PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks fans have plenty to be thankful for in 2023 and beyond

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving to all Snake aficionados out there! We are discussing what the Diamondbacks lineup could look like in 2027 per Baseball America. We are also talking about what we have to be thankful for and what all D-backs fans should be thankful for in 2023. Also, what is each Diamondback player or coach bringing to our Thanksgiving potluck?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/200Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule 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/Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.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!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits or Creams. Go to https://zenleafdispensaries.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local Zen Leaf Dispensary. 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.

Hello and happy Thanksgiving to you all. This is the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I'm your mayor of Thanksgiving. This man next to me is your vice mayor of Thanksgiving. One and only Thunder Drumstick himself, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, happy Thanksgiving to you, sir. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.

I hope you have a wonderful day with your family. I hope everybody out there has a wonderful day with your families. That's what this is all about. Should you be cooking right now, Derek? We probably should be cooking right now. I'm not saying we. Yeah, we. Right.

You're the dad in your household. Clearly, that's your responsibility. I told you, we abandoned turkey this year in my household. We went to ribs. And ribs, slow cooking. They're easy to take care of. I'm going to throw them on the grill right before we eat them.

It's going to be fine. It's going to be great. It's a big upgrade there. It really is. It really is. And let me tell you, because ham is also popular during this time of the year. Yes.

Ribs are inexplicably cheap. So, hey, go get some of that meat. Like, don't let anybody tell you what you need to have as a main dish on Thanksgiving. You are the, you are the master of your own domain. I mean, I will tell you that it shouldn't be turkey. That's just my, I mean, see, that's what he says. See, I'm not going to shame you for turkey.

I will shame you for ham, though. I hate ham and I don't want ham. So don't bring ham over to my house. But I like him. Yeah, see, this is where we disagree. Ham is better than turkey. Everyone knows this, Derek. God damn it.

We were supposed to be friendly with each other. And here we're less than five minutes in and I hate you. I think you're wrong. But I will say that there's some things I don't Hey, when it comes to taking a look at the Arizona Diamondbacks future, we know yesterday that they secured the big trade to bring Ahuania Suarez, a Huene, A Hewanios, whatever, you guys are your ridiculous pronunciation. That's like Dr. Neil El Trash.

But, of course, the Diamondbacks did secure a big piece of their, I guess, short-term future. But looking at their long-term future is fairly interesting. Baseball America put out a projected. lineup for the Arizona Diamondbacks 2027 starting lineup. I think we have a look at this. I like this, Jesse. There's some things I like

here. And then there's one thing I don't and I will jump over this table and fight you over. As you can see here, we have at catcher, Gabriel Moreno. We have at first base, Gino Grover playing first base. At second, we still have Catelle Marte at third. Tommy Troy playing third base shortstop Jordan Lawler left field Alec Thomas center field Drew Jones

right field Corbyn Carroll DH the Hispanic Titanic Ivan Melendez noticeably missing here is Jerry P which will make me jump over this table and attack you they do have here in the starting pitching lineup they have Zach Gallant

as their number one Brandon fought as their number two Tommy Henry three starting pitcher number four Ryan Nelson and starting pitcher number You Men Lin with Kevin Ginkle, our guy, the Gink, closing games out for this team. What do you think about this lineup? Well, number one, I think that the idea of trying to predict what the Diamondbacks lineup and rotation will look like in 2027 is an absolutely outrageous task.

And it's just so funny to me that like baseball America is really like right at the top of my list for, you know, their evaluations of prospects. And like they really know their stuff. FI have a subscription and I'm an avid reader of theirs. But this just seems like just a hilariously like impossible task for them for such a reputable outlet to take on. But that is kind of their specialty like you said. Yeah, their specialty is seeing the future. Seeing the future.

They might as well wield their powers and tell us with the Diamondback's rotation it'll look like an opening day four years from now. Can I get the glottos numbers is all I want to go? Can I get the Arizona lottery numbers? The one, my biggest beef here, well, maybe this isn't my biggest. beef. But I do think it's fascinating that Zach Gallin is listed as the Diamondbacks number one starter, given that he is only under contract through the 20-25 season. What are they suggesting? They seem to be suggesting that the Diamond Vax are going to extend

Zach Gallen. Let us dream, Jesse. Let us dream. I think is a loftier projection than just about anything else that you see on this list. Yeah, we've talked about that. It's a little bit hard to see that coming together for the devax with Gallen being Scott Boris Klein and all these things we talked about this before. But yeah, I mean, from a position player standpoint, there are some interesting things to note here. If we can pull it up one more time, it is interesting that they have Drew Jones playing center field.

They have Alec Thomas moving to left field. That's not really a decision I could ever see the Diamondbacks actually making, if I'm being totally honest, because Alec Thomas, I mean, there's certainly still some potential there offensively. I don't think he's necessarily a finished product. but he brings you so much defensively right now and that's where a lot of his value comes from. If you make Alec Thomas a left fielder instead of a center fielder,

I just don't think his bat really plays there particularly well. I think you'd be more likely to move Drew Jones, a guy who theoretically there's a long way to go, but a guy whose bat really could play in a corner outfield spot someday, you'd probably rather move that guy to a corner spot than Alec Thomas. But again, we're so far out that who knows, right? This is breaking Jesse's brain because he just can't permit him. to have fun here with this or any conversation we're going to have on this Thanksgiving

episode because no stats or facts can back any of this up and that really bothers this man. But Alec Thomas definitely has something beyond just the ability to play center field, right? And that's the thing I think I agree with you 100% on is I don't know, no matter what Drew Jones's, you know, abilities are, you know, what his athleticism is. there is an ability to specifically play at Chase Field that I've gone on and on about. I've talked about it a whole bunch, but it's just not an easy place to play.

And I feel like there's more to it. There's like having a higher baseball IQ when it comes to like launch angles and where balls are going to land and how you're going to have to play them off of the wall or which ones you're going to be able to get to. And Alec just does that so well that much like what you were saying, I have a hard time seeing him playing anywhere other than center field,

no matter how good Drew Jones is in the outfield. Yeah, I mean, at the same time, I do think, you know, technically just going off of scouting reports, I think Drew Jones projects is a better centerfielder than Alex Thomas. That's crazy. That's crazy. Which is crazy to think about. I mean, people seem to think that you could put Drew Jones in center field at Chasefield right now,

and he would probably, like, hold us home pretty well. There's obviously a long way to go offensively there. So just a long way to go in general for Drew Jones, given some of the struggles he's had early on in his. his in his very young pro career and the number of injuries that he went through this year as well. But at this point, it seems like there's still some optimism that he can figure things out in the long term. And, you know, he just spent so much time on the injured list this season.

And it was just kind of one thing right after another for him. Numbers at the end of the year do not exactly inspire you. But there's a lot of time. He's still super young. So, you know, we'll see what comes of that. I do think it's interesting switching over to the starting or. rotation. There's just a lot of a lot of guys that were already pretty familiar with here. Gallin, as we said earlier, Brandon fought at number two, Tommy Henry, Ryan Nelson, and then

Yumen Lynn, a very well-regarded pitching prospect down in AA at the number five starter spot. On paper, this looks like a pretty poor starting rotation, I think, especially if Zach Allen isn't in it, then it's a little rough. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, I think moving forward, that this is one of the bigger questions that the Diamondbacks as a franchiser facing is if you do lose Zach Allen in a couple years, how do you piece together a starting rotation, especially as Merrill Kelly continues to age? We don't know. You know, he might really get paid a decent amount of money after his deal ends in 2025 as well. So there's a lot of unknowns here moving forward and this list of arms doesn't exactly look like a top tier starting rotation. To be fair, though, baseball America does

have to project this lineup out with players that are currently in their system because like you said. Yeah. If it's an impossible feat to try to guess this based on who's, you know, projected within their system to be part of their starting lineup. How in the world could you even begin to factor it free agents and trades and things like that? They factored in gallon, didn't they?

They factored in gallon. Yeah, but they're not like putting. They're not like from a different team onto the diamond backs. Like I would imagine none of the teams had Yoshinobu Yamamoto on their list. Correct. Yeah, well, none of the teams are going to, I think, have anybody that's not actually right now part of their organization as part of this kind of projected lineup. I mean, that would be truly outrageous, right?

That would be for baseball. They're going to come out and just be like, all right, Blake Snell in 2020. Yeah, he's on the Cubs. He's on the Cubs. He's on the CBOX opening day starter. Yeah. Gino Groover is an interesting prospect. He has him here at first base.

Baseball America also just came out with their updated Diamondbacks top 10 prospects list. Nick Picoro from the Arizona Republic does that for them, does a great job. Gino Grover is interesting. He came out and really had a solid introduction to pro ball, a guy who just really seems to have a feel-to-hit, a feel-to-hit. And the potential to maybe tap into some power

as well, 15 to 20 homers, something like that seems very much within reason. I think Nick's comp for Grover was Wilmer Flores, who of course was the best hitter on the San Francisco Giants this year. One of the best hitters in baseball this year. year. Yeah, I think Groover has potential to be, you know, kind of a fast riser through the system. It'd be interesting if he's able to play third base instead of instead of first. I think that's sort of where the debaques would maybe like to see him wind up, but there's not a ton of mobility

there. It doesn't seem like. So if he winds up at first when it's all set and done, that wouldn't totally shock. Elite name. Let's just talk about elite name lineup. Yeah. In general. Oh, yeah, yeah. You're absolutely right. Gino Groover. Tommy Troy. Jordan Lawler, Corby Carroll, Drew Jones, come on, from top to bottom, Gabby, Moreno, Catelle Marte. There's not a, Alec Thomas is your weakest name in that lineup. That is a pretty dull name. It's your weakest name in there. And that's our young king.

Sorry, Alec, if you're watching this. Yeah, no. You are, you know, of course, all hail. I mean, I think he would, he would own up to that, right? Like, Alec, I guess it's better than his long-lost cousin Alex Thomas, a.k.a.a. the guy that he is mistaken for very frequently. All the time.

There are people who ask questions, too, about Alex Thomas, like to Tori Lavella or whatnot over and over again. But I don't think he actually has a cousin named Alex. Maybe he does. I can't confirm or deny that. We did celebrate our Young King's 30-day anniversary of when the Alec Thomas game occurred. But I believe, if my math is correct, that this Saturday, I believe, would be when Alec Thomas officially declared Citizens Bank

Park property of the Arizona Diamondbacks? Is that how that would work out? Well, so that was on, that was two days ago, right? That we did that. Yeah. So that was Monday. So they would have traveled, you know, they would have lost Tuesday, traveled to Philly Wednesday, and then one game six, Thursday, game seven Friday.

So tomorrow. So tomorrow would be Black Friday. Yeah. The one month anniversary. As the one month anniversary of Citizens Bank Park being owned by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Most importantly, his highness, Sir Alec Thomas. There you go. See, and that's why his name, that's why he's been the young king this whole time,

is because Sir Alec, much like Sir Alec Guinness, sounds correct. And it's Sir Alec Thomas. Maybe now you can remember it that way. It's not Alex. God. But, of course, shout out to baseball America for doing their best to see into the future because that's always a murky, murky situation at best. But I will tell you when it comes to your future, especially your financial future.

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wishes. Of course, also make sure you subscribe there as well. We have a lot to be thankful for, and I know me and this guy specifically have a lot to be thankful for, but I know Diamondbacks fans have plenty to be thankful for in 2023, right?

I mean, what is what is season 2023 ended up being for this franchise, for this city, for all of us? Right. I mean, of course, we have to be thankful for that run in the playoffs. That was one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced in my entire life. Yeah. I mean, I obviously, I mean, I was around for the 2001 World Series,

but my life wasn't exactly completely revolving around this baseball team. You were rooting for the Yankees, no? Uh, no. No, no, remember. How much do you remember, Jesse? I went into that series thinking that it was a win-win situation for me. And then I very quickly, much like most people in the world, became a Yankees hater during that series. But you have to forgive me.

Yeah. Yeah, I got really mad at them. Like, I really got angry with them because if you watched that series, you knew that, like, it felt like at one point, the dimebacks were just going to steamroll the Yankees. It felt like it was going to be a sweep. And it still felt like it was going to be that, even though they kept giving up games late in late innings. But, yeah, this run, this bringing this community together. with everybody that we've met, all the friends we've made this year. This was an incredible year.

But the run in the playoff specifically was amazing. Just absolutely amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, where do you start with how great 2023 was? Good year to be a diamond back. Start with Gabbyel Moreno. Start with Lordus Gueriel Jr. Start with my hair getting turned purple and me getting declared.

The mayor of Phoenix, Jesse. I'm thankful for all that. That's the memory that I think I'm most thankful for. No, it really struck me when we, We tweeted out that clip of Alec Thomas that you mentioned earlier on the one month anniversary that happened, Alec Thomas, this huge pinch hit two run homer against Craig Kimbril that really kind of put the debacks on the map in that NLCS and was an enormous part of them being able to make that comeback.

And I mean, we put out this tweet and I think it got like 2,000 likes or something like that within a few hours. And there were so many people quote tweeting it about, you know, being there. in the sand. You don't have the tweet. He was just talking about the tweet. Derek was waiting for me to put the tweet on the screen. I'm sorry.

I was okay. Go ahead. I wasn't expecting the tweet to be on the screen. Just calm down over there. Jacob. Mike down. All right. I was like the man talks.

Look to you. Doesn't mean anything. Go ahead. Jesse. Finish your story. I have to start over now. I'm not thankful for this whole situation. Just the, how many people were, you know,

either they're in the stands to witness that moment or. Or just got to witness that moment from their couch. Yeah, we were all witnesses. Yeah, even a month later, like just the amount of memories and the weight that that moment carried. And that moment, as big as it was for the debacks, that NLCS was still just almost a footnote in their postseason run as a whole. Like, there were so many different moments like that throughout the playoff run that allowed them to go as deep as they did. And yes, they fell short ultimately, right? They didn't play particularly well in the World Series.

We've talked about it a lot. I think they were, I think they held their own against the Rangers more than a four to one final tally in that series would lead you to believe. That's fair. It wasn't a great series for them overall, obviously. But the fact that they were there in the first place, the fact that the Diamondbacks were probably the biggest story, one of the biggest stories in baseball throughout the month of October.

I mean, these are things that, you know, when we started doing this a couple years ago, we're not even remotely. You know, I think, you know, we would have been maybe pleasantly surprised to see the Diamondbacks make the playoffs within the next couple years

after we launched this show a couple years ago. And to see them go this far, this early, I mean, the Diamondbacks were one of the best stories in baseball in 2023. And there's really no other way to say it than that for me. When we talk about how thankful Diamondbacks fans should be for the playoff run and how deep it went, right?

There was a time where I said that the Diamondbacks going to make the playoffs early on in the season that Danielle said they were going to make the playoffs early in the season that that there that was laughable. I mean, I believe everybody on set kind of laughed at Danielle saying it. I'm sure Jesse said I was a madman for even, you know, slightly believing it. But we knew that this team was going to be capable of, of achieving somewhere near the wind total. But we questioned who else wouldn't be there and we questioned how they would really do it. And to be honest, they fell right in the range of the wind total. We thought they would be around. Yeah, it's not like the DEVACs won 95. Yeah, we said, I think I said 83 to 85 with my

preseason prediction, which is insane, right? But that at the time did not feel like if they hit 83 games, 84 games, that that was going to be enough with the way last year's playoffs broke down to get them actually in there to make that run. So I think that just not only making it to the playoffs, you know, I mean, again, there's just, there's a lot of things. And it's might sound like loser talk because it's like how do we look at the bright side of not winning the world series but going as far as they did well one we didn't expect to be there so holy shit that was fun and two you cannot say enough about not only the way it brought this team together throughout that run but the experience that it brought to the young guys that were such a big part of it like alec thomas like corbin carroll yeah like gabby more you know guys that are going that that didn't have a chance to ever experience that and we're looking to the likes of you know, Longoria and Tommy Pham for that experience for maybe that mentorship when they were going through these playoffs. And now they, they kind of have, they do have that experience now of what it takes to not only win in the playoffs, but they, you know, again, like what you were saying,

like being down in that NLCS, having things look so bleak at a period of time in game, you know, what was it, game four, you know, essentially where things became, there was a pivotal turnaround there. They ended up losing game five, which would have, you know, lost the series for them, they not won game for. And I think that's the thing is sometimes when you have a chance to be in a situation where you realize no matter how how bleak things looked, we won, we made it, we did it, we did the thing that you believe in yourself, you at least have that confidence to feel like as long as we can make the playoffs, as long as we can get into those meaningful games late in the season, we can make something happen. And that's invaluable. You know what I mean? It's kind of like,

it's kind of like what I've said sometimes about the coaching staff, about the experience that those other guys bring that you don't factor into the contracts of it in having a longoria or a Tommy fan but it's it's just it's thankful to have this team be where they're at now when this is just the beginning of that window opening up for them to be competitive and and make playoffs and have this kind of run thankful all diamond back should be thankful for a closer paul seawald and having that guy that came in at the end of last year it's going to be here next year that's going to help this team close games out and have that consistency at the end of, you know, in high leverage situations,

the way that he and Kevin Ginkle brought that just warm feeling of security at the end of games for this team, even though especially with Paul Seawald, it wasn't always easy. Sometimes it was more exciting than it needed to be, but it was still just, it's still such a great thing for this organization to be set up in the way they are going into 2024.

On August 11th, the debacks were 57 and 55. They did not look remotely like a team that was heading to the playoffs. That was the point where they, I mean, the whole thing had just fallen apart, right? In July and in early August, they lost 25 out of 32 games, that whole thing. And at that point, according to Fangraphs, they had a 13.4% chance to make the playoffs. And they had a 0.8% chance to win the league championship series, which is exactly what happened. It was a, according to Fangraves, a less than 1% chance of happening. Oh, my God.

And that's exactly. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for how wrong computers can be, right? There you go. They know, that's why they're not playing on computers. It wasn't wrong, though. It wasn't zero percent. FanGraph said it was possible.

You got to give them subcredit for that, right? We just made it in that less than 1% window. Most people probably at the time would have been like, oh, I think it's even less than that. It's the Diamondbacks win the NL pennant. Yeah, I'm going to take like 0.0.0% or something like that. But yeah, you're right. I mean, all of the players that allowed the Diamondbacks to get here, that's what makes it such a good time to be a D-BACS fan is, you know, we've talked a lot about it, how this was

maybe the beginning of something as much as it was the end of something when their season, when their season did ultimately end in early November, Corbyn Carroll being, you know, extended and here for a very, very long time. Thankful for that contract extension. Definitely thankful for that contract extension taking place before the season. That was my newsletter topic yesterday was just looking back on that extension and how Mike Hazen talked to the GM meetings about how he's already pretty happy that the devax did that and he already seen he already feels that the team is reaping the rewards of that just knowing the fan base knowing that Corby and Carroll is going to be a diamond back for a long time. He is under team control through 2031 instead of 2028 as a result of that deal. And yeah, I mean, Gabby Moreno, we talked about.

him earlier. Thankful for that trade. That trade, which happened about a little less than a year ago. At the time, I think it was, it seemed like a really good move for both sides where depending on how Varsho and Moreno did, you know, it could kind of swing one way or another. And in year one, at least for the Dback side of things, I mean, it was a, it was clearly the right move for them. I mean, Varsho, I think, still is a bright future ahead.

But for them, there's no question. I mean, the Dbacks, if they don't do that trade, there's no way they even make the playoffs in the first place, especially given that Carson Kelly missed the first couple months of the year. Like, they would have been in a really, really tough spot from a catching standpoint if they hadn't done that. And Lordus Gereo, you know, really, he had his ups and downs. He was very streaky, but he was a big part of the debacks offense this season as well.

I am thankful, Jesse, that at no point during the postseason run, especially when they won the NLCS, that I didn't get drunk on champagne and take my shirt off. I'm thankful for that. Yeah, I hate to break it to you, Derek, but I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened. Oh, that did that. Oh, no. Oh, no. Did my mom see it?

Jesse. I just need to know my mom see. I hope my mom didn't see that. God. Yeah, there's a lot. Do we have a screenshot of that? No, we do not have a screenshot of that. We absolutely do not have a screenshot of it.

No. Yeah. We wanted to have a screenshot, but Derek, Derek couldn't allow it. But it does, it does still exist on the internet. It's somewhere out there. You can still find it. Yeah, you can still watch that. video somewhere out there. But speaking of Thanksgiving and things we're thankful for, once again,

we're thankful for all of you guys being here here right now, of course. We know the holiday season is here. So a great way for you guys to go out there and get some gifts for your loved ones is to get some Arizona Lottery holiday scratchers. Holiday scratches from Arizona Lottery make the last minute shopping easy, which is something this guy is guilty of all the time. And he needs ideas. So this is a good time for us to share these ideas with Jesse. They're a perfect gift, though. Let's be honest. It's a little dangerous for me, though, because, like, that's a pretty easy out right there.

That's so easy for you. Like, there's a Circle K right by your house. You know, you can go get them there. I'm still going to be pacing around the Scottsdale Mall at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. I think you love it. I think it's a great backup plan. Yeah, that is a great backup plan for sure. Scratchers.

Just go buy your gifts early. Don't even. Don't start. You cannot reason with this man when it comes to buying gifts early, especially when holiday scratchers make it so easy for. him, Jacob. It's ridiculous. So now Jesse has no reason to even try to shop before Christmas Eve. He'll be out there getting holiday scratchers for everybody on his list. And you can't too. Let's be honest. Sometimes it's a great gift. That's the best part about it. It's not a bad gift.

You're not stopping and getting the like, what is it? Like the drugstore like knockoff toys, you know, the ones that look like they're from Encanto, but they're like from, you know, discanto or something like that, right? Don't get those. Go get holiday scratchers for everybody on your list. You can win up to half a million dollars, and we talked about it yesterday, but if I get you a scratcher and you win a half million dollars, you have to break me off some. Most Christmas gifts don't have the potential to pay out like that.

Yeah, to pay back out to you that you got them the gift. If I give my brother a wallet, there's nothing in it. It's not. If he puts 40 in there, he's not giving you 10 because you gave him a place for him to put his money. Right. So go out and buy your holiday scratchers today. Of course, another great gift this holiday season. Shady Rays. It's gear built to last premium polarized sunglasses. Everybody that lives in

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But it just isn't a great look when I like stack them on top of my existing glasses I've tried it and some people just don't like it I've gotten some weird look So with those with those shoes you need a cooler pair of sunglasses I know probably need to do better than stacking glasses on my face That's for sure maybe maybe I'll maybe I'll do that you need to try harder, but I did want to talk about a fictional scenario with you where you and I have

Thanksgiving dinner with the Arizona Diamondbacks. This was a fun tweet that came up. I think it was in regards to the Yankees, but the general idea here is what are Diamondbacks players and coaching staff bringing to your Thanksgiving dinner that you invite them to?

Shout out Stanzo on Twitter for that. Shout out Stanzo on Twitter for that. And of course, we all know, there's no doubt in my mind that Tori Lovolo is making the turkey. Can we all agree that Tori is making and bringing the turkey? I think Tori is a little bit too classy for turkey, though, right? Wow. Oh, here is this turkey slander again.

He's bringing a much nicer meat than the most generic. Do you want to have him bring ham? Is it a ham that he's bringing? Because you're so fond of ham. I think that would be more his speed. Like a spiral ham. But he's going to let Paul Seewald cut it. Yeah, I could definitely.

Yeah, the dads are getting together. The dads, for sure. They're going to do that thing where they hang out in the backyard, by the barbecue even though nothing's actually on the grill. With a beer and beers. Yeah. Just talking. Yeah.

Just chopping it up. But no, in regards to Thanksgiving, it's definitely the turkey. I'm with Derek. It's the turkey. It's the turkey. Is he frying the turkey or is he smoking the turkey? He's definitely doing something extra. He strikes me as a.

He brined it. He brined it and then cooked it. And then he's going to tell you everything he did do it. He's going to tell you how he like put freshly cut like garlic underneath the skin everywhere. And he did all this stuff. Maybe if it's especially elaborate, I could see. Here's the thing, Jesse is going to eat a slice of it, no matter how much work he put into it and still be disappointed because it's just turkey.

Probably. Probably. I still don't think Brian is a word. I swear to God, it's a process. Sue feeding is also a process. But, okay, but we need to move on to, like, the younger guys, right? So, Corbin, Corbyn. You had a disagreement about Corbyn Carroll.

Because I think he's bringing the green bean casserole with the onions on top. It's easy. It's traditional. He's going to put more work in than the other young guys. guys himself, 23-year-old guys, like Alec Thomas and Gabby. Casserol is just like, it's kind of like a dish for, I don't know, I feel like an older individual would make a casserole. No, no, no.

Like, you don't go to like the house of somebody who's in their early 20s and they're making you a casserole for dinner. Corbin respects tradition. He's going to respect the game. I almost had. Have you met Corbyn Carol, but he's met Corbyn Carroll. And his personality strikes me to somebody that's just going to make like, like, like a solid side dish.

Yeah. Corbyn Carroll is a bit of a self-declared foodie. He was on foul territory yesterday, and he talked about how he has, like, I think he has like a map on his phone with all of the best places to eat on the road. And he talked about how he wanted to assemble,

like, a list of great food places for young players. Oh, we can, I can help with that. We can get together and do this. All I'm saying is I don't think you're going to see, like,

a whole bunch of cassero places on the list. I think Corbyn's a little bit classy A good way to judge you. What is? Linder and green bean casserole. It's ridiculous. I actually really like I actually like green bean casserole.

But you're right. What do you phrase it? Come on. Yeah. Respect the pilgrims. But I will say that Corbyn is a big sushi guy. And he did talk up a particular sushi place, like a hole in the wall place. I think in San Francisco.

I don't remember the name of it. But I feel like Corbin would maybe find some great sushi to bring to the gathering. So you're saying Thanksgiving for this team is just going to be just non- Thanksgiving foods. He doesn't get it. Like we're making them make something and you're just having them stop and pick up sushi on the way to Thanksgiving. But they're just, I don't know. I feel like. Corby and Carol respects tradition more than to do that. If he's a foodie, he's bringing some elevated form of sweet potatoes where the marshmallow on top isn't

marshmallow. It's like marshmallow foam. I was going to go, Gabby is the sweet potato cassero. Were you? Yeah. See, Alec is bringing plastic cups, right? Can we all agree? Alex is bringing the cup and like the minimum and I don't know. There's been so much Alec Thomas slander in this show.

I didn't feel like we were doing that. Like the most boring name on the team. Now we're saying he's going to bring plastic cups to Thanksgiving. I just feel I just feel like he's the kind of guy that like he wants to contribute but he's definitely not cooking something. He's definitely not

cooking something, right? So it's either the rolls which will still need to be heated up by somebody else at our house or the plastic cups and cutlery and whatnot, right? That seems fair for the young guy. What about, what about like a, maybe like a vegetable tray? Is that a little bit?

Ooh, like a snack platter. Yeah, like a snack platter for like pre-gaming a little bit. Okay, does that give him a little bit more credit? He stopped it like sprouts or something the day before. Yeah. What do you go? Well, I was going to I was going to go a different direction here. You mentioned rolls. Yes.

It's got to be the new guy. He doesn't know anybody on the team. A. Huania Soros. Auerre is going to bring the rolls because it is something everybody will eat. He doesn't know people yet. He was just invited. He was like, shit, I got to bring something. Yeah, maybe he's the Cups guy.

I don't know. And we're letting him have a pass on that because we know we just invited him, right? You're not expecting someone you invited last night to Thanksgiving dinner today to actually make something, right? That would be insane. But I feel like the true last ditch. effort, like if you're attending some sort of Thanksgiving gathering or Friendsgiving gathering, is you just go to the supermarket and you buy a pie. You just buy like a pre-made pie.

That's also good. We need dessert. It's also good. And not everyone's got time to do the whole homemade thing. Jerry is bringing the homemade pie. Right. Jerry is bringing the homemade pie. There's nobody on this team that would make homemade pie better than Jerry.

Here's the thing is you're going to think his mom made it or something like that. And then you're going to find out that he slaved for six hours the day. before making making the crust from scratch like out of flour and the art crackers the intangibles he does have the intangibles all the intangibles he does the little things that you don't see that's why he would put all that love and work into it he is the homemade pie he's like he wore an apron while making it and got a little bit of like flour chef jerry yeah yeah chef jerry excellent leadership qualities there at all it makes sense Christian walker's bringing the alcohol right like he's bringing bourbon for sure. An excessive amount of the hard liquor. So here's where this is, here's where this gets

interesting because Jesse mentioned that Tori would have something other than turkey. No, I think Tori's going traditional. I think Christian Walker is showing up with Prime rib. Yeah. I'm pretty on more of that too. That was my thought. First of all, it's red meat, which we know that that's Christian Walker's majority of his diet, right? Like it's just straight raw red meat. But yes, prime rib. He's going to want to like kind of class it up, just like he does with the bourbon, right? People are drinking in Kores lights in the clubhouse. He's like, hold my,

you know, whistle pig, basically is what he's saying. I hold my beer, but it's a, it's a fancy whiskey. Anyway, but yeah, no, like, of course, yeah, like, that's why, yeah, that's absolutely what he would do. I still think he's going to bring an excessive amount of alcohol. Like, he stopped at Bevmo on the way home or on the way there and got, like, the full,

oh, there was a coupon for you buy, spend 75, he's bought $75 worth of liquor to get like the $10. Yeah, he's the beer and liquor. Yeah. But gallon is showing up with the wine. Gallon is Gallin is showing up with the wine. I do think that's pretty hard.

It's going to be an expensive bottle of wine. Isn't it like high class? But one, like he wouldn't have thought to bring For this classic sweater over the collared shirt. Got his glasses. He's not bringing two buck chuck from Trader Joe's, right? He's actually bringing a good.

It would be a nice spot. You think it's a like the one that they gave Miguel Cabrera in Oakland. There you go. You think it's, you think it's a white wine or? No. It's a red one. It's a red one.

It's a red one. Yeah, I think I agree. And its label is completely in a different language. Not a single English word on the label. What else we got? Catelle? Cotell showing up on time. Guys?

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I just feel like he has better things to do than come to our part. David Peralta would have showed up on time. No, definitely not. Definitely not. Anybody else we missed? Anybody else you got over there on your list? Merrill?

Merrill? What's Merrill bringing, Jesse? I feel I don't know like a quality just a solid quality side dish yeah like Matt like you gotta have mashed potatoes yeah you can do match potatoes for sure mashed potatoes from Merrill and sweet potato castle from Gabby yeah yeah

they match potatoes that's that is Merrill Kelly right like they don't get the credit they deserve they don't get the credit they deserve but mashed potatoes are like the glue that holds the team together are you kidding me Merrill Kelly was absolutely the glue at times for this starting rotation.

He was the best consistent starter for this team. And he just does it without any fanfare. Like you even said earlier, right? We always talk about Zach Gallen's contract, you know, being up. We never talk about Merrill Kelly's contract being up. And at times Kelly has been better than Zach Gallagher. You know, so like, yeah. And mashed potatoes are just incredible.

They need a little gravy to go with them. Brandon Fott brings the gravy. Maybe Brandon brings the gravy. Yeah. What about Jake McCarthy? Like, he's showing up with Red Bull or like an energy drink. Someone is coming up with a copious number of energy drinks. Yeah, Jake McGarly brings the Red Bull.

He definitely brought like whatever the mixers were. Him and Christian Walker had a discussion about what like hard liquors were being brought. What he needed to bring? Yeah, Jake McGrathly is going to bring sodas and be like, ah. Yeah. He forgot to get something and he went to the store on the way. I mean, I feel like most of these guys are too busy to actually do the cooking themselves, except Jerry P. Who we know slaved over that pie all day long.

But we do want to say we are thankful for this Arizona Diamondbacks team and all of the fun that they brought us not only this year, but this postseason run. But we also wanted to discuss a little bit about what we're thankful for around here at PHNX. I know I'm very thankful for the tireless work of Jesse Friedman and all he did during that postseason run. How time you said something. I know, right? This is like this is going to be gross. I'm going to vomit in my mouth a couple of times while doing all of this. But I'll choke it back and say some nice things about people.

But Jesse put in a lot of tireless nights, a lot of time working. I mean, I know you also had the time of your life going all these ballparks and doing all the stuff you did. But it wasn't easy. And I was there with you as far as like the road that you had. And we appreciate all of your hard work, even though sometimes we only got to talk to you five minutes or 10 minutes at a night after a game was over. But it was tremendous for me to see you get to do all of that stuff. and just to grow as a journalist as you have over the past year. Well, I have to, I mean, I guess I'm obligated to say that I guess I appreciate you too.

But it just feels it feels completely disingenuous now. Gosh. But I'm going to take a hard right turn from that. And talk about Patrick Lyons. He was a big part of our D-BACs postseason coverage. I cannot say enough about that. Yeah, basically, basically left his family and moved to Arizona for a month to help us cover the D-BACs post-season run. because Sean was off doing his all city thing and we were a little bit short on on people around here and Jesse still getting his mail did a great job.

Yeah. Yeah. Patrick did redirect all of his mail to my townhouse and we're still we're still working out some arrangements there. But yeah, we could say we're thankful for everybody around this office. Can't say enough about Saul and ESPO and everything that they have done not only for us as a company, but just helping this whole. thing we do exist. So those guys are tremendous and they put in so much work to keep things running around here. So can't thank them enough, not to mention the number of shows they do and everything they do. Jacob, our head of production, we thank you a tremendous amount. We're so thankful for Jacob because we've had a lot of personnel changes around here. It hasn't always been

easy at times, especially during this playoff run that we went on. So it was just great to have Jacob, you know, being here for us and doing everything that, you know, I think he at one point was rocking his baby to sleep with one hand and cutting videos for us on his phone with the other, at least with the laptop. Damon dog, obviously, Damon, just again for all of the hard work that he put in. Wolf Wolf, Woff, Woff, to Damon, bark, bark. The people's producer. But yeah, I mean, honestly, it took a whole team to get all of this stuff up so quickly.

Michaela Perkins did just such an excellent job on social media for us and just everybody around here. We're so thankful for all the new faces. Danielle Cortez, Eric Ruby, just how our little company here continues to grow. all the new pieces we've added. But really, for me personally, I'm just thankful for this family here at PHNX, including every single one of you.

You guys have made this, honestly, the most enjoyable job I've ever had in my entire life. I just can't imagine doing anything that has brought me as much joy as this. And you guys, the community, the Arizona Diamondbacks community that has created because of our show and because you guys have all decided to come here

and stop by and give us your time, it has been an incredible community to be a part of. Yeah, it really does blow my mind that like, wow, some of these people, they tune into our show like every single day. Elizabeth, they listen to us on audio every single day. She's got so much to do. New York. Wow. If it was big of like a Diamondbacks fan as I was growing up, I don't know if there was any show I would ever listen to every single day.

So some of you amaze me with your willingness to put up with us on a near daily basis. But yeah, I mean, you guys are ultimately what, what allows. us to do what we do the the fact that you know we're hopefully not just sitting here talking to ourselves every day um and uh yeah it means so much just the support that we've received we've grown a lot throughout this year in particular with the debacks going on the run that they did um and yeah if you're you know if you're newer to the show we um you know we're excited to get to know you more in the chat a little bit and uh you know hopefully uh hopefully we can get to know you better as as the months go on here I'm thankful that Jesse became one of our local baseball riders Association of America Heroes here in town.

There you go. I'm thankful that I got crowned mayor of the city of Phoenix by Heidi Watney on an episode of Apple. Whatever. Apple TV Plus. I don't know. Max. Apple TV Pro Max. But it's been so much fun.

And we thank you guys again so much for being a part of all of this. We just, you guys built this. we were just a part of it. So we appreciate you in the Discord. All of our diehard members, all of you guys so much. But this is, this is, it feels like a goodbye, like a sign up. We'll be back tomorrow at 1 o'clock. And then Monday, you know, we do. It's, you know, you're the snake. It's, uh, you know, all that stuff. And it's always Monday. It's always mailback. Jesse's going to kill mailbag Mondays, one of these days, by the way, so you guys need to make sure you do everything to not let this man murder mailbag Mondays. But I'm thankful.

for everybody here that helps us get this show going and doing what we do. But again, we thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate all of our partners too because our guy, Max, who we didn't mention, deserves his flowers as well. He does an incredible job at not only finding new partners for us to work with, but, you know, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I get to talk about weed a lot on this show. And to be honest, it makes it really easy for me to talk about things I love like weed. Speaking of which Thanksgiving might not be over for you yet, and you might not remember what I was telling you earlier in the week.

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Well, Jesse, again, thankful for you as a co-host. Thankful for all of you guys out there. I mean it. I'm just surly and mean all the time. But I do appreciate all of you guys very. much. Shut up, idiot. Anyway, there he is. He's back. He's back, baby.

All of that. All right, got all that gushiness out, you morons. But anyway, we love you guys. We appreciate you so much. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Father Overlord Jacob is at Fage. No, he's not. He's at Jacob underscore Franklin for. Because he's the fourth best Jacob Franklin in existence.

But of course, our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs and all roads doly. to at P HNX underscore sports on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We thank you guys again. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We appreciate your time and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Tori Lovolo, let's Paul C.Walt, cut the ham.