PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick willing to expand payroll should the team find success in 2023

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick and team president Derrick Hall met with media on Monday and discussed a variety of topics, including expanding the payroll should the team be successful this season, where the D-backs could move once their lease expires with Chase Field, the future of Bally Sports Arizona, and more.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: Make sure to get your hands on our new “Slim Valley Reaper” t-shirt! Go to https://phnxlocker.com/products/slim-valley-reaper now!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. BONUS bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded.  See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballlterms.OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBB15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comRoman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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 D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of Salt River Fields. This guy over here is the vice mayor of Salt River Fields. Also, the legend around that place known as Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. I was going to say, there's really nothing better than being at Salt River Fields and having people that I've never met before come up and be like, oh, you're Jesse. Like, you're part of the PHNXDVAC show.

And then them introducing themselves to me and getting to have a little chit-chat, honestly makes my day. So if you're, if you come out to watch practice at Salt River Fields in the coming days and you see either me or Derek, you better say hi. Make sure to say hi.

It will make my day. You might just make Derek angry, but you'll make my day. What? When did I become unapproachable? I don't understand what's happening here. But Jesse's much more famous than I am, apparently. Apparently, yeah.

People didn't really seem to recognize you the way that they recognize me. That's kind of on purpose. I don't know what to tell you, Derek. We thank you guys, of course, for being here. This show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app. America's top-rated sportsbook app. Saying that you are somehow more famous than me is like when someone said you were cooler than me. We both know that's not true.

Yeah. But you can say it all you want. Then that's fine. I'll allow it. I'm going to allow it. But of course, we have all of your updates from day what is the six now? I've lost track. Diamondbacks spring camp has been an exciting place to be.

We've had a chance to meet. Of course, we talked about our time with Mike Hazen and Toy LaVolo, obviously, every day. But today was interesting. We had media availability with both Ken Kendrick and Derek Hall. And they addressed a number of topics when it came to the Arizona Diamondbacks. But one thing I do, I was kind of surprised about. And I, Jesse, I don't know if Jesse's ready to make this confession. But there were things that Ken Kendrick.

said today, honestly, they kind of won me over. And I'm just going to say it from the perspective of I feel like we, you know, again, in this market and compared to other baseball teams, obviously we tend to villainize the owner of the team for not spending enough money and such. But he had some really interesting comments today in regards to some of those teams spending all of that money that we've seen kind of flying around in free agency this off season. Yeah. I mean, if I'm being totally honest, I think that Ken Ken Ken, Kendrick gets, he gets a bad rap, right? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Let's just tell it like it is. If you and I come on this show and we say a whole bunch of positive things about Ken Kendrick. People will come with us with pitchfords and torches. I can just feel people listening in their cars, you know, just getting angry, you know. Saul Bookman is one of them. Just cussing, just cussing at us. What I will say is that Ken Kendrick, we have no evidence of what a lot of people suspect about Ken Kendrick.

People perceive him as being the guy who's coming out and pocketing all of this money, right? Spending it on his baseball card collection. Yeah, spending it on his baseball card collection, right? Not caring about winning, just trying to make money by owning a major league franchise. I don't see evidence of any of those things if I'm being totally honest. And I'm open to whatever, right? I'm approaching this being objective, trying to just kind of see wherever the evidence takes us. Granted, we do not have access to the Diamondbacks books.

We don't have access to basically the books of any teams other than I think like the Braves and the Blue Jays because they're owned by companies. But yeah, the point is that that that argument seems to be unsubstantiated. And there are some counterpoints, right? People make the case that, you know, the Diamondbacks franchise has appreciated significantly over time. It's worth a lot more now than it was when Ken Kendrick first bought it. That's a fair point.

but Ken has said in the past that, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have all of these assets that you can liquidate to help cover expenses. And maybe you have a problem with that. Maybe you have a problem with Ken Kendrick operating in a way where, you know, he's not going to, he's not necessarily going to factor in all of the appreciation. He's going to factor in the amount of revenue that the diamondbacks are actively bringing in. That's the money he's going to spend. But if we're being honest, that's how a lot of businesses operate.

So I am the Larry says I'm watching this while making homemade chicken wings and French fries and now I'm very hungry, but that is a great way to spend your evening with us. Yeah, before it was lunch and we were the ones who had never eaten and now it's dinner. So here we go. And we are starving. Why can't we just do a show like during a non-meal hour? Yeah, like at three o'clock or something? Let's make this happen during a non-meal time.

But Sammy D in the comment says the debacks must go back to black, teal, copper, and purple color scheme, ASAP. And yeah, maybe that's the one thing that Ken Kendrick should be villainized for is that going back to that color. scheme. But he did have these comments and it's something that obviously Diamondback's fans should encourage you, whether you believe them or not, remains to be seen, but should encourage you in regards to if this team does end up being as good as we think they might be, that they might be, have some more room in the budget for payroll than what we've seen.

Well, we've increased our payroll near 30% to get the season going. And what we hope is that we will be competitive as the deadline comes. And they, will be in a position where they want to add to the team to make it even more competitive. And if we're in that spot, and that's a balancing act as to how well are you doing, how are you competing, and if that competitive opportunity presents itself. And some of you have seen us do that. And unfortunately, you've been on the other side of that curve more than we would like. And you adjust your roster towards the trade deadline. And we're prepared to do that. If the team is competitive and a chance to play in October is there, we're going to spend more money to get there.

And that's really what it's about. I mean, he did acknowledge about how a free agency is gone. And he did say that this team is not going to all of a sudden start spending a bunch of money on high price free agents. He addressed that. He said that their path to being successful is where I think the path they're currently on. He talked about acquiring Gabriel Moreno and just how important it is to having the young guys like that that are, you know, four or five of the top 15, 20 prospects in baseball all on one team, all kind of maturing and coming, you know, into the major. leagues at the same time, that's right now this team's path to being successful. They're not going to do it through spending a whole lot of money in free agency. And to be honest, that actually

is no surprise and makes quite a bit of sense. Yeah, I just think that a lot of the, a lot of the qualms that people have with Ken Kendrick in general come from, come from a place of kind of mischaracterizing what's actually happening with this franchise, at least from what we know, from what we can tell. And granted, there are some things that we don't know. And there are outside factors as well. We both acknowledge that there are political factors on Ken Kendrick's side that a lot of people oppose. There are valid, yeah, there are things that have happened. There are things that have been reported outside of his spending that, you know, I could understand maybe having some issues with.

But if we're just talking baseball, the fact of the matter is, Derek, the diamondbacks, and this is common sense. This is not us making any crazy declaration. The diamondbacks don't bring in that much revenue compared to a lot of other. other teams, right? Surprise. If you've, yeah, it's not a surprise to anyone, right? And so if, if you believe that the diamondbacks don't bring in that much revenue compared to other teams, maybe it's about the 21st, 22nd, something around their ranking in baseball,

it makes sense that their payroll would be somewhere in that same neighborhood, right? You can't have one thing without the other. You can't believe that the diamondbacks are a low revenue team and yet also expect them to spend money like a top 10 revenue team. That's not how this works. And again, there are, I understand, you know, Ken Kendrick, certainly the asset, the value of the asset that he has has gone up significantly over time. You can make a case. Maybe he should be kind of overinvesting some money for the moment into because of that. Sure. But we saw what Artie Moreno

is selling or could have sold the angels for compared to what he bought from Disney, right? Yeah, it's a crazy amount of appreciation. We know that he definitely is going to make money when the day comes that he does get rid of this team in some way, shape, or form. However, he had some pretty, I guess direct comments about spending, about teams spending like we've seen this offseason, and even about the Diamondbacks and their spending in the past, making him the owner, which is essentially what led to him being the owner. Yeah. Someone mentioned this in the chat, and I do see it on Twitter.

This is from AZ Central Sports saying that the Diamondbacks have engaged with outfielder Corbyn Carroll about a potential long-term contract, according to sources. That's from AZ Central Sports just now. Let's fucking go. That would be pretty cool. Not only would it be cool, but I mean, I think that really speaks to their commitment to the youth. But let's hear from Ken Kendrick on owning the Diamondbacks. And basically they're overspending, putting him in that position.

And, you know, get more revenue. It's always been our model. My partners and I have, and I don't want this to sound wrong. I got in this not with the idea of taking money off the table. and putting it in my pocket. We don't do that. We never have done that. In 20 years, I haven't gotten a paycheck, nor have any of my partners.

Our approach is to create as much revenue as we can and then reinvest it. And you can't invest at all. There are many things to invest in beyond purely the Major League roster. Well, that was him talking actually about the fact that, like what Jesse was saying, about the perception that he's making a bunch of money. off of this team. Like, you know, obviously the revenue and the income that they make is a big part of their spending and the lack of revenue impacts that directly. It's no secret. But it's something that when we talk about how empty this ballpark is, when we make jokes on past episodes about, you know what,

let's let the opposing fans slide because they kind of help keep the lights on around this joint. We mean it when attendance is as low as it is. And this team right now, it just not only has, you know, I guess that lack of popularity, or at least that lack of people coming out to watch the ball games as part of their uphill battle. They also have the fact that their direct income from Diamond Sports Group, aka Balli Sports Arizona,

is now kind of up in the air as far as that whole RSN mess is concerned with them. So there's a lot of things going on right now, but I'll tell you this much. This is the comment I was talking about, about Ken Kendra getting a little direct about his role in owning this team because of the Diamondbacks overspending at one point. Well, we were one of those and we weren't profitable. And I can tell you for sure, I probably

wouldn't be standing here if our team had been able to pay its bills. Why am I here? Because we won a World Series and we couldn't pay our bills. And somebody had to come in and provide some stability. And unfortunately, I drew that short straw. And, you know, we have been able to bring baseball to the Valley. We've had some success. I would like to have more. But John's point's an interesting one. And, you know, he's in a different market than we're in. His economic model is some different than ours. But I think we all face a recognition that something needs to change overtime in our sport to make the, you know, the word fair play is what I would use. Fair play is when virtually all of the teams have the same economics.

And then the talent of the front office and the talent on the field will prevail. In the present moment, there are teams that, frankly, can make more mistakes in terms of their personnel decisions than others and eat those mistakes where many of us cannot. The hymn that he is referring to, the hemathy, if you will, is John Middleton, owner of the Philadelphia, Phillies who basically made comments that you kind of, you have to spend in order to win a World Series. And you have to spend at an amount that is most likely going to cause you to have an economic

deficit in some way, as he is discussing. Yeah, what John Middleton's words were, and this was kind of the, where the question that the reporter asked here came from, John Middleton, the owner of the Phillies said, nobody cares about whether I make money or not. If my legacy is that I didn't lose any money owning a baseball team on an annual operating basis, that's a pretty sad legacy. It's about putting trophies in the cases. Is he wrong?

And to what we were saying earlier, Ken Kendrick is not this guy, right? And when he was asked this, he made that abundantly clear, right? Ken Kendrick literally became the majority owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks because the previous regime under Jerry Colangelo took out way more bills than they were. able to actually pay, right? They had all kinds of deferrals built into the contracts, some of those big contracts that they signed in the early days, and the Diamondbacks as a franchise early on were not running sustainably, right? And so what Ken has basically come out and said of what he talked about today is that he doesn't believe that those models

are sustainable, you know, like a guy is, some owner can come out and they can do that. They can spend at a deficit, you know, for a certain time, right? The Padre's owner, the Phillies, probably to some extent, right? The Mets owner, Steve Cohen, of course, is certainly operating at a deficit. Ken Kendrick is of the belief that that is not sustainable in the long term. And maybe for the debacks, it wouldn't be. Ken Kendrick doesn't quite have as deep of a pocket as some of the other owners around baseball do.

And maybe, you know, maybe if you, if you don't love Ken Kendrick as an owner, you know, I mean, that's a valid, a valid case to be made is that he, you know, he doesn't have the net worth that some of the other owners around baseball do. And for him personally, you know, spending out of deficit year after year after year is probably unsustainable in the long term. Brett Johnson really highlighted the unfortunately, I drew that straw comment. I thought that was pretty bold. I also thought the comment about how he was there because they weren't profitable is a bit bold. But honestly, I mean, it might be rude.

And especially that comment might give you the impression that he doesn't even want to really. own this baseball team. I don't think that's what he meant. I just think he means that when they weren't profitable, it was his job to try to bring them back to at least not being at such a dramatic loss, which a lot of franchises, a lot of organizations across all sports are ran that way, right? Let's be honest. It's not a surprise that a lot of teams just want to win championships, but it also isn't a surprise that it's kind of cyclical. Winning championships and being good leads to people loving your team and being lifelong fans. And thus, you know, you're trying to think of how to balance that portion of the business

where you're trying to win people over and make them devoted to your team while also still running it like a business. And that's what Ken Kendrick's kind of reminding us of there is this is still a business at the end of the day and you can't run it at a $300 million loss for very long without it impacting your ownership of the team or people's involvement with investing in that team. So I don't know. I do know, though, that he is very right about things being unequal when it comes to finances in baseball. And it's something that you got much.

No kidding. You got much more parity in other sports. And honestly, when you look at football and what football has as far as how competitive their games were this season, it's one of historically the most competitive seasons in NFL history, it goes to show you that there is something to be said about trying to keep these teams close so that. You know, you do have these fun seasons for teams that aren't that don't have as deep of pockets as other teams, right? Yeah. I mean, you have, what you have right now in baseball is you have, as Ken is talking about and there are a lot of numbers to support this, you have very unequal revenues across the game, right? Different teams make substantially different amounts of money depending on where you are. And then you also have this owner disparity where there are owners like John Middleton, the Phillies, who operate in a way where they, they're like, yeah, my.

My legacy is not about whether I balance the budget. My legacy is about whether I put trophies in cases or not. And then there's owners like Ken Kendrick who don't operate that way, you know? And again, what we're saying is, I don't know if you can really blame Ken Kendrick for that. He doesn't want to take a loss. It doesn't mean that he's greedy. It doesn't mean he's pocketing all this money. He just doesn't operate the same way that some of the owners around the game do.

Would it be amazing if we lived in a world where all 30 owners just didn't give a crap and we're just out here spending like crazy? that would be really cool, but I don't know if that's really realistic, and I don't know if it's really fair to expect that from everyone. And is it fair to say that there's still going to be that balance, considering people still don't want to live in places that certain teams are at, not knocking geographical locations? But come on, if you can live in Miami as a millionaire,

wouldn't you rather live there than in Milwaukee? And that's no knock to the fine folks of Milwaukee. I'm just saying. I have to pick some fan base to attack, and I figure they're already having a bad week. So I just thought I would pile on Corbin Byrd and other stuff. One thing though, like what we were saying, is friend of the show, Megaran,

who of course gives us that wonderful Mailbag Monday song, has a song called Infinite Lives. And the opening, I guess, lyric to that song is, you know we all die, but the goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will. You're not creating something that lives forever when you're passing on your legacy

of balancing the books and having a profitable baseball team. You're passing on that legacy by winning championships. and being a relevant team when it comes to whatever sport that it is that you play, right? A big part of that is, like we talked about earlier, the ballet sports slash diamond sports group kind of fiasco. And team president, Derek Hall, who still doesn't spell his name correctly, had something to say in regards to that. Derek with two R's.

What was Derek Hall have to say about how ballet sports could potentially impact this situation? No, nothing has really changed yet. Obviously, we're getting to a critical moment as our... And I think that's fair answer. I think what we all look forward to is the long-term circumstance of how the viewing public is approaching watching sports. And we fortunately continue to own our digital rights, or over-the-top rights, as some call them. and I think the balancing of the linear cable television right with introducing video streaming into the marketplace, the combination of those together, over time we'll produce a favorable financial outcome. Maybe a short-term loss, but long-term we may come out ahead on this.

I apologize. Like I said, that was actually not, Derek Hall. That was Ken Kendrick. We're really batting a thousand team up these clips. We're doing great with these videos, right? We had a lot of them and not a lot of time to put them in it. So I apologize for that. But Ken Kendrick's comments in regards to Valley Sports.

The question that was asked was basically that with what is going on, it could impact the team's short term should MLB have to take over broadcasting the games for Diamond Sports Group. And the big part of what Kendrick is saying there is that they feel like things are changing. We saw some charts when we were learning about the baseball rules about the popularity of baseball and how viewership really hasn't changed, but viewership of regional sports networks has gone down substantially. And that's because of streaming

and kind of the changing world that we live in where things like MLB, you know, extra innings and even though they're terrible blackout rules, ruin everything, there's ways to watch baseball now that don't involve you having to subscribe to a regional sports network. So it seems like he seems optimistic

about, you know, the team's loss of revenue due to that contract with ballet sports if that should be null and void. But I think he was also hinting at during a different part of the conversation that should they terminate their agreement, should they not be able to fulfill their obligation as they're contractually obligated to do so, there will be legal ramifications against them.

It's not like this is just going to go away and the team isn't going to get money that is owed to them through a contract that they signed. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's all sorts of crazy things that could happen in the next few months with this baseball team. He said if you think you can predict it, you're wrong because there's so many different directions that this situation can go.

Hopefully, it does go in the way where all the debts get paid, even if the regional sports rights are lost by Diamond Sports Group. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that whole situation pans out. I mean, Ken basically came out and said that we don't know. We don't know how this is how this is ultimately going to turn out. What he did say is that no matter what happens, you're going to be able to watch DeBax games this year.

So I wouldn't be worried about that. So to your to your buddy in Tucson, you were talking about the other day. I still question that. I still question how fast that infrastructure can be put in a place. But MLB Network does televise games and they do have the infrastructure like in place. And I imagine they don't just take it around the country to do the different games. I imagine that MLB Network probably has equipment at all the ballparks for them to,

you know, basically go to when they need to be the ones that are in charge of that. I also don't know about like Diamond Sports Group's cameras and trucks and all of that. That would also still, you know, be, that kind of stuff is still something to think about when it comes to the infrastructure of televising games. But yeah, they are kind of thinking ahead on this. And it sounds like we might be more concerned about their loss of revenue to the contract than the team is. They just are basically saying this isn't just going to go away because they don't because the contract gets nullified. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I think the Diamondbacks are kind of looking at this in a long-term sense of like, you know, even if we do lose out on some TV money this year potentially, in the long run, you know, clearly they're going to get some new deal ironed out. And there might even be more opportunities to make even more money than they have in the past than with the traditional RSN model that's been used in the past. So, yeah, it didn't seem like Ken was super worried about that. I tried to ask at one point, you know, to what degree did. concerns about lost revenue from the TV deal impact your ability to go out and make moves

over the offseason. Didn't get a super straight answer on that. Ken did not say that it didn't have any impact. So I'm inclined to believe that there was some level of like, you know, we have some uncertainty here. We don't know if we're getting our TV rights checks in 2023. We don't know what those checks are going to be made for. We don't know who's going to be writing those checks because maybe Major League Baseball is going to have to step in and do all this stuff. in place of Sinclair broadcasting. So I'm sure that played some role in what the debacks spent this offseason, but we don't know exactly how much.

Something we might know soon enough, and it might be this coming summer, is where the Diamondbacks will play in the future. Questions about the lease at Chase Field came up and the possibility of moving to a brand new stadium. In my opinion, Jesse and I kind of discussed this. I think it sounded very much like the Diamondbacks are in favor of building a new stadium. And that was just the, that was just my takeaway.

I don't know if I'm, yeah. I don't know if I quite go that far. But I am like 100% convinced. There's no doubt in my mind that I feel like if they had a choice, it wouldn't be to renovate Chase Field. It would be to move somewhere else. But they did discuss a lot of different things. This is what Derek Hall said in regards to moving or their lease coming up with

Chase Field. No, nothing has really changed yet. Obviously, we're getting to a critical. moment as our lease expiration is coming closer, but we have had issues with the ballpark. It's older. I mean, 25 years, you know, this next season in that ballpark, but we've been able to repair what we need to for the most part. We weren't able to repair the roof yet because we had so many off-season events, which is a good thing, yet we can still open and close the roof as long as fans aren't in there. So from a experiential standpoint, that should be the same.

As far as where we're going to be in the future, that's where we're still up in the air. It's a pretty complex issue for us because we, you know, we're county owned, yet we try and work alongside the city, the state. Yeah, I don't know if I'm fully convinced. And we have a couple more quotes from Derek that we'll bring in. But I don't know. It sounds like the Diamondbacks are continuing to explore their options. They're continuing to look at ways that they could renovate Chase Field.

I do think the debacks would on paper prefer to stay downtown if they possibly can do that. But as you alluded to, I'm not sure if the comments that Derek Hall made today were necessarily super compatible with like, yes, we are so sure we are going to stay downtown. It kind of is starting to sound like something that in a perfect world they would like to do. But it just kind of feels like the situation isn't lining up for that. But I don't know. For me personally, Derek, I think that would be the coolest outcome, the best outcome, there I say for the D-backs, is to leave the airport hangar with the swimming pool and go build a state-of-the-art facility somewhere else where there's space where you're not right by the convention center where you have a little more room to breathe and to build some more infrastructure around the stadium. The biggest thing I think the D-backs are looking for, whether it's staying at Chase Field or moving somewhere else, is they want.

a state-of-the-art experience. Yeah. And it's not just the, you know, what you'll always hear about. They believe their fans deserve that or whatnot. From a business standpoint, that makes sense. The debacks don't have that many revenue streams coming out of Chase Field. Yeah. Because it's not that great place, that great of a place to watch a baseball game.

There aren't that many things to do. There aren't that many cool places to hang around where you would spend money. The debacks want to bring some of those things. And it's either going to be downtown or it's going to be somewhere else. And it's not just the ballpark being entirely. used for a baseball ballpark. They want a ballpark. I think that's a multi-purpose facility that not only has concerts and the kind of stuff

they hold at Chase Field now, they want office spaces that they can rent out and lease out that businesses take up. They want like other, you know, restaurants and eateries to be a part of the same building that then they own that they can lease out. They want, you know, apartments to be a part of Chase Field, basically, or not Chase Field, but the new facility. whatever new like things that you've seen like different ideas that ballparks have across the country have kind of done, they kind of want to implement here. Chase Field is the fourth oldest ballpark in the National League, which is kind of hard to believe considering that we are such a baby team.

But the other teams in baseball have moved to newer facilities. And a big part of that is to provide that experience that Jesse's talking about. A lot of it too is that they want to be able to provide luxury experiences for people that are willing to pay. pay more to see baseball games in a different way. They want to be able to do, like what we saw at, we're going to talk about here, but some of the changes that they made to chase field for season ticket holders, to kind of just be able to sit in a different way and have like a table to sit at with chairs that kind of move instead of your traditional stadium seating.

So they're trying to do some things that's interesting. The comments, though, definitely, like I said, led me to believe that they definitely want, if they had their way to move to a new. building. But Derek Hall did talk about how important it would be for them to stay downtown. Yeah, I think so. Look, all things equal, being downtown is important to us. We have a history there. You know, Ken is the largest investor in cityscape and has invested personally in downtown to make sure that it thrives. I love the fact that we do have more apartments and we have more people moving in residentially downtown. When there's a lot of activity at either of the

facilities on any given night, it's a good thing. And so I like the fact that downtown continues to grow. People are looking forward to moving downtown or visiting downtown for those reasons. It makes a lot of sense for us to want to see if there's a solution there to stay. You also have them. And as Chris said there, yes, confirmed Jesse does hate Phoenix. That's what I heard. That is not at all what I said. I don't know where that came from, but I'm just getting on board with that. Yeah, I'm on board with it. But a lot of interesting answers today and a lot of things up in the air for this team. I will say that it's very positive to hear basically them.

talking about overall wanting to make watching Diamondbacks games a better experience and wanting to bring a more competitive team to the field, it just remains to be seen if they'll actually do it, right? Yeah. So I think that's the big thing taken away

from this whole thing. But they did say that they're going to have a decision by this summer, so we should have an idea what the Diamondbacks are going to do as far as whether it's renovating Chase Field or looking at moving a new facility. They said they had hundreds of millions of of dollars to spend either way and that they would work on the county with like kind of a maybe a sales

tax situation similar to what we've seen proposed for the tempi facility with the coyotes so uh it's an ever-changing story but the debacks seem very like I really think they don't want to do that at least from what they've said what derrick hall said they don't want to put themselves in a situation where they're taxing they're like you know enforcing an additional tax um that would help pay for some of the things I think they'd really like to avoid that um they also said that they're willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in order to renovate Chase Field or presumably to move somewhere else. This is proof Jesse doesn't listen to me during the podcast.

You guys get that, right? You guys all caught that, right? Okay, go ahead. I'll let you finish, but. No, I don't want to finish now, Derek. Go ahead. Just repeat me some more, Jesse. But anyway, no, I will say, like, yes, the hundreds of million dollars, the investment.

We're allowed to say something more than once. No, okay, that's fine. I mean, yes. But go ahead. No, I didn't mean to jump in there. Oh, no, no. I'm done now, Derek. I'm done. Fine, fine. We'll move on because, you know, it's that day. You know what day it is. And we got to get to your questions. But I'm enjoying a nice joy bus while we, while listening to Jesse repeat me and reading your questions and make sure you do so too. It's the best beer that you can get from Four Peaks. But that's just because it's my favorite beer.

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You guys know what it is around here. At least the ones that are here every Monday, no. But those of you that are new here, let us tell you every week on this show, is Shark Week. Every single day on this show is Earth Day and every Monday, me and this guy, we go to the mailbag for your questions. Damon, let's go.

My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go, wow, wow. My mailbox. I can do it for you live. I want it live.

Of course, we are talking about Greg Schulte, the great Greg Schulte, the voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks, announcing that this will be his last season. And our first question is in regards to that. First question comes up, says, with the news of his retirement after this season, what are some favorite memories and or calls from Greg Schulte? And that comes from our friend Charles Woodall Pike, aka a cactus on ice, on Twitter. Well, I know, I know mine, Jesse. And it involves this guy over here. But that's mine. You can't take that. That's literally my life. I love it. It makes me so happy. And it makes me think of both

of you. It's such a good thing. But yeah, I mean, iconic, right? When you, you think of Greg Schulte's voices and the calls for some of the great moments in this team's history. I was practicing my impersonation on the way over here. Should I try? Let's drop it. See, like, so I did this like every single day when I was a child. And I haven't really like like really tried it in. Oh, here we go.

I'm ready. Let's go. Greg Schulte and town cany on here at Chase Field. Brain you Arizona Diamondbacks baseball right here on the D-Backs radio network. That sounds. That was great. It's not. good. It's not as good as when I was a kid. My voice changed and it deepened and it made it harder

for me. But there's a little, there's just a little, we'll shout out to Greg Schulte, who is the voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks and will always be, he will always be the primary voice that people associate with this baseball team. Very, very sad to see him stepping away after this season. The World Series call, obviously, one of the most iconic calls in Diamondbacks history. In Arizona sports history. In Arizona sports history, I mean, it's everyone. Everyone will remember that for many, many years. Yeah, it was incredible. And I think the thing about it that goes beyond that for at least the both of us is the opportunity to talk to Greg, to hang, you know, hang out with him in the press box.

I had a chance to interview him for Phoenix Magazine a few years ago for the 20th anniversary of this team. And he's just such a sincere kind man that, like, loves this game. Yeah. I mean, it's just, jobs are jobs, right? we all get sick of jobs. Your job could be counting $100 bills. Eventually, you'd go home and complain about the paper cuts. You know what I mean? Like Greg Schulte is one of those guys that just found a way to embrace his love for this game and have it come across in his calls as being so loving and sincere when it comes to this game of baseball. Yeah. I mean, he just, yeah,

I mean, his voice is synonymous with Diamondbacks baseball. And I talked with both Derek Hall and Ken Kendrick about him afterwards. And yeah, Ken was just going on and on about how You know, he's been there since day one. He's been the voice of the Diamondbacks since day one. And it's going to be really weird. Like, I mean, we both love Chris Gergiola, right? I mean, I'm sure. Yeah, Chris is a great.

You know, I'm sure that if he's the guy who kind of takes over full time, you know, we're going to love that too. But it's still going to be really weird if there comes a day when we turn on the radio to listen to the debacks and we don't ever hear the voice of Greg Schulte anymore. And especially like his chemistry with Tom Candiotti and the legend that Tom Candiotti is in his own. Right. Like that duo has just been so, so good at what they do for so long. And it's sad. I mean,

I know that Greg would probably love to continue doing this for many years. Unfortunately, some of the health struggles that have popped up recently seem to be kind of getting in the way. And I know last year he didn't go on many road trips as a result of that. But the good news is he's not stepping away right now. We get a whole year of where we just get to enjoy Greg Schulte again. So we're going to be talking about him a whole bunch of. throughout the season for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely.

What else do we got there, Damon? Next question comes from T.Croggs or T.R. Coggs. T.R. Cogs. And he asked, what did you say? T.R. Coggs. I said Crogs maybe before. Oh, yeah. You definitely said Crogs.

Yeah. Who do you think is the front runner to win the fifth rotation spot? I don't know if we disagree about this, but I personally think it's, It's Drey Jameson. I think it's Drey Jameson because Brandon Fott obviously hasn't had a chance to debut yet. I've noticed that the Arizona Diamondbacks philosophy from Mike Hazen to even Tori Lovolo seems to be when it comes to starting pitching to go with the experience. It's the reason why they haven't really held back about saying that this is just a one spot competition. They've pretty much guaranteed that Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Madison Bumgardner, and Zach Davies will be the other four in the rotation.

There's only one spot. And I just think it, the reason why I think it's Drey Jamison is a combination of how he did last year, the experience that he got coming up to the major leagues and having that, you know, being ready like he was. But it is also something about not only the interview we did with him, but like Jesse and I have had a chance to talk to Dre a couple of times. And he's kind of always at 11. Like he always really, when he talks about his competitive nature, there's just something. Like when he's walking towards us, I feel like he's racing something. one even walking.

Like it feels like he never turns it off. He's number 99. He's number 99. That tells you everything you need to know about his personality. And let me tell you, he knows what he knows what it means to have a number like that. He is aware of the ramifications of a number like 99. So I personally think his, you know, the season he had last year mixed with is desire to compete and win this spot is going to be what gets him over.

Yeah. It's really tough, honestly. it's really tough. Drey Jamison is also the name that I have in my head. As you said, I think I think the fact that Brandon fought, you know, didn't pitch at all in the majors last year. It feels like that is a slight difference maker. I don't know if it necessarily should be, but it kind of feels like the debacks would be more inclined to send him back to the miners than to do that with Dre Jameson or Ryan Nelson. It feels like they don't need him yet. But the minute that a need is They will break glass and Brandon Fott will be the emergency.

Yeah. You're going to see like Brandon Fott's going to pitch for the D-backs in 2023. Like like as long as he's healthy, he's definitely going to pitch. So I think it's more just a matter of time with him. But yeah, I mean, Tommy Henry is thrown more innings than any of that group, right? James and Nelson, Henry and fought. Tommy Henry's thrown more major league innings than both Nelson and Jameson combined. And we were so high on Tommy Henry for a minute.

And then we just went right to Dre Jameson and Ryan Nelson. Yeah, well, I mean, once you see, you know, I mean, Tommy Henry is a good pitcher. And I think there's good reason to be excited about his future. But once, you know, once Drey Jameson comes out, you know, popping 99 miles an hour. And Ryan Nelson has all this absurd vertical ride on his fastball and all this stuff. You know, you kind of pretty quickly forget about Tommy Henry and the fact that he did look really good at times last year. But yeah, I think Drey Jameson is the new. name that I would go with. He and Nelson are really, really close for me. But I think just the fact that

Ryan Nelson really heavily relied on his four seamer last year, so much so that it gives me a little bit of pause about how well he would continue to pitch if you kept him in the big leagues for a long time. There's a lot of adjusting that would have to happen there. Whereas with Dre Jameson, I know he's certainly tinkering with things himself. He talked to us about trying to work on his changeup coming into this season. But, I think it's maybe a little bit more of a finished product than Ryan Nelson. But, I mean, it's so close. It's really, really hard to say at this point.

All right. Well, before we get on to the next question, I just want to let you guys know to go download the Underdog Fantasy app. If you haven't done so already, Underdog Fantasy, we're riding on pitch counts this year. They have their pickum game, higher or lower. They give you a number of stats for a number of different sports. You can find all sorts of different sports under there.

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Whoever scores the most fantasy points wins. It's that easy. And of course, Underdog Fantasy, it's a great app. We talked about aesthetically pleasing apps. It's one of them. So make sure to grab it. It's easy to get started. You can go to underdog fancy.com or you can grab that beautiful app.

Sign up with promo code PHNX, and Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. And we also have some more Mailbag Monday questions brought to you by our friends at more furniture. But this guy over here still doesn't know what furniture to buy for his new place. So we are still taking any and all suggestions as long as they are not Chase Lounge related. Derek just continues to say this about my place, even though he hasn't come over. Have you invited me over once?

Have you invited me over one time? He hasn't seen pictures. Have you shown me any pictures? He continues to assume that it's still just a whole bunch of chase lounges. You told me you were jumping from Chase Lounge to Chase Lounge, like some sort of trampoline park. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying that you don't have any firm evidence. That a grown adult would furnish his place like this.

Send him ideas. Get yourself some furniture. Make sure he gets something of use. And he can have it delivered by more furniture with their white glove delivery service. So he doesn't have to, maybe they'll move the chase lounges around and assemble them in a way that makes sense. But whether you want to buy Jesse furniture or buy yourself furniture, you can save big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture. com. And like I said, we got some more mailbag questions.

Wait, I have to ask. Does the white glove delivery include like decor advice? Like, will they tell me where to put it? Yes. Or will they? They have to opinion on these things, right? Like, they know how to move the couch in so well. You know, when they have that couch and you're like,

there's no way that's coming in. And then they prop it on the side, do an L thing. And then boom, it's in. Yeah. If they can get some of that stuff in there, then they're going to know where to put it. Like, they probably keep it to themselves. Should they not want to offend a customer?

Sure. But I bet if you ask, they'll be like, not dog. That picture is not centered. You know, they'll help you out. What else we got, Damon, for Mailbag Monday questions? Larry Jones, Larry, who's making chicken, wings in the chat. I am the Larry's 6969. He says, do you all have any thoughts about the new

hitting and pitching labs the team has designed? Actually, we're hoping to get a very fun tour of that building very soon. But I think it's great. I think the Diamondbacks have the ability to have state of the art stuff like this. Again, I think this is the reason why building a new stadium might be desirable to them. They are limited on what they can do sometimes at Chase Field, right? And they can't just add this stuff, but out at Salt River Fields, I mean, they have quite a bit of space that they can utilize in different ways. And one of those ways is building this, this lab. They're very proud of it. And it sounds like not only is it something that's great for the guys to use during the off season or during this time of the year when they're getting ready,

it also sounds like a pretty good, like, you know, kind of, I guess, recruiting tool that you could say like, hey, look at all the, look at what we have going on down here. Yeah, I mean, that's become an increasingly important part of running a big league franchise, right? is you want to have like the most cutting edge, you know, analytics equipment and whatnot. And it certainly seems like the debacks are taking a step in that direction here. One thing that really stood out to me, this is from the story that Steve Gilbert wrote on the topic. The debacks have the ability to bring out minor leaguers. You know, if somebody's struggling in the minors somewhere during the season, bring them out to Salt River Fields, right?

Get them in the lab and see, you know, what they can figure out. I think it's a really valuable tool. And those things are going to happen, right? Every single year you're going to have guys in the minors who are just struggling to take that next step. It seems like a really valuable tool for that. Steve Gilbert over on Diamondbacks, D-Backs.com or what is it, D-D-B-A-C-K-S. Yeah, D-B-A-C-S dot com. Yes.

Yeah, we are now Fink's. We're finks. Instead of P-H-N-X and he is. Because he's a troublemaker, but he has a great article detailing the opening of this state-of-the-art hitting and pitching lab and really I think, you know, we talk about analytics, we talk about a lot of things changing the game, but the ability now to

like literally take an MRI of a guy's swing and analyze it is something incredible. And the Diamondbacks can kind of do that with this new facility. Yeah, an MRI of their swing. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, that's a pretty good way to put it.

I like that. Don't wear any metal while you're in there. That's what I'm saying. But yeah, I think, again, I think it's, if you're asking our thoughts, I think it's a great thing. And again, this is, it's stuff like this. That's the reason why that they kind of probably want to be closer to Salt Riverfield, should they have the opportunity to do so.

Yeah, there you go. All right. Another reason. Jim Marshall, buddy, baseball AZ asks, is this spring training make or break for Pave and Smith? Wow. I don't know if make or break is quite the right word. I get where you're coming from with this a little bit, but it really does sound like they have Pave and Smith.

Smith penciled in at a backup role. And that sounds like where he will be is going to get some D.H. You know, probably. Potentially. Potentially. Starts maybe. He's going to relieve Christian Walker at first base at times and probably be an option for them.

But I don't know. I really don't know where he fits in at this point with this team. Yeah. I was honestly kind of surprised Tori Lavella was asked the other day about Pavin Smith's role this season, whether it would be more first base or more outfield. and Tori basically said it would be more first base, but he didn't really even bring up the possibility of Pavin not making the roster.

It kind of, which I guess he didn't have to in that moment, but he kind of made it sound like Pavin Smith is very, very likely to have a spot on the DBAX opening day roster, which is interesting because if you, I mean, there's already a lot of guys penciled in for roles. There's not a whole lot of open spots here. Pavin Smith was kind of one of the players that I figured was competing for a role, not necessarily guaranteed one.

But if you got Pavin Smith in there, it's a little bit harder to find a spot for someone like, say, Kyle Lewis to also make the roster. So if the D-Backs have Paveen in there, then I'm not really sure how Kyle Lewis would make it, frankly. I'm not sure that would allow for the team to have the infield depth that they would be looking to have. So we'll have to monitor that. But to answer the question, make or break, I don't know if I would necessarily go that far, but Paveen-Smith's got to prove something. I mean, I would almost say yes. I think it is sort of a make or break for Pavin Smith in that he hasn't produced a whole lot of big league value to date in his big league career. The debaq seemed to really feel confident about his ability to hit, even though he hasn't necessarily put up big numbers in the past.

They certainly believe there's something still there. And I think this is the season where he's probably going to have to prove it or else, you know, you're going to get Dominic Fletcher, Dominic Canzone or one of those other guys in opportunity. That's a great point because remember they still have guys. They still have guys. They have more left-handed hitting outfielders. They still have all the left-handed hitting outfielders. So don't forget that. All right.

What else we got, Damon? Gabriel, the one and only Gabriel, we saw it. Great to see you out today at the camp at Bold is Bronze. Ask, what is the coaching staff looking for most with Bumgartner? Pitch speed, spin rate, or just location? I want to say, based on what we saw, today that Madison Bumgarner looked like he was working on his pitch mixture. He was working, we saw a curve ball that looked pretty good. A lot of curve balls we saw. I don't know what

they're looking for out of him at this point. I really don't. I feel like they're confident in his ability to go out and win ball games. But I also question personally if a lot of that has to do with that it is, it's Mike Hazen's decision to have signed Bumgarner and brought him on for the amount of money that they're paying him for. And like if you get a chance, check out our YouTube short in regards to that. You'll see Hazen's comment. I think we added on a Friday's episode, but there is definitely some fire behind Hazen's dedication to Madison, Bumgarner, being in the starting lineup. And I feel like it goes beyond just his ERA and wins and losses. It really feels like it's about his experience that he can bring to this young team. I just, it seems to be more by

expecting them to lead by example and tap in to where they once were at. And that included Mark Melanson versus, you know, and showing these young guys the way to get to something like a World Series. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just looking at some of Bumgarner's numbers from last year, looking at the velocity and whatnot, I don't necessarily see a whole lot of evidence that Bumgarner's problem was velocity or even spin rate last year.

I think it really was location. And I know the question was phrased is like, what are the debacks looking for? I guess we'd have to ask them. I don't necessarily know. But for me personally, the way that I'm evaluating Madison Bumgarner in some of these Cactus League games is, is he hitting the glove, right? Is he spotting pitches? Is he commanding pitches?

Not is he throwing strikes, but is he throwing strikes where he's supposed to be throwing them, right? I actually tweeted out from my personal Twitter account yesterday, the heat map for Madison Bumgarner's. cutter and there's a whole lot of red Derek right down the middle uh there's a whole lot of red there is a whole lot of red and it's kind of the same way for all of his pitches i think that's what's different about the diamond backs madmaner mr. mannardt's compared to the mad bun we've seen in past years a little bit of it is stuff but a lot of it is just man he's just he's just throwing the stuff

right down the middle it's not good enough it's going to get hit if it's there and we talked about his success early on last season and for a brief period of time his location was his biggest weapon it really was like it was his ability to pinpoint and we even talked about how flustered he got you know and the reason why is because at times if if bum isn't getting that edge from the umpire he he knows he can't be effective right so it's like he's almost fighting to expand the strike zone at times so that a call that he thinks he should be getting should be called for the majority of his outing otherwise he is going to have a really hard time being effective if he's not getting those corners and those edges.

But that's what his gamer lies on at this point. Yeah. He's not overpowering anyone. I would like to see Madbun, maybe bark at the umps a little bit, a little bit less this year. I want twice the amount. Okay.

I want it every game. That's what I want. Get him fired up. Let's fucking go. You want, you want Dan Bellino behind him? Oh, God. Yes.

Let's get some handholdy gold on. I need that. We don't have this one on a graphic, but for our final question, Don's bread. My apologies, you're not getting one in this week because Jacob asked a fantastic

Fantastic question. At Jacob Schulte, on Twitter, asks, at a date auction, which D-BACs player gets the highest bid, Jesse? All right. You really may. You have to answer this one. I know. You see, look, he acts like it's going to hurt his journalistic integrity to pick. I think it might.

I think it really might. Let's put some contenders out there. I'm thinking Christian Walker, right? Christian Walker. That's a dude. Like my friend, my friend, Rock, you know, rock, our friend, Rock knowledge. His sister Monica loves Christian Walker. So it's really the only point of reference I have right now.

Is that your baseline? Is that what you're going out? The baseline has to be a love for these guys, right? So, I mean, obviously we know we got a lot of good looking guys, a lot of good looking hair. My God, S-tier hair all across the board on this team. But it takes more than hair. And Christian Walker, he's not covered in that area really well, but he's got- He's not covered.

He's handsome everywhere else. Let's be honest. All right. Tori Lovolo, Tori Lovolo, the third, The most handsome manager in baseball. I'm sure he would get a lot at a date auction. What about a friend of the show, Drey Jameson? Oh, Dray.

Coming in with the Valentine's Day advice the other day. That was hot advice. That was good stuff. Leo was all about that. I'm going Alec Thomas. Alec Thomas. Oh, yeah. I said I wouldn't let Alec Thomas date my daughter,

and that's because he's too good looking. He's cute as hell, bro. He's cute as hell. You know what, I'm going to say, you're absolutely right. And more importantly, that's why I said he's a heartbreaker, right? Like I know he's not sticking around. He's not committed, even though he's in a loving, committed relationship. I get that thing with your daughter, though.

That makes sense. But he's definitely getting a huge bit on this. Yeah, right. He gets it. See, he gets it. All right. Are date auctions an act? Please tell me that's not something that people do.

A date auction? You don't see, Jesse, it's not just pop culture. He doesn't just know things that exist. Yes. Yes, date auctions are a thing. That's so terrible. Oh, yeah. I guess you did watch enough sitcom television in the 90s.

No, I know, I did. It's in like every single comedy show in the world. Yeah, every single one, right. Derek, have you ever been part of this date auction? I have never been part of a date auction, but let's be honest. You guys know I would go for entirely too much money, so that's fine. But you know what you can do is you can win some money on the Draft King Sportsbook app. Then maybe you can afford me.

So go download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use code PHNX. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly, only at the Draft King Sportsbook with code PHNX. minimum agent eligibility restrictions apply see show notes for details I'm still very upset about purple Gatorade so I'm leaving that in the past I'm looking forward to my MLB bets remember you can hop on the Draft King's Sportsbook app now

and you can bet on Gordon Carroll winning the inevitable National League rookie of the year that we all know he's going to win so do that now at the Draft King Sportsbook app Mark Salaris says PHNX date auction when I don't know we need to figure that out we got some all these people shaming me in the chat like I hope you've never been to an actual date auction

Now, granted. No, we've never been to them. We've only seen them on sitcoms. Like I said, from the 90s. We've never actually. And like, I know what it is. Like, I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory. I've just like never, I guess I've just never, yeah, I've just never, I've

watched the sitcoms that you guys have. I guess is the problem. We'll get it. We'll get one going on in here. And Jesse, you will go for a mint. Okay. So don't worry about it. But a shout out to the homies from Brito Express.

By the way. Jesse and I were busy today. So we didn't get our Brito Express burrito. They're cold, but they're still going to be delicious. and I can't wait. We're going to probably eat a minute. I 100% forgot about that. That's great news.

Shout out to Burrito Express for always making our lives wonderful with their delicious burritos and all their wonderful food. They have multiple valley locations, but make sure to check out the Tempe one because that is the OG. Again, thank you guys so much

for the food to our friends at Brito Express. You guys can buy a $25 Brito Express gift card and you'll get a free burrito. And nobody says you have to give that gift card to anybody. Now you just have a $25 gift card for yourself and a free burrito. So what the hell? It's basically just a free burrito.

That's what it is. Because you know you're going to spend that $25 bucks eventually anyway. It's just burrito currencies. As a matter of fact, all currency should be burritos. All deals, all trades, contract for baseball players, they should be paid in burritos. I believe that. So how many burritos in Corbyn Carroll's potential contract extension? Oh, I'm thinking two million burritos.

Two million minutes. Is that on an annual basis? I don't know if the average annual value. I don't know if that's enough. Although if they're Brito Express burritos, then that's priceless. They're priceless. Shout out to our friends of Brito Express. More importantly, shout out to all of you guys for being here.

We thank you guys so much for being here. We thank you for loving baseball. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Kedman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Mark Salar says I'll bid three burritos for you, Jesse. That's a lot. So he's going in good.

I only accept fruit snacks. And chicken tenders. That's it. It's fruit snacks and chicken tenders with this guy. But of course, our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. And all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you guys. We thank you for being here.

We're excited for baseball this week. We're having some special guests. This guy's leaving me at the end of the week for another wedding. It's wedding season, of course. It's wedding season. Of course, we'll have some fun surprises. this week. On behalf of this guy who's leaving me, Damon and myself, we always thank you guys so much for being here. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you

remember the goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will.