PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Could Prospects Yu-Min Lin, Gino Groover Impact Diamondbacks MLB Roster In 2025?

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Our favorite twins Stefan & Chris Caray join the show to talk about Diamondbacks prospects, Arizona Fall League, and more! Will prospects like Yu Min Lin and Gino Groover impact the D-backs MLB roster in 2025? Can the Snakes fill positional needs with players already in the organization? We also have more on the New York Mets eliminating the Philadelphia Phillies and the devastating damage done to Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast..Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Could any of the Arizona Diamondbacks prospects that we see in the Arizona Fall League impact the team in 2025? They might have to look there based on the payroll we talked about yesterday. We are discussing this with our favorite boys, the Kerry Boys, here in 30 seconds. Don't go anywhere. To another edition of the PHS feedbacks podcast, right? On PHMX, my name is there on GIFP. As your mayor of PHNX, this man next to major thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. And we are pleased to be joined by our favorite boys, the Carrie boys.

We've got Stefan and Chris Carey, guys. Welcome in. We always are glad to have you here. You always make the show better. I mean more handsome obviously. Well, you know there's a lot of hair joke on. Yeah. Well, I know I know you're here for AFL, but I know also you are our sod poodles guy. And then there's this guy down here. Chris is dead to us. Yeah, I know, right? Like whatever. But I don't know. I don't know we've had the chance to tell you. Well, congratulations on everything you've been doing this year. Right. It's been awesome. Yeah. It's it's been a. It's been a. It's, it's been a. world win for sure i mean jumping from the dbacks org to then the big leagues with the a's on tv it's like it's the craziest year that i've had in my life for sure and you know being away from step was hard but now we're back together i get to watch him do some stuff in the fall league and hang out in arizona and you know anytime we get the chance to come on the p hnx uh debax podcast with you guys we jump at it we appreciate you guys so much of course uh we did have some wacky postseason stuff we're going to talk about as well as nirzon diamondbacks prospects and

Arizona Fall League that you can watch. And unfortunately, what Hurricane Milton did to Tropicana. We're going to talk about all that on today's episode. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends of Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app right now. Use that code of PHNX365 when you sign up. Choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. Well, boys, the Mets eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies last night.

I know that there are a lot of Diamondbacks fans that are kind of in favor of that. It's like the lesser of two evils, I guess. But, you know, at least for a lot of us, we feel like, you know, we've done battle with the Phillies already. It's good to see them kind of get beat by another underdog. Yeah, I think it really depends on your upbringing, right? We grew up Braves fans. So you never root for the Mets. Yeah, never ever.

I mean, like my grandpa would sing a jingle, beat the Mets, beat the Mets, you know, because they have the meet the Mets at the ballpark. But I think it's great. The Mets certainly have that team of destiny vibe similar to what the Diamondbacks had. And they're really a team that had a couple of free agent players that came in and really changed that clubhouse. You look most notably at the shortstop, at the shortstop, second baseman, Jose Iglesias, and what he's been able to do. And really radical team around. 337 or whatever it was.

Yeah, not how bad a season? He makes he ask the question. Why has he been signing repeat minor league contracts? If you look at his numbers at the major league level, the last five or six years, it's never below 280, ever. and his versatility to play three different infield positions and have that leadership and really impact the team for the better. I mean, he was playing for Colorado. I think he did some stuff for Baltimore when he was with Boston.

I mean, he's bounced around a number of different organizations, but seemingly has found a home in New York with the whole, oh my God, stuff that he's doing. Yes, yes. He's also a pop star. Yeah, I mean, come on. You get that as well. It deserves a major league contract at that point.

I think Chris should do covers. Yeah, exactly. That would be amazing. But strictly of Jose Iglesu's song. Nothing else. No, but it is amazing to watch the Mets. And I want to see Bryce Harper one day get a ring. I think he's such a great ambassador for the game.

And, you know, he's really grasped onto Philadelphia well. But for us, we do have a silver lining because our agent is a massive Mets fan. And he's had decades and decades of complete and utter sorrow. So maybe he can find something to finally be happy about. Yeah, I have a friend, my friend Tim from Las Vegas. He also is a Mets fan. And to see the joy on his face this weekend when I was there was something worthwhile. for me at least. But there's also the fact that the Phillies are kind of enemy number one around

here, at least one of the Phillies, for at least one of the people in this room right now. And that's our guy Damon, who is the biggest Garrett Stubbs hater on the planet. Understandably so, because of Stubbs sliding into Cotel Marte and having that injury, but also just in general for him being a mascot masquerading as a baseball player, as Damon would put it. But one of our favorite things that, or I guess one of our other favorite bits, of course, for sure, is this video that we came across of a Phillies

super fan kind of having a couple of moments here, Damon, if you would. Jumping and I hear Ron scored. That's what I'm talking about. Red October is still here and my Phillies still got some fight. Let's go, Phillies.

The season is over. Not to laugh in his face, but I respect that man for some reason based on the the bravery not only to pull off that look right but be sitting there and believe in your team that late even though they're down in both the game and the series in full face paint too and i mean he's among friends in that video you know you you have to take a look at it but he's at citizens bank part right yeah that's a thick philly accent on right yeah yeah oh the the Phillies are down for the count we're we're we're done the season's over we're gonna go to wawa and go get some hoagies you know that's that's really they're

Their whole season is over and done with. But they're a good team. And really, I think they're built to win for the next couple of years. I think he's got more to look forward to with the Sixers coming up and the Eagles. And the bets maybe have a little bit less to look forward to their fan bases the way they typically are. For sure. Well, you talk about the face pain. It looks like Steve Borden, aka Sting, is cosplaying as a Philly fan.

You know I love that reference. You're looking at them. And what's great about those fan bases and those major market cities is they never give up on their team. Right. But when they give up, it crashes. Yeah, I do. I do like that. And they, like, they don't blame the opposing team at all.

Like, their hatred towards the opposing team and fan base ends almost in that moment so that they can turn their anger towards their own organization and how much they screwed up. I mean, like coming from a place where the Diamondbacks had a disappointing end to their season, right? We know a lot of people were calling for changes in leadership and things like that. And it's kind of amazing to me that the Phillies had the season they had. They made it, you know, to the NLDS. Obviously, you know the playoffs. Anything can happen in the playoffs. And we've been debating it a bit.

But the layoff so far doesn't seem great for some teams, but that's a whole other topic. But yeah, like the Phillies didn't get the job done. And I saw a lot of people calling for changes in management. I mean, Philadelphia, like sports radio. is in shambles this morning. Oh, my good friend, John Kincaid, is definitely having a tough one this afternoon out in Philadelphia. They're fielding phone calls from a bunch of totally reasonable people. Yeah, I mean, on the other side of that completely, you look at the Mets fans who have probably been the most, I mean, downtrodden fan base in baseball since 1986.

Yeah. And one in particular, I don't know if you see his videos, Frank the Tank on Barstool. Do we don't talk about Frayton tank here? Okay, Frank the take curse this team. Curse Paul Seawald and we don't bring up. Guess where I met him. Where did you meet him? Right here.

Chris, no. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yep. When he was throwing out the first pitch? Yep. Oh. Wow.

It might actually be Chris's fault. It might be Chris's fault. Chris is the reason that Paul Cual. We're getting to the root of the problem and it might be sitting in this room right now. Well, my favorite thing about that Philadelphia fan that we showed is that this isn't this first rodeo in in regards to making these videos. We have one from the 2023 NLCS, which this was when the Diamondbacks beat the Phillies.

Damon, if you don't mind. Down by two runs, but I didn't hear no bell. This game ain't over yet. And I know my Phillies are going to be able to pull this out. So the season is over. At least he's consistent. That's what I can appreciate. The gift that keeps on giving me.

He really is. It really is. I feel like this film. The Phillies team, I picked the Phillies to win the World Series. Oh, they were my pick at the outset of the season. I felt pretty good about it. But the more that I see the Phillies in the playoffs, the more I get the sense that there are a team you can pitch to to a certain extent.

Like, they're a little bit chase prone at times. And we saw the Diamondbacks exploit that last year in the NLCS. And it kind of felt like the Mets found a way to do the same thing. So, yeah, I don't, I don't know. It's a hard team to know what to do with because on, like, I still. view them as a contender for probably at least a couple more years. I know some of these guys are getting a little bit older, but I'm probably still going to be pretty bullish on the Phillies going into next year.

It's hard not to be. And I think that another thing that I always consider when I look at how the playoffs shake out, who has had the most playoff experience? Those are always the teams that seem to have more success. Teams that were in the NLDS usually make the jump to the NLCS. Teams that were in the NLCS, they have the experience they've played there, especially against a depotent. The Phillies are going back.

Right. So, I mean, that might be an indicator that maybe their window's closing a little bit. You know, Nebraska's going to do an amazing job trying to get that team consistently in the postseason. Their farm system a little bit depleted right now. And I think that that's something that you're really going to have to look at. There are a couple guys that need to make decisions on. And that could be a very different looking clubhouse in 2025 compared to what we saw here in 2024. Can anyone stop the Mets, Chris?

San Diego could. Yeah. Yeah. San Diego could. I mean, at that point, in terms of the two most talented, that's what I was going to say, is that he and I were talking about this. And on paper, the Phillies had the most talented team in all the playoffs, I think. Yeah.

Onesively, they had great pitching. their bullpen was pretty decent. San Diego's right up there in the National League with them. Sure. Because all of that momentum that the Mets had, I mean, they played a string of four or five games in the span of three days after the Braves situation. And then you have the wild card against Milwaukee. And all of that momentum and all of that adversity they had to go through and all the comebacks they had to make into the playoffs, I think allowed them to kind of springboard into that Philly series and take care of business. And now with a little bit of rest, but still riding on that confidence, they may be the team to beat because the hottest team, as we know, with the Diamondbacks from.

last year is always the toughest team to be it's not always the best team it's the team that gets hot at the right yeah I'd make the argument that if the Padre has got off to maybe if they had Luis a rise to begin the season yeah they might have won that division yeah I think I thought they might toward the end they were my gosh series pick going into the post season not not I'm not I'm not a you can't see yeah I can't see the future I cannot D-back's World Series 2025 but no I think it's it's really going to be exciting that that game five is going to be cool and how about the tigers yeah

you see all the games about it's about tarik scubel and yeah how they have no starting rotation they did what it what was it like what they said what was explain in in basic terms what it's like for the tigers and they said well they have nine jose eglaciuses and then lucca dantsch comes in once every five days gives them gives them a chance to win and i mean it's it's really really cool to see it was more it was more like they have nine joe ingles Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. That's what it was. I was doing one Luca Donchitz every five days.

I saw a scubel pitch. We actually knocked him out of the game, not early, but he is the real deal. Yeah. I mean, the guy's massive. He's just a big human being. And he can hurl the baseball. And when you have that good pitching, because all you really need is three good starters, and then the rest move to the bullpen, then you kick out some of your, you know, middle relief guys,

and you just have every single reliever be a leverage guy in the playoffs. And next thing you know, if your offense can find the right things and play situational baseball the right way, which is where I would have thought the debacks would have had a lot of successes, because they can do everything well on the offensive side. They can hit for power. They have contact. They can run the bases.

They've got guys that lay down bunts. All of that stuff comes back into play for the playoffs, which we've always asked the question, why are they not doing that A in the minors and B during the regular season? I don't give a blank at all if your number three hitter is coming up. There are runners on first and second with nobody out in the regular season. There's no score. you're trying to get back into the game.

Lay down a bunt. Lay it down. And the number three hitter, in today's era, baseball, I understand why they don't do that. I understand why they don't do it with the number three hitter in particular. But one thing that we see in the minors, and again, it's not a critique. It's just the way that the game's going. You see guys one through nine, even more of your contact-oriented hitters, your lead-off guys, your seven-through-nine hitters that are gripping and ripping, just swinging through their shoes.

It's just very interesting. And I know that it's the market that's really determining how. guys are deciding to play, you're going to make $300 million if you hit 40 home runs a year. I understand that, but not every player is physically built to do that. Not every player is going to be capable of doing that. Well, and some of the criticism towards Tori Lavello managing the Diamondbacks this season was this team wasn't expected to be the power team that it was. This team was not expected to lead MLB in runs, right?

By like a wide margin. By a wide margin, right? But, I mean, it got to a point where it did feel like they kind of had crossed over into being like a power hitting team and then if they didn't hit a home run in a game they really weren't likely to win it and that wasn't really their identity last year i felt like maybe there was a lack of adapting you know to situations like you said like yeah you know that that you have some power coming up but they felt like there was a lot of times where you didn't see them trying to just manufacture runs and do those small things that they were successful at last season well Derek it's

it's a game of calculated risk that's why i say even if it is the number three hitter and i understand where you're coming from, there's a two-sided argument here. Yeah, you're not laying down bunts, right? So hitters don't really know how to bunt the ball. But since there aren't any bunt that are really being put out there in the minors and in the regular season, pitchers don't know how to field buntz either. So if you get one down, the chance of you reaching base is a lot higher than it was, say, 10, 20 years ago. So it's not just saying, hey, I'm going to be a sacrifice. This is, hey, I might even be able to get on base while also moving the runners over. Yeah.

And then if runners on second and third and one out, you've hit the ball to the right side or even deep to short, they're not going to have a double play. You bring home a run. Yeah. Yeah. Situational hitting is definitely important. And again, I think, I think just from afar, I think Tori caught a lot of flack for things that really were out of his control. There were a lot of players that were injured. Yeah.

This team was banking on a couple of key performances from free agents, and it just, it didn't really happen the way that they had hoped. And that's not anything that you can do. That's not a manager's decision. I think that some guys had had a tough year. We were very open about Corbyn and how great he is and how we think he's going to continuously be one of the best players in baseball every single year. But he had a bit of a sophomore slump this year. And they needed him to be out hitting quickly, hitting early.

And that just didn't happen until he sort of flipped that switch. This is a game of responses. It's a game of adjustments. And if you can't adjust, you'll be out of the game. Fortunately, Corbin adjusted in a big way, about halfway, to, two-thirds of the way through the season. And I think the debacks are going to be just fine. There's enough in the farm system.

There's enough at AAA. They just have to decide, are we going to be the team that continues to add to fill our needs? Or are we going to promote from within and trust our development? Because in my mind, that's what got you there. Yeah. That's what got you there. Forbun got you there. You know, guys like Pavin, Kattel, the guys that, I mean, maybe didn't come up through your farm system,

but have been with the organization for a long time. bringing in mercenaries you have a really really good development staff a really good farm system that i think can can be utilized a little bit more than it was this year there comes a point where you can complement those guys and you can bring in a couple of you know free agents or whatever but yeah the diamondbacks aren't a team that are going to be able to sustain that i mean look what happened this year they they brought in guys that honestly had career years and now they literally can't afford to bring them back most likely based on the fact that they were just so good this season with this team and they already have a lot of their money already committed, you know, to the team

as it stands. Well, it's not just limited to the Diamondbacks either. I mean, I remember a Diamond Back's prospect that was traded to our Oakland A's and then was flipped to the Brewers was the international league pitcher the year this year and won the AAA Triple Crown and didn't make his major league debut for the Brewers. And yeah, the Brewers were a good team, but throw him in the bullpen. She said, have him do some, he's already done everything that he needs to do. It is mind boggling to me now seeing what I see with what the A's do. They're going to give an opportunity to a guy that deserves it. For some reason, you think the five ERA reliever is going to be better than the kid that's never gotten a shot at the big leagues before. And they just sit there

and they lose all confidence by being in AAA for two, two and a half years. I think it's there's more too. It's more complicated than that because of the 40 men roster, because of the options that they have. And it, you got to replace roster spots. And it's a tough decision, right? There's a reason I'm not a GM I don't that is way above my pay grade but I think that I think that Chris is right in in a couple of different ways and the debacks are in this weird awkward position where they're winning team they're not at a point where they're going to be sellers at the deadline for at least the foreseeable future and if you have a player that you can't afford at the end of the season well boy would it be nice to be able to flip them for some prospects kind of like what the Padres did with

with Juan Soto they gave away a ton that essentially made the nationals a top farm system in baseball and they're going to be really good for a long time so Michael King yeah that's that trade ended up working out so well for both parties yeah well yeah well and I know that obviously the Dodgers made a huge statement uh in that game that is now causing a game five in nLDS and they did not need situational hitting with that one because they were smashing the ball yes so I mean it's interesting to see what's going to happen here we are actually going to bring you a post game show that's how much me and this guy sicko about baseball. So make sure to join us for that tomorrow night after the end of the NLDS.

But yeah, I mean, these, these, this division series round has been a lot of fun to watch. And I think it has been because of the matchups, because of the fact that you have the Dodgers and the Padres. You have so good. You know, you have the Mets and the Phillies. Just teams that are division rivals that hate each other here, essentially competing to advance for the biggest prize in baseball, right? But you also have local announcers calling some of these postseason games.

One of my favorite postseason narratives is the controversy of having national broadcasters broadcast all of the games. And Chris, I think it was you tweeted about this the other day. You know, everyone is convinced that the national broadcaster like hates their team, right? Oh, yeah. And we know that for a fact is Diamondbacks. Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

And of course, Padres fans, like I especially understand it for them because Joe Davis is literally the play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. I think Joe Davis does a pretty good job with that, but it's obviously a difficult balance to strike. I'm curious for you guys as play-by-play broadcasters. Do you think it is a little weird that we have national broadcasters doing these postseason games as opposed to having guys like you

have been with the team the entire season? To me, that would make a little more sense, and I think these fan bases would probably be a little bit happier that way. Yeah, I think that for me, And again, I'm not in the majors yet. So maybe my opinion would change if I was in that position. But I think that being a national broadcaster is such a difficult job. And people don't really give those guys the credit that they deserve.

One thing that I've noticed is a very good product has been a little bit different from what I'm used to seeing in years past. It's almost like the crowd noise is turned down. Yeah. What is up with that? Spirically, it hasn't seemed as big of a game as in years past. And that's not the fault of the broadcasters. that's not the fault of production. It just seems like a different way of going about things.

Every team does things differently because, as you know, there's so much coverage for all these games, from the Wild Card to the World Series. They are having national broadcasters. They're having ESPN Radio, MLB Network Radio, then of course the two local radio guys. And a lot of the time you will see the TV play-by-play guys go over to radio. And I think that one of the cool things for all of us is to go be. at the pinnacle of this sport and to go be involved in it, whether it's pre-imposed or doing my dad has always wanted to call the World Series. He was with TBS and Bob Costas last night had

had a little premature base hit lineout call and that happened to my dad. It got him fired from TBS the next day. So there are a lot of there, there's a lot of pressure when you, especially when you're in an environment like Yankee Stadium and and anything involving a New York sports team. But I think yeah, absolutely And I think that for us as broadcasters Would I love to be a part of it? Yeah, I think I think I would But the the broadcasters they're doing the national games deserve a little bit more credit Yeah, no, and I don't disagree with that

And of course your opinion matters the most But I will say that for me it's it does seem like I don't know like that you you called the games for this team all season long And then somebody else takes over and like of course the the broadcasters that have been doing it throughout the season like they they you know we we know how people feel feel about bert right like there there there's a love hate relationship a little bit with our broadcasting team at times but at the same time i think diamondbacks fans wouldn't want anybody else on the call especially considering what we've seen

at a national level just because of the fact that the the nicknames the little jokes you just get to know your team so much better i mean the national broadcaster is kind of an impossible job like you just There's no way for you to really understand the full gamut of storylines and whatnot with all of the players as a local broadcaster would. I mean, I could go off on a tangent of explaining why the way that everything is, right? I mean, learning about the business side of things and contracts and everything. Yeah, for sure. You're seeing guys that might not actually be everyday baseball broadcasters call playoff

baseball games. And they're talented. They're absolutely talented. But they're under contract with the network. So the network allots a certain amount of events that they have to do. So they'll put them on baseball or they'll put them on basketball or football. And they hit that certain number of events, right? Instead of bringing in baseball people, they might have somebody that's doing the NBA and also Major League Baseball.

It's not an everyday baseball person doing the games. That's no knock on them. That's just the way the network operates. For me, the question that I still ask is, so the NBA is more popular than Major League Baseball in terms of ESPN, TNT, the way people view it. but yet in the NBA, the first round, is broadcast also by the regional sports networks. So for Major League, for Major League Baseball, you have the Wild Card Series, you have the Division Series. What does it take away from having your region being able to tune into their home broadcasters? I'm not talking about the CS or the World Series.

I'm talking about just the Wild Card Series and the Division Series. Because then your fans can pick and choose, you know, ESPN, let's face it, their coverage of Baseball. is a lot less than Fox or TBSs is. It gets a little bit better during the playoff season, but they don't put as much of an emphasis on the sport of baseball as they would the NBA or the NFL. So by allowing the regional sports networks to come in and for the fans to identify with their broadcasters, I think it creates a more intimate experience that would also allow the regional sports networks to be creative like the national networks and have that accessibility.

I also think, and Steph, you can butt in on this if you agree or disagree, but the in-game interviews are tough for a player that just gets out seven innings of work and it's a one-nothing game. The last thing they want to do is talk to a reporter, talk to the broadcasters. I feel like they would be a whole lot more inclined to talk to people that they see every single day like the regional broadcasters. And obviously it's a responsibility of the network and the national networks to get that done. No fault against the reporters. They're just doing their jobs. But I do think that there is a level of comfort that exists with having your people covering your team.

at that point in time. Well, and the end of all of it is, is the people that are in those chairs are certainly deserving of being in those chairs. It's just, it's just different this year than in years past. I've gotten to know Joe Buck a little bit during this offseason, and he is one of the great sportscasters of our era. Oh, yeah.

Every time he was on the call, it felt like a big game. And it's, these are the voices that really bring that to life. And we want to make sure every game feels like a big game. We want to make sure that we're not inundated with things that are beyond the game, right? At some point, all the topical stories that we've heard over and over and over again about, about Otani or about Lindor, that's great. We've heard it all a million times during the regular season. It's great to harken back to, but we can't lose sight of the fact that the most important thing

that's happening is a playoff game between these two teams. And that, I think, is what it really all comes down to. The national broadcasters are always going to get flack. They're always going to get the trolls coming after them. And I hate that. I think both of us. We're ambitious. That's where we want to be eventually.

And you've got to take the good with the bat. But they are getting entirely too much, too much. The production crews are getting entirely too much. It is a stressful, stressful job. And they deserve, they deserve certainly their flowers. You are national for a reason. That's the only way I can say it is whatever. reason that is you were a fit for that network and you get there and you are paid like a national

broadcaster or camera person or producer these are the best of the best work yeah now i might not like one guy's style i might think that one guy's style would be better at this situation but at the end of the day i have an immense amount of respect for anybody that puts on that headset and there are millions of people watching right we get tens of thousands with the a's you know other regional sports networks, maybe like what my dad does in Valley Midwest, could get close to hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people watching a night because of the fact that the team's so big. So it is a difficult undertaking, but the national broadcasters, they are incredible and they do have a lot. And if I was in that exact same position, I'm sure they would find reasons to hate

me and say, get this guy the hell off of the broadcast. You guys are ready for the hate man. Oh, come on, man. We've lived through it already. Are you kidding? With us being Nepo children. I mean, oh, yeah. If it does happen, it's going to be really bad.

It's been really bad. I'm curious on, you mentioned the business side earlier, Chris. I'm curious. So your proposal, which I think sounds great to have like just the wild card series and the division series broadcasted locally. Do you think a holdback there would be that the national broadcast now is like losing a big part of the audience? They're not getting the exclusive rights to those games.

Is that the issue there? That's an amazing question, and that's a question that I had a discussion with a good friend that I worked with on the A's. And I said, again, I asked, okay, so I'm not going to say a blanket statement like ESPN doesn't care about baseball. That's not true. They don't care about baseball as much as they care about the NBA. That is evident with their coverage. 100% of what they do. Their shows, their basketball coverage.

You know, baseball is an older sport to ESPN. It's archaic. There's no more real baseball coverage other than, you know, Sunday Night Baseball. baseball with Carl Ravage during the regular season. Fox and TBS do it well more consistently with Joe Davis, Adam Amin. They have FS1 with Aaron Goldsmith. They've got TBS with Brian Anderson, Don Orsillo, all those people. Right.

But if the NBA, which is your big moneymaker, right, on ESPN and TNT and ABC and all that stuff, if they're allowed to have their regional broadcasts on, they're still losing viewers and they're your bigger moneymaking scheme. Yeah. Right? So baseball, you're losing viewers because of the regional. sports networks, but it's only limited to that region. And even so with all of the network blackouts and all the regional sports

network issues that are going on right now with the valleys and all that. It's so hard to access anyway. It's not like you're going to be, you're not going to be losing millions and millions of people. It's just giving them an option to do so. Baseball shoots itself in the foot when it comes to a lot of that stuff. Because, I mean, you know, when you talk about popularity and you talk about interest in the game, you know, it's growing once again, right? the changes they made to the game and such, but there's still a lot of pains, a lot of growing pains,

I guess you could say, with MLB because of all of that stuff, you know, I mean, people right now, they just, they just want to pay to watch their team and be able to watch it, whether they're living in the city that they're in or, you know, living somewhere else or whatever. And like, it just feels like there's entirely too many situations where people cannot do that, and it's silly to me. Well, I think you got to think outside the box. You guys have been consumers of baseball your entire life. You know this.

And the traditional model of broadcasting is, okay, broadcaster, analyst game. Right. And if they're going to have coverage discrepancies or disagreements between two different networks, how about you think outside the box with the way that you do the game? Yeah. What if you look at your post game shows, how you guys just react and are loose, like a Peyton and Eli style, would you watch perfume? and his partners and Gonzo and all the amazing people that have done those games do a broadcast

of that style where it's not play-by-play typically. Oh, yeah. And they go and they put it on on debacks, d-backs live.com or d-backs.com, whatever it is, or on the local Arizona Family Sports Channel, wherever you can access it on TV. That way it's not true play-by-play, but at least you have an immediate reaction to how the game's being played. Look at my generation and really we're not too far. removed in age, but how many people are, well, we're, I don't know, I mean, you guys, you guys were born after I graduated from high school, so let's just not even go there, but that's

fine. Look, I appreciate it. Hey, you're only, you're, you're as young as you feel. I'm into Cougars Day. Yeah, yeah, there you go, there you go. But, uh, no, I think that, uh, you look at even on, on gaming and, and TikTok, everybody watches a streamer. Yeah. Everybody. Yeah. And if you do it like that style of broadcast, what, what's the harm in that? Right. You're right. What's the harm in that? And the bigger thing is,

is adapting and, and like you said, doing things as the next like generation of viewers are going to be into, right? So yeah, it's baseball definitely needs to continue to adapt and they might not be doing it quickly enough. Well, and you make a great point too because going back to just the national broadcaster point. I think the one thing that I see a lot with national broadcasters that might not be covering a big league team is they feel the need to regurgitate a lot of information to prove that they've done their homework. Yeah. Right? To prove that they know what they're talking about. But it gets to the point where when you're in a playoff environment and you have one analyst, two analysts, whatever, the third or fourth analyst is always the crowd. You want to let the crowd play for you

because and I think that there is a lot of motion graphics. There is a lot of stuff they have to tee up. And there is a lot of interview questions. There are a lot of things that you have to get people involved with. But I would be scared out of my mind if I wasn't covering a specific team and doing the games. I would try my best to prove, hey, I know what I'm talking about and I want to be confident. But sometimes that gets in the way of the actual broadcast and going back to his point about doing a stream or whatever. I'd love to see something like a Dallas Braden and Trevor Plouf or whatever.

The guys that are comedic, but also can tell stories that us play-by-play people would never be able to tell you what it's like in a major league clubhouse or how this guy did this to this guy. It's great. That's why we called Archie Bradley in here. So he could come in here and do all of that stuff. The golf fissionado. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. His golf stories are great.

So he's hunting stories, but his baseball stories are incredible. The popularity of the New York Mets booth is one of the most popular booths, regional booths. I know that everybody would love to see Gary Cohen's reaction, not only to the good, but to the bad. And that would be really cool to see here at Arizona or wherever it may be. And I'm getting kind of a little bit of a taste of what it's like not to do a national broadcast, obviously, because there aren't a ton of people watching, but still similar in, I'm not with a lot of the players that are in this fall league. Oh, yeah. And it's it is a, it is definitely an adjustment compared to being with a team every single day.

And I definitely can sympathize with those guys that maybe aren't with the team every day. trying to find storylines that are interesting and intriguing and to bring in maybe fans from a different party than say you're a Mets fan or a Phillies fan, but bring in the others that are watching too. Yeah. And I understand because I mess up names of players on every single episode of the show. So I'm sure that's a big thing. You've got to make sure you learn how to get all the players names right. Or you just learn how to say them weird like Bert, who will continue to confound Jesse by

pronouncing William Contreras's name like that. But we did have some comments in the chat. First, I got to address Chris, who thinks this is a pre-recorded episode. Surprise! It's not, Chris. The Groundhog Mama already wants you to join the broadcast and replace Bert. So we got that going on as well. It's not pretty recorded.

It's pre-recorded. But, yeah, we're here. You're looking pretty good there. I mean, you might be pretty record. Hey, you know, the two of you are complimenting me entirely too much. I love it. I love it. I don't compliment you like this.

Nobody around the agent X does. These monsters are awful. You won't accept my advances to get a drink with you. Yeah. I'm after the show. I heard you're up. Well, I know, I'm a, I'm a, I heard you're up for reelection. So that's why.

See, this man, you should. Look at the shirt he's wearing. He brought the right shirt today. I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a company shill. Yeah, I'm willing. I'm out for the highest bidder. You might want to take them on the campaign trail with you. I'm, absolutely.

I'm winning this campaign. Well, if we weren't. If we weren't. If we weren't. If we weren't, you know, supporting you, I'm just afraid with your big, strong, strapping man arms that you would be able to lift us up and guerrilla press us. Yeah, we have two wrestling references.

We absolutely dominate the demographic of 60-year-old women and up. Yes, me too. We got that. They love me. Yeah, that point, we get the boyage chalk. That's what we have. Not much else. So if you're losing out on that.

We're good. We're going to get this reelection campaign settled here shortly. But we do thank you guys for being here in the P. and exports YouTube channel. Even if you don't believe that we're live right now, we do. We are live. It's not pre-recorded. So make sure leave us a comment.

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Leave us a review. We appreciate the feedback so much. On the other side of this break, we're going to talk to these guys about. about Arizona Fall League and about you broadcasting all of those games as well as which prospects from the Arizona Diamondbacks organization might be able to help this team in 2025. We'll do that on the other side of this break. Of course, make sure to check out our friends at Bet365. They pioneer live in-game betting and they offer the widest range of games and markets available for live in-game betting across 78 sports. Right now, new customers can choose between two offers when they open up an account at Bet365.

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Well, we got some fun talk about Arizona Fall League. Of course, we've converted over to a Fall League podcast now because we don't, we, we could talk about the both season, but we're not a part of that. But we are a part of this. And I know for us, Fall League is a lot of fun. I mean, it just means once again that Arizona is the place to be for baseball all time, all time of the year, right? But what do you thought so far on Arizona Fall League?

And I mean, is this your first year calling it? No, it's my second year. Chris and I did it last year together, and he decided to take a step away. Oh, yeah. There may have been some more, some more, for us in the minor leagues, there really are some great opportunities to call games beyond just the season. This is probably at the top of that list. But there's such premium talent that's here this year.

I've gotten to see a couple of games that maybe are games that only a mother could love on the defensive side of the last two nights, but I think that offensively things have been really, really good so far. And that's kind of what's moving the needle in baseball as it is. I got to see Salt River two nights ago, and Dylan Ray pitched, number 16 prospect in the DeBacks organization. Did not go well for him. Well, and that's kind of been a thing for Dylan this season.

He struggled early in games, but then really settled in. So if you give him a three-inning start, you're not really going to see how the true line works out for him. He's got a four-pitch mix that's really, really good. And again, he didn't start pitching until June of this year because of injury. So he's coming back from injury, and it took him quite a bit of time. And I'm going to give these players a ton of grace. They're three or four weeks removed from their minor league seasons,

trying to get back into the swing of things and playing against some really high-level competition that they haven't faced before. Speaking of injuries, U-Men's injury was about his. as brutal as could be imagined. Were you in the building for this? I was there. Okay.

I was. I texted you about me. Right, right. I think I was the one that gave you the scoop. You absolutely did. It's all coming back to me now. So, so you men,

Lin is standing in the dugout. He's not pitching that day. He's just standing in the dugout and there's a foul line drive that hits him basically in the face. Yeah, it was a B. Malik Ortiz, a big power hitting lefty

in the Rangers organization just turns on a baseball and I look over, and I can't, Umin's not the tallest guy, and they're not the biggest guy in terms of stature. So I look over at the dugout, did a beam like rip a hole through the netting in front of the dugout railing? Because I see like a grounds crew member coming over,

an umpire coming over. But I text our video coordinator, Todd Robbins, is there somebody down? He said, yeah, Jimmy's down. They call him Jimmy in the clubhouse, Umin. And he was down and out. And I spoke with Connor Oates, our trainer, who's now that the head trainer for the Salt River Raptors, said, is he okay? He walked out under his own power.

And he said, yeah, he'd probably be okay to pitch if you needed him to. But they wanted to make sure that, of course, they did their due diligence. At that point, he was the top pitching prospect in the organization before Yilver Diaz kind of jumped, jumped up and did what Yulver Diaz does. but he ended up being fine. It took him a little bit of time to come back and settled in nicely in the back half of the season. But it was really scary. I mean, they said an inch or two up

could have hit him in the temple and could have been catastrophic. So we're really, really happy that he's okay. He's a great, great person. Well, he made his AFL debut last night for the Rafters. Went three innings, three hits allowed, no runs, no walks, and three strikeouts. I mean, you guys are both pretty familiar.

with him. Is that, I mean, is he for real and do you think he's going to possibly impact this team in the near future? I think so. I think he definitely has a chance to. I think the question is what, what do you, what do you do with him? He's a six pitch arsenal guy, fastball, curveball, slider, change up, cutter, sinker. And he had the splitter coming into this year, but they've gone away from it. He has to make a decision on which pitches he's going to throw the most. Yeah. And when you have the kitchen sink, sometimes you can use the kitchen sink throughout the course of a game. Sure. If you go fastball, change up, sinker every time, you're going to get hit hard. And Yumen has some really good pitches. And I think one thing they've really been focusing on with him is

building up his weight, trying to make sure that he can get through a season in terms of injury and make sure they're not overworking him and overmanaging him. He's just 20 years, 21, 20 years old. So I think he definitely has a chance to be really, really good in the Dback sort. You make a great point too, though, because we saw guys that featured seven, eight pitch mix. Right. Like Chris Bassett is one that comes to mine. I mean, it destroys everything. Right.

And what you don't see in the minors as much that you do see in the majors is complete and utter understanding of what you're going to throw. Establishing the fastball is incredibly important. It's more important than I ever thought it was now seeing what I see. And Stefan's right. that whole kitchen sink doesn't necessarily need to be displayed in the whole game. You might have four pitches that you use, but you may use a two-pitch mix through the first three or four innings, and it may be unhittable, and then you still have four or five more pitches to offer moving forward in the final two innings.

Let's say you're your third time through the order, and you haven't even shown your tertiary stuff yet. That's where Yumen Lin, when he's been successful, has been able to command one or two pitches really, really well and dominate there. and then when he's needed to go to his extra stuff, to control that to keep hitters on their toes, that is what makes him so special. Because, you know, every little league kid or middle school kid,

even high school kids, oh, I throw a knuckleball or I throw a slurve. No, you don't. You don't. You throw a change up and you think it's a slider. Yeah, and it moves a little bit. Yeah, yeah, and it's like 45 miles an hour, like cool your jets. Right. But for somebody as rare as human Lynn to be able to command those pitches

and look so good while doing it, it's just the next of sequencing and execution. And that's what is going to turn him from a good pitcher into a great pitcher. And there's always room for one of those on a roster. That's exciting. Yeah. Stefan, I'm curious about Gilbert Diaz.

I mean, we got to see him in the big leagues this year. He was one of the biggest stories for the Diamondbacks in the minor leagues this season. It seems like as far as pitching prospects in this organization go, he just sort of rose to the top this season. What did you see for that? I wish I could have said it before we before the season started and I said this to everybody is that Yilver was the best pitcher in the organization. He was the best pitcher in the organization last year when he came up to us.

Last season when the Sodbittles won the championship, they had two starting pitchers for the course of the postseason. Two. Diaz? Ray. Sounds like the Diamondbacks. They had a combined five or six starts of double a experience. It's more than the tigers this year. They were dominant.

you look at, you, I was always told his name's Yilber, but if it's, if it is Jilber, it's, but. It's because in Spanish, it's like, it's like Joe. The wise. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Diaz, Dias's story from selling candy in Venezuela to be here in, in Arizona.

We were calling him, El Bucet, or we were trying to find something, you know, candy man, something. He's amazing. He's amazing. The candy man works perfect. Right. It's like, like, Blake Walson, I was called him the Carolina Reaper. Oh, I like that.

Which was, because North Carolina kid. But he is, he's fantastic. There's only one Reaper now. Yeah, there is only one Reaper. That is true. Mason Miller. Yeah, that's right. Chris's nickname.

But Diaz, I think he is one of those players that they've always kind of question, is he a starter? Is he a reliever? Because he threw three pitches. He only threw three pitches. It was the fastball, the slider. And didn't really add a change up until the end of the season. was thrown at about 10 times a game.

So if he can get a change up and get that four pitch mix, I think he's going to be a really, really good starting pitcher. If not, you've got a guy that could be a middle reliever, eat up some innings, maybe a setup man in front of J-Mart. And they have a wealth of those types of players. But you see that arm, you see the VLO, you see what he's able to do with his breaking pitches. And you think starter for certain.

And he did great work. He certainly did great work. It's exciting. Now, this kind of relates back to the national broadcast question, but with the Oakland A's and their farm system, like, do you find it that like you're not as familiar because you're not seeing these guys at that level pass through? Or are you still finding that you are just getting to know everybody in the organization still in a similar way? I'm finding myself turning into my father, which just scares the living shit out of it. It's only a matter of time. He says, said to us, is when you're at the major league level, you don't consider.

yourself with any of the prospects until they get to double a right double a is the proving ground so from that point upward and Steph's done a good job keeping me informed about our guys like I have a basic understanding of who they are and where they play and he fills in the gaps for me just as I would do for him if he was in my spot and I was still with Amarillo the beat us 18 times this year yeah 24 so what what becomes a really hard thing to do is you have a team that the A's were a surprisingly fun team. Yes.

But I think a lot of people expected them not to be. They expected another bad season like last year, and that just wasn't the case. But if they were to have another bad season, maybe talk about the minor leaguers more. But really, you're supposed to focus on the team in front of you, right? You know, the snapshot of what's coming up, that can be delivered in the pre-and-post game shows. That can be something that people turn on the radio pre-impost or the TV pre-impost. And they'll talk about Denzel Clark or Nick Kurtz or they might, talk about Will Simpson or, you know, the new guy, Mason Barnett that we just got.

So you want to focus on the team at hand. And then if there's a guy that's teetering in AAA that has some awards like AAA Player of the Week or the month or whatever, yeah, you'll bring that out because maybe just maybe that person will be on the flight to Anaheim. Next thing you know. Sure. But by and large, you want to focus on the current team on the field and stay as present as you can be.

Unless, and it really is dependent upon how good the major league team is. Right. If they are White Sox, you're probably looking around and saying, okay, who do we have for next year? And not trying to focus as much about the struggles on the field. You're looking for positives for silver linings. You're looking at Colson Montgomery and saying, hey, what is this guy going to do for us? What's he going to bring to us? You're looking at your draft picks.

You're looking at what is Hagan Smith going to bring in a few years. But the debacks, fresh off of making the World Series, I'm sure that for Steve and for the great production and broadcast crew they have there, they want to focus on their young dynamic players because this is a young dynamic team. Alex Thomas, Corby, Carroll, McCarthy. They are players that could age-wise be in AAA or AA right now, and they're dominant major league players. So that's really exciting to see.

I don't mean to get too personal with you, but I just am curious. It's a difficult season for Oakland A's fans. Please get personal. I know. We're going to get more personal. I'm blushing. I mean, it's, it feels. It feels like it was, it was a weird place for you to be.

And just because you're excited to be joining the franchise and you're excited to be doing this at a major league level. And yet it was in a year where so many fans were so unhappy about what is going on with the organization and everything involving, you know, leaving the Coliseum. Yeah, I mean, it is really a tough question to answer and navigate because for me, I was the broadcaster for most of the home games. So I got to know a lot of the fans, a lot of the fans that showed up. And my perspective has not really changed.

I feel bad for, I feel for the fans that have so much passion about this Oakland A's club. I feel for them. I understand that this is a very difficult time. I definitely feel very hard for the people that amidst all of the circumstances and all of the things about the team leaving still showed up to the ballpark. Yeah. You know, the ones that were boycotting and all. all that stuff. I'm sure their perspective is what it is. And I can understand where they come from. But I really feel for the people that would show up to the games. But also, you know, I'm in between

an entity that's about to leave. And I have hardly any connection with the A's. And the connection that I created was I was fortunate enough to get to know these individuals to teach me about the history. And for me to really embrace Oakland as my first spot ever in the big leagues. And, you know, when you see people crying and you hear people's stories and stuff, Like that, you can't help but feel emotional for them. Yeah. But it is my hope that over time, wherever this team may be, if it's Sacramento or Las Vegas, that the spirit of the Oakland Athletics never dies.

Yeah. And they can take it to Sacramento. They can take it to Las Vegas. I also understand if people will be turned off to look away. And then at that point, you know, we will try to develop a new audience. But it doesn't mean just because the team is leaving that the Oakland A's are dead. Yeah. The spirit of the Oakland A's, one of the most historic teams in the last 60 years, if you really think about, you know, the Bash brothers and the Three Pete and Raleigh Fingers and Reggie Jackson and so much history.

Dick William, all of it. That will never go away. And, you know, it is my hope that if the A's don't go back to Oakland, maybe they get a few things figured out logistically and maybe just maybe if expansion is still on the board and on the table, Oakland could still be a great place or somewhere in the East Bay for another team. to find their home. I think, and not to speak for Chris, but I think the most important thing to recognize is, Chris probably isn't the best person to ask about this. And he would be the first person to tell you is, this was his first year. And he was,

I mean, I couldn't be more proud of the job that he did. And it's always a tough question. The entire crew did it. It's always a tough question to navigate. But I think that, that really the fans took him in with open arms. And for our family,

we definitely, we feel for them and thank them. And I love them. I love them. You know, that there are some very, what was amazing about Oakland, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, because it did not ever give a minor league feel ever. I would take those fans over many other fans in the big leagues right now

with their passion and their love for the team and what they did. But it was so intimate this final season. You know, either you had 5,000 people, sometimes you'd have 45,000 when the Dodgers or Yankees were in town in the big games. and they were just as loud with 5,000 as they were with 45,000. And you would see the same faces over and over again, much like I would in Amarillo.

And you'd start to be on a first name basis with these people. And they would really care about you and take the time to say, hey, you're doing a great job. Or, hey, I really like what you do about this. They were never demeaning. And for me, my first steps into the big leagues to have that type of environment was very great for my development. And I will never forget that.

And I will be so thankful forever for the city of Oakland and the A's for giving me that opportunity. What we do know about the A's is that they low-key rake from what I can tell. At least like more so than people probably perceive, right? Like Brent Rooker, I mean, one of the best hitters in the game. Lawrence Butler looking back at his numbers this season, a 130 WRC plus, J.J. Bladay, that team was a lot better than, I mean, it wasn't great, obviously, but it was, it was better. It was more interesting, more watchable than I think a lot of people expected.

Oh, no, 100%. I mean, I never got to ask Mark Kotze question. I mean, I did, but I never wanted to because he would always get the reporters and he never, you know, I would talk to him in private sometimes. But I asked him finally because in spring training, he said, this team's going to surprise a lot of people. He thought that they were, you know, he said it's a lofty expectation, but I want to be a 500 team. They ended up having, I think, a winning record in the second half as a club. And I finally asked him, my third to last game of the year, I said to him, hey, how does it feel after creating this idea and saying,

this team's going to be a lot better than what you think. And reporters kind of scoffing at and saying, oh, you know, it's going to be another rebuilding year or whatever. To have your thoughts and your sentiments actualized right in front of you. And it stumped them. Yeah. Because when your team is performing as well as they are, you don't really take the time to sit back and smell the roses.

You're just trying to ride it. Yeah. And they just kept riding it from June to July to August to September. This club turned into one that almost immediately into next year, could be a playoff type of team in the wild card. Yeah. And we, being Valley sports fans, we're seeing that in a similar fashion with what is going on with the coyotes, right?

We had the coyotes leave the valley, and they made their debut last night, and it's painful. But at the same time, due, it's still the same team. It's the same players that we kind of love and that we've grown to love over the years because they're young guys, young organization. And as painful as it is, there is a part of you that kind of appreciates and as glad that like that was a sold out building last night and they got to see all of that love and that this team that was such a big part of the valley you know and and and lacked sometimes that I guess that that that appreciation you know is getting it and I know it might be the new team thing and

everything like that but they look good and that might be the hardest part is watching them be good somewhere else right but at the same time too it's uh it's you know it's it's it's part of what's going on right now and like sometimes it's hard but It's good for the franchise ultimately. And I mean, as much as the coyotes thing was a disaster, things look good for them and their future. Do you miss this guy at all? Oh, broadcasting with him? Oh, every day.

Does Dallas drive you nuts? I think you would ask that question in reverse, and his answer would be a resounding yes. Yes, absolutely. No, he's amazing. And he's incredibly talented. And he flips a switch when he gets on the air. Like, you know, he's happy, go lucky. he's goofy he's whatever but he has a very um amazing ability to present the game in a way that no

other color commentator has in this sport um when it goes talking about if i miss my brother i think you know i've been adamant open about explaining our situation during the off season he very realistically could have gotten my job i mean he it was it was i got hired and he was one of the runners up for the job and there was a little bit of survivors guilt didn't want too much beauty in one booth No, that's, you got an offset thing. I know it's right. That's why we are what we are. There was a little bit of Survivor's guilt at first,

but I knew that I had a job to do, and I knew that if I were sitting back thinking, well, my brother should probably be in the big leagues over me, which I still struggle with at times because he's so incredibly talented and so good and has taken care of me, that I wouldn't be able to focus on getting the job done and doing the game the way that I think he knows

that I needed to do the game. And I know one day very soon, hopefully, you know, this offseason, we'll see Stefan in a major league booth somewhere. And he'll be able to show the world what I got the opportunity to do this season. And then I won't be relevant anymore, which is great. Because he's got the body and the hair. You're going overboard, dude. The 20 bucks I paid you in the parking lot. You didn't need to do this much.

It's actually 18. Yeah, it's inflation. But no, it's, I think that for me, getting to tune into. my dad's games in St. Louis and then being able to choose to watch either the Diamondbacks games or the A's games and see him. Dallas

made him so much better of a broadcaster and not that he wasn't already extremely talented, but he's going to always say those nice things about me, but I mean I can say this and I know people it would sound really arrogant if it came from him, but because I'm his brother, I still going to sound arrogant. I think that he's

already cemented himself as one of the best in the game. And I think that the when you get in this at 24 years old, there are a lot of mistakes you can make. There are a lot of situations like we're talking about with national broadcast, how much pressure there is. And even though it's Oakland, it's a team that

didn't have a ton of promise in terms of a postseason future this year, there were people that were tuning in. And very different in terms of the audience from Amarillo to Oakland, he made it all extremely, extremely entertaining and enjoyable. And credit to the amazing people

at NBC, Devin Fox, of course, the director of broadcasting for the Aisdalaire Lewis and Dallas and Jenny and the awesome crew there, they did something in a year that it was really, really difficult to do and made the games fun, made sure to not lean in on the things that were difficult, but lean in on the things that were exciting for the future. Chris, I was today years old when I, at least according to the interwebs, your actual name is Harry. Am I getting that right? You didn't get this? No. No. This was new information about it. It was new information. It was not just me. It was not just me. Well, now you understand why I got the job over him. Yes. That was the edge. That's the, I mean, did you take Chris off of your application and just

put Harry on there? Uh, I wore it on my forehead. Bad, boy. He actually showed up to the first my passport was taped to my forehead. Gigantic broad class, broad, gigantic broadcast classes. Yeah. And he was, well, how do you hear you? You know, just walking into the Open Coliseum, that's what he did. And they said, you know what? Man. I guess when I put on the headset for the first game compared to my audition, they're like, wow, you sound a whole lot younger.

Your voice is a whole lot higher than what you were presenting in the, hey, let me do you know, no. He, uh, the, as Stefan and I talk about all the time, and it's important to know this. And I'm lucky. I got a job and I had to audition. I had to interview. So did he.

And it went well for me. But our names do carry weight. And I'm sure that that was a factor. It wasn't the only factor, but it was definitely a factor. And that's something that we know and that we will wear and continually harp on because it's important for people to understand that I don't think that this was just something that I had earned all by myself. I had a lot of help. though my dad didn't call the A's or the Saupoodles or whatever. That name and that influence always plays a factor in marketing and all that stuff.

And so, yes, we are Nepo babies. Having the two of you guys suffered is a big mistake. That's a huge mistake. I would sell tickets just based on that. I don't know, man. I think it's great. It's allowed him to be able to do things in his own way and do things in my own way. We have developed different styles.

He's been able to fill me in on a lot of how things are. done up at that level in a different way than my because my dad was always really hesitant about trying to give us guidance he's an amazing father but he never wanted to instill certain broadcast qualities in us because he didn't want us to become miniature versions of him sure so for chris he has no issue at all with telling me hey here's how you here's how we're going to do it open up here and sometimes it annoys the heck out of me sometimes he's like well up in the big leagues we do this. I'm just sitting here.

I was like, okay, get off your high horse a little bit, buddy. You were with me. You were with me. Not that long ago. So we crack up and,

uh, we had so much fun with the sod poodles. And I mean, I know, I know we're a diamond. We haven't talked much about the dimebacks at all. No,

I know. Well, that's all right. Homeboy hard. We're, we're guys here to talk. Homeboy hardened me this, this past season.

Well, not this past season, but the season before in Amarillo. I could not call a walk off to save my life. Stefan would talk to me. He's like, he'd look and I was like, how did that go? And he'd like, do you think you're going to majors with that? No shot.

I was really, really mean. Oh, my God. He would, but no, not physically. Just emotionally. Yeah, mentally abusive. No, yeah, exactly. Therapy. I need a little bit of a little bit of abuse sometimes.

It keeps you grounded, especially from your brother. And people that say, you know, I like to prove people wrong. I think that's important. but then I have this year my first ever game is a walk-off single, and then I have five more walk-off calls because I was doing most of the home games. Right, right. And I won't say they got progressively better, but they started to identify with my style,

and they said that I'm the big play guy of our group in the booth. And that's exactly what we try to do, just like our father. That's what we believe is the best style, is sometimes the national broadcasters, they take a little bit of objectivity and neutrality, and their voices are, hey, here's a high fly ball to left, and it's gone, and the Yankees lead one to nothing, or whatever. We want to make a big moment even bigger.

And I think that that is what endeared both of us to the A's and eventually got me the job is because there is a lot of wonderful things that can be explained in baseball. Jesse could probably hear me from the press box during a, during a, a, I mean, it was a pretty well-attended game for a fall league game. But still, I mean, it's not, you know, it's not, it's not. it's not 30,000 people sitting in the fally now. But no, but still, I mean, Chuck Fox and the people over there have done an amazing job. But the scouts will always look up because they're sitting right down.

They're like, why is this kid screaming for this? What is this for? Well, I just, I think that for us, people have, people have such short attention spans. Yeah. That we always have said that what we want to do is we want to dominate the 10 to 15 second highlight. Yeah. If you're on Twitter and you have a call that's screwed up that's on a big play, yikes.

Okay, if you screw up a two to pitch in the second inning and it, ends up being a ground ball to short and you say the third baseman gets it. You don't want to make that mistake, obviously, but it's better than screwing up the home run or the triple or whatever it is. Well, no, it's so funny that you say that because Steph dragged me along to AFL opening day at Sloan Park and Mesa. Was that two days ago or three days ago? Yeah, I think it was Monday.

It was Monday. It was Monday. And so he's up there. It's like the fifth inning. There's a double that rattles off the wall. And, you know, they don't play any like walk-up music or anything like that, which I wish that they would because. because it would just make it a little bit, you know, more lively.

It's so, it's such a baseball zen kind of thing, especially going out to a night game. But at the same time, it's so much. I love it. I don't want any little goofy games. Yeah. I just want baseball. It's just relax. Well, so I was sitting next to some of the scouts.

And one of my friends, the scout for the race's name is Jason Cole, great guy. And the double is hit. There's a fly ball deep to left fading away from whatever his name is. And it's off the wall. See, that's how a major leaguer does it. You guys are getting a little look at it. He pulls up at second base for a lead off double. He can't help himself.

Total silence, which is kind of standard for an NFL game, other than the 12-year-olds that are yelling, hey, Jack, yeah, Jack Caggleyon, whatever. The scout says to me. I love those kids. Well, that's one call your brother got, right? Because they could hear from the first level. I think he was implying that I got so many other people.

Yeah, yeah, that doesn't see what kind of a back end of compliment. Oh, man. I got to talk to talk. Jason about that. He's out of the dog house. He's going to be in the dog house. I'm going to talk to him about his number two farm system ranking. Ooh, number two. Why were you number one? Well, we will have more

not only about AFL here momentarily, but also about the unfortunate events that occurred yesterday with Hurricane Milton basically destroying the roof for Tropicana Field. So we will have that on the other side of this break, so don't go anywhere. A big shout out to Heila River Resorts and Casinos.

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Save yourself some money. Get yourself a frosty beverage. And of course, cool yourself off. It's still entirely too hot outside here in the Valley. And as I've said, summer is trying to end us, right? The weather in general is very bad right now. I feel like no matter where you live, the weather isn't good. But obviously the weather is absolutely terrible in Florida,

considering what's going on there with Hurricane Milton and the unfortunate actions last night of what happened to Tropicana Field. We have some video of that right now to show you. It's not great right now. now out there in Florida. Can we take a look at that video? This is what Tropicana Field looks like today, or I guess this morning. And this is so sad. This is awful.

This is not great. Apparently it's rated for like 115 mile an hour wind, something like that. Part of me was almost surprised that this hadn't happened in the past. I mean, they get so much so many hurricanes. It feels like, at least in that part of the country. Well, it's annually, right? You always have the hurricane season essentially in Florida and this is this this is the worst that we've seen This stadium was also being used as an emergency staging site

Which obviously is not great that didn't work out so well did not work out so well what was the roof made of it's I have to look it up. Yeah, we do have the the technical term here it's a different type for and it were from Florida obviously So that's that's that's something that we're were very familiar with, but it was really interesting to see the way that this storm developed. The last couple of major hurricanes were on the Atlantic side. They weren't on the Gulf side. You look back at Katrina and you look back at the ones that really formed the Gulf being the ones that were a little bit more devastating.

But the fact that it was on the west side, Fort Myers has been completely flooded. And I'm not saying that there's any positives to this situation in all the tropic hand, but they are building a new ballpark. I know you've seen the renderings of it. I'm curious, in my mind, do they consider? consider putting in that glass roof for Tropicana to see how it holds or reflects the heat like they're going to do with the new ballpark. That's interesting. Like instead of repairing instead of fully repairing it, try it.

It seems like a fair opportunity to do so. I mean, Stefan's right about the hurricane, though. I'm not going to be weather on the ones. Chris Carey, you know. Not enough hair, Joe. Nope. Not yet. No.

But the storm itself built in the Gulf of Mexico. And initially they thought it was going to chart towards New Orleans. And then it looked like it was going to end up in Indiana. And then it started taking a hard turn toward the Florida Gulf Coast and Tampa. So at one point, it went from a category one to a category five in the span of 45 minutes. That's not common for a hurricane. And regionally speaking, people in the West Coast look at hurricanes like they're this crazy thing. I don't think there will ever be a hurricane if it's going to direct hit my town that I would leave for.

Really? It is something. I think that there's also a, there's a difference, right? We're not on the water. So again, I don't think, I think it really depends on location. You need to be careful about how you. No, no, no, yeah. But I think that a lot of people say, hey, these Florida people are crazy for not leaving

their homes or whatever. There are a lot of things that you can do to mitigate the damage. You might not be able to completely remove all the damage, but by sandbagging and doing, this is a common practice where we live in. St. Augustine, where our town was rocked by hurricanes for two years in a row. Matthew and Irma. I mean, the devastation was unbelievable. We didn't get any national coverage because we're a smaller town, but these hurricanes

do have a lot of impact. It's not the wind that's as much the issue. It's the storm surge and the flooding that happens. Yeah, usually electrical wiring going down, people getting electrocuted. That's the stuff that starts to get people. And you always see the videos of those beach houses that are built up on those stilts that get knocked down into the water. And I always encourage people go get flood insurance.

If you're going to buy a house that's near a coast of some kind, go get flood insurance. It's really important because if you can't be cheap. Yeah, it's not, it's not cheap, but it's honestly. Get a generator too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I have to get a generator. And one of the big issues that always happens during hurricanes, which is why people are always talking about hurricane relief, price gouging.

People try and go in and sell generators for five times the price because the demand is high and the supply is so low, which is illegal, obviously. But you want to make sure that these people are taking care of. You want to make sure that these people are okay. Well, flights out were outrageous, right? I saw that that people were accusing airlines kind of of doing some price gouging when it came to people trying to evacuate. We have friends come into town that live in Tampa that they're celebrating a bachelor,

a bachelor, bachelorette party. Shout out Clay and Natty. But a lot of people had trouble getting out. And that's kind of common for hurricanes in Florida. but, you know, regionally speaking, if you're in Florida, hurricanes are a common thing that you're aware of and that you can prepare for. Now, this one, from going from a category one to a category five or a category four is a totally different preparation process. But tornadoes are devastating as well. The boobobs can be devastating.

Oh, yeah. Typhoons. I mean, all of those regionally specific. Baboons, yeah. Baboons, yeah. It, what happened to Tropicana Field is unfortunate. What I'm, I can't say happy about because I don't appreciate the devastation or, you know, the flooding or whatever. But it is my hope, and obviously reports will keep coming, that we're not seeing a high death toll, at least right now.

Right. Which was obviously a major concern. And a lot of people did get out of town and do the things necessary. Yeah. But I also can understand with people sticking with their houses and people could be displaced for a while losing their, you know, their hard-earned homes. And I it's tough it's tough to see especially if you've been through it before well my my family's from Puerto Rico So it's the same thing in the Caribbean right storm surges and even even like it doesn't even have to be a hurricane for it to be a devastating storm storm in that part of the world right But yeah like when I first move there I really thought that a lot of The shutters and stuff I was seen was like due to like high crime or something and then when a hurricane came through and everybody was able to like close their houses up and that down the house hatches I remember being like oh that's all right so yeah like it does get to a point where people adapt in those parts of the of the world because this isn't something that just passes through once

you know every five years or something it's multiple like we're seeing that now that there's another potential hurricane that's kind of swirling up in the gulf which it might take the same path as milton it's hurricane season and if it's a small one you're locked in your houses with without much power drinking teetos. If it's a big one, you're getting out and going north or west. And that's the prayers out to all the families affected. And tons of tons of our family and friends living in Florida want to make sure that they're doing okay and that they're all safe. My family's okay from what I understand. Sandbags are down and everything. So that's always, always good to hear. It's good to hear. Well, and what Jesse said is the truth. I think when it comes to the destruction,

I'm surprised based on, you know, again, and I know, like you said, it's different where they form and how it approaches Florida. But I'm surprised that this is the first time that there's been damage of this level. I mean, I imagine at times there has been damage that they've repaired based on storms and such. But this is really sad to see. Yeah, Hurricane Charlie is probably the one you look back to being one of the most damaging. That was, what, 2005 in Orlando? I mean, if you're talking about a Florida one, I mean, Matthew Irma Charlie, you know, Katrina clipped part of the Florida panhandle as well. So the hurricanes survived all of my grandparents' roof did not survive Charlie.

But he's talking about the tropicana roof. Oh, yeah. The tropical roof, I mean, yeah, I mean, that's that's surprising. But it does ask a different question, completely separate of hurricanes, right? just weather in general. Unless you're in like Northern California or really here, but even you guys have a dome,

I'm surprised that teams just don't take on with the rising heat of everywhere. Like in Sacramento, when our team plays there, we're having turf, it's going to be 105 degrees. Oh, we've seen it. It's going to be,

and for teams to, if you put on a roof or a retractable roof, which I know is not an easy expense, then you can play every game. Yeah. And he makes a great point about the Tropicana. If you have a glass reflective roof or whatever, I mean, you still see the sky, you still feel like you're outside. But you have that level of comfort to where you have more of a room temperature kind of game where you can sit comfortably, where you can wear shorts and a t-shirt, even if it's, you know, late March, early April and the season's just starting.

Or end of September where it's starting to cool down in some places, you can take in a game the same way in July as you could in the early parts or end parts of the season. I think it would be a great concept to try and explore. That's how we feel here, especially having a retractable roof, even though we can't. open and close it right now with people in the stadium. We still. Love it to be made a glass. Love the natural light. I love the idea of more natural light, especially after going out to Globe Life Field

and seeing all the natural light they have in that building. It's really cool. The only problem is the awnings, like the overarching shadows. Yeah. That makes it difficult. Yeah. I mean, it is literally a competitive advantage for a pitcher to be able to have that shadow that's just right over the plane for guys to pick it up in the dark spots.

It'll be interesting to see what the rays do with this situation. I think they're still kind of assessing the damage and whatnot, but I have to imagine there's a possibility that the rays come opening day of next year are not able to play at the trop. It sounds like more information is still coming out in that regard. Maybe we see a situation where they have to, I don't know, play at a AAA ballpark or something, at least to start the season. So that'll be something to watch for sure.

Could you see them playing in like the citrus bowl or maybe at Raymond James? Yeah, I don't know. I think they'll get creative. with it I think that again you look back at maybe Gainesville their brand new stadium oh I think it's even a little bit more different than that remember when they were thinking about being a 50-50 team with Montreal yeah right right go up to Montreal never now you never want to open I think that because of the new stadium that's not going to open up a can of worms for for sure but I think like with with Sacramento the fans in Sacramento I

think they're going to try and use this to get a bid to get a major league team at least when expansion happens yeah if a team if the rays get displaced there are going to be a couple of different locations that will try and house the race so that they can show, hey, we are a major league environment. It's a great point. You guys have room in Amarillo, right? Well, we have a ravenous fan base, but they have to compete with the Saudis, which is tough to do. Saudis are hot, baby.

The one major upside is if they needed to find a stadium because the Grapefruit League is there, all of those single-A spring training stadiums are major league ready clubhouses and facilities. It's just a smaller venue. Yeah. And for the race with their attendance and all that stuff, they could have a very aesthetically pleasing environment. However, they won't be playing in a dome, and it does get hot in the West Coast of Florida in the summers.

Yeah, it would be poor Charlotte probably would make the most sense. Okay. And you're talking about the sob turtles. They're Gino Groovers sopoodles now. Yeah. That's what we, that's, we want to know. Who are we watching in Arizona Fall League? And who are we watching on the sod poodles?

I mean, well, I'll start with Gino. Yeah. This dude is. the real deal? Oh my gosh. I think it was a bit of a down year in the Texas League, at least offensively, looking at how things played out top to bottom,

to see Gino Grover come up after injury and the way that he would will the ball into play wasn't striking out, did not look at all. Yeah, it basically never struck out once you got there. It didn't look phased at all by the promotion. But going the other way, that was what was so impressive is a lot of times you see guys coming out of college, they have success being poll happy.

Gino is, I mean, you already have a third baseman named Gino who's a proven major league. But, I mean, if you want to go plug and play another Gino, I think, I think Grewver has a chance to be really, really good. And Gavin Conticello was another guy that, man, he's going to be really, really good. I don't know if you've heard his name much with Haye Hillsboro. But he was a Marjorie Stoneman Douglas student. And he wasn't, I don't think he was going to school there when the tragedy happened, but he was a, a phenomenal, phenomenal baseball player and has dipped his toe in the water.

But our fally guys, I believe if I'm looking, at least from the ones that I know, Grover, Troy, Umin, Dylan Ray, Kyle Ayment, those are the five I know for sure. Amon's probably the most intriguing of all of them. And the reason being is he's a low 90s fast. ball pitcher that has a curve ball as well, kind of a, kind of like a gyro slide, a gyro curve, a higher velocity type pitch. But the ride that he gets on that fastball at the top, they just don't hit it. They don't touch it. And I was talking to him before the first fall league game for the rafters. He said, man, I went up to triple N.

It just kind of got rocked. And they were hitting the curveball, which doesn't happen to me. And he's sort of a soft-spoken guy, but he's like 6-5-2-30. He's gigantic. And I think he's going to be really, really good as a reliever for the debacks. But Gino Grover, he's the impact player that's going to be here in this fall league. And I think that seeing him at third, seeing him at second, he can play a number of different spots. But the question comes up for the debacks over and over again.

And I wouldn't want it. It's a great position to be in if you're Mike Hazen, but it's also a difficult one. What do you do? You have Cite who's probably going to finish top three in the MVP voting in the National League. you want to figure out is he going to continue to be part of your long-term plans? You have Ehio Hano Svarez who struggled in the first half of the season, but then was hotter than anyone in baseball in the second half. And now you're running out of some spots for some infielders like Troy and Gruber.

And then Tim Tawa, too, who probably for all intents of purposes, should have had a utility call-up at some point this year. Right, well, and I mean, should have is a tough way of putting it. Because, again, there's the 40-man, there's the roster. Could have as a great better way. I think that I will always be a huge fan of Tim's. I think he does everything really, really well and does everything at a high level. But when you look at the prospects and how much is changing,

we're at a point in time now where the last two years prior to this season, it was look at AA Amarola. That's where the guys are. And then they're going to Reno. And it was Amarillo and Reno having success, and that's where all the prospects were. Right now, they're in Visalia and starting to work their way into Hillsborough. One thing that I think the debacks have,

have had to do is start really developing starting pitching and it's tough to do that. And you talk about that a lot. You look at Merrill Kelly being kind of a godsent for them. You look at even though Gallen wasn't really a D-Back farm system product, he is a D-Back at this point in time. He probably is the D-Back pitcher. But Brandon fought, Nelson, I've been all those guys

Cicone Jarvis Jameson Jarvis and Diaz they're developing players like that Spencer Geisting of the world he's phenomenal and Billy Corcoran a player that just came off the radar that nobody really knew about him

he had like 10 quality starts at double A he was just unbelievable and then you have Roman Angelo and more waiting at at high A so I think that there's a wealth of opportunity to promote from within the system. But because you're competitive now, do you want to gamble your window on potential young talent that could be extremely successful in the big leagues or maybe not as successful as you need them to be to get to the majors? I think you have to choose what free agents are we going to go after? Which guys are we going to

keep? And with Christian Walker, of course, being a huge conversation, that I think is that's what's going to start everything. What do they do with Walker? We're dealing with a very similar thing with the A's. You have a shortstop now at Jacob Wilson. You have three or four more that you just, that you've either drafted. You've got guys like Max Muncie waiting in the wings. I don't know why teams are so averse to trading away prospects if you know that you have what you want at the big league level already and they're young. Because you can fill those other needs.

And as we know, as we've started to see with teams like the Orioles with a lower payroll, the raise who had what, eight consecutive? executive playoff appearances before this year. It doesn't necessarily mean you need a $300 million payroll. Now, that helps, of course. But if you have that young talent that's controllable and then you trade for better talent or more talent or talent where you have those needs, you can make the playoffs. And that's, I think, what the A's are going to try and do. And maybe the Diamondbacks with how young and exciting their team is with guys that might

be on the way out in free agency or are getting a little older, that you can plug and play with those spots and have very attractive trade pieces to send the other way. for a team that has that immediate need that might their window might be closing and they need that power bad we're not gm so it's it's it's not our decision i mean i think it's no it's like you guys could be though not even a little bit not even a little bit in my limited interactions with like haze i mean i can't say enough amazing things about what yeah he's what they've forced yeah oh my gosh with with what those guys have done and what they've been able to build within their respective organizations i think it is a lot of teams are changing gms they're changing personnel they're changing staff

frequently and the debacks have a guy that I think really loves being here and with everything that he has undergone to be able to have built what he's built deserves a ton of credit and again I'm not a yeah I'm not a dbacks I'm not a dbacks employee I know that I work for the double a your shill still though well no I mean I yeah still am I still but but I you know I don't need to be saying these things if they're not true and that the that's that's just the reality is I'm curious what you guys think is going to happen I mean Jesse you you you follow the team everywhere. I was asking you, we were at Salt River and I said, what are they, what are they going to do? What, what do they go get? And you have some prospects like Lawler who I think

once he gets healthy could be a part of all of it. Yeah, for sure. Big part of it. And I mean, do you agree? You think it probably starts with Christian Walker? Yeah, I mean, you'd like it to, right? We walked through their payroll situation the other day on this show and, you know, they're already at about $150 million before trying to bring back Walker, before trying to bring back a Jock Peterson or Randall Gritchick or any of the other guys that they're losing. So I think that's going to define a lot of what they do this offseason. I'm sure they would love to bring back Christian Walker, but I know there's a lot of other teams that would probably love to have Christian Walker as well. There's not a whole lot of guys available that are like him. I mean, it's pretty much Pete

Alonzo and Christian Walker that, you know, the two top names for sure on the, on the first base market. So Paul Goldschman. Paul Goldschman is there is there as well. I think he's maybe he's viewed in kind of a different category at this stage of his career. But yeah, it's going to be a fascinating offseason for the Diamondbacks. You know, not only how much money they're able to spend, but also kind of how they prioritize everything as well. So yeah, we're going to be talking about it here five days a week. All the entire time. Well, we appreciate you boys so much for stopping by. You guys are the best. We thank you. We'll have you on again before you leave out of town, hopefully.

Absolutely. Maybe we should, we should do it with, you guys have any, any liquor sponsors on here? Oh, yeah. We'll figure something out. Yeah, we'll get a deal. We'll get, we'll get that thing. We could do like a-sponsor that entire episode by the game. We could do like a watch party.

Like a late night episode. Oh, yeah. We have a new show called D-Backs after dark. So maybe you guys are joined, uh, Damon and myself. There it is right there. There's the logo for it. Oh, I haven't seen the logo. Man.

It's sexy. It's hot. Yeah, for sure. you just want to go to like a... Damon design that? Yeah, no, no, Damon didn't design that, but Damon inspired it, basically. He had a lot to do with it.

And it mostly is just our chance to say all the curse words we can't say on this show anymore. But before we didn't get out of here, I did have one person I needed to address, and that's Mrs. Montia. I just wanted to wish a very happy 15th wedding anniversary to my wife, Jen. I love you very much. I'll see you at home.

We're 15 years together. We're still out here trying to make the playoffs. You know what I mean? Still competing. still putting into work. So I appreciate her so much. I think your chances are gone, man. Yeah, Jen, you're a lucky girl. We have an open marriage

so we'll talk about you. There's always a weekend in Scottsdale. Exactly. Exactly. You know, hydrate myself away. All the sorrows away with some hydration. We'll figure something out. But we do really appreciate you guys. We appreciate you guys so much for stopping by. Thank you

for joining us. Of course, you can follow us all on Twitter. I'm at Kapp. underscore caveman with the cave this maniac is at jesse n friedman these guys just it's stephen carry and chris carry it's boring it's easy to find them make sure find them on twitter of course damon uh the people's producer is at damon dog uh that's da wg we are all damon's dogs and then this is where we bark so you can bark in any variation that you want you know what's what's that why didn't we do a ski oh yeah you're right you're right a big ski at the top i'm dropping the ball here guys but uh bark bark bark bark bark there we're

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's George Bulldogs, right? You got to say sick of. Right, yeah, for sure. This guy. Well, again, our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs,

but all roads do lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you guys stopping by. We will see you tomorrow for our NLDS game five post-game show tomorrow evening. In the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful evening. Behave yourselves and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you know about the minor league system.