PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Derek was also wrong

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

On this episode, we celebrate how wrong Derek was about when the lockout would end, why the Competitive Balance Tax works so well for the D-backs, and yet another MLB great announces his retirement. 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.

I don't like that one bit. Oh, this is glorious. I don't like that one. I've been waiting for this day for so long. Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the P. HNX.D. Backs podcast, probably the worst episode I've ever taken part of. I, of course, am your mayor, a mayor of wrongness, Derek Montia. And I am joined by my vice mayor of wrongness, my co-host and friend, the one and only Jesse Friedman, who was also wrong, by the way.

I know I said on recent shows that I really wanted you to be right, Derek, but I've just decided to embrace it, the fact that you're wrong, dead wrong, February 14th, lockout is still going. Let's just put it up. There is.

Here we are. Yeah. Here we are. For the record, so the eyes in yours are definitely not great, right? You do look very sad. But the ones in mine were just flat out skit,

like that, like that is, that is just seriously off putting right. yours just looks somber right but i look like i'm just i don't know like i've just completely gone off the that's a man that's the look of a man that's been wrong before jesse and uh before we get too deep into this of course i want to let you all know that this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the draft king sports book nfl is over and nba is king for now until hopefully baseball emerges like like the groundhog looking for its shadow uh but in the

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They also have some great options for a $10 free bet should you lose your money tonight. So maybe tonight's a good night for you to go put that $1 on any team to win and bet it on the suns. Anyway, yeah, we're here. We're doing this thing. I'm wrong. I was wrong. And MLB made us all look like fools, of course. You know, you and I both, and of course our friend Charles Woodall Pike says,

glorious and thank you. Yeah. Our pictures are great. I am sad to be wrong, Jesse, and I'm not just sad to be wrong because I obviously I don't like being wrong, but I'm used to it. I'm a seasoned veteran when it comes to being wrong. Well, I mean, you're married, so I mean, it's pretty, you know

how it is, right? Well, it's not even, we, that's, that's, that's just the surface level. I'm married with a daughter who's 10 years old and thinks she knows everything. So even when I'm not wrong, I'm still wrong somehow. But I'm sad to be wrong about this, Jesse. I'm sad to be wrong about baseball not resolving this issue. I'm sad that this is the day that I would be. I'm getting all these memories on my Facebook five, six years ago

when I used to take a bunch of photographs out at Salt River Fields. Oh, it's all right. It's killing me. Makes me miss baseball more than anything. I'm getting excited about looking at Bronson Royo throwing a fastball and stuff. And that's not great memories, but at least the picture. That was no fastball, Derek. That was no fastball.

But I think he threw about 85, 86 by the time he got to the Diamondbacks. It was really, it was a wonder that man was still a major league pitcher at that stage. You are not lying. But it doesn't surprise me when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks. They probably would be one of the teams or one of the owners, one of the franchises that are in favor of what. but MLB is trying to negotiate and play hardball, no pun intended, when it comes to the collective bargaining tax. It actually really, really, when you look at it,

the collective bargaining tax as boring as this is to talk about, really works in the favor of the Arizona Diamondbacks, right? So does this entire system right now that MLB has kind of set up. the way that pre-arbitration players are held to their contracts and to kind of low-paying salaries and such. It just helps what the Arizona Diamondbacks right now are trying to do as far as, you know, rather than spending money on big expensive free agents, you know, loading up on cheaper, younger players, holding them in the minor leagues longer than necessary in some cases just so that they don't start their service time. And then, you know, all of that stuff kind of plays into the Arizona Diamondbacks revenue, right? The collective balance tax, which they don't pay because they don't exceed the collective or the competitive balance tax threshold. The draft and the revenue sharing that comes from it all allow teams like the Diamondbacks to make money essentially, even when the stadium is empty, even when they're losing over 100 games.

they're still getting billions of, well, there's billions of dollars being generated and dispersed in annual league-wide broadcasting revenue. And again, a team like the Diamondbacks that have a very small payroll and lose a whole lot of games can still make a whole lot of money as, I guess, as a company, you could say. It's dangerous, right? I mean, it's dangerous to allow organizations to just kind of go about their business and be profitable for, you know, without really anything of their own doing, right? And that's kind of the situation that we're in right now. The Arizona Diamondbacks, and they're certainly not the only ones,

there's a number of franchises in this position where they are profitable, even if the Diamondbacks win 52 games like they did last year, you know, they have an all-time low in terms of their attendance. They're a profitable organization because of the way that revenue sharing impacts the game. And I think the big problem here, Derek, that we all recognize is that that doesn't give them a whole lot of incentive to go out there and spend money when they know, you know, that revenue sharing is going to bring in all the money that they need in order to turn a profit in the end. So there's some more to dig into here. But on the on the surface, I mean, this is just a pretty clear issue that baseball has and it definitely impacts the diamondbacks. You know what all this is, though, Jesse? Really, it's a it's an excuse because we know.

I was wrong. I put my trust somehow in MLB foolishly, you know, trying to be more of a lover than a fighter. But they are not, Jesse. They are not. They are picking fights all over the place. Like we said, the Diamondbacks, or not the Diamondbacks, because they're just caught up in this,

but MLB has gone full heel on everyone. And they don't care. What it really feels like they don't care of what, like, society feels about them right now, right? This lockout is impacting, you know, spring training, which has, you know, this ripple effect that goes out. And I talked about it in my piece on go phnx.com, but it's really the most inconsiderate part of this entire, you know, situation, right?

I saw the craziest stat today, which was from an LA Times article. and the stat was that the average Dodgers fan during spring training spends on average $439 per day during a spring training visit. Wow. $439. Now, I'm guessing they're average. I mean, I guess that's like hotel and all that stuff. Exactly. I mean, yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. I'm guessing they're factoring an average hotel cost, average meals that they have to eat. They're not, you know, that they're going to eat out on all those meals. They're going to spend money at the ballpark. I'm sure they're factoring in possibly a merch, like a hat, t-shirt or something. But that, you know, when you really think about that, that's an incredible amount of money. And honestly, at times, there have been times where I've gone to cheap sporting events where the tickets were something like, you know, 30 bucks or whatever. And then I found myself

spending an incredible amount of money before the night was over, right? So it's not like to say that that's how low ticket prices are really, just they're just a way to get you in the door. It just means that, yeah, it just means I could do that much more damage when I get in the door. It's like going to the state fair or something. Like,

you don't really, it doesn't really matter how little it costs to get in the state fair. But everyone knows you're going to spend at least $100 or $200 by the time you leave there. So that's the, that's the trap that we all fall into. Going back to the comments, our friend Charles Woodall Pike said, as a hockey fan, I sympathize all too well with a dealing with a lockout delaying the season.

and yes, NHL has been probably a big culprit when it comes to the lockouts and labor disputes. Evan Thompson, our buddy says I was wrong too. I thought it was going to be worked out by the day after the Super Bowl. Wow.

So it's national Evan is wrong too. Yeah. We'll get a graphic made. Don't worry. We'll get a graphic made. He said, we have not had a normal spring training since 2019. I'm tired of this.

Can we have some sanity, please? Interesting that you bring that up. Spring training in 2018, the economic impact on the state of Arizona, $644 million in 2018 when a full spring season was played. That's a lot of money. This does say spring training, so this might include Florida. This might not be exclusive to Arizona. But still, $644 million being generated. And that's in 2018 for, you know, the local areas, right?

I was I was thinking about it the other day. I saw someone make a comment on it, but like areas like Maryvale here in Arizona locally, that's like their biggest time of the year, right? Yeah. Even a shortened spring training, yeah, it's going to be still happening.

And then people locally that live here might go out and take a day off and go see it or whatever. It's still not going to bring in the tourists and people from outside of the state like it would when those people can't be confident. on when these games are going to be played or when they can make arrangements to fly out and stay at a hotel. Now, granted, they've already bought their tickets probably because spring training tickets have been on sale for months now for whatever reason. But yeah, just so everyone knows, you know, if you have a friend who invites you to a spring training game that's in like, you know, two weeks, don't, don't, don't buy it. Don't, don't, don't be so naive.

Yeah. I don't think that game is going to happen, unfortunately. I had someone ask me that and I was just like, I don't know. They were like, I have plans to go to a spring training game. I'm like, I don't know if you do. I don't know if you do. Hey, Patrick Lyons is here.

So this is the best show ever because we need to just have them jump on the street yard. He says MLB doesn't want to play minor leaguers now. What's next? Cotton candy only for those age 21 or older? Well, it depends on what is in that cotton candy, Patrick Lyons. And I will say there's a lot of ridiculous things. I feel like MLB next wants to cut out a couple of umpires from the game because they seem excessive to have four.

And if that brings in robot umps, Jesse, you know I'm all for that. And I'm not talking about you. I mean, the actual robot umpires, of course, this guy over here that we're talking about. But, um, yeah, like, a friend of mine was like, uh, this third base really necessary. You know, like, yeah, like that's what it's starting to feel like. And MLB is just kind of getting crazy with it, uh, the firing minor. leaguers or wanting to fire minor leaguers wanting to not carry so many uh wanting to draft less uh wanting to pay them less it's just uh it's just all bad but like i said they're there right now

where they don't seem to care about public scrutiny they don't seem to care because it's all bad press for them right now so yeah again it's like it's like might as well just bring it all on right now and yeah what's another hit piece on major league baseball ownership i mean at this point right They'll just get their writers to write a hit piece on you. That's the way it works. I'm surprised. We'll get Mark Feinzen over at MLV.com to tell how ridiculous the players association is being and all their unreasonable demands and all these things.

I'm not lying. I'm not surprised they haven't come for us yet, Jesse. Evan says, oh, yeah, we already talked about that. Josh, dang, think of all that money. Everyone is missing out during spring training. And it's ridiculous, right? I mean, it really is. Especially when, again, looking back on it,

it's a self-imposed situation. MLB is doing it to themselves. They don't need to be doing it, but they feel like it's necessary. In fact, you know, I, I didn't, I don't remember this because obviously neither one of us were old enough to be really understanding what was going on.

I don't even think you existed yet, but with the strike in 96, they didn't actually have a new CBA in place when the strike ended. It was actually a judge that required them to go back to playing. went to playing under the existing CBA. Yeah, which you can do.

Yeah. They could literally, like you said, you were 100% right. Rob Banfred could tomorrow morning say the lockout is over and we're going to continue to negotiate the CBA. They don't actually have to have a CBA in place. It's just that moment of looking weak, looking weak. Oh, I haven't had. Well, it's just we have more.

96 is when they came back, 95, 96. Yeah. No, you're right. It was 94-95, but yeah, you're older than me, Evan, and you've proved it here today. Charles says, MLB wants baseball to only last two hours. Just put a timer on it. When it ends, it's it ends. Doesn't matter if it's in the middle or in a bat or even in play. I mean, that would actually be kind of fascinating. Just when the clock strikes. Like, have your pitcher, you know, have your pitcher just kind of mosey around and delay for a while. Yeah, I love it. I love it.

Josh Hunt says it feels like everyone in baseball leadership hates baseball. It absolutely feels like that. That's absolutely what it feels like. And it's absurd. And now you just, you have guys leaving the game, which we'll talk about next. But don't leave the game. Don't leave, don't leave us. Sit here, listen to us, talk to us.

But if you haven't done it already, download the Drafking Sportsbook app. Of course, NBA action is hot. The sons, they're very, very hot. They are the hottest team in baseball, baseball. I miss baseball so much. But, you know, new customers over at the Drafking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NBA can get this great deal. Just bet $1 on any team, and you will get $150 in free bets if they win.

It's that simple. Instantly, too, you'll get those bets instantly. I love to get those bets back and just turn them right around and bet again on other games, usually future Sun's games. But existing customers can get in on the action with the same game which I've been doing. I'm going to give you my same game parlay for the Sun's game tonight if you're watching us live right now.

I'll give it to you. I feel like a very crippled Clippers team from what I know. You're not wrong about that. You're not wrong about that. I'm hit for them right now. I did a same game parlay. I took the Sun's money line. I also took Cam Johnson over eight and a half points.

Chris Paul over 12 and a half points under 13 and a half assists for Chris Paul. Wow. The over under is 13 and a half. 13 and a half cysts yes oh my gosh devon booker's over under is two and a half cyst so i took the over on his assists and then i took aughton at over his uh over 13 and a half points so there you go it's not even thursday and i'm giving you a draft king's pick of the week uh but go download the draft king's uh sports book app don't listen maybe listen to me maybe not i don't know uh my track record isn't the best but i yeah on on national derrick is wrong day as we're celebrating

Probably not the best day to listen to me. You guys don't want to place that. I'm going to tote this victory of Blue Gatorade. This is my Blue Gatorade trophy for winning a bet on Blue Gatorade. Did you buy that for yourself there? No, my wife got it for me. It's an AirPods. And it's amazing.

It's my Valentine's Day gift along with the bat that I showed you. But again, new customers, get down on the action, bet one dollar on any NBA team to win and get $150 in free bets if they do. That's promo code, PHNX at Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, 21 and over only, Arizona only gambling problem, dial 1,800 next step, new customers only, minimum $5 deposit, eligibility restrictions apply, see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And Jesse, yes, we have another great player leaving the team,

a player leaving the MLB, but leaving his team that he's played with his entire career, Ryan Zimmerman today announced his retirement after 17, seasons, 17 years. I don't know if it's seasons or years, but 17 years with the nationals. So it's kind of crazy because believe it or not, there are a lot of guys over the last 20 years

that spent their entire career with one team. But not as many as I thought. And it's mostly some pretty big names, right? You got like Derek Deere and Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada all in the Yankees,

Jeff Bagwell, Craig Bigeo, with the Houston Astros. And then, like, it kind of gets sporadic after that. I mean, there's not a lot of players, a lot of teams that had guys for their entire career. No Arizona Diamondbacks players on that list at all. Yeah. Tim Salman, who, Tim Salmon, who played with the Anaheim Angels,

that was surprising that he was with them as long as he was. He went to my high school right here in Greenway High School. That was, like, one of the big athletes, right? so we got yeah some names on there but surprised to see Todd Helton Todd Helton was crazy because his like it's like

95 to like 2012 or something like just it like the I know it's not that long it's the same amount as Ryan's ever man it just look longer like the amount of decades that he's played in one sport but yeah I mean thoughts

do you find it surprising at all that there was this amount of players that are retiring guys that I mean, and not in Ryan Zimmerman's case necessarily because 17 seasons, 17 years, that's a lot. But I mean, what are your thoughts? I respect guys who are able to stay with the same organization

their entire career. And granted, it's not just up to them, right? I mean, it requires mutual interest with the team. And, you know, it's really it's really magical when something like that happens where both sides you know enjoy the partnership enough for a player to stay with one team for for as long as some of those guys did brandon webb is the one name that comes to mind for the diamondbacks who's really close to being on a list like this he obviously didn't play nearly as many seasons as as most of those guys that

you just named but technically he was a texas ranger at the very end of his career at the very end of his career before he decided to retire. So I guess that sort of interferes with things on, on his front. Yeah, we had Josh Hunt said, I believe Brandon Webb did, though technically, no, he got signed with the Rangers, but never played.

Yeah, yeah, that one's a little, a little bit harder to say. But his career, obviously, is significant, you know, not 17 seasons. I think it's 2000, you know, 2003 to 2007, something in that range. It's not, not nearly as lengthy as some of those guys, primarily due to injury.

I mean, I still wonder, Brandon Webb is not that old. I don't know off the top of my head, but he's not that old. Like he probably if his arm hadn't gone out, if he'd been able to stay with the diamond backs, it's not unreasonable to think that he could have been a diamond back up until just a few years ago.

Right. He was really pretty young when he was forced to retire due to that arm issue that he had. Oh, Jesse. How silly of you to believe that they would have kept him here the whole time? Come on. That's fair. That's fair.

Yeah, it's very naive. Evan says Brandon will be 44 this year. So, yeah, maybe not, maybe probably about five years ago. Not the last couple years ago. Yeah, not the last couple years. But, yeah, I mean, you know, 2015, 2016, like, that's not impossible. Josh Hunt asks in regards to Ryan Zimmerman, a Hall of Fame career. What do you think?

No, no. No. I don't think Ryan, I think he's a great player. you know, respect what he did. He had some great seasons as a Washington National. Just didn't have the accolades that you would really need to necessitate a Hall of Fame career, right? Yeah. Let me look at his numbers real quick.

So his career batting line, he had 277 with an 816 OPS. He had 284 career home runs. So there's some big numbers there for sure. Imagine having a career 816 OPS in 17 seasons or 17 years. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's impressive. But, you know, for a guy who plays third base and first base, you're going to need to really, you know,

knock the crap out of the ball in order to be, you know, a Hall of Fame candidate. But a great career nonetheless, maybe appears on the ballot at some point, but not someone I would expect to see in the Hall of Fame. And I know, I know we've talked about this at length, but is, do you see any, I mean, it's so hard, but do you see the Diamondbacks committing to guys?

like this now for the future do you see because of the way that they're building that they might just maybe keep some of these prospects that if they do turn out to be as good as we all believe they can be the does an alec thomas does you know uh does uh corbin carroll become a lifelong arizona diamond back the first perhaps i i'd really like to think so derrick i'd really like to think so but the problem is and this goes back to what we talked about on the front end of the show. The problem is that what teams like the Diamondbacks and even the rays and the pirates and some of these lower market, lower spending teams are doing is they're just not keeping players, right? Their strategy is to try to, you know, retain a player for as many of their

affordable years as you can and then move on from them the moment that they become more expensive. Even the raise, as good as they've been, they've still embraced that strategy. You're You're not going to find many players on that Ray's lineup that are, you know, outside of their pre-arbeers. Or I guess some of them are probably into arbitration at this point. But there's not a lot of guys there who've been extended on any kind of contract whatsoever after their rookie deal. You know, we've even seen the raise float around the idea of trading Austin Meadows, one of their better outfielders lately. Because once a guy gets expensive, they want to move on, right? And unfortunately, it's hard to see the Diamondbacks not doing something.

similar unless, I mean, maybe the CBA moves things in the right direction. Maybe the players get some of the things they're looking for. And maybe owners have more of an incentive to spend and try to, you know, maintain their teams, their teams players retain some of those guys that have, that have historically left for other organizations. You'd love to see it. You would just love to see it. But who knows? I need to see them commit to it and actually do it. At times, it seems like the way that, The way that they're running this team seems more like what we talked about earlier with making a profit off of a 100 loss team as of late more than it seems like they want to build a competitor. But the future, who knows what the future holds? This isn't news to anyone, but the problem is it's not a Mike Hazen problem.

It's a Ken Kendrick problem, right? It goes back to ownership. We all know that. And Ken Kendrick is probably going to be the Diamondbacks owner for quite some time from now. So it's hard to see an end to something that's gone on for so long when, you know, things have kind of been run the same way ever since he, ever since he came to town. Well, over on go phtnx.com today, we have some great articles coming out. Craig Morgan spoke with the coyotes president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez about the new multipurpose arena at ASU that the coyotes will be playing at. Not to mention, of course, all of our wonderful articles on baseball, the lockout, Dan Straeli, and more over at gophnx.com.

If you haven't signed up already, I don't know what you're waiting for, but please, I implore you to check us out. And if you like what you see, maybe stick around with an annual membership. You can get that annual membership, which will get you a free t-shirt over at phnx locker.com. Get you access to the full website, all of our content, plus our members-only discord and members-only discount over at phnx locker.com. If you're not interested in the T-shirt and the annual membership and the saving money and and and loving us as much, I get it. I understand. Times are tough. You can get the month-to-month option 50 cents for your first month.

Try us out. If you like it, stick around. Maybe get the annual membership. If not, no hard feelings. It's all right. Derek, Derek's okay with being wrong. And that's what today is all about. I've accepted it.

I understand Derek was wrong. That's the way that this works. Derek was wrong. and I'm fine with it, but I'm not wrong about how great those t-shirts are at, over at the PHNX Locker.com. And I'm definitely not wrong about, you know, coming over and joining us in the Discord.

We'll talk about whatever you want. If you want to talk about Book of Bobofet in the season finale, I'll talk to you about that for hours. The lockout, maybe not so much, but we can talk about other stuff in the Discord. Anyway, I will tell you, I am excited. Valentine's Day, Jesse, of course, I know. It was a bad day. It was a bad day because obviously Derek was wrong.

Of course. Yeah, we get it. We get it. Derek was wrong. But it was Valentine's Day. So I had a wonderful day with my wife. I hope everybody had a wonderful day with their significant others. And we had an opportunity to help people out, Diamondbacks fans, by creating some wonderful Valentine's Day cards. Maybe if you forgot it was Valentine's Day. Maybe it was some last minute shopping to help you out. We did come up with some stuff for you. Of course, sending you gallons of love this Valentine's. Valentine's Day. I like that one. David Peralta, our love is like a freight train. I don't know what that means necessarily, but...

Don't ask questions, Derek. I mean, David's excited about it. David, David knows what it means. That is a man that knows what we're talking about. When we talk about love being like a freight train, this one a bit scary, but separately we are small components together. We make a big unit. You can take that however you want to.

I'm not going to judge however you want to take that. But of course, my favorite one is, I promise I won't let you down. Ah, yes, Monty. I don't think anyone wants any part of that Valentine's Day. He did, though. I mean, he was good at that. Anyway, I hope everybody had a great Valentine's Day.

obviously we didn't because we still have this lockout going on instead of us talking about the smell of the grass hearing the crack of the batter at least at least the ball hitting the mitt as pitchers and catchers would report we are still locked up in this stupid ongoing saga which you know at this point we are never getting out of it feels like jesse i i don't know what to say but what do we what do we do we make new predictions is that the move or should we maybe we should. Are we wrong again? Do we get wrong again?

Yeah, we're probably just going to be wrong again. I don't want, I don't want that graphic that was made with my eyes to ever see the light of day again. Well, you're not getting this one. You're not getting omnipotent Jesse back. That's not coming back for sure. But I will say that we do have, I guess an on the spot prediction to make. I can say maybe at this point, we should predict spring training and what's going to happen

with it. How many weeks do you think get shaved off spring training? Rob Anfred said that they could go with as little as four weeks of spring training. And I believe what he means by that is without it impacting the season. Obviously, four weeks seems like the minimum from what he's saying. So do we still have spring training? Does it pass by the spring training time? and then we have these four weeks of whatever camp or whatever they're going to do to get prepped. Once we're into the season, starting, how long does this draw out now?

I unfortunately, as much as I would love to be optimistic and still say that, you know, spring training, we're going to lose a few days. But like you said, that side of you's dead now. We can trim a week off and we can, you know, we can still make it in time for opening day. I no longer think that. I think that baseball will not start on time talking about opening day. I don't think we're going to play 162 games in 2022. And that's okay.

You know, I mean, if it's 140, if it's 150, we'll put up with it. Derek and I'll be here. We'll be here to break it down as it happens. But I am no longer confident about that. I do think that they're going to trim spring training as much as they can because they're not going to want to miss out. on any more regular season games than they have to. So I think that four-week mark is probably what it'll wind up being at the end of the day.

I hate to agree with you because I want to be cautiously optimistic about this situation. I want to say, Jesse, that I feel like the pressure is truly on now. And what's weird is it reminds me of, I mean, we've made this comparison before, right, just as a joke, but it really reminds me of the old Hamilton gunfurt. fight thing, right? It's like up to this point, you had all these chances to stop it, right? And now, like, it literally feels like the next move is them turning around and pointing guns at each other.

Like, we got past the representatives having a negotiation and talking and that didn't work out. And now it feels like Rob Bain-Frey. And they're just going to have to turn around and shoot. I think the players are a little bit more fit than the owners probably are. They are as far as you want any kind of physical fight. happening. Yeah, man. Here, here, but my point being is like, I feel like both sides were trying to use time against each other. And yeah, it's, we're at that point where it's starting to like time, like time is short now. Time is officially short. So there is about as much incentive as there's ever going to be as far as as time is concerned. Now again, like I said, I wonder if we see federal involvement, not from a mediator, but from a judge. Uh, last last time it was judge Sotomayor.

who made the declaration that the baseball had to get back to work. So without a new CBA, I wonder if we're going to see that at this point. I feel like they, I mean, you know, like I said, times run out. And they're literally both looking at each other, you know, kind of waiting for the other side to concede. I feel like we haven't heard much concession from the owner's side still. It's not to say that we don't get details that they are moving the needle a little bit closer, but it's like they're taking baby steps while the, you know, players are taking huge, you know, huge three step, you know,

leaps towards trying to meet in the middle. They just can't go. They can't be the one that gives in completely. They have a reason for their numbers. They have a reason for the things they're requesting. They know how much baseball, you know, cost. They have all the analytics. They have all the numbers.

Like, you know, baseball wanting to, the MLB wanting to cut back on, like their minor league players. and things like that. You know, someone, someone ran the numbers and it runs, it costs like two and a half a million dollars a year in the ballpark between two and a half to three million dollars to run the entire minor league organization. It's basically the cost of a mediocre player at the big league level to, well, not mediocre, I'd say kind of good average good player, but not great,

not a, you know, superstar, anything like that to run your entire minor. League organization and you're and you're nitpicking at those dollars, you know, to try to to try to cut those dollars down and such. Really, like I said, the housing situation that they agreed to seems to really come back to be like affecting this. I feel like even though it's not being talked about. I feel like how much money MLB will now have to spend on minor league players housing is why they are now trying to cut back on the number of minor league players that are in

their system all together, right? Like, let's just trim back a little bit of the fat on every team just to down to 150 total. And then that way, you know, secretly we got rid of like 200, 300 plus players without really blinking. I mean, you know, I think people would probably rather that in some respects, right? Like, I think we'd rather have a few, you know, well paid minor leaguers who can afford everything that they need can afford to go home and eat at night than have.

have a bunch of minor leaguers who can't afford some of those basic living expenses and have to pick up second jobs and whatnot. So, I mean, if it's a choice and it seems like that's what the owners are trying to impose, I, you know, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to making the minor leagues a little bit smaller. As sad as that is, right? I mean, none of us want to see minor league baseball get smaller because it, it really is kind of the lifeblood of America's pastime in in many ways. But, but I mean, if that's the only way, I think a lot of people would prefer that. Well, we've talked about it.

Like, in some cases, these, you know, these, basically these minor league teams for some cities are like their only major team. You know, it's their only chance to have a sports team that they read for that they go see, you know. And the whole thing, the whole thing is sad. But like, honestly, we are having this. you know, some, a minor league player today posted a TikTok video of how much money he made in the Padre system last year.

He put it on TikTok. It was less than, less than $12,000, right? You can, you mean to tell me, especially prior to them paying for their, you know, for their housing, you mean to tell me someone can live on $12,000 a year? And then it's not like it's, oh, okay, once you get to double a, now it's 24,000. And when you get, no, it was like 12,000, 14,000, 16,000. Like, you mean to tell me you expect these guys to live on what's less than minimum wage?

It's crazy. And so you're right. I mean, to what you're saying is right. To be able to pay them better and have them, you know, again, it makes baseball a more attractive sport for young people to want to play. Hearing all of this, I would never want to play baseball. What kind of crazy thing is that to try to, to try to recruit people, to try to recruit athletes to play that sport to have your minor league be so unappealing, right?

We talked about it on the Cardinals show with Kyler Murray. Where would Kyler Murray be right now if he would have chose baseball over football, right? Yeah, what is he? Probably be in, you'd probably be in Amarillo, Texas. An Amarillo, Texas, right? he'd be up here waiting to report to camp to be here at the big league camp for a little bit and we probably wouldn't see kailer murray's name again for two more years maybe as at a major league granted he'd he'd probably have a a fuller instagram profile that is the one oh jesse too soon

too soon you monster um but i just i don't i just want baseball back that's all i want i don't care that I'm wrong. I don't care that Jesse was wrong. Jesse was wrong too. Like, if you notice the title of the show in the description, I didn't take the heat alone. I was wrong. You were wrong. We were all wrong. Because baseball makes us all look like fools. Baseball doesn't seem to care about anything right now. That's why it almost makes me laugh because they truly are like a pro wrestling heel. They just don't give a damn and it almost seems to delight them to infuriate us more. It almost like let's do all the things that are going to piss off the fans and the players. Like, let's go after minor league. Where's Santa Claus?

Let's go. Let's go fire Santa Claus. You know, like they'll do anything. But I can't wait for this to end because I need baseball back. And, you know, that's, it's where I'm at. I'm sad, Jesse. I'm sad. And again, I don't mind being wrong because I was hopeful this would happen. And I truly thought it did.

You know, you said that you were being a bit optimistic when you made yours, but you kind of knew it wasn't going to be. I can't take that same kind of, I wish I could take that way out. But I didn't. I thought like, oh, man, by the time. pitchers and catchers report that that heat's really going to be on you know yeah apparently that doesn't matter so uh but it's it's it's finally starting to resonate with people though i've finally had people coming to me and being like what's going on with baseball and i don't have an answer i don't

have an answer i've had people calling me again like the spring training thing to see if they should have people fly in or not my advice has been no uh that's been my advice so i don't make sure those flights are refundable if you're uh if you're booking Make sure you get a credit and you'd use those miles later. But we thank you guys all for joining us. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports. And that's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We are at PHNX Sports on YouTube. If you're watching us right there, right now, commenting, we thank you guys for joining us. We love when you guys join us and comment, give us more to talk about.

Again, you help take our minds off of how wrong we both were, not just me. Jesse was wrong to. But you can definitely follow us on YouTube and sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss any of the amazing content coming out from the PHNX team. We have some great stuff. Again, the suns are amazing. The coyotes, they found a home. The Diamondbacks, we're here too.

The Cardinals, that's a whole other dumpster fire that I don't feel like dealing with right now. But again, we hope you guys are enjoying the content. Sign up to become a member over at GoP. HnX.com. Go over to Drafking Sportsbook. Use our code of PHNX. Sign up. Make some money.

Bet on the Sons. It's always a good idea. We thank you again for watching. Jesse, let's get this lockout over, sir. I need it to happen. Let's stop making predictions.

Yeah, let's stop making predictions. Because it doesn't feel like it's ever going to end. But we thank you again for joining us. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when we just play. Baseball.