PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks season tickets for $299? Cyber Monday is just crazy

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks are having quite possibly the best deal of the holidays with their Ballpark Season Pass. We are discussing the details of their Black Friday/Cyber Monday special, what the Cardinals are doing with their starting rotation, and answers to your Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits or Creams. Go to https://zenleafdispensaries.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local Zen Leaf Dispensary. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Happy Cyber Monday to you all. Welcome on into another edition of the PHNXD Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am the mayor of Black Friday. I am the mayor of Cyber Monday. And this man next to me knows nothing about these deals. He knows nothing about my business. It's the one and only Thundrstick Jesse Friedman.

I'm not even introducing you as the vice mayor. I just, I'm just ignorant about. Cyber Monday deals. You didn't even look at them, did you? Are you talking about like just Cyber Monday? Like the PHNX Locker Cyber Monday deals or I know you definitely shop for. I know a lot about the PHNX locker Cyber Monday deals. That's good point.

Cyber Monday. Other Cyber Monday deals. I've done I've done a little bit of shopping today there. I am so proud of you. Holy gal. I love it. I've got an eye on a hammock from my backyard. What?

There's a great deal on some jeans over on Amazon. And you're buying stuff for yourself? You monster. I know. I'm so proud of you. Well, again, the shopping for other people doesn't be in.

Yeah, no, I know. I know. I know. I can shop for myself at any time. That works. I might have shop for myself over at Pins and Aces today and got their mystery deal.

That is a bad influence. I am a bad influence. I love it. I love this guy. Derek sending me a hundred dollar arcade games. I did. I said him cyber Monday deals. Big Buck Hunter was on sale.

I was like, let's go. I need it. Ski to you all in the chat. Great to see you guys all. I hope you're all getting good Cyber Monday deals. If you need a great Cyber Monday deal, the Arizona Diamondbacks may in fact rival our P.

H&X Locker with their deal because their ballpark season pass is absolutely one of the best deals that money can buy as far as sports entertainment is concerned jesse two hundred and ninety nine dollars to go to eighty one home games i mean plus the two exhibition games don't you forget don't you forget those two exhibition games i forgot yeah it works out to i think three dollars and 60 cents per game something like that and granted are any of the people who buy this actually going to attend all 83 of those home games? Probably not. I'm going to guess.

Probably not. There's some downside to it for sure. It's definitely not the same as having a ticket, right? But it's still a pretty good deal. I like the way they set it up. If you go to 30 of the games, then you paid $10 a game. That's correct. Which is pretty darn good deal.

That is correct. Yeah, this is a pretty outrageous deal. I don't know if I've really ever seen any team offer. No, we've seen anything like this. We've seen this during the summer with their summer pass, which is something that they were trying to build on. They do like usually, I think three months for like $99, which for students, I think it was at students at one point. And then it was for other things. A piece of Yoshi doesn't understand jokes or comedy.

And also Johnny Venerable, pronounce my name wrong, piece of Yoshi. So I don't care what those guys say on that damn cardinal show over there. But I will say that the deal like has kind of bumped up. And this is like the best version of this package that they have. have offered. They have a tweet here from Ben Berlander kind of says it all when it comes to this particular deal. Ben Berlander says this is awesome.

The debacks are offering tickets to every home game for $299 and $83. That's a, I didn't know the 83. Oh, wait. I thought it was. I thought it was eight three. It's 83 home games. What a deal. Sorry, I can't read sometimes.

Hey, I, I, that's, that's a weird. It is a weird orientation. It was a weird organization there on that one. But, um, yeah, I mean, that's that that that is. Honestly, the best deal. I saw some Phillies fans saying that this is the cost to go to three games at Citizens Bank Park. Yeah, yeah, right. They're still hung up on our chili.

The same losers. I think you meant to say. Yeah, that's right. I think that's what makes this deal so, so great is, you know, it'd be one thing for the debacks to do this,

like after the 2021 season when you're coming off a season in which you won 52 games. And you're just like desperately trying to make it so that the, you know, the upper deck at Chase Field isn't completely empty. Correct. during the regular season. This team was just in the World Series. And to come out with a deal like this,

given the season that they just had and the fact that you'd already expect there to be a pretty significant uptick in attendance next season, that's something we've seen in the past for the debacks, when they have a season like the one they just had, when they just make the playoffs. They tend to see those gains in attendance the following year, maybe even more so than they do within that season.

So I think they were already going to do a lot better in attendance in 2020. and you have to, I mean, you have to believe that this deal is only going to enhance that. Ernesto says, if I were in Phoenix, I'd bought that yesterday. Connor says it's going to pay for itself after like 10 games. Yeah. That's totally the truth. There is a catch a bit.

Other than the tickets are non-transferable, you can't give your tickets to a friend. You can't resell them. Yeah, this is not a deal. Like if you're one of those, you know, lousy investor people who just like get season tickets so you can sell them off. This deal is not for you. This deal is not for you. This is for real fans is what this one's for. But you can link up with friends who also have the past to sit together.

They do have an option for that. And the idea here is that you're you're not going to get the same seat. So that's where it's different from like a season ticket. Right. Season ticket you're sitting in that seat for all the games. This is more of a based on availability. But I feel like that's going to give you the opportunity sometimes to get even better seats than maybe you might have been expecting because if there is, you know,

potentially low, you know, low attendance for a game, you might be sitting much closer than another game where you might be, you know, if it's a little full, you might be back. But you do have to kind of like, you know, get your tickets in the app kind of for that, for each particular game. And like I said, it does move around.

The deal is only available for a limited time right now per the Diamondback site. But this is, in fact, it has to be, especially for baseball, which is so long. The best deal in sports, right? I mean, I can't imagine. Not only that,

but Derek Hall talked about also the concession sales and how the Diamondbacks still lead the league as far as the lowest, you know, overall cost per attending a game. Right. But this has to absolutely make them, you know, the lowest price to go see any sporting event, you know, just about. Yeah, I mean, maybe like,

like attending an Oakland A's game on like a third party app. Like you probably, you'd probably do pretty well there. Although this would be less than that. This was like this. If you go to every game, this is less than that, right? I mean, this is incredible what a deal. This really is. And who knows?

Maybe, I mean, maybe, you know, if the A's are playing in some, some ballpark that only has like 10,000 seats or whatever, which seems very possible. Maybe even A's tickets wind up being like reasonably expensive over the next few years, at least a little bit more expensive than they would have been. So, yeah, it's hard to imagine any other team in the majors role. out a deal like this and the fact that it's coming from a team that literally just won the NL pennant is is really I mean it's really cool yeah and uh you know I hope people are able to take advantage of this and I know there's a lot of people we've heard from a lot of people who do not live

in arizona who are very sad that they do not live in arizona uh solely because of this like oh man if I if I was an Arizona resident I'd be all over this thing um but yeah it's it's an incredible deal for the debacks to offer and uh you know their ballpark has too many seats I think we've known that for kind of a long time at this point. Put people in. But yeah. Put people in them. I think this is,

I think this is the right move for the organization. Even if it means leaving some money on the table, potentially, I think this is, this is kind of what you have to do. I agree. I agree. Well,

we know what the Diamondbacks are doing. And like Gabriel says here, Mariners raise their prices by 20% for missing the playoffs. So at least the Diamondbacks aren't going in that direction after making. We don't know what like regular season, like, single game tickets look like. Yeah,

maybe they will raise. the price is there. But yeah, I mean, if they do raise the prices on, on, you know, single game tickets, it's going to make this deal all the more valuable. So yeah, I mean, if you're planning on attending more than, what, like 15 games, 10, 15 games, then this deal very much works out in your favor. Are they, as you said earlier, are you going to be sitting in the third deck? Probably.

I think that's probably where these seats will be. but there are upgrade options as well that I imagine they'll you know they'll probably give you a decent deal if you want to move down into you know section 112 or something like somewhere nice on the baseline so yeah we'll see we'll see how it works out but it's it's absolutely something that debaax fan should be should be all in on if they're planning on attending more than more than just a handful of games next year that's exactly it and you know again it's better than it and then it being empty right like the stadium will generate revenue based on other things buying merch buying food, all of that other stuff. So not only does it bring an environment to the ballpark that the players themselves are looking for with more fans in the seats, but again, it could be good overall for the organization. I mean, hell, giveaway tickets, man.

That's why I say, until we get to a point where capacity is an issue for fans purchasing tickets, the Diamondback should absolutely continue to do whatever they can to make it affordable to go see a game. And I know a lot of people that are excited to take advantage of this.

Meanwhile, we have no idea what the Card are doing. And when we say the Cardinals, I don't mean the Arizona Cardinals, but we also have no idea what they're doing. I've even less less of the idea what they're doing. What was that yesterday? Oh, God. But we do know, we don't know what the St. Louis Cardinals really are doing. Aside from putting together the oldest starting rotation in all of baseball, they have signed Sunny Gray to a three-year $75 million contract, which effectively removes Gray as an option for the Diamondbacks. We discussed him last week. They also signed Kyle Gibson to a one-year deal worth 13 million.

And of course, Dodgers legend Lance Lynn to a one-year, $11 million contract. Their current starting rotation, their average age is 35 years old, which I don't know if that's a terrible thing. It doesn't seem like a good thing. It's not a good thing. But, I mean, the Cardinals aren't kind of going into a, I don't know. Are they rebuilding? Are they not rebuilding?

I mean, these kind of don't seem like terrible options as far as if you're putting together, you know, kind of a team for 20, 24. Like they know that they had a lot of shortcomings when it comes to starting pitching after a lot of the trades they made. And having some of these veteran guys, maybe around some of the younger guys

that are coming up in their system might not be the worst idea in the world. But it definitely doesn't feel like the Cardinals are making the most of Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Aeronado's time on this team with this starting rotation. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think with Sunny Gray, it makes a lot more sense, right?

Yes. I mean, with Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, not so much. The order that the Cardinals did this in was not particularly advantageous. I mean, the fact that it started with those two guys, I know there were a lot of people concerned about what their next move was going to be and the fact that they really had to get one of the top tier starting pitchers in order to make it all make sense. And they did get one of those guys. I mean, Sunny Gray, we talked about him on the show as being a solid. Target for the Diamondbacks potentially, someone who very much belongs in that upper tier of starting pitchers available in free agency, but is also not going to cost you six figures.

And three years, 75 million is certainly, you know, nothing to sneeze at. That is a, that is a hefty investment. But yeah, I mean, it's still not costing you nearly as much and guaranteed money as Aaronola or Blake Snell or, you know, Yoshinovu Yamamoto. So this makes sense. This makes more sense now. that Sunny Gray is a part of the mix. But it's still on the whole, I mean, looking at this Cardinals rotation,

Sunny Gray, Miles, Michaelis, Kyle Gibson, Stephen Matt, Lance, Lance Lynn. On paper, that's what their rotation would be if the season were starting tomorrow. And I still don't know if that's like exactly what Cardinals fans would have had in mind. I mean, Michaelis Gibson, Matt's Lynn, none of those guys at ERAs that were especially pretty last year. I think Michaelis was high fours, Gibson was high fours, Lance Lynn was in the high fives. Stephen Matt's had an okayish year for them. So Sunny Gray is clearly the, you know, far and away the best pitcher in this group.

And the fact that he's part of it helps things out, but it's still not, still not maybe what Cardinals fans are hoping for. Connor makes a great point. He says in the chat, Gray's contract worries me about what other free agent starters are going to be asking for now. He said he was just a Cy Young finalist, but 25 million per year for a 34 year old starter. Not great. I mean, not something that I'd be excited about. Brian up there in the chat says cards are getting the free agency work done early so they can chill the rest of the off season. That is my holiday shopping strategy right there.

They're following that holiday strategy. But Nicholas says definitely feels like we might head down the trade route with how strong these starter free agency contracts are. That could be the case. But remember, it's more about the fact that the Diamondbacks are willing. They do have some money to spend. It just depends. This market, the direction it goes, dictates how much they're going to spend on what, right? Like, I think that starting pitching is still going to be a priority for the Diamondback.

So I feel like they, if it's going to cost them more, that's where they're going to put more of their funds. And then maybe try to find more of a bargain and a right-handed hitting outfielder and a DH potentially. I don't think 375 is insane for Sunny Gray. I know, I think we talked about fangraphs projecting some like 3 and 65. I think MLB trade rumors had four and 90. So yeah, I guess the AAV is higher than what I might have expected. But getting him for three years instead of four, I do think is a bit of a win as well. You know, with an aging player, you might be more comfortable going to a higher AV over a shorter term than extending it out for another year.

So there very well might have been a compromise here. You know, maybe four and 90 was on the table. and you know sunny gray decided to go to three years instead and you know with a little bit of an uptick on the AV so it's not a crazy contract but we have a couple of mailback questions about the ramifications of this deal for the debaq so we'll get into that a little bit later yeah and we have a lot to get into when it comes to mailback Monday but before we do that we do want to also acknowledge that another name we brought up last week kenta myeda is now off out of free agent the Tigers signed Maida to a two year 24 million deal which I feel like we made that happen that hurts my heart we talked about Ken to my idea yeah we let them know the tigers were watching and they were like oh shit he's available uh and two years 24 million that's that's the exact kind of contract we wanted them to sign my eda to especially as maybe a back end uh back in you know starting rotation guy like that yeah fifth rotation spot it's still like as we talked about

in in friday show when we were talking about myita like he was never the ideal outcome for, you know, your number three starter. You know, if you got him as a number five starter, as you said, then yeah, sure, that works out great. Yeah. But I don't think missing out on Maida was terrible for the debacks as long as there's some other, some other plan in place. No.

Brian brings up that I'm not in sweats for a day. Yes, I'm very cold and uncomfortable, to be honest. So I'm not very happy. I think, uh, I think, uh, Karen said, earlier in the chat that our groundhog mama, as she's known in the chat, uh, pointed out how I look like I'm about to go on a ski trip and flagstaff and, and I'm in shorts and a t-shirt. Karen doesn't understand how cold it is.

Yeah, the dynamically cold it is in the pH next office at all times. Meanwhile, I was in the gym and when I come back from the gym, I usually have to sit in front of one of the fans here in the office for a good 20 minutes to cool my core temperature down in order to do this show. So that's why you see us in these two outfits. Um, but, you know, it is what it is. I will say this, though. I need to get myself some new sweatshirts to go with all my sweatpants. And a great place to do that

is over at the pHNX Locker.com right now where the Cyber Monday deal is going on and going on strong. Get yourself some deals over at p.h andxlocker.com right now. There's so much for you to grab, of course, all of our t-shirts. We have all sorts of deals, sweatshirts on sale, hats on sale, everything.

So make sure to grab yourself some Cyber Monday deals over at the pHNX Locker.com. Of course, if you are diehard, we thank you for. being a diehard. If you are not a diehard, make sure to grab that diehard membership as well. You will save on shirts and merchandise to PHNX Locker all season long. But again, get down up to 90% off right now over at phnx Locker.com. You can get some shirts for as low as 99 cents. It's absolutely absurd. We also have this little deal, Jesse, where you spend $75 and you'll get a $15 gift card.

So that's a pretty nice little addition. And for you can get all of your sports fans in life taken care of over at the pH and x locker.com. And like I said, get yourself a diehard deal. Get a diehard deal for a loved one. Get her diehard membership. Make sure you guys are all set up for the next year. We appreciate you guys. Of course, they've already signed up.

But if you haven't, get Jesse's newsletter, get access to our Discord. Get discounts over at the pH and X locker all the time. Do it now. Join us over here. Also a great gift this holiday season is getting yourself and some friends, glasses from Shady Rays. They have all sorts of different available options, including shade, snow goggles, and prescription glasses.

And of course, they are an independent sunglass company with a world-class product that is just as good as the expensive companies without costing you as much. They also have that loss and broken replacement plan that I've taken advantage of in which if you lose or break your sunglasses, even on day one, they told us they will get you a brand new pair. No questions asked. So make sure to check out our friends at Shady Ray's. Like I said, they right now have their biggest sale of the year for Black Friday.

Don't miss out on the best deals for shade, snow goggles, and those prescriptions. sunglasses, go to Shadyrays.com and try for yourself. The Shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. But if getting your loved ones sunglasses isn't enough this holiday season, maybe you want to get your loved ones just some cold hard cash. And a great way to do that, of course, is with the best holiday gift anyone can get, especially last minute shoppers,

Arizona lottery holiday scratchers, which, by the way, can we get one? Can I get a scratcher? I want a scratcher. I want to scratch a scratcher right now because talking about scratchers makes it. Thank you so much. Damon, you are a wonderful human being. He even brought me something to scratch it with.

Jesse, do you want to talk about procrastinating when it comes to Christmas gifts, holiday gifts? I've talked about it plenty. Yeah, I don't feel like I have much more to add about my holiday shopping procrastination at this point. So, Derek is scratching this.

I'm scratching. A small A-S-M- Five bucks Hey $5 on my first scratcher of the season See it's that easy it's a $1 scratcher I just made a $500% profit On this scratcher

So what do you say That is see how easy that is See now I just have money One dollar get five Is that the first one anyone's done Is that the first one anyone's done And it's a winner and it's a winner And it's a winner

That's because I scratch the Arizona lottery You owe me $2 and 50 cents Is that how we're going to work this? Yeah I think so I thought we said 70-30 at one point. If I was going to do the scratching work, I said 70-30. No, no, I never agree with that. You've got to figure out your scratching with your friends, whoever gets it.

Of course, there is a scratcher for everyone on your list. Scratchers started just $1, and you can win up to half a million dollars. I didn't win that on this one, but I'm going to scratch some more. I'm feeling lucky. We'll see what we get. But go out and buy your holiday scratchers today. They're perfect for stocking stuffers. They're perfect for last-minute gifts.

And they're just perfect. Forget last-minute gifts. They're perfect for people who think ahead like me. I will go out and get scratchers. but I'm not going to wait until the last minute like this guy. I'm going to go do it today. You can do that too. Sorry,

I hate to keep throwing you under the bus. I'm sorry. I felt like I was so nice to you last week with the Thanksgiving episode that I really have to turn it. That's true. Yeah, you have to make up for that. It was kind of gross.

It was kind of gross. But again, you guys know, 2023, obviously, was almost the year of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But every year is our year on this show. Every year is the year of the snake. Of course, every month on this show is Black.

History Month. Every month on this show, Women's History Month. Every month on this show, Black Women's History Month. Every month is Pride Month. Every week is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day. But Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. All right. Thanks again

to Megarand for that wonderful song. We got some mailbag questions. What do we got? And first question comes from our guy Gabriel at bold as bronze on Twitter. He says, what are your expectations for next season? Playoffs, world series title or more development? You know, I think if they win between 75 and 78 games, I think you're probably feeling pretty good about the 20, 24 season. Not even funny.

Get out. Get out. It's World Series title or bust. That's the answer. If you're in position to buy at the trade deadline. I think everyone's happy, right? No, that's not true. Meaningful games.

Meaningful games in September? Meaningful games in August? Maybe like at least like try to be competitive for most of the season. No, I think it's unfair to say that the Diamondbacks have to win the World Series in 2024. Otherwise, the season is failure. He's right. I think that that's going a little bit too far. I know that they fell just short of that in 20203.

And theoretically, this team gets better over the off season and is well positioned to make, you know, another run in 2024, but baseball is baseball baseball you know what I mean. The devs only won 84 games. They had a minus negative run differential. If we're being honest, his team was was ahead of schedule. Yeah, who said that many times. I don't think anyone saw this roster making it as far as they did. But I think you got to make the playoffs.

I think that's where I would start for 2024. If the debacks missed the playoffs after finding their way all the way to the World Series, I think that would be a disappointment. they find their way into the playoffs i think that's a success um and you know anything beyond that of course would be great i'm sure you know people would love to see them get back to the world series if they can do that but for me it's it starts with with just making the playoffs that's it's it for me too i don't even want to start on this whole you know now now they should win the you know nOS division um look yeah i think that's frankly an unrealistic goal yeah i mean the dodgers

the dodgers are bringing jason hayward back on a one year deal yeah the dodgers the dodgers signed Jason Hayward so you know they mean business this offseason there right he's right i mean we got we got we got we got a pump our brakes on expectations about winning the n-rars that's how it works that's well those are the building blocks actually signing someone like jason heyward to one-year deal just further confirms for me that they're going to sign show hey otani because they're not going out and upgrading themselves at outfielder and that's not to take anything away i feel like i'm slandering jason heyward here with this whole thing yet he's still excellent nothing is more dodgers than jason hayward having an eight-13 o pf yeah

That's what I'm saying. You had a great season. I'm just saying you really want to just see this team have sustained success as far as playoff runs go. I want to see them back here. I want to see them competing again. You know, I'm not,

I'm not going to act like I'm going to be super satisfied if they make the playoffs and go out in the first round or anything like that. But seeing this team continue to be competitive, continue to make it again into that postseason and have an opportunity at that run is really all I'm looking for at this point. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. All right.

What else we got? next question comes from Rudy. Rudy on Twitter at Rudy Barron 20 asked since Sunny Gray is now off the market what starting pitcher do you think we are going to target? I think Japanese left-handed starting pitcher Imanaga might be a great target if we can't get Yamamoto. I think a lot of these guys are getting a lot of attention. I think based on what we saw there of the sunny gray deal, I'm feeling that starting pitching is going to be very expensive, just like what we're going to see in the limited third base market. So I don't know. I don't know at this point who the Diamondbacks are going to go out and get.

But both of those guys for me would be a win as far as I'm concerned. And I feel like the Diamondbacks could potentially bring in someone like Imanaga and you could see them thrive here and flourish and have a good season. You know, it might be, you know, it might be the better choice of the two as far as, you know, what we see production-wise out of them and what the results are. But you just don't know how any pitcher from a different country or different league is going to acclimate to Major League Baseball. there's no way to tell until they get here and start playing. I honestly, because of that variable,

I would like to see them go with a more established major league baseball starter. You know, maybe someone that isn't going to be as flashy and isn't going to be right now as big of a draw for a lot of the teams interested that they could maybe, you know, save some money on. You want Jordan Montgomery? Yes, Jordan Montgomery is the guy I want, you know that, but he's going to be very expensive.

He's going to be really expensive. And as someone said, that it's crazy of me to think that he would jump ship from one world series team to another. Ha! It's all about the money, folks, just to remind you that. The Diamondbacks make an offer. Montgomery will be a Diamondback. But yeah, I mean, ideally, that's kind of the direction I'd rather go.

So, yeah, I mean, Sunny Gray was one of those top tier starters, like we said earlier. And I think they're, should the debacks have given Sunny Gray 3 and 75, I don't know, that that is a pretty high AV as we talked about earlier. But, yeah, I mean, I don't think I see the debacks getting Blake's now. I don't think I see the debacks getting Yamamoto. The prices on those guys just going to be insane. So, you know, Sunny Gray now off the table. So I think Jordan Montgomery is maybe the last guy

and that kind of top tier starters where you could kind of see the debacks, at least being able to make some noise and make an offer. Do they wind up with the highest offer to Jordan Montgomery? I still would probably say no. Do you want them to make the highest offer to Jordan Montgomery? I would probably say no personally. I think that he's more of a mid-rotation guy than the top of the rotation guy.

I don't know if you want to give someone like that $130 million or whatever it winds up taking. So yeah, I don't think that the answer is one of those guys, frankly. If they're able to find a way to get Montgomery, you know, I guess that would be the next guy that it would make sense to at least, you know, see what the market is like, see what things look like there. And to pay a lot of money on.

Yeah. To pay a lot money on. But yeah. Connors wanted him since July. We did too. We wanted him to, when the Cardinals were trading him, which again,

it's really weird, the talent that the Cardinals traded away, and now the talent that they're bringing in to fill their starting rotation gaps there. But, hey, I don't know. I just think in the end, Montgomery is probably going to end up costing too much money.

Most likely. And yeah, beyond that, if he's not an option, then I guess Shodibinaaga, I do think that's an interesting one. We've talked about him on the show a little bit. it and if it's not him then i guess you look to the trade market right bring back

wayd mily gordon burns is out there Wade mildly is a free agent bring back way to try to bring back Wade mildly uh he's still i mean he's still putting up the numbers i know referrals aren't so shiny anymore but uh he still had like a low three r a i think last year for the brewer's so uh yeah it's a it's a really tough market and i know some people were saying it in the chat earlier it seems like the trade market might be where the diamondbacks have to turn if they are going going to land, you know, one of those top tier starters that a lot of people are hoping they get. Hot take, since his name has been brought up in the chat, I think Trevor Bauer will play an MLB baseball this year.

Oh, I don't think it'll be for the Diamondbacks, but I think he will be. There is no chance that Trevor Bauer plays for the Diamondbacks. No. I would be utterly shocked. No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And I'm, this might age poorly if they turn around and do that. But I just have, I have less than zero percent chance of them.

signing him but I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in baseball this year. All right, what else we got, Damon? Next question comes from our baby boy, Aaron Hughes, and Aaron asked, there's an obvious hole in the outfield right now missing a bit power, uh, hitting bat. None of the big names have come off the market. What are your all favorite options to fill the spot? Producer included. Oh, he's thinking of you, Damon. Yeah, Aaron's a good guy. How nice of him. Do you want to kick things off? Uh, yeah, I want either Solera or J.D. Martinez, I think, to fill that dh spot and then i think ideally jordan montgomery as we're just talking about we get to get a high level lefty um you want jd martinez to play outfield i don't know about that damon i don't know about that

well it's do you think that they have do you think that they will go after a big dh like that and a starting outfielder i mean on paper that would be ideal i have i have a little bit of skepticism that they will land a really solid offensive dh and outfielder and in addition to their starting pitcher need and they need a backup. Like it's kind of hard to see all that coming together. So I guess I would, my ideal way would probably be to go, I would get like Solair,

Montgomery and maybe like Tommy Fam on a short term deal. Bring back Tommy Fam. I don't hate it. I don't hate it at all. What do you think, Jesse? Yeah. I mean, if they don't wind up having the resources to fill every single one of those needs,

then yeah, I mean, Tommy Fam, bring coming back on a, you know, on a one year deal. to DH certainly wouldn't be the worst thing and I think would be an upgrade over what they'd have in house. The Baltimore Orioles are an interesting team to me.

I think they have, they have the ability to unload an outfielder if the diamondbacks could persuade them to Anthony Santander is a name that stands out to me as, Nailed it. Nailed it. You nailed it. Sorry. Go ahead. Sorry.

Sorry. All right, Derek. If my name's a little hard to pronounce, that's okay. Okay, you know what I mean? You nailed it, though. I'm not trying to judge you. I also nailed a Eugenio Svarez. No, you did.

I'm guaranteed you. Still, you refuse to believe me. Refused to believe that. But yeah, Anthony Santander has one more, he's under contract for one more season. So it's still be kind of a stop gap, but I don't think it would cost an outrageous amount to get him. The Orioles have a lot of depth position player wise. I don't know exactly what they would want in return. So whether there's a true match there, not totally sure, but he was a good hitter last year.

257, 325 on base, 472 slugging percentage. He hit 28 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles. You could find a way to get someone like that on this team. I think that would go a long way. Yeah, and free agency, I just don't know if I see an outfielder that would really move the needle for them too much. If you want to put Jorge Soler in the outfield, I think he would be, you know,

his bad is certainly something that I think they would like, but you probably want Jorge Soler to deal. more than you want him in the outfield at this point for sure and i mean honestly uh the don bax just could do the thing that you know we're going that they're going to do and that is get show hey otani and that fixes the starting pitching n dh problem right yeah yeah clearly that's easier than going yeah he's affordable and he's he's reliable like you know you're going to get a hundred to a year's 2024 yeah absolutely he's definitely not just have tommy john surgery uh so yeah checks all the checks all the box we solve that problem all right damon what else we got

uh michael wrote you did you did you give your no i don't really have anything i mean horace like soler is is like my best option there and like jesse said i don't i don't really know because when you look at the options for outfielders there's just not great ones i mean when you look at in free agency it's very free agency i mean you have you literally have lordis being one of the best available free you might be the best right right uh not the best i mean cody bellinger Cody Bellinger. Yeah. Like he's probably like fourth best, third best, arguably.

Well, that's why I like Tommy Fam on like a, you know, one year, eight million dollar deal, bring him back. He's a good postseason player too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, like Jesse said, Soler can play some outfield.

You just don't want them to play out there very much. That's, that's the big key there. He's just not great at it. And he doesn't have, I know a lot of people have talked about wanting someone who has a good throwing arm, which I do think would make some sense.

Yeah. Or is Saler. Uh, his arm is kind of average. his range is well below average so i just don't really think you you want him playing a whole lot of defense Connor says weren't we saying the same thing about lordis last year and he became a solid left fielder after a couple of months i mean yeah he had a lot of defensive run say but again lordis i mean lordis just had an uncommonly good season out there really good year defensively yeah i did you know i i think any outfielder that comes in here could benefit from you know some of the coaching that

the diamond backs have they clearly have the ability to uh you know help yeah help guys guys reach new levels defensively in the outfield. But I think Lourdes may be a little more athletic than like a horace of layer. Yep, I agree. All right. What else we got? Michael Rokicke asks, you can only choose one. Corbyn Carol on the cover of MLB the show 24, the Dutch bros back at Chasefield.

This is an outrageous question because it's the first one by a hundred miles. Corby and Carol on the cover of MLB the show versus getting to drink coffee at the ballpark, which doesn't make sense anyway. What about the video game cover curse? Stop it. Stop it. What about what? Video game cover curses. Can I just selfishly say, if this question is to me,

how does Corbyn Carroll being on the cover of a video game help me, Jesse? What does that do for me? It's an achievement for him. It's a very big achievement for the organization. You are unbelievably selfish. get blended rebel again at Chase Field? Are you kidding me?

I'm taking the Dutch pros at Chase Field 10 times out of 10 there. Also, it's 70 bucks out of your pocket too. Yeah. For the show. For the show. Yeah. Sorry. I'm just saying I don't want to curse Corbyn. I don't want people to know. I want them to forget Corbyn Carroll exist until he

steals three bags on him and it's a home run. That's what I want. So I'm fine. I'm fine with him not being on the cover. With those ballpark prices? Isn't your isn't your fancy little beverage there about $70 too? I don't care, Jesse. You get three of those to $70? It's the place where I work.

I am fine with that. I just want my Dutch pros back. That's all I want. It's all I want. I don't think it's that hard to ask. It's not, it's, you know,

again, it's very limited things at Chasefield that I need in my life. Bring back Panda Express and bring back Dutch pros. But of course, the one thing that will never leave me, of course, is the BetMGM Sportsbook app, whether I'm at Chasefield,

whether I'm at home, That's the one thing they can't take away from me and install a new one in. I have control over that. You can sign up today and have some fun with any sports that you watch by placing your first bet MGM sports book wager through their mobile application of at least $10. Using our code of PHNX, if you do, you will receive $200 instantly in additional winnings regardless of your wager's outcome. All you have to do is sign up and use our code of PHNX, deposit at least $10 into your newly

created account and place a wager in that amount or more at a standard odds price. Once you've done so, you will receive $200 instantly in bonus bets regardless of the outcome of your wager. Of course, lately I've still been getting down. We get down on some of the Sons bets. As far as Jesse goes, Jesse has converted over to a part-time Sons reporter. So I've been using his tweets to go over there. I've been analyzing points per game, things like that that he keeps tweeting out. I don't know who's paying him to do that.

I don't know what the purpose of him doing. I don't know at what point he joined the Sons podcast. A well-informed SunSpan. It's frustrating to me. He puts more work into that than he does in replying to my text messages. And it bothers me every single time. But of course, you could sign up for the BetMGM and do whatever you want with their mobile application again. Bet how you wish to use that bonus code PHNX place your first sportsbook wager through the mobile application of at least $10.

You will receive $200 instantly in additional winnings regardless of your wager's outcome. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 100 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Jersey, New York. Call 8778, Hope and Y, or text Hope and Y, 467-369-6-9-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0, Massachusetts.

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my point is is who's paying him to do that that's my point goodness in my heart derr i give the people what they want see that's you're you're just trying they're helping you to like shut up and dribble basically but by dribble he means shut up and play ball is what i want and when i say play ball i mean baseball not basketball jesse it's infuriating to me uh but uh speaking of getting you to make some money uh sign up for a desert financial credit union account. You can get yourself $200 in bonuses instantly. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union.

They've been dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and to their customers and providing financial solutions that make your life better. They got me started on my home ownership journey and they can get you started as well. Look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options and more. And again, when you open a free checking account online right now during this holiday season, when money is, when money is very important, you can get $200 in bonuses to get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. We got some more mailbag Monday questions. Damon, what else we got there in the mailbag? Next question comes from Travis Moore. Travis says, considering the sunny signing, what are your ideal realistic signings, trains to solidify the rotation? Who are you willing to give up in trades? What is the rotation order at that point? And I think that's the bigger question.

here from Travis is we talk a bit about the free agency market and we talk about trades but what are we willing to give up and I think that's the part of it when we look at some of these deals it doesn't feel like too much when it's considering minor league guys you know like it just depends on which minor league guys are part of the equation obviously there are guys that are kind of off limits like drew Jones I feel Jordan Lawler is kind of off limits right but if the right deal came this way for Jordan Lawler, do you think he would be part of it potentially? I think that's the question that debacks might have to answer. It's a little hard to envision them landing,

Corbin Burns, a Dylan C, and Tyler Glass now, one of those really good starting pitchers that is available in the trade market without giving up, you know, at least Drew Jones. I think,

I think Jordan Lawler has probably the most trade value of anyone that they'd be willing to part with. But Drew Jones still has probably a decent amount of trade value, even though the start to his pro career has obviously not been great. Tommy Troy, I'm sure, the debaq's first round pick from this 2023 draft. Also a guy, I'm sure the teams would be asking about if there's a way to get one of those bigger names starting pitchers in the trade market without giving up one of those three guys, it feels like you might just have to do it.

And it, I mean, it might be Uminlin. It might be Ivan Melendez. It might be, you know, Christopher Torin. a young guy who's still a number of years away, but someone that I think a lot of people in the organization are excited about, you might just have to get to a place where if you can avoid giving up one of those top three prospects, then, you know, anyone else is sort of on the table and you just try to make the package work as well as you can. But again, I'm not sure that you can get to a place where you're able to acquire one of those top starters

without giving up, Loller, Troy, or Drew Jones. I'm just not sure that there would be enough there for, you know, a team like the White Sox to give up two years of Dylan Cs at really, you know, really affordable contract over these next couple seasons. So we'll see how it turns out, but this is probably a question that debacks are grappling with right now. And the other thing there is the Corbyn Burns rumors and the packages for him didn't seem to be too much. But at the same time, you're only getting one year of Corbyn Burns. Right. And is it really enough? if it brings you a world series title in 2024,

then the answer is yes. I don't feel like there's any price too, you know, expensive if you could look into the future potentially and see that you would actually win the World Series in 2024. So no way to know that. You know, and like you said, the dimebacks have a lot of things to,

a lot of questions to answer there when it comes to who they are willing to trade and, and, you know, what they want in return. The biggest thing that scares me is, again, the trade market last year we talked about so many potential starting pitchers that the diamondbacks could trade for and outside of jordan montgomery outside of one or two guys from that list most of them were not really seemingly worth the money in the second half with their new team then or worth the trade asset whatever it was right so uh interesting to see how that uh basically you know works itself out here for the diamondbacks well else we got damon next question comes from diamond back one three two five frank the tank he asked will the diamondbacks make any free agent science findings this off season looking pretty thin at the moment for players in their price range unless of course they make a huge splash i mean mike hazen is very good i think at

at making those under the radar moves and i wouldn't be surprised again like we said if their big focus is starting pitching and then from that point we do see a little bit of the of the bargains you know some of the deals i don't know what's going to cost to bring some of these guys over but i will say that it's got to be pretty appealing for a lot of players to want to join a team that just made the world series is young One was exciting, has good coaching staff, seems to have things going in the right direction as far as, you know, from an organizational standpoint. So like I would think that would make for an attractive destination, but some of the prices are pretty high. It's kind of like Black Friday. The Black Friday deals weren't great, Jesse.

Cyber Monday deals. Cyber Monday deals, yeah. I'm a little mad. I made some, I made some purchases that I'm looking a little bad now. Yeah, Cyber Monday makes you regret all of your Black Friday purchases. better deals on Monday that we are Friday. What are we doing here? Why are we doing this to people?

I don't know. We won't do that to you, PGNX. It's the same deals all weekend long. What was I going to say? I don't know. Oh, yes. So, I mean, is the question, will the Diamondbacks make any free agent signings?

Yes. Yes. Yes. The answer is yes. Of course they will. Yeah, of course they will. They have to. Will they, yeah,

will they sign Jordan Montgomery or, you know, sign someone to, you know, a nine-figure deal? Then, you know, that's obviously a different question. question. But yeah, the diamondbacks are absolutely going to sign at least one free agent and more likely more in order to meet all of the needs that they have this offseason. All right, Damon Wells, we got. Sean, I think it's Sean McNally, uh, asks if the debacks traded Alec Thomas for say a starting pitcher, do you feel the drop off to Jake McCarthy? Is that significant or considering everything you keep the status quo? That's a great question.

It's fascinating. And I hate it because I hate the idea of trading Alec Thomas. Our young King goes nowhere, but like you said, if the deal is right and it's a significant enough starting pitcher that gives you multiple years of control and not for someone like Corby Burns, then, I mean, Jake McCarthy is, is, he's capable, but do you really want Jake McCarthy out there in center field every day? I don't know. I mean, we've seen him at times be quite good, and we've seen him at times be quite good at the plate. But again, the difference between, you know, someone who can play baseball and the good and great baseball players is consistency. How often can you do it?

How good are you all the time? And I think Jake, that's the, that's the thing. I mean, obviously, Alec wasn't the best offensively last year. So it doesn't feel like the drop off as far as offensive production is significant. But the defensive drop off, I think, is pretty significant. Yeah, I mean, it kind of reminds me of last season when the debacks were going to trade one of their left-handed hitting outfielders. And they eventually came to the conclusion that, I mean, they weren't going to trade Corbyn Carroll. But they came to the conclusion that trading Varsho made the most sense because he just brought.

brought them the best return by a pretty wide margin. Right. And I kind of wonder if this offseason, you're in a somewhat similar situation where you can trade Alec Thomas, you can trade Dominic Fletcher, you could trade Jake McCarthy, the debacks still have depth at that position. But Alec Thomas is probably going to get you more than McCarthy or Fletcher would, maybe by a significant margin. I don't know exactly how these guys are viewed by the diamond backs or by other teams.

But there's a lot of value in what Alec Thomas gives you defense. in addition to still being as young as he is, right, 23 years old, and still having an offensive ceiling that I think is a little bit intriguing. I still think there are probably some teams out there, perhaps including the Diamondbacks, who believe that Alec Thomas can still turn things around and still be a pretty good hitter when all is said and done, not just against righties, but against lefties as well.

So I do think there's a pretty decent drop-off there for the debacks defensively. I think Jake McCarthy is probably about an average center fielder, whereas Alec Thomas is an elite center fielder. There's a pretty big difference there. And I think there's more to like moving forward about what Alec Thomas could become offensively. But yeah, I guess I wouldn't rule it out necessarily. I mean, it could be that Alec Thomas gets you the big starting pitcher or whatever, and you just kind of had to bite the bullet and make that move.

But I would still be pretty surprised if they trade Alec Thomas. it seems like they view him very highly. We weren't in love with the idea of trading Dalton Varshow, but like Jesse said, the return that we ended up getting and everything that happened this season kind of made us completely forget in a way about our feelings of you forgot about Dalton Vars show, Gary? Apprehension about trading more of that.

I did. Yeah. Oh, you've already forgot about them all together. Oh, you monster. All right. One more question. And that comes from our Kingsnake Cogs. Cogs asked, if Diamondbacks ask you design a completely brand new jersey as an additional option. in their wardrobe what would be the theme design and colors you use that's a lot this could be a whole show cogs you're dropping us on this at the last minute here this is a big one um i i feel like

there's some quintessential things that i would need to include it would need to be a vest of some kind okay to bring back the the greatness of the vest jersey pinstripes would need to be included And I'm okay I'm okay with I mean keeping the color scheme as it is if we didn't want to venture too far away Like I'm okay with doing kind of a new version of the best But bringing in the Sedona Red and the and the teal accents and stuff like that But one one important thing there has to be copper on it somewhere has to be copper I want copper interesting I think copper should be part I mean I know I mean everyone wants purple right I mean I guess it's so easy Correct answer here is to just bring back one of the old throwback

I mean, that that's sort of the answer right there, I think. What if it was purple? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, right. I will say that I'm intrigued at the thought of an all, an all teal uniform now that they're kind of embracing teal and what it, what it brings to the color scheme. Maybe something like kind of Seattle Mariners is, but not like our own thing, right? Yeah.

I think that, you know, if you're really going to bring teal in and make it not like your primary color but you know a secondary color that is very prominent all of these new designs i think it'd be fun to just kind of go all out and make a teal jersey that you wear every now and then uh and yeah you know see see see what uh see see what people think of it it's not if it's not purple then it's not gonna be good enough but i thought that whole cedona red thing with the diamondbacks all across was going to be too much but hey it's not right i and i kind of like that jersey so uh there we go there you go we got you we got you do them both that maybe we do an all an all teal uniform with like copper lettering?

That's like Tucson sidewinder. And those are pretty sweet. Yes, we figured it out. There you go. There it is. There it is. I like that. There's your answer.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, that's all we got. We thank you guys so much for your mailbag Monday questions. We will be back here tomorrow. We will also have quite possibly this week our biggest in studio guest that we've ever had. Stay tuned. So stay tuned for that. You can follow us on Twitter.

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