PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks miss out on Team Gold Glove Award after best defensive year in franchise history

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks did not win the Team Gold Glove Award for the National League and we would like some answers. We also continue to search for answers to fix the missing link at third base. Is Jeimer Candelario the answer for the Diamondbacks? What about Gio Urshela? We have all of this and answers to your Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Check out all Gila River Resorts & Casinos has to offer from fine dining to Arizona’s largest casino sportsbook. Visit https://www.playatgila.com to learn more.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits or Creams. Go to https://zenleafdispensaries.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local Zen Leaf Dispensary. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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 to another edition of the PHNX Tewbacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is the vice mayor, occasionally known as your thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, I know that we talked in our headline a bit about what we're going to talk about here in the beginning. And I know you're going to immediately refute what I said there in the headline. But the Diamondbacks did miss out on the Team Gold Glove Award. They missed out on it to the Milwaukee Brewers, who did have a very good season defensively. However, you could argue that this was one of the best defensive years in Diamondbacks history.

They set a franchise record for errors. And, of course, that's a good thing. Not everything, though, the defense is based on. Obviously, outs above average and defensive runs saved are very important metrics that we talk about all the time on this show. But still, it seemed like the Diamondbacks definitely were one of the best defensive run or defensive teams in baseball. And they did have some good numbers in those other categories as well. They did.

Yeah. This was an excellent season for the Diamondbacks defensively. I don't want to make it sound like it wasn't. Defense was a big reason why the Diamondbacks were as good as they were this year. And yeah, I mean, the Diamondbacks don't make the playoffs if they aren't a well-above-average defensive team. that was a really big part of the identity of this team and what made it so good. I do, yeah, I don't know if I would say this was the best season that the Diamondbacks

have ever had defensively from an airs perspective it is. If you look at those other nerd stats, defensive runs saved and now it's above average. The debacks in 2018 had 123 defensive run save. That was a good team. Which is wild. This year they had 46, which is still a very good number. It's actually only the seventh highest number of defensive run saved at the they've ever had in a season.

Outs above average has only been a thing for a few years, so there's not as much data there. They had 31 this year. They did have 44 last year, actually. That's like their second best year. Yeah, so I think second best since that's started. Not a stat they've been keeping for very long. But the Milwaukee Brewers and something that Damon brought up to me in regards to this,

they just, you know, you got Craig Counsel now is kind of like emerging as a leader for the manager of the year for National League somehow. I don't know. He no longer manages the brewers. He does not manage the brewers. But the brewer, you know, again, and the brewers win this award for the National League. And it's like they just kind of quietly were a good team. Like when you talk about their numbers this season and you talk about especially counsel's tenure there as manager, they just, yeah, you just kind of expected the brewers to make the playoffs, which they did a lot.

And they just kind of were always a good team. Yeah. I remember writing my preview of the Diamondbacks. Brewer series and the Wildcard series. And, you know, I went like, I went offense and pitching and, you know, compared bullpens, compared starting rotations and all that. And when I got to defense, I was kind of surprised to see that the Milwaukee Brewers actually graded out better than the Diamondbacks defensively, according to some of the stats we were

talking about earlier. Milwaukee Brewers had 68 defensive run saved this year. They had 41 out of average. Both of those were higher than the Deepak's numbers. And yeah, like these numbers aren't everything. I don't want to make it sound like these numbers are perfect. We've talked some on this show about how defensive metrics are still kind of in their earlier stages. And I'm still a little skeptical of some of what they say.

Gabriel made a good point in the chat earlier. About the errors. Yeah. There were, I don't know what's going on. But there are, especially this season, it seemed. There were way more plays that ended, that were counted hits that it felt like previously, would have been counted errors. I think that has a pretty big part to play as well and the fact that the diamondbacks

had fewer errors. Yeah, because it wasn't like they were just, it was like 26 less errors than, or something that ridiculous like that as far as the next closest season. So you're definitely on to something with there. They say it's the changes of the rules and they say it's all of this other stuff. But yeah, the errors in general are very arbitrary. That's definitely a human being deciding on what is and isn't an error. And like we've said in the past, a lot of times if you are gifted at,

athletically, you're almost going to be, like, counted for errors more than someone that isn't, because you're going to be in the vicinity of the ball more often than somebody who can't, doesn't have the range to make great plays or whatever. So, yeah, all that to say, like, I think the Brewers kind of should have won the award and they did. And that's that. And I completely disagree. I think that, I mean, the debacks were great defensively. They're probably second in the nationally behind the Brewers.

But according, based on the numbers, which again, numbers are sort of flawed. But based on the numbers, it's pretty hard to make a case. the Diamondbacks over the Brewers and the Team Gold Glove Award. That's what this whole thing is about. A piece of Yoshi who's cursing in the chat. Now he's asking where the swear jar is. Is that for yourself? I think that's what's going on there.

You can contribute all you want. We'll make sure it gets in that jar. I threw the jar away. No, it still exists. Don't worry. We'll have it back here soon. But one ongoing issue that we've talked about as far as free agency or trades that the Diamondbacks might make this off season is once again in regard to their problem

at third base. or their lack of, I guess, any viable starter there that they could proceed forward with. We've continued to look at some candidates. And now we have a guy that we actually already were going to talk about who is being linked to the Diamondbacks potentially. Yeah, John Heyman, I think this was Thursday of last week, I want to say. John Heyman wrote a column over at the New York Post

and did mention the Diamondbacks as one of the teams that have been interested in Jamer, Candelario, third baseman that, yes, we were absolutely going to talk about anyway. The fit here is pretty clear. Yeah. He was, he had a good season last year, 22 homers, 70 RBI. If we can pull up Candelario's numbers for the season, they're like pretty, pretty solid across the board. An 807 OPS and 576 plate appearances.

Of course, started the year in Detroit, was traded to the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline and very instantly made like a pretty rad impression at the Cubs like he was absolutely raking for like the first few weeks after that trade was made kind of slowed down i think spent some time on the injured list toward the end of the year but yeah the fit here is clear the debacks need a third baseman candelario is a switch hitter uh and yeah i mean you know the not significant splits he can hit righties he can hit lefties he can do a lot of things that the diamondbacks need someone to be able to do yes why is he a better fit than matt chapman besides just the potential price tag.

It's really all the price tag. It is all the price tag. Yeah, it's pretty much all the price tag. Well, his versatility is there. His defense might not be as solid. He had minus five defensive runs saved, two outs above average over there. But, I mean, again, he did play 115 games at third base, and the Diamondbacks need somebody

that has that combination of offense and being able to start there at third base. And like, you're right, though. the price tag according to a couple of different sources it varies quite a bit but it might be significantly cheaper than we thought it was going to be yeah and real quick i definitely said that candelari was traded from the tigers to the cubs when it was definitely the washington nationals and not the cubs so my my mistake all your credibility is just gone all my credibility is gone instantly he was with the tigers

for quite some time cut me some slack uh but yeah in terms of the price tag uh this is hilarious Because apparently no one has any idea what Jamer Candelario is going to actually get. Not at all. Because according to MLB trade rumors, they have Jamer Candelario signing for four years and $70 million. And Jim Bowden over at The Athletic and his story where he made a bunch of predictions about the size of various free agent contracts. He had Candelario signing for two years and $15 million. That's quite a difference. That's a pretty enormous difference.

Trade rumors would be over $15 million per year on a four year. year deal worth 70 million, according to my math, then that's much significantly different. And hopefully that could be the case for the Diamondbacks, because if they were able to get somebody that caliber that fits this team that well, two years and 15 million, I mean, even maybe offering an option for a third year, either a team option or player option, like, that just seems to be exactly what the Diamondbacks are looking for as far. Even the four-year deal fits, right, more than probably what Matt Chapman's going to seek out, because I imagine he's going to want a longer term deal.

Yeah, I mean, Chapman could be, I think we talked about, the athletic had six and 150. I mean, I think that might have been MLB trade rumors had six years, 150 million. Of course, nobody really knows at this point. Sure, but I think that's, yeah, that's a pretty reasonable guess for Matt Chapman being kind of far in away the front runner at third base. And yeah, a lot of that has to do with what he gives you defensively. Candelario is not the defender at third base that Matt Chapman is.

Chapman is a elite defender at third base. Candelario is basically a league average defender. Candelario had, I guess, slightly better numbers offensively in 2023. So you might be getting a better hitter if you sign Jamer Candelario. But there's no question. Like overall, Matt Chapman is the more valuable player because of what he gives you defensively. Piece of Yoshi has once again fired you, I believe. He said, getting out of your cops.

He fires me pretty much on the daily. He fires all of it. I tried to fire him. I tried to get ahead of it and fire him proactively earlier. But Candelaro is about to turn 30, which, I mean, again, a four-year deal, not the worst thing to keep him under contract, even if that's the route they go. I have a hard time seeing the debacks to go to four years and 70 million. I do too. I was just thinking more of the length of the term and not necessarily the 70 million.

And yeah, you're right about that. But his baseball savant page is not great. No, no. It's not. It's really not all that inspired. Yeah, an expected batting average of 233 this year, even though he hit about 270, slugging percentage expected around expected slugging percentage of 405 compared to his actual 471. So yeah, there's some considerable evidence here. I mean, you know, these pages aren't everything, but there's considerable evidence that you're going into 2024 expecting Candelari to slug 470 and, you know, hit like 25 bombs.

I don't know if that's a safe assumption. I think he might be more of like a league average, a little above league average type of a hitter moving forward. And that's why I don't see the Diamondbacks going to, you know, four years and 70 million for a guy who the underlying metrics sort of tell a, you know, a little bit of a precarious story about what could be in his future. Well, if you're uninspired by his baseball subomp page,

can I offer you a Gio or Shella perhaps? Because if you want to talk about underwhelming potential options there at third base, I do know that, again, we're not looking like the Diamondbacks don't necessarily need to have a superstar over there, but they need to have somebody that can play regularly. They need to stop this kind of third base carousel. Maybe somebody that, you know, can put up some decent offensive numbers. And Urshela has proven that he can do that. However, that's inconsistent.

And his defense is definitely inconsistent. So, but, I mean, again, I think he might, he might be that kind of potential, target for Mike Hazen due to the fact that maybe he sees something there that they can work with like Mike Hazen has seen in other guys, right? Where it's going to kind of not be the biggest move.

It's not going to rock the baseball world, but it's going to bring somebody in here that can potentially get on base quite a bit. I mean, at least he was a decent hitter last year. He just didn't hit for power and didn't, you know, do other stuff. If we look at Urchella's numbers for the season, they're, yeah,

Yeah, like it's okay, right? Like a $2.99 batting average. That's certainly pretty compelling. But then you look at his slugging and his on base percentage and you're like, oh, kind of like all he did was kind of like hit. Like he wasn't terrible, but he just hit singles. Yeah, he just got on base through hits, which again, not a terrible thing for a team that was very inconsistent with that at times last year, right?

I mean, at least getting guys on base, maybe getting those hits when got runners are in scoring position. This feels very Emmanuel Rivera. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of what I. Rivera at home. Yeah, we already have amount.

Why are we stopping for Emmanuel Rivera at the drive-thru when we have a manual Rivera at home? That's a great point. That's ultimately what this comes down to. The debacks aren't. It just, yeah, it wouldn't make sense to sign someone who you project to be based of the same player that Emmanuel Rivera would already be for you, right? And I think Rivera is probably a better third baseman, uh, defensively than Gio

Rochella is. So yeah, I don't know if I really see it with Urchella. I think it goes back to what you said earlier of, you know, do the debacks see some adjustments that could be made here. Do they see some reasons why he could get back to the hitter he's been at times in the past? Like in 2020, Gio Orsella for the Yankees, I know it was only 43 games. He had an 858 OPS. Yeah.

He's been a pretty good hitter in the past, but he really wasn't that guy at all last year. And granted, it was only 62 games, 228 played appearances with the Angels last year. But yeah, Rivera and him on paper look pretty dang similar moving forward. His ability to play first base. I mean, he did play a couple of games. He's played nine games at short. Yeah, he can't play a little shortstop, but you probably don't really want him to play a whole lot of shortstop. No, you do not.

You do not. And I'm sure those were just occasions where it was, you know, the situation, especially with that Angels team. But Diamondbacks still have some, you know, options out there. It's just not many. And when we talk about Candelario, I think that, you know, potentially the Matt Chapman deal could impact how much he gets when you talk about those two quite different amounts. Two years, 15 million seems reasonable. even two years like 20 million, but four years 70.

If the debacks could sign Candelario for two years and 15 million, they would have done it like, they would have done it the instant that free agency opened, I'm pretty sure. So I'm going to give you, I'm going to split the difference here. What, not necessarily,

okay, what about a four year, four year? Okay. 50 million deal. Four and 50? Four and 50. Hmm.

The average annual value there is pretty reasonable. I mean, that's like $12.5 million a year. And then that secures his future for the next four years, which is I'm sure something he's looking for after all, like the ups and downs he's had. So, I mean, who knows? We'll see. But again, that market is going to be dictated because of how small it is strongly by the deal that Matt Chapman gets. So we will continue to pay very close attention to how everything works out there in free agency, especially with the third base market. But of course, we implore you guys to check out our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union.

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I remember this time. We nailed at that time. Of course, we were talking a bit there in the chat about free agency. A piece of Yoshi says, I can't believe. We released Tyler Gilbert. We absolutely did do that. We will have more on that as well coming up here this week. Connor Mormon says hours away from cashing that plus 500 Corbyn Carroll rookie of the year.

You're damn right. Do you think it's going to be unanimous? I don't. You don't. I don't. I fear that it's not going to be. Senga will get a couple. Senga?

Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if saying it did. I also wouldn't be surprised if Corbyn Carroll won it unanimously. I don't know. I'm kind of on, I'm kind of on defense about that. Like the only thing that would be truly shocking is if Corby and Carroll doesn't win it. That would be jaw dropping. Oh, that would be.

I don't know how I would react. It probably wouldn't be good though. It probably wouldn't be good. Nothing would make me more angry. If Corbyn Carroll does not win the rookie of the year award, think we're going to have to do an emergency podcast, which would be around 4 p.m. local time. Yeah, yeah, because the award is supposed to be announced at 7 p.m. Eastern time tonight, right?

Or I think it's 6 p.m. Eastern. Oh, yeah, I forgot about the time change. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I don't acknowledge that. I don't acknowledge that at all. But, yeah, we're going to do an emergency podcast if that happens. We're going to be live for about seven hours because that's how long it's going to take for Damon to, like, fully get out all of his frustration.

I mean, Damon won't be the producer. on that episode. There's no way that he'll be able to work. Damon will be shirtless. I'll be in the back of a police car. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's just cut to Damon with like war paint on shirtless. Part of his hair cinch somehow with fire. And yeah, just handcuffed and arrested for his behavior. But of course, that's then. That's later. We'll deal with that later.

That is not going to ask. Now is Monday. And you know what we do on Monday. Of course, Every year is the year of the snake around here. That's how we do things. Every year is the year of the snake. Every month is Pride Month on this show. Every week is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day.

But on Monday, we go the mailbag. Damon, let's go. Oh, we're taking all Phoenix Rising questions today, too, by the way. Because the Phoenix Rising are your USL champions, baby. I'd have to get that out. That's why. You mean Phoenix Rising, are you? or USL.

You're not allowed to put the word the before Phoenix Rising. Did I say the Phoenix Rising? Yeah, you said the Phoenix Rising. I will say the Phoenix Rising. They get mad at that. They get rare.

They get mad at that. I will say the Phoenix Rising, but you can fight me later. He's their champions. And so right now I don't care what anybody says. Can we get to the first question, please, it's from our guy Michael. And Michael wants to know this totally rational question

that we are absolutely going to be able to give you facts and answer for you. Michael Rokicke asked if Corby and Carroll had 10 stolen base attempts at second against Gabby Moreno, how many times do you think Gabby throws them out? This is like a math word problem. Where there's not nearly enough information provided. Yeah, if a train is traveling westbound at 75 miles per hour, how long will they take to get to California? No. But that's like actually a reasonable question where all of the data is provided.

I know, this one is not. I guess we need to know where in California. you were headed. Well, no, you know where he's headed. He's heading from first base to second base, Jesse. Gabby knows where he's headed. He knows he's going to run. California thing.

Yeah. Oh, Ernesto wants to throw another variable in there. Ernesto asks who's pitching. Yeah, well, so that, but that's exactly what my first question would be. Because in, like, in the playoffs, we saw J.T. Romuto behind the plate. And Corbyn Carroll of in games one through five of that NLCS against the Phillies, he wasn't running. And we talked about this at length on. the show. We talked about it almost entirely. I was so tired of talking about why Corby and Carroll

wasn't stealing bases. But I mean, you know, of course, we talked to him about it in the clubhouse time and time again. And his answer was basically that the math just didn't work out in his favor. That's the way that the diamond backs view this. The diamond backs are very cognizant of, you know, like they want to be aggressive on the base paths, but they want to make sure that they're safe. Like, they want to make sure that there's a good chance that they're, you know, they're not going to just run into a needless out on the bases. There's a lot of negative value and running into an out on the basis even for even as valuable as a stolen base can be. So yeah, like the reason that that happened though, like JT or O'Muto does have the fastest pop time in baseball faster than

Gabby Moreno by nine one hundredths of a second, I believe. But at the same time, what was really happening there is some of the Philly starting pitchers had made some adjustments in order to be really quick to the plate. And that ultimately was why Corbyn Carroll wasn't comfortable stealing in those moments. So all of this to say, I need to know who's pitching, I guess. And are they doing some kind of fancy slide step or something like what Aaron NOLA was doing in the NLCS? Or are they just kind of doing what they normally would do? So yeah, I don't really have a concrete answer to this question.

It's really fun to think about, but I don't really know how to answer it. The answer is four. That's it. The answer is four. Yes, sir. It's four. It's four stolen bases out of 10. That's how many Carol gets.

Next question. See, it's not that hard, Jesse. Let's go. What do we got? Scott the Human asked, and that's at Scooter 2319 on Twitter, what are the chances of resigning Guriel? I would say, based on his Instagram post, 0% of resigning him. Well, honestly, I think here, the point that I've made over and over and over again about

this is simply. that I don't feel like it makes sense for the team or for Gurriel for him to stay here. So it's definitely going to happen. It's absolutely. Clearly. No, but I just mean that, right? Like, I mean, don't get me wrong. I understand that the Diamondbacks love Goreal and they very much are aware of the impact he had on this team.

Defensively, offensively, his character in the clubhouse, his interactions with fans, how much fans embraced him, everything about him. Like, there's no, there's some downside to Guriel, right? He's a very streaky hitter. His defense is kind of a bit overrated in the numbers versus what we've actually seen out of him at times. I thought it was pretty good. It was still pretty good. I'm not taking anything away from him.

I'm trying not. But I'm just saying as far as Gurriel, like, extending him to a longer term deal, I think the Diamondbacks very much know what they have in him, and they know what they would pay him. But I think that there is another team that is going to pay him double almost to that amount that the Diamondbacks are willing to pay him. And I don't think that it's smart for them

to necessarily then put that much of their finances into Guriel when there are opportunity, there is an opportunity here for them to potentially upgrade from what he had to offer this team. And I mean, not nearly pay as much as he could get. It's just, it feels like one of those situations where he's going to get that payday that he, you know, kind of earned this season. And his production after that might not live up to whatever that team pays. I don't know if the debacks are going to be able to upgrade. over over guerriel i mean i think there may be some situations where that could happen probably

be a trade but yeah like he he is going to get a pretty decent chunk of change i think this winter and you know like we've said before when we've talked about this topic like guerriel only made five point six million dollars i think it was this year at that value at that number he's a tremendous value on his baseball team but once he get into you know i think i think trade rumors at 4 and 56 or something like that. I don't know if I, I don't know if I see the debacks being willing. Do that.

I still think they need a, a corner outfielder who bats right handed. You don't want to go into a season where every single outfielder you have, bats left handed. I still think, yeah, I still think you want someone who,

who can hit a little bit that they can play that position. But I don't know if I don't, I don't really see Lordus being the guy. Yeah. All right. What else we got to me? Jacob Schultz asks, If you had to pick two guys from last year's roster to play threes at the local YMCA with,

who would it be? Why is it Drey Jameson and Rake McCarthy? I am not going in that direction at all. I imagine, just to clarify, imagine we're talking about playing three on three here basketball, right? Right? And you are one of the three players and you're picking two? And I'm picking two. I'm taking Miguel Castro and I'm taking Luis Friest for obvious reasons here, right?

Like we don't need to. I'm taking the guys that are almost seven feet tall and I'm just going to dish to them all day long I'm going to be an incredible distributor of the ball and that's what's going to happen. Frius is only 6-3. Frius isn't that tall. Castro is 6'7.

He's got big body. He's got big body. That's fair. Yeah, down and that Frius too. That's wild to think that Kevin Ginkle is taller than Luis Frius. That's, I would like to see those two gentlemen back to back. I'm going Ryan Thompson.

T-time. Because he's 6 foot 8. Okay. And Heraldo Pardomo because he's dating Sophie Cunningham. That's such a brilliant selection for that reason alone. Yeah. Pardomo's got to be at the top of his game. You know when they're out there.

Date night is spent in the gym. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Did you say Ryan Thompson is six foot eight? Isn't he like sick or freakishly tall? He's six five.

Six five. There's just so much blasphemy as far as like how tall people are. Oh my God. This is ridiculous. What are you taking? Are you just looking at height now? You got the heights in front of you. No.

So I would take Zach Gallen, actually. That's a terrible choice. The Diamondbacks several, the Diamondbacks several years ago made a video that was like a three-point shooting contest thing. Oh, and Gallen was just drilling it. And Zach Gallen was in there. And so was Luke Weaver. And Zach Gallen, the man can stroke it from beyond the arc. Like the man has a pretty decent three-point shot.

Yeah. And yeah, like, I don't just want to. you know, I don't want to just like back you down in the post and that that's the only, you know, tool in the tool belt. Like I want to have a little bit of diversity on my team. How are you going to defend the pro-omo Ryan Thompson pick and roll, Jesse? That's what I want to know. I don't know.

I have to actually see them pick up a basketball. The other person that I would have on my team is obviously Corbyn Carroll. Because Corbyn Carroll will run circle. circles. He will run circles around whatever guys you have like just standing standing you know like they're not going to be able to guard him right and Corby Carroll is a freak athlete who I'm sure although I've never seen him play basketball I'm sure he can

he can probably you know probably has a decent shot and whatnot too so yeah me Zach Gallin Corbyn Carroll he had a pretty formidable trio Gabriel Ferrer says also the answer is Seawald he has that old head baller at the YM's CA type build. He really does. I did consider, I did consider Paul C.Wald is straight up that guy

that guy that's like, like you're like, oh, what is this older white gentleman doing playing on this court? And he absolutely would fucking run everything. He would be that guy that had the experience we didn't know he had. Also, he has big dad energy. So we know

we've already talked about CWald's entire big dad energy thing. You know he's going to be the guy out there. Oh, see, Jesse, they're pointing out. You went with a short guy. Corbyn Carroll is not 5-6. How does no one know how tall any of these players are? Corbyn Carroll might not be 5-10 as he's listed.

I will grant you that. But he's taller than 5-6. He's definitely like 5-8. Yeah, he's probably like 5-8. And again, yeah, it's all about his speed. Like you, I mean, I don't care if you're way taller than Corbyn Carroll. He's just going to dribble right past you and fake you out and do all sorts of things that you're going to have no answer for.

And we're just going to absolutely demolish. You me, me, Zach and Corbyn. Just stands there and swats of it. Yeah. Towers over him. What else we got? Kevin Lundberg. Next question comes from Kevin Lumberg. Kevin says, outside the likely work of the HVAC, roof, and lighting.

What is the top of your list for Chase Field improvements next season? Jesse. So I have one that's completely unrealistic. Let's go. But I feel like we've talked a little bit about various improvements at the ballpark before. Oh, we've talked to extend. So I've already given some of the like more realistic things. But something I noticed yesterday watching the Cardinals game,

which I feel like I maybe knew in the back of my head already, but had never like actually put words to, is it the roof at, what do they call it these days? Is it still University of Phoenix State Farm Stadium? I don't know what the building is called. State Farm Stadium. State Farm Stadium. The roof you can like is clear.

It's like transparent, I guess would be the word. And so it actually, it's sort of actually. it sort of acts as like a skylight. It allows a lot of natural light to get into that building. And I feel like that would make a world of difference at Chase Field. If the roof,

because obviously you're going to have to have the roof closed a substantial portion of the season. But if you're able to get some natural light in that way, I think that would make a huge difference. So granted, that would be probably an extremely expensive change to make. They would have to like, just be like putting a new roof on the building, I guess,

that's made of a completely different material. But I noticed that yesterday, and I feel like that would that would add a lot in you know in those in those summer months when it feels a little dark in there I think it would really be a game changer I I think I said this before I like I just I want better like screens and such in there better better ways to see the scoreboard you know I mean I know at one point when they installed that that scoreboard uh you know television it was gigantic when they upgraded that screen but now it's been beat to shit and like by comparison to a lot of other stadiums, the technology even kind of looks old. Yeah. Some of that stuff. Upgrading the center field, like, a general area. And I think, again, I've talked about this before.

I would love a digital clock. I would love the clock to be back up at the top. But have it be digital where you can just have that clock face on it. That way I can read it in less than two minutes. Right. Yeah. Jesse needs it to actually like flash like that it's 703 up there and stuff like that. But no, I mean, that mixed with like bring back the, you know, have screen.

up there for the out of town scoreboards make them look like the out of town scoreboards have you know again we do all this cool stuff with computers and apps and stuff where we make it look like a certain thing like make it look like the out of town scoreboards and then have the functionality to be able to change it and say home run across it and things like that make the stadium more exciting like there's just a lot of revamping that I think needs to be done to bring it up to modern technology and I don't think that the concrete building itself needs to change I just think that yeah there are improvements that need to be made and they need to be made constantly. And bring back the goddamn cup holders for the seats because that's infuriating.

I didn't notice that. Bring back the cup holders. Is that like a like everywhere in the ballpark the cup holders? No, there's still cup holders in some places. But I just, I noticed I think somebody brought up the cup holders perhaps. Damon, if you can scroll back up. I think someone else agreed with me on that. But maybe it was Chris, but yeah. I just am not like really in the sand.

So I don't, I don't know about that. But yeah, that's what time all of you did you hear that? not really in the state. Yeah, that was such a flex. That was such a flex. That was incredible. Okay. I'm just stating a simple fact that there are things that you know that I don't. That's all I'm trying to say that. Well, you do know about Circle K's inner circle. I do. Right? You're a big fan of that. I am to make sure that if you have not checked out Circle K's inner circle membership program, you do so now. It's free. All you have to do is to join it is by as download the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating

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All listeners can receive a $350 off discount when you use promo code PHNX. Restrictions do apply. See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. All right. Well, yeah, Jesse, everybody is mad at you now and everybody's going to eat. Oh, my gosh. Might as well turn on Jesse some more. There's some, well, Bill, wait, hold on.

Take a step back. Bill says we need better concessions to. And of course, that means bringing Dutch brothers back to Chase Field. What do I need to get Dutch Bros back? Just whatever it takes, let's make that happen. We've had this conversation. Dutch Bros is not like a ballpark item, right? I don't just. What do you mean?

There's a black rock, though. What do you mean? It's the same piece. Yeah, I guess I just don't like coffee. It's energized drinks. What do you mean? What is it? say I make fun of my mom for saying Dutch brothers because it sounds like you're just elderly.

I'm the oldest person on the world. Yeah. Dutch brothers. Dutch brothers. Sorry. I apologize for that. Sometimes sometimes I try to hold my hide my old ways, but they just come out sometimes. So all right, what else we got? We got a email from or email. Oh my God. This is what my dad does. How old are you, Derek? I have a million years old. All right. Go snail mail next. Yeah, that's fine. Charles Woodall Pike, aka Cactus on the highest asks the rising won a championship by going through stan diego a sole cow team a norcal team and a team from the east coast so clearly the debacks need to go through the podres in the wildcard round dodgers in the n lds giants in the nLCs and the orioles in the world series to win it all

next year i we have to fight the entire nLs well except the rockies because they don't matter but uh wow no i don't i don't hate this idea i like the idea of vanquishing your foes on the way to the World Series and then beating, you know, the other young, exciting team there. But I don't know. I just want, I just want that ending. I just, whatever, whatever path it takes to get there, I just want the happy ending that that these guys got last night because I mean, yeah. What an ending.

Whatever I still don't fully understand how soccer works. Jamie and I had to explain to Jesse how last night's game with the Rising would have equated over to like. I'm still not convinced that Rising won because the final score was one to one to one. He doesn't understand what the little numbers down are. He doesn't understand the penalty. Yeah, like in baseball, they put like the number of hits and airs on the scoreboard too, but that doesn't, like the team that wins scored the most runs.

Yeah. Here's the thing. It's like if the Diamondbacks would have been losing one nothing for the entire game pretty much. And then in the bottom of the ninth with their last batter with two outs, they hit a solo home run that ties the game. Then tied game, end of innings, go to extra innings. Let's say we play 10, 11, maybe even 12, and the game remains scoreless. Now, at this point,

okay. Soccer kind of converts over to like a home run derby, if you would. So it would be like after the 12th inning, now we're going to see who can hit the most home runs out of five. It's kind of how it would be at that point, right? So it's like, that's my best way to kind of express to you how exciting last night's championship game was. I think you just explain exactly what Major League Baseball needs to do. Yes, I know. I've tried to tell you guys this for years.

That would be an electric. That would be electric. Yeah, you have to pick five batters to go out there against like one pitch. Yeah, just one pitch to hit. No, three strikes, no nothing. Just one pitch. And if you can hit it for a home run, then it counts. And it would also have been like, you know,

whoever they were opposing went up two home runs to zero. And then the diamond backs hit three home runs in a row. And they did not to take it home. That's how the penalty kick situation where it was an exciting game. And I'm just trying to express to Jesse that he needs to watch a little bit of football. But that's all we got. Back to Cactus on Ice, yes, let's do all of that. Let's beat the entire NL West and go to the World Series and win it.

You're not going to get a no from either one of us on that one. Well, maybe from this guy. I don't know. What else we got? Aaron Hughes asks who is your favorite non-Dback random player around the league? I think I have objectively the current. correct answer to this question. Okay.

It's not, this is not just my favorite random player. Like, this should be everyone's favorite random player. It's Garrett Stubbs. It is not.

I was saying David spit out his coffee. Right when I was taking a sip of my coffee, that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard. It is former Diamondback, Wilmer Flores. Yes. Yes.

Wilmer Flores in In 2023, 284, 355, 509, that was a slash sign. 23 home runs, he had a 136 OPS plus. According to his WRC plus over at Fangraphs, if you go minimum 400 plate appearances in 2023, Wilmer Flores was the 15th best hitter in all of baseball. And he is Wilmer Flores, a guy that like has sort of fallen off the radar of, I think, a lot of baseball fans. My question is, why did you just use stats to determine who is your favorite baseball player?

That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard. Clearly, Damon Stub's and figured out how my brain works. Jesse was like, his underlying metrics are so good. He's my favorite non-diamond diamond battle. Oh, there's nothing underlying about any of that. Like, that's just straight. Like, that's 23 homers, man. That's 23 balls in the seats when you're playing one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks.

in all of baseball. How old is Wilmer Flores now? 34? Yeah. And he's a former Diamondback, so I mean, yeah, that's, I, that tracks. Mine's Lars Neutbar, and I don't need to give you any reason. It's just Lars Neupar. Like you said, Damon, it's just pure feel.

Like, I could have gone with a mooky bets because I like moogie bets very much, but I won't go with like a more, you know, like not a superstar player, right? Like more of your random kind of guy. I think Lars Neubar has that superstar potential. Obviously, he had that great, you know, great experience in the world baseball classic. But I just, I like him a lot. And it's hard not to like him. And I still think he's a Star Wars character secretly deep downside.

It's a great name for a Star Wars character. It is a great name. I like Hassan Kim. Yeah. Yeah, I had him, I had him on my list as well. He, but it's also very numbers based. So Damon's going to just hate me for it. But, yeah, Hassan Kim is just super underrated, like on a team that,

obviously has a lot of a lot of stardom over in san diego you could argue that has sunk khan was their best player in 2023 uh just yeah really remarkable stuff stole 38 bases 17 home runs 60 rbi uh he had 4.4 wins above replacement on fan graphs think it was like up over six on baseball reference pretty dang impressive season from a guy that doesn't get nearly as much attention as a lot of the other guys on his team um i saw a tweet there can you go back here a little bit damon our Matt tweet Matt tweet I'm broken I'm just absolutely broken today a comment here in our chat from Matt

Shoddle he said my hey all my son's a huge fan can you say hi too I hope I'm getting this right Jack a Vian Jack Vian so hello I feel like we're not getting that right that's about his no but that's okay Equavian and I also think he might be trawling us oh okay all right well that's also hilarious too so either way

well all right what else we got in Brian Bobbitt says this is a Derek question. This is at BB underscore nitro. He says, with the, it's time for Paul Seawall to pitch meme being a thing, should he add the Vader, it's time to his entrance before jump around starts? You know, I'm never going to say no to adding more pro wrestling to baseball. So the answer is yes. But the problem is, is that if I'm not mistaken, I do know that Vader's theme song starts out

with saying it's time, it's time, it's Vader time. And that feels like more like a Josh hater kind of thing, because if you're not listening directly, like it might sound like his last name. I don't know. But yeah, I like it though. I know. I'm probably going to do some sort of premiere video to make sure I try to get that in there in front of him or something. But yeah, no, I don't know. Of course, pro wrestling and baseball do go hand in hand. We all know that. So more of that. And especially considering nobody's going to understand that reference because that's that's a pretty old wrestler right there. All right. What else we got?

Ryan Hanley asks, what do you know about how we will be able to watch the National League wagon on TV? We will need the MLB. Will we need the MLB app for the season? Jesse, any thoughts on how we're going to watch it? We still don't really know, right? We still don't really know. Yeah. that was a question that was sort of floating around a little bit at the GM meetings to GMs.

Like, do you anticipate the TV situation affecting your payroll for this coming season? The Diamondbacks, of course, are a team that would potentially fall into that category. I wrote a little bit about that in the article that I published over the weekend. But yeah, in terms of the logistics of how the games are going to be broadcast, we don't know. And that's a, you know, once we know that, then we'll probably have a better idea of where things go from a revenue standpoint, whether the debacks are able to actually recover all of the revenue that they would have made under their previous deal or whether it seems to be the more likely situation of them taking a fairly significant cut on that front. If Major League Baseball

comes back and does it again, I guess that would maybe be like the status quo, like what I would maybe expect before until we hear anything else, then yeah, it'd probably be similar to what you got in the second half of the season where you can buy a package from Major League Baseball directly if you're in market. It was 1999 a month, right? And, you know, you can use that to watch all Diamondbacks games if you're here in town or, you know, it was also available on a number of the various streaming services as well. So it should still be logistically pretty easy to find, I think, but we don't, we don't know exactly what it looks like yet. And honestly, I think the big thing about it is that I don't know if the Diamondbacks are going to should even expect to be

able to get back what they were going to get. Probably not. Because we know the Bally's deal was kind of I mean on the high end of things as far as what they were paying. It's the reason why it was such a good deal for the Diamondbacks. It really allowed them to kind of increase their budget, which

obviously the postseason run is going to have a great impact on the amount of money they have to spend. But the postseason run might make up for the shortcoming, but they might still end up being, you know, having less money overall than they did, then they would have had if that deal would have been honored. So yeah, MLB last season was dedicating to paying 80% of what the

diamondbacks were going to receive. But again, we don't know how that's going to go. Yeah, there was, I think Alden Gonzalez at ESPN, when the debacks shifted over to their game is being televised by Major League Baseball. He wrote in that story that that 80% backstop was only for the 2023 season did not extend to 2024. So if it is just maybe. Major League Baseball coming back, televising these games. As far as we know right now, it doesn't look like the debacks could safely expect 80% of what they were receiving previously. So, yeah, right now it's just sort of a waiting game.

We're waiting for news on the stadium. We're waiting for news as far as the TV situation goes. There's kind of a lot that still has to happen over the course of this offseason. But as it stands, you can still order MLB.tv for 1999 per month, and you can still watch the way that it was for the second half of the season. And there's been really no changes to that. So we'll see how things go. But we do appreciate you guys sending your questions.

Of course, you guys are awesome as always. And especially if you're a diehard. If you are not a diehard, make sure to grab that diehard membership today over at go phnx.com. It'll get you a free shirt of your choice over at the phnx locker.com, including all of our wonderful playoff shirts, all of our diamond back shirts and more. So check out. We are still a fucking dangerous team. So check out the shirt of a dangerous team. Over at the PHNX Locker.com,

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They are the quality sunglasses company that aren't going to cost you nearly as much as some of those other brands. And they do offer the most insane protection plan in all of Iaware, which I have absolutely already taken advantage of. They say every pair of their sunglasses is backed by their. lost and broken replacement plan. If you lose or break your pair even on day one, they will send you a brand new pair. No questions asked, no guilt, none of that. They have your back long after you purchased. They also will allow you to exchange your Shady Race for a new pair

or return them for free within 30 days if you do not love your Shady Raise. There's absolutely no risk when you shop, whether it's online at Shadiridyraise.com or at their location here in town at Kierland Commons. So make sure to check out our friends over there. And again, we thank you guys so much. We're so glad that we could have ruined Jesse's credibility with so many of you today based on some of his answers. Hey, man, you're the one who's like calling comments in the chat, like tweets and emails, all right? That's true. That's true. We've both ruined our reputations here today. Good show. It's a good show. It's a top of the... By the way, we will be back tomorrow at 1 p.m. Jesse has some time off later this week.

So we'll have some special guests joining us as well. But in the meantime, you can make sure to follow us on Twitter. That's still there.X.com. Am I old by saying, I don't even know what. You don't know I'm doing anymore. Drop us a voicemail. Drop us. There's a message board for you to go on and send me your thoughts.

Fax us your mailback questions for next week. I am at Derek. I'm not Derek. I'm at Cap underscore Kman with K. I am Derek Montaia. This guy's at Jesse N. Friedman. They confuse me because they all use their, he uses the normal names with the middle initial thing.

But Damon. Damon is the people. producer. He is a Damon dog. That's D-A-W-G. Of course, we are Damon's dogs. Roof. Bark, bark. Yeah, whatever. Coggs is absolutely

the new beat reporter around here. So that's definitely something to keep track of as well. Tough day for Coggs. He's the new beat reporter and he doesn't even show up day one. Yeah, what's happening with that? That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. And Connor says no one calls it X, Derek. Thanks, Connor. I appreciate that. I don't. Yeah, that's

that we can accept. We can we can accept that. All right. Well, I will not do that anymore. But of course, I don't know this stuff without you guys telling me. So I'm thankful for you guys being here. Of course, you can follow our show at PHNX underscore DBEX, but all roads do lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Again, we'll be back tomorrow at 1 p.m. So make sure to join us. And until then, we appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it is so much more fun when you finally acquire a third basement for the diamond. facts.