PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks fifth starter candidates off to strong start in spring training action

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

With four spring training games in the books, we take a look at the first turn through the rotation for several Diamondbacks fifth starter candidates. We also discuss Jordan Lawlar’s monstrous homer on Monday, Blaze Alexander’s early impact and your mailbag questions. Finally, we touch on Cody Bellinger’s surprising deal with the Chicago Cubs.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://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 over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Let Someburros cater your next meal big or small! Order online or find one near you by visiting someburros.comWhen 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.

Welcome in to the PHNX Debax podcast. My name is Jesse Friedman. And today, I am not joined by Derek Montia once again, but I am joined by a familiar face around here. Once again, joining the show. It's our esteemed guest, Patrick Lyons. Patrick, welcome, welcome back. When you call somebody esteemed,

they are forced to cancel any doctor's appointments that they may have. conversations with a lawyer. They just have to wipe their schedule clean. And I have done that for you today because you've called me esteemed. And so I am here here to serve you in the Diamondbacks community to talk to some baseball. And I think we're going to do the same thing tomorrow. Somehow we've wrangled Patrick into doing back-to-back days here on the show. So Derek will be back on Wednesday.

We'll be back here with Patrick tomorrow. So be sure to join us then. Once again, at 6 o'clock. We'll be at 6 o'clock throughout the week. and then on Friday we'll be back to 1 o'clock. It kind of depends on how things work out with the Diamondback spring training schedule. But let's go ahead and talk some Diamondbacks baseball here, Patrick.

The Diamondbacks lost in brutal fashion to the Oakland days here today. A final score of 9 to 8. The Diamondbacks lose on a walk-off home run by Drew Lugbauer. I'm probably probably messing that up. Patrick, you're the baseball. baseball encyclopedia among us. I don't know if you have the full-on back story on this guy. Well, the Jew Lou Bauer story is a crazy one. Now, his family originally emanates from, no, I don't know anything about you. It's a nice guy. But that's one of the wonderful things.

It's not wonderfully awful. It's just wonderful. These guys that just come up out of nowhere. They're double A guys, high A, whatever. Journeyman players that come up and they make the difference in, they get a walkoff late in the game at home at Ho Hocum Park. So that's good for the entire Louvreower family. They will never forget this day. Yeah, it was kind of interesting. I mean, today's game ending on a walk-off. And then yesterday's Diamondbacks White Sox game at Saw River Fields.

We, of course, weren't live after this one because it was a Sunday game. But the Diamondbacks nearly threw a combined no-hitter came within a few outs of throwing a combined no-hitter in a spring training game. So, you know, I mean, nothing beats. The storylines are immaculate, Patrick, with a, you know, a combined no-hitter in a spring training game, a walk-off win in a spring training game. You know, these are the kind of dramatic moments that we need this time of year for sure. But on a more serious note, the Diamondbacks have gotten really strong performances early on from some of their fifth starter candidates. We saw Tommy Henry. He pitched on Friday, Ryan Nelson on Saturday.

Slade Sacconi went on Sunday. All three of those guys were really good. Blake Walston pitched today for the Diamondbacks. He was his starter against the Oakland days. Not so great on that front. Walston, an inning in two thirds, two hits, two runs, two walks, one strikeout in that game. His command was a little bit off in this one. He had a four-pitch walk in the first inning.

Bounce back was able to get an ending any double play. Second inning was a little bit more rough for him. All in all, not a great performance from Blake Walston. and here is how he felt about his outing after the fact. It wasn't very good, to be honest with you. I've got a lot of things to work on. But, you know, it's the first one, so a lot to build on from here. And, you know, just come out and keep doing what I need to be doing.

Did you find the strikes on enough? Is that kind of? Yeah, I just got, you know, behind counts when I don't really need to. You know, those three-o counts are unacceptable. can't happen. Yeah, just a big learning lesson, you know, for 2024. So, but it's all good. You know, we're going to get back at it tomorrow.

Yeah, so all the way around, not an ideal performance from Blake Walson. You hear there, he's pretty hard on himself coming after this one. Just saying from the top, it wasn't very good at all. He wasn't especially pleased with his performance. And, yeah, certainly from a number standpoint, it wasn't great. The back story, Patrick, on Blake Walson, although I'm sure you probably already knew this knowing you. But the Diamondbacks selected him 26th overall back in the first round a few years ago. And he was the draft pick that the Diamondbacks received after Matt McLean.

Their pick from the year prior did not sign. So Matt McLean, of course, certainly had a nice first taste of the majors for the Cincinnati Reds this past year. the diamondbacks have Blake Walson instead. And they certainly liked him. You know, he was drafted out of high school. And there's certainly some potential there with a four-pitch mix. The velocity is something that I think they counted on coming up. And it just has kind of never happened for him.

We saw that in the kind of 90 to 92 range here today. And yeah, Blake Walson is just, it hasn't quite panned out as the pitcher the Diamondbacks might have hoped he would be. But he's also still 22 years old. So there's certainly still plenty of time here. Yeah, and the other piece with Wilson is he's a left-hander. And they age in a really interesting way, like almost like a fine wine. And he's a long way from really, you know, soaking in those grapes.

He's still a relatively young man. But, you know, you like what he was able to do last year at Reno with, I mean, shoot, that was an ERA that in many years would almost make you considered an ace. A 452 ERA in the Pacific Coast League is pretty impressive to be able to do that. And I sort of think, as you said, like the words he used were rough on himself today. And, you know, it's one game. It's spring training. It doesn't mean anything. I also sort of think that he had a look in his eye of almost like, you know, like I just have to laugh that one off. And in a way that probably takes a little bit of pressure off on him, right? Sure.

You've got all these guys battling for the fifth spot. Now he's, he's all the way in the back. And so everything else right now is going to be gravy. I feel like going forward where, okay, cool, I'm the odd man out. That takes the pressure off me now for the whole next month. So I think he'll go out and have probably some better performances, not put that same pressure on himself since he knows, okay, right now I'm probably ticketed for Reno. So let me go out there and prepare for that season in AAA.

And, you know, I was thinking about Walston earlier today. And he seems like the kind of guy that would have made 20 to 25 starts in 2021 or 22 and you'd have been like this is this is a good number four number five starter for a team like that and now the diamond backs are you know so overwhelmed with with quality talent you know rotation that they can be picky and choosy and go all right walston didn't have a good first showing we still got a lot of other candidates that can easily step up and take that spot number five in the rotation yeah that's a fair point i think in you know in a world brother diamondbacks don't have the depth that they do you know maybe even in other organizations

blake walson as someone who's like very genuinely vying for a spot on on the opening day rotation uh you guys could probably uh here there i know some people are saying it in the chat he is from north carolina and you can certainly can certainly hear that uh in the way that he talks today was my my first time getting into meet him personally so you know you it doesn't take it doesn't take long you don't talk to blake walson for very long to recognize that uh but yeah you made a great point about his era in the pacific coast league last year uh you you know, four, five, two is actually really impressive. And I think the peripherals there tell a little bit of a different story,

93 walks compared to 104 strikeouts. So basically the same number of walks of strikeouts, which isn't exactly what you want to see. But here's Walston talking about how he's assessing that 20, 23 season in the Pacific Coast League that he just had. I was pretty satisfied with last year's performance. You know, obviously the strikeouts could have been a little bit higher. and we're working.

They're helping me work on, you know, finding that pitch that will allow me to have a little bit more of that strikeout rate. So, you know, last year was, you know, pretty successful in my eyes, you know, made it AAA, had a very successful season in AAA in my eyes, you know, did a lot of things good. But, you know, we're here to work on, you know, things for 2024. Yeah, so overall, you know, I think he's fairly satisfied with the season.

had, but as you heard there, still certainly looking to improve in some ways he talked about trying to find a pitch that's going to help get that strikeout rate up a little bit. That's been a challenge for him throughout his minor league career. And again, at 22 years old, you know, even though, you know, maybe this isn't exactly the guy that the Diamondbacks envisioned when they first drafted him, he's 22 and in AAA. There's something to be said for that in and of itself. So, yeah, one outing, you know, not a great outing for Blake Walson.

But as you said earlier, Patrick, this is spring training and, you know, nobody's winning any job or losing any job just based off of, you know, the first time they go out there. Yeah, the thing that I look at with Walston is his previous seasons. So give him credit for the 452 ERA and the hitters Haven that is the Pacific Coast League. But if you go back and look at what his numbers were like in 2022, he had nearly 10 strikeouts per nine. And in 2021, strikeouts per nine. So the strikeout has always been there over the course of his career as a professional. It just went away from things just a little bit last year. You know, playing against guys that were an average of five years older than him.

Right? You forget about AAA as like, oh, these guys are still developing. There's quadruplea players in there. There's veteran guys. There's someone like the Oklahoma City Dodgers roster in AAA. And you go, oh, there's like veteran players who could probably, you know, take a spot on the bench or even start for a team like the White Sox or A's or Rockies last year that are losing 100 games. So, you know, there's older guys that are in that league.

So for him to be, you know, over five years younger than the average player in AAA to know that that strikeout has been in there in the past, I think is, you know, is promising to say, okay, he's going to be able to bounce back just a little bit and be able to contribute to this team in some capacity. Yeah, he certainly factors into that depth conversation. We'll kind of see out how things unfold over the course of spring training. Jordan Lawler hit a home run today, and that was a big piece of news. We can roll the clip. This is a video we took out at Ho-hoCom today of Jordan Lawler, just absolutely destroying what I believe is a fastball well over the left field fence.

Lawler is a big piece for the Diamondbacks undoubtedly. you know, kind of a consensus top 10 prospect in the sport at this point. He certainly got a hold of this one. And Patrick, I mean, you know, you talk about the Diamondbacks future and their ability to potentially, we're just doing this on repeat. I like it, Jacob. Nice. I felt like people really needed to just see that a second time and listen to the,

yeah, I was going to say that. That sounded like a canon. So. Yeah, it was an absolute shot. But yeah, we talk about the Diamondbacks being able to maintain this and, you know, not just have this be a one-hit. wonder of them making the postseason and going as far as they did in 2023. Jordan Lawler is a really, really big part of that.

And, you know, one home run isn't exactly going to, you know, either make or break his season or whatnot here in spring training, but good to see for sure. It is. And it is against a big league pitcher, too, in Trevor Gott. Yeah. That's what the interesting things about spring training is you can look at statistics and see a guy playing really well or playing, you know, not so well. Well, if you're struggling in spring training, all right, you were working on a couple of things.

These games don't mean anything. It's easy to forget about it. And if a guy's playing really well, at the same time, you could go, well, against what kind of talent were they playing against? Right. So Trevor got big league the leader there for the A's. So Jordan Lawler did that against him as opposed to, you know, someone for the Las Vegas aviators, which is actually an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. It's combining all these things. No,

coincidentally, Las Vegas Aviators are the AAA team of the Oakland, potentially soon to be Las Vegas A's. It's very muddy, but what's not muddy is a nice prospect, man, and he's going to be coming up. I think when it's his time to come up, they're going to turn the keys over to him at shortstop.

He'll be ready. He'll have, you know, proven whatever it is that the dinobacs feel that he needs to have, you know, shown. and you have Jerry Podomo there just moving around as is really playing around the infield. So that's going to be a big acquisition.

He's already on the roster. He's already part of the 40 man. But even still, it's going to be like a big addition, a big boost to the roster once it goes out. And it kind of works on those little minor final touches that he needs to make to really become a full-time big wager. Yeah, we've talked about Tori coming out and saying that Geraldo Prudomo is the everyday shortstop of this team.

I think that's already, already established at this point. But yeah, you know, even if Jordan Lawler doesn't make the team out of spring training, which is kind of my read on the situation as of right now, that doesn't mean he couldn't come up in May. You know, I mean it doesn't mean he couldn't have a pretty big impact on this team when all is said and done.

So, yeah, we didn't see him really impacting the baseball at the big league level toward the end of last year. It was a really small sample size. You know, the team just kind of threw him in there to see if they could, you know, if he could provide them anything that Nick Ahmed couldn't, especially against lefties. He struggled, but it was a really small sample size, and he'll be looking to build off that here in spring training.

Another youngster, also 21 years old, who made a bit of an impression in this game. Christiane Mana, we don't have a strikeout highlight, but we do have a pop-out highlight. Mena just faced, I believe it was three batterers altogether in this game, just one-inning pitch, but you see him here throwing 96 miles per hour, getting a lazy pop fly up the first baseline caught in foul territory.

Mena came over from the Chicago White Sox in the Dominic Fletcher trade that was just made a couple of weeks ago. And the Diamondbacks, when they made this trade, they were hoping to see Christiane Manas fastball velocity come up. And that apparently took all of about two weeks because Mena was 94 to 96 miles per hour. That's what I saw at Hohom today. and last year he averaged about 92 and a half in his time with the White Sox and their and their AAA team. So the Diamondbacks might really have something here.

And, you know, Dominic Fletcher, I think, has a chance to be a good player. But that was an area of depth for them. And, you know, Patrick, any time you see a 21-year-old who's in AAA and, you know, his fastball velo just jump like three miles per hour pretty quickly like this, it, you know, it's definitely intriguing for sure. It's a chess move, right? You're taking a nice player like Dominic Canzon, but you're saying, right, there's no real room for him or Jake McCarthy. There's room for one of them. And whoever you want, go ahead and take because we like Mayna. And yeah, I mean, to your point, look, that clip is very valuable because I'm pretty sure in the Diamondbacks Discord.

No one was talking about any strikeouts, anything like that. They were all buzzing about that pop up in that territory to number 86. I don't think we need to say who it is. Yeah, because we're talking about the Oakland Athletics. For him to induce that pop-up to number 86, way more impressive than any strikeout he could have had today. Undoubtedly, undoubtedly. So, yeah, again, you know, you don't necessarily read into the results too much. But the velocity is something that is, you know, I do read into velocity at this point.

And, yeah, we'll see if he's able to maintain that over the course of the season. But, yeah, it was 94 to 96 today. and that's also something that Nick Piccoro had just reported on over at the Arizona Republic that he had been sitting in the 94 to 96 range in bullpen sessions. So I'm led to believe this isn't just like their radar guns at Hocom malfunctioning. I think this is real. And that's a really positive development for the Diamondbacks. Less positive from this game, Umin Lin, Diamondbacks pitching prospect.

Another Diamondbacks pitching prospect who has gotten a lot of hype in recent days, really strong showing in live BP the other day. but not as strong of a showing in this one here against the Oakland days. His final line today, just a third of an inning. He recorded one out on a strikeout, but allowed four hits on or five runs on four hits, a couple of walks as well. And yeah, Yumen Lin is 20 years old. Like all these guys we're talking about right now are super young.

And, you know, you're not too concerned again about just one outing. But not exactly the Cactus League debut that Diamondbacks fans were hoping for. No, no, and again, that's one of the beautiful things about spring training is you can just totally brush it to the side as if it's not a big deal because it really isn't. You know, he very well could be working on things and wins and losses are just so the results in and of themselves of a single at that are just meaningless in spring training. Sure. You even say they're almost halfway meaningless in the regular season because look, there's things that coaches and the front offices see. and evaluate that go beyond just the end result, right? Sometimes the effort and the performance doesn't actually match

whether or not you get a base hit or not. So, yeah, you know, is he working on something? Who knows? Did you just have a bad day? You know, those are kind of the performances that really see too much and you don't make a big deal about when he's pitching in Amarillo or Hillsborough. Just so happened that it happened on a big league diamond in spring training. So shake it off.

Yeah, I will, a couple of observations on you, Minlin. speaking of velocity, he was 92 to 94. Mostly, there were a couple of, it was like 89, 90 toward the end. It was a little unclear if that was actually the four seamer, a different pitch. But yeah, his Velo was higher than I expected it to be for whatever that's worth. It was, you know, he didn't throw all that many pitches. So stuff to see, you know, is he able to kind of maintain that over the course of a full start? But yeah, you mean, Lynn, being in that Velo range is interesting to me.

I wonder if he was maybe overthrowing a little bit and that, you know, that contributed to to his issues today. He really struggled with commanding his breaking ball. It was really, you know, trying to drive that down in the zone for swing and miss and trying to just drive it down into the strike zone. And he was missing arm's side over and over and over again. So, yeah, I still think I'm still impressed with the stuff that I've seen, especially if that fastball be low is real.

I think that, you know, that heater combined with the curveball and the changeup that we've seen on the backfields is, is impressive. but yeah, not a great start for you, Minlin. I don't think anyone's too too concerned about that at this point. It is interesting to look at this point at where all of the Diamondbacks fifth starter candidate stand in this race. Granted, they've each only had one outing at this point, but we threw together a graphic that has some numbers of all of these guys who are in the mix for that fifth rotation spot.

And Blake Walston aside, as we discussed earlier, he wasn't great today, but you look Tommy Henry, two innings, one hit, no runs, no walks, three strikeouts. Ryan Nelson on Saturday, two innings, two hits, no runs, no walks, five strikeouts. Slate Sacconi was really good on Sunday, two innings, no hits, no runs, one walk, four strikeouts, got a whiff on all of his pitches. And then Walston struggled a little bit, as we said. The diamond backs only have room for one of these guys in the starting rotation. I guess I'll add, you know, Bryce Jarvis maybe factors into this conversation as well,

although we haven't seen him in a game just yet. But yeah, I mean, I guess this is a good problem for the Diamondbacks to have. These things have a way of kind of figuring themselves out over time here in spring training. I remember last year when the Diamondbacks had a fifth starter competition, you know, it seemed like one guy was the far and away front runner, and then that guy has a bad outing and suddenly his ERA doubles. And, you know, these things change a lot. But this first run through for all of these guys has been really promising.

Yeah, that's good, man. it's good to have that kind of competition, that level going. And for all of them, you know, to have that kind of success outside of even just the battle for that fifth spot in the rotation, for each individual guy to really get that confidence, get their thing going. You know, they're not really paying attention to, you know, what the other person's doing. And they also, you know, believe in their abilities that, you know, they are a big league starting pitcher. And so even if the results don't necessarily show that up in spring training,

their coaches are going to be fully aware of what they're capable of. I mean, we all saw what Brandon Fott was able to do in the second half and in the phone call that was made by Brent Strom saying, hey, you are going to be pivotal to this team going forward. And so I think in some shape or form, there could be one guy here that starts the season in Reno. But Toro Lavello and the rest of the coaching staff knows this guy that's definitely, in Reno is actually going to be the one that ends up making 20 to 25 starts and is going to be our number five starter for the duration of the year, even if it doesn't start that way. So that's one of the positive things right now with there being so many options for the Diamondbacks and for such

a great coaching staff and that Brent Strom there to say, hey, you know what? Even if the right guy didn't start the season on March 28th on the 26th man roster, they're going to get the right guy for a majority of starts over across the course of the 24th. season. Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, another option that they could explore is moving one or multiple of these guys to the bullpen and see, see what you get there. You know, Ryan Nelson, we haven't really talked much, much about his outing on Saturday. He was really good. I mean, he struck out five in two innings. He had eight whiffs, five wiffs on his slider. As I mentioned, on another video here on YouTube the other day, he is ditched his slower, the slower version of

his slider. He's only throwing the harder one now in the mid to upper 80s. He feels like that pitch is easier to make that look like a fastball to the hitter. Certainly make sense. And it was darn effective in that game on Saturday, five strikeouts over those two innings. And, you know, naturally my mind just goes to, all right, if Tommy Henry does get the fifth rotation spot, he seems like maybe the favorite. I guess if you had to declare a favorite right now, it would be him just based on his performance last year and how how consistent he was for the diamondbacks last season. Ryan Nelson, you know, if you get the fastball at 96, maybe that jumps to 98 in a bullpen

roll, you know, you get him to just narrow in on on the slider and that fastball. That's a pretty compelling two pitch combo for for a reliever who I think could be, could be pretty good for this diamond backs team. So I know they're, they're wary of moving guys. into the bullpen and then shifting them back to the starting rotation. We saw that last year with Dre Jameson. He needed Tommy John surgery. I don't know if that's a coincidence or what that is necessarily,

but I don't think the diamondbacks want to go there. But it is an interesting decision that they'll maybe have to face. Like, do we want to keep all these guys stretched out? Or do we see an opportunity for one of these guys to step in into our bullpen from day one and really make an impact that way? Yeah, that was going to be my next point, is that the long reliever role. right now. There really is nobody that is filling that. I mean, Luis Friess, you know, I've seen in some places that being the name suggested where, okay, you could stretch it out a little bit, but not in the

same way as these young guys. I know there's first week of the season after the home stand against the Rockies and Yankees, you know, they have an off day and then they go on the road for a week and then they have an off day. So it's not necessarily like, you know, if they wanted to kind of go to an unofficial six-man rotation and they can use the long. reliever, you know, to make a start, they won't really need to do anything like that. They've got a good, you know, simple and straightforward schedule to start the year with those off days kind of baked in. But, well, yeah, you absolutely could use one of those guys as a long reliever. And if Luis Friess has another option left, which that's the rumor going around now.

He does? No, yeah. Maybe it allows you to have your cake and eat it too and not, you know, send them all back to Reno except for one guy. It does allow you to keep too. sure yeah that's a good point last guy I want to touch on real quick before we just get to some some quick final updates from spring training blaze alexander has looked really good for the diamond backs in the few games that he's played didn't have a hit in the game today but he is hitting 429 for whatever that's for i think he's probably three for seven so far in spring training but defensively is really where he stood out the most we saw him turn an insane double play i think that was on saturday against the rockies a play that i'm still not entirely sure if he actually turned the double play. I don't think the runner was actually out at second base, but they're not bothering with instant replay, I guess. So the call study turned another really

impressive double play in the game today. Just really, really solid defensively. You know what you're going to get there. I think he has a chance to be a contributor defensively at shortstop, at second base and at third base. There's a lot of value in that versatility. And the offense that we've that we've seen so far has been pretty impressive too. Here's Tori Lavello after the game. He was asked about Blaze Alexander and his impact and, you know, kind of the role that he could play for this team in 2024. Times last year, we were getting some third basements were getting banged up.

We guys were getting traded and Blaze's name was throwing around as a potential third baseman. So that was last year. You know, you got out of year on. He's healthy. He can impact the baseball. We want to create some version. in case that need comes up again, whether it's now out of spring training or or sometime during the season. Why do you guys like it was a guy who can potentially impact the major league team down well?

I think he's an impact bad. He can square up to baseball. I think he's learning still as a hitter. You know, specifically left hand could probably go up and hit left hand pitching effectively. But with a defensive versatility, I think that that's always an added component. Yeah, defensive versatility has a lot of value, you know, even if there are some questions about how the bat will translate to the majors. You heard him there talk about against lefties in particular, that Blaze Alexander could be an asset. There's a pretty clear role there. I mean, Geraldo Perdomo being kind of the everyday shortstop for this team, Perdomo was substantially better against righties than lefties last year. So if you're looking to have a backup shortstop who excels against lefties, Blaze Alexander makes a lot of sense there.

Patrick, by the day, I mean, it's been four days. I'm trying not to go too crazy. But I'm more sold on Blaze Alexander on the path for Blaze Alexander to make this team than I was, you know, when Cactus League play started. Yeah, I like that he was able to play a little shortstop today too late in that game. So again, as you said, that defensive versatility. I think it makes some sense that, you know, he could be a guy that is able to break camp. Now, granted, you send him to AAA, you have him. Right? You have that option. But if you put them on that opening day roster, that means you might be, you know, cutting ties with either Manuel Rivera or Jace Peterson as that you turn of field or spot, right? Now, Peterson, you know, can play a little bit of outfield if you really need to in a pinch. So, you know, is it, how much are you actually gaining by, you know, seemingly improving your bench a little bit by having a place, Alexander? But then removing that depth from your, you know, your organization, right? Because those guys aren't going to get, go back down.

down to AAA more likely than not. I never know. Sometimes those guys do get slipped down through waivers. They might be able to sign a deal with somebody else. It's hard to know exactly what will happen. But if you do hold off on Blaze Alexander, who showed last year, spent the entire of the season with the Aces, so, you know, it hit like $2.92.

So he already has that AAA pedigree. So, you know, keeping him hot there, no pun intended there in Nevada, it could allow you to have your cake and eat it too. and really allow you to utilize the depth. You know, the one thing that seems to be true all around baseball. I have heard some injuries, you know, that have been around on all 30 teams, but I haven't heard a ton of injuries. I feel like we're not that we're overdue,

but it doesn't seem like there's a ton of guys that are already out for the year or are going to miss, you know, the first two months of the season. So injuries do happen. And sometimes it's kind of sort themselves out for better or worse. So, you know, cross that bridgeway. you get to it, but Blaze Alexander, no, there's definitely a good reason to be hyped up about him so far this spring. I think it's kind of a matter of when, not if at this point. I mean, he's already on the 40-man roster. As you said, he spent the 20-23 season in AAA. I don't necessarily think he has a ton

more to prove there. You know, maybe take the strikeout rate down a little bit. I was, I think, around 27% last year, which is maybe a little bit on the higher end. But yeah, I mean, you know, I think about the Diamondbacks options to back up Perdomo at shortstop. Tori Lavello has said he wants Emmanuel Rivera to play some shortstop. He wants Chase Peterson to get some reps there as well. We know about Jordan Lawler, but again, I'm not really, I don't really see Jordan Lawler as a candidate for the backup role because the Diamondbacks want to see him get every day opportunity.

So it makes a lot of sense. He's already on the 40 man. You don't have to create another spot. So we'll see how it turns out. but certainly a good start for Blaze Alexander on all fronts. Finally, a couple of just quick notes, Eduardo Rodriguez will start for the Diamondbacks on Tuesday, making his Cactus League debut.

So that should be exciting to see D.Ebacks are back at Salt River Fields tomorrow. And then Alec Thomas is dealing with some right wrist soreness. That's something that we learned today. Kept him out of the lineup today. Tori Lavello said that he could have played if the Diamondbacks needed him to, but this is spring training. and I mean, why would you force a player to play when they're dealing with some sort of soreness? There's really no reason to do that.

So, yeah, something that's kind of been bothering Alec for a couple of days. I know he was tracking pitches today in Live BP rather than swinging, just trying to get better on that front. So we'll continue to monitor that, but I don't think any huge concern on that front at this point. I want to take a quick break here and tell you all about our friends over at Empire today, which we have some new flooring over in Studio A. Patrick, I don't know if you notice when you were here, but it is far, far better than what was there before. That was our friends over at Empire Today making that happen.

With Empire today, you get shop at home convenience, the right product for your needs, quick and professional installation, which we experienced here, and a price match guarantee as well. Schedule a free in-home estimate today. All listeners can receive a $350 off discount when they use the promo code PHNX. restrictions apply see empire today.com slash phnx or details also patrick i don't know if you noticed when you were here but we just have circle k snacks like everywhere in this office they have just sort they are just everywhere uh we had some of our lovely diehards bring in a valentine's day little care

packages for all of the different beats here at ph and x and they were all everything was from circle k it was amazing uh circle k is not just controversy in this office there was a lot of controversy They love their circle K snacks. People love their circle K snacks a little bit too much around here. And do we ever figure out who the thief is? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, Eric, Eric Ruby confessed to stealing the chips, opening the chips.

He felt like they were communal. Nobody ever came forward about the popcorn. Okay. Although we have a few suspects that we think are probably likely. I won't name names. They know who they are. Is Patrick one of the suspects? I mean, maybe.

He was in here. It was here. And then I think somebody on the sunscrew, Lindsay Smith, for sure, ate the M&Ms. Oh, okay. And flex ate the second replacement bag of M&Ms. I'll admit something. I'll admit something when I was in the studio on Tuesday. I did see one of the chocolate and peanut butter bars lying around, around.

And I had to tap in because I had heard some buzz about out there, the Circle K, chocolate peanut butter bars. I ate half of it, scarfed it before we went on. hair, me and Derek, Jesse. And then maybe even weirder was when I came back, the other half was gone. So someone else stole, open chocolate. We have some opportunistic thieves in this office. Somebody's like, well, it's already open. It might as well.

Like, they just wait. Like, once you've, like, taken a bite out of something like that, you've claimed it is your own, right? I mean, that's a snap situation. Oh, it was a snap. All right. That was the miscalic energy. If he picked up the bar, eight,

half of it and then just left it out for people. That's just crazy personage. Well, if you can't tell, we, we enjoy our Circle K snacks around here, and I'm sure you would too. You can also save 25 cents per gallon on your first five fillups if you join the Circle K inner circle, which we have all done around here. If you like saving money, you should go ahead and get on that. You also, after your first five fillups, we'll save three cents per gallon every day thereafter. Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations visit circle k.com for details jacob do we have the mailbag monday like song and theme in there do have the song uh and and i might have muted you for your

whole rant after that so oh yeah when you when you click on it doesn't work it decides that it wants to mess up the whole system and then it takes me a second to realize that but i do have the song sir yeah well i guess i have to do the the little uh the little intro here so uh every year is our year on the pH and I Steback show. I'm going to forget some of these, Patrick. You might know them better than I do. Every week is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day.

Every month is Black History Month. So on and so forth. We'll just call it there. Jacob, let's go to the mailback. There it is. There it is. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. Is the freaking weekend?

Yeah, something like that. I know I missed a few. Derek's going to be, Derek's going to be furious with me for sure. Taco Tuesday? Yeah, that's fair. Every day is Taco Tuesday on the PHNXD Beck show. Let's go ahead and jump into the mailbag.

Jacob, what do we have first here? This comes from Brighton Bobbitt over on X. He says, It might be too early for a good answer to this, but who are some guys that have impressed you to this point? in spring. Patrick, I'll give my answer. And if you want to throw anything on, you're more than welcome. I think we kind of touched on them, touched on at least a couple of names. Blaze Alexander is certainly a name that comes to mind for me. At this point, he's looked good at the plate.

He's looked excellent in the field as well, the versatility, all of that. I think there's a, there's a path for him to make this team. Outside of him, I think about pitchers and the starting pictures that we discussed earlier. I was especially intrigued with Ryan Nelson and the swing and miss that he was able to generate in his start. That was the big thing for Ryan Nelson last year was just he would get guys to two strikes and he just wouldn't have the ability to put them away. We saw a more electric version of his fastball.

We also saw that slider look about as good as I think we've ever seen it. So those are a couple of names that come to mind for me. Yeah, for me it has to be Andrei Shapiro. There you go. Almost not classic, but one of those great minor league signings you love to see and going from the Yankees and saying, you know what, I'd like to maybe have a more guaranteed opportunity to go to the postseason. So I'm going to go to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And so he had two hits today, including a double, RBI, you know, third base guy, but still at 24 years old, you go, all right, hold on. there still could be something there as well. You can't have enough of those kind of players. So so far, you know, again, it's only been a couple games, but in four games, you know, three for eight with the double today. Yeah. Put ball and play only two Ks so far.

I like his defense. So Andre Schaparo gets a tip of the cap for me. Yeah, a bit of a murky path probably for him to make this roster. But, yeah, I mean, you know, it came over on a minor league deal and has certainly, he's a big dude and you certainly have seen him impact the baseball a little bit early on in spring training. So that's a name, a name to watch. Alec Thomas is maybe another name I'd throw into this conversation. He had a really nice inside out swing against a left-handed pitcher the other day, just shooting a single to the opposite field. That was, that was good to see for him.

Facing lefties is really the next step for, for Alec Thomas, finding a way to have some success against lefties and, you know, not pulling off so. So, so. much to the first base side is a big part of that. And what we've seen so far, he seems to have made some improvements in that regard. So that's another name that I would mention. Jacob, what do we got next here? This comes from Albert. Albert says, despite evidence to the contrary. For a while, I've had a bad feeling that Lawler won't be the star. Everyone thinks he will be. Can you help assuage these feelings? Yeah, it's a good question. I think, you know, anytime you're putting the word star on a player who hasn't really played in the majors at all,

you know, those are high expectations. And I'm not sure that it's fair to expect Jordan Lawler to be a star at this point. Or at any point. Like, I think just in general, like you have to see it before you really, at least I have to see it before I really start to believe that any player is going to be a star in this league. I mean, how many times do we see guys come up with all sorts of hype? And then, you know, you see it in the majors. and, you know, they're a fourth outfielder. Or, you know, they're not really what you expected them to be.

That happens in this sport a lot. I think, you know, on the positive side with Jordan Lawler, he has, he does some things well that I think you feel confident or going to translate. First of all, he's a good defensive shortstop. He took a really big step forward in that regard in 2023. And, you know, if you're good defensive shortstop in AAA, you're probably going to be a good defensive shortstop in the majors. And he looked pretty good there toward the end of last year as well.

And then offensively, I think, you know, there's no, there's no questions about his bat speed. There's a lot of power in there for him to tap into. I know his contact rates are maybe a little bit lower than you'd like to see in the minors last year. So, yeah, there's still questions about the hit tool. There's still questions about, you know, is it 10 homer power? Is it 30 homer power? That kind of a thing. But he also runs the bases really well.

Like he might be a 70 runner who could give you 30 or 40 stolen bases. So I think the floor for Jordan Lawler is relatively high, just given the defense, given the fact that he plays a premium position is a great base runner. And, you know, I think the offense is going to translate enough for him to be a solid major league player. But yeah, in terms of him being a star, I don't know if I would come out and say, like, yes, you should be confident Jordan Lawler will be a star. Not because I don't like think he has a good chance to be, but I just don't really want to put those kind of expectations on anyone. I think it's easy to say, oh, this guy's going to be a star when they're immediately a star, when they immediately don't give you any doubt. They don't put any of that in your head.

And obviously, for Lola last year, you only got to see him in a very small sample size of 34 plate appearances. And, you know, didn't do too much. But he was just finishing up his age 20 season. I think, you know, if you go back and look at his age 19 season in 2022, and, you know, he finishes the year. in double-a, but at each level that he moves up, you go, oh, the numbers take a little bit of a hit, but he was 19 years old. And then last year, you know, when he finishes up before making his debut with Reno, he's almost a full seven years younger than the average player in the Pacific Coots League. So you're right. He hasn't been like a slam dunk, no doubter, you know, his entire

development. But, you know, when you're drafted at 18 years old out of high school, you know, and only 2021, like, you're going to need a little bit of time. So, you know, this, this, not that I, not that I want to compare Jordan Lawler with an all-time great, but if you're just looking at what he did in the majors and you're saying, oh, you know, he didn't, you didn't impress me. And so I'm just, I just am not totally convinced he's going to be a superstar. It doesn't mean he won't be a superstar. Sure.

In, in 2011, in 40 games, a certain someone batted 220 with a, with a 672 OPS, which was only an 89 OPS plus, and ended up being probably the greatest player of his generation in Mike Trout. So Mike Trout came up and just barely kept that rookie eligibility, went out, won the rookie of the year, almost won MVP of the MVP award in 2012. And again, his first, you know, glimpse at the show, his first opportunity just looked okay. And so Loller just looks okay so far, but that by no means should. totally allow you to project that he's not going to be a superstar.

He might not, but nothing about what he was able to do in 2023 should really definitively allow you to believe, nope, there's definitely no way now. Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, I think even looking at prospect lists and whatnot, you know, people aren't really losing stock in Jordan Lawler, you know, selling their stock in Jordan Lawler just because of 34 bad plate appearances toward the end of the 2023 season. That's just, you know, if you're a prospect evaluator and you react that quickly to things, you're probably not a very good prospect evaluator.

And yeah, not everyone is Corbyn Carroll, as Brandon said in the chat. You know, not everyone's going to come up and, you know, have a pretty epic, like, game-tying double or whatever it was. And, you know, in their major league debut, it takes time for a lot of guys, even including a lot of star-level players in this league, as you talked about. So, yeah, I wouldn't, you know, again, I'm not going to promise that Jordan Lawler is a star. going to, you know, it doesn't necessarily expect that, but I still think he has, he has a bright future ahead. Uh, Jacob, what do we, what do we have next? Uh, this is from Adam Thomas.

Uh, he says, any reason to worry about human Lynn after today or was this outing likely just an anomaly? We kind of touched on this a little bit earlier. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I would ever use the word worry after one cactus league outing with, with really anyone, uh, you know, much less a guy who's 20, years old and, you know, just reached double A last year. Uh, the fact that he's here in the first place and in big league camp, I think is a testament to how, how quickly he's progressed and,

you know, the, the progress that he's made and a lot of really, really good things that he's been able to do up to this point. So yeah, worry isn't, isn't a word that I would use. Um, you know, maybe you should tap the brakes a little bit if you were watching our, our live BP video the other day where he's striking out, you know, several diamond back hitters. If you saw that and you're like, yeah, you mean Lynn is, you know, the number three starter of, of, you know, the second half of 2024 or whatever. Like, yeah, you should probably tone that down a little bit. I don't think those are fair expectations to have for him.

But yeah, I'm not, I'm never Patrick really going to read too much into one spring training outing. No, no, you just, it was served to slice of humble pie. That's it. Maybe he was, you know, on a high horse after striking out all those guys on the backfields during live BP. And this humbled him a little bit. okay, I still have a ways to go and he'll figure those things out. Yeah, not too concerned about

today. Our last mailbag question is probably the most important one. This comes from Hanley. What is the best sauce for chicken wings ranch or blue cheese, I think, are the options he's proposing there. Patrick, I'm not a huge chicken wings guy. I got to be honest here. I guess I would maybe go. That's surprising to me. Is it? Is it? Is it the mess? It is the mess. Yeah, I'm a little bit like, Would you eat like, okay, so it is openly on the show. Are you a boneless wings guy then? No, no, because I know that boneless wings are like, if you want to be just absolutely like hated or just like, you know, morally destroyed by the people that you're hanging out with, you get boneless chicken wings. Like, I think this is kind of a well-established thing at this point.

Patrick, I don't know if you're with me on this. I don't do wings too often. I mean, yeah, boneless wings are obviously a lot less messy, but. Give me the bone in. I'm going bone in on my wings. I'm going blue cheese. I like a good boot cheese, whether it's, you know, on my wings or on a burger. Burger with blue cheese and bacon, not to get off topic there, but, you know, blue cheese

is definitely the right answer when you get some wangs. Oh, there you go. There you go. I think blue cheese is kind of disgusting. I have to believe I'm not the only person. Yeah, I mean, it is. It is, but I'm a blue cheese person, but I can. see where you're coming from. Like, I know that there are people out there that are very much

anti-blue cheese people because it is a very polarizing thing to have basically just moldy-aged cheese. Yeah, yeah, and you pitching it that way isn't exactly helping its case, Jacob. So, well, you well done, you really nailed that. It's a little liquid. It's a little solid, right? It's lumpy. Yeah. What's your take on cottage cheese? Also, yeah, also not a fan. Yeah, any of those like kind of obscure weird like liquidy cheeses. I'm probably out. But terriaki on the wings for sure. Sure. Sure. Big terriacchi guy. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's fair. I do to be clear, I do really like. I mean, I think bone in wings are good. And yes, bone in are definitely better than boneless. But the mess does get me. I just like for some reason, I don't, any food that's really messy, same with ribs. I think ribs taste amazing. But the mess that's required to consume them, just not really worth the trade off for me. So I don't know. Am I weird? Am I weird, Patrick? I guess the answer is yes. Yeah, I mean, I knew that long before this. No, no, not at all.

I get certain things are messy like that. But once in a while, you just got to splurge and go, yeah, I'm going to have barbecue sauce, possibly in my eyebrows. But you know what? This is a good place for ribs. I'm going to go there and I don't really care if I get any on the brim of my cap. I'm getting these ribs. Yeah, I don't want any condiments in my in my eyebrows. That's where I draw the line. But where I don't draw the line. In fact, I've been making some serious contributions in this arena recently is with our friends over at the BetMGM Sportsbook because the other day in this office, Patrick,

we were out of producers and we needed someone who was not schooled in the production realm to heroically step up and produce our bets show with one Damon Farrell. And you know who is in the office that day at 9 o'clock? It just so happened to me me. And so I produced our bets show the other day. Were Damon's bets actually good? Did they actually work out well for those who took his advice that I cannot speak to? I was mentally so focused on trying to not like utterly wreck his show from a production standpoint.

But Damon does a, he does a pretty good job, especially when he's listening. to my advice. And of course, you can do all of this over at the BetMGM Sportsbook app. Sign up for BetMGM. Use bonus code PHNX. Place your first BetMGM sportsbook wager through the BetMGM sportsbook mobile application for at least $5. You will receive $150 instantly in additional winnings regardless of your wagers outcome. Check out the show notes for full details.

And now listen to Damon. Talk about the disclaimer. Game link problem. Call 1-800-Aubble in the U.S. Call 8778.7-8. Hope and Y. 4-6-6-9-9. Call 1-800-3-3-3-6-0-0-0-8.

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Michigan, 1,8001-0-03, Puerto Rico in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit benngm.com for terms. This promotional offer is not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. There you go. Nice, nice fork, Patrick. Way to, way to come through.

Cog says late mail bag question. Jesse, have you been to Texas Roadhouse? Apparently that's something. No free ads, Cogs. That's right. No free ads. But the answer is no. So I'll just, I'll just throw that out there.

somewhere I have been is Four Peaks because I do know I do know a thing or two about our friends over at Four Peaks and how incredible their chicken tenders are. That was a perfect transition, Jesse. That was sweet. Every once in a while, I don't make a complete full of myself. But yes, be sure to follow them on social. You can keep up with everything happening over with our friends at Four Peaks at Four Peaks Brew and at Four Peaks Pub.

Get all the latest on Arizona's premier craft brewery. I believe our Coyote's crew was out there. there out there yesterday is part of their whole event that they were doing, a whole bunch of people doing a watch party over at Four Peaks. It's a great place to watch some sports, grab some food, get a drink, all that good stuff. Visit

4Peaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events. Check out, once again, at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please enjoy responsibly.

Well, to wrap things up today, Patrick, we have some actual free agency news with a... Nick Ahmed, signs with the San Francisco Giants. Nick Ahmed did in fact... That's what we're talking about, right? I don't think Nick Ahmed is a Scott Forrest client. Is he? Am I missing something there?

No, he's not. But unless we save this for tomorrow, I do want to talk about Nick I've met for like two minutes. Sure, yeah. Yeah, go for it. How about it? All right, so he signs this minor league deal with the San Francisco Giants. he's had exactly 10 years with the diamond backs right and only the diamond backs right yeah yeah he's the only one like there's no one else i think that's even remotely close

my my quick little research turned up two guys with with four years and they haven't played with anybody else and again if you have a four year career you're you're not exactly mr diamond back right david peralto should probably should have been that guy right he had nine years before that trade in 2022 to Tampa. He, you know, he's kind of ruined his legacy a little bit after all that business with the Dodgers. But right now, at this moment, the guy who is spent after Nick Ahmed, and if he shows up with the Giants, he's out. He's out. He's no longer Mr. Diamondback.

Mr. Diamondback right now, Jesse, entire career with the Diamondbacks for the longest time, four years, Yasmani Tomas. Oh, gosh. I could not find anyone with five or more seasons just with the Diamondbacks. You just made everyone in the chat so unnecessarily angry, Patrick. I don't know why you did this yourself. Corbin's got the deal. I think when it's all set in done with, he'll be that guy. Pavin Smith, also, this is year number four for him.

So, I mean, you could go that route as well. But yeah, it's going to be Corby and Carol when it's all said and done. But if Nick Ahmed does not actually play a game with the Giants, then he can still kind of hold that moniker. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if he's able to crack that roster. I figured that some team was going to give Nick Ahmed a shot, you know, even though his arm is not what it used to be defensively, still really good. And last year was a weird year for him where the splits were highly reversed. He really didn't hit lefties at all, hence why the Diamondbacks ultimately made that move. he actually hit Ritey's pretty well,

but that's not really something he'd done well historically. They weren't really going to continue to give him those opportunities. So yeah, you know, hopefully for Nick Ahmed, he was, you know, certainly a joy to cover on a daily basis. Really, really nice guy. Hopefully that works out for him. But yeah, someone who is not going to be named Mr. Diamondback anytime soon is Cody Bellinger, who signed with the Chicago Cubs on a deal that I found pretty

surprising. Three years, $80 million is the guarantee. There's opt-outs after 2024 and 2025. It's making $30 million this year, $30 million next year, and then $20 million is the salary for 2026 if he actually makes it there. Patrick, initial thoughts on what was, at least for me, a significantly lower guarantee than I expected. Yeah, the overall guarantee is really what it's about because as as far as the AAV goes, you go, yeah, that was probably what he was looking to get in general, but looking to get, you know, probably like eight to ten years, which you have to think was what part of some of those conversations were like between Scott Boris and the teams he was negotiating with. I did write about this for just baseball, like looking at the history of Scott Boris when he holds

his clients out to February in March, excluding 2022, because so much of that offseason was, you know, segmented by the lockout. So there were a ton of guys who ended up signing after the lockout. So I don't really consider that to be like, hey, I held my guys out from signing with someone. It just didn't have the opportunity to do it in December and January and February. So that being what it was,

for the most part, whenever Boris ends up holding out for maybe waiting for a team to have an injury or something like that, more times than not, his player gets significantly less. than what was projected for him. The only time that it really ever paid out and he had to do some finageling was with Eric Hosmer.

That was really the only time that he ended up getting the overall money that he was looking to get. It ended up being more years, so the annual salary, you know, wasn't quite as much. But all it matters is what's the overall dollars that's going to be guaranteed? The Padres are still paying Eric Hosmer's contract. It's that deal.

So it doesn't look well for Snell and Montgomery. and even J.D. Martinez, maybe J.D. Martinez a little bit better since it's going to be a short-term deal. Matt Chapman as well. But yeah, you know, Bellinger, getting those opt-outs is probably the best you could hope for where, you know, you have a little bit of longevity where if, if 20-24 doesn't work out well, or he's hurt, okay, it allows him to come back for another $30 million. And then he's still, you know, such a young guy to begin with that if he doesn't opt out until 2025, that's going to be okay. And maybe that even ends up becoming the plan because the free agent class this time next season or this time next year, the 2024, 25 off season is pretty loaded.

So I don't want to go if that votes better for, you know, there to be more, you know, top-notch free agents or if you want to hold them out in 2025, Bellinger may become, you know, becomes the top of the class at that point. So all in all, you know, Boris did not get the money he was who's hoping to get i think if you're bellinger you know you're probably a little frustrated because now you you you can't really take it as easy as you would have liked you're not as relaxed where you have that kind of contract that takes you to the end of your career you still got to really work towards it yeah but i think if you're the other three guys you you'd say yeah get get me a belliger deal at this point because i just i just want to least a decent amount of guaranteed money that i was supposed to get uh and and a team because the longer

you wait, I think, you know, each day it's probably another million dollars off of what they can expect to get going forward. I mean, what a fascinating player, Cody Bellinger is, right? Like, you think about how good Cody Bellinger can be at his best. I mean, you know,

you look at his numbers from 2019 when he was the MVP. You know, he slugged 629. He had an OPS of 1035. He had 47 homers and stole 15 bases and was a good defender. Like, he can be that guy, or he can be, you know, 2021, 22, Cody Bellinger, who's like not really even an everyday caliber

player, or he can be 2023 Cody Bellinger, which I feel like the entire baseball world just didn't really have a good sense of who that guy was. All of a sudden, Cody Bellinger went from being, you know, the guy who sells out for power and swings at everything and strikes out a lot, you know, but hits a whole lot of home runs to being a guy who shortens up with two strikes and, you know, almost had like slap hitter tendencies at times. And, of course, he still managed to hit 26 home runs along the way. But you look at the underlying numbers. And they were not favorable for Cody Bellinger.

If you look at his baseball savant page, it is not very red. There's actually quite a bit of blue, you know, with some of the expected stats and some of the underlying stuff. So, yeah, I think he's just, he's a fascinating player. I could see a scenario where he wins the MVP in 2024. And maybe that's a stretch. I mean, he did it before. And I could also see a scenario where, you know, he takes a big step back. And maybe the Cubs a year from now are like, oh, shoot, we actually have to pay this guy, you know, $30 million for 20, 25 and then $20 million for the year after that if things don't get better.

So, yeah, just a really, you know, interesting situation. I didn't expect him to get some of the lofty numbers that people were throwing out at the beginning of the offseason. I think MLV trade rumors had like 12 years and 200. $164 million. That always seemed a little ludicrous to me for someone who had the questions that Ballinger does. But I still like, it kind of feels like, like, Pat, like Scott Boris took an L here is sort of, I mean, that's sort of like my initial assessment seeing the, seeing the numbers.

I think so. Yeah. I think he just overplayed his hand. You know, and all four of the guys that are still out there, they're not really marquee names. That's the other piece. It's like, I think Bellinger is. to a degree, but, I mean, again, it's been several years since that MVP season. So he's not

the superstar. Like, if you're a baseball fan, you know that Cody Bellinger is a superstar, but if you're just a sports fan, I don't know that you're putting Cody Bellinger in that echel, right? Same thing for Blake Snell, too. In fact, I'm not even terribly convinced that Blake Snell is as fantastic as some of the statistics would show because he just doesn't go very long in a game. He's three times from the lineup, two times really. So, yeah, so I think they're just not those marquee names

to get the long-term deals. I almost think that like Boris is maybe just holding out J.D. Martinez just to get a spot for Matt Chapman. There could be a team out there. I mean, look at someone like the Giants. Like, they probably really like to have J.D. Martinez. But Boris is like, no,

I've got to move Matt Chapman first because, you know, I know someone's going to take J.D. Martinez my hands. But once he's gone, that could be the last major opportunity I have to move Chapman. So the Giants are saying, hey, how much is that Martinez in the window? And he's like, not really for sale right now. Can I, you know, can I discuss with you the Matt Chapman model over here? Sure. And I don't know that the giants are buying, especially now that, of course, they've acquired Nick Ahmed. And I should make a note when I was talking about Mr. Diamondback and

and players with a certain amount of years. I was just talking about position players, of course. Brendan Webb in many ways is Mr. Diamondback. But even again, that was, what, seven years? Yeah, it was a pretty short career. Corby Carroll, you just want him to be that guy. There you go. There you go.

Yeah, I mean, I think for the Cubs, just kind of taking a look at where they're at in National League, I think baseball perspective has them at 82 projected wins now following this move. So they're still kind of right in the middle. Like I don't really think Cody Bellinger coming back puts the Cubs in the thick of the, you know, like their favorites to win the Central or anything like that at this point. I kind of feel like the Cubs had no choice but to make this move. I mean, losing Cody Bellinger for, you know, after what he gave them last year would have been a really big loss for them.

I don't really think they did anything else this offseason that would have replaced that production. You know, I like Shoda Imanaga for them, but he's kind of just replacing Marcus St. Strowman. Hector Nairis is a good piece for the bullpen. I like that. But yeah, I mean, this Cubs off season on the whole,

it still kind of feels like they're, they're running it back in some ways. It's just instead of Stroman, it's I'm gonna'iomac. They've got an extra bullpen piece. I still think the Cubs probably would need to do more in order to really cement their status as like, yes,

this team is probably going to the playoffs in the National League. Yeah, and the NL Central too. Like, strongly strong. It's also terribly weak, right? I think we've been talking over the past week with some of the CHGO Cubs guys and just like if you look at the worst team, someone like the pirates, you go, they got enough of those veteran pieces and those young guys, you know, are bound to step up as some of them have been over the last couple years where, you know, the separation between

first place and fifth place and the NL Central, you know, might be the fewest that it's been in any division, really, other than those years in which the AL East, just everybody's really good in it. So the Cubs have a decent amount of depth, too. That's another piece. I think that's a benefit for them. The Cardinals' Bullpen, I think, is really suspect in general. The Brewers, you know, despite the loss of Craig Counsel,

who is arguably, even with Cody Bellinger coming back, he was on the roster last year. So he's not a new face, a new name. Whereas Craig Counsel, he was probably the biggest addition in the all season, right? But you'd almost expect the Brewers, a team that, you know, isn't just coached up, but they have players that are developed up by the front office and their analytics department from years of David Stern's doing that thing. You could still say, you know what, if the Brewers ended up winning the Central 2, you know, maybe it's only 87, 88 wins, whatever,

that also really wouldn't surprise you. And I know the Reds are kind of that team that everyone, you know, really wants to think is going to take another major step going forward. But that doesn't always happen with those young teams that arrive a year early. So, you know, this definitely helps the Cubs out, but you're right. I'm still not totally convinced that they're the class of the NL Central. I like Michael Bush for them. I guess that's one name that I didn't mention that trade they made with the Dodgers. Maybe he's able to contribute.

But yeah, well, we'll see how things look. As you said, it's a pretty wide open division. You know, if the Cubs were in the NL West, they'd be in a much more precarious position right now. in the Central, you feel like you have a shot at not only the wild card, but, you know, also the division, even if you're not expecting to win 90, 95 games or whatnot. We still have more free agents out there, Patrick, which is still just a little bit crazy at this point. Blake Snell's out there, Jordan Montgomery's out there, J.D. Martinez. So, yeah, and Matt Chapman, as you said. So hopefully we get resolutions on those guys here in, here in the coming days. I'm especially curious, you know, does this make teams a little bit

more a little bit more likely to stick to their guns on what their previous offer was if they see Cody Bellinger getting three years and 80 million. Are you like, oh, maybe we won't kick this into an extra gear? Maybe Scott Boris is actually in a tougher position than we thought. And maybe we can actually get these players for less money than we might have thought. It's going to be interesting to see how it ends up playing out. I almost get the sense too. And then you're down there, obviously. on the backfields with Arizona, and they seem like they've already added all their chips. But still, like, once everyone reports, it's like, this is our team. Let's go forward with it.

And, you know, the front office, they're still doing work. They're still trying to figure some things out. But once you've got the players, like, it's down to the coaching staff to do things. You're not even really worrying about, you know, major trades or anything of that nature. So it's just unusual to add a player of the caliber of these guys so close to the start of opening day. The Rockies actually did that last year in March where they added Mike Mustakis, Bradhand, and I'm drawing a blank on who the third guy was. Oh, Jerkson Prophiard. Yeah, Jerkson ProFar was like super late, right? He wasn't even ready for opening day, which I thought was kind of somewhat of a farce

to basically play your first three games of the season, you know, short-handed. Like, no, we're only bringing at 25. We can't send him to the minors. He's on the big league roster. But they signed those guys, you know, because they had some injuries. And, you know, they think they were really worried about, you know, possibly losing 100 games. So, yeah. This obviously is much different where you're talking about making a major financial investment for more than just one year. And, you know, and you're still not guaranteed with that major roster to not only make the postseason, but as we've seen with the Dodgers in the past, you know, you can get into the postseason, but then it's not going to guarantee you anything as far as winning a world series. So,

You know, Boris, as his work cut out from, I think the rest of the deals that you end up seeing for these guys probably look a little bit similar to Bellinger where he gets the annual, the average annual value, you know, for two to three years with all those opt-outs built in and, you know, little column A, little column B, but it's it's not what he was really hoping for in the beginning. He's going to be taking an L, I think, for this in general. Yeah, yeah, Groundhog Mama says Sest, Snell went from. winning a Cy Young Award to being unemployed. Great job, Scott Boris. Yes, there's going to be a lot of Scott Boris slander, which is, you know, something we're pretty used to because Scott Boris is Scott Boris and he says Scott Boris things

and, you know, people don't necessarily love the things that he says, but he doesn't usually get slammed as much for, you know, getting his players less money than, you know, maybe we expected them to get. So we'll see how things turn out with those other free agents that are still out there. Patrick, I love spring training baseball. This is honestly maybe my favorite part of the baseball season, just getting to be outside as much as we do and enjoy the lovely weather.

If you all are looking to get out to a spring training game sometime soon, use our friends over at game time. They offer a personal experience. It is the most aesthetically pleasing ticketing app that you'll find anywhere. It is the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason as well. well. So snag the tickets without the stress with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code pH and X for $20 off. Download game time today, last minute

tickets, lowest price guaranteed. We talked the other day about how spring training tickets are a little bit outrageous. The word has gotten out about the Cactus League and, you know, all the wonderful things happening around Arizona this time of year. But be sure to But be sure to check out game time when you're shopping around for those tickets. I also want to tell you real quick about Phoenix Raceway, which is an extraordinary thing. I was big, big, big into NASCAR growing up. And NASCAR is returning to Phoenix Raceway from March 8th to 10th. That is certainly big news.

They offer the best in-class fan experience. And it's fantastic. You've got the Estraya Mountains in the background. It's in a really beautiful part of town. So be sure to get down on this. It's an extraordinary experience that you can have over at Phoenix Wayway. Get your tickets to the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. That's March 8th, the 10th once again.

Promises a weekend of good vibes for the whole family. Get your reserve grandstand tickets now at Phoenix Raceway.com. As a former NASCAR guy, do they're letting children drive these cars now? Is that what you said? It was some kind of children's race? Yeah, I think so. Yep, I think that's, you know, I mean, I would have trusted like eight-year-old me. I mean, at least eight-year-old me would have trusted eight-year-old me to, you know, actually go out there and get in on the action a little bit.

You're a good driver. You're a good driver. People, you know, look, you take some shots from time to time. But you, I felt very safe in the passenger seat when you're driving around in one of the several cars that you have in your fleet. eight-year-old me Patrick was an even better driver than current day me believe it or not or so eight-year-old me thought at the time so who's who's to say uh well anyway thank you all so much for being with us here on this monday evening edition of mailbag monday we really appreciate all of you guys making the time and hopping in with us here be sure to follow all

of us on twitter you can find me at jesse and friedman you can find Patrick at Patrick D. Lyons. And you can find Jacob, our producer today, at Jacob underscore Franklin 4. That is because he is the fourth best Jacob Franklin. You can also follow our Diamondbacks beat account on Twitter. That's at pH and X underscore Dbacks. And of course, all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports. That's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Patrick, I know you're covering not only the Rockies at this point, but a number of other teams as well. for Just Baseball. Is there anything you want to plug here here real quick as we say goodbye? Nope, not right now, JustBaseball.com for all the written content over there. There was a Dodgers trade, right? Actually, they made two transactions. So Mani Margo, boom, it's going to the Minnesota Twins. They get a decent little shortstop prospect in exchange there.

You know, I don't know that it was finalized yet, but Kiki Hernandez is coming back for them. and Brandon Crawford, another NOS legend out of the division. He's going to the St. Louis Cardinals. So, I mean, so much really great baseball action. It's fun to focus on one team as you and I have done, and you're still doing with the Diamondbacks, but branching out and talking about all the teams and all the transactions, like we just did with Cody Bellinger.

It's baseball. It's great. Can't go wrong with it. There you go. So, yeah, be sure to check out Patrick's work on social, on just baseball.com, all of the things. Thank you all once again for being with us here today. We really appreciate it.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when Corbyn Carroll is Mr. Diamondback.