PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Christian Walker Rejects Diamondbacks’ Qualifying Offer, Now What?

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

JOIN THE DIEHARDS FOR JUST $4 A MONTH! https://www.gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube While we anxiously await Christian Walker’s decision on the Diamondbacks qualifying offer, we take a look across the league at which players have already declined their qualifying offers and how it will impact free agency. We also have more on the D-backs promoting Shaun Larkin to third base coach, Paul Skenes and Luis Gil being the first starting pitchers to win Rookie of the Year for the AL and NL since 1981, how Yu Min Lin fared in the Premiere12 tournament, and more! Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, it's 40-man roster decision time on today's show. We have more on Christian Walker's qualifying offer and who around MLB has and hasn't declined their qualifying offers. Also, Sean Larkin has been promoted to the Diamondbacks third base coach. Got all this and more in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. And welcome in to another edition of the D-Backs podcast right here in Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHMX. This man is occasionally known as my vice mayor.

your thunder stick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Great to be back. I missed you guys. You, not so much. Damon, definitely not. I am going to, let's start this off. I have some grievances to address. And I want to start it off by talking to Damon.

You're all your little, your favorite. Everybody's little favorite, Damon. I've worked with this man. He has a bit of a fan club. He really does. I've worked with this man for over two years. And he reduced me down on yesterday's show to being pro wrestling and 90s music. That's essentially what my character was.

Hey, I threw your wardrobe in there. I mean, I appreciate that. And you should even know more about me. So you disgust me. But you, Damon, I mean, 90s music? I never even talked to him about 90s music. How dare you make me so one-dimensional? I'll also say if I was wanting to do something back.

I'm Damon. I buy my shirts on eBay for way too much from Arizona sports teams before I was born. And then I go in my office and scream about University of Arizona football until my neck burst. Vains burst in my neck. That's, that's Damon. That's my best. And I root for losing teams all the time. Yeah, I root for losing teams.

And then I'm mad at Kevin because his teams win. Yeah. And then I don't show up because the Diamondbacks didn't make the playoffs. I just abandoned the show. Did I do everything? So, yeah, that was pretty accurate. But from your perspective, what did we miss about you? Weed.

First of all, wheat is like 90%. percent of my personality. Lead over you being a parent is crazy. That's crazy. For parent and weed, you forgot those two things? Damon, literally, never mind. I'm not going to make any accusations about him borrowing my weed pen and all that stuff. But we'll move on.

I think I've addressed my grievances enough. I have some other grievances to address. And that, of course, is if Christian Walker does in fact, Walker, Walker, Walker, his way away from this team. And I'm not excited about that. We are pending Christian Walker's qualifying offer decision. We are seeing right now around Major League Baseball that some of that news is coming down, including Teosker Hernandez, declining the Dodgers qualifying offer, which I think was over $21 million.

And Walker's decision needs to be made by 2 p.m. Arizona time today. So hopefully we'll have that information for you before the end of this program. If he hasn't rejected it already, he most likely will. And I think that's the conclusion we've come to. It's hard to come to any other conclusion at this point other than that. You could definitely cross your fingers and hope that he does accept it. However, I think that we're just waiting for the official confirmation that he's declined it. Yeah.

And to be clear, my, granted, I don't know this for sure. But my sense of the situation is that it is not as if Christian Walker is sitting at home right now, like coming down to the wire with this decision, trying to figure out what he's going to do. Should I take it? And he's like, like, he's sweating, like he is stressed out trying to figure this out. No, I think Christian Walker probably made this decision weeks ago at this point. At least not, you know, he's probably not making the decision today. And it's just a matter of, you know, the news actually making its way out into the public sphere, which understandably has not happened yet.

So, yeah, I don't think that this is a, at least it does not seem like this would be a very hard decision for Christian Walker. in his camp. We've said it from the beginning that we expect Walker to decline the qualifying offer. He is the type of player who should be able to get a multi-year deal on the open market fairly easily and probably at a higher average annual value than the 21.05 million on this qualifying offer anyway. So there just isn't really a ton of reason for him to take it as far as we are aware. Right. Not only is it most likely going to be a three-year, maybe even longer deal, but, you know, the The annual value on it is going to be, as we suspect, higher than that. And I mean, right now when you look across Major League Baseball,

there isn't a lot of elite, you know, first baseman like Christian Walker available. And I mean, you could put Pete Alonzo essentially in the same class. It's those two. So you have Pete Alonzo who once he saw, I mean, I almost feel like Pete Alonzo probably isn't waiting to see how much Christian Walker is going to make. It's probably the other way around. And based on the kind of contract, Pete Alonzo received. there's a good chance Christian Walker could could get something similar, right? I mean, that's not that far out of the question.

Yeah, I think on an AAV basis, I think they're probably going to be somewhere in the same range. Pete Alonzo is about four years younger. So I think he's going to get, you know, a six-year deal, maybe something like that, whereas Walker's probably going to get a three-year deal. But, yeah, they're absolutely in terms of just what you would pay for those guys for one season, I think they're in a pretty similar place. Yeah. Well, I mean, and again, there are decisions like this being made all around the league.

And those decisions are going to, of course, impact free agency and could impact the Arizona Diamondbacks beyond just Christian Walker leaving. We don't know, you know, where, you know, how much money the Diamondbacks are going to have to spend this offseason. But we have an idea that, you know, there might be a few positions that they target and might be willing to, I guess, go above a little bit above, you know, to bring in a quality player. and first basis is it, right? Like we've said it time and time and time again. The best replacement for Christian Walker is Christian Walker. And the biggest problem there is that when you look at the available guys on the market, there are guys that are comparable.

They're just older. And it's not guys really that you would look at and say they fit the timeline for this current Diamondbacks team as well as someone like Walker does. Right. I mean, Walker just he fits with the core. of this team so perfectly. And again, that's the reason why he's so desirable as a free agent commodity out there on the open market. Yeah.

I mean, there are some first baseman that are out there in free agency that at one point in their careers, I think were maybe similar, would be similarly valued to Christian Walker, maybe even valued more highly, right? Like Paul Goldschmidt would be one good example of that, right?

Josh Bell, like a few years ago, I think was viewed quite differently than where he is right now. But yeah, as we said earlier, it's kind of Pete Alonzo and Christian Walker as far as first baseman in free agency. And then it's everyone else. There's a pretty significant drop off after those two guys in my mind. So, yeah, today is kind of a weird day in that the news that we get today is almost not news. Like, I know it just broke that Teoska Hernandez declined his qualifying offer.

That was really news. Yeah, like none of the, and it, you know, we're probably going to get it and out. Smith in not very long here that Christian Walker also declined his qualifying offer. And that's not really going to be news either because we kind of figured that all along. But it's just good to have news of any kind to talk about Derek. So we still can get excited about these decisions being finalized even though we kind of already know how they're going to play out. Jesse's being way too honest there, but it's the truth. And you know what time of year it is.

But it's also Rule 5 draft time. And we know that the Diamondbacks have a deadline today to add players to their 40-man roster. I believe that deadline is 4 p.m. local time. Is that right? Yeah, 4 p.m. local time. Yeah, it's 6 p.m. Eastern to add players to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. And as it stands, there's a few guys on there that are in the Diamondbacks top 40 that might be susceptible there to being taken by another team. Now, in the past, we know that didn't necessarily work out for those teams because

in the case of Davis and de los Santos. For instance, he was still kind of a little too far away from the major leagues for the guardians to keep them on their 40-man roster for the entire season. So that's why he ended up coming back to this team and he ended up playing an important part in another trade. So it's not necessarily that the dive-in-backs will lose these guys if they do get drafted in the Rule 5 draft.

But there are a couple of candidates there that teams might be looking at and that the Diamondbacks might be in danger of losing. one of those guys is once again Christian Robinson, which is a name that a lot of Diamondbacks fans are familiar with, and we know that he has had a tumultuous time with this team. We also know, based on our descriptions from Arizona Fall League, that he looks great right now.

He really looks like he slimmed down. He looks much more athletic than we've seen him in the recent past. So I think that, again, there's still some hope for Robinson's career. I just don't think that, again, he was someone who was already available at one point in Rule 5 draft and didn't get drafted. And I think, again, he's probably safe as far as that's concerned just due to those stipulations of what you have to do with those players should you should you take them. Right. Yeah.

The caveat for people who don't know, if you select a player who is Rule 5 draft eligible in the Rule 5 draft, then they have to stay on your active roster for the entire following season. So, yeah, like another team might love the idea of Christian Robinson as a prospect, maybe even more so. than the Diamondbacks do. For sure. But the million dollar question is, are you willing to carry that player on your active roster for an entire season? And oftentimes the answer is no, right? And that's why we don't see a ton of action in the Rule 5 draft.

Granted, last season, we did see Davis and Delos Santos, a prospect who I think is maybe viewed somewhat similarly as Christian Robinson. He was selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Cleveland Guardians. The Diamondbacks chose not to protect him. And we kind of figured that he could be selected when the Rule 5 draft came around. Sure enough, he was. But then you see Davis and Delos Santos go into camp with the Cleveland Guardians, and he was unable to make the team.

And as a result, the Diamondbacks got him back. And thank goodness for that if you're a Diamondbacks fan, because he winds up being the centerpiece of a trade. Nets you one of the best relievers in all the baseball and AJ Puck. So, yeah, I think even if the Diamondbacks do have someone, They choose not to protect someone and that player is claimed in the Rule 5 draft. It does not mean that the Diamondbacks are losing that prospect for good. The team has to be willing to carry the player on the active roster for the entire season.

And that is not a small ask with some of these guys. And there are some names on here again, not just Christian Robinson that a lot of Diamondbacks fans are familiar with. AJ Vukovic, he's a guy that is definitely a higher prospect on this list than some of the other potential Rule 5. draft or draftees. And again, he's a guy, he's an outfielder now. I know he's kind of switched positions a little bit. The Diamondbacks. They tried him in center fields for some of 2024.

Yeah, I mean, they're trying things with him. And I don't know if, you know, if playing in the outfield is going to get him any closer to the major leagues with this franchise. But it might make him, you know, a desirable candidate for another team. And if you're not, you know, if you're willing to give a chance on a young guy, he, he, he, might fit in your team in your organization. Yeah, I, yeah, Vukovic is one of those guys, still an interesting prospect. He was taken out of high school. He is relatively young.

But again, is a team going to be willing to carry him on the active roster for an entire season based on the numbers Vukovic put up in, in double A, my, my guess is that the answer is no. Right. Three guys that do stand out to me here in terms of guys that I think other teams could want that could be worth protecting. Tim Tawa, a utility guy, who we talked about a little bit on the show, probably not as much as we should have. He put up really strong offensive numbers in both AA and AAA in 2024 and also played, I believe, every position except for catcher.

I might be missing. Maybe he didn't play shortstop. I don't remember off the top of my head. But yeah, he is a player that teams do tend to target in these situations because he can play everywhere. and he has a decent offensive track record in the minors. You can talk yourself into him being a valuable player, even if you're not going to start him every day. So I could see Tim Tawa getting selected in Rule 5 if the Diamondbacks don't select him. If they're going to protect anyone today, he feels like maybe the most likely candidate for that. Tim Tawa in 2024 played first base, second base, right field, left field, center field, and third base.

Okay. So no, so no, so no short stop. No short stop. Wait, no, no, no, no. He did play shortstop. Shortstop. Two games at shortstop. He did also DH for seven games, but no catcher. Yep. What a slacker. What is he not able to, he just like, couldn't fit that in the schedule or what? He didn't pitch either. Not in one game. He didn't pitch at all. Yeah, so Tim Tawa, I could see the Diamondbacks wanting to protect him. Christian Robinson is another name. I could see a team maybe selecting him.

Would he make it through spring training and make the roster? I'm a little skeptical, but not impossible. Kyle Backus is the other name that stands out here for me. He's a left-handed reliever that I really liked in spring training. He looked really good at times, was hurt for much of the 2024 season, but did put up pretty good numbers when he was healthy. He's a solid depth option as a left-handed reliever. Again, would a team be willing to carry him for an entire season?

I'm not totally sure. but I could see a team maybe wanting to give that a shot. So he's someone, I think the Diamondbacks, would risk losing on some level if they don't protect him today. Tristan English is another guy who's interesting. His numbers weren't great in 2024 with Reno. He slashed 263, 326424 with a 750 OPS. But he's a first baseman in AAA.

And the honest to God truth about English is that he might be an option for the Diamondbacks at first base. at least if they don't find some other viable option this year, and their depth kind of runs a little, you know, they don't have much depth over there. So it's not necessarily a guy that might be super attractive to other teams because if you're not hitting 300 in Reno, you're probably not doing well.

But, you know, again, it's a matter of the importance to the Diamondbacks that he might potentially have. Yeah. Yeah, I think, and I'd love to talk with some front office people more to kind of get their sense. of how they make these decisions. But my sense is that if you're a team looking at options in the Rule 5 draft, you're either targeting someone who you feel has a high ceiling,

like a prospect that maybe you have to kind of gut through a season where they're maybe not Major League ready, but you can talk them into being a really great player down the road and you'd love to have a chance to have that player with you in the long term. That would be the case for Christian Robinson, I think. Like maybe it's a stretch right now, but maybe he's a star in a few years. Or I think you're looking for a high floor. So someone like Tim Tawa, where you feel like he can be a contributor,

he can hold his own offensively, and he can play a whole bunch of positions. It's not all that hard to imagine him being useful, even if he's not going to be a star-level player someday. But if a player doesn't really fall in either of those categories, then I think it's a bit of a harder sell to want to take them in Rule 5. Garrett Stubbs does less for the Phillies than Tim Tawa could do for this team. I'm just saying. And if you need somebody to take somebody out, Tim's your guy.

I'm just saying, I'm not questioning his past. I'm just saying he might be that guy. No, I mean, and there's a couple of other names on this list. Of course, Caleb Roberts and Christian Serta. You also have Austin Pope. So, I mean, there's guys that are rule draft eligible that the Diamondbacks, I mean, you've seen these names for a few years. Some of them have kind of gone up and down as far as being a top prospect within the organization.

but really that caveat about keeping them on the major league roster for the whole year, that's what really impacts it the most. So the Diamondbacks do have space on their 40-man roster right now for them to protect a few of these guys. It just depends on if they feel that there's that need to do so. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Serta is an interesting name. I want to touch on him just quickly because he is the only member of the Diamondbacks top 30 on MLB Pipeline. their top 30 prospects list who is Rule 5 draft eligible.

My guess is that Serta probably doesn't need to be protected because he hasn't played above high A. And it's a little tough to carry a guy who hasn't played a game above high A in the majors for an entire season. The Diamondbacks did try it if memory serves. Oscar Hernandez, is that the right name, Derek? Am I remembering this correctly? A catcher that I believe the Diamondbacks claimed in the Rule 5 draft a number of years ago. I haven't heard that name in 84 years. Let me double check my thinking here.

It looks like I'm right. This was 2015. The Diamondbacks had Oscar Hernandez on their roster, and he's someone that they claimed in Rule 5, and he had not played above single A, I believe, when they claimed him. But it didn't really work out. He didn't really wind up panning out in the majors,

and he looked a little bit overmatched offensively. So claiming a guy from who has not played even in doubles, is pretty tough. Gabriel Ferrer in the chat says the last decent rule five guy was Garrett Whitlock and he wasn't that great either. Yeah, I mean, it's hard. It's hard to find those guys because essentially it's that perfect combination of not being worth enough to one franchise to keep them on their roster at all.

And yet that player is worth enough to another major league franchise that they would draft them and keep them on their roster the whole year. Usually the teams are just better about scouting talent than that. And they're not necessarily willing to lose a guy that they think could be major league ready by next season. And like I said, even with the case of like Tristan English, like he's not ready, but he's at the AAA level. And as far as the Diamondbacks are concerned, he's a guy that they might need for depth. Again, we have no idea how this offseason is going to go for this team and what they're going to be able to do to solve that first base. problem should Christian Walker decline his qualifying offer and become a free agent and eventually

sign with another team he might be needed but again that's that that's that choice that another team would have to make in order in order to add them to the roster so yeah that's where we're at also interesting to see like what the diamondbacks might do right I mean like if they would claim anyone in rule five yeah at this point I I'd be pretty surprised if they claimed anyone you know, the Diamondbacks are in a phase right now where they're trying to contend. And it's tough to carry, you know, if a player is left unprotected, that means that there's at least some level of skepticism on the part of the other team that that player is going to be a valuable asset in the majors.

I don't really think the Diamondbacks are in a position right now to carry someone like that. If they did, it would probably be a reliever who just like throws 117 miles an hour or something. and you're like, yeah, we can find a way to harness this into being a valuable player for us. But that is easier said than done for sure. I still to this day cannot believe that one Ryan Thompson was signed to a minor league contract. Was he not, Jesse, during the middle of the season, right?

So every once in a while you do find a diamond in the rough. And, you know, Ryan Thompson is absolutely one of those. He's not Rule 5 draft guy, but he's just a great example of how you could be discarded by another franchise and then picked up to essentially a minor league deal and immediately make an impact the way that he did. Yeah. So, well, we do have more. Of course, this isn't all that we have a, we have a pack show today. The Diamondbacks have hired a new third base coach or I guess hired might be the wrong word.

Promoted is the real word that we're looking for. I don't even know if promoted is really the right word either. There's just a new role for a guy already in the organization. I mean, it's not a demotion for sure. No, it's not one of those either. It's so different that I can't even really describe it as like a move up or, yeah, anyway. If that's not a tease, I don't know what is, but you stick around on the other side of this commercial break. We'll be right back.

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When you get that new vehicle, stop by Circle K. It's America's third stop. Don't spill anything in it. That's the most important part. But get yourself a drink, fill up your brand new vehicle with gas. And of course, you can save some money. If you join the Inner Circle Program for free by downloading the Circle K app today, Terms and Conditions apply at participating locations.

Visit CircleK.com for details. When you join their membership program, you'll save 25 cents per gallon on your first five Philips, as well as save $0.3 per gallon every day after that. you will also get your first five polar tops for absolutely free and you'll get a buy five get a six one free on a selection of circle k product so join the inner circle today and of course save yourself some money at america's third stop well the diamondbacks do have a brand new third base coach which is exciting and it is someone like we said earlier from within the organization dbacks have made farm director sean larkin their new third base coach larkin has had a great relationship with Tori LaBello and has been, you know, somewhat instrumental in the Diamondbacks kind of rebounding their farm system from what it was at one point where things looked very bleak for this team prior to Mike Hazen being the general manager. So credit to Larkin for getting the Diamondbacks back to where they needed to be as far as their farm system goes.

And now here he is taking on a new role with the Major League roster. Yeah, this is, again, this is just such a different role from what Sean Larkin was doing previously. He's going from being the manager of the Diamondback's entire minor league system, constantly traveling between, you know, Reno, Amarillo, Vysalia, Hillsborough, all these different places. I got to talk to him a lot throughout the season. If you've been keeping up with my written work over at go phnx.com, we did a prospect report for all of our diehards every month. So I would talk with Sean and bug him constantly. And he's been tremendous about letting Jesse bug him. He has been tremendous about letting me bug him. So in that sense, I'm sad to see Sean remove it from this role. But yeah, I mean,

it sounds like this really came down to just sort of his personal preference and a desire to get back on the field, which is, yeah, just a very different role from what he was doing before. You mentioned his relationship with Tori Lavello. Larkin played six years in the minor leagues and the Cleveland, then the Cleveland Indians minor league system. That's right. And yeah, Tori Lavello was his manager for four of those years. So, yeah, now they're working together, Derek. So it should be fun to see.

How's his arm? How's this motion? You got a pretty good rotator cuff. Yeah, that's a good point because he's going to have to run drills with guys and whatnot. Like, he's not just showing up at the park as an observer and, you know, someone to, for minor league guys to bounce ideas off of and whatnot. He's going to have to get in there a little bit more. No, yeah.

I mean, that's an interesting thing considering he doesn't really come right now from a coaching world, right? And it doesn't mean he doesn't have leadership skills or the ability to coach. He just doesn't really do that right now as part of his job. It's more of like decision making and observing the talent and trying to help the organization understand where certain guys are at and help those guys achieve what they're trying to achieve as well. Yeah, yeah. Another thing was interesting that came out on this in Nick Bacoro's story over at the Arizona in our public, he reported that Larkin was a finalist for a high ranking front office job with the

St. Louis Cardinals within the last month. And Larkin ultimately did not wind up, did not wind up going to the Cardinals, obviously. And it sounds like that decision was made before Tony Peres Chica left. So it's not like he wound up not going to St. Louis because he was already going to be the Diamondbacks third base coach. This is something that was decided after the fact. But yeah, now, Now they've got a new guy running the farm system and the diamondbacks continue to embrace the youth movement here, Derek. They really do. Chris Slivka, their new farm director is just 31 years old. He has more to talk about with you than he does with me.

And that was already the case with Sean Larkin, but that's definitely the case with a 31-year-old, Jesse. But that's interesting. And again, I don't get scared away by the idea of a young person being knowledgeable and taking over a role like this. Sure. Obviously on this show, one young person does the driving here. We all know that. But in the case of, you know, Slivka, he has a nine-year career in the Diamondbacks organization. So he's not a new face. And he is somebody essentially, I imagine, that has been, you know, I won't say groomed for this role. But to a degree, you know, probably is, you know, has kind of always been seen a little bit there as a good, you know, next up for this. role. And I'll also say, um, there's a connection there, right? I mean, you're, you're dealing with younger players. Uh, you, you have the ability, essentially to assess talent as a farm director. He was the assistant farm director last year. So I, I, I think that there's a lot of positives there. And I, I think that the, uh, youth there is, is one of them, honestly.

Yeah. The diamond backs are, they're, they're kind of embracing the youth movement. Not, not across the board, but they do have several high-ranking front office officials who are pretty young. I wrote a feature story at one point about Ian Reben, who at least when I wrote the story was the youngest director of amateur scouting and all of baseball. I imagine that's still the case. I want to say he's in his upper 20s at this point. And then, yeah, Chris Slivka at 31 is the farm director.

That's a really, really big job. And then someone I talked to just a few days ago for my story on Yumen Lin, Peter Wardell. He is the Diamondbacks director of international scouting, another very big job. And he, I believe, is 34 years old. So, yeah, they're letting, they're letting the kids run the whole thing, Derek. They're pushing us older folks. No, but I mean, honestly, it's smart because, again, there's, there's a time where especially like, you look at the replacement of Brentstrom, right? And there's nothing wrong. I, I still respect Brent Strom a tremendous. amount but I'm glad that the direction that they went in was a completely different direction

rather than essentially and again no disrespect to the man but bringing in another older pitching coach that's years and years of experience like don't replace Brent Strom with Brent Strom if that's what you're going to do sure go in a different direction and bring in somebody like this now you know again Larkin I think has been an incredible part of the organization for his entire time here and that high ranking front office job. That just makes it a little bit, you know, makes you feel a little bit more excited about keeping him in the organization because we've already lost some really good front office executives to other teams, right? Yeah. And yeah, I didn't even think about Brian Kaplan, their new pitching coach, who is, I believe, 32 years old. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, it is a youth movement

across the board almost. But yeah, you're absolutely right. When it comes to replacing a guy as, as legendary as Brent Strom, someone who has that kind of reputation, it would be odd to hire someone who has a similar background who's in a similar stage in their career. Brian Kaplan was very much a very much a different type of hire for this team. If you're going to try something new, try something new. Yeah. And of course, maybe part of it is listening to their pitching staff as to what, you know, what kind of pitching coach they wanted.

Who knows? I mean, I don't really know the reason. to go different direction than Wrenstrom. But we already talked about the numbers, and the numbers definitely supported going in that way. Sean Larkin, the one thing that I think people want to know about third base coach, though, is, again, how is his stop sign, how is his go sign? How well is he going to be able to judge that stuff?

Now, you know, as a coach on the field versus, you know, not really ever doing it. At least he's a player, right? Or a former player. Yeah, former player. And, yeah, I don't want to make it sound like he's just been, you know, work in an office job for the last two decades or anything. He was a field coordinator with the Dodgers for several years, which is a much different job than being the farm director.

The field coordinator of a minor league system is on the field. It's responsible for helping run drills and whatnot is my understanding. So it's not like this is going to be something completely new for him. But you're right. The third base coach job does come with a certain amount of scrutiny. it's not quite the same amount of scrutiny as like an umpire where you're only noticed when you get things wrong but it's not that far from that. No, no, it's very similar.

You are only noticed as a third base coach when you got something wrong. Rarely am I was sitting there going, good job, Paris Chica. Way to send him right. Like, why did that didn't happen? That rarely happened. You're screaming at your TV when he stopped him or when he sent him and he gets out at home. But you're you don't care otherwise. Or you're at least crediting the player.

for rounding the bases rather than a third base coach. But of course, again, it's just a, it's good news that the Diamondbacks have this coach in place. It's not like this, it's not like he's going to have the same kind of impact. I don't believe that like a pitching coach would have potentially on their decisions that they make this off season. But still, we knew that the Diamondbacks had to kind of fill these coaching roles prior to them addressing their needs with, you know, position players and pitchers and who they might be going after in free agency. Yeah. And also, real quick on Larkin, he has had coaching jobs in the past during his time with the Cleveland Guardians organization and the Los Angeles Dodgers organization as well. So I don't have in front of me exactly what coaching roles he had.

But, yeah, again, this is just him sort of wanting his future to take a bit of a different path. And yeah, it'll be, I'll get to bug him on a daily basis at the ballpark rather than just doing it over the phone. So I'm looking forward to that. Well, and there is something to be said about, you know, he does have a little bit of a relationship with the younger guys based on his involvement in the farm and things like that. Yeah, that is very true. He's very familiar with some of these guys that are on the team. I mean, I'm sure he's familiar with the whole team. But, yeah, he's very familiar with, you know, the young guys on this team.

And, again, that's one step. That's at least that's one positive versus bringing in a coach completely from outside of the organization that would kind of have to update themselves on. everything with these guys. So again, congratulations to Larkin. Congratulations to Tori for filling that role in his staff. And congratulations to him. I wasn't here yesterday on the big win in Buffalo. It was great to see him out there. Again, I completely agree with every word. These two men said, I don't understand his snowbird schedule, but it is definitely broken and wrong. But anyway, I stuck up for Tori after the show a little bit. Me and Jesse were talking. And while it doesn't makes sense from a snowbird schedule perspective. It makes sense from a sports perspective.

That game was kind of once in every five years, maybe even longer kind of a situation. You know, undefeated team, 10 weeks in, you know, on the road. I'm fairly certain. To the greatest quarterbacks of their generation. I'm fairly certain Tori has a house in Buffalo from my understanding from conversations we've had. So that all lined up tremendously. And I didn't, I was too angry at Damon earlier, but that's my guy, large intimate,

Kevin Thomas on the ones and twos. And I always appreciate his input. He had puppy dog guys there for a minute when we brought up Larkin going to his St. Louis Cardinals. I just had to throw that out there. His St. Louis Cardinals. Mine. I have to do everything I can to, you know, make sure everybody knows about your allegiances. Yeah, it's kind of like I know, I know Yoshi does this with the Mets.

But like anytime they get mentioned, it's like Mets mentioned, I feel the same way about my Cardinals, you know. When Jesse said that, I was like, oh, Cardinals mentioned? Oh, okay. Yeah, I did know. Kevin definitely perked up. night when we said that. And then he just kind of slumped back down in this seat when essentially the news was that this, you know, coach isn't going to his team.

So it is what it is. But we also have, of course, some very exciting awards that were given out. Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year, something that has not happened essentially in 43 years. And I know that because the last time it happened was the year I was born. So it's obviously a very long time, if that's the case. Because as you know, I'm very old. So we will talk about that on the other side of this break. Please don't go anywhere.

We'll be right back. Whatever the moment is, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Of course, Bet365 makes sports more fun. We know that. And it offers the widest range of games and markets available for live in-game betting across 78 sports. And they pioneered live in-game betting. So see for yourself all the fun that you can have over at Bet365. Download the Bet365 app right now and use our code of PHNX365 when you sign up and place a bet of $5 or more.

And you will receive $150 in bonus bets. Find out why whatever the $1. the moment. It is never ordinary. A bed 365 must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona. If you are someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 100 next step. Text next step to 53342 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. All right. Well, of course, for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and providing financial solutions that help make all of our lives better.

I got my home ownership journey started thanks to the final. folks at Desert Financial. Hopefully they can get you started as well. The Desert Financial team, our financial experts who are committed to giving back to their members and the community offering financial solutions tailored to help real people achieve their financial goals and dreams. And yes, Desert Financial is around so long that we, I guess we probably were both around in the same amount of time. And neither one of us can be a member of the Diamondbacks coaching staff because we're all too old. But Desert Financial knows money. They know numbers. That's for Sure. The cutoff is 35. Yes, correct. Correct. I get it now. Tori Lavello better.

Get himself a younger credit union, that's for sure, but you shouldn't because you need to make sure that you go with someone that you can trust. You can look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. Join a credit union that's committed to giving back to the community and sharing success with their members. When you open a free checking account online, get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. R.A. just made a crazy comment in the chat. R.A. said, if you feel better, there are people older than you, not many, but at least you have that. I'll disagree. There's a lot of people there are older than me. Have you not seen the boomers? They're sticking around. They're not going anywhere. But yes, I wasn't born yet. I wish I wasn't born yet. It was the year I was born. It was 1981. And it was the very last time that a pair of starting pitchers won both the AL and NL rookie of

the year. So hats off to these guys. Paul Skeens, Luis Gil, both of them had an amazing season. And of course, the last time that was done was by a pair of guys named Fernando Valenzuela and Dave Rigetti in 1981. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Luis Heel was interesting to me. I did not, I did not really expect him to win in the American League. I figured it would probably be Colton Kouser. That's not how things turned out. But I did have a vote in the, uh, in the, uh, I know rookie of the year situation this year and I can now reveal that that ballot

Derek. I know people have been they've been wanting they've been dying to hear this information for weeks. Why don't we tease this off the top? I didn't know you were just going to blurt this information out publicly. I did tweet it out yesterday so this isn't the first time it's been revealed

but yes my ballot was very boring. It was exactly the way that the results turned out. Paul Skeens, I had number one, Jackson Merrill. I had number two and Jackson Churio I had number three. I figured that maybe Merrill would get a little bit more support than he did. I think it was seven, seven of the 30 voters had Merrill in first place and 23 out of the 30 were like me and had Skeens in first place. Can definitely understand the argument going both ways. But for me,

Paul Skeens had a 1.96 ERA and it was sort of like, end of story. I mean, 1.96 ERA is ridiculous, right? I know he didn't pitch a full 200 innings. I don't care. He's 113, 133. Yeah, 133 was enough for me where that was just too. I could not bring myself to vote for anyone else, given how incredible Skeens' run prevention was this year. I think when you look at Jackson Merrill's line

and his contributions for the Padres, like you can't help but consider him because of the value to the team and how he helped the Padres make the playoffs and make that push in the playoffs, right? You're talking about a guy that's slash 292, 326, 500 as a rookie with 24 home runs, 90 RBI, and a 127 OPS plus. Like, that's bonkers, right? But, yeah, like, rarely does a player in baseball because of the nature of the game live up to the hype the way that Paul Skeens has. And it was wonderful to see.

He took over the Major League Baseball World. He had himself a very, like, immediately just became like a king of the baseball world with his queen at side and everybody wanted to know everything they were doing like it went beyond the game they were basically the closest that we'll ever get to you know Kelsey and Taylor swift I guess that's probably you know the best we can do in the baseball world but it's still pretty good it's pretty good it's pretty good Matt Kemp and Rihanna in 2010 was okay no yeah yeah yeah you're right that's that was pretty close that might even be better it's a Dodger I mean I'm pretty much oh yeah no I just did the thing again I outed myself well no I'm saying like I'm saying Kelsey's

the chief and at the end of the day like the historically that's not a great franchise you know the current iteration has made them relevant historically but if we're talking you know levels i mean there there are levels up there yeah sure in the conversation but i mean again it's uh when you talk about just what both of these guys did for the franchises paul skeins you know kind of gave a new life to a pittsburgh pirates franchise that had a you know fun start this season but then kind of like just drifted off and I will say that there's just so much hope for the future, that pitching staff looks very bright. He is going to be the ace of that staff for years to come, I'm sure. And Brent Strom will be there helping him achieve all of his goals and dreams,

much like Desert Financial helps you. But I will say this. I don't, like, I don't, I don't know. Like I said, going back to the Jackson Merrill argument, there is the idea of like an MVP where how much did you contribute to a team? that ended up going on to do big things. So it's hard to argue against Jackson Merrill. In the same way, it would have been hard to argue against Corby and Carroll last year with the Diamondbacks.

And I know that decision's made, you know, kind of, right, that's made before the playoff run. So you don't have the playoffs necessarily impact your voting when it comes to that. But when all of a sudden done, it was hard to deny, you know, Corbyn Carroll's not only amazing rookie year, but his importance to the Diamondbacks last year. Yeah, I mean, the decision is made before the playoffs. but it's made after the regular season. So it's not like where the team finished in the standings is completely irrelevant to this situation. And yeah, you know, I think I factored that in on some level. Like it did feel down the stretch like every single day the Padres would be down by a run in the eighth inning.

And Jackson Meryl would hit a go ahead to run home run. And it was outrageous. Every single time. It was outrageous. The number of big moments for that guy in his rookie. season was unbelievable. I mean, he also like basically learned how to play center field. He didn't really have any experience there and was not just serviceable, but was one of the best center fielder's in all of baseball. So, you know, like I think 90 plus percent of the time, you put up

the numbers that Jackson Merrill put up and you win the rookie of the year. And it's maybe not even, might not even be close. But when you have a guy in Paul Skeens who comes out and has a sub two ERA, it's like, yeah, that's fair. You might, you might, you might. you might have some trouble in a season like that. And, yeah, for me, it was still, it was still close, though. I was still having this debate in my head up until the final weeks of the season. I know there was a point where Jackson Merrill, his wins above replacement numbers, were actually pacing quite a bit better than Paul Skeens.

Sure. But by the end of the season, those numbers were pretty similar. Skeens finished at 5.9B war to Merrill's 4.4. Meryl did have the edge in Fangraph's War, 5.3 to 4.3. So that was sort of a wash. One number that I looked at is win probability added, which is just sort of totaling up throughout the season. Like, how much did you contribute to your team's chances of winning throughout the year?

And for Paul Steins, that was 3.69 compared to 2.44 for Jackson Merrill. And I'm not going to say my decision came down to that solely, but that was. was that was a factor for me for sure. That's a pretty significant difference. Well, yeah, and a starting pitcher does add, I think, to that win probability more than a position player is going to, even in a smaller sample size than what, you know, Jackson Merrill played. Yeah. However, you know, again, Paul Skeen's, what he did going 113 for that Pirates team is impressive,

considering that they weren't a very good team this year. And it just shows his dominance. I think also him and heel both winning it this year just shows like 43 years since the last time two starting pitchers won the rookie of the year it's not easy to come up and be a starting pitcher in major league baseball and find that success right and when you look at paul skeins 1.96a and a 0.95 whip it's hard to deny that he immediately was a stud an ace in major league baseball upon entering it in as a as a minor league player so you know it's hard to deny how good he truly is i mean he started the all-star game and and i don't view that as a fluke like

I mean, I know you could make the case. You didn't have as many innings as Chris Saylor or whatnot at the time. You could also make the case that Tori Lavello absolutely adored him. That is also, yeah. And was doing it for recruitment reasons. But that, that dreams falling apart. I don't think that, yeah. I don't think that works out.

Yeah, Brett Strom wound up. It's going to ruin it. It's going to ruin it. But, yeah, another interesting question here is how would we compare Corbin Carroll from 2023 with Paul Skeens this year? You know, the Merrill Skeens debate. fairly close. I think it was, at least for me, I felt pretty confident my decision. But if I had to choose between Corbyn Carroll from last year and Paul Skeens this year, let's go back to that

win probability average thing. That, you're speaking my language here, Derek. So Corbyn Carroll in 23, you know, you look at you look at wins above replacement numbers. He and Paul Skeen's very, very similar. But you look at that win probability added number that I referenced earlier. And Corbyn was at 5.19 compared to 3.69 for Skeens, which again is a pretty decisive advantage. I also think that Corbin made some history in the scene. I know Skeens did as well, but Corbin also had that narrative going for him in that he was the first rookie in ALNL history to have 25 homers and 50 stolen bases. So I think I would I think I would lean Corbin Carroll if I had to make that decision, but it's an interesting question. And I would be fascinated to know how.

how a vote like that would have panned out if it had happened that way. It's also amazing how close Jackson, Merrill, and Corbyn Carroll's numbers from these two past seasons are. But again, you look at Corby and they just slightly edge out. You know, Merrill in a couple of categories, RBI, Merrill has the edge. But, I mean, for the most part, you look at Corby and Carole getting 54 stolen bases in his rookie year. That's just insane. Merrill, Merrill hit lower in the lineup for the Padres, which is kind of bizarre to me. They were hitting him like sixth or seventh late into the season, whereas Corbyn was near the top.

So not as many RBI opportunities. But yeah, Corbin had a higher OPS plus this last year than Merrill did this year. And, you know, Merrill did steal 16 bases, but Corvin stole 54. So I think the debate between those two guys is pretty clear, but the debate between skis and Corbyn is pretty fascinating. Well, of course, we have a little bit more to discuss when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks, including Eumen Lynn and his performance in the Premier 12 tournament, as well as the Diamondbacks having an official grand opening for a new academy in the Dominican Republic, on a block where every major league team has an academy for the Dominican Republic.

It's actually quite adorable. But we will get to all that on the other side of this break. We thank you guys so much for being here. Don't you go anywhere. We'll be right back. Well, it is almost holiday shopping season, and our friends at Shady Ray's have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank and make an excellent gift for that special someone in your life. Shady Ray's is an independent sunglasses company that offers a world-class product rated five stars by over 300,000 people, and they have tons, tons of styles to choose from. You're bound to find the perfect pair for you, for yourself, for your family, your loved ones, whoever you're buying for this holiday season.

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that the Arizona Diamondbacks, of course, are, yes, sir. Yeah, hold on. Not to cut you off, Derek, not to mess with your mojo. But we do have a cool event to promote, Derek. Oh, we do. We have one more thing to promote. That is. Oh, we've been keeping a tight wrap on this one, haven't we?

Yeah, we have. But it's time to let it loose. Because if you love Archie Bradley, you're going to love this, right? We got Archie Bradley Q&A live at the Dela River Resort and Casinos. Derek can take it away from me. I'm going to drop the link in the chat for all our friends. Well, I'll tell you, we already do this with our diehards on Ask Archie. So if you are diehard, you're already familiar.

with this format and the amazing answers that Archie Bradley gives whenever you ask him a question. This man does not hold back and he will definitely not hold back live at Heila River Resorts and Casinos. Once we get a few drinks in them and we get those questions flowing, we're going to have a great time. So make sure to join us for that. This is an event that is free for diehards and I believe there's a $5 cover charge for non-di-hard. So this is not a die-hard only event. Those of you that are not die-hards can join us. But once again, another reason to join the family.

So check out all the benefits over at go phtonx.com. Yeah, Derek's right. Five dollar tickets for non-diehardt. It's free for die-hards. It's exclusive, though, so it's not going to be recorded. So if you do want a chance to ask Archie a question, make sure you show up because there's not going to be another chance for this specific event. And I know we kind of abuse it because Archie's a wonderful human being that never says no to any questions we answered.

But I'm asking, but I mean, as a diehard, you really do get a very special opportunity to ask someone like Archie questions on Ask Archie. If you haven't checked that out, we have three episodes that have dropped, so make sure to do so. But again, also to do it live and to have him look in the eye, Elizabeth, while he's answering your questions, I think that's the route to go. So make sure to join us for that. That is happening on December 4th. So make sure to join us out there at Heila River Resorts and Casinos. That is at Wild Horse Pass.

So make sure to get, of course, your event ticket. If you're a diehard, I believe you just got to go on, log on, and you'll be added to the list. And again, if you are non-di-hard, you want to join us, make sure to do so. Scan that QR code right there. There's a QR code. Get that little on your phone. I'm usually watching the show on my phone. So scanning a QR code, a little difficult.

I understand it. But we'll make sure we get you all the information. That's true. I've always really struggled with that. Yeah, when they want you to scan the QR code while you're on your phone. I'm supposed to do it with my eyes? Like, how is this is this work? One day, one day soon.

One day soon. Yeah, that's true. I need one of those VR headsets or whatever it is. For sure. Well, the Diamondbacks, like we said, they have their grand opening for their new academy in the Dominican Republic. This isn't new for the Diamondbacks to have an academy in the Dominican Republic. This is just a new and improved version of it, a number of DeBacks front office officials, current players, alumni, and even Dominican dignitaries were in attendance. And this is the first academy in the Dominican that has a field with lights, which kind of, you know, obviously makes a,

a big difference, especially as far as when games can be played and when the guys can train. Yeah, yeah, lights are important. They are important. It turns out it's hard to play baseball in the dark. I've heard that. I don't know. Yeah, I can't speak from experience. I eat a lot of carrots so I can usually see well in the dark.

Yeah, yeah. If you eat a lot of carrots and maybe you get like a glow in the dark ball and bat, like I'm not going to say it's impossible. Yeah, we've done worse when we were kids. But I mean, this is amazing facility as new dormitories, a lounge. a barbershop, three full fields, batting cages, agility field, training room, weight room, classroom. So, I mean, this is, this might even be a little bit nicer than Salt River Fields. And so, I mean, there's no dormitories.

You get to stay the night in Salt River Fields. I'm just saying. It definitely sounds nicer than my college campus. For sure. For sure. Yeah. I'm happy to be an Azusa Pacific alum. But this, display the pictures and videos I've seen.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, this is going to be, I think, an ask. set for the diamond backs, you know, at the end of the day, how much does a facility matter to some of these amateurs? Like, I think the amount of money that you're giving these guys is probably the most important factor to decide whether they're going to sign with you. But being able to say, like, our facility is the best one or one of the best ones in the Dominican Republic, I do think that could have some sway with guys as well.

Absolutely. So this is a significant development for the team. and they're really excited about it and understandably so. I just can't help when things like this come up and people wonder what the benefit is or how it could benefit the franchise. I can't help you think of Fernando Tatis Jr. literally taking out a loan where he promised future earnings to a company in order for them to provide him with things like stability and food and the ability to train and all the stuff that sometimes as a minor leaguer you don't have. And as a minor leaguer in Major League Baseball, you've already been drafted and are being paid. And so that just goes to show how difficult of a life it can be when someone like Tatis needs to essentially promise a percentage of future earnings to a company in order for him to feel like he's getting the adequate funding to make him to prepare him to be a major leaguer, right?

This could make a huge difference in a lot of a lot of players' lives, especially players that are part of this organization. It's also interesting how the potential signing of Sasaki might impact any major league baseball team's ability. to, I guess, fulfill promises to young players like this. We're going to have more about that on tomorrow's episode. But today, we're very excited about this and what it could mean for the Diamondbacks, like we said, we actually have some of the video from Derek Hall and Geraldo Perdomo out there. So let's kick things off. Here's what Derek Hall had to say about this facility.

This was an absolutely incredible day. What a ceremony and the dignitaries that showed up, including the president of the country. It shows you just how important this is, not only to our. organization, but to this entire country. And we made it known today that we wanted to have the best world-class facility in all of baseball, and I think we do now. We have the best spring training facility back at home, and we have the greatest academy now in the Dominican. We thank the Dominican for always accepting us, embracing us, and now celebrating us as we make finer young men because of this great complex. I mean, sports are wonderful, and I know we get too focused on,

you know, the wins and losses, the championships, all of that kind of stuff. But there's something important to kind of focus on there with what Derek Hall said, which is the importance just to the Dominican Republic that that these kind of facilities are. It's not just like what it does for the players that are actually part of any of these MLB teams franchises and organizations. It's the hope that it gives like young kids and stuff, you know, that they can, that that access, that, you know, that that ability for them to make it potentially to Major League Baseball is very close for them and that you know facilities like that hopefully inspire people to more more young athletes to play baseball it's it's a i've said it before it's a terrible system major league baseball

has in place when it comes to the minor leagues and how some of the younger players kind of have to have second jobs and struggle until they make that major league payday right but in the sense of this case for for young people in the dominican republic i mean it's just an opportunity at a much better life and at least that that proximity to it is is very very close to you yeah and it's not just about baseball right uh the diamondbacks also have an education center um as part of their academy there are three classrooms uh from from what we've been told in this press release so uh yeah ultimately this isn't just about uh you know trying to facilitate a good environment for for guys to develop as players but also to set them up for success in life i mean the reality is that not

every 16-year-old, 17-year-old who steps into your academy in the Dominican is going to step on a major league field someday. That's just not the reality. It's bigger than baseball. Yeah. When these guys are 16, 17 years old, you want to make sure that you're helping them in other ways as well. And it looks like the Diamondbacks have also made that a priority.

Well, we actually will have more on this story over at go phtonx.com. So if you're watching right now on television, we encourage you to join us for that conversation over here at our website. Aside from that, we appreciate you guys watching everybody, whether you're diehard, non-diehard, television watcher, listener, viewer. We appreciate you all. But we do have Geraldo Perdomo, of course, here also from the Dominican Republic.

He was there in attendance for the opening of this facility. Here's what Jerry P. had to say. My experience was kind of crazy, you know. We had a new academy here and the way they look. It's so beautiful, so awesome. It was a great job. the Ken, Derek, all those guys put the effort to build in this beautiful academy. They're going to benefit in a different way, like the education, they're going to have

better food, better room to sleep. I think it's impressive. When I signed in 2016, I think I don't have the opportunity to have like all this brand new facility. I sleep with like 15, 14 guys and I think those guys are going to have for only. only three or four. So it's, it's pretty amazing job, the guy and the front office and the owner being doing for us. It's very important. For me, education is the first, first and everything, you know, because if you don't go to the majors, you know, you got a different side to go,

to be a doctor or be a lawyer, you know, like, it's very important for me. Yeah, I love what he said there, and it just echoes kind of what we were talking about. It goes on beyond just the It goes on beyond Thought we had to evacuate here I'm no I'm no Scott Hanson I'm not gonna keep doing the show

During a fire alarm so let's just get that clear I don't know if that came through on the mics But we have a new clock in the studio And apparently it beeps Apparently it does It's the one hour mark It's news to us I can't say we sat here for an hour

Waiting for it to go down before we did the show Yeah, I will say this. Yeah, Cam has asked, has Domo been bulking? I don't know. He looked pretty big there. I'm not, I don't hate that one bit at all. But you look like he got the barbershop. He looked like he hit the barbershop.

He probably hit up the barbershop. He might have been the first customer. That would be dope. Yeah, that would be dope. I need to see some video of that. But again, like what he talks about there, like he was rooming with 13 or 14 guys, you know, and this just gives, again, the ability to have some dormitories for people to have their own personal space a little bit. And again, just the education and the value that this adds

to life beyond baseball. It's very important. And again, the Diamondbacks are doing a great thing. And again, it's not completely self-serving, but it is very important to the organization for them to be able to scout, you know, athletes that might have never been scouted. Maybe I's had never gotten on them before. And now they have the ability to do so at a beautiful facility. It's going to attract a lot of A lot of young talent. We do have some breaking news here, Derek. The decision is in. It is final.

Christian Walker has rejected the Diamondbacks qualifying offer and will now officially enter free agency. This is coming from Mark Feinzan, who tweeted a few minutes ago. Nick Martinez is the only player that will accept the qualifying offer this year. All right. We're kind of in furrying a little bit there. Sure. But that seems to be the implication. Christian Walker is not Nick Martinez.

So as far as Mark Feinstein's... It feels like a pretty safe assumption. Yeah. Given that Nick Martinez and Christian Walker are not the same person, we here at PH&X are going to say it is official. That's bold. That's all of you, Jesse. Normally you're not usually ready to make those.

I don't like to go out on a limb like that. But I feel pretty good about it in this case. So, yeah, no surprises there, as we said from the top of the show. And Cam's emoji right here just makes me realize that, Like I'm already laughing and smiling entirely too much about the news that essentially Christian Walker has opted out and gone to free agency. I think it's just it's no surprise on our end. It shouldn't be surprised to any of you Diamondbacks fans out there.

At the very least, this could be a situation where it's like Lordis. And I know Damon brought that up yesterday. We brought it up a few times where we thought Lordis Gurriel Jr. was gone from the franchise. It was a foregone conclusion for us last year. And then somehow the Diamondbacks ended up bringing him back. So, you know, there is the, there is the possibility here that Christian Walker goes out, test free agencies, see what the market is like for himself. And maybe the Diamondbacks make some sort of crazy offer that brings him back and surprises us all because that would be great. And if there was one guy on the, you know, in this franchise right now that I would suspect that would do that, be Christian Walker.

I feel like he was very sincere in talking about loving his time here and that this was kind of the only major league time that he knows. new. Like this is the only real team he knows. So they're there, I'm sure there's the, you know, that fun excitement for him to see who's interested in and what the actual offers are going to be once he's a free agent. But you never know. Maybe the diamondbacks find a way to bring him back. Yeah. And I know we've talked about this before, but just to make sure everyone's on the same page here, uh, this does have a benefit to the diamond backs. There's a reason they extended the qualifying offer in the first place. Yeah. Because Walker rejected that, the diamondbacks will, receive some sort of compensation, some sort of draft pick compensation.

If Walker signs elsewhere, that draft pick would be placed right after the first round. If Walker signs for $50 million or more, and if he signs for below $50 million, then it would be right after the second round. And we write it. Yeah. If he signs below $50 million, we break stuff. That's fair. Yeah.

That outcome seems highly unlikely because if Walker, I mean, maybe I shouldn't go that far, But, yeah, if Walker is signing for below $50 million, it feels like the Diamondbacks should probably be the team that he's signing with, in which case there wouldn't be any need for draft pick compensation. So, yeah, we expect him to sign for more than $50 million. And if he does go somewhere else, the Diamondbacks will at least get that pick in return. Well, we briefly mentioned Umin Lin a little while ago. Of course, shout out to Kevin for throwing the link in the chat,

but make sure to check out Jesse's wonderful piece. on Yumen Lynn because it is incredible. It's thorough. And if this is a player that is a big part of the future of the Diamondbacks franchise, you will find no place to get you as up to date on him as a player and a person as Jesse's piece. But he did pitch one game in the Premier 12 tournament. He went four and two-thirds innings pitched, allowing two hits, two on runs. He walked one, three strikeouts, gave up one double.

That's the only extra base hit. So, again, Uman Linn still being fairly solid in a pretty big international tournament. Yeah. And continues to be one of the top pitching prospects for this team. There's a good chance. We'll see him very soon. Yeah, this game, I believe, took place at the Taipei Dome, which is very close to where the Diamondbacks first scouted him. Or at least where Peter Wardell, the scout that I talked to for that story, the Diamondbacks director of international scouting, where he first saw Umin Lin was, was, yeah,

just a few minutes away from where a Lynn threw in this, in this game in the Premier 12. And yeah, pretty good numbers. Four and two thirds innings. Two runs, one walk, three strikeouts. Nothing crazy necessarily. But yeah, you're just looking for you, Min Lin, to continue to get work in at this point,

just as he was doing in the Arizona Fall League. And he certainly was able to accomplish that. Well, we actually have more from Peter. Yeah, yeah. Just as sort of a little teaser for the story that I wrote. I know we dropped. the link in the chat. Yeah, Peter was a great resource for this story.

He was very heavily involved with the Diamondbacks originally signing Umin Lin. Again, he's the director of international scouting. So you can imagine he'd be pretty closely involved in this process. So I got to talk with him for a while about what the scouting process of Umin was like and all the various steps that took place there. And I figured I'd share a portion of the interview that I did with him in audio form. So here is just a little snippet of what Peter Wardell had to say about you menlin. I've talked to so many people that were at like the U-18 tournaments or the U-15 tournaments.

They're like, man, like that guy could really play. It was just, it was kind of a classic example and I don't want to, I don't want to overstate it, but like he is smaller. Right. And so I think a lot of people like, oh, yeah, he's, he's fun to watch. Whereas like, yeah, but he might be really good. You know, and that that was definitely the stance that I took was that like, I really believe that like this kid's

athleticism, his ability to shape pitches, his compete factor. Like those are all indicators to me that like regardless of his size. Like I believed that he could be a starting pitcher, that he had the functional strength and flexibility and athleticism and natural

hand talent to, you know, develop into a starting pitcher. And that obviously is what steered our evaluation and ultimately our interest to sign him. Bad Jimmy. There you go. I'm excited for him.

And I mean, we've heard nothing but good things about him. It's like the only thing negative that you hear is that he's not very big. And I don't know if I really care about that much. I mean, we've seen some other dominion of guys have some success. You know, I know it's not typical as a pitcher, but still, I'm okay with it. As a short king yourself, Derek, right? You got to. Derek is not a short king.

That's a crazy thing. I have been taking shots, works in right this week. This is crazy. Right. Anthony Totry, who claims he's five eight. It's insane. There's no way Anthony Tochry is five. Yeah, he claims that every time you ask him. That's exactly what he's going to tell you.

No, I'm definitely down for Lynn. I think that, you know, what we've seen about of him in person and a very short, small sample size, I could say. I was going to say short samples. You just use the word down and short, like immediately after we had that conversation. All right. You men, Lynn, never coming on the pie. Yeah, of that. You're not helping your case.

That's fair. No, you're probably like about as average in terms of height as, as, as, I'm not, average is not bad in this context. It's the way you say things. It's like, oh, actually you're average height, Derek. You're about as average as height could possibly ever be. Yeah. I didn't mean it. No one's going to ever remember you, Derek.

I just want you to know that. Like, that's what he says with that line. No, but of course, Jesse, you may. and Lynn, a great story for this team. Yes, yes. A team that doesn't have a lot of pitching prospects right now to be excited about. He's the guy. Yeah, yeah.

He is so incredibly easy to root for. If you check out the story, I think you will definitely feel that way. Someone who very much has made it kind of his mission to show kids back home in Taiwan, where you don't hear a ton about baseball in Taiwan necessarily, but Yumen told me it is the most popular sport there. And there are a lot of kids in that country who are growing up. A lot of short kids. There are a lot of kids in that country with a dream of playing in the majors someday.

And you men has kind of made it his mission to pave the way for those guys. There are some Taiwanese baseball players that have made a name for themselves and the majors. But there's not that many. And you think about the biggest names, Chim Ming Wong probably being the biggest one. He was six four. Yeah. He was not exactly. Yeah, a little.

Uminlins a little bit shorter than he is and a little bit more relatable in that sense for a lot of people back in Taiwan. So, yeah, it's a really inspiring story. And yeah, definitely encourage people to check it out. And there's a connection here because the Dominican Academy that opened up, I mean, that's kind of similar for Geraldo Perdomo where he came from, you know, he was one of these kids that grew up and went to an academy like this or some sort of baseball facility that wasn't great, but it's still helping.

him get on his journey and get him to where he's at now. And of course, he, you know, is an ambassador for the Diamondbacks when it comes to this new facility in the Dominican Republic, as well as just a guy that very much wants, you know, to be looked up to by a younger generation and hopefully inspire some of those kids to want to be major league baseball players. Same thing with you and Lynn, especially from a country that hasn't, has a love for the game, but hasn't really produced as many stars as, you know, anybody there would like to see. And he knows that he has an opportunity to be that guy, especially that guy that, like Jesse said, it's a little bit more relatable when you see him versus a guy that's 6-4 or, you know, a guy that's an amazing

athlete that's a little bit more of a rarity, you know what I mean? But again, the love of baseball is worldwide. It's not just, you know, it's not just any particular place. And baseball, major league baseball can have a big role in growing the game in all of these countries. It's a necessity because when you kind of look sometimes at minor league plays, players. And again, like I addressed earlier, the minor league system as a whole, it's not something I think that a lot of top athletes that play multiple sports desire to go into when they could potentially go into football or basketball as an alternative. The path to making good money and being a, you know, even a mediocre player in NBA is much easier than the path

that even a good baseball player has to go through in order to make it to the major leagues. Yeah, and especially someone like Umin Lin who had to travel 7,000 miles from home at the age of 18 in order to pursue this dream that he has, right? I think we often overlook the sacrifice and kind of the risk that that is for these guys. I cannot imagine doing something like that when I was 18. Going to college in Southern California was stressful enough for me. I didn't need to learn a new language. I felt like I was learning a new language in some ways. But yeah, he was literally having to learn an entirely new language at that age when he came over to the U.S.

So it's really inspiring story. And I think it's a reminder that at the end of these, at the end of the day, these are people, right? They're not just baseball cards, you know, stats on a baseball card. They are people with stories. And, you know, for a lot of these guys, just making the major leagues, even if they don't stay there for any length of time, is a massive accomplishment given everything that they, that they sacrificed to get to that point. So you men of everyone in the Diamondback system, I mean,

his story is one of the most inspiring for sure. Shout out to Joe Thompson. He's absolutely right. You got to love the game. In today's day and age with how baseball is, you got to love the game in order to make it to that level, to be an elite player, to be a major leaguer.

And we appreciate you, Rickety Bridge, very much, who is professing in the comments that he is learning baseball. And he picked up MLB the show to learn more about baseball. honestly that is one of the best ways to learn about any sport it is i think it's an underrated way to learn a sport like really you got to play it yourself but with baseball that's a tricky thing to do because you kind of need a lot of people in order to like play a baseball game in the park or whatnot

melby the show allows you to create that universe just be aware that some of the managerial decisions and melb the show can be uh can be a little we'll tell you right now if any opposing pitcher throws 140 plus innings against you in a complete game, maybe in the playoffs, it's not, that's never going to happen in real life. 140 plus pitches. Yeah, that's in a season. I hope what game in MLB the show doesn't go 140 innings. That would be a brutal glitch.

Yeah. 140 pitches is what I was looking for on that answer that I blew. But yeah, that's not real life. It is life in MLB the show world, though. So definitely enjoy. And we're happy to have you here. we hope we can help you grow your love for the game. He said he's trying to support all Arizona sports, so we appreciate it. We also appreciate the rest of you for stopping by today.

We thank you guys so much for your time. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Ban with K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, large intimate Kevin Thomas is at Kev Tom Wrights. You got to figure that out once again on your own. Our show is 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 your time.

time. Once again, we will see you tomorrow at 1 p.m. And we will have more, not only on how the Sasaki signing could impact a team's ability to sign any other international signes, but also a little bit more on this Christian Walker decision and how things are going to shake up across Major League Baseball is for agency. So come back tomorrow. We hope to see you then. In the meantime, we hope you have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your player accepts the qualifying offer.