PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Bring Josh Rojas Home? Best Non-Tendered Players Who Could Help Diamondbacks

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

JOIN THE PHNX DIEHARDS! https://www.gophnx.com/join-diehardNow that the dust has settled from MLB team non-tendering players, we take a look at who would be a good fit for the Diamondbacks. Can we bring Josh Rojas home just for the vibes alone? Would Kyle Finnegan complete the back end of their bullpen? We also discuss Yu-Min Lin and the Chinese Taipei team winning the Premier12 tournament and answers to your Thanksgiving-related Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX 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 bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!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 pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, now that the dust has settled from MLB teams non-tendering their players, we are talking about which of those guys might be a great fit for the Diamondbacks. Also, Umin Lin is a champion and we are going to celebrate him. All this right now in 30 seconds. Don't go anywhere. Into another edition of the PHMX, T-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Occasionally, as your mayor of PHNX, this man next to me is my vice mayor and your Thundersick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And, of course, large intimate Kevin Thomas is on the ones and twos today.

Happy Thanksgiving week to you all. Happy Friendsgiving Day from P HNXHQ. We, of course, we're the sweetest podcast on the network. So, of course, Jesse brought pie and I brought sweet potato casserole because that's what we do. But we are very thankful to have you guys here. And we're very thankful, of course, to be celebrating, I guess, all of our friends around here. I want to start off because I know he would not want to do it at all in any way. But congratulating this guy on his big nomination today, along with Gerald and Craig.

I don't know if you guys got a chance to see it, but shout out to our writers around here for PHNX for being not only recognized, but rightfully so because they're doing some amazing work. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out, make sure to go to go phnx.com. Check that out. Get that diehard membership right now. That way you don't miss out on any of the wonderful stories, including your piece on Yumen Lin, which was really, really, really good. And of course, we're going to talk about him winning the, well, not him alone, but being a big part of his team winning the Premier 12 tournament. in. But first, of course, we do have Jesse some other news to talk about. And that's non-tender news. Arizona Diamondbacks didn't really lose a whole lot of guys. They didn't non-tender any of the

candidates that we had discussed. But there is a good chance here that the Diamondbacks might be able to add to this team based on what other teams had to do at the deadline there for their 40-man roster spots. Yeah, I guess real quick, we can touch on the one player that the Diamondbacks did non-tender, which is Brandon Hughes. Someone I did have on my list. We didn't wind up talking about him in our show before the non-tender deadline. But yeah, Brandon Hughes is a guy who does have minor league options remaining. So the Diamondbacks could have tendered him a contract and, you know, had him as kind of an up

and down guy serving as depth. But we did see Brandon Hughes and the majors on a couple of occasions in 2024. And it wasn't pretty, Derek. He was able to get some swing and miss, but he also gave up quite a few home runs. and that that was a bit of an issue for him. He was also non-tendered by the Chicago Cubs a year ago. So this makes the second consecutive non-tender for Brandon Hughes. I wasn't particularly shocked that the Diamondbacks did that.

But some of the other candidates we discussed, Kyle Nelson, the Diamondbacks did tender a contract to him, as well as Jose Herrera. He was also tender to contract. So no huge surprises with any of that, really. But there are some surprises about the players that could be available for the Diamondbacks to pick up based on other teams non-tendering those players. And of course, that's the most intriguing part because we do know that the debacks were going to be active. But some of these guys kind of fit a need that they have and not just a need that they have, a need I have.

And that need is to bring Josh Rojas home. There is nothing more I want more than that. And the Seattle Mariners non-tendered Josh Rojas making him available. The arbitration estimate, it was $4.3 million. And apparently that was too much for the Mariners to keep him around. If we take a look at his stats from 2024, you can see here. Rojas didn't have his greatest year there. Things started off very hot for him in his time with Seattle.

But he definitely cooled down slashing 225, 304, 336 with eight home runs, 31 RBI, and a foar of 1.9. But yeah, I mean, again, just a guy that would be a good fit based on those numbers, not a great fit, but just a good fit to come back and I think add some versatility, add some depth to this team that they lost. And a guy like Kevin Newman, I think the vibes would be off the charts if you brought Rojas back. I think it would turn him into a superhuman.

That's what I think it would do. I think bringing him back to the valley and having him be on the Diamondbacks once again would bring those numbers right back up. But, I mean, again, he had pretty good numbers defensively at third base in his time at the Wood Seattle. Well, his offensive numbers there that we showed aren't great, but his defense was solid. It really was. Yeah.

And even the offensive numbers, I mean, you know, you see a slash line of 225, 304, 336. And it's like, oh, I mean, that's, you know, well below average offensively. But you do have to remember that he's playing in Seattle, which is graded out as one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in all of baseball. That slash line actually works out to a 91 OPS plus, which is not good. Just slightly a blow average. either, right? I mean, I think Kevin Newman's OPS Plus with the Diamondbacks this year was just shy of 100. So really

not that much different than what Rojas ended up at for 2024. But you make a good point about his defense. You know, 1.9 wins above replacement is a pretty decent number. And it comes as a result of Rojas grading out as one of the better infielder defenders in

all of baseball in 2024. He played just under 1,000 innings at third base this year. Seven defensive run save, six outs above average. Those are both really strong numbers. He's got, you know, some utility ability as well. He played some second base this year, graded out pretty well there, played some left field as well. It's been a while since Josh Rojas has played shortstop, which I think might be a hindrance for the diamondbacks. Kevin Newman played shortstop for the better part of two months for this team when Geraldo

Perdomo was down with injury. And it was really important for the team to have someone who could step up and play that position. So I think that's where Rojas is maybe not ideal as a utility player. But yeah, on the whole, he had a decent season. It's not like he was terrible in 2024. The Mariners are in an interesting position right now, trying to figure out what their infield is going to look like moving forward. And they decided to move to move on without Rojas for right now. Well, and I think the idea here is that Rojas would be a fairly cheap option. And yes, again, when you talk about risk versus reward, the reward signs. The reward sign. could be that you see these numbers improve quite a bit at a much hitter-friendly or ballpark,

you know, bringing him back to Chase Field makes a lot of sense. And again, this isn't something you're necessarily doing for offense as much as you're looking for a guy that can provide you with an ample replacement at times for your infielders. And that's something Rojas can absolutely do. Defense at this point, based on what we saw last year, I think is more important than the offensive contributions. We saw guys like Blaze Alexander. and Adrian Del Castillo come into these games and have big moments and be very good offensively when they were called up from AAA. However, their defensive gaffs might have cost the Diamondbacks more games at times than they potentially won. And there were quite a few of them, especially from Alexander, playing as an infielder.

So the Diamondbacks had him last year as a viable option at times in the lineup. And that's just something that, you know, again, that Rojas could essentially prevent. We also have heard from Mike Hazen or from that, you know, article from Nick Picoro that there's a good chance we could see Blaze Alexander and Jordan Lawler both play in the outfield, play center field. So at least something that they're open to. Yeah, we don't really know exactly where that's going to go. Right. But that conversation is is there. And it's something that they are open to.

So, right. Again, there might be ways to find. There might be a way to find Blaze Alexander time, where to play to bring his offensive contributions and his amazing arm to the major league. but still not necessarily, you know, having him as a defender there in the infield. I think that, again, Rojas is, it's, it's, it's so, you miss him, Derek. I can't. I can't. I can tell.

I miss him a lot. I miss him. I have never heard anybody give a better answer to our arbitration question when we ask them how things were than when Josh Rojas. I mean, his attitude there alone is worth the, the asking price, I think, and the fact that he was so easy going about such a. terrible process but do you remember in uh i think it was it was near the beginning of the 2023 season when you tweeted out from the phnx dbacks account uh referring to some day like on april

21st josh rojas was hitting 318 or something like that and you said we miss that version of josh rojas and josh ross found the tweet and quote tweeted it and said me too yeah and and that sort of took off And that was the kind of player that Josh Rojas was for this team. Someone who takes accountability, someone who is a fantastic interview, I can say as a journalist. We would love talking with Josh Rojas after games to get his perspective on things. From a clubhouse standpoint, from a personality standpoint, you love everything that that guy brings to the table. It's just a matter of kind of figuring out what his future looks like in the majors at this point. And I do still think, as we said, I think he still has value.

you. I don't know if it's going to make sense for the debacks, though. I think having a right-handed hitting utility guy, as they did with Kevin Newman, probably makes more sense than having a left-handed hitting utility guy. Rojas struggled against lefties in 2024. He had a 357 OPS against lefties, which is pretty rough. So I don't know if it's going to be in Arizona, but you hope that a guy like Rojas finds an opportunity somewhere else and gets a chance to play and kind of show what he can do. sure he will because I think he's going to be too valuable in too many other areas. Like I said, if you're just looking for a guy that can come in and play, fill holes defensively at times,

especially considering we know how the season goes, you're not going to get through a season injury free. Having someone like Rojas that can back up at times and also fill in should an injury happen somewhere in your lineup is key. And again, just give him a new, you know, I guess a new home. Get him out of Seattle. A dreary weather isn't for him. He's too bright of a personality.

He needs more sunshine. So bring him back home. Another guy the Diamondbacks could take a look at that would fill some of their needs as far as in the bullpen is Kyle Finnegut. Jesse, who was recently non-tendered. Let's take a look at his numbers from 2024.

Yeah, 63 and two-thirds innings at 368 ERA-134 whip. 22.1% strikeout rate, which is basically right-out league average, 8.9% walk rate, which is basically also right at league average. But he was 38 for 43 and save opportunities, which is pretty impressive. I mean, that's a success rate of just about 90%. However, he did have one blown save that Diamondbacks fans will remember very well.

July 29th, Kyle Finnegan gave up five runs against the Diamondbacks, including a two-run walk-off home run by Corby and Carol. and my tinfoil hat theory on this, Derek, is that, which I, yeah, take this with a grain of salt. I sort of feel like the nationals were planning on trading Kyle Finnegan, and then he gave up five runs to the Diamondbacks the day before the trade deadline. And then some teams were like, eh, maybe we'll, maybe we'll look a different direction for our close or the rest of the season. I don't know if that's actually true, but he was, his arbitration estimate was 8.6. million, which is a decent chunk of change. And you look at some of the underlying numbers here.

While he did have overall success as a closer in 2024, these underlying numbers are not indicative of like a high leverage, you know, top notch back end reliever. Well, and I also remember going to another level of conspiracy theory, thinking that this was the Diamondbacks doing it to him on purpose. Right, right. And him allowing for it to happen. Yes, that they could acquire him for cheaper. and Kyle was in on it and it just didn't go their way.

They already had Dylan Floro. Exactly. We walked across the field. We were hoping to get Kyle Finnegan too. But yeah, no, I mean, there is, there's something to be said about the fact that we were looking at Kyle Finnegan as a potential trade target for the Diamondbacks prior to that whole incident that happened there on July 29. So the Diamondbacks have an opportunity now to go out. And as Cam said here in the chat, he said, I wanted us to trade for Finnegan. Now we can get them for cash.

let's do it. I think that he there's a mold that he fits that is so eerie here. And that is like Jesse said, it's not that his stuff is overpowery. You look at his strikeout percentage. He throws hard. He throws 97. That's not what I'm talking about. His Velo has not. Yeah. But I'm talking about his strikeout numbers. I'm talking about his walk percentage. And I'm talking about him being very much like Paul Seawald. I'm talking about very much being like Mark Melanson. I'm talking about it very much being like almost every closer the Diamondbacks have had. Even the successful ones, Fernando Rodney had like 40 saves and nobody knew how he did it. Nobody at all.

Nobody had a clue how that happened. We were just like, what? He has how many? So that's why I think he might fit the mold very well here for the Diamondbacks. They seem to get relievers that, again, their numbers aren't overpowering when you look at them. They're not dominating. They're not, you know, one of these other guys that we've taken a look at as a closer. they can get the job done and Finnegan seems like that kind of guy.

I think the other thing here is that the Diamondbacks are going to be looking for a back-end reliever. And even if it's not, even if Kyle Finnegan isn't necessarily the closer to be able to add him to this bullpen, even as a, you know, high leverage guy, it could be huge for this team. I mean, it could be a good chance to add him. And if they don't, you know, obviously get the job done on another deal that would bring a closer here, either through free agency or through a trade, he could be that for the Diamondbacks. I think he could still do a good job, especially with AJ Puck and Justin Martinez, as guys that like essentially would set him up there in the seventh and the eighth.

Yeah, I'll be really curious to see what his market looks like if teams are planning on signing him to be a closer. Like we said earlier, 38 for 43 and safe opportunities. Like that's really good. I think his ERA was on the higher end because when he did blow a save, it maybe looked something like that July 29th game where he gave up five runs and less than an inning, right? but yeah, Kyle Finnegan has a pretty solid track record of being able to get it done in the ninth inning. And like I said earlier, he does throw hard. His fasts, his four-seem fastball average 97.2 miles an hour in 2024. It hasn't regressed.

It's not really moving in the wrong direction. But he just doesn't really have an elite level pitch. His splitter is a solid secondary pitch, but it's not an elite secondary pitch. He also has a slider that he throws about 5% of the time, give. give right-handed hitters a different look every once in a while. So he has he has decent stuff, but he doesn't have elite level stuff. So I'll be curious to see what that what that market looks like this offseason. Well, we have one other name before we throw to break.

And that name is Austin Hayes, a guy who honestly had a, I guess, slightly above average to average season last year. But again, could be a cheaper option for the Diamondbacks to take a look at. Let's take a look at his 2024 season. Austin slash 255 303, 396 with five home runs, 20 RBI, and a 0.24. Not, not great. Not great. These numbers do not jump off the page. However, Austin Hayes was an all star last year in 2023.

His end of season numbers didn't necessarily jump off the page, but he had a really good first half. You look at his numbers over the last three years entering 2024. He hit 261, 313, 439, 54 home runs across those three seasons, 8.1 wins above replacement on baseball reference. Those are pretty solid numbers. Sure. He's been a pretty decent regular for several seasons. What we saw in 2024 was his numbers against right-handed pitching just go to a dark, dark place.

They really do. Hayes has been very, very good against lefties. That's kind of been his calling card. And he continued to be great against lefties in 2024. He's slashed 354, 405, 537 against lefties. The problem was that he also hit 203, 249, 320 against Ritees, which is, you know, an OPS about 569. So that's sort of the player that you're looking at here, someone that you definitely want to really only face lefties if you can help it. And I do think, however, there could be a fit here, Derek, because Randall Gritchick, as of right now, is a free agent.

Yeah. And that's sort of the role that he's. serve for this team, right? Try to get that guy in the lineup against lefties as much as possible. Austin Hayes could make some sense for the Diamondbacks. And again, I don't know. I mean, his arbitration estimate is 6.4 million. Yeah. And I don't know if the Diamondbacks. He's going to get less than that. I was going to say, I don't know if the Diamondbacks want to commit nearly that much to Austin Hayes. But again, the arbitration estimates are all the reason why you could say that these teams

parted ways with these guys instead of tender tendering them a contract. That's what it comes down. necessarily mean that any of these guys are going to get this in free agency. It's the reason why Josh Rojas being our estimate at 4.3 million is, you know, could mean that the diomax could get him for something like three or two million. Yeah. I mean, again, someone like Rojas that brings that kind of energy and that vibe, especially an edge to a team that at times needs that edge, you know, the one that I'm talking about, Tommy Fam. So, you know, Josh Rojas could be just a little bit more to this team than necessarily, you know, what he is on the field.

And I think that's why he would be a great move to bring back. Kyle Finnegan, I think someone asked, and this would be an interesting question to you, Jesse. If they did get Finnegan, you think they would still pursue that kind of, I guess, more expensive or, I guess, you know, closer, the high, high leverage arm that they're still seeking. I don't know. It's a good question. I mean, Finnegan, his R-Bast's, it was $8.6 million. You definitely figure he's going to get a little bit less than that on the open market. Not too much.

Yeah, yeah, you're not getting Finnegan for for two million. I don't think it's going to be, it's going to be higher than that. And you might have to give him more years as well. It's not just going to be a one year deal. That is also possible. So, oh, yeah, like I said earlier, I'll be really curious to just see how it plays out, how teams are viewing him. If I'm the Diamondbacks, I don't know if I want Finnegan in the closer role.

If I'm being totally honest, he seems like the kind of guy who's had success in that role in the past, but is not necessarily set up to have success in that role moving forward. Those strikeout numbers that we showed earlier are just, they're just not back end reliever level stuff. So if I'm signing Kyle Finnegan and I'm making him my closer on day one, I probably want like a pretty good contingency plan in place in case that doesn't work. He did have a 2.47 ERA in 2024 up until the day where the Diamondback sort of broke him. And then he had a 6.30 ERA from from that from that day onward.

So I think he could be a decent in my mind. I view him as more of like a six seventh inning reliever at this point than a than a true a true closer. We broke him. We can rebuild him. We can make him stronger faster, throw harder, all that stuff. You know how it goes. We got we we got back's track record in that regard. It's a little bit sketchy.

Biomechanics, Jesse. Biomechanics. The Diamondbacks do have some hard decisions ahead, of course. We'll be talking about some more potential non-tender candidates on the other side of this break. So don't you go anywhere. Well, speaking of hard decisions, I'll tell you about a hard decision that isn't difficult, but it still might be a hard decision. And that's going blue chew.

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We will be hosting our sons and Cardinals watch parties. and more, including our Ask Archie Q&A live over there on December 4th. So make sure to join us at Wild Horse Pass for that. Stay tuned for more information on how to come hang out with us. And most importantly, you do you at Healer Resorts and Casinos. So visit playatheela.com for more details. Well, Jesse, we do have a couple of more non-tendered candidates. I mean, there's a lot of guys out there that were non-tendered

that might look a little enticing to teams like the Diamondbacks, especially considering there were a few closers available out there on the market. but and that's what they're you know in the in the market for but they're also still i'm sure would like to upgrade their bullpen and some of these options are very attractive yeah well someone in the chat just mentioned jordan romano and uh reading our mind because jordan romano is the next the next player on our list you look at his stats in 2024 you're not going to be uh too blown away 13 and two thirds innings a 6.59 er a 146 whip uh strikeout and walk rate's pretty unremarkable he was eight for nine and save opportunities.

Jordan Romano, Derek, did not pitch much this season because he had elbow surgery in July, and there was some optimism that he would be able to return in September, but the Toronto Blue Jays were not exactly in the hunt late in the season, and so they decided to just not bring Romano back at any point during the season. So there's a small sample size. He was due to make $7.75 million or estimated to make $7.75 million in arbitration. The Blue Jays decided that was a little bit too much. much for them. But I will say about Jordan Romano, this is a guy who has an extremely good track

record as a back end reliever. He was an all star in 2022. He was an all star in 2023. From 2020 to 23, he had a 2.29 ERA and went 97 for 109 in save opportunities. That's a success rate close to 90%, which is really good. So I think the big variable here is do you believe that he's healthy? Do you believe that after this elbow surgery, he's going to be the same guy that he was before. If you do believe that, then you can talk yourself into Jordan Romano being one of the more intriguing high leverage reliever options on the market. I don't know if there's a sport that you can talk about guys in the way that you can baseball where you're like, yeah, this guy used to be like the best, most elite reliever in baseball.

And now he has an 8.56 ERA. Yeah. Yeah, now he's pitching in double A. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's so crazy. And I mean, it's bad enough for position players because you see how those numbers can tend to,

tend to fall off. But I feel like pitchers, it's even crazier because even some of, you know, obviously we know what's going on with Jordan Montgomery and the year he had. But there's just so many pitchers out there, especially some of these guys that have been non-tendered where when you look at their numbers, you're like, how? You know, and again, an injury usually is a big part of it. Usually that is something that changes a lot for a pitcher. especially an injury that could be a lasting injury that causes them to have to change their mechanics

or cause them to lose speed, even, you know, slight velocity on a fastball that might have been, I guess, average or mediocre. But Cam's 100% right. I've been burned before and I don't trust pitchers named Jordan anymore. So I don't know if I could pull the trigger on this deal. I will say, though, that again, it's just fascinating to me that baseball is kind of that game that when you look at guys, their numbers when they were, you know, they were an all-star one season ago, two seasons ago. But now you do question if that is the end, you know, the end of them putting up numbers like that. That's the difference in this game between those, those legends, those all-stars, those guys that

stick around and have a 10, 15-year career versus the ones that when you look back, you kind of think, oh, yeah, I remember that guy wasn't he good in like 07? You know, that's what baseball can be, unfortunately. that's why it makes making these decisions about non-tendered players so difficult you don't know at this point if this is that point of their career or if we're just looking at you know the big rebound and that 2024 would be like his his renaissance coming back you know to the numbers that he had in 2002 and 23 as intriguing as romano is I do have to ask the question of like are the diamond backs the right team to try to try to get him back on track not in 25 I don't think yeah it's it's the the diamond backs again, like, they just don't really have a track record of being the team that you want to sign with if you, if you were, you know, got hurt and you're trying to find your way back. If you're a pitcher at least, like they just don't really have a track record of helping guys rebound in that way. Whereas if Jordan Romano signs with the Dodgers, like, you can basically, you know, lock him in for 45 saves or something this season. Like that's just sort of how it, how things feel with an organization like that.

You guys call me the Dodger fan on this podcast? Come on. Let's go. I'm expressing no fandom, Derek. I'm simply stating the facts that like, like, like, Daniel Hudson at age 38 with the Dodgers is like an elite back end reliever. And he's retiring after the season like at the top of his game, right? Blake Trinin had all sorts of injuries. We talked about him the other day. I imagine he's just going to go back to the Dodgers again because they're a team that has a lot of success with those kind of pitchers. I don't know if the diamond backs are going to be the best fit for Romano.

I'm not sure he's the best fit for them either because I think this is a team that needs some stability. I'm not sure they're in a place to be taking chances on guys, especially back-end reliever types. I think they'd probably want someone who's a little bit more solid, but there's an intriguing element to his game. There's no doubt about it. I'm convinced that the Dodgers have some form of the super soldier serum from like Captain America. Not like the serum. They can't make super soldiers, but I'm just, I'm convinced that they have something. It's not a performance enhancing drug, nor am I accusing Captain America of being on performance enhancing drugs.

I'm just saying there's some, there's some Venn diagram thing there in the middle that explains why the Dodgers are able to do what they do. But we have one more name to talk about here before we move on. And that's John Bertie, Jesse. This is a guy that, again, if you're talking about versatility, he played 30. base, second pace and left field in 2024 and was a fairly good defender over there at third base a little bit

above average and I guess if you're talking about a guy that you're looking to kind of replace a Kevin Newman to replace some of those backup roles John Bertie could be a good fit. Yeah, he's he's out of everyone available in free agency for that utility role John Bertie I think makes a lot of sense

you see the numbers here for 2024 273 342 318 slash line one homer 6 RBI as you can probably tell, he did not play very much in 2024. He missed about a month with a groin strain early in the season. And then he missed about three months with a calf strain later in the season. So this is 74 played appearances, 25 games that we're talking about here for John Birdie. So he just was not healthy really at all in 2024.

And you can kind of understand why the Yankees decided not to tender him a contract. But he did play a substantial amount of shortstop in 2023. when he was still with the Marlins, graded out pretty well defensively there. So I think he does make sense. He bats right-handed. He's a guy who can get on base, even though he doesn't have a ton of power.

He still had 91st percentile sprint speed in 2024. This is a guy who's only a couple years removed from stealing over 40 bases. Go with that mustache. Let's go. Yeah, the mustache as well. The mustache stays, by the way. John, we're paying for the mustache if we bring you over.

Yeah. So I think John Bertie could, could absolutely make sense for the diamondbacks. Out of everyone on this list, he seems to be as a logical of a fit as anyone. Tendi gang assemble. We got Mark Salar in the chat. We just need cogs and maybe a few other CWP. But yeah, no, I mean, the tendy gang we're talking about in this case is more of the non-tendie gang.

But non-tenders, nonetheless, there's some other notable names here that were non-tendered as well. left-handed pitcher Brian Honeywell Jr. Who's a reliever. He pitched for the Dodgers in the World Series. I think in game five, I want to say. If not in game five, we saw him pitch multiple times throughout their throughout their postseason run.

And then Colin Posh. Colin Pachet. Poshay, that's right. Yeah, he was drafted by the Diamondbacks, right? He was. Yeah, he was part of the Stephen Sousa Jr. trade. I think the Diamondbacks sent the Tampa Bay raise a couple of players sort of after the fact.

players to be named later. Colin Pachet was one of those guys. And inevitably, when you send a sort of intriguing relief pitcher to Tampa Bay, they, they usually wind up being pretty good. And Colin Pachet adds to some really good seasons. I don't think the D-backs really need a left-handed reliever, though, at least not as much. So that's why I didn't really see a great fit there for Honeywell or Pasha. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, and again, I mean, the Diamondbacks, the Diamondbacks can upgrade there at a lot of positions right now again no attack on joe mantiply but we know a j puck is elite it wouldn't be the worst thing to add another more reliable arm there but you know mantipli is still here for the foreseeable future and i think design backs have other needs that they need to put before that these i guess nontenders kind of make their decisions a little bit more difficult though there's some more names out there i mean i guess more difficult and less difficult because there are it's always better to have more options yeah and i think uh there's something

to be said about some of these backup kind of roles that the dinembacks still need to fill. We know first base is obvious. We know the diamondbacks have kind of been vocal about going out there and getting a back-end reliever a closer that they can name the closer and not just not ever commit to. But like, again, losing someone like Kevin Newman, losing the two DH, you know, that the diamondbacks are losing. These are all things that are definitely, you know, going to change the complexion of the offense next year and change the versatility. defensively that Tori Lavello has to not only give guys days off, which you know he's always going to do, but he's also going to have injuries and things to deal with. I will say this.

One interesting thing, Jesse, and I know we don't have the image of this, but Jack Peterson on his Instagram sent something out that was very interesting, which was just an image of him batting in a serpientist uniform with two devil, a little devil emojis underneath him. it has to mean something it has to mean the jock peterson's coming back right it has to mean the jock peters and ranald gritchick the two-headed devil the two-headed monster right they had a discussion and they just decided we're going to take less money and we're going to come back to the diamondbacks do this thing again it definitely it definitely would have been one devil emoji if he was implying that only he were coming back but because it was two devil emojis you're absolutely

right you heard it here first both jock peters and Randall Gritchick are resigning with the Arizona Diamondbacks. You can't argue with people's Instagram. It's like last year when we said, Eraldo Perdomo was leaving the team because he sent out those heartfelt messages. Yeah, that wound up true, right? He totally did because he confronted me at spring training. You told me, I see what you're doing.

But yeah, I mean, again, the Diamondbacks definitely have a lot of decisions to make. These guys kind of do make those options at least. They put some more options out there. And again, if you're losing some of the vibes, I still, I bring it up again, but if you're losing some of the vibes, you can bring Josh Rojas back and he will replenish the vibes. What are the, what are the Rockies doing? I mean, I feel like this is a question you can ask it,

basically any time of any day, and it generally is a fair question to ask. But the Rockies, the Rockies non-tendered Cal Quantrell, who is someone that they should have traded at the, at the trade deadline and didn't. And they also non-tendered Brendan Rogers, who granted, I'm not here to say that like Brennan Rogers

was this awesome player in 2024. I think he was worth, you know, one one win above replacement. But Brennan Rogers is a guy that the Rockies took third overall out of high school, you know, potential star level player. And granted, he hasn't really developed into that player. But to just non-tender a guy like that, I found a little bit surprising. I don't, I don't really know what other alternatives the Rockies really have at this point at that position. This is why Rockies fans are furious with the ownership.

group what are you doing when do you rebuild when do you base you know when do you keep these guys around as you're building blocks towards the future i don't know but uh that's that's a that's a frustrating thing to have to deal with also you got to assign some players soon because the angels are going to take everybody so that needs to happen very quickly every team needs to start we need to get the hot stove rolling here yeah i appreciate what the angels are trying to do for us as a show to be honest they're trying to get things cooking uh but of course you guys know what day it is and We're going to celebrate that day on the other side of this break. So don't you go anywhere.

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All right, Jesse. Well, I've got a lot of stuff going on. Like I said, it's Friendsgiving here at PHNXHQ. But that doesn't stop what we do here. Every year, of course, on this show is our year. Every month on this show is Hispanic Heritage Month. Every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day is Thanksgiving.

But on Monday, we go to the mailbag. large intimate let's go to the mailbag let's go always something interesting in my mailbox I try to get to everything in my mailbox All right, what do we got in the mailbox there, Kevin? All right, ladies and gentlemen, today in the mailbag, we're going to go ahead and start right here

with Silas, who wants to know why do baseball managers and coaches wear uniforms? I have always found it silly as though they are trying to cosplay as major league players. I can't think of another sport that does this. Is it just a tradition thing? It's baseball, so yes, it probably is.

Oh, my, Silas. We've actually had this exact conversation with Tori Lavello. He pointed out how ridiculous it would be if, if Phil Jackson had to wear a Laker uniform while he sat on the bench. Yeah. Or like imagining Bill Belichick. Yeah, just in pads. Just forget the sleeveless hoodie, just in pads and a full helmet.

Just rocking a headset with pads on. It would be incredible. Just like so unnecessary. It is. You never know when the. might get tackled on the sidelines, right? You've got to be prepared. You're going to hear some things as to the reason why they do it like unity and it brings the team together and all of that. But none of that is true. The fact is is that you're right. It is kind of a tradition. To be honest,

a manager didn't really used to be a manager, baseball teams because of how many guys you had to have on a baseball team. They were kind of cheap. So they didn't actually have coaches. They just used to appoint one of the guys on the team as the coach. That's legitimate. The captain used to be the manager and the captain used to be kind of responsible. And with time, teams actually decided to invest money in an actual guy that knew more about baseball than one of the players to be out there. Yes, Kev.

This is, as a chat knows, I'm not as as knowledgeable as you two are on the sport. Yeah. But as a Cardinals fan, I feel like this is the only sport to your point that like when intelligent veteran players are approaching retirement, they're already being thrown into managerial conversations. I remember when Yadhi or Molina was about to retire, we had some, you know, Ali-Mol conversations.

People were like, why not just go get Yadi? And is this the only sport where recently retired veterans are really looked at as top head coaching candidates? I think maybe without having that experience of going into the coaching world and like coaching at like a smaller level, maybe a collegiate level and then going up. But there are some in the NBA, right? Jason kid.

Like Jason kids, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups, I guess, wasn't like two. I mean, he was kind of far removed from his playing days. Yeah, he was. But like, like, you think of like heavy players and it's always like, oh, down the road, they're going to be such a good coach. Like in five years after retirement. But like, in baseball, it seems like once you leave, it's like get you in the dugout.

Well, especially like Stephen Vote, right? Right. Of the, of the guardians. Yeah, he retired and literally jumped right to be your manager. He retired in, I mean, he played in 2022. And he won the, he won the AL Manager of the Year Award in 2024. Yeah. shout out. Shout out Stephen Boat.

Azusa Pacific. He's got to get that in. But I mean, again, the catcher right is always kind of a big manager type. And you see a lot of catchers that become managers because they do have to manage the game themselves, you know, behind the plate. David Ross, I guess, being another example. You also have the fact that Tori Lobello has called Geraldo Perdomo, his on field general and manager at times. And you have Perdomo taking on those responsibilities. So back in the day, that's just kind of the way it was.

And with time, it evolved into, you know, managers being a position, but still wearing the uniform. I honestly think the day, I still remember because Steve Gilbert, Nick Bacoro, us, there was a few others. We all kind of piled on on the conversation. And I remember Tori kind of stopped wearing his jersey after that. Like, he didn't come out in the uniform. And if you notice, Tori doesn't really wear his uniform that often. Jesse, I think it's under. I'm pretty sure he always wears the uniform.

He just wears like, like some sort of pull-up. over jacket. Here's an interesting thing. It's not requirement. It is not a requirement. Managers do not have to wear the jersey. So they really can wear whatever they want. And again, I think they can truly wear whatever they want. Well, I'll tell you this much. I mean, you had some guys back in the day. I can't think of it. Oh, the A's manager, Connie Mack just used to wear a full suit. Imagine just a manager in the dugout wearing a full suit. Just a full suit. tie everything jessie pointed out before the show how dirty would that suit get every day and i you're going to go to clean that on a road trip three nights i don't think so i don't think so what i'm multiple

suits that's that's a crazy move what i think is is the ideal attire for an mowb manager is the exact same attire as an mlb umpire like if you're tory levello you got it you got to dress up as as an um why just to show favoritism to them just get them on your side i'm why i'm why Like you, I'm one of you. I don't know about that. Maybe it can work. Nobody's trying to. It's a crazy theory, but I'm like, you're trying to tell me that an umpire is

going to toss like one of his own. I think he'll toss you. I think the minute you walked out mocking him. He'd look over and be like, what's the hell? You're gone. I don't know what you're doing. You might be right. Yeah.

Yeah, man. They're sensitive. What if he just wore like a like a, like a t-shirt and jeans, like just like the most like standard. Or like, you know, like a t-shirt with like a. sports coat like he was going out for a night Scott's now and some boots wild he could wear it according to MLB rules

he could wear it they just do it based on tradition I guess so that's the way it is but yeah Gabriel Ferrer says it's not an MLB rule but the DBACs as an organization have a dress code for players and managers it's in the clubhouse I've not noticed that in the clubhouse but I'm sure that that that sounds like it is

it is true so all right what else we go out there to surprise me real quick I do want to acknowledge the question cam asked on the topic of former players becoming managers which deback current would fill in as the best manager ooh that's a good question right now like out there i would say i would have been a really easy answer a year ago at this time yeah you're right um zat gallon that gallon is who i think of i don't know why is that gallon that gallon is one of those guys that he doesn't need to look up answers to things about major league baseball it's amazing the amount of knowledge he has about the game off the top of his head i i view gallon is more

of like a i could see galen becoming a pitching coach i think that would i think that would fit him manager gino yeah gino's a good pick gino or jose herrera he's looking for you're looking for years of service there yeah i'm looking for like i mean jose eras is been around that long. But Jose Herrera is a guy that, you know, like when the Diamondbacks brought up Adrian Del Castillo, there were, there were scenes people probably saw on TV of Jose Herrera and Adrian Del Castillo, you know, chatting it up and Herrera kind of trying to help him adapt to the big leagues. It's not easy to do that as a as a new catcher entering the league. Mark's right. It's Paven. Paving is the answer. It's Pavon Smith. He's just like the catch all answer for everything around.

He just, it's like a Swiss Army knife. What else we got, Kev. All right. Question number. Number two comes from Gabby Dirt and they want to know, are we sleeping on South Frank? It's a good point. Andrew Saul Frank missed an entire season due to being suspended over gambling violations. And we do know at one point he was very, very good for this Diamondbacks team, at least inexplicably good. It seemed like during that stretch there in 2023 when they needed him kind of the most, you know, it cooled off in the playoffs a bit. But I think that there's a couple of guys like Saul Frank that we could not really. be thinking about as much based on time that they missed.

I know Dre Jameson is another name that comes to mind that we often forget about Dre. I got to slip that in whenever I can. But, you know, when it comes to Saul Frank, I think, like, there is a lot of potential there. It's just still frustrating that he missed the time that he missed and, you know, that he, we really don't know what he's going to be coming off of this kind of hiatus. Yeah, it's a big unknown for me.

You know, he was suspended in June, I think. So he's not going to be able to pitch in spring training, presumably. I mean, I imagine he can maybe do some work on backfield somewhere. I don't know if he's allowed to practice at the Diamondbacks facility. Maybe he could, you know, go to his own, his own facility of some sort. But yeah, he was, he was sort of an up and down guy for the team in 2024 before that suspension happened. And I imagine he would kind of serve that same role for the team after. after coming back from the suspension.

He did, in 2023, he did have some success, as you said, but the underlying numbers were never, you know, particularly jumping off the page. He only had six strikeouts in the 10 and the third innings that he pitched in the regular season last year and in the postseason, you know, he had some issues. Command is really what it's going to come down to for him. If he can really learn to spot up his sinker and throw that pitch for strikes,

it's going to allow his curveball, which I think is a genuinely good pitch. It's going to allow that pitch to play up a lot more. What we've seen from him lately is just not throwing enough strikes to really entice anyone to swing out of the zone. So I think he has potential, but given that the Diamondbacks have AJ Puck now and they did tender a contract to Kyle Nelson,

of course, Joe Mantiply, you know, I think that Saul Frank is a ways down the left-handed reliever depth chart at this point. I think the thing that's really sad here is that Andrew Saul-Frank is still, you know, a pretty good pitcher. And this, you know, ridiculous. I mean, it's ridiculous for all reasons. I'm not even going to get into the whole. The suspension.

The suspension. I mean, it's ridiculous on his part because it's rules and rules are simple, right? Like, it's not a gray area. It's a fairly black and white kind of situation when it comes to gambling on baseball. So it's ridiculous that he's missed this time. It's also absurd that for less than $200 gambled, you know, his career could potentially be impacted in the way that it has. I'm sure the Diamondbacks have a tremendous amount of disappointment

and he's going to have to do quite a bit to, you know, I guess even when he's back from this suspension, still kind of went over the people within the organization. I'm sure, you know, again, no matter how much you can still pitch, I'm sure there's still some residual anger over this entire situation. So just unfortunate and it'll be interesting to see how it factors in next year and what the Diamondbacks, you know, if there's still value there at a major league level. It's a learning experience for him for sure, right? I mean, yeah, as you said, it's not like he went out there and, you know, bet 20 grand or anything like that.

Like it was a pretty small amount of money. It happened back when he was in the minors. Like it wasn't super recent either. It's just a really unfortunate mistake. And yeah, we'll see what he looks like when he gets back. A friend of a friend lost $20,000 on the first night at his bachelor party weekend in Las Vegas, Jesse. That's a tremendous amount of money loss. And he doesn't want me ever telling that story.

And I just did right here on this show. But I'll tell you this much. This is hopefully a learning experience, you know, for everybody across baseball that there is this zero tolerance policy. It should have already been known. But, you know, now it's. real. So, well, we do have some more mailbag Monday questions. Before we go to this break, I just, I have some bad news. We have to go to the bullpen, boys. We're bringing in the dog for the, for the end of this mailbag. We're bringing in the dog.

What? Yeah. For who? I mean, I'm being pulled right now. Oh, you're being pulled. I'm being pulled. I'm being pulled. Okay. Oh, well, I mean. Derek thought that, that, uh, I mean, I had flashbacks to when you guys pulled me for Archie right now. So I mean, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting pulled upset. Derek thought he lost his job for a second. I mean, I think that at least three times per week, but it's less often now that Saul Bookman is farther away from me. I will say this, though, we do have more Mailbag Monday questions. I'm glad Damon is here to help us answer, and we're going to get to those on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? Of course, we do have some fun stuff coming up. So if you are going to go anywhere, you've got to join us for our PHNX events.

Got to head over to go phnx.com slash events to check out all the wonderful fun we are going to be having. Of course, we have our live Q&A with Archie Bradley on December 4th out there at Heila River resorts and casinos. Of course, you can join us out there, Wild Horse Pass for that. Die hard's absolutely free. If you are non-di-hard, you can still join us. I think it's a $5 fee. Just make sure whether you're die-hard or non-dye-hard, you get your tickets now over there at go phnx.com slash events. And also make sure to join us for the Territorial Cup takeover on November 30th.

We're going to go down to you of A. ASU is going to finish your job. They're going to bring the Territorial Cup home. I'm glad Damon's here for this. We have a pregame meetup at Bourbon Bent in Tucson before the Sun Devils steamroll, those wildcats. And then food and drink is included. Game ticket to the territorial cup included. And fun, of course, is included.

Damon, are you just going to let him say that? He doesn't have a choice. He doesn't have a choice. I just, you know, there's not a whole lot I can come back with. What I will say is that we've had a little bit of a stint here with the with the territorial cup and it's rightful place in Tucson. And, you know, it's just getting a little boring. So I get it. You guys, you know, let's switch up the vibes.

I guess. I don't know. I can't let you. I'm going to put my profile picture back to me holding the cup. That was a good time. But also, of course, we know it's this time of the year. People might be coming near place, not just going over to other people's place like going down to Tucson and the bourbon bent. So, of course, if you have company coming over this holiday season, make sure you spruce up your home.

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Well, we got a couple of more mailbag Monday questions before we get out of here. I think most of them are Thanksgiving related. What do we got here? Damon Dogg. What's our next question? Forgive me. I don't know exactly what we're on.

I think it's from the Adam. This is the one. Yes, sir. Adam Fox here. You can for the 12,89 followers of this speech, always subject one because I'm assuring one Dodger troll follows this page. Sure, sure. We expect a Friendsgiving Turkey Day picture of the crew. Yes.

Well, I think we have that. I think that our guy Kev just uploaded that before he left. There's the crew. Of course, without me and Jesse in there because we were doing show prep. Jesse was sitting on the floor somewhere eating his meal while. Our showtime is brutal for Friendsgiving Day at the office, Derek. Everyone in the office eats before us. Yeah.

And we just have to like, the aromas of all of the deliciousness. I got my name, Jesse. I was the first person in line. I don't know what you're talking about. That's crazy. You're just making me angry. Yeah, I should. Well, I mean, I've tried to teach you.

The one lesson that I have tried to teach you over the years has been you got to get yours, right? You got to look out for number one. Selfishness. That's what I tried. You squeeze that in, huh? You were able to eat before the show? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I had seconds. And I might even have. thirds if there's anything left over after the show let's hope there's something left over we'll see we'll see all right i mean that was a jesse that was a big issue remember when max used to actually get us food some days that was yeah that was always an issue then too yeah we were we were thinking of changing our show time very seriously just just because we were tired of missing out we were tired of missing out on the on the office the office lunches it wasn't a happy time for us yeah we're just canceling the show on mondays

all together but then we wouldn't do this so you know we can't do that all right well what's we got We save this one for you, Damon, of course. Travis Moore says, what dishes are D-BACs players bringing to Thanksgiving dinner? I'll sign one. Corn cassero with green chilies is a big side dish at our house, and I'll nominate Cattel for that one. Jesse refuses to answer this question anymore. I refuse to answer this question. Yeah.

We've received this question every single Thanksgiving, every single year we've existed. But I do, much like green bean casserole, I do not care. It's a tradition. And whether I like it or not, we're still going to do it. All right. This is the thing about me and Derek. We'll answer every question. We'll answer every single question, no matter how many times you asked that.

Jesse doesn't love you like that, guys. Right. I care deeply about Travis Moore because he's a, he's a faithful viewer and question smitter. I love you, Travis Moore. But also, yes, we have, we have answered this question year after year after year. So how about it, Derek? I got, I got one.

And then we'll get Damon in here, too. Jordan Montgomery is bringing the store-bought potato salad. You know, the disappointing one. the one that like Totry brought today. Not like the homemade one that's good that you worked on. Like so many of us put hours in, slaving over his stove to make it. No, no, no, no.

Nor did he pick an easy option like just bringing cups or knives or forks or spoons. Or rolls. Or rolls like Damon did. See, Damon's a good boy. He just brought rolls. He knew he saved his lane. But he brought good rolls. And that's the point is even though he was assigned rolls,

he still came through. Bringing store-bought potato salad is infuriating and it's disappointing. because someone went into the sign-up sheet and wrote potato salad and then put their name next to it and then brought that. And like, you're hoping, you're hoping that things are going to be good with that potato salad. But then you know it could be a disappointment like Jordan Montgomery. I was going to say Jordan Montgomery brought like all the desserts. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Well, I mean, that's that's a different lane that you decided to go in there.

Yeah, I'll wear that one. Christian Walker's bringing a bourbon. I don't know if he counts anymore. Yeah, no, yeah, Christian Walker does count. And yeah, he's bringing entirely too much alcohol. Like we have to remind Christian when he came in, this isn't that kind of party. And he goes, it is now, you know, that kind of thing. That's how Christian Walker comes in.

I think we've already discussed Jake McCarthy is definitely bringing the roles like Damon Wood. Yeah. Right. I mean, the minimal. The entire outfield is bringing like the forks and the cups and spoons and everything, right? Alex Thomas, Corby and Carroll. None of those guys are cooking. Yeah, Corbin's not cooking.

and that's for sure. Yeah, no, I think, I think Gabby will bring like a time-tested recipe that's been in his family for generations. It's something. I mean, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a stew or something. Something that blows our mouth. Like Max brings his grandma's matzabal soup. So I think it would be something like that.

I think Pavin brings like the whitest of all white people dishes. I don't know exactly what it is. I can't put my finger on it. Just corn. Yeah, something. He just brings corn. Yeah, that sounds. That sounds pretty good.

That works. That plays. Oh, yeah. All right. I think we nailed that one and Jesse didn't have to participate. So I think it where everything worked out. Let's get one more in Damon before we get going. Michael Roakkekeke asks what D-Back's moment this season are you most thankful for?

Oh, well, we're keeping this on the Paving track. It's the three home run paving game, right? Like it has to be. No, I mean, I think we posted the video of the Corbyn Carroll. We did. The comeback, the big comeback, which again, if you offset the, that with the eight nothing lead they lost another game those two games kind of go both the ways that they should have and we really shouldn't talk about them as often as we did but uh yeah that

comeback was huge and made me believe in in happiness again i i think i think just as a as a journalist like someone who who writes about this team a lot i i you know i love the i love the storylines i love the oddities and christian walkers utter domination of dodger stadium yeah like that just continues to confound. I don't understand it. He doesn't understand it. We kept asking him like day after day in those games at Dodger Stadium. Like, how do you do this?

And he just never really had a very good answer. But it's just one of those cool baseball things where sometimes you just can't really explain it. You can't predict it. And it just happens anyway. And if Christian Walker does in fact leave the Diamondbacks this off season, that is one of the things that I will miss most about him as a player. It's just like knowing that when he goes to Dodger's, stadium he's gonna become peak berry bonds and there's nothing that anyone can really do about it

i gotta say i gotta see matt hilton oh yeah the game how could you beat that was it that was a game how could you beat that right jesse yeah that was that was that was that was crazy it was good though he don't it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't uh mark slayer the pool game was incredible when we all had our little pool party out that was that was that was something i'm genuinely thankful for that was that was just his cannonball easy number one. Easy by far. I'll also throw in there just getting to know Jock Peterson and everything that is bizarrely unique about him as a person.

I used to think lots of different things about Jock Peterson. And like after covering him for one single season, I think that he's just a really cool person that's just really out there and just kind of walks his own path in life. I appreciate that about him. I love the, I love his bat collection and the fact it's not just something. he collects just for like collecting purposes. No, he has a, he has like a golf set of clubs that he uses for different scenarios from different players that he took bats from.

But yeah, Jack Peterson just not only is what he did on the field for this team last year and, you know, how crazy of a person he seems to be. But, you know, genuinely how good of a mentor he became to some of these guys on a team. You just heard throughout the season so many good things about him from his teammates. and then Jake McCarthy kind of moving over his, you know, moving his locker over and officially becoming his Patawan is just something that I love so much. I guess for people joining us on the TV side, they can join us over at go phnx.com. Yeah, you can do that right now.

We'll talk about Yumen Lin and the Chinese Taipei team winning the Premier 12 tournament. So make sure to join us over there. We thank you guys, as always so much. Speaking of which, yes, that is exactly. what happened on what was it so it was very early Saturday morning I think it was technically yesterday yeah I don't although the time zone there it was probably Saturday our time yeah but Sunday in the game was played in Tokyo I don't know the exact time difference there but I know it's substantial that was the Premier 12 tournament which we talked about a little bit

we had a little bit of fun tracking that and especially Newman Lynn and Taiwan winning the Premier 12 over the defending champion Japan who was defeated after a what was it a 27 game winning streak? Yeah, I I keep like rereading this article on the Premier 12 website because I don't know if I believe that this is possible. But yes, I don't play very many games. They don't play that many games. Three season to four season winning streak, right? Right. Yeah, I don't know exactly how many games you play in a given Premier 12 tournament.

but yes, according to this article on the Premier 12 website, yeah, Japan had won 27 consecutive games going into that championship against Chinese Taipei and that dates back to 2022. So yeah, it's pretty remarkable what what Japan had accomplished and they came into this game as favorites. And they did not win, Derek,

because he did not. Lin pitched well. And Lyle Lynn, former Diamondbacks prospect, actually a home run. There's another player for Taiwan that homered as well. And they shut out Japan for four to nothing. Lynn started the game. He went four innings. He allowed only one hit, no earn runs, two walks, and three strikeouts. We also learned that the good people of Taiwan that are fans of Yumen Lin have nicknamed him corn. And I don't know why. Yeah, we're going to get on that. We don't know why.

We need to know why. Jesse, as a journalist, is, that's all. Like, no more articles, no more nothing until Jesse figures this out. I also want to know why his teammates call him Jimmy. So we have Jimmy. I mean, I think that's pretty like. Is that like a, I think it's based on his name? Based on his name, I think is my understanding there.

Okay. Well, I'm looking for a deeper meaning. Are we sure that corn wasn't like lost in translation somehow or something? I could be, but they used on our video, they actually used corn emojis, right? I was plugging it in and translating it from Mandarin and it was saying that they were calling him. They were like, corn is so handsome was one of the comments. Oh, they take, oh, Yumen Lynn is adorable. He's such a sweet, cute boy.

Yeah, he's our handsome boy, human lid. Derek, I'll all go as far to say is no more nominations for Jesse until he finds out what the origin of corn was. No, there's no way we're going to promote him being a part of this writing awards thing without. Like that's the real story and he hasn't delivered that to us yet. So I don't know. I mean, the Premier 12 also doesn't happen every year. So that's the other thing about Japan's winning streak.

Yeah, I think and I need to dig into this more to fully understand. But I think the win streak is outside of just the tournament. So, I think Japan came in. Like the World Baseball Classic. Things like that or? Yeah,

I'm not sure if they're including the World Baseball Classic and that. But yeah, I'm pretty sure the 27 game win streak is not. just these tournaments because there's only been a few of them. I think this was the third one. And the next one is in 2007. The next one is in 2027, right? So yeah, we'll try to, we'll try to get a better understanding of that. But yes, the larger story here is the Chinese Taipei went into this game very much being the underdog and they found a way to win. And it was a great story. And Yumen Lin being the starting pitcher in that game, like what an honor for him. And as I wrote in that

story a week or so ago. Like this is a guy who loves this country and who wants to show kids back home in Taiwan that like this is possible. Baseball is huge in Taiwan. But, you know, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. And then there have not been a whole lot of major leaguers over the years that have come out of that place. So, you know, moving forward, I think we might start to see, we might start to see a few more of them. Well, and that's one thing that was tremendous in your article about U. Menlin is that, you know, he wants to be that for the younger generation of Taiwanese baseball players. And again, this is an amazing step in the right direction,

especially defeating someone, you know, a team as good as Japan in the championship like this. So credit to them. They are the global champions. And they get to hold that crown for three years. So that's kind of fun. That's good bragging rights. Team USA, bronze. Hey.

You know, could be worse. Could be worse. At least they meddled. Matt Shaw wasn't Matt Shaw and Rich Hill. You know, just weren't quite what, uh, what team USA needed them to be. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, Dick Mountain ain't what it used to me, Jesse. That's the way that that works. The team USA roster was, was, uh, we'll just say it left a little something to be desired from what it maybe could have been.

For sure. Uh, with, with a little bit more participation. So, uh, we don't, we don't see the best of best, um, U.S. players participating in this tournament necessarily, but particularly from a pitching standpoint. Yeah. Well, I mean, even offensively, I mean, Matt Shaw is in a major leaguer, right? Like, he's a top prospect. I don't know if there were any current major leaguers that were actually there on the position player side. You and Lynn also not a major leaguer, but also starting the championship game.

So it's kind of the way that that tournament goes. However, that's our champion. That's our bad Jimmy. Someone, Ernesto, he's with me. I've been making that joke all day. He said there's a Jimmy crack corn joke in there somewhere. I agree with that. Gabriel says corn in Mandarin sounds like Yumi.

So maybe like the Yumi is like Ymin Lin, like Yumi might be a nickname. And what they're actually saying is you me, but the translator is translating it to corn. However, that's a decent. That's a decent theory, Derek. It's a good lead. I mean, I could be that. Also, I still saw the corn emojis. So maybe it's both.

So I don't know. But we appreciate you guys, of course, so much for stopping by. We appreciate your questions on Mailbag Monday, as always. And most importantly, we appreciate you for loving the Arizona Diamondbacks. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, Damon Dog is at Damon Dog.

That's D-A-W-G. We are and always will be. Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Wow. Feels like we haven't done that. No. It feels like old times.

Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate your time and we will see you tomorrow right back here at 1 p.m. I hope you have a wonderful evening and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when our show doesn't coincide with the same time as Friendsgiving