PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Celebrating the Arizona Diamondbacks improbable 2023 Postseason run to the World Series

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. We are celebrating the Arizona Diamondbacks 2023 MLB Postseason run up to the World Series. We have more from the clubhouse on the final day of media availability, take a look back on our favorite moments from the ‘Yoffs, and welcome Jesse Friedman back to the studio.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Download the DROPS by SoleSavy app by visiting https://links.solesavy.com/phnxGametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits or Creams. Go to https://zenleafdispensaries.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local Zen Leaf Dispensary. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What the hell is this? My God, welcome in to a much happier edition of the PHNXTBACs podcast, and that music would allude you to believe. My name is Derek Montia. I'm still occasionally known as the mayor of the Yoffs, but I am very excited to be joined by this man next to me. Of course, he is my vice mayor and your thunder stick. The one and only, Jesse Friedman, is back here in the house. Of course, we have Father Overlord Jacob over here making us sad with this music.

Get rid of that music. I'm not ready for that. Isn't our show headline like celebrating the Diamondbacks? I mean, we were trying to celebrate. Listen, listen. Is this the kind of music you had at your wedding, Jacob? Like, is this your version of a good time? I asked you if you wanted the sad music.

You said yes. You're fair. That's fair. He did. And I was like, that seems appropriate. But now I'm not, I'm not ready to be in that mood. I'm ready to wish you all a very hearty ski. Skiy to you, Jesse.

Thank you, Skiy, Faj. Ski, too. Thank you. I appreciate that. We love you guys. Appreciate you guys for being here today. And I did want to start off by saying, of course, Diamondbacks fans. I know some of you might not be over the loss in the World Series.

But I do want to tell you that you should all hold your head high and be proud of this team and what they have accomplished. I know that Jesse has been covering this entire postseason run exhaustively. I know you've been out there in all these cities doing all this stuff, taking trips that you never thought you would take. In fact, I still remember requesting a World Series credential for you in September, thinking it was the silliest thing that I ever had to do in the world. And of course, here we are. So I wanted to start off with getting your thoughts on everything you got to witness here and kind of encouraging these people a little bit because I know you weren't with us, but some are very, very sad about the loss last night. Yeah, man. Just an incredible run for the Diamondbacks all the way around.

I tried to put it into words in my story yesterday, and I still feel like I don't have the words to describe, you know, what has transpired for this team over the last few weeks. It's a season that we're going to be talking about for the whole off season. We've got a whole lot to talk about this off season, given how far the Diamondbacks were able to go this year. And we've got a lot to talk about with this team for, I think, decades to come, right? Anyone who attended any of these Diamondbacks playoff games saw the video that they roll

before every single playoff game at Chase Field where they take it all the way back to when the Diamondbacks were first first became a team way back in 1998 they go through all of the memories that have been built in this franchise over its 26 year history and this is going to be one of those right I mean this is going to be one of the best stories that any that any Diamondbacks team has ever told and I don't I think it's going to take a while for that to hit like I had some moments when I was covering some of these games. It really got real once the devox were in the NLCS, once they made the World Series and were in the World Series. Like, the Arizona Diamondbacks are playing in the World Series right now. And I don't know if that

ever fully clicked in my brain. And I imagine some people watching and listening maybe feel the same way. There were a few moments, especially when it was 2 p.m. on a weekday afternoon and I was standing in front of Chase and it was the most packed I've ever seen it. You and I were together out there when the band was playing and the fans were just vibe and it was just just such an incredible feeling to have the world series back here at chase field to be celebrating with all of you and i know so many people felt that as well uh obviously we know that there is you know a lot of regret i know there's uh you know there's the idea here that coming up so close and falling short is so painful yeah and i understand that pain yeah that's real that really i mean the diamond

had a real opportunity to win the World Series. Like they, I know the Texas Rangers ultimately won this thing four games to one and we're going to get into kind of exactly how that happened. But it's tough when you get all the way to this point and you don't come away and actually and actually win the darn thing. Yeah. Right. The reality is that the Diamondbacks come back next year and win 95 games and the odds are

still very much against them that they can get the same opportunity that they just had against the Texas Rangers team that was outstanding. I don't want to take anything away from them. But a Rangers team that going in, I think a lot of people thought the diamondbacks actually matched up pretty well against. That was arguably the most favored they were throughout the entire postseason. Which is the problem. That was the problem, Jesse, because every time they faced adversity, every time they faced

a new challenge, the idea here was essentially, well, it was nice that they got this far. They have to face the brewers and those pitchers that they got. out up there. Oh, well, at least they made the playoffs. Oh, now they have to face the Dodgers. At least they made it out of the wild card round. It seemed like there was doubt, you know, surrounding this team every step of the way until oddly enough they got to the biggest stage in baseball, which is the World Series. And that was the moment that against the Texas Rangers team who was built differently as far as overcoming their 100 loss season two years ago and getting to this point, they still kind of had a similar.

odd run through the playoffs where they barely made the playoffs themselves they stumbled quite a bit they basically became known as the road warriors whether they were undefeated boy were they that my my god but yeah i mean there's just something of course you know uh about this entire story uh that is just such it's so baseball you know what i mean it's like the diamondbacks finally get to a point where it seemed even even as it progressed right you get past games one and games game game game one and game two right and game one obviously they laugh they they collapsed there yeah i mean they kind of dominated most of the game right and then they absolutely dominated game two so i don't think feelings could have been higher and then you find out their best player adoles

garcia and max scherzer are both completely out of the world series completely out like if we looked at a win probability graphic for the arizona diamondbacks throughout this series that was the high point prior to game three finding out garcia and and Scherzer were gone and or wait was that after game three am i getting those mixed up game four prior to game four yeah that was after yeah i'm sorry game both guys three and four even that point you felt like there there was no way they were and and they were at home for two more games you know and you're just looking you know past kind of that bullpen game and you're seeing you got zagallon you got merrill kelly you got brandon fought here coming up again everything seemed good and of course

that's when things didn't go their way right yeah we even talked about them being favored for the first time in the entire postseason there. What was it? Was a game four that they were favored for the first time? I mean, it's like we just needed. We just needed everything to be against them is what we needed. We needed that to continue.

I think eventually it came to a point where national analysts had just sort of had it with like doubting the diamond backs and being crewed wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there was the sense that like, like, we can't, we can't doubt the diamond backs anymore. Yeah. Like this, this team is just some sort of a crazy team of. destiny that is just like like no matter no matter yeah no matter what you know your analysis on paper might tell you the diamond backs are just going to like completely outperform whatever you're

expecting of them and yeah i mean you know i certainly don't love trying to make predictions but i'll be honest after game two after seeing the diamond backs beat the rangers nine to one and and dominate you know much of game one as they did even though they didn't win i thought the diamond backs were going to win the world series like not that long ago right and uh do i tell you i tell you know I don't want to tell, I don't want to tell people this, Jesse. I have a feeling you're going to. I don't want to tell people this, but I feel like I should. I should reveal the fact that at one point, I looked up how many days after the World Series ended that the championship parade took place.

So that's why they lost. Why did I look that up? I mean, it was just information I felt like I needed to know in order to start pre-planning my life. And of course, yes, that is when they lost. But today was the last day of media availability. I know you were over there. And there was a lot of talk from Mike Hazen, obviously, about what this team has accomplished. But here was his opening statement in regards to, you know, essentially the epilogue to the season.

First, first I want to congratulate the Texas Rangers. They deserve this, this moment. They played a really good series. And they beat us. And so that's first and foremost, watching Boch, you know, was from a long-term game perspective is, you know, something that's great about the game of baseball. I also know that, you know, if I read it once, I read a thousand times about the Diamondbacks and the Rangers playing in the World Series. And, you know, for whatever that is, look, we, I think hopefully, hopefully, the country got exposed to some incredible players.

You know, Josh Jung, Evan Carter, Gordon Carroll, Moreno, and I think it's great for the game of baseball personally. That we had a system in which play for an entire month and the one seed or the six seed could show up. We play a long season and, yeah, there's teams that won 100 games, but I think it's great for the country, for the game of baseball to see this next generation of players playing. on the stage.

And then, you know, lastly, I want to just say how incredibly proud I am of Tori, our coaches, and our players for the work, dedication, preparation that went into this season. It is extremely disappointing sitting here today. However, not being able to step back and recognize how incredibly they played. through four different road series cities and four very good opponents, all of which could have taken us up. And, you know, only one did. I mean, and I think that's it.

I think that is exactly what it is. These opponents were tough. It was defeating the ghosts of the Diamondbacks playoffs of the past, right? The Brewers, the Dodgers. We made a new enemy in fact. Philadelphia. Yeah. And the Texas Rangers were just, it was so hard to hate them.

They're just. But now I do. But now I do. Yeah, now I do. But yeah, I mean, obviously, there's a lot to be said about what Mike Hazen said there. But I think that's something to just keep in a perspective is how impressive this playoff run was, how unlikely it was for this team of underage misfits that had no business making it this far and a few vats that helped them along the way. But at the same time, these guys were just an incredible team. And I still think there were so many people that were commenting that like,

oh, it's going to be another 20 years before we get to this point. Like, why are we doing that already? Like the future is bright for this team. I understand if it was one of those other franchises that paid a bunch of money for those, you know, free agents and they came up short. Some of those feelings about Philadelphia fans about those guys that they paid so much money for coming up short in the NLCS, right? So I just, I don't feel that way about this team because of so many of these guys are, you know, young guys having their first season. And really being the big reason why that Diamondbacks made it so far.

This, this World Series was, I want to echo what Mike said about the World Series being good for baseball. And from a rating standpoint, it wasn't, right? The ratings for these games were not good, relatively speaking. I haven't seen any data for game five. but I think games one through four were four of the five worst rated world series games ever. And those numbers have actually tailed off for Major League Baseball pretty considerably in the last seven or eight years. I think a lot of that has to do with who's been playing in it every year. But yeah, I mean, you know, from a national broadcast perspective, they maybe weren't happy with this.

But this is, I think it's really important for baseball that, you know, the teams in, I mean, these are still pretty big markets, right? like Dallas area, Phoenix area. These are pretty massive markets, but they're not enormous sports markets, at least not in the same way that, you know, in L.A. or Chicago or, you know, even Philly. These are, these sports towns are in sort of a different place than some of those. But at the end of the day, this was, as Mike said, a great showing of some of the best young players. In this game, you saw that on the Rangers side with how well Josh Young played in this series. The Rangers have a lot of young talent on that team, even though they all.

also spent a heck of a lot of money to put that team together. And on the Diamondback side as well, what you were just saying about, you know, the 23 and 24-year-olds that powered this Diamondbacks team. Yes, it was Catell, yes, it was Merrill Kelly. You know, Zach Gallen came up really big in yesterday's game as well. But some, I mean, Geraldo Pardomo, Alec Thomas, Gabrielle Marino, Corbin Carroll, those guys all played a really big role for the Diamondbacks throughout the entire postseason run. It's really hard to get back to a World Series, no matter how good your team is on paper. But like you said, the future for this team is bright. And hopefully people can hold on to that throughout the offseason.

Ina Jackson says DBAX fans didn't lead before game was over. Chris said, I love how DBAX fans showed up. And I think that's some of the big lasting impact of this run, right? There's a financial impact of what the Diamondbacks were able to do as far as the, you know, having home games and bringing. that money that they wouldn't have brought in otherwise during during this time of the year. But I think there's just something to be said about the experience that the team gets and that team is going to be here for a while. That core is going to be something that Mike Hazen can build around for the future. And we will talk about that here momentarily.

But the other part of it is that so many new fans were created. So many new people like discovered this team existed. So many people here in town kind of fell in love with these young guys. and this isn't a team that's hopefully going to have a lot of turnover. It's going to be a team that you can root for the Corbyn Carrolls and Alec Thomas and Gabriel Moreno's on this team for a very long time. Yeah. And I think that that part of it is what makes you as a fan fall in love with the team

and want to come back next year, want to see the season, come back again, right? Because I know there's so many people that are already saying they can't wait. Michael, our guy, Michael's counting down the days to opening day. So I, and I mean, I know. what you're saying about, you know, the bigger sports markets, but sometimes a big part of it is just having a team that competes and competes for years. And I think that's the one difference about this team that could be different than those other postseason runs this franchise has had. All of those other postseason runs, I mean, the 2001 team was especially good for, you know, a period of time

around that World Series before and after it. They weren't, that wasn't just the only year they went to the playoffs but uh they also had just you know i mean i don't know they just have a they have something going on now where uh it feels like this could be something that we get to see uh for the next few years and again there's a lot of talk already about ken kendrick opening up you know the the checkbook and and honestly i'm i think people are going to be surprised i don't like i don't think that there was a lack of wanting to spend money at times i think there was just a of not being able to get the guys that they wanted to spend money on just like the trades they Maybe those maybe those deals cost a little too much maybe the trades cost a little too much

But it's not like the diamond backs aren't trying to maneuver themselves into a position to get better And honestly with what Mike Hazen did with the guys that that he did add to this team during the course of the season Show that he is very good at talent acquisition is very good at finding those diamonds in the rough so maybe if you give them you know you give them that budget You give him a little bit more money to spend he can he can he can get this team over the top because we are so close right now. There's a few glaring holes that need to be addressed. But we first want to talk about how this World Series went. And of course,

we can't do that without looking at the numbers, which I know are most likely going to... Buy the numbers graphic for a five games series. Yeah, we had to do this, Jesse. You weren't here last time we did this. It was a lot of math on my end. But, oh, man, this is a frustrating. This is a frustrating graphic, my friend.

this is not great. I mean, the Diamondbacks out hit the Rangers, 47 to 38. The big two, everything else relatively close. I mean, starting pitching ERA,

a lot of these numbers are skewed by game two. Honestly, that's one thing I will say here. I think that's why things look a lot closer. DeVax scored a lot of runs and got a lot of hits when it didn't. When it didn't matter. That's true too. Yeah,

yeah, that's true too. But I mean, obviously, I think the thing about these numbers show is that you can't say the Diamondbacks didn't have a chance in the series. You can't say they didn't get hits or have offense or have good pitching. It just it faltered at the worst time when you talk about the starting pitching and the hits just

came in many of these games at times where like you said, they were meaningless. Even if they got a lot of hits in a game, they were they were kind of scattered around without actually being productive and a lot of lack of, you know, production with runners and scoring position. I just wanted to make sure you were still real. I'm alive, Saul, just barely hanging on by. Yeah, I said the same thing when he walked in here. I was like, is that Jesse Friedman? Oh, by the way, my favorite moment was when we both boarded an elevator during what was in game five.

And he was in the back and I walked on. And it was like, it was like we hadn't seen each other in 20 years. It was like, Derek, Jesse, you know, all the people between us were like, what the hell is going on? But that's, that's, of course, those numbers are unfortunate. Yeah, I mean, just looking at those. numbers through five games, you would automatically assume that this series was three to two. And it wouldn't have even necessarily been clear which team was leading, right? I know that the Rangers scored a few more runs in these five games, but not a lot. It's just a four run difference

between the Diamondbacks and the Rangers in the series. And yeah, I touched on that a little bit yesterday. The Diamondbacks didn't really get blown out by the Rangers in the way that a four to one series would lead you to believe, right? They very much held their own. And I think game three is where things kind of shifted for the diamondbacks. After that second game, like I said earlier, I kind of thought the diamondbacks were going to win the World Series coming back home with three games, you know, after doing what they did in Texas and holding their own there as well as they did, it was like, yeah, I mean, you know, Brandon fought against Max Scherzer, like, yeah, four months ago would have seemed outrageous, but that's advantage diamondbacks, right? And that game three,

there were just so many, so many what if moments, right? It's what I, it's what I wrote about on our website. There was, you know, a number of miscalls that went against the Diamondbacks. You know, there were some managerial moves that you could, that you could question. There was, you know, the fact that Max Scherzer was taken out early because of his injury. And John Gray came in, a guy that the Diamondbacks just haven't been able to figure out for whatever reason. So, yeah, you know, things just kind of turned south for them in game three. And then game four was obviously ugly.

in game five was right there for them up until the very end uh Zach gallon pitched an outstanding game that diamondbacks did not lose because of him even though he didn't have the the postseason that i'm sure he would have liked to so yeah the debaks are really right there in the series and you know as i said before it's it's hard to let an opportunity like that slide when you really had a legitimate chance here 26 runs to 22 runs 47 hits for the debacks to the rangers 38 hits eight homers to three though eight homers to three that's the one yeah that's the one that gets you and this isn't even a team that necessarily had that power during the regular season but you have to say that that power was a big reason why they were able to overcome uh the dodgers specifically they had a lot

of power in that series and even even against the Phillies i mean this this showing as far as the offense goes uh the batting averages 271 batting average with runners in scoring position for the debacks 273 for the rangers that does not tell the tale of some of these games that's the Yeah, I think they were really good with runners in scoring position in that second game. In one game, yeah, in one game, right. Yeah, but that's the thing is, is that overall this series definitely felt like it was more lopsided than that, especially like you said, with the four wins to the one victory. So make sure to check out all of Jesse's writing over at go phynx.com.

He did an excellent job at following this team and writing about everything. We're going to have some more stuff up, including some of our favorite moments from the postseason. So make sure to not miss that. If you are here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel right now, we thank you guys for being here. Make sure to subscribe to the channel. Sign up for notifications. Do what Gabby said. Drop a like.

We love you, Gabby. You're still Mr. Diamondback. And if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, please subscribe to us there. Leave us a five-star review. We always appreciate that feedback. Of course, make sure to check out our friends of BetMGM because baseball season is over. And now you might need more sports to watch. And sometimes, you know, you can't find that sport to watch because you're not interested.

the same way in other stuff than you are in baseball. Well, a way to get interested is to throw some money around on it. That way all of a sudden you become really interested, really fast, and you can do that. We're really angry, really fast, but do it. I'm going to try to change much. I was, I used, I used my betting to try to curse the opposing team. At one point, I fell off the rails with that and we saw how that went. But, of course, I'm going to get back on track on trying to make some money.

And you should, too, with the BetMGM Sportsbook app, all you got to do if you're a new customer to get some free money, is to download the BetMGM Sportsbook app using our code of PHNX to sign up. And then once you do, just deposit at least $10 into your newly created account and place a wager in that amount or more, at least $10 or more, at a standard odds price. Once you do, you will receive $200 in bonus bets regardless of the outcome of your wager. And of course, this offer isn't around for long.

So make sure to not miss out on the chance to get $200 in bonus bets instantly with BetMGM. Again, all you have to do is sign up for BetMGM. Use our bonus code at PHNX. Place your first bet MGM sportsbook wager through the bet MGM sports book mobile application of at least $10. You'll receive $200 instantly in additional winnings regardless of your wages outcome.

Check out the show notes for full details and now listen to our baby boy Shane talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler, Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Jersey, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.

Call 877-Hope-N-Y or text Hope & Y, 4-6-6-9-N-YYRICH 6-0-0-1-200-Massachusetts. 21-plus to wager. Please gamble responsibly. Call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona. 1-800-2707-1-1-17 for confidential help, Michigan. 1-800-10-7-1-1-3-Polter-RICO in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit at MGM.com for terms and conditions, U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., New York or Ontario.

We'll get you on board with that little thing we do. Oh, yeah, that's the thing now, right? Yeah, that's the thing we do around here, Jesse, is we stopped by Circle K on the way home. We do. We still have little celebration parties there. I don't know if the employees appreciated it much. We just went in, did little dances through chips in the air. We cleaned up after ourselves, but I just didn't think they liked the spectacle.

But, of course, that's done now. But you can still be part of the Inner Circle. And of course, you can join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply, participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But the Inner Circle is their free membership program, which will save you at least three cents per gallon every single day. And we'll save you 25 cents per gallon on your first five fillups. You'll also get buy five, get the six one free on a selection of Circle K products, including pizza, coffee, and ice cold fountain drinks.

You'll also get free coupons just sent to your app. So make sure not miss out on that for all sorts of wonderful things. Candy, chips, all sorts of great stuff. So do not miss out today. Stop by Circle K and fill up. It's America's Thursday stop. Now looking to the offseason a bit, of course, we know that the talk for the Diamondbacks is going to involve how far they came, how close this team was, and what pieces. they can add to it to potentially make it farther.

Also, you also have the fact that there is some free agency to deal with. I know Loers-Gariel Jr. is going to be a free agent at the end of the season. They also have some moves to decide with some of the guys that I think that didn't perform as well or didn't necessarily contribute as much. But Mike Hazen is talked or talked today about addressing those off-season issues. Yeah, yeah. This was, today was exit interviews day, as we said earlier. So we got to talk with Mike Hazen for about half an hour,

to Relevello for about a half an hour. So, I mean, yeah, we have an entire offseason to, you know, kind of go through what the Diamondbacks options are and to really dig deep on what their needs are. But we heard from Hazen today on kind of what the Diamondbacks are looking at as far as areas they're looking to improve. And here's what he had to say about that. Starting to think about the offseason starts today.

You know, we've had some very, brief in moments to prepare for what we have coming up. We know we have a lot of work to do. We know there are areas of our team that we want to try to improve. You know, I think this run of 30 days was highlighted some of our best baseball. I think the 84 wins during the regular season highlighted some of the areas where I feel like I need to make improvements, that we need to make improvements to be able. better next year. Yeah, I mean, look, specifically I haven't really, you know, spend a lot of time

digesting. I think starting pitching is certainly going to be an area we need to address. You know, we had a lot of depth going to the season. It was probably the deepest we've ever been in that spot, and we went through it all plus. And I think that's just the nature of the beast and something we're going to need to continue to reinforce going into next year. We have a lot of young arms, which is great. But we're going to need to improve that area. And then I think from a position player side of things, we're losing some right-handed hitting,

a lot of right-handed bats off of our roster. And that's probably going to be an area that we're going to need to address again. Losing a lot of right-handed bats. Yeah. It's an interesting statement. Tommy Fam and Lordus and Lardis Gurriel are both free agents, as you talked about earlier. We also learned this is per, I think Nick Picoro from the Arizona Republic

is the first one to put this out there. Lordus Guriel is actually not eligible for a qualifying offer. I know that's something that a lot of people have been talking about here over the last few weeks, whether the Diamondbacks would give him the qualifying offer and try to get a draft pick should he sign elsewhere. But that is not an option. His contract situation is a little bit unique, signing as an international free agent with the Toronto Blue Jays a number of years ago. So that's not an option for the Diamondbacks. No, but what an option for the Diamondbacks is is paying a lot of money for Marcus Stroh.

That's a whole other thing, but they definitely do need to address the story in pitching, obviously. And I know that that's something that was exposed heavily here in the playoffs. A lot of questions, a lot of flack, a lot of criticism hurled at Tori Lavolo's way for the bullpen game that he utilized. And not only from a perspective of how it didn't work for the Diamondbacks, but there was like this weird grander narrative that was being told of how like, bad for baseball. How you ruined the world series by going with a bullpen game. It's like, bro, what do you want me to do? Yeah, exactly.

Our starters got hurt. We don't really trust Ryan Nelson enough to make him that. And honestly, Nelson proved that notion wrong by coming into the game, even though it was at a point where the pressure was probably off with a 10 run deficit or a nine run deficit. And, you know, that's, that's of course, like what it's about. I mean, you know, like I get it. Like the bullpen thing was.

great and that's not I'm sure that wasn't anybody's intention however it it worked in their stretch you know to the postseason it had even worked in the playoffs it worked against the it's against the Phillies right they they won game four right so I don't know I'm just thinking that like of course you know there there's a lot there was a lot of criticism about those bullpen games but hey it's what tory or Tori needed to do in order to get this team to the to the world series tory didn't have an actual choice there that's what people have to recognize, right? And a big reason that the Diamondbacks were able to go so deep into the postseason

is that they only needed three starters up until game four of the NLCS when they found a way to win a game with the bullpen game and then it circled around again in the World Series, right? Game four, they went with the bullpen game. The result was not nearly as good. But yeah, anyone trying to make the case that like more people would have tuned into the World Series if the Diamondbacks started Ryan Nelson instead of Joe Mantiplei, that's kind have an outrageous take, right? I don't think it was bad for baseball in the sense of like,

oh, people are angrily shutting off their television because the diamondbacks have a reliever in to start the game. This was just the move that the diamond backs, it was, yeah, it was the move that they had to make in the situation that they were in. And it's actually kind of worked for them a little bit in the past. They've had some decent outcomes doing this. And it's something that a lot of other teams and the majors have done too. The diamondbacks did not reinvent the wheel with the bullpen game. It's not the first time we've seen this in the playoffs. We've had the Giants doing it to us all year long. Yeah, the Giants, the entire season of bullpen games. Where was all this criticism then? So yeah, I mean, I get, you know, it's the World Series. It's a grand

stage. And the Diamondbacks would have liked to have a starting pitcher in that spot, which leads very nicely into something else that Mike Hazen said when he was asked, do you regret not adding a starting pitcher at the trade deadline? And here's what he had to say about that. regrets. Yeah, it's kind of painful to sit here and talk about this. After getting thoughts from the World Series and feeling like what happened in game four isn't 100% on me. You make the decision you make. We added at the deadline. It wasn't like we just sat there with our thumbs and didn't do anything, but we didn't do enough. And, you know, when we went through the playoffs, knowing that we were getting to a seven-game series, knowing that that fourth spot was going to be, bullpen day twice first time we made it through the second time we did not yeah you were hoping

that the players are going to pick you up for the area that you left them naked and look you're not going to you're not going to bat a thousand in this job certainly I have plenty of misses but yeah that that's a tough one to swallow from here right now yeah but every once in while you hit a home run by trading for gabby moreno and lordis geryl junior or like picking up uh Ryan Thompson on a market deal in August, right? Mike Hazen, I think all things considered had a pretty successful year. But yeah, there are some clarifying questions after this. Going back to the Diamondbacks opportunity to add a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, we know that the Diamondbacks were interested. Mike Hazen has said that the Diamondbacks basically made phone calls about every

starting pitcher that you could possibly imagine who was on the market at that point. And the cost was so high. The cost was high. Everybody wanted Alec Thomas. Everyone wanted Alec Thomas, but what Hayzen clarified today, and he was specifically asked about Alec Thomas because, let's face it, if the Diamondbacks had traded Alec Thomas in order to get a starting pitcher, they probably wouldn't have wound up here anyway because Alex Thomas got some really, really big kids. He wasn't done yet. And was a really, played a really good center field for the Diamondbacks throughout the playoffs.

He was a really big reason why they made it as far as they did. However, Mike Hayzen did reveal today that maybe there would have been some ways. to acquire a starter at the deadline without giving up Alec Thomas and without giving up Brandon fought. And Hazen was very clear that clearly the Diamondback should not have made either of those moves, right? The regret is not we should have traded Brandon fought or we should have traded Alex Thomas in order to get a starter.

That would, especially Brandon fought. I mean, that would just, in retrospect, that seems absolutely ludicrous now. And we talked about that. That was part of our trade packages at one point. We talked about real trade proposals. I mean, I guess they weren't real. They came from mostly my brain, so they were very fake. That made it real.

But yeah, the regret here is not that the debacks should have traded one of those guys. But Hazen did say, you know, maybe the Diamondbacks could have pushed some deals in different directions and tried to find a way to make it work without those two guys involved. And as you heard there, it's tough for him to think about that in retrospect, watching that game four and seeing it go the way they did if the Diamondbacks had traded for Jordan Montgomery instead of the Rangers, maybe the series goes down. That's one.

That's one. But there just wasn't a lot. There wasn't a lot available and there weren't many pitchers that went on to be traded that then made you say, damn, we should have got this guy. Jordan Montgomery was probably the one. And the Rangers that were already a potent team added that exact piece that they needed to get them. You know, without Montgomery, maybe the Rangers aren't even in the playoffs, right? With how close that they came to not making the playoffs themselves.

I wonder if there was a point during that trade. deadline where Mike Hazen, as much as he would never actually admit this, actually thought, am I really going to mortgage the future for a team that isn't even going to make the playoffs this year? Right. Like that's how close. That's how bad things were at the trade deadline where you really start second guessing if you want to make those moves because what's the point?

It's kind of like what you see from the off season where teams do bring in these high priced free agents. And then by the end of the year, it's kind of laughable that they thought that that was going to be what got them over the edge or whatever, right? Like there were a lot of guys available, a lot of guys we talked about. But to be honest, when you looked at their performances with their new teams, it just, it absolutely

didn't seem like, it seemed like the downbacks dodge lots of lots of bullets. Right. And the bigger thing is, like you said, like we talked about there, the, what Alex Thomas and Brandon Fott contributed to this postseason run. You know, Thomas, I still can't,

I still can't stop thinking about that 14 pitch of bat, that ended in a home run. I still can't stop thinking about all of the things we got to witness of Alec Thomas this season. Sticking the NL champions flag in the ground in Philadelphia. Yeah, man. I mean, declaring Philadelphia, Diamondbacks territory. I love it. But I mean, there's going to be a lot of questions about how much they change, right?

Going back to Lourdes, I think one thing that I think about is Lourdes leaving is probably the best thing for both the team and the player. Just because Lordus's value, I don't think, after having an all-star appearance and being in a world series and being part of such a big team is never going to be higher than it is right now. And I'm not saying that the diamondbacks are much more familiar with his contributions. And I know that they love him and want him to be here. But I think that in reality, it's going to be one of those situations where another team is going to pay him so much more money based on those accolades that he achieved this year that the diamondbacks just aren't going to be able. to match that kind of offer. But we'll see, right? There's a lot.

Someone said, I think Michael said, I can't believe we're talking about offseason stuff already. The body's not even cold yet, Jesse. This feels wrong. Yeah, but it's crazy. And Mike talked about this too. Like, the GM meetings are next week.

The winter meetings are a month from now. Like, the Diamondbacks don't have, you know, Mike said, you don't normally give guys like a week or two off or something when the season ends. The Vbacks can't really do that right now because the off season is already,

you know, going to be basically in full swing as of as of this time next week. So, yeah, there's a lot of questions to be answered here. And, yeah, speaking to Lourdes,

I think the athletic had like three years, 36 million or something is their prediction. That's something along the lines of kind of what I've, what I've had in my head as well. Would the debacks do that? Probably not. But, you know,

they need a player like that. The debacks still need. That's not an awful con. That's almost like, that's Eduardo Escobar ask. I think it's a reasonable like if you get Lordis for 3 and 36 it doesn't feel like a massive overpay or anything

He's been an above average hitter every single year Absolutely he's played in the majors He's just streaky that's slightly below his career averages this year But he was very good defensively this year Defensively he might have had metrics wise his best season Yeah he had like 12 defensive runs saves Yeah but Mike Hason also talked about The meaning of an 84 win season

Yeah basically the idea that the Diamondbacks on one hand just made it to the World Series and on the other hand they only won 84 games and they had a negative run differential and that's like as a front as a front office like what do you do with that it's kind of a failure like there's a lot of things to correct

not a lot you're like almost there you're almost there but with a negative run differential and 84 wins you're typically not making the playoffs so there's things that you're trying to address to get you that net to that next step further right and now the Diamondbacks made the world series. So what the hell do we do? Yeah, exactly. I mean, if the D-backs did want 84 games at a minus 15 run differential and not made the playoffs, the message going into the off-season, it'd be like,

all right, this is a good year, but like there's some pretty serious work to be done here. But the D-backs just made the World Series. So does that mean suddenly, like, this team is right there and they just need one more bullpen arm or something? And that was the difference. And, yeah, Mike Hazen, basically, I asked this question about, you know, whether 84 wins really does justice. to the quality of team that the diamondbacks are right now. And here's what Hayeson had to say about that. I mean, we talk about that. Yes, I want to believe that the adjustments we made in the second half of the season

from the trading deadline on, that we were a different team than the team that probably got us up until where we were trending to a 500. I think we got to two games under. I don't know, but that feels like an excuse. We were an 84 one team. It is what it is. We got into playoffs the way we did.

We created the path that we were going to have to do to get to the World Series. we walk through that path and I'm proud of that. But we were in the end of the day, we're an 84-win team. Everyone goes back to what Bill Parcell says you are, what your record says you are, and that's who we were. And that's not something that I'm saying in a disparaging way. I'm proud of the fact that we got into the playoffs. That's not an easy thing to do that a lot of teams that didn't.

But I think there's a lot of room to grow when I think about that 84-win number. No, I do not. Do not do that. that. I don't care about the 84 wins. I mean, I get it. I know a lot of people are going to bring that up as a topic. It's going to be a talking point. Oh, it's one of the lowest, you know, win totals for a team to ever get into the World Series, getting into the playoffs. But that's what makes the playoffs so fun. And I'll also say that this team did everything they needed to do to continue improving. And when I say that, I mean, taking those steps that another team would not have taken. Cutting Madison Bumgardner, cutting guys like Carson, uh, Carson's

and Kelly and Nick Ahmed and doing what you felt like you needed to do to give younger guys that were performing better and that were going to help you win baseball games, those spots. And I mean, those aren't easy decisions. Most sports franchises do not make those decisions. They let the finances determine their decision making a little bit more than that. And that, I think, was the key this year. The Diamondbacks front office did not let anything stand in their way as far as the success of

this team. and they could see that they were kind of in a transition from having some of those older veterans on the team to this new crop of young superstars that were emerging by clearing the way throughout this season and not waiting until people's contracts ended and not make, you know, of course you got you got play a guy that you're paying that much. So then that impacts Tori Lavallo and everything he's doing as far as his game plan. And this isn't to throw shade at any of those guys because so again, those guys can. contributed so much to this team. But this season, that was what got the Diamondbacks there, not holding back in any way when it came to roster decisions as far as someone's contributions, their performance impacting the success of this team.

Yeah. Yeah. And he also, you know, came back to this question a little bit later and spoke specifically about how the bullpen and pointed that, pointed to that as being the one area of this team that I think we can all agree is just better, right? Oh, absolutely. The Diamondbacks who won 84 games, they didn't have as good a bullpen throughout the entire season as the Diamondbacks have right now. Yeah.

And I think Hazen said if the debacks do nothing to upgrade their bullpen this offseason, it's going to be a better bullpen than they started with this year. Yeah, absolutely. This bullpen is clearly, clearly better than what they want they had for the majority of the season. But yeah, at the same time, I think, you know, what Mike is talking about is probably the, at least in my mind, the way you should be thinking about this. You were an 84 win team and you probably need to be fairly aggressive. Like you probably need to do some fairly significant things to upgrade this team if you want to get back to the same point next year. It's pretty tough to do what the debacks did where you win 84 games and you find your way in and then you just go on a tear for a few weeks and find your way all

the way to the World Series. Next year they would, I'm sure they would like to do it and, you know, play a few more home games over the course of the postseason. and then what they had this year. I don't know. They were pretty good on the road themselves. They were pretty good on the road. Yeah, they were pretty good on the road. They won two in Los Angeles, two of Milwaukee.

Then they went and won two must win games in Philadelphia with the hardest place to play. I commend this team for what they did. But I will say, like, yeah, there's a lot of holes to address. And honestly, like, even some of the emotional, like, changes, like, Andrew Chaffin being traded to me was, like, one of the moves. I was like, oh, my God, they did that. Like that it just showed because he was in the acquisition during the off season of chafin was such a big part of like oh this bullpen's back and he was so good elsewhere since you know since he left Arizona and like I don't know there were there were a lot of moments I think that fans couldn't believe this team was making some of the moves they did throughout the season and I hate to get all metaphorical but it was a lot like a snake shedding its skin and you know moving on and being that like next form of itself. And again, when that transition typically happens, it doesn't happen in a season where you have this much success in the postseason. It happens.

Yeah. You know, in a season where you win 84 games and you narrowly miss the playoffs or you get the wild card and the division winner beat you. But this was different. And I mean, this team, again, the big question in the off season is going to be, how much do you change this roster? You know, this roster did it. What portions do you change? Who do you invest in? Who do you maybe take a look at as a potential trade candidate?

or like you said, some of those free agents, who do you resign or who do you move on from? I do say that the mix of veterans and young guys seem to keep a very good balance. And I think that's something that they should absolutely continue to look for as far as, you know, as bringing guys in here. These young guys, they got a lot of experience, but they still need some mentors in the clubhouse. Maybe, you know, maybe not guys that were performing in a World Series like 15 years ago or whatever. I've been Longoria was doing. But that was Jake's favorite guy. So I can't knock him in Longoria, but what do you think?

Do you think the Diamondbacks are going to look to make some major overalls? Or do you think we'll just see a few kind of key areas addressed? Yeah, I mean, you heard earlier Mike talked about starting pitching. And I think that's a clear one. The Diamondbacks are going to go out and they're going to try to get an established starting pitcher. You know, they've had Zach Davies the last couple of years. I wonder if maybe they shoot a tier higher than that, you know. Davies was obviously not good this season.

but he was pretty serviceable for them last year as a back-end starter. But yeah, I wonder if they're looking for more of like a number three starter type, you know, someone who really has some experience in the league. And there's a decent amount available on the free agent market. We didn't get a whole lot of information today on where the Diamondbacks stand financially. That's obviously a huge part of that. But yeah, I think starting pitching is going to be the biggest one from what we heard today. Mike also talked about third base trying to address that external.

I think that's a pretty clear need for this team. A bench bat was also brought up. I asked about a left-handed reliever. That was something the Diamondbacks didn't. It kind of shuffled through some different high leverage arms as far as lefties are concerned throughout the playoffs. Mike didn't seem he was fairly non-committal about chasing after a left-handed reliever this off season. But yeah, I don't think it's going to be like super major. Like the bags aren't like shopping Corbyn Carroll or something.

But they have to even say those. Why would those words even come out of your mouth? I never want to hear that ever. I'm sorry. I apologize. But yeah, the diamond backs are, they have some work to do. They have some work to do. And, you know, you're going to see a lot of the same guys next year, but you're,

you're going to see a team that is, you know, hopefully better as well. Right-handed bats, maybe. Yeah, I mean, focus. Yeah, they're going to- How feasible is Matt Chapman, Jesse? Matt Chapman's an interesting one. And we're getting way ahead of ourselves. I hate this.

We have, like, three months to talk about. What are you doing? I mean, I guess not three months. Like, some of these guys could sign. relatively soon, I guess. Max Muncie just signed an extension, so it's going to get started quick. Extensions, you might see a little bit sooner.

Free agency starts in four days. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, Matt Chapman's interesting because he kind of knocked the cover off the ball for the Blue Jays in April and then he didn't really hit much the rest of the year. He's obviously an extraordinary third baseman and there's a ton of value in that. But I suspect some teams might be a little bit hesitant there

just because the bat has been really streaky throughout his career. Like at times he's been one of the best hitters in the game. And at other times he just, you know, just doesn't really hit much at all. So, but yeah, I mean,

obviously it would be a huge upgrade for the Diamondbacks over, over what they currently have. I suspect the price tag will be a little high for them. But, uh, yeah, we have lots of off season talk here because it's the off season. I hate to break it to you.

Uh, but we want to thank you guys, of course, for your super chats and for being here. You guys are always wonderful. And we thank you, uh, for being in the live chat.

You make the show more fun. Elizabeth, we thank you. Elizabeth, all season long, Elizabeth has been one of my favorite people to chat with here on the show. Elizabeth Nose Ball. She says, thank you so much for your tireless coverage of the entire season and this dedicated DBAX community you've built.

I can't wait to see what 2024 brings us. Skiy, ski to you, Elizabeth. And C.J. La Chappelle, I hope I got that right. Says, what about Drew Jones? Well, Drew Jones is still coming along, but I don't know if Drew Jones is going to come along as quickly, maybe as some of these other guys, It feels like he is.

Not by next season. I don't think you'll see you. He'll be going to be the next one after Jordan. But Jordan Lawler is going to have a lot of playing time next season. Hopefully we'll get a chance to him to see him impact this team and expand his career. And that's going to be fun. It's going to be fun to see a lot of these guys continue to get better for this team. And we get to watch them for so long.

That's what's so exciting. But I know Jesse needs a vacation. I know I need a vacation. I know some of you need a vacation after this long season. So a great place to do that is at Heila Rivers. Helo River Resorts and Casinos. Of course, it is a great place to stay right here in town, which will make you feel like you're a million miles away from your home

and the rest of the valley. So make sure to check them out. You can sign up for Heel River Resorts and Casinos, $1 million big red showdown. You can stay in the game and get rewards. It's that easy. You can play fun, free games online, for a chance to win $1 million in cash.

You can also check out their weekly pickums where you can win up to $1,000 in free bonus play every week, as well as their monthly drawings, which are occurring coming up here on November 5th and December 3rd for Cardinals tickets, memorabilia, free bonus play prop cards for select football games and so much more. Check out our new partner. We are very excited to be partnering with them. Visit Heela Million Dollar Showdown.com to get in on the action. For more information on Heela River Resorts and casinos and all they have to offer, head to Heela or excuse me, head to play athella.com.

And also, Jesse, I know you have neglected your home. I have seriously. Do you have boxes that still need to be unpacked? I imagine that might be the case. We finished unpacking a few months ago. I moved in in January. So if we were still unpacking boxes, that would be a bit of the problem. But, yeah, I don't think my house has been cleaned in about a month.

No, no. And I know that there were still some changes you made. And I don't know, I don't know if you're aware. But we are now partnering together with Empire Today. Yes. The very famous Empire today here in the Valley. And, of course, they definitely keep shopping for floors simple with a curated product selection. And they are all about service.

So make sure to check out Empire for your flooring needs. They have a virtual floor designer, which is a great way to see how the floors will look in any space. You just got to snap a picture and you can instantly see what the pattern, what the different floor designs look like in your house. They also pride themselves on convenient shop at home service. Again, that goes along with the virtual at home experience you can have with their floor designer. They help customers shop for floors where they use floors and where they can see exactly what their new floors will look like in their homes with the lighting and decor. so you can make an informed decision. They also service their own own warranties.

So if an issue does arise, you can just call Empire and they service that themselves. You won't have to track down a manufacturer or a third party warranty company, which is always a hassle. So schedule a free and home estimate today. All listeners can receive a discount of $350 off when they use promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. And that is at Empire. I like to do that.

Yeah, yeah, they have the song. Today. Today. Yeah. Well, of course, I know you had some adventures on the road. Was there anything in particular that stood out? I was very excited to hear you eating cheese steaks in Philadelphia and I don't know, where else.

Did you get any barbecue in Dallas? Yeah, no, yeah. No barbecue. As far as food goes, I have absolutely nothing to report. Yeah, you did a terrible job. I ate basically what was provided to the media in the press room. And that was my diet for four weeks. We had, we had brisket.

We had some pork loins. It was great. They had some great food. Yeah, they definitely, it was interesting seeing how the various ballparks kind of handled that situation. In Dallas, we had little vouchers that we could go and use it like any vendor in the stadium. Oh, nice. They just had, they had like burgers and pizza in the press box, but I wasn't going to eat that

every single day, even though I almost did when it was all set in done. Yeah, yeah, I can understand it. too much of that stuff when I was there. But yeah, the last day I had a chicken palm dog. Whoa. So it was basically like a hot dog except, except it was chicken parm. Except it was chicken parm. Yeah.

And there was there was pepperoni on top too. Oh my God. And like cheese melted on top or like yeah. Yeah, cheese melted on top. It was actually fried chicken, not I guess chicken palm would normally not be fried. Of course it was fried. It was at ballpark in Texas. What do you expect?

But yeah, that was actually pretty good. That was actually pretty impressive. But yeah, that's basically the only interesting food item I've consumed in the last months. And I know you, I know, I know stories he can't tell you guys. I'm going to tell you that right now. That's fun. But was there a particular ballpark that you visited during their playoff run that you

were like, this place is cool? Citizens Bank, man. Citizens Bank is a clear, I think the clear answer there. Dodgers Stadium, I think is a cool place to see a game. I've, you know, been there a number of times before. Milwaukee, not, you know, pretty similar to Chase Field, I guess, when the roof is closed. It's a little, it's a little dark. I think it was, you know, I think it was manufactured by the same people who.

It actually was it. Really? I'm pretty sure it was. I'm pretty sure it was. I don't mean manufactured. I mean, like, I think the builders, like the people who designed the building were the same. Because they looked so much alike, but it's absolutely not the case. Two different, like different architects, different designers, different builders.

It was crazy. There is zero link between those two buildings despite the fact that they look identical. I've heard differently. I thought so, too. We're going to have to back-checked that. We're going to apologize to me when you realize I'm right because I absolutely, I didn't it was even that long ago when I researched this. I think it was when they played Milwaukee during the season because we were going to talk

about it on the show. Am I allowed to be mean to whomever built the Texas Rangers in New Ball Park for a while? Yeah, go off. It's a shed is what it is. That's what we've heard it. Yeah. But it's literally a shed. Yeah.

It literally is. It's the largest shed that you've ever seen. And there is a baseball field inside. I love when Jesse's a sassy bitch. Yeah, they spent, you know, $1.5 billion. I don't know what it was. It's brand new. They spent a lot of money.

And it is shiny and it's clean and it's, you know, well-maintained and nice. But, man, I feel for Texas Rangers fans because their old stadium, the old Global Life field, is still right next door. And it is 10 times as aesthetically pleasing from the outside as the new stadium that they've built. Granted, I understand it's pretty hot in Dallas in the summer. Like the Diamondbacks here, I mean, they could build the most beautiful, completely outdoor stadium in the universe. And it would still be a terrible idea because people just can't, you just can't go to an outdoor baseball game when it's 115 degrees outside. And I get it. And they have a similar issue in Dallas.

But yeah, it just kind of lacked character a little bit. I was kind of, I don't know, I expected if you're going to put that kind of investment in new ballpark, you're going to, you're going to go all out and you're going to make sure it has all these little quirky things going on and, you know, things that people will make memories with over the years. And it wasn't really that. And, you know, the dot race didn't really, was not really very redeeming for them. So, yeah, just not an ideal situation there.

Well, like the Rangers play spring training in surprise, and that ballpark looks a lot like the ballpark in Arlington, the one used to. Yeah, they try to give some similarities. Yeah. That's now Choctaw Stadium, which is like you said, still exists. That's what I think of when I think of Texas Rangers Ballpark. And that ballpark looked really cool. Yeah. Outside it had like the water inside.

It was just a really cool looking baseball park. So many people told me that too, like like Uber drivers and, you know, fans or who you know random people i came across in the ballpark like everyone agrees that when the weather's nice outside the rangers should go next door yeah i just play there's not really a there's not really a who says you can't have two stadiums who says you can yeah i don't i don't say that at all i didn't see it i didn't see it with the roof open so i have to i have to give that qualifier i imagine it's actually a pretty nice place to see a game in that situation um but yeah just just didn't do it for me you know yeah owen's attacking the entire state of texas and

for you people that might not know he's sitting right here next to us. But I have a lot of thank yous to give out. Owens one of them. Thank you, Owen. He's been a staunch supporter of the Diamondbacks throughout this whole playoff run. Jesse Friedman, thank you for all of your hard work. I know we've said it after every time you've appeared on the show from random ballparks around the country. But you put in random ballpark.

Tremendous way. Yeah, it was just random ballpark. I was just showing up. Random ballpacks. Going to places. I'm in Seattle now. No, but you did so much work. And I know it wasn't easy.

I know some of the travel and stuff, especially sending you on an actual wagon at times to places was not easy. Just so I feel like we need to set the record straight. I never took a Greyhound bus. He never took a Greyhound bus once. If anyone actually was indigent me like catching my bags getting on a bus from Philly to Dallas. You're revealing too much. You're pulling the curtain back. We wanted to make it look like you were like being really put out here, you know?

I did take a red eye from. Oh my gosh, all of these things are jumbled in my head. I took a red eye from Phoenix to Newark the second time going to Philly when the series went back to Philadelphia. And there were a lot of Phillies fans on my flight. And I will disclose that many of them were not all there. And it took a while for our flight to depart because they were like kicking all of the Phillies fans who had a little bit too good of a time at the game. Jesse got to see drunk Phillies fans being removed from a play. and had his flight delayed due to it.

And he's trying to just say it in the nicest way possible. But that's what happened. Yeah. Yeah, by the way, you can't show up drug for your flight. You have to at least be able to be able to sit in a seat behave yourself. It is kind of fun though because you encounter like every flight you take. There's going to be at least one other media member on it. Yeah, we're like all going to the same places.

And there's only so many flights you could jump on. Yeah, there's only so many flights. So you're always like running into people at the airport, which is, which is kind of fun. But yeah, it was a, it was a crazy. I'm excited to not be on an airplane. We're excited. I'm very excited to have him back in studio with me because I missed doing the show with this guy.

And of course, I know how hard he's worked, but he's not the only one because there have been a lot of people working hard around here to help us during this playoff run. And I have to thank each and every one of them. Faj, Father Overlord Jacob is the overlord of our production staff. And as some of you may know, a lot of our staff are going on to bigger and better things around here, which means a It's just more work for Faj. That's really what it's down to.

But he has been incredible staying late, staying up late with us to get our videos already for this show. It's been a whole team effort to bring you all of this stuff as quickly as we've tried to do so, especially with Jesse in the clubhouse and also coming to us at some point before we wrap and getting those videos on air. So Jacob, we thank you so much. And also Damon, everybody is Damon's dogs. We are all Damon's dogs. And of course, he is the people's producer for a reason. that man has worked tirelessly at times between doing the Cardinal show and doing this show

and also doing his own show in between about bets. It's been incredible what we've asked him to do. So I want to thank him as well. Of course, the queen of social media around these parts, the goddess of social media, Michaela Perkins for stopping in and helping us out as well. And she has been so devoted and dedicated to helping us get all of that stuff up on Twitter as fast as possible so that everybody could see the postgame reactions and everything like that. So I thank her for all of her incredible work.

One group of people that we absolutely would be wrong to not thank would be the Diamondbacks PR staff who have just absolutely been awesome to work with. And I mean, shout out specially to Shane and Kat. Love them so much. And we've had a lot of, we had a lot of issues making sure everything, you know, has been done. And we're getting in all these games. And they have just been absolutely incredible. So I wanted to thank them as well. But of course, the one guy that we both have to thank here is Patty Plantains, Patrick Lyons.

He sent us both some very emotional text messages. I think what I responded with was I ain't reading all that. Sorry it happened or congratulations. That's what I sent him back. But in reality, I read every word. And this man has absolutely become part of our Diamondbacks family here. I know so many of you learned to love Patrick while he was here. Damon never learned to love Patrick because of his puns continuously, but we can't say enough about how much he helped us throughout this playoff run and just how much fun it was to have him.

Patrick is such a knowledgeable source for baseball and to have him here helping us out. He was having so much fun. He was running around the ballpark getting pictures of old Diamondbacks jerseys like he was a Pokemon collector. He's like a kid in a candy. Yeah. It's rare to come across somebody that has the passion to cover a sport as much as Patrick does. especially considering, you know, his time doing this. Find someone who looks at you the way that Patrick Lyons looks at like an obscure jersey from the mid-2000s.

And Armando-Rinoso jersey. Yeah, like John Roush. Yeah. He's, it was hilarious to witness that. Absolutely. But of course, big thanks to all of you guys for being here. You guys have made this ride an absolute blast. Of course, our den mother, Chris, we want to thank you.

And we're so glad that Chris got that jersey that meant so much to her back. Shout out to have her return that. we thank you for doing so it was returned it was returned she got the original she got the original wow yeah that's so cool we're so happy yeah we're putting that one in a glass case forever hopefully but uh we very much appreciate you guys so much and chris who like has led the way as far as die hearts go but all of you guys for being here you have absolutely made this more fun for us and we are happy uh that we could help bring this diamondbacks community together and and make it a place for us all to come here and talk about this team.

So again, we just thank you guys so much for being here in the live chats all year long and being diehards, all of that stuff. So Ernesto wants to know if we're sending Jesse the winter meetings. Of course we are. Jesse gets to go home and have like 12 hours of sleep before we're putting them on another plane. The GM meetings, like I said earlier, are like a week from today. In Scottsdale, though. It's in Scottsdale. He gets to stay here for that.

But the winter meetings, yeah. Are those here? Winter meetings? No, winter meetings are in Nashville. Oh. Maybe Jesse goes gets to start that family that Sean couldn't in Nashville. He knows. We'll see.

But anyway, again, we thank everybody. Thank you guys all so much for everything. And a big thank you to this Diamondbacks team for being so special going on this run. And let's not forget. This was just such an improbable thing that happened that we got to stop and celebrate in the moment. And I get it. There's some people who still aren't ready to do that. And you are absolutely allowed to take your time.

with how painful this might have been. We were so close. We were so close. But I think this team deserves all of the praise. They deserve all of the adulation, everything you guys, you know, all of the support. Because, of course, they absolutely are just starting this journey that they're on. And even though they didn't get it done this year, my hopes are high that we're not going to go another 20 years before they see this team back in the World Series. So we're saying all these farewells.

We have a show tomorrow. We absolutely do. do yeah this this doesn't stop for us i wanted i thought that this was the end but it's all told me i have to come back tomorrow and do another show so we'll be back here tomorrow one p.m. make sure to join us of course uh we'll have more uh about uh some of the stuff that we didn't show today we have we've got a whole bunch of stuff from all the exit interviews yeah so we'll have some more of that you tomorrow yeah but in the meantime you can follow us on twitter i'm at cap underscore kman with a k uh jessey is at jesse n friedman is that right i don't know you're still remember your last year

middle name still the same middle name. That's wild. Of course, Father Overlord Jacob is at Jacob Franklin for because he's the fourth best Jacob Franklin. Our show is at PH&X underscore Dbacks, but of course, all roads do lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. What am I doing? Oh, there's lots of stuff to. Yeah, no, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm just wrapping it up. And I wanted to thank the diehards while I was talking to them for their membership. And I wanted to tell you guys, make sure to get yourself that diehard membership. if you haven't signed up for it yet. And I know maybe you're not ready to get a shirt,

but those shirts are going to be there when you're ready. And if you sign up for a die hard membership, get one of our wonderful shirts because we're still a wagon and we're still a fucking dangerous team. So do not miss getting out, getting in on those shirts. Of course, if you get that diehard membership, you'll get a shirt for free. And if you are already a diehard member,

you will get 20% off your purchase and all future purchases at the phnx locker.com. You also get Jesse's newsletter, access to our members-only Discord, discounts from our partners and so much more. So sign up today over at go phnx.com. And of course, we said it. The future of this team is still bright.

So you need some good sunglasses. Get yourself some shady rays, the official unofficial sunglasses of a wagon. Did you learn that from Patrick? I did. Yeah, Patrick's good at that. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we love you, Patrick.

But of course, get gear that's built to last. Get yourself some premium polarized shades, especially if you live here in the Valley or if you're a Rangers fan and you intend on coming back. I'm sure it's sunny where you're from too. So make sure to get yourself some sunglasses. They are independent sunglasses company with a world-class product, and they are cheaper than those more expensive companies with the same quality.

You can also get their insane lost and broken replacement plan, which they tell us, and I am now an experienced user of this program. But if you break or lose your sunglasses, even on day one, they will send you out a brand-new pair, no questions asked, no shame, no guilt. You lost yours? I did lose my sunglasses. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

You're never going to convince me it wasn't intentional. You know the people of Shady Raids are too good. I just got to experience everything our partners have to offer, including their lost and broken replacement plan. So you can shut their entire collection here in town at Kieran Commons. But of course, if you don't love your Shady Raise, no matter where you get them, can either exchange them for a new pair or get your money back within 30 days of your purchase. No questions asked. Their team always has your back after you shop exclusively for our listener. Shady Raise is given out their best deal of the season.

Go to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 50% off two or more pairs of pull. polarized sunglasses, try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. All right. Well, Damon's here in the chat. Damon just can't stay away. Damon, it's your day off. I love how me and Damon like haven't seen each other in like about a year as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah. And of course it just so happens. My first day back is Damon's day off. Yeah, that's exactly. I worked out. We scheduled it that way because I mean, Damon's kind of still not over some of the things you said at one point. But we'll get into that tomorrow.

I gave you guys all the Twitter handles, but of course, make sure to follow our show again at PHNX underscore D-Backs. We appreciate your time. We appreciate you riding on this wagon with us. And of course, we thank you so much for being fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when your team makes it to the World Series.