PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen says heavy lifting not done after Lourdes Gurriel Jr. signing

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks officially announced the signing of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on Friday. We have more on Mike Hazen’s comments about the signing and about the Snakes not being done in free agency. We take a look at some left-handed bat options and discuss why we’re not ready to panic about the Dodgers spending over $1 billion in free agency.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to a very special pre-Christmas edition of the PHNXTBACs podcast right here on PHNX. Of course, shout out to our friends at OG's Brands, the official sponsor of flavoring Fridays. Head on over to OGsbrands.com to see their full lineup and find out where you can purchase. And I stole this bag from Max. This is my bag now. Welcome in. Of course, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a noble fur. A ski to you all.

Of course, this is my. non-holiday dressed elf himself, the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman, who is not in the spirit of the afternoon. It's cloudy outside, Derek. I don't know what to do with myself. This man lived in Seattle. Why are you wearing Christmas lights? Because, Jesse, it is my last day before my Christmas vacation where I get to leave

and let you take care of the show for a week. So that's mainly, it's mostly an in-your face to you. It's also just the way I felt like dressing today because here we are. It's this weekend. Can't wait. For me personally, it is the most Puerto Rican I get all year round because it's when all of our traditions come in. There's a range of Puerto Ricanness. Yes.

Yes. There is a range. Yes. And most of the time I'm not going to even trouble myself with going through all the steps to cook proper red beans and rice and toastones and stink up my house like fried foods. But for one spectacular weekend, I'm absolutely going to do that. I'm slow smoking this big piece of port that's like it's called per neal and you put a bunch of seasoning under the skin and then it's amazing and so this is uh this is it i'm excited for this weekend my daughter is still somewhat of a child even though she did have jesse her first like

banger of a tic talk apparently last night got a lot of attention she's very excited about that uh she is insufferable to live with right now uh lea merrill asks is jesse the grinch quite possibly i don't know we'll have to figure that out but uh one thing that Santa did bring us, of course, is that the Lordus Gurriel signing is official. And there was not a huge corresponding move that took place. The Arizona Diamondbacks did designate Diego Castillo for assignment. But the Lordus signing is official. So he is, of course, part of the Diamondbacks now. We knew that was going to happen. He is going to be speaking to media at 3 o'clock today. So we should have more for you when Lourdes speaks, but this morning we did get a chance to talk to Mike Hazen,

who was in an undisclosed location somewhere in the world. There were rumors that it was in Antarctica, but he was not dressed warmly enough for that. So I have no idea where he actually was. But yeah, Mike had a lot to say in regards to Lourdes and, you know, basically what he meant to this team. I did find it interesting, Jesse, that I think you may have asked this question, but they didn't they didn't really have like any kind of advantage to dealing with lordis as someone that was already on this roster. In fact, it seemed quite the opposite. Like there were some hurdles that they had to get passed in order to negotiate with him.

And then when they did, it was basically like negotiating with any other free agent that wasn't necessarily part of your team. Yeah, this was a bizarre contract that Lordis Corral Jr. was on. It really was. What was described to us today by Mike Hazen is that the Diamondbacks did not have. have the ability to negotiate with him. Apparently, the earliest that they could have re-signed Lordus Guriel, what Mike said, was like well into the 2024 season, which does not make any sense to me whatsoever, why the player would benefit from an arrangement like that.

Certainly the team does not benefit from that arrangement. I don't know why language like that winds up in contracts, but Mike said that it's not, this is not just a Lordus only thing, that this is a situation encountered elsewhere. But yeah, basically in the month of October, in early October, the Diamondbacks sort of renegotiated the terms of the contract that Lordus already had to allow them to actually negotiate with him in the same way that other teams would. Otherwise, they would have been sort of left out to dry and they just would not have had the ability to bring Lordus back. It sounds like Lordus and his camp were willing to do that. And so this started at the GM meetings into the winter meetings. these conversations are being had.

And then Mike said last week is when the debacks really decided to go forward and make this happen. In three years, $42 million, there's also an opt out after the second year. There's a club option as well for a fourth year. It sounds like that was sort of a little bit of give and take on both sides with Lourdes getting that opt out. And then the debacks also getting a potential extra year of control if they want it. So yeah, by all means, a fair contract that followed a very bizarre. are one. And I don't know what the blue jays were thinking or how this happened. I don't understand it either. Yeah. It would have essentially been their problem to deal with had he

not been traded. Right. And I mean, that's it is a bizarre clause, especially considering like Mike said, it would have completely removed the diamond backs from actually being able to negotiate with him. Right. Sure. But I mean, also, you know, he was asked a couple of things when it comes to just Lordus's impact on this team and I you know you can't help but look at the options that were out there and think that even though this was a guy that was already part of this organization obviously there's a lot of positives uh in regards to him returning and keeping this team this core together as much as possible there's also the fact that you know he he he really was one of the best outfielders available on the free agent market so it was just uh it seemed to absolutely make the most sense

I think Jack Summers asked if if Lordus was like their their number one target. And yeah, they said that, you know, of course, he was a big priority for them. Yeah. In terms of upgrading the outfield, yes, it sounds like Lordus was basically the top priority. And you can understand why scouring the market. There's just not really anyone else like him available in free agency at least. I know there's Teoska Hernandez out there. He's a little bit more of a heavy swing and miss guy.

Yeah. You know, it's had some really good offensive seasons in the past. I think the price tag there might have been a little bit higher. And frankly, the Mariners, when they had Aeohenio Suarez and Teosca Hernandez on the same team, they had a strikeout problem. And I don't think the debacks necessarily wanted to, you know, sort of take that issue on themselves by having both of those guys. Obviously, the debacks of plenty of other hitters who make a decent amount of contact.

It probably wouldn't have been as big of an issue. But, yeah, in free agency and even in the trade market, We talked about some different guys, Elaine Thomas, Anthony Santander, Randy Rosarena. It always seemed unclear how any of those deals was actually going to happen. And I imagine that Lourdes was just kind of the most realistic, the simplest option to getting this done. Obviously, there's familiarity there as well. And Diamondbacks seem very, very excited to have him back not only on the field, but in the clubhouse as well. Diego Castillo has been DFA'd and that part I think maybe is a little bit of a letdown because I think we were hoping for maybe a bigger deal to be in put in place right but interestingly enough Mike Hazen was asked about their catcher situation and if the catcher they recently picked up her was it Hernandez?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If he was going to be the like a potential backup or potential option for backup backing up Gabby Moreno on the main roster. Right. And Mike made it sound like yes, but they're still going after other catchers like that they're not done yet potentially with catchers. And we know backup catcher has been a big kind of question mark for them. He did say that these guys would be involved in the competition for that role.

But he also made it sound like they definitely weren't. aren't done pursuing players in the free agency market. No, it still sounds like their backup catcher is still out there. That would be my guess. Rolando Hernandez certainly a candidate as well as Jose Herrera. We know that for sure. But I still get the sense they would like to add there if they can. And perhaps the biggest takeaway, Derek, is that the Diamondbacks are looking to add another hitter,

something that, you know, there have been there have been reports about this. out already. Most of those reports, however, indicated that the Diamondbacks are looking for a right-handed hitter in particular. And today, Mike Hazen did not say that. He said that given the addition of Ehoyonio Suarez, as well as bringing back Lordus Curiel, he said that they have flexibility to add either a left or a right-handed hitter. And we're going to get, obviously, we've talked at length about all the right-handed hitting DH options out there. We're going to talk about some left-handed options a little bit later in the show. But Mike did say, That this team, when asked if the heavy lifting was done as far as the acquisitions and free agents go, or free agency goes, that they weren't, that the lifting was not done.

Yeah, we have a clip here from Mike answering that question about whether, yeah, whether the debacks have kind of done the majority of their work or whether there's still still some work left to be done. That's a hard question to answer. No, I don't really feel like the lifting is done. I feel like we've certainly added to our team. I think our team on paper starting out next season is going to be in a very similar, if not slightly better for this one, but we started out in 2023 with. That's a decent starting to me. I think the competitiveness within our division is going to still require us to continue

to upgrade the roster any way we can. That's exciting. He does not sound satisfied with where the back in the box are now. He actually said that I think at one point, and I could be, you know me, I could be misquoting him because I do that. But he basically said something to the extent of he feels like the team is in the exact same place it was at the beginning of this year as it was at the beginning of last year. How? Yeah, yeah.

And what world? How? I had the same. Do we not remember what last year was like? That is a very fair point. That comment said out to me as well. Yeah. He basically said, you know, we've we've done some work.

We've, you know, we've made our roster better. were in as good a position, if not like a little better than where they were at the beginning of the 2023 season. My God. Which, yeah, I think that is. I think the debacks are in much better position because not only is that, you know, the addition of A. Oh, Hennio Suarez, who the debacks did not have at the beginning of 2023. Obviously, they did have Lordus.

The debacks did not have Eduardo Rodriguez at the beginning of 2023. And they also did not have the bullpen that they do now with Paul Seawald, you know, locked into that closing role as well as Ryan Thompson into the seventh inning role. Those are some pretty major. I mean, that's a pretty major piece on offense. That's a major piece in the rotation. That's two significant pieces in the bullpen. I don't buy that the devax right now are in a similar position as they were at the beginning

of 2023. At the end of 2023, you could sort of make a case. I think the team is certainly better than that. The Eduardo Rodriguez edition in itself was certainly a big move there. But yeah, comparing now to the beginning of 2023, Mike, Mike needs to pat himself on the back a little bit more than he did in that. I think that's the biggest thing is, yeah, like you cannot say that. This team is in a completely different place, not only spending wise,

but obviously it's because, you know, this team had success. This team has confidence. They believe that they can do this after, you know, all that they accomplish. But the other thing here to mix it with Mike saying that they have, heavy lifting isn't done yet, is the fact that he talked about getting the support financially from ownership and that this team has been spending more than they expected to and that they are reinvestening back into the team. And this is what Mike had to say.

Incredible. What you want? I think Ken has always, Derek, have always been inconsistent with telling us that, you know, we prove that we, you know, we have a winning team that's going on in the field that that we will have more to invest into the team. And I think a fair position to take and one that was kind of always operated in. If you go back to 2017-18,

that was also the case, I think, by the end of 18. And I think that's a fair operating position that we sort of understood it's going to be the case. So we're very appreciative that. And I hope our players, and I think our players, will be appreciative of that, too, that we are continuing to try to find ways to build upon what they created for us last year.

And I think that the reflection of all the hard work that our players put in the last season. And hopefully, you know, that's something that we're going to add moving forward. Now it's going to be up to us to continue to keep it here. It's not how you, or it's not how much money you spend. It's how you spend the money, right? And that's the thing. Mike Hazen has been very good right now at acquiring talent on kind of a shoestring budget. And now he's kind of being given that opportunity to go and pursue players.

that he covets a bit and feels like can truly get this team to the next level. And it's hard to imagine what that next level is considering their success last year. Do you realize, Derek, what you've done to me by wearing what you're wearing? Everyone in the chat is now like giving me a hard time that I didn't get the memo. That's not my fault, Jesse. The reality is that me and Derek, I don't know how I have to explain this, but me and Derek do not exactly coordinate our outfits on a daily basis. That is true.

What happens is I wear my normal professional attire. He did not ask me what I was going to. I show up and I see Derek wearing something like this and I am not in the least surprise. This is just these are the day-to-day operations of the PHNXDVAC show. There's no coordination that happens. The normal professional attire comment really seemed like a like a shots fire type of situation. It was a dig. See, here's the thing is as we wrap up this year, because this is our final show together, I believe, of 20, 23.

You have to make such an emotional. I do have to make it emotional. There is no better example. next year. Look at the two of us. Look at the two of us. There's no better example of the difference of personalities on this show. Is Jesse implying that what you're wearing is not professional attire? I mean, I think that's exactly what I'm flying. I don't see it on camera, but I light up. I mean, come on. It's lit. I'm lit. We should have shown, we should have shown a picture of the two of us at the holiday party last week because I had a similar vibe. We were both.

I took a credible picture of us standing together. Yeah, and Damon's in there too. We, we both. Yeah, No worries, Derek. You leave me out of every invite to every event and you know it. Don't even start with me. I was wearing a suit coat and I think you were also wearing a suit. I was wearing a suit. Technically. A tie?

I was wearing a suit. It was incredible. I looked incredible. But yours were, what was it like bright red and green? There were some, there were some deers online. Yeah. A reindeer, I guess you could say. But yeah, there's definitely a difference.

I do appreciate a rattleback saying that they are, these are some festive cackies. Yes, that's what I was aiming for. Exactly. Something we do agree on, though, is how delicious Sombrows is, by the way. We also know that Some Burroughs is a family-owned and operated business that offers an incredible breakfast combo that you can get $5 for a breakfast burrito and a coffee. And again, I've talked about this, but getting horchata in your coffee, outstanding. Absolutely outstanding. So you can't. I really, I'm telling you. I'm very desperately need to try that as soon as possible. Another great thing about Some Burroughs is they could cater your event. They got easy. easy party platters to feed a crowd. They have a taco bar to impress your amigos and margaritas to go, which you know, I'm a big fan of that. So let some burrows cater all your holiday fiestas, big or small, order online or find one near you by visiting some burrows.com, seasons eatings with some burrows.

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Someone asked me earlier if I'm going to be making coquito. You absolutely know I'm going to be making some coquito, but I'm not going to be sharing it with these monsters that let like three jars expire in the company refrigerator last Christmas. I'll never forget that. I, for the record, did not know that you would put those jars in there. And I don't think I realized until after that expiration already happened. So you have to communicate better, Derek. If you're a fan of eggnog, make yourself some co-kito. I'm just going to tell you that now.

You can figure it out. There's recipes online. You're smart people. But again, we talked about the Arizona Diamondbacks not being done when it comes to adding to this team. And now that we know that they could be going after not just right-handed hitters, but also left-handed hitters, let's talk about some targets that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet.

And of course, if we're going to bring back Tommy Fam, we know the first person that we have to pursue to bring over to this team. has to be jock peterson right it has to be it has to be yeah it has to be we needed to get one more Tommy fam jock peterson joking before the end of the year it's part of our quota but jock peterson uh again a pretty damn good hitter himself and uh could potentially be a little bit of a bargain would you say yeah yeah i don't i don't think the price there would be uh would be too too crazy i think it would be within the diamondbacks budget for sure do we have uh jock peterson stats is that a thing that a thing that we have yes let's take a look at those

Okay, yeah, there it is. Let's do it. You don't call for them yet. You acted like that was like... Yeah, I just like, I can't really read what's on the screen. He did a bad job of throwing into you. He threw you right under the bus with that. I saw that whole thing. I just was like, Damon, did you do your job? I did. I did. I did. I did my job. Why are you asking? Why are you, uh, this is brutal? Why are you just, can't you transition better than this, Jesse? Like, that's what he's thinking. All right. So, Jock Peterson in 2023 at 23, 3, 348, 4, 6.

16 with the San Francisco Giants, 15 homers, 51 RBI. He was worth 0.6 foire, as we like to say. Former San Francisco giant. So I don't know. And Los Angeles Dodgers, so I don't know how people feel about Jack Peterson in some ways. But yeah, you know, if the debacks are looking for a lefty to provide some value at the play,

Jock Peterson is one of the primary options out there that at least would make sense to me. Cody Bellinger, of course, is also, out there. The debacks are not going to sign Cody Bellinger. So we're just going to kind of gloss over that and go to some more affordable options. And yeah, Jock Peterson has been a reasonably consistent hitter throughout his time in the majors. There have been some ups and downs. His 2023 season was certainly not as good as his 2022 season. But the issue that I have here, Derek, is that if you're going after a righty, it is easier to find someone at a reasonable price who can be

productive against both righties and lefties. If you're going after a lefty, you're going to have to spend some money in order, or spend some trade capital, I guess I should say, in order to land someone who is productive against both. Jock Peterson has long been a hitter, never really consistently hit lefties all that well. And that was the case again for him, if I can find these numbers. That was the case again for him in 2023. He had a 606 OPS, hit 186 against lefties.

compared to a 786 OPS against Rides. And the Diamondbacks arguably have guys within their organization right now that could put up these kind of numbers, especially when you consider his lack of success against left-handed pitching. Yeah, I mean, it would have to be, if you get Jock Peterson, to me, it kind of has to be a platoon situation

where you're putting Emmanuel Rivera, I guess. We're not doing that anymore. I guess Emmanuel Rivera starts and against lefties. I don't know. I don't know. Daniel Rivera, but we don't want to do the platoon thing. He was, he was okay. He was okay against lefties.

But the debacks also have a center fielder and Alec Thomas, who has not been all that productive against lefties at all, right? He has majorly struggled against lefties. I know he was a little better in the postseason, but he certainly still has a lot to prove before they could count on him every day. So I think it's, I think it's important that whomever they get, they wind up that they're in an okay position against. and's left-handed pitching.

If you get someone like a jock Peterson, I have some questions about what that lineup would look like. That's a good point. Well, there is another guy available that's a left-handed bat who we know absolutely rakes at Chase Field. Yeah. And that's Brandon Belt.

Let's take a look at Brandon Belt's numbers. I would love to specifically just look at his numbers for Chase Field. But Brandon Belt, again, just an absolute maniac when it came to hitting here. His 2023 season, he averaged 254 with a 369 on-base percentage. and a 490 slugging percentage, 19 home runs, 43 RBI, and a foar of 2.3.

Yeah, Brandon Belt is fascinating because these numbers are bond, man. Yeah, they're really good. Like 254, 369, 490, Brandon Belt is 35 years old. He is a strictly platoon hitter. Like Jock Peterson, you could start him against some lefties

and, you know, whatever. Brandon Belt, I don't think you want to do that. His numbers against lefties in 2023 were even worse than that of Jock. Peterson. He had a 572 OPS against lefties. I mean, I guess you could give him a few starts if you had to, but compared to an 890 OPS against Ritey's. Sure. I mean, he was able to produce quite a bit of value because of that. I mean, 2.3 wins above replacement from a guy who's not really giving you really any defensive value. He started 69 games at DH, 29 games at first base. I knew you were going to

say that. So yeah, he found a way to be pretty productive, even though at this. stage in his career. He's not really giving you anything, anything against left-handed pitching, but he also struck out a ton. That's sort of the other factor here. His strikeout rate was 34.9% which is in the first percentile around baseball. So there is a ton of swing and miss. And I do think for that reason, there's some concern that things could kind of fall apart for Brandon Belt in the near future. And how do I get past my personal feelings, Jesse, like Kyle says here, I would hate Belt on principle because the man haunts my dreams and the man does haunt my dreams there's still a lot of there's a lot of articles i had to rewrite because of branded belt if i'm being honest i think that

as a journalist that's what i take the most exception to you he had a 91st percentile barrel rate so again barrels are like those ideal batted balls that are often going for for extra base hits doubles triples homers probably more doubles and homers for branded belt um but yeah he was extremely good in that regard. He did not chase pitches out of the zone hardly at all, 17.9% chase rate. So he's really good at laying off those pitches outside of the strike zone, but he had a very, a very high whiff rate. So he wasn't chasing out of the zone too much, but he's swinging and missing a lot at pitches, but not only outside the zone, but inside the zone as well. And that often happens as players age, you know, you just wind up being able to make less contact in the zone. We kind of

saw that with Evan Longoria this past season, especially toward the end. So there's a decent amount of risk here. But he also, out of the three players that we're talking about in this segment, Brandon Bell was by far the most productive according to wins above replacement. And Kevin brings up the most important part. Brandon Belt, born on 420. There you go. Throw a 69 on that man and it might be perfection.

I don't know. But anyway, we do have one more name that we wanted to bring up. And that, of course, another left-handed bat. since that's the theme of today's show is Carlos Santana, which I just, I just love for the name alone. But again, another guy that could be very productive based on his 20,

23 stats and not sure what the cost would be there, but again, if the Diamondbacks now aren't really being super choosy about whether it's a left-handed or right-handed, you know, bat they could bring in. He could definitely bring some offense to this team. Yeah, Carlos Santana. Shout out Carlos Sanjana.

Santana hardcore carried my fantasy team back in the like mid-2010s. Very underrated, Derek. If he play in a points league where walks and strikeouts matter. Carlos Santana very underrated because he has always walked a ton. These are his numbers from 2023. Of course, there's maybe some familiarity here for debacks fans, given that Carlos Santana was a member of the Brewers into the postseason. A 240 batting average in 2023 overall, 318 on base, 429.

slugging percentage. 23 homers, 86 RBI. Basically, graded out is just above a league average hitter. 1.7 wins above replacement. He actually graded out quite well defensively at first base, which is interesting. That was kind of a central part of how Carlos Santana was valuable this past season, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the debacks necessarily because they obviously already have Christian Walker in place at first.

So while it seems like they would. they would like to have some positional flexibility in whomever they acquire for the spot. I'm not sure that, you know, getting someone who has as much defensive value as Carlos Santana has would make a ton of sense. They just wouldn't really be in a position to take advantage of that. So yeah. I'm starting to I'm starting to do a scratcher, Jesse, because I need to, again,

do everything I can to do my part in adding to the Diamondbacks economic windfall that they have to splurge on players. Am I going to share this? with them perhaps not but I'm going to buy a whole lot of Sonoran dogs should I win big on this one right here what's the max value that the max value value of this one Jesse that I hold my hand is half a million dollars so if we hit on this one this this might be a wrap when I said this is the last show of the year for us it might actually be because me and this guy we're out of here if we went half a million dollars but the diamondbacks of course continue to scratch off their scratcher when it comes to their free agency season they're on

off season and we continue to scratch off scratchers here to see if I win of course holiday scratchers from Arizona lottery do make excellent last minute shopping gifts of course for this guy next to me who I know hasn't even started yet they also make amazing stocking stuffers it's my wife's favorite gift to get in the stocking there's a scratcher for everyone on your list and they start off at just one dollar and again this one I hold in my hand could win me and jesse up to half a million dollars and I said just me and jesse max is standing what the hell close proximity and Damon continues. Damon continues to leave me off of every due trip that he that he tries to schedule.

So now he wants to get down on my winning. See, everybody wants to come out of the woodwork and get down on your winnings once you have one of these big dogs. We'll each take 40% and then Damon gets 20. That seems fair. Maybe 45, 45. Yeah, that seems fair. I mean, we could tip max out, but we'll figure it out.

Go out and buy your holiday scratchers today. find a retailer like our friends at circle k near you at ariotr.com must be 21 or older to play uh and yes stop by circle k get yourself some holiday scratches there get yourself some gas fill yourself up it's america's third stop get one of their amazing roller items we were just talking yesterday about how yeah like cheeseburgers on a roller do exist and they exist at circle k and they're better than you can imagine circle k has amazing snacks uh including all of their circle k branded snacks which are not to be slept on we finally got baked goods in here for from Circle K and it was just in time for Sean to pause to no longer work in this office.

And I just want him to know that they're elite. And just having Circle K baked goods in here every day that Sean isn't makes me smile. Hollywood Depos doesn't watch this show. Oh yeah. He doesn't. Hollywood Depos is way too big time for this show. That's very true. That's very true.

But he did. He was a big part of the inner circle with me. And you can be too, of course, because if you join the Inner Circle for free right now by downloading the Circle K app today, you can save on. Your gasoline, of course, which like I said, things are going up and down with gasoline, but you can save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips. You also save three cents off per gallon every day after that. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circlek.com for details. But yeah, get down now.

You can get down on the 31 days of Circle K in the Inner Circle app, free prizes, snacks, weekly entries into grand prizes and more. You also can get your Arizona lottery tickets over at Circle K. And like I was telling Mr. Friedman over here, if you win big on those up to 500. $199, I believe. You can go back to Circle K and get your money directly from them, which could help you big during this time of the year because I myself am tapped out in spending. But I do, I'm sure I have some things. I need to buy this weekend before we get to the big day. Of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHN Sports YouTube channel. Of course, make sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our other wonderful shows go live or when we go live. Leave us a little thumbs up. We always appreciate those likes, those add-a-boys. We're just. We will not take them in a weird way. We will just accept your adulation and appreciate it. But if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we didn't forget about you.

Make sure you subscribe there. We love you to. Leave us a review. We appreciate the five-star reviews over there as well. And now, I mean, there's a lot of- Carlos Santana is a switch hitter. I just want to make sure that we make that clear. I realize I neglected to say that from the top.

Sure. So, yeah, he's a switch hitter. and yeah so he he doesn't really fit into the same category as brandon belt and jock peterson in that he can actually hold his own against left-handed pitching um so yeah he functionally is i believe better as a left-handed hitter uh so better against righty so he sort of functions in some ways as a left-handed hitter and that he's better against right-handed pitching but the split is not as significant as it is with brandon belt and uh and with jock peterson okay uh and we've figured out the winning ticket thing, you get 33%, I get 33%.

Damon gets 33%. Max gets the remaining 1%. That seems fair. Yeah, that seems fair. Max basically gets like the rounding air leftovers. I mean, we, talking about money, of course, is it's now time to infuriate you and me and everyone. We're talking about the Dodgers being the ones that get Yamamoto. As you all know, Yamamoto is signed to the Dodgers.

Dodgers for 12 year, $325 million deal. They have now invested over, I believe, $1.5 billion or something into new player and the three players. Not quite 1.5. It's an absurd amount of money. It's like $1.1 billion. Yeah. Don't be unreasonable.

Well, those are just those two guys. You're forgetting about Tyler Glass now. Well, but Tyler Glass now is like, he's like cheap compared to those guys. You're absolutely right. Tyler Glass now is like 0.135, right? because it was $135 million extension? It just makes me sick. Doesn't it make you sick?

I mean, and again, I know that the Dodgers are taking a huge gamble here on a guy that has never played in Major League Baseball. And we covered that before. We even joked when all reports were saying he was going to go to the Yankees that this indeed meant he was going to the Dodgers, which we didn't even know how right we possibly could have been in the moment. But, man, it just, it feels wrong. And I think that's the big thing that this entire situation, like illustrates is once again, the difference in baseball between the halves and the have-nots and how big that gap is between them. The Dodgers can spend all of this money and still not have it, if it goes wrong, not have it be critical to the franchise. You know what I mean?

They could almost just kind of brush it off and say, well, that deal didn't go great. like man we got to be careful we don't do that again but it's not going to ruin the franchise like it would more than half of the teams in baseball if they made that kind of investment in a player that didn't end up working out yeah 12 years 325 million dollars i know we we talked on this show about how we kind of saw him heading to the yankees ultimately or at least not heading to the dodgers just because they are not a team that often spends at the very top of the market it seemed like show hey otani was the rare exception, you know, the unicorn type player that would, you know, that would allow them to do that. But apparently there were, there were two unicorns in this free agent class, Yamamoto, obviously

coming over at just 25 years old, something basically never see a player that young and free agency, especially a player as talented as Yamamoto is believed to be. There is considerable risk here for the Dodgers on all three of these players that they've made investments in, right? Shohei Otani, you know, we've talked so much about the 700 million, what the present day value is, all that. They're still giving a heck of a lot of money to a player who just had his second Tommy John, whatever we want to call it, elbow surgery, which comes with a lot of risk. It does. Not that many guys are able to come back from a second TJ and still be the same pitcher that they were before.

That is not a guarantee. He's hitting, you know, moving forward, certainly feel good about. that and we talked yesterday about the business ramifications for this for them you can understand why the Dodgers made the investment it makes a ton of sense for them but at the same time it is not without risk there is a world in which Otani you know he probably does pitch again I think that's a pretty safe assumption but how long does he pitch is he a pitcher for you know seven years of this contract or is he a pitcher for three years of this contract like I think those are very valid questions to ask. Tyler Glass now, obviously the extensive injury history there. He's also

had Tommy John surgery. There have been some lingering effects of that. And then Yamamoto is a guy who has yet to throw a pitch in the majors. Not to say that he will not be good. I very much think he will. I don't want to use that against him too much. But he hasn't exactly proven that he is a 12-year, $325 million type player. He's also 175 pounds sopping wet. And that's a lot. And that's that's going to be my play. Yeah, there's, you can't pitch out this level

because he's 5,9, 170. There, there is, I do, I think that there are some valid concerns there for sure. That, you know, even though there have been,

he's been very durable, it seems, up to this point in his career. But Yamamoto is a type of guy as, as many innings as he's thrown in Japan up to this point. Like,

he could be in, like, Madison, Bumgarner territory as far as innings go, when he gets to like 29, 30 years old. Madison Bumgarner, obviously kind of broke down at that point. And he's a much bigger guy than Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

So there is, yeah, that's another reason that there is quite a bit of risk here for the Dodgers. Even if he is everything they want him to be over the next few years, there's a risk that, you know, five years from now, he's not taking any of those opt-outs. He's staying into this contract. And it sounds like it's a little bit backloaded. And the Dodgers are going to be, you know, potentially paying a lot of money to a player who's not really worth that at some point. It's the reason why the entire like showy Otani situation was so frustrating and, you know, kind of infuriated the baseball world is not only do they have the money to pay him, but they got the deferral thing. They figured out a way to circumvent a bit of the of the tax of what they're going to get hit with as far as their, you know, of their salary base and what's taxed on the competitive balance tax.

And like that all of that is frustrating that then they can go out and get the other big name. on the market, which of course deferring Otani's salary allowed them, you know, to even consider this. And, you know, I mean, again, there is no way to know if these guys are going to be worth the money that this team is paying for them. It's just insane. It's also insane that the Dodgers really needed to go out and spent north of a billion dollars this offseason to beat the power of friendship as we tweet it out because you can't just look at this. All this to defeat the power of friendship, all this to defeat those four handsome, wholesome boys. Are you kidding me?

Get out of here. Yeah, and it's funny because, you know, obviously we, we put this out and people loved it, but we were not the only people communicating this sentiment on Twitter last night. There was a bunch of people being like, wow, the Arizona Diamond Vax really made the Dodgers spend north of a billion dollars just because of this, hell. Yeah, we did. And we don't know exactly. We don't know exactly if the Dodgers, you know, would the Dodgers really have not made these investments if they had gone past the diamondbacks?

They scared, Jesse. They, there's at least a chance that there's some validity to that. I don't know if I fully buy into it. But there's at least a chance that, you know, not just the lack of success in 2023 and not being able to go far. But, you know, this is a thing that's obviously been a trend for a while. We heard in their negotiations with Otani that they very openly admitted that they, very openly admitted that they, They view the last decade as a failure, even though they've won the NLS every single year except for one. They should.

They should consider it a failure because that's the thing about this signing. That's what this does to this team. All of the pressure is on the Dodgers for them to succeed now. And if they don't, if they fall short, if they make it to the division series again and get beat by the Diamondbacks, get beat by the Padres, get beat by the Cincinnati Reds, it doesn't matter. They are a failure. It doesn't matter how far they go. how many games they win next season. They are a failure if they didn't win the World Series.

And that level of pressure, I hope you're prepared for. They do have the guys there that I think are ready to shoulder that. But let's not forget that the Angels had Otani and Mike Trout. And just having those two guys, which are widely considered two of the best baseball players on the planet, was not enough for them to be successful. The Angels Dodgers comparison? No, I'm not making the Angels Dodgers comparison. What I'm saying is, what I'm saying is, is that again, the idea here that that's different because they just had two superstars essentially.

And they tried to have a lot more than two superstars. They have way, way more. They just have two superstars just in their starting rotation as far as, you know, their lineup is concerned or their team is concerned. But yeah, what I'm saying is is that at the end of the day, the Dodgers are a purchased, assembled team of some of. of millionaires, right? Like, and the one thing that you can't guarantee that they would be is a fucking connected team. And you know, the Arizona Diamondbacks remain that, right? I talked about it on TPSB.

So you've heard. There might be assured about it. But there is something to be said about Mike Hazen's comments today when asked about it, where he said, like, I don't really pay attention to that. Like, he has to, I'm sure he does. I know he doesn't not pay attention to do it. But he really truly. Mike, actually, he didn't know that Yamamoto.

No, he was like, oh, did they, did they make another? There's a shirt. But yeah, no, I mean, it's not that he doesn't know, right? It's the, it's the mindset is more important of what he's talking about. He can't pay attention to what they do. He can't really let that all of a sudden dictate what he does and now get all of a sudden panicky or start making moves that you wouldn't normally make just because now the Dodgers got Otani and Yamamoto, right? So from that perspective, I get it.

There was also when Erod was signed and he talked about the rivalries between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox that he was a part of and how there's those big names on the back of those jerseys. And in his mind, he's just a dude pitching against that. You know, he's just a guy throwing a ball against that hitter. It's it really comes down to we, we, you know, covet these guys that we consider to be the superstars of the league and then they end up earning these gigantic contracts. But in some cases, the gigantic contracts are what. make them a superstar in some cases above everybody else because you know that guy makes a lot of money. Right.

And then you look at his stats. We'll pull a guy that makes league minimum somewhere in the league that probably has similar stats. It's not to say that that guy's not going to get paid eventually, but that's a young guy that's, you know, not reaching that contract level yet. And that's what baseball is. You literally have guys putting up the same statistics and one guy's making, you know, $25 million, $30 million a year and one guy's making less less than a million.

And that's how baseball is, right? So I don't, it doesn't scare me that the Diamondbacks now have to be in the division as the Dodgers because I don't think we were ever really like saying that this team is going to win the division. That's fair. You know? It's a fair point. And they do have to play them much less than they used to have to play them. Yeah, that would have been. That would have been a problem, right?

So, but there's just there. Again, I just think that the Diamondbacks have the right attitude going forward, which is they can't be scared. They weren't scared last year. Freddie Freeman and Mooky Betts didn't really do much against them in the playoffs. One for 21. One for 21. And I think it was an infield single perhaps. Yeah, I think you're right.

So, yeah, like you don't scare me. Dodgers, you can sign all the guys you want to billion dollar contracts you want. We still have the power of friendship. We're still a connected team. And a connected team is a fucking dangerous team. Baseball does still have, very clearly has the halves and the have-nobnobnob. not's problem. It's a huge problem.

And the Dodgers, what they've done this off season is the epitome of that. There's no getting around the fact that the Dodgers can make these moves. And there's a lot of other teams that as far as we can tell do not have the ability to make these moves, the Diamondbacks likely included. Baseball's biggest redeeming quality in this regard, though, is that the playoffs are madness. And the playoffs are random and anything can happen in the postseason. And so I don't know if this is really great. I've talked about how I don't love how big the postseason field is.

I in some ways view that as a problem too. But it's sort of like the issue that baseball has, this equity issue where these teams do not have similar resources necessarily, that issue is counterbalanced by what I view as an issue of the postseason having this wide open field that makes it so that anything can happen. The Dodgers are probably going to win well north of 100 games. Heck, they won 100 games this last year with a roster that. I don't think was anywhere near as talented as the roster that they're going to have going into 2024. But still, when they get into the playoffs and they're probably going to have the buy

and there's probably going to be more conversation about them taking a week off or whatever and the impact that that can have, at a certain point, the Dodgers are going to take the field against a likely inferior team in the postseason and they are going to have a not insignificant chance of losing to that team in the first round. And even if they get past that team, They are going to have a not insignificant chance of losing in the next round, right? Yeah. That's just the nature of the postseason. And I don't love either side of this for baseball, the inequity side or the expanded

random crazy postseason side. Yeah. But in some ways, the two things kind of like actually work together a little bit. They, it's a, it's a checks and balances system in a way because yes, you have to be good. But guess what? Now once we're the playoffs, anything can happen. It's a while less. You know, that kind of thing.

And the debacks are obviously huge beneficiaries of that. And in some ways, even though I don't like the concept of the playoff field being as big as it is, I think it is sort of necessary for baseball in order to, in order to counterbalance, you know, the advantages of some of these big spending teams, you know, really seem to have. Well, remember what Zach Gallen said. We'll be back to ruin the party. So that is what Zach Gallen said. Never forget.

You do that, King Snipes. Go ahead and clip it. Yeah, please do. And I'll be dancing on the Dodgers grave. Wow. You see, this is why we keep Damon around. He's our dog. Yes, let's go.

Well, we thank you guys, of course, for sticking around. We appreciate you guys being here. This is like one of those wonderful holiday days that I think a lot of people aren't working. Me and Jesse here in studio looking, I mean, incredible, if I might say myself. But one great way for you to solve your shopping problems, which this guy still has, I know. stop by Shady Rays here in town at the Kierland Commons location, which is a full stop shop for all things, Shady Rays. Pick your love ones up, a pair of sunglasses that is, of course, a world-class product,

just as good as expensive sunglasses, and comes with the most insane protection plan in all of eyewear, where every pair of sunglasses is backed by their lost and broken replacement plan. If you lose or break your pair of Shady Rays, even on day one, they told us they will send you a brand new pair, no questions asked at all. They have your back long after you purchase. exclusively for our listeners you can also get Shadyrays online and they are giving out their best deal of the season go to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. And now that we are through the spending, unless you're Jesse, maybe you can get your finances back on track. I know you do. I know you do. But it's great, Derek. I'm going to be forced to make quick decisions and it's going to be way more efficient than it would have been other. Otherwise, and you're going to put so much thought into those gifts for your loved ones that do so much for you.

But of course, you can do something for yourself and check out Desert Financial Credit Union, which for more than 84 years has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. They got me started on my home ownership journey. And yeah, I love coming home to that place. It's my little abode. And you can get started on yours as well. You can look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so. much more. When you open a free checking account online right now, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 today. Well, sir, I hope you have

a wonderful holiday weekend. Yeah, you're just going to, you're just going to up and leave me now. Oh, yeah, I should say a holiday week without me. So good luck with all of that. Ken, me and Ken Rosenthal are going to hang out at some point and drink Coquito together. But of course, we hope you guys have a wonderful week as well. I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Be safe out there. Make sure you guys enjoy your time with your loved ones. I know I talk a lot about being stressed out about it, but we're not here for a long time. We're here for a good time. So make sure to enjoy that time with your loved ones. We hope you guys have a wonderful holiday. The meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K, this absolute

maniac next to me. You can check in on him shopping. He's at Jesse and Friedman. Damon is a good boy. He got all of his shopping done, but I bet stuff isn't wrapped yet. You can follow him on. on Twitter at Damon dog. No, me and David totally skyed eye on this. Be on the same page the whole time. Damon, are you a procrastinator too? Oh, big time. I have, I needed like three presents to get and I have one of them.

Oh, no. I know. We're in a similar boat, Damon. Just going to hit the mall after this. Yeah. Oh, that's terrible. No, we have to wait until Sunday at least, Damon. Today, this is way too early.

I'm having a panic attack just hearing you guys say that. Of course, we are still Damon's dogs, even when we don't agree on shopping bark bark our shows at phnx underscore debacks but of course all roads lead to at p hnx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we appreciate you guys ski to you all at mary ski miss uh to you all can i can i just say real quick no there will be no show on monday correct because monday is christmas and as much as i know all of you are dying for mailback monday in the middle of christmas escape their families to yeah yeah we got to take one all day off yeah so we're We're not going to do a show on Monday.

We'll be back on Tuesday at 1 p.m. And then we will also have a Saturday show. So you'll still get five shows from us next week. But we're just scooting everything down a day. And Derek is ditching all of us. I am. That is correct. But I do appreciate you guys.

I thank you for stopping by not just now, but all year long. We appreciate you guys for being a part of this wagon. We thank you so much for your time. And remember kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when you have the power. of friendship.