PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Finalize Coaching Staff

Episode Date: December 1, 2021

On this episode, Jesse and Derek discuss who the D-backs chose to non-tender, the final hires for Lovullo's coaching staff, and more! 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, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX, and this is my inexplicable mustache. This show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app right now, and simply for betting $1 on any team in the NFL to score, you will get $100 in free bet, should they score any points at all. Of course, I am joined by my vice mayor, my friend, my co-host, Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, how is life? Well, looking at that mustache of yours, it's hard to give a straight answer.

Now, yeah, see? Now, you know what I got to do with over here. I feel better because now our audience can share this with me. Whereas before, when we were doing audio podcasts, it was just me having to stare at your ridiculous mustache the entire show. And there wasn't anyone about, there wasn't anyone. with me to, I don't know, to share in the lament of what's happening on your face right now. I get it.

I get it. Misery loves company and I too love to drag people down when I have to deal with situations that I don't want to deal with. So I understand where you're coming from. I am happy that people get to see this Tom Selleck bad boy right here. And again, I did it for the month of November. So trying to spread a little bit awareness for, you know, cancer and trying to do good things. while also looking this ridiculous.

So I appreciate your take on it, and I appreciate everybody tuning in. Obviously, it's coming down to the wire. We have information recently posted that the Players Association and the owners are getting back to negotiations. They are trying. I'm not going to say they're hardest.

We know they're not trying their hardest, but they're giving it a shot to get this thing figured out and avoid the lockout that is looming now about 24 hours away at this point. But we have a lot of Arizona Diamondbacks news to talk about. We got some information. We got some news in right before the wire, actually, some breaking news from Nick Bacoro over at AZ Central. He tweeted out, first baseman Christian Walker was viewed as a possible non-tender,

but the Diamondbacks have tendered him a contract according to a source. Taylor Clark, who was eligible as a Super 2 by just four days service time, is the club's only non-tender. This is really interesting. I think a lot of people probably saw it the other way around, if anything. Taylor Clark, like you mentioned, he normally wouldn't have been up for arbitration this season. It all came down to where the Super 2 threshold was set. And for those of you who don't know what Super 2 is, Super 2 is basically the this program built into the current CBA that allows players to qualify for arbitration a year earlier.

So they are able to get four years of arbitration in total rather than the usual three years. And it goes to the guys who've logged the most service time. And so they basically set a threshold somewhere that was announced like yesterday or the day before. And as you said, Taylor Clark just barely cleared that threshold. So Taylor Clark wasn't necessarily viewed as a guy who would, you know, who would be a candidate for arbitration in the first place. But because of where that threshold was set, Taylor Clark winds up qualifying for arbitration. And the diamond backs have decided to move on. And it's interesting.

I mean, Taylor Clark is not, I mean, let's not kid ourselves. He hasn't been great for the team. There hasn't been a whole lot he's done that is, you know, really, really caused us to be a whole lot impressed, you know, over his short stint here. But, you know, he was one of the team's better pitching prospects there a few years ago. And he came up, you know, he's done a decent job filling in time as a starter. He was moved to the bullpen where he throws like 97 or 98 miles an hour with a decent slider. The stuff is the stuff is not too bad.

He doesn't walk that many guys. But at the end of the day, Taylor Clark's ceiling is pretty low, right? He's going to be kind of a just okay type of pitcher. and I think the Diamondbacks are committed to trying to move things forward in the bullpen this year. And, you know, if Taylor Clark is going to be in arbitration and maybe get a little bit more money than the team expected, you know, maybe they have the ability to go out and find someone else that they think can do better. In 78 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Taylor Clark had a 4.99 ERA. He had 20 starts and had a record of nine and eight in those 20 starts.

So like you said, nothing, not terrible, but nothing that that really moves the needle. And a consistent ERA over those three seasons here that hovered around, you know, five to four and a half. So again, not, not, not anything that fluctuated. So I wouldn't be surprised for him to go somewhere else and see his ERA drop to point nine, seven. And him win a sign on, you know, we just expected at this point. But I will. Why are we so jaded, Jesse?

Why are we so jaded? Because Robbie Ray's just, just won the Sy Young Award and also just signed for $23 million. Yeah, $23 million a year. I want to talk about Christian Walker real quick. He's probably the bigger surprise here. Christian Walker, I think in the minds of a lot of fans, I mean, you've got Pavin Smith here, right? Paven Smith is, you know, plays a solid first base and has some flexibility for the outfield corners that Christian Walker doesn't have.

And Christian Walker's numbers last year just really weren't that impressive, right? And if you're limited to playing first base, which granted, Christian Walker is a really good defensive first baseman. And I have to believe, Derek, that's probably the reason this happened, is the Diamondbacks, as we talked about before, were a horrible defensive team in, in 2021. And a big part of that was that they had all these guys moving around all over. the place playing positions that they weren't really qualified to play and christian walker was one of the few guys they had who plays one position and plays that position really well and there's something

to be said for having a guy you know who can who can be in the gold glove conversation we've seen him there before um and if he figures things out with the bat which we know he could right 2019 and 2020 he was one of the team's better offensive players if he's able to figure some things out and hopefully get healthy. I know we've heard that maybe that was an issue for him this last year that he never really felt himself even when he was on the when he was on the field. You know, there's a chance you could see Christian Walker come out this year and, you know, get back to an 800, 850 OPS and also play a really solid defensive first base that we know he can. Here's the thing, though, Jesse. And here's the thing about Christian Walker. Even with the bad season,

he really didn't hit that much lower than he normally does aside from his OPS. right and he didn't even hit 850 his highest OPS has been you know well there was one ridiculous season that he didn't have that many of bats but 825 in 2019 but still a 259 batting average this season 244 696 OPS so that dropped he didn't walk as much but he didn't strike out as much in 2019 either believe it or night he struck out more in 2019 than he did in 2021 so there's some improvement and there's definitely the fact that he is inexpensive and is probably not going to command a big salary. He's been with this team now five seasons.

He probably feels comfortable here, and it's probably easier just to keep him on, even if he's relegated to more of a backup status or sharing time at first base status, even if healthy, right? It's not to say that Christian Walker isn't a good baseball player. It's just to say that he might not necessarily be the future first baseman for this team. With that base, with that, you know, position being, kind of a critical position sometimes for young stars to come up and play,

it would just be beneficial for them to look at him more like that going forward than the everyday starting first baseman. Yeah. I don't know if that's cruel to say that. I don't mean to downplay him. I think Christian Walker, again, even though we talk about 21 being a bad season for him, it's kind of what he's done. I mean, his time in Baltimore, he didn't break 200 as a batting average, you know?

So we're talking about a guy that's, It's been between 250 and 271, you know, and I wouldn't really count 2020 as even a real season that existed. So, I mean, he's, he's pretty much hitting right around where he's, where he's been in his career. This is no surprise. The thing about Christian Walker is he's not going to cost you what some guys that put up his numbers do.

If he can get his power back up to where it was in 2019 and hit, you know, close to 30 home runs or even over 30 home runs, then, you know, he can. once again probably be seen as a as a deal for this team for them to tender him a contract right the issue with christian walker is the power right i mean yeah the power is gone right now yeah the power is really going to be his calling card and so yeah you're right it's not about you know whether he's 240 250 260 whatever the batting average is that might not fluctuate very much the problem is you can't have a first baseman that slugs under 400 you just can't right i mean it's just not. If a guy plays first base, great point, right? Like, if a guy plays first base,

in order for your bat to play there, you have a higher offensive expectation than a guy who plays shortstop, right? Like Nick Ahmed can get by at shortstop because of what he does defensively at a premium position. Absolutely. Even though Christian Walker is a great first baseman, the bar is just much higher offensively. And, and, you know, a 370 slugging percentage, whatever it was last year, that's just not going to cut it. So, but I think you're right that there's some upside here based on what he did in the past. And the last thing the Diamondbacks fans want to see at this point is another guy, leave the Diamondbacks for nothing, which is what a non-tender would be,

and then go to another team and rediscover, you know, his previous form. And we've, we've seen that too many times here. And Christian Walker is, is a guy you could envision that happening for, right? I mean, 2019, 2020, he was consistent. He was solid. And I don't think Diamondbacks fans want to see him go somewhere else and bring that to another organization. Don't forget, Jesse. The Mather effect. All right. Let's see what Joe Mather can do. Before you give up on any guys offensively at this point, let's just see what Joe Mather can do.

I'm not saying that any of these coaches that they've hired are miracle workers, right? What I'm saying is they have a tremendous amount of experience at coaching guys and being successful at improving their players, right? Brent Strom, Joe Mather, Jeff Bannister, hell, who's going to just be the bench coach, right? All of these guys have a proven track record at improving young players. And in some cases, in Bannister's case, in Strom's case, literally creating some of the biggest superstars in baseball or being a part of their career path as they made it to the major leagues. I don't downplay their impact on this team as much as they do. I know they're humble. I know they have humility.

I know they need to say that it was all the players that did it. And none of them. I don't, bullshit. I don't believe it one bit. These are great coaches and I'm excited to have them. And if I was Tori Lovalo, he said today in his press conference about the new coaches,

which we're going to talk about here in a moment, that, you know, in his wildest dreams, this is what he would get. This is what he wanted, but didn't think he was actually going to get. The result is that he got his,

dream team of coaches. There's really no excuse with the amount of input and experience that he's brought on to this staff for this team not to improve. And honestly, in my opinion, improve pretty drastically, right? Maybe 30 games is a bit much, but I would expect to see a 15 to 20 game improvement at the very least of this team in 2022. That might be asking a lot, but I really think that that could be the turnaround we see after one season. Right. Yeah. Well, on a side note, it looks like Mac Huff is helping us out here with some news from

John Heyman. John Heyman has just tweeted that CBA talks are going nowhere. No, Mac. No. Yeah. We knew that was coming. Yeah. That's no surprise.

I just think it's funny that like the last couple days, the baseball news cycle is 100% free agency. Right. Like no one's even talking about the collective. bargaining agreement because at this point, it's almost like there isn't that much of a rush because we all know that this isn't realistically going to happen in the next 24 hours. And so I feel like right now, you know, the Players Association and the league, the owners, they enjoyed their long Thanksgiving weekend, right? They probably weren't too, you know, too on edge about getting these negotiations

underway because we all kind of know what's going to happen, right? this isn't going to come down, you know, in the next 24 hours. Oh, gosh. I want to, I want to. I'm sorry, Phoenix Reiser. I want to burn this comment. I want to burn it to the ground. But I had to put it up there.

But yeah, no, I mean, here's the thing. Okay. Tori Lavallo sounded very positive, but I think he asked you. He did. He did. He's also in Paris right now. Yeah, he's in Paris. So how hard is why.

Yeah. He's having a great time right now. So he absolutely doesn't care about what's going on with CBA negotiations. He has no part in that, but he did sound hopeful that this deal is going to get done soon, probably not by December 1st, probably not before we have an official lockout, but hopefully that the deal will still get done soon. So I think he's a lot more hopeful than you and I are, but I think we also think that this won't be too extended because of winter meetings, the critical nature of making sure that the season isn't delayed, all sorts of other

reasons. I think there's going to be pressure on both sides to get this deal done sooner than later, just not before there's a lockout. So interestingly enough, the debacks did get all of their hires done for Tori Lovolo's coaching staff prior to whatever happens with the end of the labor deal. But before we talk about that, I just want to remind everybody that our code over at the Drafking Sportsbook app, of course, is PHNX. And you know what? We want you to go over there because the Drafking Sportsbook right now is doing some pretty great things. Not only can you get $100 in free bets for using our code and betting just $1 on any team to score any points at all. But we also got all sorts of offers for same game parlays, multiple game parlays, even multiple

sports parlay. You get your same game parlay and you can add. more legs for a bigger payout. And of course, there's just the fun of setting up a same game parlay. I have become a maniac when it comes to same game parley's. Jesse, of course, I am Mr. Parley, but now I need to find a new better nickname. I'm not going to, I mean, yeah, you can say Mr. Perfect, Mr. Parley. Big Papa Parley, I'd still lose sleep at night over how good. Here we go again.

Yeah, look at this mustache, Jesse. I'm assimilating and I'm slowly becoming Patrick Lyons from the DNVR Rockies podcast. Hey man, if you grow Patrick Lyons there, then I am fully on board. I would be so lucky. You can grow however ridiculous of my stack you want, Derek. Just get that man's hair and you'll be, you'll be all right. I'll tell you this, I'll tell you this though, Jesse. I stay away from scores who's going to win.

I just, I just, I don't believe in people. That's what I do in my same game barlays. I just bet unders on rushing yards because I don't think the rushing yard. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think point. are going to happen. I don't think quarterbacks are going to reach 300 yards. I am a pessimist when I watch football. And so far, it's worked out for me. So you can do whatever you want, though, in the Draft King Sportsbook app. It's safe, secure, and reliable. Best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your cash whenever you want. And you can do whatever you want with your same game

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And Jesse, let's talk about those coaches that the devax hired, shall we? The debacks have hired quite a few coaches just to round out their staff, and they did something that was a little interesting. They have their coaches that they have hired to round out Lovolo's staff are assigned to a hybrid major league, minor league role. Aside from Damien Easley, former Arizona Diamondback, who spent 10 seasons in the San Diego Padres system, including the last three on the major league staff as a hitting coach and as an infield assistant

hitting coach. So again, a lot of experience coming over in an assistant major league hitting coach role from Damien Easley. Yeah, this is a cool, you know, an interesting move here by the Diamondbacks, just their approach to this entire situation, right? I mean, just going through all the different titles of the coaches they hired today, Derek, they're all kind of a mouthful because they're all they all have like 17 different roles. Right, right.

Well, okay, so Drew Headman and Rick Short that were the interim hitting coaches for the team after they let go of D.C. and Erickinsky, they are back in a hitting coach role. They will be assistant major league hitting coach and director of minor league hitting. That'll be Drew Headman. Rick Short will be assistant major league hitting coach, assistant minor league hitting coach, assistant minor league hitting coordinator. And then the same thing with Dan Carlson and Barry Enright, whose name you might recognize. Yeah, yeah. They will both be, uh, they will both be assistant major league pitching coaches. Carlson will serve as the minor league pitching coordinator.

Enright will serve as the minor league pitching coordinator as well. So, uh, yeah, like you said, a mouthful on those roles and a hybrid system where these coaches are going to be involved in the development of these players, both at a major league and a minor league level. Something I really dig, Jesse, because, again, like we were talking about yesterday with the lack of moves and the lack of free agent frenzy on the debacks part, I like that they're sticking to a plan and assigning these coordinator slash assistant, you know, coach roles seemed to help bridge that gap for young players from coming up from the minor league system to to the majors, which we're going to hopefully see a lot of next season.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's also interesting that Damien Easley, correct me if I'm wrong here, Derek. I think Damien Easley is the only higher of this group that is coming outside the organization, right? All of these guys have already been in the Diamondbacks organization at some capacity. Correct. Damien easily brings his experience over from the Padres.

Like we said, headman and short, both have been in the system before. they were elevated to the interim hitting coach role last season just due to letting go of the current hitting coaches. Dan Carlson was, joins the staff after 20 seasons in the D-BACS organization in the last eight as the club's minor league pitching coordinator from 2014 to 2021. He even made two relief pitching appearances with Arizona back in 1999. And then Barry Enright served as a pitching coach in the D-BAC system, the last three. seasons at Hillsboro, single A, Kane County, and low A Vassalia, before his

addition to the major league staff. And Enright started 24 games for Arizona from 2010 to 2011 after being selected by the debacks in the 2007 MLB draft. He was pretty good when he first came up. I remember, I remember being excited about Barry Enright for

a while there. Unfortunately, his career didn't quite pan out the way that maybe we were expecting it to. But yeah, no, it's really interesting the way the diamond backs have have gone about this. They started out with, you know, these headliner hires in terms of, you know, the guys at the top for each of these different roles. So their head pitching coach, you know, Brent Strom, this sort of legend out of the Houston organization, Joe Mather, you know, the hitting coach out of Cincinnati, who also

had a great reputation. And the guys that they're putting under them are actually guys who have actually been here for a while, for the most part, with the exception of Damien Easel. So I think it's interesting how they're kind of balancing those two things, right? The guys working underneath these coaches are guys who've been here for a while. And I think that's interesting because they probably gave and Tori talked about this today in the press conference. They absolutely involved Joe Mather and Brent Strom in the process of picking out which coaches they wanted to work underneath them. Yeah. And the coaches they wound up with were guys that were already here in the organization.

And so, you know, maybe this is Brent Strom and Joe Mather saying, you know, we want to work with guys who've already been here for a while and already know a lot of things about these pitchers and these hitters, right? Maybe that played into this. But yeah, I think these are all, this is just sort of the icing on the cake, right? I mean, once you get Brent Strom and Joe Mather and Jeff Bannister, I mean, the guys, the Diamondbacks have brought in are exceptional, right? I mean, we've talked at length about how excited. we are about this coaching staff. And at this point, it's, it's just interesting to me that they actually kind of played this by the book a little bit. And they stuck with a lot of guys who were already here in the organization to work underneath those guys. Absolutely. And with the kind of mass hiring today during the press conference, I actually asked Tori

LeVolo if there was any sense of urgency to hiring these coaches or getting his, his coaching staff finalized before the potential lockout, just, you know, before you have that potential gap in being able to hire or do any any kind of baseball moves. And he actually had an interesting answer where it didn't sound like it was impacted by that. Yeah, I know that that dates looming, right? And I know that both sides are working as hard as they can to make something positive happen. But no, not for me, not for me. And that that's that's a totally honest answer. I felt like I wanted once we once we got the head the head pitching coach and hitting coach in place I I want to take my time with the next layer of guys and I

think Brent did too and I think Joe did as well so you know we we we didn't we didn't have December 1st on our mind at all and if it took us a little bit longer we would have we would have done what we could to get the right guys and that was the most important thing. And see, I, I believe that. I feel like that they kind of took maybe a little bit longer than I even expected them to get his role, his pitching.

It's been a little while. He has coaching staff, right? They said that they were going to try to get after it pretty quickly and make some decisions, you know, fairly quickly after the end of the season. Obviously, with Strom and some of the other additions, they had to wait until the playoffs were were over and even the World Series concluded in Strom's case. So I'm glad that they were patient because they were able to put together an exceptional staff, I feel like, for Tori Lobolo.

Now I'm just actually excited once again to see how they can shape these guys. There's there is so much emphasis that we have put on how they are going to impact like the young players that aren't even here yet, right? like Luis Friess and, you know, Alec Thomas and guys like that that we could see next season. What I'm actually now starting to wonder more about is how these guys are going to impact the current players on the team. The Cattel Martes, the guys are already stars, you know. Carson Kelly's name was brought up a bit in free agency news that he might be available to be traded for, that he might be on the market.

But I still believe strongly in Carson Kelly, and he's a guy. I would love to stick around and see what he can do next season under, you know, just different coaching. And especially with the way that they had the, you know, catcher coach running, everything kind of set up with the coaches last season. It's going to be interesting to see how it impacts things differently this season. It feels a little bit more straightforward and not, you know, so many different responsibilities being shared by one person. in some cases for Lavello's staff last season. I just, I have a new hope, Jesse. I have a new hope.

And it's weird because normally you get this kind of hope because of the free agency additions that your team makes during especially a time like this where things are going insane. What the Rangers did yesterday, and they're half a billion dollars invested, is wild. And I don't know how I would feel about that because I am excited merely about coaches being added to this

team. So I can only imagine how I, you're not excited about Jordan Looplow, Derek. Stop it. All right. But hey, you could get Jesse's article on Jordan Looplo, as well as some stuff I'm going to be putting up about these new coaches over at go phnx.com. So go sign up, become a member. I don't want to rub it in your faces if you missed out on the deal, but there was a pretty good deal. I hope you guys got in on it for the annual membership. You will still get a free t-shirt over at the pHNX Locker.com. And there was some good deals over there. I don't want to tell you about that either. if you missed out on those. Again, I feel like I'm rubbing all of this in your face if you're listening to this after all

of these deals were gone. But you know what? Stick around. Maybe those deals will come back. Maybe there'll be some new deals. We'll see what happens. Members get some fantastic deals all the time. Buy one, get one free, all sorts of stuff.

So become a member, sign up. You can become part of our members-only Discord as well as all these free offers and all this other stuff I'm talking about. There's great content on the website. We hope you guys check it out and enjoy what we're writing, what everybody's doing. because we are trying to do our best to bring you something different and do it with love. Most importantly, we do it with love. So become a member of the PHNX family.

We'd love to have you here. And when I say with love, I mean, even when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks, there are times where our press conferences go from, you know, obviously informational Q&As to us just having kind of a big, like almost a holiday Zoom party. Like Jesse brought up, Tori Lavolo was in France with. this family having what I imagine is an absolutely lovely time. I hope you guys all had a wonderful Thanksgiving because I know I did. I really really had a great time, Jesse. I know you came down here. And I know you had a lot of responsibilities. So I hope you still had a good time, despite all of

all of your responsibilities. That's good. It was a busy weekend, but I had fun. It was all right. It was sunny and 77 degrees. That's right. That's Phoenix. It's always, forget Philadelphia. It's always sunny in Phoenix. It's always sunny in Phoenix. It was a beautiful time. We ate out. outside and had a lovely dinner. But before the press conference wrapped up today, there was an interesting moment. There was an interesting moment. Now, our pal, Jack Summers,

from the AZ Snake Pit, he is one of my favorite individuals to hang out with at baseball games. Jack and I met a few years ago. We take walks together around Chase Field before the game starts. We've had lots of different discussions about family and politics

and all sorts of stuff. Jack's one of my favorite people to chat with. He just knows a lot stuff about a lot of stuff. He absolutely. He's just one of those people. You can ask him about anything and Jack Summers will have an informed answer. He absolutely will. He's one of the smartest people I know. And Jack spent some time overseas in Asia. He did some work with footwear company. And while, you know, while he was there, he was kind of, as he described it to me, kind of like a go between between the states and the supplier in Asia. So Jack is very fluent in in Chinese, Mandarin, other languages and stuff like that. So at the end of the press conference today, Toy Lavello asked our pal

Jack to speak to his daughter, who also is extremely fluent in Chinese. And I needed to show everybody this moment because it was just a wonderful moment. Hang on, you got to say it a little bit louder. This is good. This is good. I don't know why in the world this gentleman speaks Chinese, but he does. But go ahead. Thank you. My name's what name? My name's my Myo-Saelian.

You know, I call Suoiozeng. Ah, you said very Oh my God, this is unbelievable. I have no idea what they said, but it was just an incredible moment. I think maybe that was an act. Like maybe they were just speaking gibberish. Yeah. We're just too naive to know the difference.

See. I like, you see, I like your, you're like me. When you don't know something, you just refuse to acknowledge it and you just want to blame it on or say they're just making things up. I love it. Yeah. It was, it's honestly, I'll say this about being part of like the beat writers for the debacks.

We have moments like this all the time and it's always kind of special. It's, it's, again, just a little window into why at times I say Tori Lobolo is one of the greatest people I've ever worked with in sports. I've had a chance to cover other sports. Other things are difficult. A lot of times we keep things very professional. And there's just a different feeling with not only the Diamondbacks media staff that we interact with, but even with Tori. And I thought this was a real special moment.

Also, I completely understand why Tori doesn't really care about CBA negotiations or labor deals or anything right now. Again, he is in France having an absolutely lovely time. And I wouldn't care about this stuff either. I am glad that for the sake of his vacation and having this good time that he did get his, you know, coaching staff stuff all concluded. You know, it's like all his homework is done and he can now enjoy his weekend. And I'm very happy. That was the real deadline, right?

I guarantee you that was really a. He didn't have the CBA deadline circled on his calendar. He had the, he had the France trip circled on his calendar. We got to wrap this up by then. He's a smart man. He knows how to plan. And I'll tell you this much, that's the, you know, there's one thing we always said about Tori Lavello, right?

Even if he's cautious, he knows to plan for the future and give guys the certain number of days off that they need in order to reach the final goal. And in his mind, his final goal maybe was this vacation. And he gave them the deadline of reaching, you know, a few days before it. But I'm sure it probably coordinated a bit with this entire lockout thing happening. Because, again, these, you know, coaches like Tori Lavello, they have nothing to do. with this entire situation, right? So many of them can't do anything until the labor deal is figured out,

negotiated by other people. The winter meetings could be impacted are probably going to be impacted because they are supposed to take place at the end of this week. Did you book your hotel yet, Derek? You got your plans lined up for the- I want to address that. I want to address that. I would appreciate if the MLB stopped emailing me about non-refundable reservation.

for a winter meeting that both you and me know are not going to happen. So please stop. Is our reservations really non-refundable? I don't know. I'm just guessing that because everything I do lately is non-refundable. I bought American airline tickets today and I immediately realized, Jesse, that I booked them for the wrong weekend. Despite my friends telling me the exact dates I was supposed to book. I think within 24 hours, most airlines you can cancel.

Without a fee, right? Well, you're able to change it at least and I was able to change it. change it. But, you know, again, still no moves in free agency from the debacks. And I guess in National League West News, the Rockies have been rumored to have some interest in Chris Bryant. Also, rumored to possibly be resigning Trevor Story. They lost John Gray, but Trevor's story back in Colorado. What a site that would be. Here's the thing. I wouldn't be surprised if Trevor's story right now isn't commanding the kind of, you know, salary or financial demands that he wants and, you know, maybe thinks that a short-term deal back in Colorado

could allow him to get back on track and maybe, you know, then hit the free agency market. Who knows, but. Yeah. I feel like it would have to be short-term. I don't know why Trevor Story would go back and sign his big deal with the Rockies. It just doesn't. I mean, after what they put him through last season with like kind of making it seem like he was going to be traded and then not trading him and having him just bizarrely finish out

the season, you know, on this team that wasn't really going anywhere and knew it wasn't going anywhere at the trade deadline. It was a really weird situation for them. But I think you're right. I could totally see Trevor's story being like, you know what? I know what I'm worth. I know what I'm worth after I perform the way that I know I can. And Trevor's story didn't perform that way this past season. And we've seen guys take this approach in the past where they bet on themselves. So like, hey, give me, you know, give me one year, give me two years. or give me a longer term deal that has an opt out in it pretty early on so that I have an opportunity to go out and get the money that I think I can make.

That's, yeah, well said. Well said. Hopefully that happens for him. I know Rocky's fans are definitely. We don't really want Trevor's story back in the NOS because he kind of rakes at Chase Field. He really does. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. Trevor's story, I believe his major league debut was the game against Zach Granky.

It was Zach Ranky's first ever start in a Diamondbacks uniform. And Trevor Story homered in that game. And yeah, oh, everyone was stoked to be there. But that thing got on. More than once, right? Didn't he, didn't he homer twice in that game? I think he, I think he did. I think he did Homer twice in that game.

So we're all right if Trevor's story winds up out of the NOS. My wants and needs when it comes to free agency are very selfish. They're all NLS focused. And all I want is all of these guys out of here and to do anything we can to start getting this timeline to match up with the debacks timeline, right? We're seeing the Dodgers start to lose guys big pieces due to free agency because they cannot hold all of these guys on one team and afford to, to keep them all, right? Well, you probably could afford it.

They're just choosing not to. Yeah. Could. For the Dodgers is kind of a relative to turn. One thing I will say is that people don't realize this. The Dodgers have to pay a lot more for free agents. because they're over the luxury tax limit. Correct.

And so they pay a significant tax on anything that they spend above $210 million, which they're already over, right? So you have to take into account, like for them, putting Corey Seeger to a big contract is a lot more money than you think it is. Correct. It's a lot more money for another team even if they paid the same amount, right? There's going to be that additional luxury tax amount.

So like I said, I'm just happy to finally see it happen, right? It's there, there had to be a point eventually like a tipping point where a team like the Dodgers couldn't just keep spending and spending and spending and bringing in Max Scherzer and keeping Tray Turner and keeping Corey Seeger and keeping this guy and keeping that guy. Yeah. Like there, there had to be a point where some of these guys were going to start leaving and, you know, doing what Jock Peterson did to them in the, you know, playoffs where he really makes them sorry that he's gone rocking that pearl necklace. But we thank you guys for joining us. Of course, we want to remind you to go check out the go-PHNX. sign up to become a member, either an annual member where you'll get that $60 or, oh, I'm sorry, again, sorry, that's gone. Oh, Derek, you just keep loving it in their faces. I know, I'm not trying to do it. I'm not trying to do it. You will get a free t-shirt over at p.nx locker.com.

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We appreciate you listening. We appreciate your comments, tuning in, even if it's just to say that the CDA talks are going nowhere. Or to say that the debacks need to extend Yasmani Tomah. Yeah, yeah, that too. Although maybe you can keep your thoughts to yourself. We love the interaction. Not everything has to be commented on.

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