PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backing out on New Year's resolutions

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are discussing the future of the DH for the D-backs and determining what their New Year's Resolutions will be for 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am officially known as your mayor of PHNX, and I am joined by my vice mayor, my head of my council. It is the one and only thunder stick Jesse Friedman. New year, new me, Derek. We've got decorations on the blank wall. Look at that.

The void is gone. The void is gone. And this one, this one is you're doing, Derek, for those of you out there. they're watching us. Derek gave me that as a Christmas gift because he was tired of staring at the blank wall behind me. But this one was my doing. So I take the credit for that one. I had it with the blank wall, Jesse, as much as I had it with trying to figure out which lights in my room work. But I'm also in my new studio. This is the jungle. I'd like to welcome everybody to it. And yeah, we got some exciting things happening as far as 2022, Jesse. But of course,

this podcast is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX. And simply for betting $5 on any NFL team to win, you will win $200 in free bets on top of your already existing winnings based on whatever you bet. And that is our code at PHNX. Jesse, we got a fun show to talk about today. We are going to talk about Arizona Diamondbacks resolutions for the new year.

And I'm excited. I'm excited to give them resolutions. You know, usually you figure out the resolutions on your own, but no, not today, not this year. The Diamondbacks do not get to choose their resolutions this year. Jesse and I will be doing that for them. But a little, I guess, I don't know if you want to, if you want to call it news, but there was some information that came out on CBS Sports about, again, just kind of what we said, confirming what everybody kind of feels right now, which is that looks like the universal DH is coming, and it doesn't look like there's anything we can do to stop it.

A to Robert York. How is it going, man? But of course, the speculation has started as to what teams are going to do, and the CBS Sports article took a look at likely in-house candidates for the DH. And the two that it came up with were Seth Beer and Cooper Hummel, which I don't think is that far off as far as, designated hitters, but it was a bit surprising. It's a bit surprising that both of the guys they were saying are likely in-house candidates are minor leaguers versus looking at some of the

in-house candidates that they already have on the main roster. It did specify that the DH would likely be the key factor in David Peralta and Christian Walker also sticking around with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the time being. So what are your thoughts on that? And do you think that they will turn to the young guys as far as the designated hitter goes. You know, I haven't read the article that you're referring to, Derek, but I have to wonder how much Diamondbacks baseball the people over at CBS are watching because. Well, they started off with saying, no, they won't let Madison Baumgardner be their DH. And I immediately was angry by that.

That was not, that's not the right way to start off with me as far as DH candidates. No, they lost their credibility right away with that. But no, it's a little, I could see Seth Beer. For sure. I mean, we talked about him as one of our main candidates the other day. Cooper Hummel, I could maybe see him getting in the mix. I think Cooper Hummel really, a lot of his value will come from his defensive versatility. He plays a number of positions, including catcher. And I think the Diamondbacks are probably going to want to leverage that.

So, yeah, there's no way Tori Lavallo is shying away from utilizing someone that is versatile defensively, right? That's that's his jam. That's his favorite thing. But Cooper, Hummel also hit 311, 432, 546 with AAA Reno. So not, you know how we love Reno numbers around here. I know. We love Reno. I know.

It's, I swear to God, that's what we hear with every trade, like even in this one, because we got Hummel and the Eduardo Escobar trade. So, of course, it's like he crushed AAA hitting 311, 432, 546. Calm down. It's real. Yeah. All right. Although I'm pretty sure.

I'm not. of his page in front of me. I think that Cooper Hummel when he was with Milwaukee was actually playing in the international league for AAA rather than the Pacific Coast League, which is a, well, I guess it's not called the Pacific Coast League anymore. I'm not going to call it what it's called now because it's stupid. It'll forever be the Pacific Coast League. It will forever be the Pacific Coast League. But yeah, so I'm a little confused by this. I could see Cooper Hummel potentially filling in there. His bat is definitely his. biggest tool, but I think the diamond backs are going to want to see where he can slide in

defensively, because I'm not so sure his bat is quite going to carry him to the level of being a major league DH. The thing that baffles me more than that, Derek, is that, and yes, good to see you, Brett Johnson. We always appreciate having you around. The thing that baffles me more about that is that I don't think Christian Walker really makes any sense for the diamond backs at DH. The reason the diamond backs kept Christian Walker on the roster in my mind is because Christian Walker, is a very good defensive first baseman. That's, that's why he's here.

You're not bringing Christian Walker to play DH when he had a sub 700 OPS last year. Right. I just, I just don't see it. And certainly he could bounce back. I think there's a lot of hope for him. We know the injuries played a role in that.

But realistically, I don't think the Diamondbacks brought him back so that they could, you know, sit him defensively and just play him in DH. So, and same story with David Peralta. I mean, he's won a silver slugger.

He's also won a silver slugger. He's won a gold glove award. And I don't think you're trying to put that, take that out of, out of your defensive lineup. So to me, that part of this is puzzling. Jesse Friedman, I believe it was you that questioned David Peralta even being nominated for a gold glove last year. Oh, absolutely. And he also gave us all the reasons why we shouldn't be that excited about a left field. Yeah.

Getting a gold glove nod. Right, right. No, very, very fair point. My argument was that David Peralta is not that elite of a defender, which I stand by. But the diamond backs don't have a whole bunch of elite defensive outfielder waiting in the wings that are going to be way better than David Peralta. At this point, if David Peralta is in the lineup, you probably want him playing left field.

I don't really know who I would turn to that I would like better in that spot than him right now. So I don't really see Peralta or Christian Walker playing much D.H. outside of, you know, days off. And, you know, what we know, Tori Lavella will do in sliding guys over to D.H is a method of kind of giving them a half day off, I guess, at least not having to play any defense. Brett Johnson wants to know the fantastic name that the PCL is now, you know, because it used to be the California League and the Pacific Coast League. Brett, I hate to break it to you, but unfortunately, they just call it triple A West and low A West now.

Yeah, yeah, it's dumb. Yeah. It's not, it's not great. And yes, we also love the freight train. Speaking of which, now that I've reorganized my office, I have the ability to bust this guy out now at a whim. I love how we can't see your bobbleheads behind you. You just like pull them off the shelf. Yeah.

Well, it's there for me. They're not for you. They're not your enjoyment. They're for my enjoyment. Right. Okay. I really love the train sound for the freight train bobblehead. That's by far my favorite.

Oh. There it is. There it is. There it is. But yeah, no, I'm not ready to part ways with David Peralta defensively. I'm not ready to, I'm not ready to give up on a lot of the guys, right? I think that's the thing. Yes, Brett, they are terrible.

It's just so lame, yeah. It's just so generic. It's so boring. The Pacific Coastal League. I mean, exactly. There's something about it. I don't know. This is a universal thing, by the way.

Like, we, I think we just as human beings, we like to kind of have a little bit of mystery, you know. So like in pro wrestling, you know, using, you know, the letter abbreviation or whatever is huge, the WWE, NWO, DX, it goes on. And it's that, it's always that thing of kind of being like, you kind of need to be a little bit of an insider to know what PCL means or whatever, right? So now when they just say low A West, you have to explain what the hell low A West means in the minor league system. It's terrible and awful. I hate it. Okay, okay. Question. I have a, I have a fun, fun question out of the blue here is i'm curious what uh the people in the chat have to say as well is david peralta does he have the best brand on the diamond backs like does he connect with

fans more than anyone else on the roster because i actually kind of i don't know yeah what do you think i was going to say yes i'll say yes just because david peralta tries he puts an effort in There's a part of David Peralta that I see enjoys certain parts of being famous and being an athlete that other people don't enjoy, right? Some people just want to play the game. They would prefer if they never got bothered while they were out in public and they would never, you know, have side hustles unless it was like they're what they want to do in the future after baseball. But for the most part, I feel like most guys don't, you know, put that much effort into just being. an enjoyable, entertaining human being. You know, we joked about the TikTok videos a lot.

Obviously, they caused the curse of Baxter, but I don't believe that was David Peralta's intention initially. He was just having a good time. And those videos were fun. I've seen stuff he's done just the way that he tries to connect with fans. I said at one point that Peralta was the face of this team. And I don't necessarily mean that as in he's the best player on the team, because that's arguably could tell Marte.

But I'll say that David Peralta is, the guy that he really wanted to be the face of the team. He really wants to go out there and do community events. He wants to interact with fans. He loves that. David Peralta, going back to my thing earlier, I feel like is the kind of guy that 100% would love taking a picture with you if you bumped into him in public. And we're like, David, hey, you know, like he would be all about it. You know, Brett Johnson says, him and Escobar connected with a lot of the community. He's, here. I'll take their brands over Eric Burns and his Eric Burns show. Yeah. And you're right, because the thing about David Peralta and Eduardo Escobar was it seemed sincere, right?

Even when David Peralta is doing stuff, there was, there was times, I will admit, and he doesn't deserve this because I am as much of an attention whore as anybody. And you know that, Mr. Friedman. But I will say that at times I felt like it wasn't necessary, right? Like some of the stuff he was doing, I was kind of like, man, that's so weird that somebody, like, of his caliber of baseball player like that wants to, you know, be on TikTok doing the stuff that that he, uh, you know, that he's doing. But it's just for fun and it's just for entertainment. And it's like, I don't know, there's, uh, a lot of, I feel like players that want to be more than just a super serious baseball player. You know, they want to, they want to have fun. They want

people to have fun watching the game and they kind of understand that it's a form of entertainment. Some athletes, some players, they just take the shit too seriously. And it's our fault. It's our fault. We demand that they take it seriously, right? But then we also really enjoy when somebody's miced up at the NFL game the other day, like I think it was Joey Bosa, where he was on the sidelines of a football game, asking people what their favorite video games were.

And, you know, going up to coaches and asking them if they play Call of Duty and talking about, like, doing the Fortnite, you know, Call of Duty dances where they, like, you know, stand over someone and bob up and down. Like, it's great. like stuff like that where they show us human side or that they show that they have other interest outside of a sport are wildly entertaining right but it's uh yeah david proletta for me i think had the best brand you know um some of i think for the most part um i think we got bret johnson saying after goldy left i felt like pralta was the face of the team until katel broke out and i

completely agree with that right but there's times where i look at katel in the locker room or Kutel just normally. My video games want to participate in our conversation. This is amazing. But I'll say that Kutel kind of reminds me a bit of Justin Upton, who might have been the team leader, might have been the best guy on the team at a point. But he didn't want that, you know, that face of the team label on him. He didn't want to be the leader.

He didn't like that part of it. And I don't feel like Kutel is a big limelite guy, as much as he just wants to do his own thing and look good while doing it, you know, but I don't really feel like he has that same desire to be, you know, the face of the team just like, just like David Peralta is.

Yes, Brett Johnson. I was trying to keep it classy around here, but that's what he was, that's what Joey Bosa was doing, talking about teabagging. Anyway, hope you guys in the chat are all already part of the PHNX family. I know I've seen so many of you guys here so often.

And again, we can't appreciate you guys not only participating in the chat, but being a member over at go phnx.com. You become a family member. You can either get that annual membership or month-to-month option. Annual membership will get you that free t-shirt over at PHNX locker. They're wonderful shirts. I'm wearing one right now. Jesse had one hanging. Jesse's got a nice one on too.

Yeah, we're having problems now in my house, Jesse, with like my wife and I. My wife and I have our own PHNX shirts. and they're getting mixed up in the wash. I had two gray shirt, you know, two gray flag shirts end up in my drawer. That can't happen. But again, that's, it's not a bad problem to have. Our T-shirts are excellent. And of course, they are the King of Soft style.

So go get yourself a PHNX. They are. T-shirt right now. Go do it right now. Well, finish listening to the podcast first and then go do your thing. But anyway, Jesse, it's 2022. I've been talking about it all week. I'm excited.

We're in the future. It's the future from where we were at. two years ago, but it doesn't feel like the future because it feels like we're in the same goddamn pandemic mess that we've been forever now. I will say that I have some New Year's resolutions that I made, but I was curious to see if you had any New Year's resolutions that you've made. Just personally? Just me? Yeah. Okay. Just you personally? Oh, Brett Johnson says he's on fire bookers shirt as compliments from work. Oh my God. Yes. I love, yes. Yes. That's a very good.

one that's that's uh that's a great shirt and uh so is the low writer booker shirt as well so but of course it's because it's bookered the god yeah back to the resolutions okay resolutions i'm not a big resolution guy derrick because frankly i've never kept a resolution for more than about a week and so at this point i'm i'm just more realistic with myself but there are if you ever let me ask you this though have you made active changes because you're still a young man so i understand it but have you made active changes in life? Maybe not on New Year's, but where you just said, like,

I'm not going to do that thing anymore. I know that sounds weird. Because like you said, the resolution thing tends to not be something we keep. But I remember at one point, like, I am a habitually late human being, right? Oh. And like, I just, don't get me wrong,

I still fall back into that because I, to be honest, I'm just really bad at keeping track of time. That's really more my actual problem is more so than actively trying to be late to people's things, you know. But I also just have found that I started to get a little bit hypocritically angry about people being late to stuff, you know? That's the most annoying kind of person. It really is, right? The person that's late to everything, but gets bad when you. you're late to it. So, but I just, I mean, again, it's, I think it might be maybe being a dad,

you know, like maybe being, uh, you know, a little bit more responsible on my own due to this job that we now have. But I felt like not too long ago, I'd made the conscious decision that I wasn't going to be late to things anymore. And I think that that, that's, that to me is the type of resolution. I feel like that is better in life. Like something to just make your life better potentially and improve, you know, your situation, your interactions with people, how things go. I mean, I hate to say it, but it even affects the way, you know, people view you, right? Like, obviously it does, right? But people literally can change their opinion of you if you're constantly late to the point

where they don't even want to invite you to things anymore, right? I had a, I had a college professor who, because I, and I guess it wasn't just me, it was me and one of my buddies. We were always so late to one. one of our morning classes that she started giving quizzes at the beginning of class just so that we would miss them. And we learned our lessons pretty quick. Yeah, no, it worked. It's hard to, it's hard to get too mad at that. Yeah, I'm a pretty perpetually late person too. I'm definitely better about it now. I don't think I've, I don't think there's ever been a point where I've like

put a stake in the ground and said, I'm not going to be late to things anymore. Sure. It's much, it's much harder on yourself, I think, for you to, because again, Being late tends to be in your nature, right? You know, but. Yeah, it's just part of you. Yeah, it's just part of you. You feel uncomfortable being somewhere early. It just doesn't, it's an uncomfortable feeling.

I think that's it. I think that's, you hit the nail on the head with that. It's like, what am I going to do? Like, why? What am I going to be there? Five minutes early? Well, am I supposed to just sit around and wait for everybody else to get there for five minutes? Right.

Yeah. No, forget that. I'll show up two minutes late. Everybody will be there. We can get the parties going. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I definitely had, you know, I've had some mentors that said some things to me about being late. I'm a big fan of Jim Ross from AEW, formerly of WW. And he's definitely like a hero of mine. And he, when I spoke to him one day and that was one of his first rules was, you know, don't ever be late because we're media, right? We should never be the last one walking in. We should never be the last one showing up to an interview.

there should never be a time where our subject has arrived prior to us. You know, we should be there. We should be prepared. They should show up. They should see us. If it's a one-on-one interview, you know, you should like. And that was that moment, I think, maybe that it clicked for me the most, where I realized, like, wow. Like, he's absolutely right.

What a, what a, like, really, really narcissistic move to want to interview somebody else, but then you show up late for that interview. So I think that was one of those moments that kind of changed me. I do think that, you know, with resolutions, they tend to be a bit more out of our control, which is why people can't necessarily keep them, right? Like, again, the being late thing, you know, it's in your control, but it's really not.

You can actively take a role in that, but sometimes, like you say, it's just your nature. I think that's the lie that we all believe is that we're just, I can't do anything about it. I was late. That's the way they can go. Yeah. We just play the victim card.

And, you know, you're just, of course I was late because the world decided that I had to be. Right. It wasn't my fault. It was someone else's. Right. But I think more importantly than ourselves, I didn't, I didn't, I made one resolution. Okay. And that resolution was for me personally about spending.

a little bit more time with people, right? And, you know, like valuing some of the opportunities we have to be together. I've had some friends move away. And, you know, it kind of makes you feel, you know, like in retrospect, you wish you had more time. It's like anything. I mean, honestly, at the very least, I get to still talk to these guys. We Skype.

We do podcasts together. We have fun. Wait, wait, hold up. You Skype? Oh, yeah. We're old people. We still Skype. The Skype is still around there?

Skype still exists. Don't worry. I promise you Skype has not gone anywhere. Okay. Oh, you kids with your Zoom, your fancy Zooms and your stream yards, whatever. We Skype. That's how we got to talk to each other back in the day. That's how I used to do podcast interviews with Skype.

That was the only way that I knew how to do it. It's a blatant lie. We don't even use Skype. I know we use Zoom, but I'm just saying it and defending it now. But yes, no, Skype was the way we did stuff. And, you know, but, uh, okay. again, it's, you know, unfortunately, it is a lot like, you know, when you lose someone permanently, right? You just, you wish you had that time back. So it's one of those situations where the one resolution I've kind of made to myself is to make that extra effort, even though you don't want to, right?

When your buddy calls you up and wants you to come out to a bar and you don't really feel like it and you make some sort of excuse, you tell them you got COVID and you can't, you'll see him next week or something. Yeah, don't do that. Like, just go see them. You never know what's going to happen. So spend more time with your loved ones, your family members, because, you know, essentially we get into this right now, especially with the pandemic, we get into this funk where we don't see people. And it's not exactly, you know, healthy at times for us to not be around people. So go count, go check on everybody. But nobody cares about our resolutions, Jesse. That's the honest truth. They want to know what resolutions we've come up with for the Arizona Diamond bags.

Yes. You're taking it upon ourselves. This is our job. We've taken upon ourselves. And I know for me personally, I hope that one of the first resolutions that Tori LeBullo has made this new year is that he'll stop tinkering with the lineup. That's what I want. That's sneer. He's so mad about it.

He's so mad about me saying that. I have to know the context of this. You know what his face is saying right there? His face is saying, I will not stop tinkering with the lineup. over my goddamn dead body, I'll stop tinkering with the lineup. Tori, stop tinkering with the lineup, okay? Maybe that's one of the pieces of advice

that the new coaches will bring to him. Maybe that's something like when he goes to pull that lineup card the next day, maybe Jeff Bannister puts a hand on his shoulder and says, now, Tori, we talked about this. You know, I don't know, but I would like to see less lineups. I would like to see less players used. Obviously, the Diamondbacks set of franchise record last year for the most players used in a season.

I understand that that's never, that's just never a good, I know. That's never a good record to set. No, no. The diamond, I mean, you're right. A lot of that is due to injury. So it is out of their control in many respects. But, but yeah, the diamond backs have kind of been known for this, right?

They have a reputation for, you know, being the team who will switch up, not only, you know, position in the batting order, but also defensive position day in, day out. It felt like Dalton Varsho played center field one day, right field the next day, catcher the next day. He actually did. You say it felt that way, but I'm pretty sure at one point during the season, he did that exact same thing.

I think he absolutely did. Yeah. And I think there's a good point to be made that especially for a guy like him, you really want to get him settled in to some sort of a routine where he's not, you know, showing up at the ballpark every day, you know, fielding balls at a different position than he was the day before. I think it's just good for, especially for young players who maybe aren't used to moving around that much to just give them that kind of stability. Do you have any, Jesse, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, as far as resolutions you would like to make for them?

Yeah. I think the Diamondbacks have a long ways to go in many respects for, for, for this upcoming season. I think a big thing. And again, you can make the this is out of their control argument. But, and this is frankly something that could probably be said for every single team in the majors. Every team wants to be better at this. But the Diamondbacks lost a lot of close games last year.

Just a lot, a lot of very close games. We mentioned it the other day. I think they lost more one-run games than any team since the 1935 Braves or something like that. Yeah. That was just disheartening, not just for the team, but for fans. I mean, it's, I don't know if there's anything worse than a one-run loss. And in many respects, I'd rather, I think a lot of fans would rather them get blown out. And, you know, you could turn off the game in the second inning, you know,

rather than staying there and watching the full three hours only to watch the wheels come off in the last 10 minutes. So I think just being better late in games, you know, staying focused and the bullpen. is obviously a huge part of that. I'm not necessarily accusing the Diamondbacks of, you know, losing focus or whatnot down the stretch. Obviously, their lineup and, you know, the guys that they were forced to play was was subpar throughout much of the season due to injuries.

But, I mean, you just can't lose as many close games as they did last year. So that's the first thing that comes to mind for me. I'm going to give you another one, Jesse. Okay. What do we got? I will not wear my pet's heads. on TikTok videos. That's the most important one, right?

Now, I feel like this goes without saying, right? But here we are, you know, having to remind ourselves that we will not wear our pets heads on TikTok videos. I just, I thought. Yeah, we shouldn't have, we shouldn't have to say that. I shouldn't have to say that. I shouldn't have to say that. I don't, I don't feel like, this is when a teacher says, like, I didn't think we needed to cover, you know, like, nobody you know yeah yeah i can really eat the hamster you know that kind of thing but like hey guys

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see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. I know, again, this probably should go, this kind of goes opposite of what, you know, what you normally do. You want to normally say, I'm not going to do things like this. Like, I'm going to refrain from being a socially bad person, someone who does things that people question,

somebody that regrets the decisions they make, right? Like getting drunk and jumping in your own swimming pool. but that's exactly the kind of resolution I want to see the Arizona Diamondbacks make. I want them this year to say that they're going to get drunk and jump in the pool with their clothes on more often. That's what I would like to see. That's what I want out of them, Jesse.

Like I know, again, that's the kind of thing. You say in the morning next morning, like I'm not going to do that more. But no, that's not what I want out of this situation. What I want also, but see, this is where it kind of gets a little interesting is I don't want their friends to do it. So don't let you. your friends get drunk and jump in the pool, but you guys get drunk and jump in the pool.

I hope that makes sense. I'm glad you specified with my clothes on. Well, no, yeah, I mean, be safe. Look, I'm, clothes on or, look, we are, we are a, this is a pants free zone, and we are judgment free of your clothes. The other day, I almost came on our audio podcast, not wearing a shirt. And Jesse told me that the show is clothing optional. So now that I know that.

You are audio only. I don't really think it matters. Yeah, I don't, I mean, yeah, you can say that. But people don't want, people, people, people don't want to listen knowing I'm naked, Jesse. That's not, that's not a comfortable factor for people, you know, like, I don't think that's going to, you know, move the fan base much. But that's, that's my resolution. You got any more before we go?

You have any serious ones? What are they really doing? What do we really want to see them stop doing? Yeah. I think, um, the diamondbacks have made. a lot of transactions recently that just have not really panned out for the team in a lot of ways. This was really apparent, really in both the article I wrote about trades and the article I wrote about free agency. Mike Hazen has had a pretty decent track record for each of them,

except for recently. That's really when things have started to nose dive. If you look at the last few free agents, the diamondbacks have signed, it's been pretty rough, right? Madison Bumgarner, that contract is kind of a disaster. Wachim Soria didn't pay. I mean, pan out Tyler Clipper didn't pan out right and even on the trade front right the Starling Marte deal one of the more recent things that they've done that that's kind of turned into a disaster as well so I think it's it's a resolution for Mike Hazen and I don't know exactly be a good GM right I mean it's hard to put it's hard to put this into words do good GM things good dude yeah do good GM things but but yeah I mean I just think I think Mark

Melanson was a great start for them. But just, you know, in this next couple months, hopefully when the lockout ends and, you know, the transaction field is open once again for this team, I would like to see the Diamondbacks do a couple of things. And I'd like to see those things pan out for a change, right? It's been a while since the Diamondbacks have really had success either in the trade market or in free agency consistently. And I think especially in free agency.

The Diamondbacks have just, they've just dished out so many two, three million dollar contracts. And, you know, you're not expecting to get much in those situations, but the Diamondbacks have gotten even less than that. They haven't even gotten the money's worth that they've paid. So I don't know what the takeaway is there. I mean, it's hard being a GM. So I don't want to, you know, make this sound like it's something that should be easy. But I would like to see that change for the team here this season. it's definitely not as easy as not wearing your pet's heads on TikTok videos anymore.

But yeah, yeah, falls kind of right in between jumping in the pool with your clothes on and not letting your friends jump. Because once you go, it's inevitable that your friends are going to follow you in the pool. So, yeah, that's right in between there. But yeah, I'm with you. It's easier said than done. We sit here and we blow hards, can talk all we want, whether we're fans or pundits on the show. We could talk about how the Arizona Diamondbacks need to do something, make some moves, make something happen, right? I think there's far more that goes into it.

I think there's a much bigger game plan that potentially is even a longer timeline that we consider, right? I think we tend to think about sports teams having a, you know, four or five year timeline. But in some cases, they might be looking even further down the road as far as when this team can expect to be, you know, competitive again, when they can expect to be. be financially, you know, solid and in a good place again. There's a lot of things up in the air. I still, I still can't help to think, especially during this time of fan attrition about Tori Laval, or not Tori LaValle, but Jerry Colangelo's philosophy on this team early on, right?

And that is, unfortunately, that this town will support you, but they will only support you if you win, right? Yeah. And you can say that about other cities, but other cities, but other cities, even when their teams are bad, still come out and support them. They still come out at least to yell at them from the stands and boo them. Yeah, yeah, they might be booing, but they'll be there. Yeah.

The one thing about Diamondbacks fans, when it comes to the Diamondbacks being bad, is it's worse than that. It's, it's lethargy. It's not caring at all about what that the, oh, baseball is happening. Yeah. You know, I get that. I got that a lot last season, by the way. I got a lot of like, oh, really?

What's going on with them? Are they any good this year? You're still covering that baseball team? Are they in the season? Yeah. Got a lot of that last season. And that's, again, that could potentially be worse than a lot of things. Brett, Robert York wants to know where the churro dog at, though.

And you know what? He's not wrong. I want a churro dog right now just talking about it. Since we're talking churot dog, I'm going to give you guys this. All right. Here's my pro tip. If you go to the ballpark and you get a churot dog, immediately remove the churro. from the equation. Take it out,

separate it from the ice cream and the donut and stuff. Hot churros and cold ice cream do not mix. I don't care how much you want to make it a thing. Hot churros and cold ice cream don't mix. It melts the ice cream, makes it melt, ice cream hot, melty. Nobody wants that.

It makes your churro cold because the ice cream's cold. Nobody wants that either. It's all hard and stuff. Remove it from the equation. The minute you get it, then go to your seat, eat your bowl of ice cream and your churots, two separate things. don't leave them together. So are you... That's the best piece of advice I can give you.

Ah, interesting. Do you also... Are you also opposed to like an ice cream with like a hot brownie situation? No, no, Jesse, I'm not. I'm not against the Pizuki. I'm not against any of those things. Yeah, yeah. The problem is...

What we're talking about is we are talking about at a baseball game. How long does it take you to get back to your seat at a baseball game, get settled in and start eating your churot dog. Not to mention if you're actually watching that event, how much are you going to actually eat that dog while you're watching the sporting event? It is not a culinary item that is meant to be sat with for a long period of time.

It has a shelf life of four, maybe five minutes tops. Chances are it's going to be expired before you even get back to your seat if you don't do something about that ticking time bomb that is a hot churro in the middle of your Sunday. Okay? Again, I give you all stories. of advice, right? Relationship advice? Here's my best piece of advice. Did you lose that person? Yes.

Did losing them feel like you lost your arm or did it feel like you lost your keys? Those are two completely different losses. One changes your life forever and one's a minor inconvenience. If you break up with someone. Is losing your keys really a minor inconvenience, Derek? See, look at you. That's how people would say it is a minor inconvenience. Jesse. Oh, you got to pay to order some new keys and you got to go, where am I, I don't have a master, where am I going to get a new house key from? It doesn't matter. Eventually, within a month, you'll have solved all of those issues.

But with a missing arm, you have to learn to live your life differently. So if you ever break up with someone, I want you to ask yourself that question. It's breaking up with a, that's my only other piece of advice. It's that and the churro dog thing. These are the only two good piece of advice I have for any human beings out there. I just gave you both on the same podcast. A podcast. even need to give you those. I could have made a whole episode around that.

What are we going to talk about tomorrow now, Derek? You're fresh out of advice. I have no idea. That's all I had. That's it. The barrel is empty. What we're talking about is if people followed through on their resolutions. I want to know how many people broke their resolutions before the first week of the year was over. But if your resolution. January 4th, we're, we're well into it now, Derek. Yeah. I think I said I wasn't going to yell more. And I was going to be more on time and I broke both of those in this episode because I almost missed this podcast with being late, Jesse. I don't know what's wrong with me. Can't do any of that stuff. But if your New Year's resolution was to look good and feel better in 2022, forget the gym, forget the crazy diet,

go out and get yourself some new PHNX gear. Rep those teams and, you know, obviously rep us, your member of our family, show it. Head to the PHNX Locker.com and pick up any sticker pack for just $5 or grab any t-shirt for just $29.99. and be the envy of all of your friends on your block. Again, if you didn't get yourself enough good Christmas presents this year, you know, get yourself one more. Brett Johnson, by the way, before we go, says they took away the $4 value beers. Why even go watch a 50 plus win team at that point?

No shit, Brett. Robert York says his resolution was to break his resolution without any shame. And I hope you did it, sir. I hope you did it. Cheers to you. Hats off to you. You're going to have a great 2020. too, Rob. Yeah, hell yeah. That's how you kick it off. You kick it off right away, breaking it, being happy about yourself, knowing you, you accomplish your goals and now you can move on and set new ones this year. But we hope you guys all enjoyed the show. Of course, you get us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K on there. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore DVax. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX sports, underscore sports, excuse me. And that is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And that name, again, was PHNX underscore.

sports. Send us your review. Send us a five-star review. We'd appreciate that. And again, if you don't think we're worthy of five stars, then just DM me and let's talk about it. We'll figure this thing out together. We'll formulate a game plan on how Jesse and I can get to five stars for you. But leave us a review. Sign up on your favorite audio podcasting app. And make sure to go over to YouTube and subscribe there as well, sign up for notification. So you don't miss any of our Arizona sports content coming out of PHMX. We appreciate you guys so much for sticking in with us. We hope you all break your resolutions on behalf of Jesse and myself.

We hope you all have a wonderful 2022. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you set resolutions for teams that have no control over what we're telling them they have to do.