PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Carroll’s projections for 2023 are off the charts. Is this too much pressure already?

Starting point is 00:00:09 Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on the island of relevancy known as PHNX. I am your tribal chief, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This is my wise man. He's also known as Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King's Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. Jesse. Corbyn Carroll is already the greatest Arizona Diamondbacks player to ever live. Is that facts?

Starting point is 00:00:35 Facts or not facts? I think it is facts. I think it is facts, too. Welcome in everybody. You heard it here first. You heard it here first. Yeah, that's right. But before we get to that, the debacks did make a move for the bullpen, if you want to call it that.

Starting point is 00:00:50 Just not a very significant one. Per Bob Nightingale, the debacks have signed veteran reliever and former closer, Juris Familia, to a minor league contract with an invite to their major league spring training camp. And I guess without sounding like I'm insulting the man too much, my question, Jesse, is why? I don't think this, I mean, I don't think why is that hard of a question to answer, right? I mean, this is something that every single team does, right? Once you get close to spring training, you sign your non-raster invitee guys, right? So the debacks signed jury's familiar to a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp.

Starting point is 00:01:27 He'll have an opportunity to come in and try to win a role. Anyone who is critical of this move probably doesn't fully understand the process, if I'm being honest, because this is a minor league deal. So there's basically zero risk in a move like this for the debacks. And granted, there might not be much reward either. Joyce Familia was not a particularly effective reliever last year. But it's a kind of a situation where you hope you catch lightning in a bottle. And if you don't, it's a minor league deal and you don't really have anything to lose in a situation like this.

Starting point is 00:01:58 So this is just run of the mill business as usual, not the kind of thing you can really be critical of in my opinion. Well, like you said, not critical because it's not like it's any kind of major deal. No, they're not. This isn't a repeat of, oh, the devac signed a 38-year-old to come and try to close. There's not that. Markleanson all over again. This is a minor league deal. And familiar he's been around for a while, but he's 33 years old.

Starting point is 00:02:21 He's not as old as some of the other guys that have been brought in the last few years. Maybe you feel like he still has something in the tank. He does have not only the one thing that a lot of guys right now in the bullpen don't really have, besides Mark Malanson and that's experience. Yeah. He was also one of the Mets best relievers for, you know, a period of time. So, I mean, it's not to say that the guy didn't, wasn't effective as a reliever just a short time ago. However, his numbers over the last few years don't look great.

Starting point is 00:02:48 I think last year he put up an ERA over six. 6.09 last year. Yeah, that's not ideal. Not ideal. Again, like you said, there's not very much risk here. No. And the reward could be significant. And, you know, who knows, right?

Starting point is 00:03:03 You're going to see more of these, too. This is just what teams do leading into spring training. You want to create, you know, a competitive environment where there are guys trying to compete for roles and whatnot. And I imagine there's a few more moves like this around the corner. As far as actually improving the bullpen, you know, in a more reliable fashion, that's something that we haven't seen. And we might not see it at this point.

Starting point is 00:03:25 As we talked about the other day, it seems like the debacks, I'm sure they're still open to possibly adding to the bullpen in a major league contract sort of a way. but there aren't any super clear routes to do that at this point. So we'll see. And I think that they just have some maneuvering to do, which will happen when spring comes around. Once they open up camp, pitchers and catchers report, which is not that far away, by the way, baseball fans. And they can start taking a look at these guys seeing who could potentially fill these roles that they still might have gaps, you know, to fill, honestly.

Starting point is 00:03:57 You have the bullpen, obviously, which still has, you know, some problems there. And I think positionally they're okay, but there's still going to be some positional battles out there. And I don't think anything is a given. I don't think anybody has won third base yet, obviously. I don't even really feel that Nick Ahmed. It's going to be hard for Evan Longoria to mess things up in spring training. No, no, no, totally. You're not wrong.

Starting point is 00:04:23 It's like Nick. I think Nick is most likely going to be their shortstop. I just don't. What I guess my thought is, nothing is given. Yeah, not even outfield. center field, left field, right field, all of this can all be shifted based on performance and where they think guys can excel at, honestly.

Starting point is 00:04:40 So it's going to be great to watch, and it's right around the corner, and we get to watch it all the time, all the time, right here in baseball Nirvana. All right, Derek, you're a betting man. Let's go. And you're trying to figure out who the debacks closer will be as of opening day,

Starting point is 00:04:56 who you putting your money on right now. Mark Melanson. Really? I am putting my money on Mark. Really? Yep. I think Mark Malanson You think he bounces back

Starting point is 00:05:04 In spring training? I think he maybe he even takes the offseason Workout a little different You know because of his lack of success last year And you know the way he struggled Who knows? I mean this is a guy probably that takes a lot of pride In the role that he's had and he always did the work quietly

Starting point is 00:05:22 You know like again when he led the league in saves for the Padres You wouldn't really think of him as being the top closer in all of major league Yeah people were pretty shocked last year when the debacks got him and it was like oh man this guy led the league and saves last year what yeah so he kind of goes under the radar because he's not an overpowering guy you know where you see video of him on social media circulating all the time i lean right now towards the veteran guys getting those positions nick omet at shortstop evan lenguroy at third and given troy lovelos track record that's definitely the proper way to lean i think yeah for sure uh but we have bigger news

Starting point is 00:05:58 that could affect the entire franchise. Diamond Sports LLC, the parent company for regional sports network, such as Bally Sports, Arizona, as preparing for bankruptcy, as many of you may have seen. And of course, this is the primary financial supporter of the Arizona Diamondbacks, you could say, as far as that television contract goes, and the amount of money that the Diamondbacks were being paid for it. There's a lot of things that could happen here.

Starting point is 00:06:27 It's going to be very interesting to see how it plays out, to be honest. MLB did hire Billy Chambers, as we talked about, to get the RSN rights back under MLB control or at least figure out some sort of plan that makes sense. So this could be part of that plan, right, waiting for essentially Diamond Sports LLC to claim bankruptcy or to really reach out to try to get those rights back. I'm sure they're worth a ton of money. and I can only imagine how this whole thing does play out. I know a lot of people have criticized Valley Sports for the lack of streaming options

Starting point is 00:07:03 or, you know, again, just the blackouts and the way that the rules and the agreement. That's not really Valley Sports's fault. Well, no, I know. Right. But it's, I'm saying it's the blackout rules for baseball don't help them at all. A lot of the things that they have been doing as far as streaming goes seems very archaic, considering at one time, Major League Baseball was on the cutting edge of streaming services. They really were.

Starting point is 00:07:28 They were one of the first sports, especially considering how complex it was for their length of their season to kind of have this ironed out. I remember, I think, when the WWE launched a network. Of course, here we go. Oh, there's going to be more. There's always a WWE comparison. It started off with WWE talk, Jesse. There's talk in the middle and it's going to end with it, too.

Starting point is 00:07:46 But I think that when they did their infrastructure, it was based on MLB like networks, you know, infrastructure that they had in place or the plan. I remember back in, what was it, maybe 2012, 2013, MLB.tv, you know, was very much a thing. You could stream four games at once. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't, yeah. I didn't really pursue other streaming services for other sports at the time, but it did feel

Starting point is 00:08:09 like that was kind of a unique thing. Like, like Major League Baseball, like you're saying, it really was kind of at the forefront of streaming and whatnot. But yeah, there's just this blackout thing, right? That's kind of, I don't know. It's gotten a very... Blackouts suck. They fucking suck, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:08:25 They absolutely do. And I guess I said earlier, it's not really ballet sports's fault. I guess in a sense it is. I mean, the reason that we have blackouts is because Diamond Sports LLC, right, which owns Valley Sports. They operate under that name. They're paying for the exclusive rights. Right.

Starting point is 00:08:41 Yeah. I don't mean it like in a villainous way, but it's like by acquiring those rights and by setting the rules that they set in place for how far that blackout travels. Right. People in Las Vegas can't watch Diamondbacks games. You have fans in California that can't watch Diamondbacks games. And I don't think that was ever the intention of these regions, you know, of stretching out that far, but it does. Right, right. Yeah, it's a silly system. It's, it's, it's not the only ones, you know, to do this. There are other regional sports networks that have similar deals around the game. So it's not just them. But, but yeah, it's, it's just an issue with how, you know, these regional sports networks at large have operated for quite some time. Well, I mean, there's all sorts of stupid shit. Sunday ticket on direct TV, even though I have the channel, the channel 5 or channel 10, the local affiliate, and there's a game on there. And under my, you know, Sunday package, Sunday ticket package, that game on that channel is blacked out because I need to switch back to channel 5 and watch it. And it's like, what does it matter?

Starting point is 00:09:42 I literally have both channels. Why can't I have this all in a nice line where I can go up and down the 10 channels and watch all the football game? Because that would be entirely too convenient there. That would be way too convenient. We have a couple people in the comments saying put the debacks back on Channel 3. Gabriel mentioned that. Well, it's funny you bring that up because non-affiliated local stations may be in the mix as well, by the way. Arizona's family locked down, which is Channel 3 and Channel 5, they lock down the rights for the Phoenix Rising games.

Starting point is 00:10:10 No, it's not it's not the Phoenix Rising. It's just for Phoenix. It's just their Phoenix Rising. You're not allowed to use articles in front of this. Owen, our guy who covers. Phoenix Rising is very particular about this. So I have to correct you, Derek. I will not be fucking corrected.

Starting point is 00:10:26 I will not be. I think it's testable. It is the Phoenix Rising. And I will say the Phoenix Suns, the Arizona Cardinals, the Arizona Diamondbacks, it is the Phoenix Rising. I don't care what Owen fucking things. They play by different rules. I don't care of Max things either. What do you mean? Apparently Owen says that there's no the in front of Phoenix Rising.

Starting point is 00:10:49 The Phoenix Rising. He is always wrong. See? There we go. See? That's, we've confirmed. Anyway, Arizona's family locked down the rights for Phoenix Rising. Whatever.

Starting point is 00:11:00 They could be. Yeah, I mean, this is more speculative than anything else. But it is reasonable to think that that is a route that, you know, we could see pursued later on. Gabriel Ferris says I still have the Channel 3Dbacks picture frame giveaway from like 20 years ago. There you go. Yeah, you do. By the way, speaking of that, let's get. Can we get a look at our producer, Damon's shirt, really fast?

Starting point is 00:11:25 Because we need this on camera. Get over here, fella. Look at this beautiful work of art right here. Look at that. Going, going, gone. He wore this for us. That's why he's becoming my favorite producer. But that is a fantastic shirt.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And I love coming across that kind of stuff. I found one in my garage that was like the World Series championship shirt, the black one. And like, I don't even want to wear it. just want to put it in a picture frame and leave it. It is actually really nice artwork, but it's just interesting to see what's going to happen with the Arizona Diamondbacks television rights. I know that honestly, I think a lot of people would take, you know, maybe the rights being spread out a little more rather than it being all on one network if it makes it a little

Starting point is 00:12:06 bit more accessible to watch the games. The speculation is that Major League Baseball will ultimately take over the rights for all of the teams, or at least the teams that are under Diamond Sports LLC. and they would become the ones with primary control. And they could look to do that for all of the regional sports networks and baseball, where Major League Baseball just has the rights to all of the broadcast, which would potentially end blackouts, right? We've had that conversation before.

Starting point is 00:12:32 I don't know if we're necessarily heading that direction. As of right now, it sounds like Diamond Sports LLC is financially very much underwater. But it looks like what's currently in place is a sort of restructuring, where the current investors in Diamond Sports LLC, some of that debt would basically be turned into equity for them. So as investors, obviously what they've invested in is not panned out particularly well. But there are ways to kind of restructure things so that those investors essentially, you know, kind of take over and kind of bail out Diamond Sports LLC from the situation that they're in.

Starting point is 00:13:10 So that's kind of where we seem to be headed for the moment. In that case, would they continue to retain the rights to baseball games? And would this all just... Theoretically, I think they would continue. But I also think there's a fair amount of doubt about whether or not that actually happens when it's all said and done. From a debaq's perspective, the concern is that clearly the amount of money that Diamond Sports LLC has been shelling out to all of these teams for these exclusive broadcast rights is not sustainable. It's not worth what Diamond paid for it. And for the debacks, that's a big problem because a substantial revenue stream for them is their TV money.

Starting point is 00:13:49 And so there's a theory that, you know, maybe the Diamondbacks are a little bit hindered right now in terms of spending just because they don't know the future of this situation. There is a very real possibility that their payout from TV revenue gets cut down significantly as a result of this. And that would also, of course, have an impact on how much money the team is bringing in and how much money they're able to spend. I know there's no way for you to know this, but do you think that Billy Chambers could work with them in the restructuring that maybe the RSNs give up some of their exclusivity to the rights? It's a good question. To maybe allow like at least blackouts not to occur. You know what I mean? Like the wildest thing to me is like I get the idea here that you want to be the only one showing the games.

Starting point is 00:14:33 But am I going to really like log in to my, you know, extra innings account when I'm at home to watch a Diamondbacks game? if I'm here in Phoenix, or am I going to turn it on on my direct TV channel and go to Ballet Sports and watch it? I'm most likely going to do that, right? So like I only feel like the lack of blackouts being involved only helps the product get viewed by more people and allow people not to have something else to be angry at baseball about. Yeah, I mean, the fewer things we have for people to be angry at baseball about the better, right?

Starting point is 00:15:07 So hopefully somehow that comes out of this. I don't know if I, I don't know if I. I foresee things just kind of continuing on as usual because those investors, even with this restructuring, I think would be likely to try to sell very quickly thereafter. So even if this restructuring does happen, it doesn't mean it's going to be business as usual. I think they would try to sell. And I think Major League Baseball would probably be at the forefront of trying to take over those rights. Maybe that brings blackouts to an end in that relatively near future.

Starting point is 00:15:35 Yesterday we talked about Art Moreno, not selling the Angels, but we said that after his investment 20 years ago, that Art Moreno could have walked away with $2.3 billion in profit. Yeah. Profit. Now, the wildest thing to me is that he would have sold the Los Angeles Angels Organization for a rumored $2.5 billion with a B. Remember, that's important here. But a billion seconds is how many years again?

Starting point is 00:15:59 A billion seconds is 31 years. A million seconds is 12 days. Don't ever forget it. But Sinclair bought the rights to the regional sports networks from both Fox Sports and from Disney. And for 10 billion. They could have bought five franchises, maybe even six or seven at the time, instead of buying the regional sports network rights for the amount that they invested in it.

Starting point is 00:16:25 And as we saw with Art Moreno's investment, maybe that would have been a little bit more worthwhile of an investment to make money on. I don't know. But this whole thing is crazy. It does not seem like it was a wise investment on Sinclair's part. And for that, for that, we're going to go ahead and give it the OGs performance to forget. That's right. It's our performance to forget brought to you by friends at OGs. Sometimes games are the performance to forget, but sometimes investments are the performance to forget.

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Starting point is 00:17:28 Talk to your buttender about them. They'll do a much better job of explaining to you the difference between CBD and THC than I ever could because there are a bunch of geniuses that work in there. But not just OGs. We also have our friends at Underdog Fantasy. Whether you're an underdog or an overdog, you know you can win in a multiple number of ways over at Underdog Fantasy, either through their daily fantasy sports where you can battle five of your friends and win some cold hard cash, or in their pick-em games, where you can just pick higher or lower for a number of categories. Basketball, football, baseball, doesn't matter.

Starting point is 00:17:59 I've told you guys, we're riding on pitch counts this fall, or I'm sorry, this spring. So make sure to be with me here on the Underdog Fantasy. and we're going to do it as a family. Under over, we're going to add five legs. We're going to win ourselves some money. And if you are brand new to the Underdog Fantasy app, you can get yourself a free $100 match by Underdog. It's easy to get started.

Starting point is 00:18:19 Go to underdog fantasy.com or download the app. Sign up with our promo code of PHNX, and Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. And that's a great way to go and have some fun with sports and make some money. We have more preseason rankings to address Jesse Friedman. I'm not surprised here. I know you're not surprised here. But MLB Pipeline is releasing their top 100 prospects list this evening,

Starting point is 00:18:44 I believe at 7 o'clock Eastern time. But they have released their top prospect for each position. And of course, Corbyn Carroll is your top outfield prospect for all of Major League Baseball. Surprised? Nope. That's it. It's a wrap. Thank you guys for watching.

Starting point is 00:19:02 Have a good day. Yeah, Corbyn Carroll is the number of football. number one outfield prospect. That makes me very happy. But I think that honestly, the thing that surprised me was they released their top 10 and right there at number four was Drew Jones. Yeah. Too early for that? Maybe? Maybe? I don't know, man. I mean, Drew Jones is a reason, you know, a lot of people viewed him as the best overall prospect in a pretty strong draft, right? Right. Right. This last year, uh, the debacks did very well for themselves by all accounts, getting him at number two.

Starting point is 00:19:32 So, yeah, I mean, it might feel a little crazy to, you know, put a guy who's coming out of high school and, you know, had one batting practice session and blew out a shoulder and had surgery. And, you know, we haven't seen him in a professional game setting yet. But, you know, that this next year is going to be big for him. I think, you know, he's going to come out and probably play in Visalia, I imagine, for a good portion of the year. you know, maybe he's able to work his way up to Hillsborough by the end of the season. Maybe Amarillo, I wouldn't really expect that. But I mean, we did just see Jordan Lawler go from the Arizona Complex League to Amarillo and finish the year with, you know, a 900 OPS in the fall league. So we've seen some pretty fast progressions already in the system.

Starting point is 00:20:18 Drew Jones is widely viewed as a guy who could have a similar trajectory. Drew Jones could possibly debut the same year that his father goes into the Hall of Fame. potentially. That is. I didn't notice that. I didn't think about that. Right? The timeline might match up a little bit because I know Andrew Jones is on the edge.

Starting point is 00:20:35 He's on the edge. Look, if Scott Rowland is in, Andrew Jones is in, that's just my opinion. Andrew Jones, the issue with Andrew Jones is that if you look at his numbers after age 30, I believe. Andrew Jones is not a very good baseball player anymore. We all give up after 30 sometimes. Jesse, that's not his fault. That's the way the world works. Well, you're still here, right?

Starting point is 00:20:54 Well, I mean, that doesn't mean I haven't given up. I'm not playing professional ball, am I? I'm just saying. You're right. You're right. You're 17 year career in the majors. Like that's not very normal for guys to have that long of a career. And for more than half of it to be you winning gold gloves and you being at the top of your game as far as an outfielder goes.

Starting point is 00:21:14 But the crazy thing about it is his son is taller than him. He's more athletic than him. And to be honest, he grew up in that house. He grew up with him as a father. And it's like, I can only imagine. imagine the, I guess, on one hand, pressure, much like what we were talking about with Corbyn Carroll, the pressure, you know, but the fact that, you know, oh, Michael, no, Michael, no, Michael said there's Andrew Jones and fat Andrew Jones. Is that like Fat Elvis and regular Elvis?

Starting point is 00:21:44 I feel like it is, with less drugs involved, obviously. But, no, I just think that, you know, again, when you grow up with your dad being such a fantastic baseball player, I can only imagine the wisdom that has been imparted on you, not only from him, but from other people that he knows, his teammates, his friends that are also ballplayers. You also have the fact that, like, you just get that earlier start, you know, than somebody that doesn't have that pedigree and doesn't have that family, you know, involved. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's what's wild to me that I'm just noticing. Andrew Jones debuted at age 19. He was 19 years old and 114 days old. That's crazy.

Starting point is 00:22:27 Drew Jones is right now 19 years old. Is 19 years and 59 days old right now. Yeah. So he's about 60 days away. It would basically be like Drew Jones being on the D-BACs opening day roster, which is absolutely wild. But, I mean, we're not going to see Drew Jones at 19, but could we see Drew Jones in the majors at 21?

Starting point is 00:22:49 I think there's a case for that. Like, I think that's actually possible. And that's why, you know, he's showing up. on list is as high as he is. Well, we've talked about his grades, 70 field, 70 run. He could probably play a big league caliber center field right now. I think you could have Drew Jones, your starting center fielder. I think you'd be pretty darn good.

Starting point is 00:23:12 But there's obviously quite a bit of progression that has to happen on the offensive side. And that's really what he's going to be focusing on over the next couple years. Well, I can't wait. I can't wait for him. I really can't. And I can't wait to at least be able to see him play, see, clips from him from the minor teams. We are going to be obsessing over Drew Jones box scores.

Starting point is 00:23:32 All the time. The entire season, we are going to do a Drew Jones box score check-in on basically every single episode of this show. Because the debacks like, I don't know, Jordan Lawler, very highly touted. But Drew Jones is the son of a baseball legend and was taken even higher in the draft than Jordan Lawler was. He's arguably like the biggest name, most highly touted prospect. that the debacks have ever had.

Starting point is 00:23:57 Maybe Justin Upton back in the day. Really big name. Taking first overall. I don't think Danesby Swanson compares, honestly. No, no. He was taken first overall, but that was a relatively weak draft. So it's going to be fun just watching Drew Jones's progression

Starting point is 00:24:11 and kind of seeing how his game translates into the pros. And we get to watch these guys at different levels. Jordan Lawler, like you said, probably Amarillo, maybe even sees Reno Aces by the end of this year, right? Yeah, I mean, Jordan Lawler, I think you could see. Jordan Lawler and the majors at the end of the year.

Starting point is 00:24:27 Honestly, I mean, Corbin Carroll, right, started last season in AA, was very good there, worked his way up to AAA, was good there. We weren't sure if we were going to see him, but we did. And I think the debacks with, you know, the new rules in the CBA about starting a guy on, you know, from the get-go in the majors, I think that added a lot of incentive to bring a guy up in September and then, you know, start them, kind of have them hit the ground running the following year. So you could very, I could very much see a scenario where the debacks give Loller some time in the majors in September and then have him ready to go to potentially be a

Starting point is 00:25:04 rookie of the year candidate the following year. If there wasn't enough pressure on Corby Carroll considering he is ranked as the number one overall outfield prospect, how about this for pressure? MLB.com released an article naming the top player projecting the top player for every MLB team for 2023 and Corbyn Carroll was projected to be the best player on the Arizona Diamond. And here's what they said. They said, here's an exciting one. Carol debuted late last August as the debaq's top prospect and established himself as the fastest player in baseball leading MLB with a 30.7 foot per second sprint speed. Now he's projected to be the Arizona's number one player in 2023, even ahead of Catell Marte and Zach Gallen with streamer predicting steamer, not streamer,

Starting point is 00:25:48 steamer predicting 20 homers and 19 steals for the 22 year old. Not bad. Not bad. I know we've asked this question before, but the more that these articles come out, the more that these rankings and things come out, is all this too much pressure for young Corbyn Carroll, perhaps? I don't think Corbyn Carroll is the kind of guy who really lets that get to him. Do you think he even acknowledges it or like care? Like, do you think, like, I mean, where do you fall? Like, it's, it's not a bad thing. It's not like it's a review where they're telling you you did awful or whatever. So it's very complimentary. And I'm sure that it's flattering and you want to hear it, but again, like, as far as setting expectations and, and creating unnecessary

Starting point is 00:26:28 pressure, you think it's something that's best just left ignored by quite Corby. I mean, I think you, like, you don't know how a guy's going to live up to the expectations until you see him in the majors, right? That's the only way. You can try, and this is why scouting is so incredibly difficult, you can try to look at a double A or AAA kid and be like, all right, I think this guy has what it takes to handle the pressure of playing in the big leagues. Nobody knows, right?

Starting point is 00:26:55 Nobody knows until the player gets to the big leagues. And it's not just a mental thing, right? There's a significant transition that has to happen, you know, just from a maturity standpoint in terms of like your on-field skills, right? Like adapting to the majors from AAA to the majors is by far the biggest jump that any player has to make. But from what I saw from Corbyn Carroll last year, I didn't see any of those warning signs, right?

Starting point is 00:27:20 He did not, it was not a deer in headlight sort of a thing. I know in his first game, right, Bryce Harper hits a 115 mile-hour laser. And Corbyn Carroll, you know, tried to slide, wasn't able to make the play. At that point, maybe you're a little concerned. All right, maybe this moment is a little big for him. And then, you know, he has one of the biggest hits in the game later on, right? A two-run double that split the gap going opposite field against a tough leftie on the mound. I think that showed us what we need to know about Corbin Carroll from a mental standpoint.

Starting point is 00:27:50 At this point, it's just, you know, is he able to adjust? As opposing pitchers learn more about him, is he able to make the necessary adjustments? And you won't know until you see it, right? You won't know until we see him on the field every day. And you're absolutely right about that. And again, I think that's why we've talked about it. We've kind of joked about it. But none of this is like set in stone.

Starting point is 00:28:15 We've seen the crazy predictions prior to other seasons and things didn't, you know, live up to the hype or workout. You can tell Marte was supposed to be the team's best player by far, at least position player. He was supposed to be Jesse, according to the MLB network, the best second baseman in all of baseball last year. That's true. So just remember that. Anyway, that's what we do on the show.

Starting point is 00:28:39 We poke holes in people's theories as well as also support them, oddly enough. We do both. But if you get yourself a diehards membership, you would already know that. You already know what we do around here. Grab yourself the diehards membership over at gopHNX.com to become part of the PHNX family. Get yourself exclusive merch. Get yourself free merch with every year that you remember. Also get 20% off at the PHNX Locker.com.

Starting point is 00:29:03 So go there, check out our merch, see what you like. Join us over here. You get exclusive to Jesse's diehard only content as well as Craig, Gerald and all of our writers, Howard as well. You also get access to members-only Discord, which is the best place to be in Arizona. A sports fan. members only invites to exclusive events as well as discounts on events and partners. So join us.

Starting point is 00:29:23 Like we had our event yesterday at the Four Peaks Brewing Company. Big thanks to Four Peaks, by the way, for having us out. It was an absolute blast. Big thanks to all of you guys. Gabriel, Charles, everybody that came out, great to see you guys so much. And I very much enjoyed. I didn't get to try the recreational juice IPA

Starting point is 00:29:40 because they only had in bottles, Jesse. They already sold out. It tapped out a bit on the kegs. But I did try the staycation super juicy IPA and I enjoyed it very. much. So make sure to get out to four peaks. I did have the chicken tenders. Jesse did have the chicken tenders. We were going to even arbitrate the value of chicken tenders. And neither one of us wanted to take like the lower, right? I was prepared to say that chicken tenders were worth $100. I was prepared to say they were worth $30. And I mean, both of those are far more than Four Peaks

Starting point is 00:30:05 charges for them. So we know we value them much more than the franchise does. But that's fine. We know how good they are. And they give you so many. And like it's so many. Jesse, I never complained about the amount of chicken tenders I've gotten, but, oh, thank you guys. It's like the Arizona iced tea thing, right? Like what I was saying about that, it's not worth, like, necessarily what you charge for. It's worth what people are willing to pay for it. And I think for chicken tendees at four peaks, clearly they could set the bar a little bit higher, right? I'm pretty sure, like 90% of us ordered the chicken tenders there yesterday.

Starting point is 00:30:38 So did other people around us. I saw maybe one cheeseburger. And I think Craig and Sean couldn't decide. So they got like the Philly Cheesesteak and the attendees and then they split them, which was probably the best move anybody made. That was a key. That was a key move. But make sure to check out the Super Bowl over at our friends at Four Peaks.

Starting point is 00:30:58 The Super Bowls around the corner, enjoy a nice Four Peaks beverage during the big game and enjoy all their TVs and all of the chicken tendees. Remember, they got the chicken tendies there. Also, we big thank you to you guys for being here right now in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of the shows go live. Also, if you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there as well.

Starting point is 00:31:20 Leave us a review. We appreciate the feedback. And as always, we thank you guys for being excellent baseball fans, especially not only here, but in the Discord. Jesse's meme gives me life, by the way. I love dropping that. Chris Mountain says, I'm sad. I forgot to Four Peaks style my fries. What is that? What does that mean? I need more information. Is it like a special like seasoning that they put on the fries? I don't know. I don't know. I need Chris to fill us in on that. But in the meantime, I'm going to give you guys my draft king's pick of the week. My favorite, WWE show of the entire year is right around the corner.

Starting point is 00:31:57 It's this weekend. It's Royal Rumble. Here we go again. Royal Rumble. I've tried to tell Jesse about how good the Royal Rumble is. He doesn't want to hear me at all. By the way, friend of the show, Megarang, was in a Royal Rumble, much to my, I tried my best to advise him not to do it. But he was in it, and he made an elimination.

Starting point is 00:32:12 in the Rumble. So he made me proud. But then he also got dumped out of the ring and looked like a family guide character discarded at the side. So that wasn't great. But right now, over at Drafting Sportsbook app, you can actually get down on some Royal Rumble picks with their free $25,000 W.W.E. Royal Rumble Pool. That means that you don't have to risk a dime. And you can pick from all sorts of options. They have great options. If you're a wrestling fan, you'll really love how in-depth they get here. They talk about who's going to be eliminated first. They'll talk about all sorts of entrance of one and two being from the same brand raw on smackdown who's going to enter first almost or bronze stroman there's there's lots of discussions here so i'm going to give

Starting point is 00:32:51 you a couple of picks here uh i would lean heavily on bobby lashly for the number of uh eliminations there's going to be uh and also cody roads is my pick uh i don't think the rock is going to show up sadly for those of you that think that that's what's going to happen at the show uh but i'm i'm neither sticking with Cody Rhodes or my man Sammy Zane. Those are my picks. And that's what I'm giving you for the Royal Rumble. Jesse hates this so much. And that's why I'm doing it. It is really just to drive

Starting point is 00:33:18 home the fact that I don't care what Jesse thinks about me. And neither should you. If you love pro wrestling, go out there and watch it. We get together. We have a fun time. Not only do we bet on the drafting sportsbook app, but we also have an insanely complicated system with an Excel spreadsheet involved and money and who has the most

Starting point is 00:33:36 eliminations and points. You have an Excel spreadsheet for what? For calculating who wins the bet because we have a point system where it's not just the person that picks the guy that wins the Royal Rumble, you get points for eliminations as well as being the winner and then it's a cumulative point. So you could potentially win our Royal Rumble pool without actually like picking the winner. It could just be a guy that throws a lot of people out of the ring, which it's fun, Jesse. Shout out to the 10% of our audience who actually know what Derek's

Starting point is 00:34:06 There is more than 10% out there. I guarantee you sound off. I know Mark is with me. See, Mark said, this is why I'm here. There's a disproportionate number of them in the chat. Yeah. It's like Twitter. It's like Twitter.

Starting point is 00:34:19 I don't know what the real public opinion is. I only have Twitter to tell me whether or not people like this thing or we're doing it right or whatever. But it's very, I will say that I can't wait for baseball season to get here. It's right around the corner. I know some real bets then. I want some real bet. Yeah. Don't get me wrong.

Starting point is 00:34:37 See, this is risk-free. This is fine. See, this is like saying it's a real sport, Jesse. Say it to the wrestlers' face is what I want. I will. Of course, draft games gives you all sorts of ways to have fun on their app. Four NFL teams remain two conference championship games and only a few more shots to win big on the playoffs

Starting point is 00:34:55 with the draft king's sportsbook app and official sports betting partner of the NFL. You can get down on same game stepped up parlayes when all sorts of money. The more legs you add, the more money you win. counting down to Super Bowl 57 new customers can bet just $5 and get $200 in free bets instantly. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use code PHNX, like I said, bet that $5 and get $200 in free bets instantly, betting on the conference championship. Only at the Draft King Sportsbook app with code PHNX. Minimum agent eligibility restrictions apply.

Starting point is 00:35:26 See show notes for details. And speaking of Megarin, he is actually going to be in San Antonio for the Royal Rumble. And honestly, if I was with him, I'd probably use the game. Time app to get myself some tickets last minute to the Royal Rumble because that's the best way to do it. I don't even know where I'm at. I got to get a plane. Am I going to be there? Am I not?

Starting point is 00:35:45 I don't know. I can't buy tickets ahead of time. But I could buy tickets last minute if I needed to on the GameTime app. And you can save up to 60% on tickets when you buy them last minute, not only on sporting events like pro wrestling, but also shows and concerts and so much more. Are you done? I told you, we were beginning, ending, middle and ending this with this. Buckel up, pal. Save open 60% like I said.

Starting point is 00:36:09 And the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description below. It's the most aesthetically pleasing app, as Jesse would say. It is the most. And honestly, I know they're a partner, but this guy's been on game time for years. That's how he has watched almost every single Arizona Diamondbacks game he's ever gone to. I'm pretty sure I've purchased $1 tickets on the game time. Let's go.

Starting point is 00:36:31 Many years ago. Were there fees and stuff that were more than a dollar out? after that point. I imagine like tax and stuff has to be more than a dollar. Maybe, maybe, but yeah, I've gotten, I've gotten some straight up steals on the game time map. So definitely check that out. All right. Well, we appreciate you guys joining us. Of course, I appreciate you guys acknowledging me. Thank you so much. There's another one. In the meantime, you can get us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Kedman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PhnX underscore Dbacks, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram,

Starting point is 00:37:04 and Facebook. Remember, Jesse is too much of a pro to ever wear Diamondbacks hat like I'm rocking right now. We discuss this before we started doing a good. Michael said it earlier. You have a good throwback Thursday look today. It's a good one, right? I do appreciate that. I miss throwback Thursdays. Bring that back at least. Yeah, they used to do that at the ballpark. That seemed like a really good idea to me. I don't know why they got rid of that. I mean, he said it best. Also, fan fest. Anyway, we thank you guys so much for being here on behalf of Damon, his awesome shirt, Jesse, his lack of Diamondbacks apparel and my throwback Thursday fit. We appreciate you guys being here and remember kids.

Starting point is 00:37:42 Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you are projected to be the best goddamn player on your team.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Carroll’s projections for 2023 are off the charts. Is this too much pressure already?

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