PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks reportedly interested in free-agent starter Jordan Montgomery

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

Despite the Diamondbacks appearing to be done adding to the roster through free agency, recent reports have connected the Snakes to free agent pitcher Jordan Montgomery. Is there any chance Mike Hazen has enough left in the budget to acquire another Scott Boras client? Also, has Jake McCarthy become a sought-after asset and will the D-backs look to add another pitcher via trade instead of free agency?An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Someburros: 20% off your order of up to $100 when you use code PHNX at checkout for the whole month of March at https://www.someburros.com/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.

A big ski to you all and happy opening week. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXTBacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of opening week. And this is my clone, Jesse Friedman. We're dressed like this because a connected team is a fucking dangerous team. We're fucking dangerous. But this is your thunderstick. my vice mayor welcome in to a very happy edition of the phnxd bax podcast because we love opening

week so much only a few more exhibition games left of spring training of course but our spring training updates are presented by factor meal kits head to factor meals dot com slash phnx dbacks 50 and use code phnx dbacks 50 to get 50% off and man we could use some factor meals right about now because we have a long day ahead of us a long night ahead of us after the show of course we're going to be heading over to chase field uh to get tory over at chase and and the players uh media availability and then of course a game will be played this evening at chase field uh jesse first uh how how sad are you that we have moved on from salt river fields i think i'm probably more sad that you and i do look like exact clones

of each other today for the for those joining us on the audio side me and derrick are both wearing the uh the quarter zip uh p h and x uh thing that we got uh A few months ago, a lot of us in the office have those. Same jeans on. We both have basically the same jeans. We are also wearing black shoes, which if you know Derek, you know he has like 140 pairs of shoes in his closet. Almost as many as Roosevelt shirts.

The odds of us wearing like semi-matching shoes in and of itself feels astronomically low. Yeah. Let alone the whole damn outfit. Yeah. He asked me to take the hat off just so we could fully match. I mean, I feel like we just have to embrace it at this point. Maybe I'm taking things too far there. I told you, though.

A connected team is a god. damn dangerous team and we are connected. We're ready for opening week, baby. We're ready to tackle all that that building over there is going to offer for the 162 regular game season. But, of course, the big news, the big information coming out right now is reports that the Diamondbacks are in fact interested in free agent Jordan Montgomery, free agent pitcher Jordan Montgomery. And we know obviously with what the Diamondbacks are experiencing with Eduardo Rodriguez that this right now looks a bit more attractive even than it did prior to this information. But this is the tweet. There's multiple tweets actually here in regards to it. Jim, Jim Bowden tweeted this out. Don't sleep on

the Diamondbacks on Jordan Montgomery. And remember that the Orioles ownership change is official this week. So Jim is hinting there that the Diamondbacks and the Orioles might both be in on Jordan Montgomery. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not a very concrete report, right? I mean, just saying, almost, right? Don't sleep on the diamond. Like, Jim Bowden, former MLBGM, he certainly is well connected and has sources. I don't necessarily read a ton into that tweet in and of itself. However, Nick Baccaro of the Arizona Republic did write a story on this and did some of his

own reporting and seemed to somewhat confirm the Diamondbacks interest. Nick had a few interesting lines here. He did say at the beginning of the story, multiple sources did not. express optimism about the likelihood of the club reaching a deal with Montgomery's agent, Scott Boris. He also said in this story, the general manager, Mike Hazen, said he remained engaged in the free agent market, though he declined to comment further citing rules against talking about specific free agents.

Bacoral continued on and said that it is believed the Diamondbacks have had conversations with Montgomery's camp in recent days. So are the Diamondbacks checking in on this? I think there's a lot of evidence that the answer is yes, that they are expressing some interest here. How likely is it that the diamondbacks wind up with Jordan Montgomery? I have to say I don't think it's very likely. I would be pretty surprised if this came to fruition. Right. But Jordan Montgomery is a pretty good starting pitcher. Like this would be a really big deal if the diamond backs were able to pull something like this off. And Ryan there in the chat says there's no way we

have the money to do this. Right. And I think that that's a fair question to be asked, right? Because obviously the one thing here was the cost of Jordan Montgomery, I think prior to this kind of led us to believe that he wasn't going to be an option, that if the Diamondbacks were to pursue a starting pitcher, it was going to be one and it was going to be Eduardo Rodriguez. What's further interesting to me about this is that I feel like we've heard from Mike Hazen over the last few weeks, and he was more committed to saying the Diamondbacks were done, right? Like it's not to say he ever was 100% at any point saying we're done. We're not going to add anymore to this team. But it felt like when he was asked about it that a lot of a lot of the answers were involving internal candidates and that they have guys that they're looking at, you know, from their minor league system that they hope can fill that role. He never really, he never, he never, he never really like went very strong on the, you know, that that that they're still engaged in the free agent market. the way that he was here, at least not recently.

It's not to say that he was, this is the exact phrase he used about two months ago, but this isn't something that we've heard him use recently. Yeah, I remember after the Randall Grishik move, we asked if he was still, you know, are the debacks done? Are you still kind of looking? And he did say they were still canvassing the market, you know, looking for ways to improve the team. But he did give the impression that it was more minor things that he was looking at at that point.

He said, you know, in the way of any. major. I'm not, I'm not sure, you know, where that kind of stands. So he didn't strongly say the debacks aren't looking to do anything further, anything like that. But yeah, Jordan Montgomery, way outside of, you know, what appeared they were interested in doing at that point. The big news here, though, the development with Jordan Montgomery within the last couple of months is that I don't think he's getting six years and $150 million. That's what MLB trade rumors projected for Jordan Montgomery. I don't think he's getting that and I don't think he's getting anything close to that. I mean, if Blake Snell, who I think is clearly the more desirable starting pitcher of the two,

if he gets two years 62 million dollars in an opt out after a year one with the Giants, you have to imagine Montgomery, it might be kind of a similar deal. Those guys are the same age. You know, maybe it's another two year deal with an opt out. And you have to think the dollar value would probably be a little bit lower than what Snell got. And that's completely understandable. because we know Scott Boris has been taking L's. And this is looking more and more like it's another L he's going to take.

When we look at some of the other clients like Blake Snell, probably not being on the Padres opening day roster, J.D. Martinez needing to start out in minor leagues. Like time is running out. And that's one thing that is, it's different, I feel like, about baseball than any other sport. Any other sport, yeah, it's going to take a player time to acclimate to their new team if they sign this late, this close to the season, anything like that. but they're still going to be able to probably play relatively soon if they're healthy and ready to go, especially starting pitchers.

I mean, I'm sure he's doing stuff to stay stretched out and to stay ready to go, but it's still very hard for them to be, you know, ready to start baseball games if they haven't been in camp competing. And that's where it's going to be the longer they wait for guys like Blake Snow and Jordan Montgomery, the more it's going to put them behind the eight ball as far as getting themselves ready to go and getting themselves, you know, starting in major league baseball games. Let's take a look at Jordan Montgomery's 20, 23 stats, because as far as an asset, he would be a tremendous asset to this team. There's no doubt about that. We know that he has been connected to this team,

at least on this podcast, at times through, you know, the free agent frenzy and even the trade deadline last year. We know that he was someone that, you know, we felt like could be a good fit for this team. I think the wild part about this is like, if the Diamondbacks were able to pull the trigger and bring in a guy that pitched 188, two-thirds innings with a 3.2ERA, that 1.19 whips, 7.9Ks per 9, 2.3 walks per 9, and a 3.56 FIP. This arguably makes the Diamondbacks rotation right up there with the best rotations in baseball.

I mean, yeah, it would be really good. If not like a top three, definitely, definitely a top five. But my God, I mean, right now the Diamondbacks rotation is pretty good. and especially once Erod is healthy and pitching, I think they could be still a very good rotation in baseball, but you had this guy. And I mean, it changes the entire dynamic of the starting rotation.

Yeah, I mean, on paper, you get Eduardo Rodriguez healthy. You're looking at Gallin, Kelly, Erod Montgomery fought. That's a pretty darn,

that's a pretty darn formidable starting rotation. I don't think Jordan Montgomery is a number one starter. Maybe even a, number two starter. And that's why I think Scott Boris has maybe had some trouble this off season getting the kind of deal that he wanted for Montgomery. Montgomery just had a really

good season, a 3-200 ERA. Won a World Series. And won a World Series and pitched a lot of really key innings for the Rangers in that in their postseason run. I think he's more of a mid-rotation guy, but yeah, he's a pretty good mid-rotation guy. And if you

throw him into this Diamondbacks rotation, you're absolutely talking about one of the best in baseball. He's 31 years old. His velocity was up last year. And the thing about him being 31 is that's kind of that magical age as a baseball player where if you have Scott Boris as an agent, you typically get your big deal right now. This would be kind of the end of the line as far as him being able to get what he wanted,

which was a six year, $150 million deal now. Chances are he could sign for as little as two years and what, Jesse? Like, what? 30 million? is that crazy he's going to get more than 30 total if he signed for two years um i would say maybe maybe two and 45 two and 50 something like that is what i would is what i would guess uh and if he structures it a certain way that doesn't make it that outrageous for the diamondbacks to pursue them right if he structures it in a way where he gets less money this year and gets more money next year

that could absolutely be something that diamondbacks could potentially look at jim bowden had another tweet on montgomery he said according to a source before the one that we just showed. According to a source, Jordan Montgomery has two teams offering him long-term contracts, which is interesting. And his market has finally hit, and it's getting competitive four playoff teams, AZ, Philadelphia, New York, and Houston. I'm about the Yankees and the Houston Astros. Lost significant starters to injuries.

Red So, the Red Sox, Yankees are still involved to some degree. So we're led to believe that the Diamondbacks certainly not the only team in the mix here. We're also led to believe he has two teams offering long-term deals, which is something I don't. see the diamond backs doing. I think if they did get in on Jordan Montgomery at this point, it would be like, well, hey, if we can have Montgomery for one season and, you know, pay them $20 million, maybe the debacks are willing to kind of go over the budget that they had in mind just for this season if they're able to do that. You certainly didn't enter the offseason thinking that that was an option. Like if you were going after Montgomery from the

beginning of the off season, you're envisioning it having to be a, you know, four, five, six year deal or something like that, which I don't think the debacks were. probably very interested in. Montgomery could still get what he wants. It's going to be harder. But I mean, like, essentially he could sign a lesser contract that's still like that the annual value is there, right? And then maybe after two years, then he can sign a four year deal.

If he proves himself over the next two years to be that number two guy in the rotation or maybe like a one A, one B kind of guy depending on what team he's with, it feels like the Yankees are definitely in the position to get him. They've been connected to him kind of this whole offseason. You have the fact that they lost Garrett Cole. Like everything there screams that the Yankees are going to be the team that can afford him. But the Yankees have their own. They've got the luxury tax thing going.

It's going to cost them. If they're paying him $25 million, they're really paying about $60 million. That's how big the luxury tax penalty is there. And the Phillies to another team we've heard in the mix here potentially, there are another team that would have to deal with pretty significant luxury tax penalties if they were to make a move. So that's kind of the advantage the Diamondbacks have over some of these other teams is they're not going to, they're not going to have to deal with any luxury tax issues. They're so far below that first threshold that that wouldn't come into play for them.

But yeah, it's hard to view them as being the favorite in any sense. But it very much looks like they are at least checking in on Jordan Montgomery. And that in and of itself, Derek, is not something I would have expected. I did not expect. Because even if, even if, you know, the price tag, even given how much the price tag seems to have potentially lowered here, you're still going to have to pay Montgomery $20 million for this season at least. I don't see the price going any lower than that.

And even on a short-term deal, I didn't really see the Diamondbacks being interested in spending $20 million more dollars on this team. They've already gone far above the expectations we had for their spending this off-season. So, you know, I guess kudos to them for being interested in, you know, at least exploring this possibility, we'll see if anything actually happens. I think with what you're seeing with contracts, especially after the J.D. Martinez signing with the New York messes, the Diamondbacks might be circling back around on some of these guys that maybe they did have talks with.

Maybe they did have an offer out there. And what they got in return was something that basically told them, no, that's all right. You know, like, yeah, like you're not even in the ballpark as far as offers goes. So, all right, we won't really worry about negotiating with you too much. But then you notice opening day is on Thursday. You notice, George Montgomery still sitting around waiting for a team. So I don't feel like, you know, coming back around to check in to see if maybe he's willing to accept a shorter term, you know, deal for, you know, for a spot with a contender, a team that he knows is going to have a lot of eyes on it this year based on how they perform last year. It might be a great opportunity for him.

Plus, I mean, the one thing about the Diamondbacks that I think you can't really quantify is how much people got to see Tori Lavello. how much people got to see that manager and how much players are like, I want to play for that man. Like I like that guy. I like the direction that organization is heading. Not a big fan of the ballpark. However, I will go maybe see if I can,

you know, become a part of that. Arizona's desirable as well, I think, for baseball players in particular. Yeah, just like, yeah,

the state itself. You get to stay here with your family all throughout the year. Right. And like, I just think that added factor helps us as well. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

And it should. But then you factor in, you know, that there's a coaching staff here that's growing in legend and a lot of people want to play for them. And I think that that could be something that becomes attractive, especially guys like, you know, a short-term deal kind of situation where you really just want to go somewhere that can maybe make you better and help you shine. Being a pitcher under Brent Strom and having Tori Lovolo as your manager is not a terrible situation as far as improving you as a player and as a person.

So I don't I don't see it as being a terrible short-term option for some of these guys. But yeah, I mean, if Montgomery wants to win, right? Like, he was across the dugout from the Diamondbacks last season in the World Series. He knows the Diamondbacks want to win and he's, you know, certainly I'm sure aware of the other investments they've made this off season. The other angle on this real quick is there was a report from Travis Sauchick. It was an MLB writer over at the score. This is from yesterday. He said that Jordan Montgomery has ramped up to 75 pitches.

So you're talking about a guy who maybe. isn't that far away from being able to pitch in major the games. However, I do think it would probably take him some time. Right. We heard that the giants. So he's not an answer for, you know, them making up E-Rod, right? Exactly. For people who are like, oh, this is the perfect solution because E-Rod is going to miss some

time at the beginning of the year. Montgomery also might miss some time at the beginning of the year. So it wouldn't really be a solution to that as much as just bolstering a rotation that already figures to be pretty good in, in 2024. for speaking of tori lovolo there were some roster moves made on sunday that once again kind of give us an idea of the direction the team is going backup catcher jose herrero was optioned to reno infielder kevin newman was reassigned a minor league camp and then today about an hour ago the diamondbacks officially the diamondbacks officially announced that they have selected tucker barnhart's contract and they have dfade peter strislecky barnhart is officially the diamondbacks backup catcher which we had a feeling about based on some of the interactions and things we were seeing out there His numbers don't necessarily back that up, but I don't think that's necessarily what the Diamondbacks

we're looking for, especially after someone like Barnhart. I think there's a lot that Tucker does well that Gabby might not to kind of balance that catcher position, not necessarily be somebody who's going to come in and give you anywhere near the production Gabby is when he's in there backing up Moreno, but still somebody that has not only some great experience behind the dish

that can be an asset for the team, but also someone that can help, Moreno get better. Yeah, I mean, experience is why we've kind of favored Barnhart in this competition from the very beginning. You know, do you want to have Gabby Moreno's very, very young catcher backed up by someone in Jose Herrera who's also very, very young? You know, I think Herrera has filled in pretty nicely for the debacks over the last

couple years, but you can understand the team wanting to have someone who's a little more experience who's been around for a while in that spot. And Tucker Barnhart is certainly, certainly that guy. Barnhart has won a couple of gold glove awards in his past. He was once upon a time a pretty darn good hitting catcher as well. He was. Those days appear to maybe be behind him. But in a backup role, you know, you can you can understand why the debacks would want to put him in this spot.

I just turned 43. Most of my best days are behind me, Jesse. You know that. And that hurts. But anyway, I will say that he... Usually I'm the one making age jokes about you. Yeah, you are. Yeah, I've just decided to attack myself.

It's so unnecessary. The debacks now do you have 30 plays? there's remaining in camp, and they still have some very, very tough roster decisions to make. Of course, they do have three roster spots to fit four guys. And those four guys are Jake McCarthy, Jace Peterson, Emmanuel Rivera, and Blaze Alexander, who has a 1.022 OPS this spring. And for some reason, you just had to read out Blaze Alexander's OPES. I don't care about the rest of their OPS because for some reason we're talking about sending this man down.

That's crazy. It should be two positions left because Blaze already has one of them. That's what should be happening. But of course, Emmanuel Rivera not doing very good or didn't do very good last year, at least offensively. He was really good for the first like couple months of the season. Daniel Rivera.

There were there were moments where that phrase was said on this show many, many times. And then yeah, Rivera slash 188, 262, 275 from June 13 through the end of the regular season, wasn't great in the playoffs either. And he's the one the Diamondbacks lose if they do not carry him. He is out of minor league options. So the Diamondbacks, if they did not put him on the opening der roster, would lose him.

It's really the same situation with Jace Peterson. If he doesn't make the team, you know, you're looking at probably having to. Well, yeah, I mean, he's a veteran at this point. You can't send him down to the minors, really. Right, right, right. They would have to DFA him and see if another team wanted to pick up his contract, which could happen. Or if not, he could just be released and then, you know, look for a, an opportunity elsewhere.

But yeah, all signs at this point to me, Jake McCarthy, I think, is going to make this team because Randall Grischick is probably going to start on the IL and you're going to want a backup outfielder who's not Jock Peterson based on what we've seen in spring training. And then I think Peterson and Rivera are probably going to make this team as well. We were talking before the show about how

if you were actually, if you were considering having Blaze Alexander on this team and moving on from either Peterson, and Rivera, why wouldn't you have DFAed one of those guys today? Yeah. Instead of Peter Struz lucky. You could have kept Peter Struz lucky and moved on from one of those guys today if that had been your plan.

So I don't think the debacks are necessarily tipping their hand that they are rostering Peterson and Rivera and sending down Blaze Alexander. Yeah. But that is, this confirms my suspicion that that was going to be the case. Rivera, he backed up, he played first base and did. pretty well over there. I know that that's one thing. He's a decent first basement.

That's one thing that they're trying out is to see which of these guys they can really rely on defensively, I think more than anything out there as a backup infielder. I don't know. It doesn't seem like they care too much about their offense, obviously, because if they did, it would be Blaze by a mile. And Blaze, honestly, has a better all than these guys. They're spring training numbers. Yeah.

I mean Rivera had a 503 OPS in spring training, which is not great. Now, according to Bob Nightingale, the Diamondbacks have received interest. in Jake McCarthy, right? So there's a chance here that maybe a trade occurs. I mean, that's going to not really help their roster situation get figured out. But according to Nightingale's column at USA Today, he said the Arizona Diamondbacks have been contacted by several teams who have expressed strong interest in left-handed hitting outfielder Jake McCarthy. The debacks, the debacks have rebuffed all attempts so far, but he could be available at some point

this summer if they don't have room for him on their 26-man roster. Yeah, not a huge surprise. I mean, Jake McCarthy is, I think he's too good to be playing down in Reno. He is deserving of a major league opportunity somewhere. He's going to hit 455 again in Reno. He probably will hit four, maybe not 455, but he probably will put up very good numbers in Reno. He's not a AAA baseball player. He deserves to be in the majors.

He's a 4A player. You could, I think he's better than it. I don't want to put that on Jake McCarthy. I know. I love Jake. I should say that. But it's just what it seems like at times because it's just head scratching how he can be so good at Reno and just not have that even stretch out a little bit better at a major

league level considering how well he hits the ball down there. You can have a debate over whether Jake McCarthy is a everyday player at the big league level or whether he's a bench player at the big league level. Sure. But I don't think you can really make the case that Jake McCarthy should be in AAA or isn't deserving of a major league opportunity somewhere. It's just where he has to go as far as the roster is concerned right now. And the devax just currently, you know, if Randall Griswick had been.

healthy, the debacks don't really have an opportunity for him at the major league level. So you can understand teams asking and, you know, wanting to see if the debacks are willing to make a move here. I do think for the moment, he's a pretty important depth piece for them because without Jake McCarthy, I guess Jorge Barrosa would be next in line. So if the debacks got to a point where they felt pretty comfortable with Horroa barosa as a backup, if they needed an extra guy at some point during the season, you know, maybe you'd feel okay getting rid of McCarthy at that point.

But yeah, for right now, no surprise that the debacks have refuffed on these ass so far. But you have to believe at some point, like the debacks are going to recognize that they don't have space for Jake McCarthy and, you know, take a serious look at moving him elsewhere. I'm not sure that teams are necessarily offering a whole lot given, you know, the kind of downseason he had last year, though. I got one simple solution to this. Put Blaze Alexander in the outfield in Reno and have him learn every position. There you go. back of the catcher. He can be a pitcher at times if we need them.

It's the only way he'll ever make the team, right, Derek, at this point. It can be everything all at once. Does he have to learn to pitch? Is that what he has to do? That's what I'm saying, yes. I'm just saying, if you want to make the team, make sure you're, you know, a utility player in every sense of the word. Speaking real fast of roster moves, one quick thing that we wanted to discuss that we knew

was going to happen. And it happened way faster than we even thought it would. The Guardian's Rule 5 selection, Davidson, Dalo Santos has cleared waivers. after not making the guardians team and has been returned to us so we get we get d ls back baby uh and of course uh he didn't have a great spring with cleveland we no knew that that was going to happen it was just it was just inevitability basically um he played 11 games at first base four in outfield and four at d h so they did really try him everywhere just to see if he would end up working out i saw in place to not field and yeah i don't think that's not great think that's what you want to do he

slash 227, 227, 318. Is that a typo? Did he really? 227 and 227? Yeah, he did not walk in 44 played appearances, which is not a, that's been, his approach has been a question for a while. I'm a little. He's part of our team now, so I shouldn't laugh.

I'm a little surprised that he didn't have a better spring training. I mean, the debacks used him in spring training a little bit last year. Yeah. He put up pretty good numbers and Grants is like 20 plate appearances, kind of a worthless sample size. But yeah, I figured he would at least hit it. enough to, you know, maybe, maybe crack the opening day roster and then kind of see where things went from there. But based on the spring that he had, you can understand the guardians

just kind of moving on from this. And yeah, the debacks get their guy back. He's only 20 years old. I believe they've assigned him to AAA. So we'll get to see him, get to see him out there. He's really young for being in AAA. I still think there's some pretty big questions with him about his future and whether he can develop his hit tool enough, whether he can refine his approach at the plate to be a major league caliber hitter but he's young and he has he has time for sure he once was the top five prospect in this organization not too long ago so uh we'll see how uh how that works out for him but of course how it works out for you guys we thank you guys for being here on day one of opening week we're so happy to have you guys here of course if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet make

sure to do so now sign up for notifications that way you don't mess when we go live or any of the wonderful shows on our network go live and drop us a like there's a lot of you in here so we would love to see those likes Gabby loves it. Gabby goes crazy when you drop a like of course guys Jesse goes home like really sad like if we don't get a certain number of likes it like it ruins his week it does we get there can I get text from him at night like it's it's pretty sad he's like what did we do wrong exactly like why don't people like us is what he kind of says we have we have 14 likes yeah right now yeah and there's like 90 people watch it I need at least like 30 yeah at least 30 I mean 30 is like a third of you and this is where this is where this is where I'm

Imagine this is where the thumbs down start coming in, but we'll see what happens. Of course, putting that out into the world, but that's not smart. That probably wasn't the best idea. Of course, you're listening on the audio podcasting side. We appreciate you guys too. We love our listeners. Make sure you subscribe over there on your favorite podcasting app. And also leave us a review.

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And then in the app, you'll get all sorts of coupons. You'll get buy five, get a sixth one free on a selection of products and so much more. So join the Inner Circle today and become part of the Circle K family. Speaking of family, you guys know what we do on this show on Mondays. And of course we missed last Monday. And I know a lot of people were mad about that because they definitely wanted to question Jesse and if he actually has a sick Rav4. That's a whole other thing.

My whole character was called into question. Everything, whether he was an actual math teacher, if he actually liked salad and go, there was a lot there. But of course, we were celebrating or recovering, I should say, from all of celebrating we did last weekend. But today, you know what today is. Today is that day. And you know what we do every year on this show because every year on this show is our

year. Every month on this show is Women's History Month. Every month on this show is Black History Month, and every month on this show you guessed it is Black Women's History Month. Every week on the show is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag.

Damon, hit it. All right, let's get it. What's the first question to you think? First question comes from our guy, Travis. At Moore for me. he says, what would be an unsuccessful season in your eyes? Not making the playoffs, bounced in the wild card round, does win total matter as much? Obviously, context is important, but just asking for an idea. And I think this is a fantastic question.

Because as we get ready to embark on the season, of course, we want to just start it off with negativity and talk about what's going to be an unsuccessful season. But it's what we do on this show. No, but he's right. Like, there is something to be said about how unlikely it is historic. historically at least that the diamond backs could make it back to the world series we know that over the last 50 years it's been quite the feat to try to repeat in in the national league and the diamond backs haven't made the playoffs in back to back years since 2001 to 2002 a lot of things working against us 20 years since that has happened i think an unsuccessful season is not making the playoffs that in my eyes is what changes it for me if they get bounced in the wild card round or in the first round am i going to be disappointed probably want to be drinking a lot by that point really amped up so you know that there's most likely I'm going to be disappointed but it won't feel like that the season was unsuccessful right the playoffs are a different animal

and we know that so I just I'm not really concerned with win totals or how they get there but if they get to the playoffs I I call that a success yeah I'm with you I think I think playoffs is is the bar we talked about Ken Kendrick can kendrick about a week or I guess this is this is more than a week ago. This is a month and a week ago about where Ken Kendrick said that he would be disappointed if the Diamondbacks didn't play in October this year. And I think as much as this team is afraid of the word expectations and doesn't want to talk about expectations for the season, I think everyone in that clubhouse understands that they need to make the playoffs. They need to get back there. You know, they made it last year with the team that they had, given all the improvements

that they've made over the offseason, the potential addition of Jordan Montgomery on top of that. Stop tantalizing us. Yeah, I think this team is good enough to make the postseason. Anything less than that would be, I think would be unsuccessful. I am curious how people would feel like, like, what if the Diamondbacks win 88 games? And that's not good enough to make the playoffs. That sucks. Yeah.

That sucks. I think that's a rough situation. And you would call, but you would call that an unsuccessful season, even though they won 88 games. I would be fairly frustrated by that, but I think I would be reasonable. You know, like if it was going to take you 90 games just to get that final wild card spot, that's a lot. You know what I mean? And like that's one of those moments where you just kind of have to give credit to the fact that there were so many good teams in the National League this season. I mean, last year, toward the end of the season, as we were tracking the very close playoff race that was developing, it looks for a while that the debacks were going to have to win about 88, 89 games in order to even make the postseason.

A lot of teams struggle down the stretch. And that's why 84 wound up being good enough when all of a sudden done. But 84 isn't usually good enough. Like if you look back at standings over the last 10 years or so, you know, the team in that third wildcard spot, you usually have to be better than 84 wins in order to get there. So I think even just getting the third wild card spot in and of itself is probably going to require the debacks to win a few more games this year. All right.

Next question. Damon comes from our guy Michael Rokickey. Michael asks, aside from this being Corbyn Carroll's second full season, what are most excited about this season. I think it has to be building on the success of last year and the fact that the team is in such a better position this year. I think the pitching, starting pitching, even as crazy as it sounds, even with the loss of Eduardo Rodriguez is still just, we are still in a much better position than we were last

year, you know, and I feel like the young guys like Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson are much more ready to go. I think that this team really had to find its identity last year with what happened with Madison Bumgarner early on and some of those decisions they made. Like that kind of had to rock the clubhouse for a few days, not to mention the fact that nobody can feel safe, you know, as far as your job is concerned, when you see someone that's the highest paid player

and the most legendary player in your clubhouse getting essentially released from the team, right? So I don't know. Maybe that's what caused them to kind of, you know, galvanize and bond together. Who knows? But I think that they're just in such a better position. to start this season than they were last year.

And that's exciting to me. You factor in the success they had. You factor in the experience that they gained, making it as far as they did last year. And you can't help but be excited about how ready these guys are to try to do it again this year. Yeah, we've talked about this a couple times. Like, over the last few years,

it's felt like that this team has had, you know, a handful of veterans that you weren't really sure what you were going to get from them, but the team was kind of going to play them no matter what. And I don't think the deal. feedbacks really have anyone like that this season the players that are going to be getting a lot of playing time for this team are generally deserving of of that playing time i think for me personally what what i'm most excited about is i just enjoy filled stadiums like filled baseball stadiums just like

baseball baseball when there's a lot of people we've talked a lot about chase field and how maybe it's not the best place to see a game when you know particularly when the roof is closed but when you put, you know, 30,000 people in that building, it's still a pretty fun place to see a baseball game just because of the energy in that stadium. And based on what we heard from Derek Hall the other day, Deep Baxter projecting north of 2.5 million fans for this season the most since I think it was 2008. That's what averaging like almost 25,000. It's averaging north of 30,000 for every home game. And granted, there's going to be some games here and there where they're well into the 40s. It doesn't mean on a Monday night you're going to have 30,000.

But it means we shouldn't see any of those 9,000 games. Yes. Hopefully, hopefully we can be read of those matinee games where the place just looks so empty and it's dead. And there's just not a lot of energy in the stadium. We talked about the rallybacks playing more of a role and kind of getting the fans into all of the little moments throughout the game. So just more. Our new overlords, the rallybacks.

Yeah. What they say. Yeah. Absolutely. Just more energy. at Chase Field. I think I'm really excited for that. That's a great point. All right. What else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from Kevin. If the debacks somehow signed Jordan Montgomery to a two-year contract or more, does this mean the debacks won't sign Zach Gallup?

Excellent point. Excellent point. Just as far as like fantasy situations and wondering how this could play out, if the debacks did sign Jordan Montgomery essentially to a larger contract, let's even say four years. Like does that immediately in your mind go, well, goodbye, Zach Gowan. Yeah, I don't see the Diamondback signing Jordan Montgomery before your deal, but I guess if I'm just going down that road hypothetically. Let's just smell bag Monday. Sometimes we just, we play devil's advocate a little bit. I think, I think that there is something to be said about how that does impact the future of Merrill Kelly and, and Zach Allen.

But I also think that the Diamondbacks should probably start thinking about who is going to fill out this roster. if both of those guys do walk after their contracts are up. Yeah. So, yeah, for as confident as I feel that the debacks would not sign Jordan Montgomery to a longer-term deal right now, if they did sign Jordan Montgomery to a longer-term deal, I do kind of think that that would close the door on Zach Allen, if I'm being honest, because you've already got Eduardo Rodriguez making, I think it's $23 million,

starting in a couple of seasons. The number's a little bit lower in year one. Yeah. If you had him making 23 and Jordan Montgomery making 20, and Zach Allen making 30? Like, do we really see the Diamondbacks having three starting pitchers making a combined $75 million at the same time? I mean, if there was someone you were going to spend it on, it should be starting pitching.

That's, you know, that's, you know, I'm not saying it'd be like a terrible use of the money necessarily, but I don't see the debacks investing that much in the top of the rotation all at once. But again, it's, yeah, it's not to say that they couldn't resign Gallen in any circumstance that they couldn't sign Montgomery. I just think Montgomery is, if they did find a way to do it, it'd be a shorter-term deal, and theoretically would have no impact whatsoever on whether you're able to bring Gallen back in a couple of years. All right. Next question.

What we got here? This one comes from Tyler Hall. And he already starts things off with Sorry Damon and he's mad about it. But Tyler wants to ask the tough questions. He says, sorry, Damon, but if Pardomo continues as he has and if Blaze can show he can hit, will that make Pardomo expendable with Lawler and AAA? Or do we keep Pardomo and Blaze as a trade piece? What do we think brings the most value?

I think I'm going to hurt Damon's feelings. And I think Blaze Alexander is going to be a better baseball player than Eraldo Perdomo. Wow. And I'm saying that knowing Jerry P is a fan of the show and knowing he's probably watching right now. The next time he sees me, he's probably going to look me right in the eyes and go, I would never, Jerry. I saw what you said.

I would never do this to you. I heard what he said is what he's going to say to me. But I mean, realistically, we do have two excellent short stops. I mean, three excellent short stops. We just have guys that can play.

And it's not the worst case scenario, but it is for the guys that aren't on the major league roster. It's great for Pardomo, but it's not so great for someone like Blaze who is kind of ready, but isn't being given an opportunity just to being blocked, essentially by a better player. I don't know. I feel like this organization,

already has a track record as we discussed with mad bum stuff and what we saw with the the tenured guys on this team last year. They don't really shy away from moving in a different direction if they have a better option at a, you know, at any given time. I don't know if they're so quick if if Prudomo struggles or goes through a slump, if they're going to just immediately turn to Blaze or go in a different direction. But I could see it being a point where maybe Blaze Alexander is so good that they can't deny having him on the major league roster any longer. I would see that then manifesting in whatever way it plays out. Like, if Pardomo does become expendable at that point, then I could see them trying to get value for him fairly quickly, considering it was an all star last year and stuff like that. Damon's going to fucking kill. I just want to touch on a few things.

He has a lot of things to say. So, number one, Heraldo Pardomero is younger than Blaze Alexander. I know. With two years of major league experience under his belt. That has to say, that has to go for something. No, it does. Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. It's a good point. He can absolutely get better at 20. 24 years old. Like, that's not, that, he's not hit his ceiling. I know Jesse and I have talked about this a lot. Yeah. Off air, but like, yeah, I don't think he's hit his ceiling necessarily.

Yeah. That being said, and Elise actually jumped me before this, but like, did you watch episode three of Snakes Alive? If you want that man off of this team, I want you to find a new goddamn team. He, he goes, yeah, okay, you're going to come off the mound like that, Lance Lynn? I'm hitting a bomb next inning. I'm hitting a bomb. Was that not incredible?

I was juiced. I wanted to run through a wall. Geraldo Perdomo, yeah, he said he was talking about Lance Lynn. Derek is behind the Mac now? What is happening? I just wanted to come over here and apologize to Damon in person quietly, you know, because I know he's not going to forgive me ever for saying the things I said. I mean, you could have said that from your chair as I'm knocking down water bottles now.

Anyway, yes, Geraldo Perdomo, for those who didn't see in episode three of Snakes Alive, He was talking about Lance Lynn getting really fired up about striking out Evan Longoria at the end of the second inning. And Perdomo, who was on deck, Perdomo in the Snakes Live documentary, said he did it to the fans saying that Lance Lynn wasn't doing, he wasn't doing the Solongo. He was doing it to the fans. Prudomo said, I took it personally. And he said, okay, we'll see what's going to happen in the next inning. And of course, Prudomo homered. And that started the inning where the debacks hit four bombs and one inning against Lance Lynn.

Solario's right. My blood was pumping when for it. So electric, man. And then the way they ended it. Yeah. Oh my God. That series has been incredible. Yeah, I really has.

If you have not seen the next live series, go as soon as you're done watching this and watch it. It's really, really good. But yeah, I mean, they definitely have a problem. But like a lot of their positional battles, it's a good problem to have. They have guys that they, you know, obviously are going to continue. They don't want to get rid of. Even Jake McCarthy, right? That's why they're saying that they rebuff these calls because they know.

They know. They know Jake's going to go somewhere else and Jake's going to become Rake McCarthy and they're going to completely, you know, rue the day that they decided to make that decision, right? Same thing here. Like, both of these guys are incredible. Blake is, Blaze is incredible and it's just a matter of not being able to get everybody enough playing time. But I will say my real opinion real quick is that Blaze should make the team and him and Perdomo should be competing with each other for the starting spot. It gets the best out of it.

And I love Perdomo. He's my favorite player on the team. But like, and I just love his personality and how infectious. he is but but blaze absolutely should have a shot at making this roster and being a starter if he proves he's better than perdomo i agree i i just want to say that i i think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves if we're concerned about having like too many great short stops like blaze alexander has had an outstanding spring training but he still hasn't played a single major league game and hasn't hasn't shown that he can do it at the big league level that's a that's a big thing for

him to show that we haven't even gotten there yet. Pardomo for the success that he had last year, as we've said before, he really struggled in the second half. And I think he's a big part of the clubhouse. And as Damon said, could get better. But he's not really a sure thing is like an everyday shortstop for the foreseeable future. And Jordan Lawler for all the prospect status that he has and rightfully so, he's only played a few major league games.

And it was not pretty. So I think we're pretty far away from having to worry about any of this stuff. I'm going to kind of just reserve judgment until we know more about how each of these players look in the majors. Elise's great question says, how do we platoon domo with Ahmed for almost all of last year, not do it with Blaze? This is 100% my point. Well, the difference, and I'm not saying I agree with this, but the difference from the D-BAC's perspective is that Nick Ahmed was a veteran,

they knew what they had. Blaze Alexander is someone who hasn't played a game in the majors, and they want him to get everyday opportunity. that wasn't a concern with Nick Ahmed. They just wanted Nick Ahmed to be to contribute in whatever way he could. All right. Next question, Damon, comes from our guy, Kevin, Kevin Lundberg. Kevin asks, what is a realistic record expectation for the first month?

And how can we make Derek do something that involves him dying his hair or something like that? Correct. Yes. Correct. You ready to go on the record with something right now? What are we? Are we dye in our hair? Give me.

Give me. We go on teal with the beard? Give me a win total. And we'll talk. Do we want to, I mean, I feel like I'm still in Max's thunder a bit here. But I think I'm willing to go to tattoo. Going to. Oh, okay.

I'm for a month of baseball. I mean, that's a little crazy. For a championship. That's fair. That's fair. I mean, well, maybe I should reserve it, right? For like the playoffs at least or something.

Right. I mean, that seems crazy. Uh, okay. So let's, let's, let's burn my scalp. Let's, I mean, It's almost as bad as a tattoo. Yeah, you like permanently damaged. Tattoo's definitely hurt less than sitting under that warming thing that I had to sit under.

That's for sure. That's fair. So the Diamondback schedule in the first month is pretty difficult. This really hit me when I was diving deeper into the schedule for the first month before the show. They play 31 games over the course of the end of March into April. 31 games. It's a lot of games. Seven of those games are against below five.

or teams that are projected to be below 500 this year. 24 of them are against teams projected to be above 500. Whoa. And that has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of the teams they play in this first month are teams that underperformed last year that are sort of expected to be better this season. So the New York Yankees being one of them, the Giants being another, the Cardinals being another. These are all teams that did not perform up to expectations last year, but projection systems, view those teams as being pretty good this year.

the Rockies are the only team that the Diamondbacks play in the first month projected to be below 500. They have seven games against them. So yeah, I mean, with all that in mind, like, I don't think the debacks need to be like eight games above 500 at the end of April or anything like that. I think if you go, you know, if you go five and two in the seven games against the Rockies and 500 against everyone else, that puts you at 17 and 14 at the end of the first month of the season, I think you'd probably have to be. be pretty happy with that. Nicholas Gruders in the chat. He has a super chat. Thank you so much for the super chat.

He says, what is Erod's ETA? We don't have a specific ETA on him. They've kind of been very loose. Tori's exact wording was he will get throwing again when he is asymptomatic, when he is not experiencing any kind of symptoms from that latch strain. What was odd about that was then when we talked to E. He basically made it sound like he wasn't experiencing any more symptoms. Well, he said he was 95%.

was 95% 95% day by day. So, and again, we don't know if he's actually going to start the year on the injured list or if he's going to start the year on the injured list.

There you go. There you go. Jesse said that. We just don't have any confirmation that he's going to start. But like Jesse said, that's most likely the case. Interesting. I was going to ask you this.

If they put him on like the, what is it like the 15 day IL, can they retroactively go back to spring training or does the 15 day IL have to start at the beginning of the season? That's a good question. I want to say it would be the beginning of the season that it would go back. Because if not, they probably would have made a designation already by now. Yeah, I mean, because if they don't have to, they might as well see how he progresses.

But for the most part, when he gets back to throwing, he's still not going to be ready to play. That's why you're saying no matter what, since he isn't throwing as of today and the season starts on Thursday, he's not going to be. Yeah. He's not going to be on the opening. I think it's safe to say that the best case for the best case scenario for Erod is still 15 days into the season. I don't really see how he would possibly get back sooner than that because even if he started throwing tomorrow, he would have to ramp up. Yeah. And he, I think he was at four innings in his last, the last start that he was able to make it all the way through.

So he had built up a little bit. But yeah, the debacks haven't provided specifics on this. It appears it's not going to be an extended absence, but we can't really be a whole lot more specific than that. It just depends, as you said, on when he feels asymptomatic. and the next like seven to 10 days are important because if it goes beyond that, then he might have to build up from zero. You might have to start from, you know, throwing one inning and, you know, bullpen to live bullpen, then getting in a game.

That would be a longer process. So if he's able to get back on a mound and throwing in the next couple of weeks, that might really make it so the whole process is just that much quicker. Paul, we don't have any kind of information on what grade it is. they wouldn't not give us that information. And I think it's mostly because we're all going to do that thing where we go Google it and then see based on what WebMD tells us how long we can expect them to be out. I think that's especially why they didn't want to tell us what grade it is or how long to expect them out.

Chances are, you're probably correct. It's probably a grade one strain or maybe doesn't even measure as that. But hopefully everything will work out and he will be back on the field very soon for this team. Of course, you can take all of this information. and allow it to impact how you're going to bet on opening day weekend for the Arizona Diamondbacks over at the BetMGM Sportsbook app. Right now you can get up to $1,500 in bonus bets if you sign up using our code of PHNX. All you have to do is download the app on iOS or Android or visit betmgm.com and sign up using PHNX, deposit at least $10 into your newly created sportsbook account and wager that amount or more.

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Illegal Pete's your go-to spot for brittos, buddies, and beer. And Damon. All right. Well, again, we thank you guys that are die-hards already. Of course, we always appreciate you guys being die-hards. If you're not a die-hard yet, you want to learn how to become part of the die-hard family. Go to go-PhNX.com. Find out.

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we got some more mailbag monday questions damon what do we got let's get to the good let's get to the good stuff let's get to the wacky stuff uh Ryan Hanley wants to know can either of you confirm that the frozen margarita back is back at chase I must know Jesse I got this I will take care of this I did the investigating I did the journalistic work on this big j big jay work and I want to confirm update breaking news right now the frozen bad is back okay I saw them stocked up at one of the bars. So, I mean, based on, based on me as a source, I can visually confirm for you that I did

see them back. Are they going to take them away from us? I doubt it. I mean, they did have them stocked at the bar, Jesse. So they can't, they can't do that. You're like outing your investigative reporting ability. And then you're like, yeah, I saw something that looked like it. No, behind one of the stands.

Where were you? Where were you and Derek Big J. Alpha, Jesse, and took over as the journalist on the DHS Next Diamondbacks podcast. Thank you. I appreciate that because I don't see. Sources seem a little question. These sources are me. I am my own sources and my eyes are the sources.

So yes, Ryan. That's what scares you. Yeah, no, I get it. I get it. All right, well, it's the goddamn. Jacob Schult asks on Twitter, says, if PHNX had a home run derby on a little league field, who wins that battle?

Also putting the over under for Jesse Friedman at four and a half? Wow. That's disrespectful. That's the disrespect. It's awful. How big a little league field? We're talking what, what, what, that 250? Talking 250?

I don't know if I can hit a baseball 250 feet. Oh my God, Jesse. Yeah, no, I know. If we had a home run derby, though, I know, I know, I know Bo would be really mad if we didn't include him. Yeah. I know Danielle would absolutely rake. I was just about to say, we better say Bo's name or else he'll like have like a freak out episode. Just a little tantrum about it.

Oh, did you not see me in my playing days? No, Bo. I played. I didn't. I played college baseball. 40 years ago. Yeah. You have children now.

I know how that ages you. I know that what that does to your knees. But Damon Dogg. Damon dog's my winner of the PHAXHNX homer. I think Danielle might have a little bit more pop in her back than I do. Yeah. Yeah. Were you not a big, big power guy?

I'm more of a opposite feel. I really like on base like slap hitting specialist. Work the count type of guy. I really was. Work the count. He's a scream at the umpire from what I've heard. We wonder why he loves Geraldo Perdomos. No, like, it makes all the sense in the world, though.

My OBP was nuts. Yeah, it all fits. That makes sense. Were you a switch hitter? Yeah. Yeah. That would be nice. Are you adorable?

Huh? Were you just a precocious? Were you just a precocious shorts? The umpire probably didn't think I was adorable when I was screaming in his face after I disagreed with a call. Oh, man. All right. Well, else we got.

Uh, next question comes from JT's tweets and JT wants to know which Dabax players are you bringing to Disneyland with you. And you can only. only bring two. Players, just players. Just players. Because I'd bring Tori. Yeah, can't do it.

Okay. Just players. I would bring Tori. That's for sure. Because Tori is the kind of guy that I feel like you do anything with. And it's a fun time. You know? Yeah, but you can't bring him.

Yeah. Okay. All right. You're bringing the rules, Derek. Okay. So who's loaded? Who's got a lot of money on the Diamondbacks? Is that where the conversation starts?

That's who I want to go to Disneyland. And with Jesse, I don't have money to be buying all those ice cream treats and the shirts and everything, but I need somebody that's loaded to go with me. Honestly, I mean, I feel like I fall back. Like, you'd say Corbyn Carroll, right? Like, that's instinctually, I'm sure what a lot of people feel. But yeah, yeah. Corbyn Carroll would probably question the purpose of Disneyland.

Yeah, yeah. He would be like, they said this is the happiest place on Earth and there's not a batting cage here. Yeah. Then it's absolutely not, you know? I I speaking of for Aldo Perdomo Jerry P's I feel like I feel like Jerry P would be a lot of fun A lot of fun to hang out at how I'm hang out with at Disney man I know I know my other choice and it's Paul Seawald and it's because Paul Seawald is the dad of the bullpen yeah so you know

Paul Seawald's going to properly plan a day at Disneyland that's he's going to map it out so He's gonna have the logistics like nailed down to the finest he's gonna have like aspirin in his cargo shorts you know he's gonna have a water for me he's gonna to make sure I am well taken care of. And he absolutely will not let me go without eating. Jesse, like you do. You do a terrible job of feeding me. But Paul Sewell would make sure we had four meals that day at Disneyland.

You would have an itinerary. I would get to sit on his shoulders while we watch fireworks. So first we're going to come in. We're going to go to Tomorrowland to start. By 1130, we're going to find ourselves in Fantasyland. But see, he'd be enough of a dad that he would make you feel like you were getting a choice in the matter. You'd be like, oh, I want to start an adventure land. And he's like, yeah, bud, totally.

But you know what? The lines in Adventureland do get pretty big fast. So, like, maybe we want to circle back to there after we hit Tomorrowland at Fantasyland. And after we grab you a churro, huh? Yeah, I'll get you a churro. Are you thirsty? I'll get you water and some pineapple spears. You know what I mean?

Like, he's going to take care of you. And then Jerry P. is going to be the little brother that we run around with. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, there you go. Do you see Corby? I think it was a jomboy thing. Corbyrero was asked which of his teammates he would want to be lost in

desert with. Okay. And he answered Paul Seawalt. So I feel like it's a similar skill set. He absolutely nailed this. Hang out at Disney. We look, what we assess these players.

We know what we're doing. We don't just make up crap about them. Like, you know, like that Paul Seawald's the dad. We know he's the dad. That's the way this works. All right,

what else we got? Sir Guerrilla on Twitter asked, and that's Chris. He says, if the Diamondbacks made a bobblehead of you, of us, Jesse, what would you want your bobblehead to be doing? He would like to hear from the people's producer,

Damon as well on this. And Damon doesn't get a choice because we already know what Damon's going to be. It's going to be Damon dog. Just like me on a leash on all four. No, he's a dog version of you. He'll be wearing a U of A shirt and hat. He will have like a headset on because he's always producing. He's always working.

He'll have a laptop that's very hot. Like a really bad laptop. Yeah, a bad laptop. Like a really old. When you touch it, it's hot on the actual bot head. Bubble head, right? What would you have? I mean, I guess I have to be driving the Rav4.

Correct. You absolutely should be. I guess I don't have a choice here. They did an outcast one last year for the Braves where they were in two dope boys in a Cadillac. So one dope boy in a Rav 4 for sure. You'd have to do the licensing with Toyota. Would you be doing the score sheet on top of the Rav 4? Like writing an article?

Staying up till 3M in the Ravre 4 writing an article? As I've described to people, the Rav 4 is now the adventure car. Oh, yeah. That's right. We don't do any. That is right. There's no stat cast data in the in the rap for it. That's true.

We're all, we're heading out to the mountains or something like that. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Of course, mine would be sitting in this exact chair, shirtless, with Jesse Jr. Around my neck. That would be actually kind of electric. Maybe purple hair. Yeah, sunglasses on.

Mine will be incredible. Mine would be a not miss. See, like I said this about Lourdes. Lourdes needs like a troll doll, like, that has the actual. purple hair that's like hair. It's actually fuzzy. That's what mine would include. Mine would have real purple hair. That's falling out. Okay. Yeah. That's the way it would work.

All right. We got one more question for Mailbag Monday. And of course, we saved the best for last. Elizabeth has quickly taken over for Don's bread as the best question asker on the show. And Elizabeth wants to know if the PHNX staff played monopoly, who would pick which game piece, who would win, who would cheat and who would rage quit. I saw earlier Karen, aka Groundhog Mama, said that I would rage quit. And what she doesn't realize is that I was actually in the banking industry for nearly 20 years. So I don't rage quit when it comes to monopoly. I make people rage quit.

I know more about CLTV and DSR and interest rates than most people will ever know. I'm a real estate guru. I used to work on home equity loans in the L.A. metro market prior to 2008. That shit was the Wild West. So I know more about real estate than most. So I'm going to take myself to be the one who cheats. Okay. That would be the easy one.

Rage quitting, no, cheating. Absolutely. If you're talking about rage quitting in video games, yes. If you're talking about rage quitting when Jesse and I just have discussions, absolutely. But I do not rage quit when it comes to monopoly. But let's start first with like the pieces. Who would be which pieces? I always liked the car growing up.

Of course you did. Of course, it wasn't a rat for. No, it was just like a little race car. Criminally did not at all resemble a route four, but I did still use it. My personality is that I tend to be a people pleaser. So no matter how much I wanted the battleship or the car, I tend to let other people have their choice first. Every once in a while, the battleship was my backup plan. So if one of my friends, you know, snatched the car from me, then I would go battleship instead.

So that's why my piece became the dog because I've always been Damon's dogs. It's true. Even before you knew it. Even before I knew it. Long before I knew it. I knew that was a member of Damon's dogs. But I feel like... Petey's the top hat.

You just said that right? He is the top hat. Oh, I said feed me the top hat. Oh, you're the top hat. I heard Petey's the top hat. I mean, you could easily be the dog too. Sure. Yeah.

I mean, that feels like it makes a lot of sense. Petey, though. He's the mulletian, right? Who's the wheelbearer? That's honestly, yeah, PD should get the top hat. I probably should get the top hat. Who's the wheelbearer? that's that's got to be saul saw yeah that's got to be saw yeah yeah so carries a lot of shit around

for us you know what i mean right deal with a lot of crap on our behalf so i feel like that's a fair connection um there is the the thimble which jesse asked earlier what it was for i still don't know what a thimble is it's for it's so mice can drink out of it in cartoons jesse you know that uh no see i would believe you but i'm pretty sure you're lying to me it goes on your thumb when you're sewing that's what a thimble's for okay yeah So you don't poke yourself. Okay. It's a protective device.

Sure. Makes sense. Anyway. Thimble. Not Jesse has to be the thimble. Actually, I think Totri would be the thimble because he could fit in one. He's right. He's right over there.

That's disrespectful. That's right. That's right. That's right. He lets out a wow. He did. He did. Okay.

So wait, though. Who wins? Who cheats and who rage quits? Who wins? Jesse. I probably win. Jesse. Yeah, you're right.

Jesse, because Jesse low-key wouldn't like talk shit during the game. He would just sit there quietly acquiring properties and you would just keep landing on properties that when you're like, man, who owns Illinois Avenue? And then it's just this guy smiling at you across the table. I'm a pretty good negotiator, Derek. People would make trades with me and I would talk them into it. And they would think they're getting a great deal. Even if I was totally swindling there. I'll give you three railroads for this one that's going to complete me owning the entire right side of the board.

Right? Like that's Jesse. You don't want to come down Jesse's neighborhood because you're just going to get taxed to death the whole way down. You know what I mean? Like he's definitely winning. Who's rage quitting? That's once again, that has to be Saul. Yeah.

Saul's going to rage quit. Yeah. I think it's a fair. Saul's going to get behind. Right. I mean, like losing isn't really an option for him. He's either the clear up front winner. He gets it.

Or he's turning the border or he's, yes. Nobody's going to be happy. Yeah. Nobody's going to, nobody's going to get to win. If Saul doesn't win, nobody wins. And then you're cheating? how we decided. I got another, I got another cheater. Look, if you're going to be the banker, you should probably audit me. That's all I'm saying. You should probably constantly audit me.

That's how banks stay honest and that's how I stay honest. I have another cheater. Who? I'm looking at her right now. She happens to be sitting on a couch in her name. Michaela is going to cheat her ass off. Michaela's going to steal your money while you're not looking and your properties. You're going to be like, I swore to God I had boardwalk. And, you know, she just now has it mysteriously in her pile. That's fairly accurate. I like that. She's saying it's fair and square, but she doesn't mean that. Can we just say that Monopoly is just a miserable game?

No, I love Monopoly. What are you kidding? I went through a phase in college where me and some of my college buddies would play Monopoly like every single night until like four in the morning. And the problem with the game is that you know who is going to win three hours before the game ends. It's just a slow bleeding. It's just, yes. If you're not the one in the one.

that position, it is the slowest, most painful death you will ever suffer. Long before you're actually broke, then you're a bastard. Yeah, absolutely. If you're not turning in your money and walking away from the table when you know you don't have a chance to win, then you're just making the rest of us wait longer for your inevitable demise. Tier maker Tuesday, board games, monopoly is bottom tier. Yeah.

I mean, I respect it because of how much of the classic it is. It's original. I don't know if I'd put it at the very bottom, but I certainly would not put it at the top. I'd rather play like almost any. It's where risk goes for sure because if you want to talk about games that take eight days. Yeah, risk. I don't have the patience for risk. Nobody finishes an actual game of risk.

Like, nope, just like nobody plays mousetrap after setting it up. You know, it took you two hours to set it up. Now you don't even want to play the game anymore. But of course, we appreciate you guys being here. We thank you so much for your questions and a wonderful mailback Monday. Of course, we have to go talk to Tori. So in the meantime, you can make sure to follow us. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Damon, our people's producers at Damon Dog, that's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter and Instagram. Well, we are very close to actual baseball games. We have some new shirts. Oh, man, you're right.

Can we see those new shirts? Let's take, oh, my God. We are defending the pool, ladies and gentlemen, and we are having fun days on Sundays. These are our new shirts. So, of course, make sure go out and grab that newness. Get yourself ready to defend the pool when we do that on July 31st. Become a diehard. Become a diehard.

Yeah, get that shirt for free. It practically pays for itself. If you're not a diehard already and you want that shirt, just get that shirt, get that diehard membership. Look at how happy that baseball is. Oh, God, that baseball is incredible. I can't get over it. I'm going to wear that one a lot.

I'm going to wear that one a lot. Of course, we are also giving away a pair of tickets for opening day. and these aren't just, these aren't just nosebleed, Jesse. These aren't, these aren't Section 301 in row 17. These are some good seats. So, of course,

make sure to keep it locked right here. I think tomorrow is going to be the day where we're going to select a few of you as finalists to win that shirt. So make sure to be here live and then be back on Wednesday when we pick that winner. So, of course, big thank you to Chris.

She was our facilitator of those tickets. And she, of course, continues to be the PHNX Denmother. So we thank you for that. You can thank her for that. And I hope somebody gets very lucky and enjoys a very wonderful opening day with us over there at Chase Field. So, of course, we thank you guys again for stopping by. We appreciate your time.

We'll see you tomorrow. We're going to do a postgame show tomorrow because we have a 1240 start against the Guardians. The last game of spring training. So make sure. Post game show after like, if I remember right last year that the div. I don't remember if they didn't start their actual start. or if they just removed them very, very early. And we were watching, like, you know, the far reaches of the minor leagues for most of that game.

But yes, come and come and join us. And we'll talk about things other than just the outcome of tomorrow's exhibition game. But, of course, again, we thank you guys so much for your time. See you guys tomorrow. And in the meantime, have a wonderful night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when you add another free agent starting pitcher right before the season.