PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks outfielder Alek Thomas stops by to chat about the World Baseball Classic & more

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Alek Thomas joins the show to discuss playing for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic and to gossip about Corbin Carroll. Of course, we’re also discussing who has the best hair on the team. We also have your updates from the D-backs vs Rangers and MLB the Show dropping their ratings.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Our next PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch is LIVE! Join us on Friday, March 24th for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Come hang with the PHNX crew, fellow Suns’ fans and Diehards as we watch KD, Booker, and the Suns battle in the final stretch of the season as they take on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Sacramento Kings.Checkout the PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch Eventbrite to reserve your spot today. And Diehards, check Discord for your exclusive discount link!Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxOGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBB15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/ NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. 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 DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montaia. Of course, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This guy is always known as your vice mayor of PHNX. He's also the Valley Thunderstick himself, Jesse Freed. The Valley Thunderstick. Yeah, there you go. It's getting bigger.

I like it. I like it. How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. We're going to be joined by Alec Thomas later in the show. Yes, we are. Traffic, traffic permitting. It sounds like we're all a go.

We need to have a chat about some of these ballparks in Goodyear and surprise. Don't even get me started on surprise. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app. America's top-rated sportsbook app. I am currently on a pitch clock timer, so I need to watch how quickly I intro this show. Yeah. Because we don't want a violation occurring. Today was a great day for the Diamondbacks.

And it was especially great day for pitcher Tommy Henry, who once again is one of the young pitchers that are competing, potentially, for a starting rotation spot. We saw Henry come out of the bullpen in his last start, but he still did a significant amount of work in that game going three innings. But today, fairly spotless by young Tommy Henry, four innings, three hits allowed, zero runs, zero walks, and three strikeouts. Really damn good day for him out there. Yeah.

He looked great. I thought he looked great. All four pitches seem to be working to a reasonable degree. I mean, we're still relatively early here in spring training. there's some time for some of the pitches, maybe to sharpen up just a little bit. Sure. But velocity-wise, Tommy Henry is one of few guys who everything is lining up pretty much exactly with where we saw it last year, which is always good to see at this point.

It sounds like the curveball has been a particular point of emphasis for him coming into spring training. He threw more curve balls than any other secondary pitch in his start today. And I want to say that was the case with his last outing as well. It seems like the curve ball has been kind of a big pitch for him coming into season. spring, whereas when we saw him last year was more the slider was kind of his go-to secondary pitch. So, but it looked good today.

Obviously, the, you know, the Rangers lineup. I don't think they necessarily had their full A team in there today, but Tommy Henry did what he was supposed to do. It was a great day out there for, for baseball. We got to run into Stefan and Chris Carey, the Ameriola Soapoodle's broadcasters. And those guys are just outstanding individuals. It was really fun to meet them in person. Tommy Henry also.

worked very quickly today. He didn't really have too many issues with the pitch clock. However, there was one very close call. There was a violation against a Rangers pitcher. However, Tommy Henry, no violations. But as he says in his own words here, beat the shot clock on one. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I had to shake a few times in order to get to that pitch. And I could see it was, you know, three, two. I don't know, I think it must have thrown him off, but we got the shot off before the shot clock went off, so we'll take it. I love that, get the shot off before the end of the end. Yeah, I mean, that's basically what it is, right? It's like Major League Baseball now has a shot clock, basically.

It's essentially the baseball equivalent of what's happening, or the basketball equivalent, I guess, of what's happening here. Yeah. But, yeah, yeah, I mean, Tommy Henry generally, I think works fairly quickly anyway, and he was also pretty efficient today as far as pitch count goes, 56 pitches and four innings. The debacks didn't have to do anything funky where they took him out and then, you know, had a reliever get the last out or two of an inning and then brought him back and then took him out and brought him back. It was just four normal innings. We weren't tweeting anything about him being as day being done because we've learned our goddamn

lesson that comes to that. But I guess the question now or the idea here is that Tommy Henry really never like fell out of the picture as far as the, starting rotation spot. But these last few starts, especially today, really feels like he's in the mix, potentially with Drey Jameson and Brandon fought as the front runners, I guess, you would say, out of the four or five options potentially. They can't all be front runners. They can't, right?

Like, they're on. But, I mean, he definitely is not lagging behind because today's start was quite impressive. It was. It was. Yeah, I mean, the ERA over spring training is 6.48. So that's not, you know, it still doesn't look great. he had a couple pretty rough ones to start his Cactus League. But yeah, I think Tommy Henry has looked pretty decent overall.

I still exercise a little bit of caution with thinking that he's at the forefront of the Diamondbacks thinking when it comes to that fifth rotation spot, I still feel like it's probably Nelson or Jameson and sort of feels like we're leaning Jameson at this point, just given how good he's been in a lot of these games. But still certainly possible that Tommy Henry could break the opening day roster, if not as a starter, potentially as a long reliever for this team. Shout out to everyone here in the comments. I know we are equally excited for Alec Thomas to stop by. Michael McDermott says bullpen was equally impressive today.

Completely agree with you on that. The bullpen was very impressive. But the one guy that continues to impress us is Justin Martinez. I still don't know where he came from. I don't understand. I feel like Jesse and I would have been talking about an average of nearly 102 miles per hour on his fastball prior to now. But that is what is currently going on with Justin Martinez when he's on the mound. Yeah, it's insane, man. Justin Martinez, we saw him in the fall league, right?

And I remember we tweeted out some video of Justin Martinez blowing away guys in the fall league with 98, 99. I think he touched 100 at some point in the fall league. but he averaged over 101 in his appearance today, Derek. And granted, he only threw five pitches, I believe. They were all forcing fastballs. And according to game day, they were all either 101 or 102 miles an hour. That's insane velocity, right? I mean, at this point in the big leagues, if a guy throws 98, 99, like, that's great.

That's top tier velocity, but it's not like hitters haven't seen that before. Once you get to 102, they've probably. seen it, but maybe from like a machine, not from a human being. There's not that many people in this game, even at this point, who can throw 101, 102 miles an hour consistently. And that's what Justin Martinez did in his brief outing today. And good luck catching up to it if it's high in the zone, right? If Brent Strom has him throwing that 102 mile per hour up in the zone, good luck. Good luck. Good luck catching up to that. And I mean, Gabriel says if this bullpen is legit, we win it at all, I don't know how I can disagree with that.

But let's just say honestly that the Diamondbacks have guys like this. Corbyn Martin today, another guy that you kind of held. Jesse stuck around just to see Corbyn Martin and he did not disappoint. He was good, man. I mean, everyone. Everyone who pitched out of the bullpen was good. Two-0-0 win by the Diamondbacks. So anybody that was involved in today's game did pretty damn good.

But yeah, no, I mean, yeah, look at there. There's some numbers right there. Michael's doing our graphics work for us there at the bottom of the the screen, but that's what guys hit today. And I mean, that's damn. Those are, those were averages. Yeah. So Castro average 96, McGuff 92, Corbin Martin 97, Martinez 101, Carlos Vargas 100. There's another guy who averaged over 100 today. I did the math, Derek, of all 44 fastballs. There were 44 fastballs thrown in this game by Diamondbacks relievers from those five guys that I just mentioned. The average fastball velocity for a D-Baxter lever in this game was 97 miles.

7 miles an hour. Last year did the diamond backs have one guy in the bullpen who could throw 97 consistently? Like I guess, I guess Kevin Ginkle would get there occasionally. And McGuff's Velo, not to knock 92 miles an hour, but of those four, his is the one that's the outlier that's kind of dragging that average down. If you remove him from that equation, I'm guessing it's in 98 range. Probably. And the other thing is Miguel Castro's Velo is actually down a little bit from what I've seen. last year his sinker average 98 today it only average 96 that's kind of what we've seen so far as from training

it's different what's weird is that there's a decent chance that the majority of those guys don't even make the opening day roster yeah right castro's going to be in there mcuff's going to be in there martinez vargas i think you could get one of those three guys maybe but you're not going to get all all three of those guys they just don't have have the room for that so it's pretty crazy and this again leads to that first frustration when it comes to, and again, I'm not even going to attack Mark Melanson. I'm just going to say in general to anybody being anointed with a position in the starting rotation or in the bullpen. There's just, there's just too much talent to not utilize that talent, to not go to that talent your bullpen, to make that talent your starting rotation versus giving guys that aren't performing as well a spot simply based on the fact that you're paying them more money. I get it. I've talked about it. I'm using that goddamn tool I bought. whether it helps me actually trim the bush or not because I overpaid for it. And I'm using it. I don't care if the old hedge trimmers are going to work better.

But like sometimes you just got to cut your losses because you're paying that money regardless. And you don't want to impact wins on your team when you're also impacting, you know, the team financially with investments in players that haven't really worked out. Yeah. But one thing that really has worked out so far, at least in theory, is the Dalton Varshow trade because so far we really like what we've seen. Yes, we're evaluating it right now. Right now. Right now. We're breaking it down.

Too easy into the Cactus League, we already know. Badabacks won the trade. Loris Gouriel had a great double that I put on our account. If you check out our account over at Twitter, he got brushed back by a high fastball inside, came back and immediately, you know, chokes up and doubles down in the left field. And it was just a, it was a quality at bat considering that these guys don't have a lot of time when something like that happens to, hang out outside of the box and kind of gather themselves and compose them. That's true.

You know, they have to get brushed back by a high fastball and then they have to immediately get back in there and prepare themselves to hit. I guess you could use your time out in that situation, but I don't think Guriel did that in this case. No, he did not. He did not hesitate to get back in the box. And that's one thing we're seeing from a lot of these guys. But yo Gabby Gabby, Gabrielle Moreno, Jacob is making us make that a thing.

But he hit his second spring training dinger and it went very, very far. That wasn't just a dinger, Derek. That was a monster. That was a moonshot. Straightaway center field, 109 off the bat, 448 feet. Yeah. Gabriel Moreno, right? The slap hitting singles hitter, right?

That hit 317 or 319 last year for the Blue Jays and slugged under 400. There's some power in there, right? Slugging 714 so far in spring. He is technically slugging 714 because he homered in his first at bat of the Cactus League. And then he homered again today. He's only had like 15 play. appearances so far. But yeah, I mean, what this tells me, I don't want to go too far with this because Mark

Church delivered this pitch for the Texas Rangers. How dare you? Desmarched the good news. Mark Church had an ERA over seven in AA last year. He was good in high A, but he struggled in double A. So I don't want to go too crazy because in spring training, you always have to factor in the quality of the competition. And theoretically, that wasn't great in this particular bat.

But still, it shows me that Moreno has some raw power, right? If you go up there trying to hit singles and you don't have that much raw pop, you're not going to hit a 450-foot tater to straightaway center field, right? So this shows me that that raw power does exist, which is something I've heard from the Diamondbacks as well. It's more of an approach thing with Gabby Moreno that he hasn't hit for as much power of late in the upper levels of the miners and when he broke into the big leagues last year. but that power is in there, and maybe there's a way where the debacks could kind of change that approach a little bit over time and try to tap into that.

And I mean, at that point, you've got a guy who projects to be potentially a 300 plus hitter and, you know, you're getting some power output there as well. It's a bat that you can really get excited about. Well, the one thing that we're not super excited about is some pitch clock blunders that occurred today. It's just stuff that MLB needs to grow up. But for instance, I was down there doing some video and. Josh Rojas had to point out to the umpire that the pitch clock wasn't running. And he didn't want to do, he didn't want to do anything until they fixed it. He was just like, nope, nope, fix the clock.

Do the thing. Make it run. I'm not, we're not doing this. And it did happen where all of a sudden the pitch clock went to 11 and then 10 and then flashed back to 14 seconds. So like shit like that, if games are going to come down to the pitch clock potentially determining a strikeout or a walk or a bach or some shit, that needs to be solidified. That needs to be figured out. We can't have the clock just randomly starting or stopping or whatever. Tommy Henry said he doesn't really let it bother him very much.

We asked him about that after the game. But it doesn't matter. It really, if these rules are going to be enforced and this stuff is going to be important, it's kind of like what we were talking about with the Zach Gallen thing yesterday, where he quick pitched. And then the umpire just kind of mentions it between innings instead of like actually assessing him any kind of violation. This needs to be figured out. And we need to have it like on the up and up so that if,

If games are determined by this, we're not screwing around and calling it one way or having clocks not properly operating. I will say that so the clock operators are actually pretty close to me and Derek's assigned seats in the press box. And we had nothing to do with them fucking it up today. Yeah, yeah. Derek went over there. He was hounding them and just wouldn't leave them alone. No, it appeared. I didn't get a chance to talk to them.

I didn't really want to bother anyone over there. But there was kind of a cluster of people over there. And it appeared that they were rotating in and out. And there was someone standing there kind of giving direction. So I think it was pretty clear that they were training some people and how to operate the pitch clock, which I mean, it's just a Cactus League game, right? So I'm a little bit surprised that some of these people look like they've kind of, they're kind of doing it for the first time almost.

Yeah, like it kind of looks like beginning stages of training, not necessarily the level that I'd expect them to want people to be at for a Cactus League game. So there were definitely some blunders on that front. But no harm, no foul for right now. As long as it's good for the regular season, that's what we care about. I can assure you, Jesse did not turn off the clocks, but it does remind me of like I went to a soft opening of a restaurant and a waitress was teaching another waitress how to make a cocktail that involved them lighting the cocktail on fire on your table in a neat presentation. However, I was not confident in this girl's ability to do it. I don't think she was either, and I don't feel like this was something that needed to be taught at a goddamn table with live human beings sitting there.

I mean, I feel like this teaching could be done somewhere else. But Evan Longoria drew a pitch clock walk, which is very exciting. We love the phrase pitch clock walk. That's what we're calling it from now on until the end of time. But yeah, pitching violation due to the pitch clock allowed Evan Longoria on a three ball strike to take first base so we saw three ball count to be to be fair it wasn't i want to make it clear there were not violations on all four balls in the at bat it was there were three balls three balls normal style i don't care and then the fourth ball makes it a pitch walk made it up a pitch clock walk

see that five times there you go yeah i'm excited about these though these are fun could you imagine if somebody walked on four pitch clock violations that's a little concerning we've got we've got some some bigger problems. Maybe the pitcher has just decided to take the afternoon off. I don't know. I think that's the only realistic way that could possibly happen. I leave it up to Mark Salara to immediately put it into pro wrestling form. PC dub. All right. But of course, this is going to continue to happen. We're going to see it during the regular season. We're going to continue to see people get trained and doing it.

Maybe in a way, maybe the amount of information is being passed along was why we saw the hiccups today that we did with the pitch clock. I don't know. At times I was down there by the batterer, so I didn't get a chance to see what was going on up there. But, yeah, just some stuff they need to get cleaned up both on the field. Again, there haven't been a lot of violations, though. So that's something to keep in mind is if you're very much anti-pitch clock, we're still trending under two violations per game, which really shouldn't impact games like we kind of allege that they will. Yeah. We've just seen, like we talked about yesterday, already some of the biggest impacts that you can have to a game.

happen already this spring. But this spring, something else that you should do is if you're here for spring training, stop by our friends over at Four Peaks Brewing Company and their 8th Street Pub. Take a tour of their wonderful brewing facility. If you're into Kraft Brews, it's an incredible facility. It's beautiful and there's ghosts and there's all sorts of fun to be had. So check out Four Peaks Brew. You can follow them on social at Four Peaks Brew.

You can also check out their calendar at Four Peaks.com slash events for all your beerweek entertainment. And also make sure to grab your tickets to Fort Peaks amazing spring beer dinner at FourPeaks.com slash events must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. They will be pairing these wonderful, it's a six-course meal with different beers. So make sure to check that out. If you are like me, you love craft beers and you love food. And I love all of those things. So make sure to check out Four Peaks 8th Street Pub. We thank you guys for being here in the chat. If you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. And leave us a little thumbs up. It makes Jesse so happy. You have no idea. The first thing he tells me is, did you see that? We got 20 thumbs. So Jesse's really excited about that. But anyway, if you haven't subscribed to our podcast on your favorite audio podcasting app, make sure to do that. Leave us a review. We always appreciate the feedback. Also, join the family at PHNX. Become a diehard member. Get yourself some wonderful free merch.

Also, some wonderful content. Your diehard membership not only includes a free hat or shirt from the PHNX Locker.com and 20% off all future purchases, including these wild sun shirts that we got. It's a big day for the suns. Big day for the suns. Katie, Katie, home debut. Right down the street from us. But if you haven't seen all of the wonderful benefits, our diehard package has offered,

you get Jesse's newsletter full count as well as newsletters just for diehard members only from all the beats. You also get members-only discounts at some of our partners, members-only invites to events, members-only merchandise, and so much more. Most importantly, you get to be part of our Discord lounge where we will tell you that our guest is running late due to traffic, and you get the heads up on all sorts of wonderful stuff like that. Not to mention, it's more fun to be a Diamondbacks fan or an Arizona sports fan there than anywhere else. So sign up today and become part of the PHNX family over at go-PHNX.com. I'm ready to once again get mad about video games reigning the performance of actual human athletes, Jesse, because today was the day that MLB the show released its ratings for MLB

the show 2023, and I'm not as mad as I thought I was going to be. I mean, they did this in kind of a savage fashion. They really did. They really did. They had at least the brief portion that we saw. Players were basically like writing on this whiteboard, but they thought their rating would be. And then they revealed the actual rating under a little.

And then they revealed the actual rating. The only guys that we saw pretty well, like, overestimated what their rating should be. I kind of wonder if anyone, like, way low balled themselves and they were like pleasantly surprised at what their rating was. That's the move to make. Yeah, that's the move to make. Like, yeah, I think I'm going to be a 74 or something. Oh, look at my gosh. I'm a 91.

No, these were, these were okay. They were interesting. I didn't, I didn't think it was super. egregious. Zach Gallin's in 89. He's an 89. So that's not so bad. That's our best player on team, Zach Gallin, without the K, by the way. From

Mub, he's calling us Finks. We're calling Mub, now him and that's Steve Gilbert. But Zach Gowan is the highest rated player on the Arizona Diamondbacks, and more importantly, Zach Gallin is an 89, while Jazz Chisholm is an 88.

Who's on the cover again? No, no. I don't care. You know what? I'm going to do. do is make my own cover with Zach Gallen. I'm going to put that in my video game. But you know that Zach Gallen is probably going to be fired out of his rating is one point higher. And it should be. I mean, Jazz Chisholm had a great first half of the season, but then he got hurt and he only played like a little bit more than a third of the season when it was all said and done. So, you know, putting Jazz Chisholm like up in the 90s or something, I think would be a little crazy.

Zach Gallen, on the other hand, you know, finishing top five and Cy Young voting, you could make a case should be even a little bit higher than an 89. Mark Salarra says, Zach, not a 90, fire in my blood. We need that clip ready, Dave. And you got that clip ready because we're going to go. I'm going to hit that here in a minute. But yeah, Zach Gallen also felt like he was in the 90s.

He was one of the guys that wrote on the board. Didn't he put like, I think he put 94. 94. 94. He was an 89. Christian Walker also wrote on the board. He gave himself an 86. I think it was an 86.

He was an 83. Those are your two top Arizona Diamondbacks players. Cogs asked any D-Backs in the Diamond Club. That's a no. That's a no, unfortunately. But I think that that's where they got it wrong. And again, when they get these ratings wrong, Damon. That puts fire in my blood.

Thank you. Thank you. Speaking of putting fire in my blood, the D-BAC's overall rating is a 22 on this game. Oh, wait. Yeah, let's get it. They ranked 22. Let's get back to the hat.

Here's the team rankings for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They rank overall at a 22, pitching 24th. Their contact hitting 13th, defense 15th, power 19th, speed 8th. I don't like a lot of these numbers. Yeah, I think the defense feels maybe a little low, right? I mean, 15th, you would think that you would think the debacks would be a little bit higher than 15th. I mean, they were pretty clearly one of the best defensive teams in baseball last year. I guess losing Dalton Varshow maybe plays a little bit of a role in that.

Eighth in speed, you also feel like they should be a little higher than eighth, having several like 90th percentile sprint speed guys on the same roster. So I don't think is anything too too crazy, but you could make a case that things should be a little bit better than they were. Yeah, no, I agree. Again, we could take a look really fast at those ratings again. We have the ratings for the players up here, the Diamondbacks top five players.

Zach Gallin there at 89. Again, Christian Walker at 83. Merrill Kelly at 79, not a huge. That's a little low. That's a little low for me. Evan Lungoria is 77 and Jake McCarthy rounding out the top five here. There's no Corbyn Carroll on this list and I don't know how to feel about that. That's a little strange.

Yeah, I mean, obviously you only played about a month in the big league. So maybe they need to see a little bit more before his rating goes up. But, I mean, he certainly played like at least. in the 80s somewhere you would figure based on what he did last year. Mark Slayer is screaming in the chats. Have they seen how quick they run? They were second with the last update. Oh, they were second last year with the last update.

How did they slow down? Come on. I need the good people at Sony to answer that question. That is pretty good. We have so many answers, you know, slowing down. It puts fire in my blood. That's what it does. But again, I can't wait to play this game.

And of course, the first team I'm going to play is, is the Marlins. But Michael McDermott says Longoria, it 77 seems high. No comment on that one. But again, that just might show that they're basing this maybe on older information until they update the rosters or whatever. It does take MLB the show a little while, you know? It's like a player kind of establishes themselves and shows they're really good.

MLB the show tends to be a few months behind. And like, okay, all right. Now we'll bump up the rating a little bit like we probably should have a while ago. Could tell Marte, they did not. Now, don't get me wrong, these were just the players that they revealed today, so they didn't reveal the whole roster. So there might be guys that are in between here. This is just what they revealed. Yeah, not necessarily the top five.

They had a very long special on Twitch today that showed all of this stuff off. The thing they didn't talk about, though, I don't believe, is if pitch clocks are going to be in MLB the show, which again. I think that's unnecessary. Jesse thinks they hate that idea. Like, who plays a video game, a video game version of, baseball and doesn't throw every pitch like as soon as you like you skip all of the like the little videos that they have in between here's all the cut scenes you're skipping everything they put on all this work to make it look like a television broadcast and we just kind of shit all over it by just

tapping x really fast and skipping through all of it's cool like the first couple times and then you just skip everything from that point forward you watch it you watch everything and you're like this is beautiful i'll never watch this ever again but uh yeah i'm excited i got an xbox yesterday And I'm very excited that I got Game Pass and MLB the show will be on Game Pass on March 27th. So again, get at me. You know what Jesse says. I play the game on rookie, so you'll probably beat me. But coming through anyway, and let's have some fun.

Speaking of fun, Jesse still hasn't decorated his apartment fully. Condo. Condo? Not apartment. It's a condo. Townhouse. Technically. See?

He corrects me. I knew it was going to correct me. But he does get recognized at stores buying decontinent. Decor. This is kind of wild. That did happen the other day. He wasn't even buying a Chase Lounge. That's the wildest thing. If they were like, wait, Chase Lounge, you've got to be Jesse, right? No. No, it was just wall decor, right? Yeah, yeah, I was checking out at a home decor place and the person checking me out did recognize me.

And it was like, oh, are you Jesse from the PHNXD back show? I've never felt, I've never felt so accomplished. His head didn't sit in the studio today, you guys. It didn't. It really didn't. But of course, he still doesn't know how to furnish the rest of his house. So please give him as many ideas as you can. Do a good job at furnishing your house over at morefurniture.com and then give Jesse all of the suggestions and all the help he could get. Also, make sure to get that white glove delivery service and make sure you don't lift a finger, bringing that furniture in yourself and putting it wherever it needs to go.

Save big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to morefurniture.com. And of course, we want to give a shout out. I'm not allowed to eat gummies, sour gummies, especially anymore on this show, because apparently it impacts the way that I talk. However, I will be eating the rest of this entire damn bag after the show because Circle K has the best snacks. They have the best everything, best coffee, beer, and snack selection, and premium gas. So make sure to stop by your Circle K wherever you are here in the valley.

I am considering a trip out to Goodyear to be a road trip. So I want to make sure we check with Alec to see if he's grab some road trip snacks. on the way out because, you know, some of these away games, they might as well be in a different city as far as that's fair. That's fair. Make sure to check out our favorite location, of course, is the one right across the street here at 7th Street. It's an incredible location, and we are so excited to partner with our friends at Circle K.

To kick things off, we've teamed up for an amazing giveaway opportunity. Text PHNX to 310. Has to be that exactly. Has to be PHNX. And if you do, you will be entered in for an opportunity to win a five. $500 gas card. See show notes for details, but we all need that gas, so make sure to grab that gas card. Very excited, like I said, we've been making you guys wait long enough, so we are very excited

to be joined by our young thing, which I don't even know if he knows that we call him that. But Alec Thomas, what has happened to my man? Thank you so much for being here. What's going on? How are you guys doing? We're doing great, man. How has everything been for you? I know this spring training has been kind of wild with your participation in WBC.

So how are you feeling so far? Feeling good. Yeah, spring training has been going good. Just had our first exhibition game with Team Mexico. Didn't go too well, but we're getting our feet underneath us, you know, new team and everything. Starting to get a chance to know each other a little bit. So it's a fun team, really funny, really lighthearted team. and I think we're going to be pretty special in the classic.

I'm much like yourself. My Spanish is terrible. I'm Puerto Rican, but I'm terrible at Spanish, so I was wondering how that was going with your teammates. But I also wanted to ask, what does it mean to represent Team Mexico in an event like this? Yeah, I don't speak any Spanish either, so it's all good. Little communication.

We got a lot of guys on the team that only speak English, so it's all good. All right, good. No, it means a lot. My mom's side of the family is all Mexican, and they're really excited for me to have this chance to represent that side, and, yeah, they're super excited. How did your family react to you joining Team Mexico?

Was that a big kind of celebration for them? Was your mom especially excited? Yeah, she was super excited. I think they knew that I was going to, going to do it if the opportunity, you know, presented itself and it did. And I was like, yeah, man, I'm definitely playing. And yeah, they were all

super stoked about it. And yeah, they're ready. They got their all their Mexico gear ready to go. One of our guys in the comment has been asking us for months about getting one of your jerseys for Team Mexico. So we got we got to make some merch happen. But I know

that this has been, again, kind of an expedited spring training. I talked to you at one point. You said you kind of got an early start on it. So like is this especially considering like last year and how kind of strange the year was, is this, has this been like a little, do you feel prepared and does it feel like a little easier of a spring training for you? Definitely.

I think normally during spring training, it takes me a minute to get started. And thankfully, you know, this spring training, I've, I've been a little bit more consistent and definitely helped that I showed up a little bit earlier and got that work in with my dad and got some at baths early. And yeah, so far it's been one of my better spring trainings. So I'm glad about that. And obviously there's going to be some games where you don't do too well, but I'm definitely happy about the way it started so far.

Alex, I'm curious. Obviously, you really burst on the scene last year in the big league. It seemed like offensively, defensively, everything was really going extremely well for a few months. And then, you know, pitchers make adjustments. And there's kind of this period where you have to kind of adjust to what pitchers are maybe doing to you. And a lot of young guys, you know, maybe hit a little bit of a roadblock. I'm curious, what has it been like just this off season? Have you made any adjustments? Are there any things you're kind of trying to do differently coming into this season?

season. Yeah, I mean, definitely hit a roadblock, like you said. Yeah, they adjusted to me after I adjusted to them, and I just never adjusted back. And it was a chess match out there every day. And yeah, I definitely learned a lot from it. And definitely whenever I got sent down, you know, I took a deep breath and ended up playing well down in Reno and cleared my mind a little bit and ended in the season on a high note. And then took that into the offseason and tried to work on just stand back and recognizing pitches and not being so aggressive. And so I did some drills that help with that.

And so far it feels pretty good. And, you know, that's pretty much what I did this off season. No mechanical or anything like that. Just more of just staying back and staying through the ball and definitely help so far. How much fun has it been to play with this outfield? I know you guys haven't had a lot of games together last season, and I know that so far in spring you're kind of broken up at times, but it feels like you, Corbyn, and Jake really do have some great chemistry together,

and it always looks like you guys are having a blast out there. Yeah, I mean, you said we're always, you know, joked around having fun, and practices are really funny, and the games are, you know, we're all, you know, meshing well together. and we played together for a while now and we're brothers out there and yeah I definitely definitely glad we have a good group of guys out there

Does anyone on the team have as bad of a running face as Corbyn Carroll does or is that just because of the ludicrous speed that his face looks like this Probably just the graph going back in his face But no I don't know if anybody else makes a certain face. Maybe Jake. I haven't really paid attention,

but I probably even make a phase too. I won't bash on him as much anymore. He got a little mad at it. We were all fun and everything, but no, no, it's all good. Alex, I'm curious, with the rule changes coming to Major League Baseball this year, a lot of people are expecting

that the run game might pick up a little bit, it. Obviously, the speed is certainly in there for you. I think from a sprint speed perspective, you're like in the 92nd percentile or something last year. Do you expect that maybe you'll attempt a few more stolen bases this year given the changes and the impact that that might have? Yeah, for sure. I think for me, base ceiling has always been there. It's just I never had the, it's more of the confidence issue I have, I guess, with stealing bags. I just don't want to get thrown out and ruin the inning or something like that. So that's my mindset.

But whenever I'm carefree is when things go well on the basis. So I think if I just don't care and just go, I mean, I got a pretty good chance of stealing the base. So I've definitely, I got with a dude that. I works with Louisville Slugger Science, and he brought down all the numbers on stealing, and I'm like, man, I definitely should steal more because the numbers just. So I really hope that this year, you know, I definitely steal a lot more and help the team out and put us in a better position to score. And we definitely have a lot of fast guys.

And, you know, hopefully we're, you know, the top, you know, stolen base. you know, team in the league. Your defense last year was pretty incredible, and I know that it's not easy to play center field at Chase Field. What was it like to adjust to the funky kind of outfield with that porch of Chase Field? And was there, like, you just seemed to acclimate to it very quickly. Yeah, in 2020, I mean, all we did was, you know, play there. So I got good, good reps out there.

and yeah so honestly it was just me gone out there was just like normal you know normal day normal everyday things so definitely didn't have to adjust anything yeah it was pretty natural out there but whenever we go to different ballparks it's all different so um so we'll see how it goes but um yeah playing at chase is is um in the outfield There's a lot of grass, a lot of room to run. So I kind of like playing out there for sure. Yeah, it's just that porch overhang seems so strange. Is that unique or are there other ballparks that you kind of have something like that?

You know what? I really wish they would just bring it in. You know, it's 400 some feet. Yeah, right. It's all out. Some blocks that way. but it's definitely unique and I don't really think I've really had an opportunity to play a ball off the wall or off that little porch yet. Maybe once.

I know I almost hit one that almost clipped it. But yeah, I don't, it's definitely different. In batting practice, you'll see some guys will hit it off there and it'll bounce whatever way. Yeah, yeah, all sorts of crazy ways. Alex, there were a lot of trade rumors kind of floating around in the early part of the offseason. Obviously, that ultimately culminated with the Dalton Varsho trade in Toronto. I'm curious, I want to ask you about the Varshow trade and kind of the implications of that for you. But first, I'm curious, was that something that was kind of swirling in your mind at some point early in the off season,

that there's a lot of left-handed hitting outfielders on this team and that, you know, maybe there would be a scenario where you could be dealt to another team? Yeah, I definitely thought about it and I knew that, you know, one of us was going to be gone and one or two of us or whatever. My girlfriend was more worried about it than I was, but yeah, I just bought a house out here and ended up staying. But I knew that it was going to be a win-win for, you know, either way. being on a team that wants you and the dimex getting back, you know, some good players. So I think it was going to be a win-win. And Varsho is, you know, a good guy, a good teammate,

and, you know, a great player. And the Blue Jays got a good one. And we got some good guys in return for him. So it's sad to see him leave. But, I mean, I think, you know, it ultimately helped our team get better. And he's on a team that, is always in the playoffs.

So I feel like sides are happy. And then I'm happy too. So I get to stay. Yeah. I get to live in my house. So I'm very sorry. There you go. Actually gets to live in that house you bought.

I guess my question here and I don't like, I know how it is and a lot of people understand this division is very difficult. But with the Dodgers and the Padres kind of spending and bringing in the talent that they're bringing in, with you guys being young players that are unproven but still have a lot to prove, how do you approach the season with your head up and feel competitive against teams that maybe just based on how much they're spending on their roster feel like kind of juggernauts in your own division? I think our mindset is that we don't really care like how much money, you know, another team has.

We know our brand of baseball and we're going to go out there and play our business. brand. And that's pretty good baseball. So I think it doesn't matter if we're playing the Dodgers, the Giants, the Rockies, or the Cubs, or the Padres or whatever it is. I think we're just going to stick with what we're best at. And what we're best at is pretty good. So if we just do that, I think we're going to be a really good team and playoff contender. Do you think, Alec, I'm curious, how do you just kind of approach this spring training? Obviously, you're away from the team for a little while here with the WBC stuff. But I guess you're also sort of kind of competing for a job and, you know, trying to be

that everyday center fielder for this team in 2023. How do you approach just trying to lay in that role that you want for this year? Yeah. So, I mean, when I was down with the team earlier, I, you know, tried, you know, my best during my abats to have, you know, good professional high bats and take my walks when they were there. and, you know, put, or, you know,

have the right approach. And it was going pretty well. So I was just, you know, try to do what I do best. And, you know, for the most part, I did that. And now I'm trying to carry it over into this, you know, WBC and still have that same approach.

And, you know, prove myself there as well. So I'm not only helping, you know, the home country, but, you know, helping myself, you know, try to win a job as well out there in centerfield. So, yeah, so trying to do two things at once. Sure, you know. Bring home the trophy and also try to get that job as well.

So honestly, I'm just going to go out there and try to do my best and stick with my approach. And good things will happen when I do that. I don't mean to, like, undermine spring training games, but just playing games that are more meaningful like the WBC, does that help you like to try to just kind of get your mind ready for the regular season versus if you were kind of just with the debacks, not, you know, preparing for the regular season, but like Jesse said also kind of trying to compete for that everyday spot as a center fielder.

Right, yeah. So in spring training, I mean, guys are working on stuff. Yeah. And WBC, they're trying to get you out of. They're trying to win. So spring or a ramp up and the WVC is not a ramp up. It's a now thing and they're trying to win and we're trying to win. So definitely a different atmosphere and, you know, it's going to be a lot different.

And I'm glad that I get those reps and, you know, high stakes moments. And, you know, USA versus Mexico is going to be sold out. Yeah. And I've never really front of that many people. So it's going to be an atmosphere. Sure. And I think, you know, Tori, you know, said it best. I mean, he said, you know, you're going to love it.

And, you know, it's going to be a lot different. And I'm sure that the ninebacks were sold out back when they were in the playoffs or when we were in the playoffs. And, you know, and that atmosphere was pretty sweet. So just for me to get that and be accustomed to that, you know, going into the season will definitely help a lot. I love it. I love Tori's support of you guys participating in the WBC. I know we're seeing that around baseball, but it really feels like that's helping this year's particular tournament feel like one of the most exciting versions that we've seen particularly possibly ever. But I did want to ask you about Tori and kind of the coaching staff. It seems like you guys have all kind of had, like, found success relatively early coming to the main roster. How helpful was it to have Tori be or manager in that process and and be supportive of you guys coming up just what what was that atmosphere like when you came up to the main roster from minors um you know he was he was very chill um definitely

let me go about my business and um i respected that a lot and uh that's that's pretty good for you know a young guy he didn't ask you know too much for me and um you know that's all you can really ask for is a manager that, you know, lets you be you. And that's what he did. And, you know, he's continued to do that as well. So I've gotten to know him a little bit more this past spring training and offseason. And I'm glad I got to do that. And, you know, being a manager is hard.

And I feel like I've seen it from the White Sox standpoint. You know, just being there with my dad and being a kid. And now being a player and him being, you know, my manager, you definitely see the difference between the two. And now I understand, like, yeah, manager is a tough position to be in. You've got to be different, not really different, but you got to present yourself a certain way. And Tori has done a good job of it so far. And just from my perspective and definitely like him as a manager for sure.

So in Fortnite, Alec, you or Corbyn Carol? Who's better at the end of the day? Who told you about that? I poked around in the clubhouse at one point last year and found out a few things. It's definitely me. Definitely, Corbyn has rage, like, bad, like gamer rage. I lived in his house last year during spring. And we'd play, you know, after.

every spring training game, spring training day, and we'd play, you know, one v1, box wars. And you would just clap like bad. Every day or,

you know, the one time that I lose, I'll yell. But, yeah, we definitely had some heated I agree with Fortnite. But I feel like we have not played in a minute

and maybe he's growing up or maybe I've grown up, but I've moved on. and I think he's moved but I play Call of Duty now so he doesn't play Call of Duty but yeah

I think I think Corvin grew up a lot and you don't play video games anymore so he's got to focus on running but I'll play I'll play

yeah he's got to focus on his face and you know but not play with Ryan Nelson Brandon Fott all those dudes Jake McCarthy I play with him yeah we all play Call of Duty so we're grinding on that search and destroy there we go I'm a I'm a former Call of Duty guy myself so reformed reformed I was addicted and I had to step away myself hey man thank you so much for joining us we appreciate it greatly we wish you

best and we can't wait to watch you this season man yeah I appreciate it guys thank you thank you so much thanks Alex oh well we got the we got the official breakdown on the yeah one one stats yep and man I want I just said I shouldn't get back in the call duty world but that makes me why get back in the call duty world again Alec is going to be at a very packed house when it comes to Chase field for that USA versus Mexico matchups so don't make make sure not to miss that and Jesse will be out there I will not be well I will be at the stands. Maybe we'll be in the stands. Maybe we'll be in the stands. Maybe I'll sneak into the press box. But of course, we thank you guys all for being here. Make sure if you haven't checked out a place to go play

video games, speaking of video games, Octane Raceway and Mavericks is the place to go. Not only do they have a bowling alley and a full cart experience over there, cart racing over at Octane Raceway, but Mavericks has a whole ton of video games, virtual reality, laser tag, axe throwing a bunch of stuff. So make sure to check them out. Of course, our all. staff meeting. I beat Jesse in bowling. He still doesn't acknowledge my win. It still hurts my feelings. Yeah, well, we weren't on the same lane. Yeah. Like, we weren't, like, your lane was different than my lane. Does that matter if we were on the same lane? Do professional bowlers bowl on the same lane or do they not have their own lane? It wasn't a direct competition, right? Like, like, if I'm out at the bowling alley

and I get it, you know, 125 or whatever, and some random guy, like three lanes over, bowls of 147, like he's not going to come over and rub that in my face, Derek. We're not part of the same. We're not part of the same game. Cog says, O S&D, a little search and destroy. I like his culture. Yes, I agree. I get that reference and I appreciate it.

By the way, Wednesday's winning Wednesday, half-price arcade games all day. Tomorrow on Thursday, big bucket Thursday, $20 beer buckets all over at Octane Raceway and Mavericks. Book some fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks. cart racing virtual reality laser tag all that stuff ax throwing which jesse won't do with me bowling arcade great food and drinks and more they've got it all bring your spring training ticket stub and you will get a free ten dollar game card so hey there we go we hooked you up you're out here uh for spring training get some gaming going on have some fun check out it's very close to saw river

fields very very very close very very close there's a whole day you go out to a place and you can skydive and then you can go hit some golf balls and then go over octane raceway do all of that there And of course, check out their website at octane raceway.com and mavix.com to learn more. You can book your events through those websites as well. And also, speaking of spring training tickets, save on those. Get them for like $4.00. Why are you paying all that money? Get your tickets over at game time.co. Save up to 60% on tickets when you buy tickets last minute.

I don't even know if it's 60%. Because $4 seems ridiculously cheap. They might be $10 tickets and you're saving that 60%. Or, I don't know. They might be $30 tickets. and you're only buying them for four bucks. But you can save on tickets when you wait until the last minute. And the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description for the show.

So make sure you do that. Go check out some spring training games. Go see Alec Thomas when he comes back to the lineup for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Most importantly, check out the WBC. The World Baseball Classic is going to be an absolute blast. It is happening now. Jesse and I are going to have a video describing to you more as to why you should watch the World Baseball Classic and why it's absolutely not to be missed.

So check that out on YouTube. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Kman with the K. He is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I almost broke there for a second.

You said that so many times. So many times. I don't know how I messed up. Big thanks to Alec Thomas for being here. Very excited to watch him, not only in the WBC, but as a part of this team this season. And of course, we thank you guys all for joining us for that.

On behalf of Damon, Jesse, and myself, we appreciate your time and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you play for Team Mexico and don't speak Spanish.