PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Bring on the bots

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are discussing no news being bad news on the lockout, being closer than ever to robot umps in MLB, and predicting which D-back will be the next inductee in the Hall of Fame. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of Washington, D.C. No, I can't claim that. There's like a real person that can call themselves that. But I am the mayor of PHNX, and I'm joined by my vice mayor of PHNX, the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Are you freezing your butt off there yet, Derek? Oh, Jesse, it's cold.

It's cold. Jesse, I lost all feeling in my hands today while I was walking around doing touristy stuff. But I did have an opportunity today with my friends being busy with work stuff to kind of just have a day to myself. And I went to the White House and had to talk with the president. And I went and talked to Congress. And I did all this stuff that a mayor like myself does when in Washington, D.C. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at Drap King's Sportsbook app, an app that I cannot access right now where I am at. I hope you can.

Go download the Draft King's Sportsbook app right now. If you are in Arizona and download that app, use our code of PHNX. And simply for betting $5 on any NFL team to win their game, you will get 56 to one odds on any NFL team. Bet just $5 and win $280 in free bets if your team wins. That's promo code PHNX for 56 to one odds at Draft King's Sportsbook. And yes, Jesse, you mentioned it. I am very cold. I was here to talk to the president about the lockout.

Secret service. It's clearly Joe Biden's problem, for sure. Well, it's like I don't, when I'm at a restaurant, I'm getting bad service from the server. I don't want to talk to the manager about it, but sometimes you have to. And I feel like this was like, I'm like talking to Rob Manfred's manager. Like I don't know who I can go to hire than them at baseball. So I figured I'd start with the president, see if he could either hook me up with some ideas. or maybe point me in the right direction.

Oddly enough, Secret Service did not have any, they don't have a sense of humor about this whole thing. So needless to say, I had a rough afternoon. But I'm still having fun here in Washington, D.C. I got nothing changed, much like the MLBPA and the union has had nothing changed, turning right now to another chapter, Jesse, of course, in our ongoing saga that we like to call, As the Cactus Turns,

and another episode of As the Cactus. I mean as the cactus turns, Jesse. Last time on as the cactus turns, nothing happened. There's nothing that happened. And now there's still nothing that's happened. There's kind of something, right? Jeff, Jeff Passon tweeted earlier today that the two sides are going to meet on Monday and the players are going to make a counterproposal.

That's so frustrating, Jesse. I want to, oh, see, look at you. Look at you accepting this situation in a way that none of us should accept this situation. Monday, Jesse, Monday, when was the proposal delivered by baseball, by the owners? Last Thursday. Last Thursday, we heard that maybe the MLBPA was going to have it in this week. But no, Jesse, no, not at all. This doesn't happen until next week.

I am a bit frustrated by this whole thing. Not surprised, I guess, but yeah, I don't know what's going to happen. Brandon Buckingham in our comments says, I need baseball March. We all need baseball in March. We need baseball in February. That's what we need. That's a bigger. Yeah, that's definitely.

We need baseball ASAP. I'm very cold. So just the thought of baseball right now, thaws out my frozen hands from today. By the way, it's a bad idea to walk around Washington, D.C. Without gloves. That's all I'm saying is if you're coming to the D.C. area,

summer, winter, fall, spring, doesn't matter. Bring some gloves with you. Oh, I've been there in the summer. You don't need gloves in that place in the summer, Derek. I don't know, I don't know, but I did see a sign today about putting your feet in the water at the reflection pool. So obviously, apparently it's warm enough at some point to do that. So I will say that I believe in that. But there's a bigger update, Jesse, there's a bigger update than anything that we could have from the union or the players.

Forget baseball coming back. what we are closer to is the home plate umpire going away from calling balls and strikes the automated ball strike system lovingly known of course as the aBS is is the technology powering what's colloquially known as robot umps right so um in this article that was published on for axios by jeff tracy uh they are talking about how the independent i know this has made news a little bit uh that the independent Atlantic League announced that they were doing away with the robot umps after testing them for the past season and a half and that has led to some speculation it's led to some thoughts about whether or not this means that's the end for robot umps but not according to this article

jesse it's not the end it only means that we are moving on to the next phase uh which is saying that the league explained that its own assessment of the a vs was complete, the Atlantic League's assessment, and that they have passed it on to MLB, and an MLB affiliate league would continue testing it. So you pair that with some new job postings in the AAA markets. Apparently, MLB is recruiting ABS techs

in 11 AAA markets, which means that they are bringing robot umps to AAA baseball. Wow, that is, I mean, that is huge. I mean, I don't know if the Atlantic League to AAA is a pretty big jump. I mean, I don't want to discount the Atlantic League, but the Atlantic League is an independent league. I mean, they, you know, that's pretty low on the totem pole as far as the professional baseball go. It's still professional baseball, right? It's still an organized baseball league that operates as a baseball league, right?

So like I get what you're saying in the grand scheme of things. it's not even part of MLB's minor league system, which meant that they could test it for essentially two seasons without anybody really paying much attention to it, right? Right. I think the thing about it is if there were successes and failures to be measured, changes to be made, things like that. I mean, that's something that baseball is all about, honestly,

is testing out these ideas, these thoughts, processes to make the game be better and to make it go faster. And honestly, the one thing about this is people, like umpires, for instance, seem to still be against the idea of the ABS, which is funny to me because... Which is fair, I mean, isn't it? I mean, you're sort of saying that they're crappy at their job and they need to be replaced by a robot. Here's why I think it's not, though, is because the umpire is still going to make calls at the plate on all plate related matters. So check swings, interference, plays at the plate, all of those kind of calls, foul tips, all of that is still determined by a home plate umpire.

Who's still there doing his job? All we're saying at this point is the general balls and strikes would be taken care of by a system. Right. I get what you're saying. But I think, okay, this is like a job telling you, we're still going to pay you the same amount, but we're going to take away one of the duties that you have. Oh yeah. And that duty is the one that mostly gets you.

booed and have batteries thrown at you and people waiting by your car and stuff because it's the balls and strikes that makes people really hate these umpires it's the reason why certain guys have gotten such a bad reputation right the angel hernandez is of the world uh these guys get a bad reputation because people question how could you be so bad at this thing this strike zone calling thing yeah and still keep your job at the high level that you do for as long as you have. The problem is, is that right now, the way that a strike zone is set up, the way that MLB views it is that a strike zone is subjective somehow, like fucking art or some shit like that. It's subjective. It's up to that umpire's determination of what the strike zone is. And that's

bullshit. Because how can something that's so important in the game of baseball be subjective? Right. Like I understand it's subjective. in the terms of, like, for instance, how a player stands in the box and the size of that player, right? A small guy that might be able to shrink the strike zone down between, like, his elbows and his knees or whatever they're using to measure the strike zone, you know, his belt buckle, whatever the thing is. I understand how there's ways to manipulate it and make the strike zone bigger or smaller, and that's the reason why it's subjective, but it shouldn't be the subjective in the context that bad umpires in MLB right now, are it's subjective as far as that goes like yeah the way that that that their strike zone can

shrink in and widen during the course of a game or you know just a lot of the inaccuracies that we see obviously the the the pitching tracking that that we put over the strike zone really has never helped the umpires look worse right like that was that was the single invention that really just buried umpires as far as popularity yeah in sports go. Because it used to be that you just didn't really know, right? Like before we could all track games on the MLB app and just see that a pitch that was blatantly off the plate was just called strike three.

Before, I mean, it was kind of hard to tell, right? If you were at the game, you only really see those kinds of things from certain angles. And even then, the umpire is a lot closer than you are. So there was always kind of the sense that, you know, the umpire had some credibility just because, I mean, they could see it better than I can. But the problem now, Derek, is that all of us, at least for me, every single time I watch a baseball game, even if I'm there in person or watching it on TV, I still have the MLB app in my hand. And I am watching the location of every single pitch. And it literally makes me smarter than the umpire.

It makes me smarter than the person who's actually making the calls because I'm looking at a computerized system that gives an objective image of where the pitch was thrown. and the umpire is just helpless. I mean, they're trying to use their, you know, their human eyeballs to see it, which is just never going to compare to what technology can do.

So I don't know if I would say the strike zone is subjective, right? Like, I don't think it's really subjective. It does have a very well-defined, you know, it's a very well-defined thing, according to the official rules

of Major League Baseball. According to rules, yes. Right, right. The problem is that there's no realistic way for an umpire to match that 100% of the time, right? They are going to make mistakes. And so it's just become this thing where, you know, even though it's really not subjective, in a sense, we've kind of embraced it as something that is objective because it,

because it has to be. I mean, we have to accept the fact that human beings are going to make mistakes. And, I mean, in some ways, that's the nature of being a sports fan, right? I mean, if you ask an NBA fan as well, they're going to tell you that referees make mistakes all the time. But, and that's, of course, true. But the problem is that in baseball, balls and strikes are a pretty simple thing, right? It's not as nuanced as a reach-in foul or something like that where you need a human

being there to decide. Balls and strikes are just, it either is or it isn't, right? And I think that's why we all understand that at some point, the robo-ump thing is just going to happen. Robot umpires, Jesse. robot umpires that's incredible get ready for it

just get ready for it we got robot umpires on the horizon um i know i know that it's just going to be a camera i know there's still going to be a home plate umpire that's the reason why again like there's things about my job that i'm bad at right i think everybody everybody here can agree to that uh there's also things in life that i'm bad at right

like i hate driving i don't like it i'm not a big car guy i don't like driving. I don't find driving to be relaxing in any way. Traffic or no traffic. I find driving to be very relaxing. I know. I know. There's people. My brother is a huge car guy. My brother has two beautiful cars, a truck and like an old Pontiac. Maybe it's because you're still driving that box thing. It's a piece of shit. It's terrible. But no, you know what? I've realized it more than ever. Here in Washington, D.C. I've been riding the metro rail. And all I can think is, I would ride this all the time. There's time I'm like, how would I get groceries home?

There's things like that that I've been thinking of while I've been here, like if I would drive the metro rail, but I'm like, maybe I'd have a car, but maybe I wouldn't use it very much. I don't know because this seems like a really efficient way to get around town. And the most important part is like if I had to go to work, I like the idea of being able to do work on the way to work rather than driving. So like the concept of just sitting on a train like that and doing my work while we go. it's very appealing to me.

So I don't know, but that's another case where I know there's a human being probably driving that train. I can't confirm that. Maybe there's a robot driving. That's fair. I've always wondered that. Like, I've been on a lot of public transit systems. And I'm always wondering, is there someone driving this thing?

Is there some out there control? Are they? Like, is this really a viable job? Or do they literally just sit there while the computer runs the thing and they just like, you know, browse Twitter the whole time. That's a great question. They got to keep their eyes on the road the whole time. You know, you got to do what you got to do.

Kyler Murray says, go D-Backs. Appreciate the sport, Kyler. I know you're going to have a lot of time with the offseason. We need to talk about some of your, I don't know, leadership skills. But we'll figure it out. I know you're very talented. So we believe in you. Also, we have Brett Johnson who says literally anything to get Angel Hernandez

from absolutely being terrible or being absolutely terrible. Yes, that's... I feel like Angel Hernandez would find. a way though like he like he would just ignore the robot occasionally just for the heck of it and he just brings somebody up because he wanted to that's why what we need is a real robot back there right real robot laser cannon okay maybe not you don't have to arm it with something that could actually like kill the other umpire but maybe just physically intimidating maybe just a large robot that won't put up with angel Hernandez's shit so he'll think twice before

Can we see the graphic again? Can we see the... Let's throw this guy back up there. Yeah. Yeah, like that guy. Yeah. Yeah, but make him nine and a half feet tall, is what I'm saying, right? So that really sends home the image that you don't want to mess with him.

And I appreciate if he'd keep that PHNX logo on his chest, by the way. That would be great. It would remind people to go sign up at go phnx.com for a membership, Jesse. Of course, we have annual memberships. We have month-to-month memberships. You get an annual membership, and you will get that free t-shirt over at phnxlocker. com. Annual membership is great. And I know you want the shirts. Go over to phnxlocker.com right now. Check them out. Drule over them a little bit. Consider it. Think about it.

Not only are you going to get that shirt now, but you're also going to get members-only deals over at phnx locker.com that you can only get as a member. You can also get members-only access to our Discord. Come in there. Talk to me and Jesse about new t-shirt designs for phnxlocker.com. As the season approaches, we are quickly going to get back into baseball season. one way or another. It's going to happen. So once we get there, we'll have some new shirts launched on PHNXLocker.com. You sign up for a membership over at goPHNX.com. You'll get your free t-shirt voucher.

Maybe you can wait until we drop some of those shirts at PHNXLocker.com for the Arizona Diamondbacks podcast that we do over here. And then you get yourself the fresh new gear the minute it drops. So consider becoming a member. We appreciate it. We appreciate the support. If you're already a member of the family, we love you. the recipe we love you too just not as much but

enough you know like good parents should but we appreciate all of you guys listening and tuning in and we appreciate you guys being members obviously in our comments we got some talk about from motion when the weather is starting to warm up baseball needs to be starting up

and I couldn't agree more I need the weather to start warming up now but talk right now of course amongst baseball websites and pundits like ourselves is focused on, well, figuring out things we can talk about. So I appreciate all of our baseball friends out there for putting whatever ideas, floating whatever ideas in the universe that we can grasp onto.

And CBSSports.com is right now predicting which team or who would be each team's next Hall of Fame induction or inductee. At this point, they have named Kurt Schilling, which we talked about on yesterday's show as the next inductee for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And the article also points to Paul Goldschmidt at Zach Granky being potential inductees for the Arizona Diamondbacks as well. And then kind of says the list drops off a little bit after that as far as, you know, seeing the Hall of Famers of the Future for this team, which I understand.

You could tell Marta is obviously a very good player, but not somebody right now that I would say you could even talk about in a Hall of Fame context. But they did mention Paul Goldschmidt being a bit of a long shot, which I kind of can understand. Like it's just hard. As an Arizona Diamondbacks fan, it's hard to see that or think that because obviously that guy was so good for so long for us here that.

Did they say he's a long shot to make the Hall of Fame or to go in as a Diamondback? To go in to make it into the Hall of Fame. to make it in the first place. They did float the idea out there that, you know, if he see some success, especially championship-wise, with the St. Louis Cardinals, that there would be a good chance that we wouldn't be seeing, we wouldn't be seeing him go in as a devac despite the amount of time that he was with this team and despite the fact he was drafted by this team.

I guess I wanted to ask you to what do you think of these guys? Who do you think would we see go in potentially as an Arizona Diamondback? I have to agree. I mean, Kurt Schilling is the only one on that list that we know would go in as a diamond back. We talked about it recently on the show. He said that he would go in as a diamond back if he makes it. And I still think that's a big if. We talked about it on the show this morning that Kurt Schilling and the Hall of Fame, we're not so sure, right? Just because of all the things that he said, that's an ongoing saga. So I don't know if I would necessarily back. on any of them going into the Hall of Fame as a Diamondback because of the issues with Kurt Schilling.

Zach Granky, we've talked about he's a really interesting case where he is very likely to be a Hall of Famer, but it's just kind of anyone's guess which team he would go in as. The Royals are the team that he spent the most time with, but he wasn't necessarily great in Kansas City. The Dodgers, that would be the place where he had his best seasons, but it was also only years. He was here in Arizona for longer than that, but definitely not his best seasons of his career. He didn't win a championship or anything here. So it's pretty tough. Goldie, I think I may be a little bit more hopeful about him making the Hall of Fame than they are. It's definitely not, I wouldn't

say it's a greater than 50% chance, but I don't know if I would call it a total long shot. Paul Goldschman has had a very, very nice major league career. And at this, point, I think it's just about longevity. You know, can he continue to be a premier first baseman for another six or seven seasons? If he can do that, I really do think that Goldie would have a real shot. Yep. And Brett Johnson says, Goldie doesn't go into the Hall of Fame with a D-Backs hat. I might cry.

We all definitely would. We would all cry. And he says, don't put those evil thoughts out there, Derek, please. I think in regards to the St. Louis Cardinals thing. And I don't want it to be that. but I also don't really want to claim Kurt Schilling either, right? And it's kind of funny because like we said on this morning's podcast, it's the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it is to keep Kurt Schilling out

just because we don't agree with what he says, right? There's, I mean, there are people historically that are in the Hall of Fame that probably said some horrible things. But luckily, even if they were publicized, it wasn't a very far reach. doesn't have the same reach as Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't have the same reach as clips being posted from shows and appearances he's on, being passed around. It's just one of those weird things that, like, I don't know.

Kurt Schilling at this point for the Arizona Diamondbacks is like that alcoholic uncle that you don't want to claim as your own because he says anti-semitic things all the time, but you're just like, no, that's not my uncle. I don't, uh, I hate, uh, but he is attached to us forever. and if he does go into the Hall of Fame as an Arizona Diamondback, which is understandable. Again, we talk about the successes these guys have had, and he had his biggest successes with this team, you know, to be honest. So I could totally see him going in as a Diamondback.

But, yeah, it's not something I particularly want, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's the flip side of Goldschmidt, right? Like, Goldschmidt, I want him, if he does, I want it to be a just deback so bad. But chilling, it's like, hey, weren't you a big? Philly for a long time? When I think of you, I think Philly. That's all I'm thinking is Philly.

Maybe you should put a Philly hat on. That's all. Our man, Motion says, Granky has played for too many different teams. I agree with that. And again, I don't think that, despite the amount of time he was here as an Arizona Diamondback, I don't feel like

he had the success or any kind of connection that's strong enough to go in as one. But who knows? He's played for so many teams. I mean, I feel like, like that's a rarity among players who are as good as Zach Grinky is. You know, normally if you're that great of a player, you don't really bounce around that

much because everywhere you go, you're liked and you play well and people want to keep you. But with, I mean, with Grinky, I mean, he played in Milwaukee. He played for the Angels, the Dodgers, the Diamondbacks, the Astros, and he came up with the Royals. And he's probably about to play for another team after, after he signs in free agency. So it's crazy what his careers look like. And Chris Melton says on-field performance is separate from off-diamond psychosis. I love the way she put that.

And I think it's kind of weird because we are in a cancel culture kind of phase in society, right? And I know people throw that around the way they throw around social justice warrior and snowflake and all sorts of other insults that lose, you know, whatever. But we are in a different time in society. where people don't really want to put up with what we feel like are really terrible, horrible stances on life, especially from people who are influential over others. And that can allow that kind of toxic, you know, thought process to spread, right? It's fine for you to be crazy and talk to your like next door neighbor and the mailman about your stupid ass theories and the way you fucking view life.

But, you know, honestly, it's, it gets to a point where. where when people idolize you, like people idolize someone like Kurt Schilling, it gets dangerous for him to spread his rhetoric. And I think that's the one reason why people want to quote, unquote, cancel people, you know, when they feel like those people have gone too far and that they're spreading that toxic, you know, that toxicity, you know. I don't know. Honestly, the biggest thing about Kurt Schilling is he just continued to dig himself a deeper

hole and make himself look more foolish, to be honest. I'm sure there's people that agree with him, but there are people that agree with everybody, right? If I mean, there is a, if you gave a crazy, you know, homeless person like a platform to give all of his conspiracy theories, there would be people that would listen to it and go, you know what, you make some good points, right? No matter how outlandish they are, right? Like there's, no matter what, it's going to always be that kind of thing. where, you know, someone like shilling with his ridiculous ideas is always going to have some support out there. And people don't, people don't want to put him in the Hall of Fame because of that. And that's like, that's a reason, that's a reason not to give him a radio station or radio show or

television show. That's a reason for other things. That's not a reason to keep him out of the Hall of Fame, to be honest. And I say that again, as someone that absolutely does not want to see him go in wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks hat like he playing. to but whatever man at this point i i i'm really on board with this idea even like we talked about today with the ones that aren't that we know aren't going to make it in again right the aerods the bonds clemens guys that are being held out to in some sort of form of punishment to keep them out as long as possible but still maybe probably vote them in towards the end of their eligibility just so that they could teach them some sort of lesson on uh morality

is becoming more and more bizarre to me, despite the fact that I was fully on board at one point with keeping someone like Barry Bonds out. On a lighter note, this is very off topic, but I feel like it warrants mentioning while we're on the live show. I don't know if you follow Ben Verlander on Twitter, Derek. He is Justin Verlinder's brother.

And today, Ben Verlander tweeted out, he was basically asking people, you know, who's your trendy pick for Cy Young in 2022. And Ben Verlander throughout the name of Zach Gallen from the Diamondbacks as as his pick, who he would start with on that list. So I know that's a 180 degree topic change. But I like that you did that, though. A little bit of a lighter note, you know.

You took it out of this entire talk about Kurt Schilling and cancer culture and took us right into the idea of, Zach Allen somehow being a Sigh-Young award winner next year. And I... He's another possible Hall of Famer down the road, right? Who knows? He's still a young guy. He definitely would be at the top of my list of current debacks to potentially be... More than Cattell?

You'd put him over Cattel? I think I would. I think I would. I mean, both of them are not really anywhere near legitimate consideration. So it's kind of a silly... It's an absolute speculation. Right. I guess what we're looking at there is sealing,

and I think at times that I could see, I could tell maintaining the performance he's already had, and it being a valuable piece to a baseball team, I just don't know, you know, if he's going to go much higher or further that where he's at, you know what I mean? So it'll be interesting to see, but Brett Johnson's completely on board with Zach Gallant being a Sigh young gallon Sye young season baby well yes we'll get there soon enough but let's not forget folks

It's still lockout season so grab your pillows Grab your stuff it's it's still lockout season but we will get around soon enough to Si or excuse me to sigh young season and all the wonderful seasons of baseball Jesse I will say this though you can get on the Draft King sportsbook app right now if you're in Arizona I can't and I forgot that. I saw that the Phoenix Suns were a two-point favorite over the Dallas Mavericks, and I pulled out my phone immediately to smash that Draf King's Sportsbook app button, and I immediately got blocked, told, no, no, no, sir, you are not in a state that allows gambling. You are not within

two blocks of a sports entertainment facility. So I did not get to place my bet, but maybe if you're listening right now on the live podcast, maybe you should. Maybe you should. Maybe you should jump on there and place that bet on the suns. I'm going to say right now you can download the Drafking Sportsbook app if you're a new customer and get those amazing 56 to 1 odds in honor of Super Bowl 56 on any NFL team, bet just $5 and win $280 in free bets if your team wins. That's promo code PHNX for 56 to 1 odds at Drafting Sportsbook app. Drafking Sportsbook, obviously, a official sports betting partner of the NFL celebrating that

Super Bowl 56. If you aren't a new customer, you can still get on the action with divisional round, same game parlayes, combine multiple bets from the same game for a bigger payout. The more legs you add, the more money you win. And I am going to give you one right now with my draft king's pick of the week. But just remember that draft kings is safe, secure and reliable best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your cash whenever you want. And I'm going to give you, like I said, my draft king's pick of the week. I'm taking the Tennessee Titans, which I'm taking all the way to the Super Bowl, baby.

Wow. I'm sure they're going to make me look stupid after this by saying that. But I'm taking the Titans at the over on the Bengals at three and a half points right now. So just over a field goal. I'm going to combine that personally in a same game parlay. And here's my mix. I'm going to give you probably what I would get bashed on the bets podcast for a Cowards Parlay. But I'm going to take Joe Burrow throwing under 304 and a half yards.

and I'm taking Joe Nixon as an anytime touchdown score rolled up with that bangles three and a half or excuse me, Titans three and a half coverage on the spread. I'd also maybe pepper in and under there as well. Maybe that too. And then you can go in and I don't know, like I said before, I like to throw race to five, race to 10, those kind of things in there. Those are always fun as well. Get on the Drapkin Sportsbook app.

Tap that same game parlay option. Once you get that drop-down menu, you will see all those additional options that you can add for those extra legs. So you can increase those odds and win even more money. Draft Kings, again, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. 21 and over only, Arizona-only, gambling problem, dial 1-800 next step. New customers only, eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And that's all I got, Jesse.

That's our weekend baseball. We will see what happens. We appreciate you guys so much for tuning in, obviously. We appreciate the MLB Players Association for scheduling a reply and getting back within two weeks, I guess. Jesse's date is in trouble, guys. This is our final podcast of the week. If you're listening to this right now on Friday, we're a week away. It's not looking great.

It's not looking great. A week is plenty of time, Derek. Look at this guy. If you're watching this live, I want you to look at his face. I want you to see the terror in his face. I want you to know how much he knows he's wrong. So thank God we don't have to worry about Jesse's date coming true because Lord, again, he'd be insufferable. You think you can bet on the end of the lockout on trafficking?

Oh, we need to. Is that possible? I don't know, but we could take side bets on it. that's for sure i don't think they're going to hit my date of valentine's day despite how much they're going to get yelled at by their significant others a reminder from our pal motion that zach gallon almost no hit the atlanta braves last season i will happily remind somebody of this any every episode to be frankly uh to be frankly yeah so um yes i want everybody to remember that of course uh you can follow us on twitter i'm at cap underscore caveman with a k jesse

is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX. But all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. And that's on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You guys have been great in the comments. We appreciate you guys coming in and chatting with us. Right now, of course, shout out to Chris. She says PHNXDBX coast to coast right now.

We absolutely are coast to coast. That's true. To Seattle, you know how many times my stupid friends have confused looking up stuff and putting Washington in? and then telling me what the letters like from your state. I was going to say you went to the wrong Washington, Derek. Washington, D.C. was not. I guess I did.

I was like, I got off the plane. I was like, where's Jesse? They're like, who's Jesse? I said, thunderstick. And they were like, I don't know what you're talking about it. Yeah, if you get off a plane in Seattle and, and mention my name, everyone will know who you're talking about. Oh, it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.

They're like, they pick you up on their shoulders and they carry you straight to Jesse's house. It's the wildest thing ever. So you don't want to pay for it. for a lift or an Uber, just do that. And then Jesse will take you somewhere from his house. Yeah, right. We appreciate you guys tuning in. Obviously, Jesse's going to be wrong on this date.

So we'll celebrate that next week. Wow. Looking forward. Looking forward to really rubbing in his face. You're just making a celebration out of it now. Oh, yeah. I got graphics planned. It's going to be a big ordeal. But again, go check out the

Draft King's Sportsbook app. Use our code of PHNX. go to phnx locker.com, buy yourself a shirt, even if you don't get the membership. Our shirts are amazing. I've been wearing them all weekend. Obviously, I'm dressed up right now in a friggin tie because I had, like I said, mayoral business to take care of here on PHNX's behalf here in Washington, D.C, had to meet with the press, had to meet with Congress.

It was exhausting. But I'm glad that I can go put on my amazing PHNX merch now and, you know, just be comfortable instead of having to go impress people. maybe I should have just worn the shirt to Congress. I bet they would have. They probably would have had more respect for you if you showed up. Probably. This was a weak move, right?

I showed up. It's not even a red tie. It's high power tie. I just showed up in all blue. It's like I was waving the white flag from the beginning. I was like, I don't want this lockout to be over. If we do, Jesse's going to be right. And maybe that's what I was actually here to talk about is just to make sure that whatever date we get this done.

It's not on the date that you said because God help us all if that happened. but you are listening to us right now on your favorite audio podcasting app please subscribe to us there drop us five-star review the vice mayor deserves it go over to youtube also if you're watching us on youtube sign up for notifications if you're not watching us on youtube the helicopter's here to get me jesse by the way um i gotta wrap it up fast because they're going to come busting them through this window but uh we got we have uh we have uh lots of amazing merch we have uh great stuff coming out on the YouTube channel. Don't miss any of it.

Sign up for those notifications, like I said. You won't miss anything from the PHNX team because it's all amazing content. So even the sad Cardinals content, let's be honest. I know we're all sad. We can all vent together. We can go through these steps together and we'll be fine. We'll get out on the other side. So we appreciate you guys watching all week long on behalf of Jesse and myself.

We thank you so much for tuning in. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. but it's so much more fun when the freaking MLBPA would finally respond to the owners here and get this done. Let's get done. Let's get done. Please.