag.

Let's go. My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mail box. First question. What is a catch in the NFL from our friend Charles Woodall Pike, aka a cactus on ice? We have no idea. Yeah, football season is over, Charles.

We're done with those questions, Charles. We're not taking any more football questions. Those are in the past now. You know what we know is a catch? Baseball you know when it's a catch. Sure, you don't have another guy trying to knock the ball out of their hands, which would kind of be awesome. You know, it's not Susie Hunter's idea of adding guns to football, but it would be fun if you could have like a defender grow out there and try to knock the ball out of the outfielders hands.

I'm just saying. No, that would not be fun. I'm just saying. I'm just throwing ideas out there. No, we don't know what a catch is in the NFL. We can't help you with that. I'm thankful that I think, I mean, every once in a while, you'll have a catch in the outfield or something that, you know, they need to.

Is it a bit questionable. Yeah, a bit questionable. You have to, you know, you have to look at the replay and whatnot. But once you look at the replay, it's usually pretty obvious. I feel like this version in Major League Baseball right now is the catcher at the plate. Oh, yeah. Right? It's very vague.

It goes from umpire to umpire. It can completely different. It can be completely different. I mean, every pro sport has to have its one really ambiguous rule. Yeah, one controversial rule. Like it wouldn't be fun unless we had something that nobody understood not even the umpires.

That's right. That way, that it just wouldn't be the same. So by the way, before we got on the show, we found out the little breaking news that it sounds like that that a ghost runner rule is sticking around permanently. So we will talk about that more tomorrow.

But you know, we're done with football. questions. Damon, next question. Let's go. What else we got? Uh, no, I said we were done with football questions. Okay, fine. Elizabeth, this was actually a good one. She said, what was the best thing you ate for the Super Bowl? Jesse? Do I have to give a series? You have to give a series. Did you not have a super bowl festivities? No, no, I didn't. I did not attend a Super Bowl party. I was, I was setting, I was building Chase lounges to be truthful with you. And, uh, no, but I did make some food. I was hungry, but I had a really nice Chipotle burrito for lunch, and I was pretty stuffed.

So I just didn't have that much room left. So I made a delectable peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner that I ate yesterday. Jesse, no, that can't be the answer to this question. It might have been better than the burrito. It was one of the best things I've eaten in a while. Jesse, I think you meant that you had an illegal pizza burrito for lunch. Yeah, that's the way. That's the direction he wins.

Oh, my God. I'm so disappointed in you. I had delicious brisket from Little Miss Barber. which is one of the finest restaurants in all the valley to get barbecue at. But it wasn't the best thing I ate because my friend Jared bought an excessive amount of meat for a very small amount of people. Like not nearly as many people. He put a whole brisket away that he did not share with me. Yes, I'm shaming him on this show because I still can't believe he didn't let me take any leftovers.

Thanks, Jared. But there was some pulled pork that was actually better than the brisket, in my opinion. It was incredible. And of course, there's a lot of good places to eat. That was one thing about having all these people in town for the Super Bowl was being reminded about where the good restaurants are that I know are here, but I forget and I don't actually go to because I stay very inside of my bubble around this building and my home building.

But great places to eat. So by the way. Not as good as my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They're all better than every single one of them is better than peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And the rest of you visitors can go now. And so can these Super Bowl questions, What else we got, David? All right, here we go.

Gabriel gets thing back on track. What will it take for the debacks to take some of the spotlight from the suns this summer? Oh, that's not happening. I don't think that's happening. Also, how will your daily routine change starting tomorrow? Let's start with the first one, Jesse. What will it take for the debacks to take some of the spotlight from the suns? I mean, some of the, like some is kind of, I don't know.

I mean, I think the debacks don't have to do much to take some of the spotlight. I guess how much of the spotlight are we talking? We don't want that much. We actually want to share the spotlight with the suns. We want the sons to still have a significant portion of the spotlight. I just know that after the whole Kevin Durant thing, I'm just going to be like a nervous wreck throughout the first half of baseball season because I'm going to be like watching Suns games and whatnot and being all stressed out all the time.

But no, I think the Diamondbacks are well positioned not to control the Valley sports narrative over the summer because the Suns are going to do that. There's just no question about it. The Suns are king in the staff. If the suns don't control the narrative in the summer, something has gone seriously wrong. But, I mean, that only goes up until what, like the end of June. And then after that, you know. After they win the, when the championship.

Yeah, after they win the NBA finals, then, you know, then it's debacks. Then they take center stage for a while. So, yeah, I think just the youth on this team and Corbyn Carroll and Brandon Fod and Dre Jameson and Ryan Nelson and all the players that we've been anticipating for months now, right, getting to see them play again. I think the debacks are well positioned to really catch some eyes this summer and hopefully get some of the fans that have disengaged in the last few years to come back and be like, hey, this baseball team is actually going places and has a direction that maybe they haven't had in the past.

I don't like that answer. I don't like that answer, Michael. He said a first round playoff exit for the Suns would do it. No, I don't want that. That is one scenario, but it's not a scenario that I want. We don't like that. That's the darkest time. We want the Diamondbacks to just share a spot of the very, very bright spotlight that's also going on.

I would say barring the sun's doing poorly, right? Like taking that out of the equation. The only thing I really feel like the debacks could do is really have their young players start playing exceptionally well and to really start turning heads, right? Yeah. Corbyn Carroll lives up to the expectations. Gabriel Moreno becomes their everyday catcher and he starts catching fire. Some of the other young guys continue. Jake McCarthy continues doing what he did on the second half of last season.

I think you have that excitement around this team. You have these guys playing that well. Honestly, if you have a winning record after April, I think we'll be. With that schedule? We'll be screaming their praises if that could be a possibility. But yeah, I think mostly the young guys playing well enough to get noticed and to get talked about

and really start just immediately developing into the superstars that this team hopes that they could be. Yeah. I mean, it's an exciting baseball team. It's the most exciting Diamondbacks team. team that we've had maybe since 2018, like coming off of the playoff appearance, when you thought the debacks had a shot to build on what they already kind of established. I know 2020, you know, after the Starling Marte trade, there was a lot of excitement there. But it's just different when it's

young players. Like when it's the guys that you drafted, it's just a whole different world. And the debacks have so many of them that are so good, at least have a chance to be so good. It's going to be a fun year. Chris says, but I don't have to love crowded concourses right. No, you don't. None of us do. Yeah, but it's fair. You want to learn to live with it is what you want. What else we got, Damon? All right. Michael, just the sons have Kevin Durant as his Twitter handle is pretty fantastic. He asks, with two days to go until pitchers and catchers, is it justified to find it disconcerting that the Diamondbacks haven't announced any giveaway nights yet? The answer to that question? is yes.

It's very disconcerting. I'm going to say right now, Jesse, I hate it, I hate it. I mean, it doesn't mean they're not going to. It doesn't mean that they're not going to, but if you look around MLB right now, almost every single team has put out their promotional items and some of them are absolute fucking fire, right?

The Boston Red Sox have this Pedro Martinez shirt that looks like it dropped right out of like, death row records or something. It's incredible. You have, even the Cincinnati Reds have this great, like, bobblehead, but not bobblehead. It's like a little statue of their stadium. Oh, that's cool. That Miami-Marland's have a couple of bobbleheads that they're not, they haven't released what they are, but you know that those bobbleheads are coming.

Every team so far across baseball has some sort of promotional schedule out, it seems like. Is it literally every team? I mean, I could not find a team besides the Arizona Diamondbacks that do not have one on their calendar. Like the Diamondbacks do have a section for it on their website, but it currently says to come back to find out what the promotional items are. It's not to say they're not going to have promotional items, but to Michael's point,

it does start to make you wonder what items we're going to see if it's going to be another year without bobbleheads. I looked across baseball and there are some incredible bobbleheads. Like I said, Marlins didn't have, the Marlins didn't have theirs listed, but they had kind of like some mystery bobbleheads coming up. The Cubs are giving away like a Fergie Jenkins statue bobblehead that's really cool. And I think it was Billy Wright statue bobblehead. And, you know, of course, they're players.

They have Nico Horner. They have a fucking W.W.E. Knight over at the Chicago Cubs. And unfortunately, we might need to get you out there, Derek. They have Clark the Cub as Hulk Hogan. And you know I'm not happy about that. But the firehead is, or the bobblehead is fucking fire. It's awesome. It is incredible.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. That W.W.E. Knight makes its way to chase me. because I need that more than I need Star Wars Night. And I just, I want to see some stuff, man. I really do. I want to see the Miami Marlins have a Goya Foods tropical shirt giveaway. And it warms my Boricua soul is what it does. Like deep down inside, I need that.

So if anybody here just by chance is watching from Miami, DM me, we need to make a range. Gabriel makes a good point. He said maybe they just had all Varsho brand and giveaways. Maybe they did. Maybe they're just scrambling. Yeah. They were all doll bar show. They were giving away like a...

That makes too much sense, Gabriel. They were giving away like a replica of the meme, the all the tools meme that we put out all the time. You know, they had those manufactured, ready to go and everything. And now they're just scrambling trying to figure out what to do. Okay. So Tyler Hurd actually says promo schedule normally comes out on Fan Fest. Fanfest would have been held the weekend before the Super Bowl, I imagine, or the weekend of or after. We know that the MVP event is this weekend, right?

Yeah. So that is essentially. fan fest so hopefully we will see the promos as well Elizabeth says I'm not seeing promos on Mets calendar either well I don't I don't I I'm sure I'm hoping that this is just

again because of what Tyler said it's just kind of when they're going to release it I saw something about Brian said fake wrestling what other kind of wrestling is there I didn't know there was like do people watch real wrestling come on Brian we don't need to attack an art form that I love

clutch connect says I still love when the Grizzlies had a wrestling belt giveaway. Oh my God. I didn't know they did that, but that I need to look up. All right. Is that all we got for segment one there, Damon of the mailbag? Okay. Well, if you guys haven't done so already, make sure to download the underdog fantasy app. We are writing on pitch

counts with MLB this year. Pickums higher, lower, you find a pitch count, you go, you search a pitcher's history, you cross-reference that with the team he's playing and how well they're playing, what has past performances against them, what he's done in his last five starts, and you determine, if

want to go higher or lower than their pitch count that they give you. And it's that easy. The more of those you add, the more money you can win. Be like me, I want $1,000 over on the Underdog Fantasy app doing that. You can also draft fantasy teams for daily fantasy against your friends and win some cold, hard cash. Do something like draft six NBA players with no positional limits. And that's it.

Whoever scores the most fantasy points wins the day and the money. It's easy to get started. Go to underdog fantasy.com or download the app. Sign up with promo code PHNX and Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. And like Jesse says, don't be an underdog, be an overdog over at the Underdog fantasy app. I still don't think that word exists. But if he wants to keep pushing the issue that it does, I will believe him. But more furniture.

It's in the dictionary, Derek. Yeah, well, I don't know. You can take it up with Miriam Webster. I will. I will. I will. You said you were building Chase lounges again. I was.

Yes. Yes. You're insufferable. So again, guys, I need help because Jesse doesn't understand how to furnish a house. So make sure to drop him your finest furnishing tips. I know most of you have some great, I guess it would be like hacks, furniture hacks, things that he needs to know that like why he can't have nothing but Chase lounges in his house. But of course, email him about that, text him about it, send him stuff on Twitter. We want you to go to morefurniture.com.

and of course get whatever you need for your house and get that white glove delivery service well they will bring it to your home and set it up for you and you don't have to do a thing. Save big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture.com and now we got some more mailbag Monday questions presented by our friends at More Furniture.

So let's go. What else we got here, Damon? Oh, Chris decided to DM us for some reason because she has to be difficult. So here's her DM. Chris asks, Aiden says pitch framing is baseball flopping arguing that actions are deliberately taken to get a call from officials that might not happen otherwise. What say you, Jesse?

100% right. Absolutely. Top-notch analysis. Accurate. Nailed it right on the head. No notes. No notes. No, but yeah, seriously, right? I mean, essentially it is what it is.

And that's one of the problems. That's why catchers that do frame pitches exceptionally well are very valuable, even if they don't have that value elsewhere. at the dish. Yeah, I mean, in the same way that ambiguous rules are a necessary part of sports, you also need some sort of situation where you're trying to deceive the officials, right? Like, that's just that it wouldn't be pro sports without it. So in baseball, we have pitch framing, which is where we have at this point the technology

to make it so that the people sitting at home basically have a better idea of the strike zone than the poor guy behind home plate trying to do it with the naked eye. That's right. That's right. And yet, you know, we're okay with that. And we have catchers behind home plate who are trying to fool the umpire, even though, uh, yeah, we have the technology to know whether a pitch is actually in the strike zone or not.

So, uh, and that's the thing that bothers me. That's what really bothers me is that we do have this technology. Right. And there's this idea that like, we're replacing someone's job or something by fully implementing it, right? Like we're doing something to grossly change the game. It reminds me of the judge in tennis, right? Because the challenge system in tennis is a lot like the challenge system we saw during the Arizona Fall League, right?

Right. Where it's instantaneous and it is a computer telling you accurately whether the ball was in or out. And why do we need this guy sitting in a chair? Why do we need you here? We have this system to do this. Why do we need a man in a chair with poor eyesight? Why do we need a guy behind the plate? Like I understand you need a guy there no matter what.

There's always going to be an umpire behind home play. Yeah, but that won't change. He doesn't need to call balls and strikes. That doesn't need to be his job. And the umpires don't need to get up in arms in that because it's like we're just trying to take a job away from you. You have one less job to do. We're not going to pay you less. We're going to pay you the same amount.

You just now have to like call other stuff like, you know, plays at the plate and things like that. Stop worrying about calling balls and strikes. It's nonsense. I mean, the key difference between framing in baseball and flopping in the NBA, is that is that balls and strikes as we're saying is something that a robot can determine as far as I'm aware there's no robot that can decide you know whether it's a shooting foul or you know like like a foul on the floor like or if the guy got knocked down if it was a charge or if it was yeah yeah like that's not something at least not not that not that I'm aware of I don't think the technology exists

yet when that when that happens we're all done for when that technology exists maybe there comes a day when like NBA referees and NFL referees and like you genuinely don't need any human element at all, which would be kind of sad, honestly. But, but yeah, at least as far as balls and strikes go, we are at that point. And it does set up a weird situation where as long as human umpires are still calling balls and strikes, framing is still going to be one of the most heavily valued things that a catcher can do. And there's a lot of concern over if at some point we do go to, you know, a robot system. or a challenge system that, you know, the art of framing will no longer have center stage.

It will become basically useless. And at that point, there's a lot of catchers that might be looking for jobs that have no problem finding them now. So we'll have to see what happens with that. Damon, can we take a step backward to a question from the last segment? Because I don't think we answered the second half of it. It was Gabriel's question. And he had asked basically, how will your daily routine change starting to my? And actually tomorrow is just that, of course, it is that the day to go out and watch them do the new rules.

Demonstration of the new rules, whatever that means. But starting Wednesday, of course, with the later schedule, I mean, I'm instantly not a fan. I'm telling you that right now. I'm a morning person. So I get up, I get going very early. I am going to get out. That's exactly what you would want then? No, I mean, the workouts are in the morning.

The workouts are very early. The media availability starts at like 7.30 in the morning or something ridiculous like that. So I'm also like that's there's a there's a window. That's too early. Like it's too early and I'm not. But it will be a little odd like these next couple weeks because we are going to do the show at five. Yeah. And and yeah, but the day will start pretty early and then we'll have maybe some downtime in the afternoon some of these days.

So until game start, until the spring training game start, it will be a little weird. But yeah, it's, I mean, I won't have a life anymore, Derek. I'm full, I fully come to terms with that. He tells me about his life. I don't, I don't tend to have much of a life anyway, but, but for the next nine months at this point until, yeah, basically November when we have. By loved ones. Pretty much. The reason I'm not calling you back is because baseball.

That's it. That's the reason. It's the best reason you can give. I will say, I will say it is weird. It is weird because I am a creature of habit. a lot of baseball players. So it's weird for the schedule to change because I feel like ever since we got into this office, I've kind of been doing the same thing. Aside from changing from Sunday through Thursday when the season was still going on to Monday through Friday, we've kind

of been just plugging along and doing our thing here. I will miss my morning times in the gym, Jesse, because there's a perfect time of the morning around these parts where you could go to the gym in this building around 10 o'clock. And there isn't a soul to be seen for at least two hours in that room. So I'm definitely going to miss that. But definitely excited to get out and be around Salt River Fields. Like it's one of my favorite places, almost more than Chase Field. It's entirely too cold, though, this week. It's like, come on, we got pitchers and catchers reporting. It's like 54 degrees outside. Yeah, definitely not. This is not okay. Not a fan of that. What else we got, Damon, for our final question there. Oh, no, we got two more. What else we got? Don's bread asks, with Valentine's Day

coming up, which D-Backs player would you cast to be the next bachelor? And of course, this is our Don's Bread question of the week. Jesse actually told me he watched The Bachelor. I have watched The Bachelor a few times. A few times. I know that's blowing a lot of your guys' minds too, but. I didn't enjoy it. I thought it was kind of ridiculous.

Yes, of course. None of us enjoy it. We just watch it out of spite. It is ridiculous in a very entertaining sort of a way. I can't believe what I'm watching right now sort of a way. So I did enjoy it. Question. Let's get to the question.

Yeah, what do you think, Derek? I'm going to leave this one to you. What do we got? Well, you know the rule of these type of questions. The answer has to be Madison Bumgarner or Josh Rojas. Obviously, we've seen how Madison Bumgarner reacts to people wanting to hold his hand. So I'm not picking Madison Bumgarner. I can only imagine how explosive some of the dates would be on that show with Madison, right?

It's Josh Rojas. Josh Rohas is the answer. Josh Rohas is the one individual that, to me, Like the other guys are a bunch of good looking dudes. Don't get me wrong. But they're all very nice, right? If we were forming a boy band like we talked about in the past because we did form a boy band, Josh Rojas is the bad boy here.

He's the bad boy of the boy band. And I think that would make it an intriguing season of The Bachelor to Watch. Yeah, I'm with you. I think it makes sense. I mean, you know, Josh Rawas, just the personality. You know, there's going to be some, you know, some drama. Like, you know, he's he's going to represent. represent himself well.

Yes. He's not going to take no for an answer. He's going to, you know, I just see all sorts of entertainment value that could be had there. Brian asks a great question. What is more fake the Bachelor or WWE push, right? No, they're both predetermined results. That's what it is. Is the Bachelor entirely predetermined?

Yeah, like the NBA. They all have a script. Okay. Did you hear that? Okay. So it's all scripted. That's the reason why yesterday's Super Bowl went the way it did also. All right, moving on.

What else do we got? 99 fan club at Zancho on Twitter, writes, D-BACs win total over under is 75.5. Easy money taking the over, right? Yes. I mean, it feels like free money to me, honestly. I mean, for the D-BACs to fit. Like, okay, not free money.

I mean, the D-Backs won 74 games last year, and they traded one of their best players in Don Varsho, right? So there is a, I could see a scenario where, you know, maybe there's some injuries. The debacks had really good injury luck last year. If that doesn't happen, maybe you take a slight step back there. You know, you got some good performances from guys like Jake McCarthy who, you know, you're not totally sure if he's going to be able to maintain that in the long run.

So it's possible that it's under. But, I mean, the debacks are mathematically projected to win 81 games. That was before the Andrew Schaeffen move. I imagine it's probably up to 82. We'll probably be talking about that more tomorrow, but there's not much evidence for the team to finish under 75.5. I think that's pretty confident over. There you go. And you can do that on the Draft King Sportsbook app.

If you haven't done so already, you should download it. If you're a new customer, you can sign up with our promo code of PHNX. If you download the Drafking Sportsbook app and use code PHNX, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 and free bets instantly. That's $5. I don't know if it's missing the rest of the words in that, but it's just saying bet $5. So just bet $5 and you'll get $200 of free bets instantly. Only at the Draft King's Sportsbook app with code PHNX minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details.

My Super Bowl bets did not go well, Jesse. As we said, I took the Eagles, I believe, by a billion. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. I don't want to say I was a little hesitant about your confidence with that one. Yeah, I didn't get the script. I didn't get the script. But the thing I'm more mad about Jesse, purple gatories.

Purple Gatorade. Was it purple? It was fucking purple I didn't even I like I'm dressed in purple today In honor of the Gatorade You threw some serious shade At purple Gatorade

I threw all the shade I threw every bit of shade At purple Gatorade What flavor is purple Gatorade? Grape? Grape? Okay. All right

That doesn't feel like it would be very good No No and they had to drink it all game And I almost feel like Somebody in the locker room Had money on Purple Gatorade Plus 1600 Jesse. That means for a $20 bet you'd win, what, $320 if my math is correct on that?

I think that's correct. Holy shit. Anyway, that's incredible. And obviously, I did not do good. That's why I'm done with the NFL. I'm amazed that the Chiefs won a game drinking Purple Gatorade the whole time. That's the real mystery here. That's a great point. How did they do that? I don't know. There is a Purple Gatorade that's decent. It's called like Riptide Rush. It's not really great. Okay. Yeah. It's Gatorade. Those are like the Arctic ones, like the Frostwood, right? Yeah. I think that that might have been the purple. Okay.

I'm okay with that. I still think that the, I think the fix was in on that one. But I also want to give a shout out to our friends from Mountain Mike's pizza. Mountain Mike, our friend Mike over at Mountain Mike, Mike Smith, he says he's not the real Mountain Mike,

but I don't believe him, Jesse. Oh, he's absolutely the real Mountain Mike. If you were the Monopoly guy, would you go around telling people you were the Monopoly guy, right? So I'm fucking, I don't believe him for a second. But shout out to our man, Mountain Mike, and all our friends about Mike's for the delicious food. We got pizza here.

We got delicious pizza. We are being treated to what is this goodness? When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie that's... Jesse? No! It's a moray. It's a moray. I was pretty sure it was moray, but I wasn't totally sure.

Come on. You want beautiful pizza like that. Yeah, I know. He blew it. You had one word. You had one job. One job. Anyway, head over to Mountain Mike's Pizza.com or to their Mesa, Chandler, or Tucson locations to place your next order. Reminder, new diehards, get a $50 voucher for Mountain Mikes upon signing up. So make sure to do that. Another reason for you to become a diehard around these parts. But we're so excited. We can't wait to bring you guys tomorrow. Not only our interview with Dre Jameson on Valentine's Dre, but updates from whatever this weird demonstration of the MLB rules is going to be.

Tomorrow will be, tomorrow will be a lot of fun. I really hope. We'll all have footage of Derek out there doing the demonstration for all of the reporters in the entire industry. Yeah. Probably not the best idea, but you make sure to follow us until then. I am on Twitter at cap underscore caveman with a K. This guy's at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs.

But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Going back to some of those answers real fast. Gabriel Ferrer said put Madbun on the weird farmer's only bachelor that they advertised yesterday. Yes, I love that idea a thousand percent. The Clutch Connect says Walker, the Clint Eastwood of the squad, cold and collected on Bachelor. That's hot. That's hot. You'd be hot on there. I love your guys' ideas and keep them common.

We always appreciate you guys being here. Until next time when we got Dre around, we thank you guys for showing up on behalf of Damon, Jesse, and myself. Sean, the MVP is also in here. We appreciate your guys' time, as always. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun on Galentine's Day.