PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks in talks with free agent Joc Pederson to fill designated hitter role

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

We continue to track the Arizona Diamondbacks pursuit of a designated hitter, and it would appear per reports they are now in talks with Joc Pederson to potentially fill that role. We discuss Pederson’s strengths and if he would be a good fit to replace Tommy Pham, which to be fair is also pretty hilarious. We also give our choices for the cover of MLB the Show 24 and if we still believe in video game cover curses.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/200Michelob ULTRA: It’s only worth it if you enjoy it. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. https://www.michelobultra.com/Schedule 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. 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 another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. A big ski to you all. Of course, I am coming to you from my secret layer here somewhere in Arizona. I am your mayor, occasionally known as Derek Montia. Jesse is coming to you from somewhere sweet and wholesome, obviously. He is the vice mayor and your thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Jesse pointed out before the show started the difference between our two backgrounds, and it's noticeable.

It's noticeable for sure. Also, I'm in the dark and Jesse is very much in the light. I think everything here is a perfect metaphor for us as people, Jesse, but we have been covering the Arizona Diamondbacks and their pursuit of a designated hitter. And it would appear there is a new rumor connecting them to talks with Jock Peterson to potentially replace Tommy Fam. And as Jesse pointed out to me through text message, that's objectively hilarious. Yeah, it absolutely is. I mean, this would be like a one-for-one replacement of Tommy fam for Jock Peterson, which is, I mean, all of the storylines there are just absolutely lovely. But yeah, Jock Peterson is a name that we've talked about before on the show as a potential target for the Diamondbacks.

Mike Hazen made it clear after the Lordus Coriel signing that he wasn't just looking for a right-handed DH that he would consider left-handed options as well. And there aren't that many of those available in free agency. Jack Peterson certainly the most prominent prominent name there. Well, we've talked about Jack Peterson in the past and that his numbers are very, very, very much

different versus right-handed pitching versus left-handed pitching. And this almost feels like if this is the situation that maybe the Diamondbacks might be pursuing another option and kind of he would be like a platoon DH. But I do believe we have his

numbers from 2023s. Let's take a look at those. Or maybe we don't. Maybe we do. There they are. Average 235 with a 348 OPS and a 416 slug. Oh, they went away again. 15 home runs, 51 RBI, and a 0.6.

FWR. Someone pointed out, by the way, Jesse, that I'm not the only one that says war, the same way as that when I'm talking about baseball war, which is different than war. But anyway. You should be happy that you're not completely alone in that. I am. Yeah, these numbers aren't, aren't great.

235, 348, 416. Yeah, I mean, good, but not great, right? Yeah. Jock Peterson, kind of an interesting story. He had an excellent 2022 season with the San Francisco Giants and OPS of nearly 900. And the Giants were hoping to get a draft pick, presumably, when he departed in free agency. They offered him the qualifying offer. And he took the qualifying offer.

So Jock Peterson played for the Giants again in 2023 and made almost $20 million. I think it was like 19.6 was the qualifying offer that he took in in 2020. And, you know, 0.6 wins above replacement on fan graphs. I don't think he, I don't think he was quite a $20 million player in 2023. But yeah, as you said, he's certainly a platoon bat, a guy who has really never hit lefties all that well in 2020. slash 186, 327, 279 against lefties. You're going to want to protect him from left-handed pitching as much as possible. But he was still an asset against righties.

He hit 241, 351, 4355 there, which is still a far cry from where he was in 2022. But that would add value for the Diamondbacks for sure. If Jack Peterson was on the Diamondbacks tomorrow, he would on paper become their third best hitter against right-handed pitching. only Corbyn-C-Marro and Coutel Marte had a higher WRC plus against righties last year than the Jock Peterson did. So would you see if they did go to Jock Peterson, would you foresee like maybe again,

Tori being able to use against left-handed pitching, just kind of the guy he's giving the day off to D.H. And then against right-handed pitching, Jock would be in the lineup as the D-H. Is that the foreseeable way that you would play things here? Yeah, I mean, you'd have to come up with with something for that DH slot against, against lefties for sure.

And yeah, it could certainly be used to give guys occasional days off, you know, have Christian Walker every once in a while, DH instead of playing first base or whatnot. But yeah, in-house, I don't know if the Diamondbacks have like that ideal platoon partner.

You know, if you were to have a jock in there against, against righties, you would want to have at least someone who could kind of balance that against left-handed pitching. I'm not sure the D-backer, actually have that guy. We talked about Kevin Newman, potentially being that guy.

You know, someone they just brought in on a minor league deal recently. You had really good numbers against lefties in in 2023. So, but yeah, I don't know if Kevin Newman is necessarily guaranteed a spot on on this roster. So it would, it would be interesting to see how they would handle it against lefties. There aren't any obvious, obvious solutions there that I'm aware of. Would this rule out still potentially getting another DH or another hitter along with Jock Peterson? Yeah, that's an interesting question. I mean, I guess in an ideal world, no. If you're able to get Jock Peterson for a little bit less, maybe you have a little money left over to go get a right-handed hitter who can just play part-time, you know, maybe be more of a more of a bench player who starts against lefties fairly.

often. But that would rule out the top guys that we've been talking about like J.D. Martinez and Jorge Saler. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm guessing that if you are getting Jock Peterson, it's probably because the price tags for J.D. Martinez and Jorge Saler are not exactly what you like. And so you, I mean, if you're getting Jock Peterson in the first place, it probably means you didn't have the money for a J.D. Martinez or a J.D. Martinez or a J.D. Martinez or Horace Salair. In which case I'm not, you know, I would, I would be somewhat doubtful that the diamondbacks would have money to go out and get someone else. Well, let's take a look at Jesse's favorite pastime, which is baseball savant.

And let's take a look at Jock Peterson's Savant page because there's a lot of red here. Like this this savant page for me doesn't really match up with his numbers from last year. It feels like he should have been a much better hitter statistically with these numbers. than he was. Absolutely. Yeah, Jock Peterson underperformed his peripherals

by quite a bit in 2020. And I think that's probably the biggest argument in his favor is that while his numbers weren't quite as good in 2020, the underlying numbers were still quite strong. In 2022, his baseball Savant page was ridiculous. I mean, it was,

it was, you know, J.D. Martinez-esque pretty much across the board. 2023, though, it's not quite to that level, but still very good. good. And I looked at his splits from the first half to the second half. He actually put up pretty good numbers in the first half of the Giants kind of faded in the second half. But his expected

stats were considerably better than his actual stats in both the first half and the second half of the season. So yeah, I don't, I think there's a lot of evidence here that Jock Peterson is a better player than the numbers that he put up in 2023. And whatever team that signs him probably believes that there's a, you know, a decent chance that he's able to actually put up the kind of numbers that, you know, some of the stat cast metrics suggested for him moving forward. This is the opposite of when you say a guy got lucky and then try to qualify what you mean by lucky when they, when they had a good season, right? This is kind of the opposite. Yeah. Everything here in theory says he's a good hitter and a much better hitter than he was,

but it got a little unlucky. And we've seen that in the past. We saw that with Christian Walker over a considerable stretch at one point, right, where his peripherals were good. But I mean, that's the kind of thing that the change of scenery, change of team, you know, change of environment that you're hitting in, like hitting here at Chase Field versus hitting in San Francisco, a lot, there's a lot of differences there that that could benefit him. I will say that as much as we've made jokes about it, I don't, I don't like, I don't love this, but I still love this more than not doing anything, right? I think that, again, the DH and especially assessing some of your hitting weaknesses right now that the team kind of as a whole have, that that could be a big benefit, even if it's not going to bring in a guy like Solair that's going to be a big slugger that's going to get a lot of dingers, there's still a chance that Peterson could, you know, turn things around here and have a much better season than he did last year.

and fulfill that missing kind of, you know, strength there to hit, you know, against right-handed pitching. Yeah, a big part of this comes down to, you know, how much do you think you need an extra bat in the lineup against lefties? Because as we just talked about, Jock Peterson is not really that. You know, are you fairly comfortable with where you're at right now against lefties and you're just looking for some extra thump against righties? And I do think that there's some evidence that that's, that the Diamondbacks might need more help against Ritey's right now than against lefties. In 2023, they were a better team against Ritey's than lefties. But when Jack Summers was on the show a few weeks ago, we broke down kind of how that happened. It was very weird.

The team gave a lot of the bats to Nick Ahmed against lefties. And obviously he was just awful. It was like a 400 OPS or something. He really tanked their numbers against lefties. There were a couple of other guys. Tommy Pham mysteriously was not good at all against lefties with the Diamondbacks was better against Ritees. So I think there were some kind of weird things that happened in 2023 that made it look like this team was better against Rite's than they were against lefties. In reality, when I look at the lineup right now, I actually see a team that's kind of lacking in thump against Rite's.

And you've got Corbyn Carroll, who you know is going to be an elite level producer there. You certainly expect that. Cattel Marte was well above average against Rite's in 2023. But as I said earlier, Jock Peterson would be the third best hitter on this team, at least based on 2023 numbers against right-handed pitching. It's also interesting is Jock Peterson was better against Ritees than Jorge Saler in 2023. Jorge Saler did so much of his damage against lefties.

He was like otherworldly good against left-handed pitching. So if the concern is primarily to address your offense against Ritees, Jock Peterson, I think actually does make quite a bit of offense. You know what my solution to this problem is, Jesse. Just signed J. J.J. Martinez. Jorge Peterson. Of course.

There you go. Once again, like J.D. Salere, Jorge Peterson. Jorge Peterson is the answer here. But he's projected to get two years 24 million, which seems like more money than I want to pay him. But again, that's fan grafts projection. So not sure if the Diamondbacks would go for a multi-year deal. maybe at this point the talks are more a one-year deal with some sort of option for a second year if he does have a successful season here.

But yeah, I do think that that move does price them out of the market. And essentially, you know, I think the remaining moves there are still a backup catcher, maybe another reliever that isn't going to cost them very much. But outside of that, I don't see them being able to afford much more than paying, you know, Jack Peterson somewhere in the neighborhood between 12 and, you know, potentially more, you know, for, for one season. I could see, I could see a one-year deal happening with, with Jack Peterson. I, I don't think fan graphs is outrageous in their two years, 24 million projection. I think that's their, their crowd source projection. But spending 12 million, at least this year, unless it's one of those deals where it's two

years and they kind of put more of the money in the next year and allow that Madison Bumper in our contract to fall off, it feels like they're kind of tapped out if they do go for a 12-year deal, or 12-year, no one's signing John Peterson a 12-million dollar deal for one season. Yeah, I, I'm really curious to see kind of where the price tag is for Jack Peterson relative to Soler and Martinez, because I think the difference could be fairly significant. You know, if you're talking about a one-year deal for Peterson instead of, you know, two, three, maybe even up to four for for for hori soler um and i think you're you know you're easily into the 16 to 18 million range for for martinez and soler if peterson is 10 million uh which i don't

necessarily expect but i could see it being possible i mean we just mentioned zero point six uh fan graphs wins above replacement that's a pretty low number uh to be getting more than 10 million dollars per season so i think there's some bargain potential here for the diamond backs to you know maybe save quite at least a deal. decent amount of money getting Jock Peterson. And again, it's never totally been clear to me whether the team really had the money, was willing to spend the money to go get Solaire or Martinez. And so I guess in some ways, Peterson would be viewed as kind of the consolation prize,

you know, kind of settling for a little bit of a lower tier player. But, yeah, there are reasons to believe that Jock Peterson could come in next year. And at least against right-handed pitching, there's a very real chance that Jock Peterson is better than Soler and possibly even J.D. Martinez, as he, you know, potentially regresses a little bit moving forward. So I don't think anyone who thinks that Peterson is like not even at all in the same class as Soler and Martinez, I don't really agree with that. He's clearly a step below, but I think there's, I think there's a world in which Peterson winds up giving the Diamondbacks a similar amount of value in, in 2024. With players like Peterson, I really like,

like the idea of incentive based contracts where where you lay out certain you know goals for them to hit tears for them to hit and should they hit it sure then that you know that that that increases their contract i think for someone like jock that gives him something to play for some something to earn some more money about and if if he can produce in a certain manner then it's worth the money to pay him that extra amount but i mean again that's just that that's just me i guess siding with owners or something i don't know because apparently players don't like those kind of deals. But hey, you know, again, that's, I feel like all of sports should have more incentive-based contracts that allow players to, you know, obviously be paid and compensated regardless, like well, regardless of how they perform. But should they perform at an all-star

caliber level, I think that they deserve more money. And I think that that should be something that you could work out where, you know, again, you're not going to expect Jack Peterson to come in and play at an all-star caliber level, but should he be able to produce, you know, a, a decent, an amount of RBI and take a certain number of bats and, you know, be above a certain batting average or something like that, something to that extent, a certain OPS, you know, that's something that is controllable to, to an extent by him. And, you know, again, could be very beneficial for both parties. Now, Mike Hazen made some comments today about being a bit more open-minded about having a full-time designated hitter, which he was hesitant about in the past.

I feel like his philosophy there lines up a bit with Tories. We know Tories likes having players, like having a situational managing or ability to manage the situations, you know, as he sees fit, right? He's, that's the reason why he went with the closer by committee last year, which in theory makes sense still. Closer by committee still makes so much sense in theory, right? Because it's just a relief pitcher situation. and if you tie yourself to one guy, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense,

considering that maybe another guy in your bullpen would be a better matchup in that ninth inning against the three guys they're taking it at bat. However, as we saw, it was a disaster and it does not work, and we're never doing it again, so don't ever talk about it. But when it comes to the DH, you know, I feel like that's something that Mike and Tori probably saw eye to eye on as far as utilizing it in a different way rather than having that full-time designated hit. I think that's a really good comparison that you made between the closer role and the DH role.

Because yeah, the closer role on paper, you can be like, well, you know, we've got several, several guys who can slot in, we'll play the matchups and whatnot. And in some ways, that's how the team has viewed the DH role in, you know, in recent years, you know, where it's kind of a revolving door. There's several different guys in there. But as we saw with the closer role, you know, the committee thing is, is, is, you know, all fun in games until you realize you know member of the committee is actually capable of being very good in that spot. And I think it's the same with the Diamondbacks plans at DH, where, you know, if you do use that as kind of a revolving door position, if you are using it primarily to just get guys off their feet, that means you're tapping into your bench players

in order to, in order to fill out your lineup. And the DH spot is not, I mean, you know, ideally you want to get a lot of offense from that spot because there's obviously no defensive value there. So yeah, if the diamondbacks can find a way, I absolutely think it's the right move for the team to commit to not necessarily a DH for 160 games or whatever, but a DH, you know, who can bring some real thump into this lineup. Yeah. Because it's absolutely something the diamondbacks need. I mean, this team for as far as they went in 2023, they were about a league average offensive team in the regular season. It's as Dan Zimborski said, you know, the other day on this show, the diamondbacks aren't a team that can afford to really, you know, just kind of

keep, keep what they had offensively. They did add Auheneos Juarez, which I think was an upgrade. But, you know, you like to do more than that this offseason to really bring your, really bring your offense to another level. And I had a clarification for that. It was Patrick Lyons that sent us that. And actually, he said, dating back to 2017, Aheueno Suarez is sixth in major league baseball in home runs.

And again, that's not something we talk about enough, I don't think, about what, you know, what he is going to add. We often talk about the power needed. And I think we just brought this up the other day when talking about this exact subject. But again, don't underestimate what Suarez is going to bring to this lineup. Like you said, though, when you have the ability to have a guy in the lineup that does nothing but hit, that really, there's a lot of guys out there that can do that well, but they can't do the defensive side of the ball well, right? So if you are missing out on a chance to have a guy

as a part of your, you know, roster that is just there to mash, you know, and do nothing but hit the ball, that that's, that's something that you, you never really had before. I mean, I know Mike Hazen at one point was in the American League, so I think he would understand the, the benefit of having a designated hitter like this. But it really does feel like, you know, again, the Diamondbacks quite often try to find somebody that's that's versatile. They can do multiple things. We talked about that with Reese Hoskins. That's a guy that, again, almost would feel like a waste to bring in

and just have him DH with what he still has left in the tank. Chances are the Diamondbacks wouldn't have done that. They probably would have utilized him in several other ways throughout the season just to have his bat in the lineup. And again, utilize him to, you know, maybe give Christian Walker some time off, you know, maybe more than they were planning to. But in this case, they could save a considerable amount of money, potentially and get a guy that that does nothing, nothing but hit.

But I mean, he does play defense a little bit. So I think, I think if the Diamondbacks signed Jack Peterson, I think it is very likely that you would see him in the field occasionally. He played it. He played actually a few different positions in 2023 with the Giants, 79 games at DH 32 and left field, six and right field, as well as two at first base. So again, there's not, there's not a lot of value.

there. He's not great at it. You know, I think if you want Jack Peterson to be valuable, you want to play him in the field as little as possible, but he does give you some, he gives you more flexibility than J.D. Martinez. Why do I, I don't want to attack this

man's age. I don't want to attack his abilities anymore. Oh, that got really bright fast ones I bring up a baseball reference, but Jack Peterson, right, 31 years old. This man, as our producer, Damon pointed out to us in our chat when screaming about potentially going after him led his high school football team in receiving

yards and devante adams was on the same team make it make sense make it make sense why you can't still play defensively i don't know why he can't still play defensively because that man with those kind of athletic abilities should still be out there in the field somewhere but i don't think he was ever really all that all that great of an outfielder he he was all right for for a while while, but more so in a corner. He was never really a true, a true center fielder in the majors. So, Hazen, according to his talk with Nick Picoro, said the club is very active and in search for a bat. Team does remain in touch with free agent options, like Jock Peterson, I imagine. And Hazen said that the trade market was heated over the past week.

What do you, what do you interpret that means heated over the last week? like in my in my circle in my circle that means they were screaming at each other over trades right which very much applies to this jock peterson uh like Tommy fam situation but what I mean every everyone's everyone's frustrated with the market right so it's bound to get heated eventually like you know people are just like why won't you trade such and such player and you know naturally it's only human nature to resort to throwing things and whatnot as you said I'm guessing that that's probably not happening, but it does track with what we were talking about the other day, with things potentially heating up here soon. It seems like this DH search is going to be resolved in the relatively near future, likely while I'm on vacation as we touched on the other day.

That's certainly what's going to happen. That feels inevitable. But yeah, and he does mention traits. He does mention traits, which is something that I think it's important. that we don't forget about. There are some options in the trade market. We've talked about Elo Jimenez, you know, Anthony Santander from the Orioles, if they wound up being willing to trade one of their outfielers, which I don't know if they are.

But, yeah, there are some guys available via trade or that could be available via trade that could make sense. So I wouldn't necessarily say it has to be, you know, Peterson, Martinez, Saler, Justin Turner. I think there are some other potential names. Potentially, guys, we haven't even talked about. It's pretty hard to gauge exactly who's available in the trade market, what teams are willing to do. Mike Hazen used the word creative in that interview with Nick Bacoro. So maybe there's some kind of an outside the box solution that we're not thinking of here.

So yeah, I think there could be more on the table than we're really realizing right now. I don't even want to put this out there in the universe, but I feel like this is going to result in us trading someone that's going to hurt. I don't know who I think like Jake McCarthy, Jake McCarthy is one of those guys that would hurt. But again, like you talked about the other day, is now a good time to trade him, considering his value isn't very high. I'm not sure.

Maybe some people still see the potential in him. But I just, I feel, feel like this is potentially going to cost the diamondbacks more than they want to pay, but they end up paying that. So we'll see. but you did also say heating up and of course that leads me to just remind everybody as to why you and i right now are appearing on this show on stream yard um damon and uh tottry have been fighting a lot and uh the building also then caught on fire yesterday am i saying that those two things are related no am i saying they're not related no i'm not saying that either so um for the four c

future. We're going to be here on streaming. Jesse's going to leave me anyway, so I'll be here doing this. But yeah, if you didn't get a chance to see it, check out the coyotes feed their Twitter from last night. We were all off having a wonderful time at putting

world, watching the Suns beat the crap out of the Mavericks. By the way, this is also a PHNX Suns podcast. Jesse called yesterday's game in Damon's face before the game, the book game. And if you watched what happened last night, you'll know that Jesse knows ball. Okay. And it's not just little round balls with stitches in it. Jesse knows the bouncy kinds that are orange and have also other weird, you know, little crevices in them. But anyway, we do appreciate you guys being here. Of course, we also appreciate those of you that are diehards. If you're not a diehard yet, make sure to sign up because last night was a blast. It was great seeing so many of our diehards out there. You can do so at go phtonx.com. Of course, part of that package is,

getting yourself a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com, like this bad boy I'm wearing right now. Of course, there's a wonderful selection over there. So make sure to check that out. You will also get all of Jesse's content. You will get access to our Discord Lounge, where we are doing exclusive discussions with Jesse and I on the Discord Lounge. Also, all sorts of other fun for diehards only. So make sure to get down on this, you'll also get discounts on events like last night's takeover or it wasn't a takeover to watch party event. But, you know, events that we do like that. you also get discounts with our partners and so much more. So join us today.

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But it also means that Jesse has no gauge anymore for what is cold weather. But I will attest that this is good weather out here. You go enjoy this quick before it's gone because it'll be gone before we know it. But patio season at illegal peat, always a great time to go out there, try out their wonderful food. They have Arizona's strongest margaritas. And of course, you'll also find Damon there all the time, the location in Tempe. He's probably producing the show right now.

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You can eat it as you will, as you want to, of course. But there's a lot of ridicule, including that I'm not fit to be mayor because I consume said 100 milligram OGs gummies. And that might be true. But anyway, it doesn't matter because being the mayor does not involve me. It's it's kind of like a figurehead position. I hate to break that to you guys. There is a lot of paperwork, though. I tell that to everybody that wants to be mayor so that they don't try to take my position.

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they don't drug test them here. That's another accurate statement. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. It's a very good thing. Another good thing, Jesse, is that it is MLB the show time. Once again, it is time for MLB the show 2024 to release. And of course, we have all sorts of fun.

Well, we're like two months away still from the actual team being released. This is where the arguments start, Jesse, because it starts with the cover being released and who is on the cover. Then we get to fight about the ratings. That's the next fight. And that gets released before the game comes out. And then we argue about that. And then we play the game and we love the game.

But then we argue about other things like what difficulty level people play the game on and why that's important. Let's just enjoy the game. And stop worrying about what difficult level we play it on. But MLB, the show cover athlete announcement is coming on January 30th next week at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Is there, is anybody, I know we're not all superstitious, but is anybody a little stitious about our favorite athletes being on the cover of video games any longer? Is that a thing?

Because I still feel like it's not a good thing, Jesse. Right? I mean, Otani was on 22. It dooms you. Yeah, it dooms you. It dooms you. Otani was on 22. He ends up undergoing the elbow surgery, right?

He's not going to pitch it all next year. We had Tatis on 21. And he had to have the wrist surgery right after he was. on that. And then Jazz was on the cover of last years and he sucks. Right. He's not worthy of the cover. Anyway,

there are quite a few examples of players who, who were on the cover and were just fine. Bryce Harper was on it back in 2018, I want to say, Miguel Cabrera back when he was still in his prime. Yassiel Pui, you could make a case that he was, There was some sort of a roadblock there.

I don't know if MLB the show is what we should be blaming. But yeah, this year, this year is interesting because I feel like we all are going to unveil our top three choices for who we think the MLB the show cover athlete will be. And I'm like 87% sure that our number one guy is going to be the same. All of us are going to have the same number one guy. So yeah, I guess should I just fire away? Should I give my three? No, okay. Are we let you want to let?

No, I was going to say, even though we have our choices, Jesse, I think we can all agree that this is the most fire cover that there could be. Damon, do you have that cover ready to go? Stream yards being slow today, you guys. It's not Damon's fault. Oh, look at that beautifulness right there, Jesse. Can you imagine? could you can you imagine I don't want that though

because again the other thing I said about the curse but anyway it would do Corbyn Carroll's career forever if he was on it was on the cover look how beautiful he is on there glad we got the vest in on that one all right let's give our choices of course yeah Jesse why don't you go ahead and lead things off

because like you said I think we all probably have the same number one yeah I think we probably do all right I'll start at the end So my number three choice, my third most likely, is one, Mooky Betts, has never been on the cover of MLB the show. I believe he was on like RBI Baseball 16 or something a while back. But it seems like a miss that Mooky Betts has never been on the cover of MLB the show. Obviously, Mooky had a remarkable season.

And for as great as a certain other player was in 2023, who ultimately wound up winning the MVP award. Talk about him in a second. Mookie Betz had an outstanding, outstanding 2023 season. And yeah, I think he's a guy, his personality. It seems like, you know, the charisma of the players are really big, a really big variable here for MLB to show. That's certainly been a trend year. I think Mookie Betts has that. He started his podcast and is doing all this, all this fun stuff now.

He's better at everything than all of us. It doesn't matter what he does. He's a better podcaster than us. he's a better interviewer than us. He plays baseball better than most people. It's disgusting. He's nicer than most people. It's just crazy.

It's crazy. He is a pretty, pretty likable guy for sure. Very, very, very, very likable. Are we going to give,

are we going to give all of our number threes and our number two is number one? Do you want to do that? Sure, let's do it. Yeah, give me your number three. Well, I think,

again, and exactly with what you said about it being an exciting player, there's our guy, Damon. We are Damon's dogs, of course, Park, Park. Of course, this is, I'm glad he's here because I know this is going to infuriate him.

And that, that's why I'm, oh, he's gone again. He just got up and left because he's disgusted with what I'm about to say. It's Ellie Dela Cruz. And again, not because of numbers, but like Ellie Daley. He's back. He set the world on fire. What could I say? I, again, this is actually, this to me is very similar as jazz, right? Where jazz, wasn't by any stretch of the imagination, like the best player in the league, but he was like the most exciting player, it felt like. And for at least a month and a half, Ellie Dela Cruz was the most exciting player in Major League Baseball. So when it comes to that kind of thing and him being young and just the name recognition that got out over the course of one season, I feel like L.A. Delacruz is a potential. I think it was more like more like

what, eight days that L.A. Dillacree was the most exciting player. That's fun. I don't know if that lasted like a month or two. They talked about him a lot. They talked about because it infuriated us. It infuriated Damon. The fact that he was getting so much more, you know, publicity there for a stretch than Corbyn Carroll was.

And Corbyn Carroll had been doing incredible things the entire season, not just for a week. But hey, that's- L.A. Daly-Cruz wasn't like, like jazz was an all-star in, in 2022 and his numbers were quite good. L.A. Dela Cruz wasn't an all-star, and his numbers were not really very good. Look, you asked me specifically outside of the show for a stretch pick, and that's my stretch pick.

My other two picks are very reasonable. But sometimes majorly MLB, the show, and their choices aren't very reasonable. Do you remember you, Steele Pue being on the cover? We just talked about it a few moments ago. Like, it doesn't make sense sometimes when you look at who was, who was performing well in the league at the time and the decision that they went with. It does not line up. All right.

Enough enough with your ridiculous pick, Derek. Damon, what do you got? Well, I just want to say, you're more mad than it made Damon. I hate both of your picks. And I think you guys are both not good people.

A Dodger, Jesse, really? A Dodger. That's what we're going with. And then a rookie of the year contender for a contender for five. against Corbyn Carroll. Like, I thought these are our rivals, guys. What if I went with James Outman?

That would have really just thought. I thought about putting James Outman in there. I would have quit. I would have quit. All right. Who's your number three? Well, I was going to say who everybody's going to say for number one for number three. But I'll save it for number one so that we could all be consistent together because it's

probably what it's going to end up being. But I came up. I had some ideas that I was like, they're a little bit more creative than your guys. is no big deal. But I was thinking like we do like a, my, my first thought was a J. Rod with Ken Griffey on the cover with him. All right. It's like, it's like a generation to generation passing of the torch type of cover where it's like,

oh, look at these very marketable guys that we have. It's, you know, young All-Star and J-Rod with, you know, old Ken Griffey on the same cover. and we make like a cool theme out of that. Yeah. Well, J-Rod was my second pick. So yes, we're definitely on the same wavelength in regards to that. It feels like Julio Rodriguez is a big miss to not have him on there.

He's everything. He's everything you want representing Major League Baseball. He's just an awesome young player. And he should get this kind of acknowledgement. I almost feel strongly about that more so than my number one pick. but just it still feels like maybe because of the Mariners not really being super successful, it's going to hold it back. I don't know.

It seems like a dumb reason. Yeah, I mean, it didn't hold them back from Jad's Chisholm, right? That's right. 2022. We're not outstanding. Yeah, I also have Julio is my number two. I think it's only a matter of time before he gets the honor of being on the MLB, the show cover. And absolutely, he has he has the career.

He's a he's a star level player. I know he's struggled a little bit early in the 2023 season. He winds up putting up like a six war year anyway. He's the real deal and absolutely should be should be on the cover before long. All right, Damon, what do you got for your number two? Number two. I this is another creative idea I had and I was thinking we put Orioles young players with Diamondbacks young players. And we make like this is the future. The future? Exactly. This is outrageous. No, no.

It's not, though. Because like Madden had a cover where they had Troy Palamalu and Larry Fitzgerald on it. They did. Like this is, this is just being creative, Jesse. And I'm thinking we put like Adley and Gunner and like Corby and something like that. And we, you know, it's just a sick cover. And the D-Backs fans are juiced. Well, see, I could see them doing.

because it feels like covers on these sports games are leaning towards getting a bit more creative like what you said with the Julio and Ken Griffey cover. So I like that idea. I love that idea because it has the Diamondbacks on it. Is it likely? No, you idiot, you fool. That's not happening.

But the Rangers would even make more sense than the Baltimore Orioles. That's just you projecting who's going to be the best in both leagues. But I mean, at least having the World Series contender or the World Series teams on it, That's that I like that idea a lot. People are saying that I'm cooking.

People are saying it. I can not confirm that at all. But oh, there it is. You're right. They are saying that. Oh, God damn it. This is too much. Like, see, this is,

why do you have all of the control of all of the comments? That's not fair. I feel like I wouldn't know if any of this is correct. But, yeah, no. See, Jesse, this is how you placate. You just, you throw the dimebacks. that's why I made the MLB the show cover. All right.

I mean, I wasn't, I wasn't trying to like appeal to the crowd. All right. My goal here was to be. Oh, I'm sorry that I had creative ideas that I came up with in my head. That's my bad. You should. I should have gone chalk. I should have picked the relieving MVP candidates and just pick them and put them down on a

piece of paper. I did what was correct, which was to go on fan graphs, look up the leader board and wins above replacement and just. Yeah, I know that's what you did. that's not exactly what i did but it but that did lead me that did lead me to my number one choice uh which it's all of our number one choice it's ronald accunia junior we all know uh you know i mean the man puts up a 40 70 season in terms of uh the kind of season that that this man had i'm not sure if you could really have made a better case uh for being on the cover of mlb the show

generally speaking like i look back at this and i don't necessarily think that the cover of of of MLB the show is like typically the best player from the prior year. That test fails in the vast majority of cases. So I don't view this as being as inevitable as like maybe it should be on paper. But if ever you were going to put a cunia on the cover, which I think is an honor he probably deserves at some point. This is this is probably the year to do it. It's definitely the forecasting the future feels like it would be Julio, right?

That's like the, that's like that we're trying to get the next. but even he's on the horizon yeah yeah but but even he even he's here he's not like he's not trying to find a player that's that's the future corbin carroll is a bit more of one of those like trying to find the future of the game a little bit that not a lot of people might know that's different now based on the diamondbacks playoff run but i still don't know if if corbin carroll's become a household name i feel like julio rodriguez kind of has he has become a superstar in baseball and a lot of people know who he is. And again, that's, that's exciting.

But Ronald Le Cunia has all of those intangibles that we talked about that you want on the cover. You know, he's, he's, he led the league. His stats are there. He's on one of the best teams. He, you know, is an exciting electric player. There's just everything you, you would want in a cover athlete for MLB the show. He's, he's it.

So hopefully it brings him all sorts of bad luck next season. That's what we would, you know, maybe want. I don't know. Maybe that's just me. See, Damon's nodding his head because again, he's a man of the people, Jesse. We lost this round. We lost this round to Damon, obviously. So bark, bark, we get it. You're the mayor now.

I get it. Yeah, yeah. I don't like it. I don't like that. Was Randy Johnson your number one choice, Damon? Is that, is that what you? No, it was a Coonia. It was a Coonia.

I was going to say Acuna 3, though, and then start doing the other ones towards two and one. Oh, and then Diamondbacks and Orioles were number one? Oh, yeah. Yeah. But you guys, I mean, I figured we all had a cuneo. We were all going to have a cune as the most likely. So I was like, I'll just stick with that as number one. It seems the most likely.

But we will find out coming here soon. Can I name like a couple of players that I would just like to see on a cover, like at some point in my lifetime? Sure. I think, yes, Garrett Stubbs is number one. How fucking dare you. How dare you? James out. Him and the Philly fanatic together on the cover, David.

No, so I think Jose Ramirez, just so underrated. Man, man deserves more credit than he gets. I feel like that has to happen at some point. Brett mentions that Mike Trout has still never been on a cover. It kind of feels like that ship is sailed at this point. I don't know if it was Mike Trout on the cover, you know, playing half the season or whatever. Bobby Witt Jr. In my mind is a, is an MLB, the show cover level athlete, level baseball player.

I don't know if we'll ever see that as long as he's with the Kansas City Royals. Francisco Indoor is another guy that comes to mind as someone who I feel like, you know, I mean, certainly has the charisma, super fun player to watch. I know he plays for the Mets now, so people might not like me saying that. But people haven't liked pretty much everything I've said. in the second of the show. So what else? What else is new?

Elise says Jesse is only saying this because they are filming remotely. Correct. Because Damon would have attacked. I can get away with more. Yeah. Damon can't actually come up. Speaking of Damon, he's been killing it on bets over there, Jesse.

He's been having, he didn't listen to yesterday. Well, he would have gone three and oh with your help yesterday had he listened to you, right? But he went two and one. I think that was his second, third day going two and one. I'm not sure.

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And once you do all of that, you will get $158 in bonus bets back instantly, regardless of the outcome of your wager. Then that way you can take that $158 in bonus bets. spread it around on a couple of Damon's choices over at bets, and he will double, triple that money potentially. So again, sign up for BetMGM and use that bonus code PHNX. That's the important part. Place your first bet MGM Sportsbook Wager

through the Bet MGM Sportsbook mobile application for at least $5. You will receive that $158.58 instantly in additional winnings, regardless of your wager's outcome. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Damon, talk about the disclaimer. One problem, call 100 Gambler. Available on the U.S. 8778.8.

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It's the disconnect. But we want to thank you guys for being here and listening to us to try to harmonize on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you have not subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so. sign up for notifications that we don't miss when any of our shows go live and drop us a thumbs up. Those likes are important to us. They feed our heart. They feed our soul. Of course, if you're listening on the audio side, we love you guys. We appreciate you listeners as well.

Make sure you subscribe. Leave us a review. We always appreciate those five-star reviews. They really do help us out quite a bit. I right now am in my home far away from the office that does not have power, does not have electricity, and we have no idea when it's going to. to have that once again. But I'm glad I have this home because I don't know where I would be podcasting from right now. Without it, of course, I have to thank my friends over at Desert Financial Credit Union for getting me in this home. They started me on my home ownership journey and they can help you out as well.

They also have checking and savings accounts. They have loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. So make sure that if you are banking with a credit union, you are choosing a credit union that has your best interest in mind for your financial future. And for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. Right now, when you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 today. Jesse, before we get out of here, we have to talk about the internet and the bad side of the internet, right?

We have to talk about the fact that sometimes things come up on the internet that you don't want to see. And sometimes that's not, you know, you're not searching. for that. You're not looking for that. You didn't want it in your face. You know, you're trying to have a productive day. And the next thing you know, you have just something absolutely grotesque and just horrible staring you in the face. And that's exactly what happened to me yesterday. Because suddenly, I got a notification. The Diamondbacks got their DH, Derek. They got their DH. Jesse. Jesse. Jesse. Oh, my God. When this, this, my phone notifies me. me, Jesse, about Diamondbacks-related news.

I got this notification, Jesse. On January 24, 2020, as you can see here, the Associated Press republished an article that said the Arizona Diamondbacks recalled Heralded outfielder Yismani Tomas from AAA Reno

on Tuesday to give them a spark off the bench. Now, did any of this make any sense to me at all in the moment? No. Did I stopped to ask reasonable questions, Jesse, as to why when, when, when, you know, obviously yesterday was not a Tuesday, but of course, when they were talking about this and it came up yesterday, they could have meant the day before, which was in fact a Tuesday. Like, everything was lining up with this. I didn't like it at all. And I hate the fact

that apparently this could happen. Yesmani Tomas can indeed reappear on your timeline and haunt your dreams the way it did mine. What happened? this. Can you explain this? Can you make any sense of this? Why did this come up yesterday? I have absolutely no idea, but I think it's one of the greatest, like, it might be the greatest Diamondback story of the off season. I mean, what at my side right now? Like I was, like I've been running. It's like it hurts my body physically just to look at that article. Someone, someone at the Associated Press knew that, you know, Diamondbacks fans were, we're looking for a, They wanted J.D.

They wanted Jorge Saler. And they were like, oh, we'll give him the DH. We'll give him someone who can help out and, you know, hit some dingers and whatnot. And shout out to Yasmani Tomas, Derek, who in 2015 looked like a pretty reasonably good baseball player for a while. He had 273, had a 707 OPS. He followed it up the next year.

He had 31 homers. And people were starting to gain a bit of a soft spot for. for the young Cuban outfielder whom the Diamondback signed. Soft is a perfect word to use. Soft was a perfect word to use there in regards to his money. Yeah, his Diamondbacks career didn't exactly pan out that way. But yeah, maybe the people at Associated Press just wanted us to, you know, look back and relive, relive some good memories, you know. Ernesto says more like Gizmani, no mas.

Thank you very much for that. Can we get that last comment back on on the screen? because this is a real choice of two terrible things, but I feel like this is an easy choice. Tony asks, what's worse? Seeing Tomas in a DeBax uni again or seeing Dave Stewart as GM again, a thousand percent seeing Dave Stewart as GM again. Yzmani Tomas in a DeBak's uniform can only hurt you in one spot in the lineup,

in one spot in your rotation. And you just because he's in a DBAX uniform doesn't necessarily mean you have to play him, right? Or if he's part of the ground screw, he might, he might be a ball boy. He might be a number of things that does involve him actually playing on the field, Jesse. He might be a fan in the stands, just hanging out over in section 301. I don't know. So wearing his full uniform from, from 20 just in case.

Yeah, just in case. Like at any point, if maybe they need somebody to fill in, he can rush the field. But again, even if we were talking about him literally being on the roster. I would take that over the terrible, terrible decisions Dave Stewart made while in control of this team. And I mean, I don't think we've even scratched the surface on really the self-serving decisions that were made that almost ruined this franchise. And we should all be thankful that it was put in my Kaysen's hands. My comparison, once again, is he was handed a broken vase and expected to put it back together. And it took them a long time.

But damn it, all those cracks are filled in now. and that base looked pretty spectacular in the postseason in 2023. So Mike A is in all day. We do appreciate you guys, though, of course, being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. We thank you at all. As always, for stopping by. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our producer, Damon, who is apparently always correct. He is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. He is the people's producer for a reason. And we are Damon's dogs for a reason. reason. Bark, bark. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore devax, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for stopping by.

We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when we never speak Yzmani Tomas's name again.