PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks avoid arbitration with ALL SIX of their arbitration-eligible players

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Arbitration hearings are arguably one of the worst things in professional sports, and if you disagree you can submit your reasons and we will go in front of a judge about it. But the Arizona Diamondbacks will avoid the ugly process of arbitration hearings all together after they agreed to one-year deals with all six of their arbitration-eligible players. Also, since Jesse Friedman is on vacation, Damon Fairall joins the show for an arbitration hearing to determine Jesse’s worth.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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.

Happy Friday to you all. Welcome in to another flavoring Fridays brought to you by our friends at OGs Brands. OGs Brands, of course, is the best, is the best edible that you can find. They also have launched their brand new, uh, big OGs, which I can't wait to talk about how much of them are fan of. Head on over to OGs. com to see their full lineup, including their two newest gummies and find out where you can purchase. Welcome in, Ski to you all, of course. Ski.

I am your mayor, PHN, occasionally known as. Derek Montia. This man next to me, of course, is my vice mayor, occasionally known to you guys as the thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. What's up, guys? Jesse. Jesse. What happened? Jesse talk. Oh, yeah. Things that Jesse would say. Yeah. Pye charts. Nerd. Pi charts. Van Diagram. Fifth. What did you say yesterday? Everyone loves a pie chart. Everyone loves a pie chart is what he said off air after the show ended. That was hilarious. But of course, this is not Jesse Friedman, who is right now struggling to get his way to Portland, Oregon on the coldest, snowiest day of the entire year for some reason. This is the people's producer, the one and only Damon. Damon Dog, glad to have you here, buddy.

Nice to see you. Yeah. Have I done this show once or twice? I think you have been on here once or twice. At least your voice has been on here lots and lots and lots. But we have some good things to talk about because the Diamondbacks have avoided going to the terrible process of arbitration hearings with all six of. their arbitration eligible players. And we'll talk about that. But first, I want to ask Damon because I know he agrees with me, are arbitration hearings

the worst thing in professional sports? Is this just the worst process ever? We were talking about it a little bit before the show started. Like, what in the world made them think? Like, how did they agree to this? How did the MLBPA sit there and say, this is a good idea? This is a process in which we should go about giving our players money. Yeah.

Like, it's just, it just makes no sense. No, I hate it. No other sport, to my knowledge, has anything even close to this? Well, of course, there's the whole way that the minor league pay is structured and pay for young players is structured. No other sport is like it. No other sport, I feel like, holds back a major league baseball player in their first few years of being in the majors the same way that baseball does. So they kind of frame arbitration as a good thing because you can get more money for the thing that you're, supposed to get.

If you're really good, right? But it's terrible because essentially, if you can't come to terms, if you can't agree on a salary like the Diamondbacks have with their six arbitration eligible players, we have to go through the terrible process of basically arguing your worth against the franchise that you play for. And then the franchise's position is to argue that you are not nearly worth the amount of money that you are suggesting that you're worth. It's pretty insane.

What a pleasant process. Yeah. Well, imagine that on a day to day, Derek, where this is like a real regular job. And you come in and it's PHNX sports arbitration hearing. And Derek sits down and on the other side of the courtroom is Saul Bookman. Oh, I'm losing that arbitration case. I'm losing every dime. There's no way I'm winning that against.

And he's saying, well, you put in this much work and you have deficiencies in these regards. And then you're supposed to go in the next day to work and act like everything's fine and be like, I love this. You, uh, one time you drank a whole bottle of champagne and took your shirt off just because Damon said it was a good idea. Um, yeah, there's things like that that he would definitely hold against me. Yeah, like imagine that. If that's your, you know, like most of us, we get to go to like an annual review where they tell you the good and the bad you've done.

Mostly the good. They try to, try to pump you up. They try to gas you up. Uh, and then they try to tell you that you're going to get three percent more in your salary, right? That's a vastly different than basically going in front of a third party against your boss and having your boss now try to argue why. Your boss goes, you suck.

You suck. You're the worst. This guy? This guy's terrible. I told David he sucks every day. Well, Jacob and I have arbitration hearings on a daily basis. It's a toxic environment around here, that's for sure. But we are very excited about the Diamondbacks, of course, avoiding this terrible, terrible process with their players.

But we are going to put Jesse Friedman through the arbitration hearing process later in the show. So make sure to stick around for that. But let's talk about the Diamondbacks avoiding arbitration and signing Arbitration and signing all of their are eligible players to a one-year deal. Of course, the big name there is Zach Gowan. Zach Gowan agrees to a $10.011 million, one-year deal. I think we have a list of all of the players here. There's Zach Gallon, obviously, the most important, you know, one there of all of those deals.

Such a handsome man. He's certainly worth more than that. He is certainly, certainly worth more than $10 million. I have a feeling if Zach Gowan comes into an arbitration, hearing and slides $10 million across the table on a little piece of paper. And I know that's not how it works. I know this is different. But if he's like, that's definitely how he wants.

Like you're like, say less, son. Say less. I, all I see when I look at this is how Kevin Ginkle is the most criminally underpaid player in baseball. No, that's absolutely correct. Kevin Ginkle is one point two million? Yeah.

For that guy? I don't know. After meeting him, I feel like he's the kind of guy that like one, like not to undercut, you know, his abilities. But I feel like Kevin Ginkle's like, one. point two i'm good son oh he doesn't care that's plenty of money yeah he's he i mean he does it for the love of the game he doesn't do it for for the money at all he does it so he can strike you know the philly's three best hitters out in a row and come off the mound just screaming yeah yeah that's what

you can't value on right you can't put value on you can't your eighth inning guy just juicing the entire team up getting ready to go for the ninth like that there's what what number amount do you put on how do you go argue before a third party dog in him. How do you, how do you argue? That's what I'm saying. How big the dog in you is? Kevin Ginkle should be like, I had five screams off the mound in the postseason this year, and that's why I deserve two million. See, look, Jesse was searching what stat he could have, like the Zips projections. You already came up with like, it's so much more simple than that. The SVG, the screams for game. It's elementary. It really is. It's that easy. And that really should factor in here. But taking a look at that list,

once again, there are some other notable players on there. Obviously, Christian Walker being the other big, big name, I guess you would say, of these guys that, you know, of course, we know that Christian Walker, his defensive value and everything he did during the regular season there, that, that again, much like Zach Gallen, that is nothing to pay for a first basement of his caliber for another season. I hate the fact that Christian Walker, because I saw a little bit of this when this kind of got announced that like his postseason. performance is really hanging over the head with so many people when at any point during a baseball season the guy can go into a slump for a few weeks and then he's always kind of been a streaky guy he has like he just got on the bad streak at the wrong time right there's there's there was times in the season where it's like Christian walker's going to hit a home run today you know and then he did and then he did and then there were times where it's like this guy is striking out at everything

and so I just feel like Christian walker's just one of those guys where it's just like he's going to have There's going to be ebbs and flows to things. Like he's, you know, he's still a great player. Paul Seawald's still arbitration eligible, which surprised me a little bit. Sometimes I forget how young Paul Seawalt is because,

of course, he is the bullpen's dad. Well, and like, relievers come up late a lot, right? Yeah. So then their arbitration hearings go like into their 30s. And then you're sitting there and you're like,

I still haven't hit free agency yet and I'm 31 years old. That's kind of wild. That's again why this whole process is just so weird. Reliever Ryan Thompson gets 1.35 million. Paul Seawald, 7.35 million. Joe Mantiply, 925,000. And then, yeah, like you said earlier,

Kevin Ginkle, 1.225 million. Any surprise there that Christian Walker received the most out of that? More than gallon, maybe. It's service time. It is a service time thing. Absolutely, absolutely. I think this, if I'm not mistaken,

that's it for Christian Walker. So I... Yeah, he should be a free agent next year, right? The biggest thing that I noticed from all of this is that like this, the fact that they didn't have to go to hearings for any of their players tells me that this team means business players and team yeah players said you know what it's either the players said you know what whatever you want

to give me you give me and i'm going to go in all business next year right or or the players split the number across the table and they were like done they were like cool they sound like a connected team you know what a connected team is fucking dangerous there you go i'm a lot like you good job boy all right uh the one thing here though is is that their estimated uh costs for their arbitration eligible players per trade MLB trade rumors was 34.6 million and their actual cost 31.761 million. So they kept it underestimates. And as far as the team goes, I feel like, you know, again, this is when you talk about that, when you talk about them kind of coming in and getting business done, like Jacob said,

there's something to the fact that they, you know, the team is trying to save every dime they can and put it towards reinvesting it back in the team. So at this point with with a few other positional needs, it's great that they came in under budget. It came great that they came in under estimates. It's great that they are done with this whole process and can move on to, you know, adding whatever they feel like they still need to add. According to Dan Zimborski yesterday, it's a big mistake if they don't get that DH. And I think that I would have a hard time disagreeing with that.

Yeah, we were talking about it a little bit on TPSP as well. Like you just need that one extra hitter. I think that's, and that's the thing about Christian Walker is he's like going back to that conversation. He's such a great player and like he obviously brings so much to the team. But the level in which they relied upon him to be a power bat in the postseason was not, he's not, he's not that caliber. You know what I mean? He's he's a great power hitter, but he's not like the guy who's going to carry you to the World Series on his back. I think adding in that extra power hitter guy like a Solera or JD is just a necessity to this team.

to just get a little bit off of Christian Walker's back. And just so we're relying on him a little bit less if he happens to have one of these bad streaks in the postseason. Christian Walker's career with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he's essentially been a 250 batting average and, you know, a guy that can hit anywhere between 80 to 100 RBI, right? Yeah. That's what you're going to get out of him. But again, he did kind of become that in that.

He became that power hitter for the Diamondbacks. And he was like the one guy. When you look at the team, he's like the one guy who you're like, that's power bat. I mean, look at the middle of the lineup in the playoffs. Gabby is, he was hitting a lot of home runs, but what did he have on the year? Not a ton, right? And then you have Christian Walker, who's your power guy. And then you have Longoria, who is like, that's what we're relying upon as an extra power bat.

Like I think Gueriel, who isn't like a huge home run hitter. You know, he's at one of the, we have a, the debacks have a lot. of those like middling guys for home run hitters you know a lot of a lot of 20 home run guys which is great balance you look at it you got kattel corbin gureole i think gabby could get to that level potentially where you're in that like 20 to 30 range but christian's the only guy who gives you 30 plus or has the potential to do that do you think he felt that pressure during the playoffs i mean i that power bat for them and that just kind of contributed to his struggles there but i think it's natural right yeah because you're the guy right like you know you're the guy

And then you start pressing and you're like, I haven't had a home run in a while. And then that's all you can think about. Nicholas says Walker is just not that consistently reliable for power, even though he's still going to get you 30 plus home runs. Adding another 30 plus home run guy would be so massive for this lineup. Yeah, that's basically just what we're saying. Yeah, and just taking the pressure off of him. Yeah.

You got that guy in the fifth spot or in the fourth spot move Christian to the fifth spot. Like, I think you're cooking with gas there. I just, I think at the end of the day, Christian Walker's defense. is so vastly underrated and it's hard for a first baseman to really do enough to value his defense and say like that's a huge part of his game. But it is like the stuff that he does over there when he's not playing over there, when we had Emmanuel Rivera, when we had some of the other guys filling over there, Paven Smith.

It was, I mean, again, it's just like you immediately saw examples where a ball gets through the infield and you just can't help but say, you know, Christian Walker would have had that, right? So like his defense remains the best defense for first baseman in the league. But Zach Gallen, again, going back to the absolute deal that is Zach Gallen when it comes to him getting paid $10 million for the next season. I mean, we talked about MLB Network, ranking him as the third best pitcher in all the baseball, which we felt like was even maybe a touch overrated. A scosh overrated, a little, a little crazy. but Gowan has proven to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. And, you know, again, getting him at that price, you know, going forward is a good thing for the Diamondbacks.

I saw someone said Walker was projected to get $12 million. I can only bet that, you know, Zach Gallen was projected to at least get a few million more. But, yeah, I mean, Gowan 3.47 ERA at a 2.54 ERA last year. just a cyan candidate all season long. Big reason why the Diamondbacks were able to get as far as they got in the playoffs and during the season. So again, just happy to have this done. Glad to have this off the plate. Now we can focus on some more acquisitions.

Just bring the DH home. Maybe go after some relievers. I don't know. I still don't know who is out and who is in and what they're going to be continuing to look for. I still have a feeling Mike Hazen is going to try to find some low-cost options. that might end up being able to perform like someone like Ryan Thompson who got his money. Bring me all the Ryan Thompson's. Give me a 26-man roster of Ryan Thompson.

We'll win it all. Tea-top, tee-top, tea-top. Anyway, all right, well, of course, now we have to put Jesse through arbitration. But before we do that, we thank you guys for being here as the jury, I guess. I don't know. It's not a real hearing. It's usually like an arbitrator or something like that. This is definitely real.

This is real. All right, well, then Jacob is going to, in fact, be the decision maker here. We're figuring out whether or not Jesse's coming back from Portland. This is how we're going to determine Jesse's salary going forward for the 2024 season. But we do appreciate you guys being here to witness this. Of course, if you haven't

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See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. You got any good bets this week over on the Bet Show on PHNX Betts Dayman? Well, it's funny, funny you mention it because yesterday I took, do you know who Isaiah Hartenstein is on the Knicks? I do know who Isaiah Hartinstein is. I took him to get 15 rebounds. In what world? Plus $350.

Guess what cash? Yeah. 15 rebounds. Let's go. I texted Jacob. I was so hyper about it last night. What a call. Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah. It was a good day yesterday. You all took son's money on yesterday. Yeah. And they looked great last night. So, of course, stay locked in on bets with this guy over here, over at Pach and X bets. And of course, if you have not gotten down on the action on the Bet MGM Sportsbook app, do so today. You can get $158 in bonus bets back in honor of Super Bowl.

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that's where you use those bonus bets on his bets. That's where you go over. Isaiah Hartnstein. And then if they don't hit you don't blame my precious baby boy Damon for giving you bad advice. It's bonus bets. It's just gone. But they always hit. But they always hit. Some of the times.

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Mastashio Mike. Hey, Derek. Saul was saying yesterday, you be taken 75 milligram to 100 milligram of O. Is that true? This has been the talk of the office recently because Derek walks around every day and he's like, all I take, they make these big OGs now and he's been telling everybody that'll listen. I'm having a conversation with Flex, full on conversation yesterday. You've been out of the office for hours and he brings this up to me.

Everybody's talking about it, Derek. So would you like to address it? Yes. The answer is yes. It's true. I do. What? Why are you villainizing me?

What did I do wrong? OGs is the one that made a big OGs. They say it's preferrated so that you can break it up and share it with people, or it comes together as one piece for you to eat. Did I maybe do it one time by accident and then just really enjoyed myself? Yeah. Wasn't that at Budzapalooza? It was.

Well, it wasn't at Budzapalooza. Didn't you bought it at Budzapalooza? And then you were like, I didn't realize it was 100 milligrams. If you go to Budzapalooza, there's a lot of giveaways. And, of course, these came in a single-use package that looked. very much like a slice of orange that you would eat. And I was like, oh, hey, I have that one, one, you know, eat the one edible. Turns out that I was supposed to cut it in the pieces.

But, uh, yes. What was that picture you sent me the other day where you were in that recliner after you took one of these big OGs and you were just like, you would just smiling ear to ear? Yeah, that's whatever. That's fine. Vote for ESPO. Oh, no.

That seems unfair. That seems unfair. To answer Chris is. Do you really want a mayor that doesn't. know anything about eating 100 milligram edibles. Come on. Come on. Anyway,

I don't like when people want to publicly come at me for my job as mayor of PHNX. They know what they signed up for when they voted you in office. That's right. I mean, they knew damn well what they were signed up for. I ran on the campaign of marijuana edibles and chicken tenders from four peaks. And that's why you elected me your mayor, right? So, but with that being said about.

people attacking people and their other jobs and stuff. I think it's time for us to put Jesse Friedman through an arbitration hearing right now. Is that what we're going to do? Let's have an arbitration conversation. Let's go, baby. Dun-d-dun. I don't think I'm allowed to do that, but as long as it's not the real sound, I think it's fine, right? Yeah, I like that.

Dun-d-d-dun. All right. Let's go. Well, when, like we said earlier, you go through an arbitration hearing. Obviously, you have a representative, an agent of some kind that is speaking on your behalf because as a player, you don't really want to sit down. and stick up for yourself, I guess? Like, that's kind of a weird thing.

However, I think Josh Rojas says that exactly what he did when he went through his arbitration hearing with the Diamondbacks, which does not surprise me at all. Because Josh Rojas is the kind of guy that when you ask him if he wants to negotiate, he's probably like, let's go. You know, that's what I imagine him doing, right? So in that same vein, I'm going to represent Jesse Friedman here because we have to have a relationship after this. And I think if I continue to just belittle him on this show while he's watching him.

watching right now, it's probably not going to be the best thing for us going forward. And I volunteer his tribute to go against Jesse because that sounds fun. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And like we said, Jacob will be our moderator here. He will be our arbiter. And he will tell us if I won, I guess, or if Damon wons, how long are we going? I don't know.

I think we just can make some points back and forth. And then we'll put it in your hands. Okay. All right. Let's hear the prosecution first. Sir? Floor's yours? Good people of the jury.

Honorable Judge Jacob. Skiy. This is already pandering. Excuse me. Sorry. Can I get an objection? Sorry. Sorry.

Or one sentence in. It's obvious pandering. Quiet from the gallery. Thank you. Honorable Judge. Jesse Friedman. Good guy. does he belong on a supermax deal?

That's the question at hand. Is it not? I mean, should he be the highest paid? Should he get more money than Zach Allen is basically what we're asking. And my reasoning is no. And we have here on the first bullet point because he thinks salad and go is so great. Yeah.

It's just, I don't, I don't really know what else to say about that. That's, I don't know why. I mean, is that, would you like to explain why that?

that's a con, Derek? I don't, I mean, for the most part, he is in the belief that Salton Go is the best fast food place. And I have no defense in regards to that. Obviously, the best fast food place is Wendy's. There's no debate there. Wow. But that's a hot take.

It's a scalding hot take. Yeah, I mean, we can just move on from that one. This one, a little bit more pressing. He doesn't know any pop culture references at all. So Derek, Derek, you know, Mr. Pop Culture will be, will reference a, million different things on the show and Jesse never has any idea what he's talking about without fail. I'm on the younger side. I am usually listening to Derek's references as well. And I get about half of them, you know, but that's a decent percentage. Getting none of them is not a decent percentage.

You both make me feel very old. Now, I would like to argue that this show, what would it be without Jesse. It would just be me and Damon with just getting irrationally emotional every single day. I need to. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to like, you did over it. The prosecution has one more. I thought we were bouncing back and forth here, but please go ahead. Go ahead. I just need to make your case. I just need to throw out there that that there's a lot of times in which Jesse says nothing, but he talks a lot. So that's that is my, that's my third, my third con against Jesse. I tell Jesse this. every day. I'll ask him what he wants when he wants a clip scheduled and he'll give me no answer and he'll talk for a minute straight. I think that that bears noting when going through with this

proceeding and I've been I've been present when that's happened. Finding his true value. Yeah. Yeah. I would argue that Jesse's lack of pop culture knowledge is made up for by his ridiculous knowledge of the game of baseball. Now what would this game? What would this show be without Jesse. I said that earlier. It would just be Damon and I screaming, just obscenities. It was that for a second. It really was. It was Sean. You and Sean and me clicking buttons.

There was nobody in charge. There may have been a conversation as to there was too much cursing going on. Maybe. Maybe that's why the swear jar was brought into the picture. Possibly. I don't know. I can either confirm nor deny whether that's true or not. Now, I would argue that Jesse is actually wasting. his talents on doing this show with me.

And I think most of you would agree with that. He could easily be in the front office as some sort of boy genius in baseball for any franchise, any organization at any level. Major League, the miners, Japan, anywhere. It doesn't matter. I think he would do specifically well in the Caribbean area. But he is wasting his talent on this podcast with me, which brings up another point that Jesse has to do this podcast with me.

And I think that right there is enough to justify any amount of money that we are seeking for my client to receive additionally here because it's a good point. It's just an absurd thing to have to deal with. I am mostly Puerto Rican and also Irish. I'm a lot, basically, is what I'm trying to say. And. The drink is what he's trying to say. That's hearsay, Your Honor.

That is your say. I like that stricken from the record. But, sustained. Jesse is actually low-key hilarious. And that's something that I don't think most of you actually get to see out of him. Much like there's that nith that we only use 10% of our brain, which is absolutely not true. Jesse only, you only get to see 10% of Jesse's humor. The rest of it is hidden behind the times where he's tweeting in all caps from our account,

making you think it's me or texting me, funny things that he would. would never let you see and would be mortified if I did screenshots and posted them like I have in the past. So, but most importantly, most importantly, who's going to explain what FIPP is? Yeah. Who is going to explain what fielding independent pitching actually is to people on this show? I can't. I won't. I'm not going to. And honestly, right there, the fact that this man is so patient to share what all of these statistics mean and how they impact your favorite players and how one is better than the other right there I think earns Jesse Friedman every dime that we're seeking and and I rest my case who's who's gonna ask us uh about pie charts I was just about to say the prosecution

has entered a couple examples okay um all right mr Montia what would your what would your uh what would your defendant say with the claim that has been brought against him that he did in fact say who doesn't love a pie chart that is um in fact a thing that happened but jesse free from i i think what it once against shows is that jesse's just a special kind of person when it comes to his love of statistics and numbers and that's not something that we we don't again do you want to put together a pie chart somebody has to put together a pie chart. And don't you want the person that's putting together that pie chart to love it? To just love it, to have it be their favorite thing,

to just be so tickled about the fact that he gets to put a pie chart together. That it, I mean, we all get to look at it for a second and go, oh, yeah. And then we move on with our lives. But Jesse took hours to make that. He put so much work into it. What I'm hearing here is pros nerd, cons nerd. Yeah, pretty much. Very much.

Mr. Montia, what would your defendant say to the claim that he intends to be a good human when he says, I know you guys have a lot on your plate. I don't know if I should put this extra clip in there. No. But then proceeds to put the clip in anyway. Every single time. And you know what I will say in his defense is that what you guys didn't see is a 45-minute text conversation that occurred between me and Jesse where he asked me that same question

And I just sat there the whole time saying, yeah, fuck Damon. And then he politely asked them if they would do it anyway. Whereas I used obscenities and I was very, I was just very direct. Yeah. It's always, it always ends with that would be great. That would be great. Yeah. I was like.

His requests. Yeah. It's always, that would be great. That would be great. Yeah. Mr. Farrell, what would you say to the notion that the defendant is a silly goose? I would say that being a silly goose is both good and bad in nature. And while it brings joyous moments at times,

it also can distract from the task at hand. You know, Jesse, he's always not on the task at hand. Definitely not thinking about this show. This sounds like a man that's not well-versed in Bird Law. And good people at the court, I'm well-versed. I am well-versed. I am well-versed in Bird Law. I have come to my decision.

Let's go. Mr. Freeman shall be awarded. Victory. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Tough loss. Tough loss for me. Yeah.

Tough loss for PHNXD backs are our cap. The salary will be deferred over the next 10 years. So this is the downside of this. This is the downside of this, Derek. What's that? So he just got awarded extra money. Yeah. At PHJNXDbacks, we actually have a cap in which we can't go over.

and unfortunately we're going to have to find some ways to cut costs. Is it not a CBT threshold situation where we're not just getting taxed additionally on the 20% above? No, unfortunately, this is a hard cap. This is our first time being over the threshold. And we are going to have to make some cuts. David knows where this is going. David, you're fired. Everything's on the table.

All right. Did we lose Jesse Jr. just now? No, what just happened? It's got a good run, guys. All right, man. Well, all right, Damon, you're rehired. I don't want your computer. It's very loud.

My shitty computer? Why wouldn't you want it? I don't know. I don't know. Because it sounds like an airplane taking off most days. But, well, there you go. Jesse wins. And you see, he deserved it.

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Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX. for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And of course, another great place for you to stop and save some money. Is it Circle K? Gas prices are dropping, but if you want to save even more money, can stop by Circle K after you join their Inner Circle membership program for free, you will save 25 cents off per gallon for your first five Phillips. Again, you can pair that together with like their easy pay option, which will get you

10 cents off per gallon. Next thing you know, you're saving 35 cents. You also get all sorts of free offers inside of their inner circle app so download it today you can join the inner circle for free by downloading the circle k app terms and conditions apply participate in locations visit circle k dot com for details um and yeah there are some things that have happened around major league baseball and they still don't make very much sense to us and they make shonda pause very oh he's going to be so upset that that's texted me oh did he about about this situation can can do you think he would mind that you read his text aloud say what happened so Basically, starting pitcher, Marcus Stroman, former Chicago Cub, has signed a two-year deal with the New York Yankees for $37 million per Ken Rosenthal from the athletic.

This kind of just infuriates me a little bit because this is kind of like the Imanaga signing where I'm like, we could have gotten Marcus Stroman for two years and $37 million. Why didn't we get Marcus Stroman for two years and 37 million? It's not like basically what Lucas Gialito got? Yeah. Yeah. What are we doing here? What happened? He was pretty miserable on the second half.

You're not wrong. After an injury. After an injury, right. Before that, he was electric. He was a Cy Young candidate. He still finished the season with a 3.95 ERA and a 1.259 whip. Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but a lot of that is because of the second half and how he kind of struggled there.

Didn't they have him come out of the bullpen too? Like, it was so weird. They really toyed around with it at the end of the year because I think that I think the injury lingered. It was just a really weird situation. He was just bad. He was bad for sure. No, like really bad.

Yeah, like a seven and a half year, right? Yeah. And he got about the same amount of money as a guy who is a Sion candidate for a majority of the year. So what does Sean say about this? Yeah, let's hear Sean's remarks. So Sean texts me out of the blue. We were not texting prior to this.

And he said, not to be dramatic. But Stroman being a Yankee makes me want to blink myself. I'm not going to say the full statement. And then he says, and then I said, I watched the video of him, King Soto, and it was sick. And he said, and now he's gone to the dark side. He's really upset. I mean, it was an unprompt, me and Sean don't text all the time, just sometimes when more prominent things happen. This was like one of the things that like fired him up.

Yeah. Just put rage inside of his blood. Like he, this guy, no one hates the Yankees. No one loves or hates anything the way Sean hates the Yankees. That's true. That's true. Meanwhile, Jordan Hicks today was announced that he is getting a four-year, $44 million contract from the San Francisco Giants to now be a starting pitcher. I didn't see the starting pitcher part.

He is going to be a starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. It's weird. This sounds like a terrible experiment waiting to happen. Like that's something you do with a guy that's in your organization that you've seen something out of that would lead you're like, okay, he's on. long reliever and to be honest i think he's the best option we're going to convert him over they tried chapman the reds did that with chapman for a little bit right where they where they they they were like or all this chapman is so electric let's try him as a starter it didn't work obviously obviously and that was because he was a hard thrower like jordan hicks this but giving a four year 44 million dollar

contract to a guy that you haven't seen start and risking that just seems insane it's kind of weird yeah He has had essentially a five-year career. He actually opted out of playing during the COVID-19 season. So he did not play at all in 2020. But in his time, Jordan Hicks has been, I mean, pretty good. Last year, best of his career, at a 2.63 ERA, 1.083 whip, an ERA plus of 164. I really like Jordan Hicks. Yeah.

But like, I just, that just seems like what a crazy risk to be giving a 40. terrible injury history. He did. He did. Terrible. How is that going to get better? What percentile would you put his walk rate in? I'm sure it's high because he throws hard.

I mean, he throws like 104. Yeah. He's 15th percentile for walks. I mean, that's pretty miserable. Yeah. He did start eight games for the Cardinals back in 2022, so it's not like he hasn't started before, but not really just an odd thing when it comes to the giants and what they're doing with their starting rotation.

Right. That's just so much, I didn't, like, I didn't, I'm not aware of his injury history. That even makes it worse. It just, it just seems, that seems like a, just a ridiculous move to me. The Giants are, I mean, the Giants have freaked out this off season. Yeah. They not. They, they miss out on every single one of their top targets.

They signed, uh, Lee, right? And he, and he, and, and Lee was like, 11 million for a guy who hit five home runs in the KBO. He was projected to get half that. He hit five home runs in the third best league and professional league. in the sport. They made the trade with the Mariners to bring in Robbie Ray. And so, you know, now they have Logan Webb, Ross Stripling, Robbie Ray. If they go out and get Blake Snell, is that a win for them this offseason?

I mean, their rotation would be damn good. Yeah. And maybe they go out and get Ballinger. I mean, if they got Bellinger and Blake Snell, the top two free agents available, I think, yeah, I'd say. I mean, they're linked to both. They are. And again, like you said, this is what I was talking about the whole time with the show Hey, Otani.

Like when you are going to sign Shohei, you have to budget for Shohei. And when you swing and miss on Shoay, it's not like you're going to go out and give another guy a billion dollars. But what you do have is theoretically a billion dollars fucking lying around for the next 10 years that you somehow made peace with paying a player. Right. So then you can pay other guys and have it not affect you. I did nitpick at Jordan Hicks's baseball savant page. Like there is a ton of red on that page. But it's still one of those like, you.

Is it proven? PC Yoshi says he used to be a starter. So I guess he has experience in that regard. He started eight games. Yeah, he came into the league as a starter. Okay. Started eight games last year. I would probably wager a good amount of those where as an opener.

2020. Two years is too much, though. That's the problem. Four years, 44 months. He got more money than Marcus Stroman. And how do you justify that? If it was one year, 11 million and it was like a prove it that you can start and then move on and then we'll go from there.

That would make sense to me. But four years when the guy has not, I mean, I guess they, they assume that they could probably just throw them back in the pen if they need to. I guess that would probably be the assumption. Well, and I mean the giants are notorious for kind of flipping guys around and such, right? So it's not like it's something that they're going to shy away from doing. They're the bullpen game gods. So like maybe they just, they make Hicks the opener.

Yeah. He's really not even, he's really more of a pitchers four innings. A glorified relief pitcher. He pitches three innings and then he leaves the game. I can see that. Well, the Miami Marlins are reportedly entertaining offers. entertaining offers on Luis Arise. Does that mean anything?

Does that mean anything? I'm entertaining. What are you going to have to give up to give? I'm entertaining offers on lots of stuff. If someone wants to pay me $200,000 for my car, they can have it. I'm entertaining offers on my car right now. I mean, yeah, you're entertaining offers, but does that, like, and I feel like the problem with that is when that kind of news gets out, then it does kind of, through the telephone game,

become that the Miami Marlins are shopping, Louisa Rise around. And then it's they're going to inevitably trade him. And now, you know, you get your fan base all worked up over kind of nothing when it's literally just the team saying, yeah, we're not opposed to hearing you out. But, oh, you're going to pay if you want Luis Reyes, right? I just think this is what small market teams do, right? I know. They especially small market teams in Florida. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, Randy Roserina, perfect example. I know. Like you hear that and you're like, oh, the raise are trying to trade him. But like you said, I think that that just means that they were taking offers on them, but it had to be. an incredible offer in order for them to actually want to get rid of a guy that caliber scene thing with a guy that hit almost 400 you know he finished he finished he slash 354 393 469 with an 861 OPS he's for like he was he was and then he came back down

to earth a little bit there in all single half but oh he's singles God okay I'll take I do I do kind of care though no no I know I'm willing I'm willing to die on it is wild it is wild it is wild to have a 354 batting average and have 69 RBI. Like that's kind of wild. Yeah. Like the level of productivity, I think I would probably like having him on my team. But at the same time, there's a little part of me that's like, is he productive enough?

You need guys like that. He is my, but you don't, what you don't do is you don't trade a massive prospect hall for guys like that. So like this is obviously he didn't hit 354. So I'm not saying this. But like a guy like Pardomo and I bang his the drum for him all the time is like his value, lies in the fact that he gets on base constantly. And he's not hitting with any power. They're all singles.

They're all walks. But you need guys that get on base, especially for the back end of your lineup. But I don't know. I wouldn't trade, you know, Drew Jones for Luis Arias when, you know, how much value is he providing outside of being an on-base guy? To go back to Jacob's point, he had 203 hits last year. Of the 203 hits, 43 were extra base hits, including doubles, triples and home. runs.

You just don't get as much as like it makes you think you get. Yeah. Yeah. The stats look better. He just becomes the hitman, right? But without any other line. Like, I get that he's got to probably start the all-star game.

I get that he's, you know what I mean? But like, yeah. You have to start the old thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think almost every team in baseball would.

Yeah, except people who are casual baseball fans. Then they're like, he hit 360. How could you take Cattel over him? Yeah. Well, I don't know.

I definitely think that I think, I think almost everybody would say we'll take Catelle over Luis Arias. Yeah. I don't think that's really up for a debate. Ozzy Albies, guys like that. Because, again, it's about guys getting on base,

but the Diamondbacks have guys that can get on base. Yeah. That's why what we talked about in the first segment about the power hitter is so important. It's what the Diamondbacks really need to compliment Christian Walker so that Christian Walker doesn't need to be considered their power hit or at least can have a little bit of that taken off of him. I mean, I felt like. He's also horrible.

defensively. Yeah. There's that too. Out above average, he's first percentile. Minus 13. Yeah. Oh, wow.

Yeah, I wouldn't trade for him. I wouldn't trade for him. But you know what I would do? I would entertain offers for him. That's what I would do. That's why I'm entertaining offers for him because he kind of sucks. I don't know about that. Yeah, let's calm down on a 354 batting coverage.

I don't know if he sucks. He led the American League in batting average last year too. So it's not like just a fluke. Yeah, he did. He was, I think, at 318. 316, yeah. 316. He is kind of a stud. He is kind of a stud.

His OPS this year was almost 900. Oh, is that good? Yeah, that's pretty good. It's 860, though. Oh, he sucks. He sucks. His Ops was under 800 last year. We're very up and down on this show, but.

This show getting emotional without Jesse? Without Jesse? It could never happen. Irrational? That's crazy talk. Well, of course, we thank Jesse for being on vacation so we could put him through an arbitration hearing. We thank you guys for stopping by.

You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-Ur-N-K-M-A-K-M-A-K-M-A-K-K-M-A-K. This maniac sitting next to me is the people's producer, aka Damon Dogg. You can find him at that with the DAWG at the end. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Can you not bark?

I don't, I just, I always feel bark, bark, bark, bark. I didn't tweet a Damon yesterday. I said bark, bark, get on, Damon. And the man didn't even like the tweet. Yeah, come on. That's the, that's Father, Overlord Jacob, by the way, on the ones and twos. You can follow him at Jacob underscore Franklin for, because he is the fourth best

Jacob Franklin in existence. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys for stopping by. We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't have to argue your worth against your team.