PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Do the Diamondbacks have the BEST rotation in baseball after signing Jordan Montgomery?

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

WE PLAY FOR RINGS IN THE DESERT! We are joined by the one and only Jake Storiale aka Talkin’ Jake from Jomboy to discuss the Diamondbacks acquisition of free agent pitcher Jordan Montgomery. Does Monty make the D-backs rotation one of the best in MLB? Also, we discuss some of our bold predictions for the 2024 season and the breaking news about Jordan Lawlar’s injury.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.

Let's go. Where's the drum solo? Ready for it? One more time. One more time. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX due back show. Of course, the last one without actual regular season baseball. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor, PHNX. This man next to me is your vice mayor and your thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman.

We are still riding very high on the news that the Arizona Diamondbacks have signed pitcher Jordan Montgomery. Still doesn't seem believable. I still don't really believe it. I lost a lot of sleep over it last night. Just thinking about it. Just dreaming. Just thinking thoughts. You know,

just having things swirl around in my head about starting rotations and who might be the best in baseball. But of course, we have one man who is an expert when it comes to snakes and snake handling. And it is the one and only talking Jake. Jake story, Ali from John Boy. Jake, what is up, my man?

What's going on, boys? How about an old friend of mine is a new friend of mine, Jordan Montgomery. And I'm happy to be here. I know that's like the corny do anything line. But I was literally, I saw your DM come through. And I was like, tomorrow's brutal. Like I can't do tomorrow.

I opened up the schedule, one gap on it, four to four 30. Let's talk snakes. And then we got big news. I know. That's huge. It's huge news. It's absolutely huge news. And of course, we did want to tell you, good job on defending the pool.

I know things didn't go our way during the World Series. but we do appreciate you being on guard and preventing any shenanigans from happening in that area. There was a guy begging me. It went from, hey, if we hit a grand slam, you'll jump in the pool, right? To, hey, if we hit a homer, you'll jump in the pool, right? To at one point he was negotiating if we get a runner on base, you'll get in the pool. And I was like, hey, man, I would love to get in that pool, but we need some runs. And that's a, hey, that's in our rear view now.

absolutely absolutely now what we have is all of these offseason moves the diamondbacks have made and of course the big news is jordan montgomery we know you are very familiar uh with him uh so i guess we wanted to get your thoughts on you know the diamondbacks making this kind of 11th hour decision to bring on somebody of monte's caliber well first i mean shout out to the snakes front man i mean our our talking baseball high level snakes kind of going away line was like all right Well, you know, I hope they add something, but, but, you know, they just had some success. They're going to let the kids play. And then to add, you know, two of the best lefty starters in Erod and Monty, the additions to the lineup, like everyone, everyone was saying by to Lordus Gariel.

He resigns. They trade for A. Oh, Hennio. It's what they've done this offseason is what every team hopes for, right? like your a window has opened up let's go for it in the monte news you know that everyone was looking for teams for him and snell nothing became apparent and uh you wonder i don't know you wonder did the erot injury matter at all is it the fact that all of boris's clients ended up on the west coast that the snakes are like well if we're doing this uh let's do it but man monte's fun he'll uh he's kind of a low i don't want to say low energy guy that sounds rude

But he's, you know, he's pretty straight face. But if he gets the big out, he's going to show you some emotion. He'll get jacked up. And I guess the only thing I'd warn Snake's fans is when he was with the Yanks, sometimes he'd go through stretches where like the first inning was tough because he was finding out what his second best pitch was going to be that day, whether it's kind of his curveball or the change up. So sometimes in the first inning, he's searching a little bit.

But when he gets in a rhythm, man, he's one of those guys. He look up and it's like, wow, Monty's retired. 12 straight and you're like wow damn let's go jake i'm still trying to just figure out how jordan montgomery signed a deal that only guarantees him 25 million dollars like as of a few months ago i think we were all expecting it to be at least four times that maybe up to six times that like that was sort of the expectation obviously he's not the only one in this kind of position blake snell matt chapman Cody Bellinger, really all of the Scott Boris clients seem to have gotten a lot less than we expected. What do you make of the market that has kind of taken shape for him or I guess didn't really take shape for him?

And just kind of the Boris situation is a whole where he just wasn't able to get nearly as much money for his clients as a lot of people expected. Jesse wants to say it that way, but he really means is Boris washed? Is Boris washed? Correct. John or finished. No, I, again, I feel like. I've had the conspiracy hat on a little too much recently between Shohei and now the Boris stuff. Right.

That this one hurt the most. And I'll circle to that a little bit. Boris has a huge crop of free agents next year, guys that like Juan Soto, Pete Alonzo, guys that this won't happen to. So was there some owners? You know, we don't, we'll never say collusion. I don't know. I don't know. I know for Snell, for Snell, for Cody, for Matt Chapman,

there were question marks coming into their free agency. You know, Chapman, after his first month, he had a rough go last year, and his numbers had been coming down. Snell, that's the one I defend the most because, like, if we're just knocking people for winning Sigh Youngs because they walk guys, like I'm making a walk and single combined stat because it's the same thing. Like, I know we have whip and a, you know, but like, a walk is, single and that's how I'm operating right now because the year before that Dylan C's finished second

in the Cy Young when he led the A. Ellen walk. So like there's a world where that can be not as damaging as it used to be previously. That's a whole other speech. And then for me, Cody, he obviously had the injuries in the couple of years where he wasn't good. Monty has been Monty. He eats innings. He gives you, you know, close to a quality start every fifth day. You know, should he be penalized that he's actually kind of peaking. Like in those playoffs, when he was mowing down, Yoran Alvarez, and he tapped into a little something more with St. Louis and Texas, like he's the guy that should have been the easiest,

hey, four or five years, somewhere between 20 and 30 million. Let's put him in our rotation. Right. And for him, that's the one that hurt the most because, like, I half get the other guys. And if they have a monster year, which they're all capable of, They'll still get paid. Like outside of Boris or whatever.

If Snell shoves this year, he just won the Siong and shoved again. And his career, like, everything's good. Cody does it back to back years. So the Monty won't hurt the most because he doesn't necessarily have the highest level stuff, but he's going to give you a good year. So his free agency is going to look very similar next year. I don't know, but I'm happy for the snakes. Yeah, we are too.

Like, we're, any, any, anything that happened that allowed this to be reality is fine with us, right? But Derek doesn't care how it happened. I don't give a shit. I'm like, I'm fine with it. Let's, uh, let's just not worry about how it happened. Well, I will say, like, I do feel like time impacted this a lot. Like you said, I mean, there is something to be said about the owners basically maybe deciding or maybe not, you know, maybe not getting together and deciding, but just overall having the feeling like, we're not going to let Scott Boris do a do this to us again. We're not going to make Scott Boris, you know, make us sign these clients to forward.

year deals for billions of dollars and all of this stuff that's going on. So it felt like really it came down to if Jordan Montgomery doesn't play this year or if he doesn't sign soon with a team, it could jeopardize him playing this year. And then what happens to him? I'm not saying a team isn't going to get desperate due to injury and come to them, but it also feels like, you know, they kind of played their hand and they made it out like, you know, some of his top clients could wait. And then time ran out on them and they had to make a choice.

$25 million is still a lot of money. It's more money than at least us on this side of the table is going to see. We don't know about you, Jake. But of course, we know that that's one of those situations where it's like, all right, that's not the worst deal. It's not the long-term deal you get at the age of 31. I think he's 31 right now. 31, yeah.

Yeah, like that's an age where, like you said, he should be getting that four or five, six-year deal at this point. It's kind of crazy that he's not. But still, at the very least, he can go out and play for a contender and prove himself somehow need to prove himself, I guess, once again, that he's worthy of a longer deal. Oh, hey, and not, you know, not to cross, crossfire at the owners too much, but I just kind of had a moment of realization that, you know, all of us today are talking about Boris. Like, in a way, this is a huge win for the owners who held out on signing Snell and signing Monty, signing Matt Chapman. So look at that little spin zone.

And, yeah, I mean, I'm still very much on that side of the table than closer to the owners. I'm debating if I'm getting Taco Bell for dinner tonight. So, you know, we're getting a couple YouTube views, but the wall is not fat yet. Jake, a big question that we've been asked in the last 24 hours, I guess less than 24 hours since this happened, is whether the Diamondbacks have the best starting rotation in all of baseball. I don't know if I'm, I don't know if I'm quite there. I don't think I'm there. I look at the Dodgers and what they have.

I know Yamamoto was not at all good in Korea, but I still think there's a lot of reason to believe he'll turn. and things around. The depth that they have is impressive. I like it with the Braves have, you know, with Strider and Freed at the top. Charlie Morton and Chris Sale, that's a pretty solid top four that they've got the Mariners, of course, even though Brian Wu's going to miss time. Their top four is still really, really good without him. Where do you see the Dback stacking up here?

They have the best rotation in baseball or how close do you think they are? I wouldn't say, I don't think they'll be the top rotation in baseball. and maybe even, maybe even not top three, but what I'll say with that is that they might, they can't be worse than like, again, I'm guessing a little bit, but like, eighth. Like, the talent they do have is pretty safe talent. Like, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery, and I know Erod's banged up right now, but when those guys are pitching, they're pretty safe. Like a lot of those guys don't have bad numbers on their baseball.

reference page. And then once you move all the young guys down, fought Henry Nelson, like, you know, the opportunity for those guys to be a five is insane. So, and obviously Zach Gallant is a guy guy at the top. One of the other rotations in baseball probably fully clicks, whether that's Dodgers. You know, there's a couple sneaky ones. Like Toronto was under the radar really good last year. But I think when you look at kind of Kind of how we picture or, and again, sometimes I wonder where when I was a spoiled Yankee fan growing up and like what a team would feel like, you know, when you look at your rotation, every team wants a one, you love to have the two guy.

And then you kind of, the innings eaters or, you know, this guy might break out this year, a guy like fought. And like, the snakes have that. And now seeing all the young guys slide down the ladder, it makes them look that much better. It's probably a top five rotation if you're being safe. Is it, do you think it's safe to say that there's like 10, 15 other teams in baseball that should have given Montgomery the deal that the Diamondbacks just did? Yes.

And well, the other thing that I'm deciding how I want to attack it is through this offseason when contracts were rolling out, you know, you're kind of like, oh, I like that contract. That's a good fit. And, you know, that was with Snell and Monty and a couple other things looming that. We kind of need to revisit how the pitching market went down. Like even I say this in an endearing way, Erod, four for 80, like would Snell or excuse me, would Monty have taken that? And then what does each of their free agency's like?

Sonny Gray got three for 75, which is one third of Jordan Montgomery, which that, doesn't feel right for the the younger lefty pitcher who's peaking. And, you know, Sunny Great did finish second in the site young last year. Even Marcus Stroman, Marcus Roman signed for two for like 38 and a half or something like that, that we were kind of like, whoa, that's incredible value. And it still might be. But now seeing some of the other contracts, it's like, okay, that's a little more on par to what this free agency was. that if, you know, if a couple teams had the chance to do it over, you know, would you just pay an extra buck for Snell?

Would you pay an extra buck for Monty? I don't know. I think there's a couple teams with slight buyer remorse. Like, again, this is just strappinal for no reason. The Cardinals got their work done early. The Cardinals find Gibson and Lance Lynn, who, you know, they're looking for a lot of innings and those guys can give them to you for 13. mill and 11 mil and you just wonder if you're spending that kind of money and those guys could have been XYZ I don't know um different for agency yeah I mean we kind of have that a little bit with

jd martinez at least I do because I'm a huge lover of jd martinez and Derek still hasn't gotten I'm still not over it now this jordan Montgomery thing does not make me forget about that in fact it makes me go wait so you had jd martineas money is what you're telling me you had it because you spent it so you had it. But like, I mean, yeah, you're right. There's times where you might feel like maybe if a team did go out there too early, maybe, you know, just like a lot of things in life, like you didn't get a last minute deal. You didn't get to shop, you know, kind of that bargain bin in a way where you have all of these very excellent players that were still left, you know, closer and closer to opening day. And I mean, obviously we know that pitchers specifically can, you know, be behind tremendously because they don't start in spring training and don't get ramped up and aren't ready to go out there. and throw 95 pitches on a given night. So it's a big deal for them to get out there. I just wanted to ask you, obviously this impacts things greatly now, but what were your thoughts on the Diamondbacks offseason before this?

I know you brought up a couple of the moves they made. And like, had you already kind of given them a fairly good offseason grade for the moves they made prior to this? Yeah, I think either end of February or early March, we kind of did winners, losers of the offseason, not to be too clicky. And I think the dimebacks were close to consensus winners. I mean, Erod, again, that's a pretty safe bet when you're adding a body to your rotation. Lourdes comes back.

That's plug and play. The Jock Gritchick platoon, man. Like, I know it's, I know you've got some JD mania, but I don't know if those do, if those two outdo them on their respective side of the plates. It's like they, Jock has always killed Ritey's and, uh, Randall has always killed lefties. So like, I, I love myself one platoon per team. Um, and then I'm also an A. Oh, Henio Suarez guy. I think, um, Gino, you know, the, the way that we talk about innings for starting pitchers,

um, A. Uh, uh, Hohenio Suarez is going to be out there. He's going to hit home runs. And, you know, from a third baseman that's, you know, paid at his level, that's fine. Like the Mariners, Mariners fans haven't been too happy with me because, you know, I was like, you still have to replace A Eugenio and they were hitting me with Diti strikes out a lot. And it's like, well, yeah, that's because he's trying to hit home runs and he does that and he plays every day. So, you know, Aeohenio Suarez in the right lineup. And right now I see, you know, fan graphs has him hitting six or seven. That's, that's an awesome, like, fan favorite ball player. If you need Aeohenio to be your two or three hole, your team might have some gaps, but that's not an aohenio problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great point. That's a great point.

Last thing for me, Tori Lavello said a couple weeks ago that he wishes the best players in the league would quit coming to the N. West. I'm guessing he's willing to make an exception for Jordan Montgomery. I think he's probably, he's probably okay with what happened with Jordan Montgomery. But what do you make of just the NL. West as a whole of this offseason?

I mean, it feels like the NL. West did more, made more moves this offseason and basically the rest of baseball, combined with what the Dodgers did with everything the Giants have done in the last month or so. You know, looking at this division on paper, as much as I like the Montgomery move for the debacks, I don't think it necessarily gives them, you know, makes them head and shoulders better than, better than the Giants. I think they are better than the Giants, but it's not necessarily by an enormous

margin given what the Giants did. What do you make of this division and kind of how it looks going into 2024? It's kind of wild how it happened. I mean, we talked about the Boris. for this whole off season. And then, you know, it feels like we've been waiting three years for the Giants big off season. And it didn't look like it was happening.

And then at the end of the day, it happened. Like Jorge Soler is no joke. Matt Chapman. Like, Snell, they went for it. They, Robbie Ray, supposed to come back in midseason. That guy has a sigh in the bag that, you know, they had their big free agency. Chung Huli was 100 mil. And then so right when I was coming to grips with the giants,

I was like, you know what? I definitely have the giants over the Padres. They traded for Dylan's fees. Man, that rotation is going to be a problem. Those are, Michael King is a dude. They've got four dudes in their rotation. You know, their lineup still looks a little funky to me. But if some of those kids click, they're going to be.

And that's before you get to the doctor. So, yeah, right. It's, the NLS showed out this year and I, you know, it's kind of a blessing for expanded playoffs, but there's also a chance that two NLS teams are going to be pretty devastated. Yeah, that's a great point. And that's, I don't know, I know baseball is working to probably like another two-team expansion and a realignment. And if the divisions are like this, man, like shots fired at the central, but like,

it's the east and the west right now uh you know how many teams if how many teams if they got placed in the central would either be a favorite or you'd be like well they could definitely win it yeah yeah and i think it's more than it's more than it should be uh justin in our chat says need jake to tell trevor how to pronounce paven's name it's paven smith paven uh just need to get that clear and I wore a shirt today of a lifeguard on it in honor of you because we definitely have taken over we know what the message was you were trying to send and we are defending the pool here now this season that's a big that's a big thing we got a shirt that says defend the pool we're ready to rock and roll Jake so we got you we'll be out

there in fact we're going to have a pool party on July 31st so I don't know if you're free okay but if you're free maybe grab that private jet because I know about the 25 million like I said earlier. Just flying out. We love to have you. Yeah, I'll DM Monty, I guess. There you go. Yeah, July 31st, okay, okay.

It's a mid-week game. I know it's not easy to make, but we'll try to make something. Yeah, that might be tight. Yeah, but hey, we appreciate you stopping by, man. We love that you love our snakes. And we're really looking forward to watching this team be special this year. I appreciate it.

I'm excited to see everyone on Twitter late night for me this year. That's right. That's right. We will be there. We will be there after dark for you. So thank you, for joining us, man. Appreciate it, boys.

All right, see you. Thanks, Jake. All right, make sure follow him on Twitter at talking Jake. He is the absolute best. And of course, he's also, I know some of you, like still remember his projections, right?

He loves the snakes. He was just being realistic. Like this guy. 70, 73 wins. Seventy wins for the Diamondbacks last year. But he is the best. So big shout out to him. Thank you for being here, of course,

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Bonus bets are non-withdrawable. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel, see betmgm.com for terms. U.S. promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. We did forgot. We forgot to ask Jake about him appearing in snakes alive. We blew it. We blew it, you guys.

He did have a cameo in there. Even with his projections, he still had a cameo in there. Of course, I'm still waiting to see shirtless Derek over there in one of those episodes of Starrie. Thanks a live. You got one more episode to go. We do that one more episode. I'm dying,

but I'm dying to see if I made the cut. When did that happen? Uh, shirtless Derek was when we made it to the world series. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't the Dodge series. It was the,

it was a Philly series. It was the Philly series. It was after the Philly series. So yeah, that was the champagne bottle bat incident. I don't want to talk about it. That's all in the fast. But if you want to see shirtless Derek,

a good place to find him is that he live in resorts and casinos because he lives there sometimes by the pool with a drink in his hand. And you can too because he live river resorts and casinos. offers an authentic and immersive experience, and of course, no one does it better. They have their huge gaming floor slot machines, live gaming tables, all of that jazz. They also have the biggest casino sportsbook that you can find, and they have amazing dining options. So if you want to go, like some people ask me, like, is it still this great experience? If you're not a big gambler, not a big gamer, absolutely.

There's all sorts of options, including, like I said, sitting by the pool and drinking a frozen drink is probably the best way to spend your time. head to Heela River Resorts and Casinos and let them show you what next level is all about. You do you at Healer Riversorts and Casinos. Visit playatheela.com for more details. Boy, there's people that are disappointed that I'm behaving myself. I think Rattlebacks was like I thought Derek would already have $30 in the jar.

I was behaving myself for the guest, but God damn it, we got fucking Jordan Montgomery. Let's go. I got this deal. All right, I'll put money in the jar later. I got it here. I brought money today. I apologize to everyone whose ears are just flasked off.

Yeah, no, they deserve that. That's all Rattlebacks's fault. But of course, you got, oh, I got cash right here. Don't worry. I got plenty of cash. I don't appreciate it. We're putting a 20 in that. Yeah.

Well, you know, I want to get on the right foot. Like, I want to start things off so that I can say a lot of curse words because people are probably going to curse at me for this next segment that we're going to say. I don't know. I think my bold predictions are pretty fun. But Jesse and I decided that after MLB.com boldly predicted that the Arizona Diamondbacks were going to get back to the World Series and win it all. God bless you, Anthony Castrovince.

We decided we would do some bold predictions of our own for the 2024 season. So, Jesse, do me a favor. You want to kick things off with your first bold prediction? I will do that. So my first bold prediction for the Diamondbacks in 2024, I think it's pretty bold. I don't think it's outrageously bold, but I think it's pretty bold. Cote will finish top 10 in NL MVP voting. Top 10.

He has finished top 10. I thought these were bold, bold takes, not just facts. Yeah. That's a spoiler, Jesse. That's not a prediction. Of course, of course. You know that. Catelle Marte finished fourth in MVP voting in 2019.

That, of course, was an enormous, enormous breakout season for him. The baseball in 2019 was wild and crazy and went over the fence a lot. But despite that, Cateel Marte was still very, very good relative to the rest of the league. He had 32 homers that year. He almost hit 3.29, I think it was. He had an extraordinary 2019 season. I don't know if I see him getting quite back to that. point.

What happened? I have a question. What happened during the pandemic? Like, we had Cateau just hitting 320 regularly. It felt like prior do that. And then like, and it's not just Cateau. It's like all offenses like not as good ever since then. Unless you're talking about Luis Reyes, of course.

But like, yeah, this was crazy the way that like when you look back in some of those numbers from like 2010 to 2019, how many, how much offense is kind of dropped off where you just don't see guys with the. crazy numbers that they had at one point. I don't know. I just, I like to blame. 2019 in particular was definitely a season for the baseball.

Yeah, I don't know if the 32 homers that, uh, that Kutel hit that year was, was ever going to be sustainable. But it was an extraordinary season for him. 2021. He came back at a 909 OPS,

uh, hit 318. He didn't play as many games. He was, he was hurt for a good portion of that season. But given what we saw from Ketel last year, you know, an 844 OPS in the regular season,

how much he, he, up the ante in the playoff. and got even better, the NLCS MVP, what we've seen from him in spring training. I feel pretty good about being bullish on Cotel Marte in 2024. I almost went top five in MVP voting. I kind of decided that that was just a little bit too far out of bounds for me. But top 10, I think, is still bold and something that I could still see happening,

given what we've seen from Catell recently. Out of bounds for him. Did you hear that? We are talking about bold takes and he couldn't bring himself to go that far. Do you already just say a win the MVP? Is that the only acceptable answer here? That's what we're talking about. See, Rattlebacks has a bold prediction.

He says Jesse actually drives a Kia. That's a bold prediction. How dare he? It's a Honda. I was going to say that it's definitely not a rap for. I was going to say that I think Ketel will start at second base in the All-Star game, but I think that's even less bold. Yeah, I actually do think that that might be less bold.

There's not as much. I mean, it's a rise. It's Ozzy Albies. I don't think the path for him to start at second base is all that difficult. even though he wasn't even an all-star last year, which kind of seems crazy in retrospect. Get out of my way. I have a bold prediction. Okay.

Give me something that's actually bold. What do you got? Blaze Alexander will not only make the opening day roster for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he will become a household name in 2024. Maybe just in Arizona, but still a household name in 2024. Blaze Alexander, that's what I'm saying. Breakout year, he's going to take over at shortstop. he's going to be incredible.

I think Damon hates you. I understand that. That's why it's a bold thing. It's a bold take to say it in front of Damon while he's sitting here producing our show because this man could easily sabotage us right now. He's crazy right now. Damon, stay over there. Stay over there.

Stay over there. Stay over there. Hey, guys, I had to mute Derek. Sorry. I didn't want him to continue spewing this horseshit on our airwaves. All right. Well, there's that. So that's not very common.

concrete though. He's going to become a household name. How do we measure that? I need some numbers. I need something more concrete than that. A chance to attack me for it prior to this. But no, now he waits until on the show. That means he's going to become a star in 2024.

How many guys on the Arizona Diamondbacks team emerged as stars last year, right? Gabby Moreno, I'm not going to say Corby and Carol because everybody loved Corby and Carol. They were just waiting for him to pop off, right? But Jerry P. Right. became an all-star last year. He went from a guy that most people in other cities would not even know to becoming an

all-star, right? And you know, you can factor in what happened during the postseason that gave them that exposure as well. So that's a little different. But maybe that, maybe that's what I'm talking about with Blaze. Maybe Blaze has his big moment in the postseason this year and becomes a star. I just think he has star potential written all over him. And that's the reason why I've been advocating so much.

I hate what it means for Perdomo. I hate what it means for everything else. I'm not, I'm not, but really at the end of the day, what we want is the best absolute player playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I think Blaze Alexander could be that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so you're basically saying like Blaze Alexander is going to have a breakout season, not necessarily like, oh, he's going to hit 300 or whatever. But just like he's going to do maybe what like Perdomo did last year, where he really burst on the scene and became an everyday player. I would say almost more like Gabby.

Okay. I feel like Gabby is a little bit more of a star with Arizona. the sports fans, especially non-baseball fans, then Perdomo. Blaze is definitely, like if Blaze were an everyday player, I could definitely see fans gravitating toward him. For sure. I mean, he has an incredible baseball name, and he has a canon of an infield arm. So, okay, all right.

Yeah, that's good. All right, go. Number two for you. So I have, maybe this one isn't that bold. I'm kind of curious how you guys feel about this. My second bold prediction is that Merrill Kelly will finish higher in Cy Young voting than Zach Gown. That could have been possible last year.

Merrill Kelly did not appear on a, has never appeared on a Syong ballot. Right. Last year he did not get a single vote. Right. Crazy. Which, yeah, I mean, you could maybe make an argument that he should have. I think the fact that he missed a few starts. Yeah, yeah.

The cramping, the blood clot issue. If Merrill Kelly has 200, 210 innings like Zach Gallen did last year, maybe he does, you know, maybe he does take some of those votes. But yeah, that's, you know, just from what we saw last year in the playoffs in particular. with Merrill the way that he just shine when the when the moment was brightest. Yeah, projection systems continue to not like Merrill Kelly, but I think people who watch this team on a day-to-day basis understand that he just knows how to pitch. And I don't, it's hard for me to say that like what the computers say doesn't matter at

all because that's so anti-everything deep within me. Yeah, I know it is. I know it is. But let me remind you that fan graphs has said with the addition of Jordan Montgomery that the Diamondbacks are going to win. in less than one more baseball game. Your computers are stupid, Jesse. Throw them in the trash.

Throw the entire thing in the trash. The entire website goes in the trash. When you tell me adding Jordan Montgomery adds less than one win to the Diamondbacks total, get out of here. None of this makes sense anymore. You guys don't even make sense. What is war good for anymore, huh? Absolutely nothing.

It really is one win. Yeah, I think before FanGraphs projected win total for the D-Backs was like 83.2 or 83.3. now it's 84.4. Their chance to make the playoffs went from like 45% to 51%. It's wild how like stubborn the computer is. But yes, Merrill Kelly, I would not be surprised at all if Merrill Kelly came out at how to breakout season. And that's not to say Zach Gallen is going to be poor this season. Nor does it mean Merrill Kelly's really having a breakout season. It's just more about him getting noticed, right? Like it's more about him maybe being a little bit better than he was last year, which would absolutely be enough for him to be in that conversation for the Sy Young Award.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he had a better ERA than Zach Gowlin. Yeah, he did end the year with a bitter ERA because I know at one point he did. Yeah, 3-2-9 compared to 347 for Gallen. So yeah, it's not like insanely bold, but the fact that he's never been on a Syung ballot before. I still think it's fairly bold. All right. My bold take, number two.

You guys are going to like this one. The Arizona Diamondbacks are going to win 95 games and the National League West. Wow. The division. Wow. The division. Yeah, I'm saying it. The Diamondbacks, 95, maybe even 95 plus wins, Jesse, and the National League West Division.

The Dodgers, they got too much shit going on over there, man. They're like, you saw Mookie Betts try to make that throw at shortstop like he was Derek fucking Jeter. Get out of here with that. Here, I'm going to be. Generationally bad in field. Generational. I'm telling you. It's going to be bad.

I do not. I'm not worried about Mookie Bats and shortstop. Let me tell you. I'm not worried about this. Dodgers team. They have their own battles that they're fighting. I think this is going to be one of those years where you absolutely, even though all the pressures on them and rightfully so because their team looks extraordinary, that that

pressure might be too much for them. I'm trying to figure out what I think is more bold. The Diamondbacks winning 95 games or the Dodgers winning less than that. Yeah. Well, I feel like I think both of those things in and of themselves are pretty bold. I feel like with the competition level in the National League West and how often we have to play each other, it's not out of the question. to say that the Dodgers lose more games than we anticipate two teams like the Padres and the Giants and especially the snakes.

Yeah. All right. That's bold. Final bold prediction for you? That is bold. I covered mine up. I'm not letting you know this last one. Okay.

All right. My third one is that Alec Thomas will have an OPS of over 800. I love it. Which I think is pretty bold. That is pretty bold. We would be damn good if he does that. Alec Thomas, yeah, that would be a full-on breakout. out season. I know, you know, an 800 OPS is maybe not like, that's not necessarily star level

performance, but with how good of a center fielder, without how good of a center fielder, Alec Thomas is. If he had an OPS north of 800, he would immediately become one of the best center fielder's in all baseball. And, you know, he was good in the playoffs. I think DBAX fans generally have a fairly positive view of him, given how, given how young he is. But the reality from a number standpoint is that he's had a 75 OPS plus on the dot in both of his scenes. seasons in the majors. It was 75 in 2022. It was 75 again in 2023. He still has a lot to prove, but we've seen him make some adjustments this spring. He's done, I think, a better job of kind of staying closed rather than flying open toward the first base side, which seemed to cause him

to roll over a whole bunch last year. We saw a lot of four, three groundouts. We haven't seen quite as much of that in spring training. So, yeah, I mean, and also just the fact that he has, you know, almost 1,000 major league played appearances under his belt. Not everyone comes to the majors and rakes instantly. It can take some time. And this could be the year where Alec Thomas really, really, you know, emerges into a very, very good baseball player. I don't know if my final bold take is a good thing,

if it happens or a bad thing. But my final ball take is that Gabriel Moreno will lead the Arizona Diamondbacks in home runs. Wow. Isn't that insane, Jesse? That's the one I was like, Derek, you're crazy, dude. Crazy for this one.

First of all, if he has more bombs than Christian Walker, Eugenio, I'd be shocked. Is 32 home runs that out of the question for Gabriel Marino? Yes, I think so. Is it? 32 probably.

Yeah, 32 seems like a stretch. But not, I mean, it's not really that I don't think. If they had a better option at backup catcher, I would think maybe, but I, I'm not. Give me 25. I'm not convinced.

Playing time is going to be a big factor there because, you know, regardless of what the backup catcher situation looks like or how good it is. Yeah, they're not going to play Gabby Moreno more than probably 120 games in 2024. If you're hitting 30 bombs in 120 games, that is insane level production. I mean, you're like a you're like a true 40 home run hitter at that point. It's like Gabby and Adley Rushman are the two top catchers in the league.

Elise gets where I'm going with because she's suggesting not that Gabby is going to hit 35, but more of that he's going to lead the team with 24. And that's going to be a bad thing. It is far more likely it would be a very bad thing than a very good thing. because there's a lot of guys on this team that could hit 20-30 homers, right? Tertel Marte, Lordus Correale Jr., Christian Walker, Gino-Swarres, Corp and Carroll. There's a lot of guys that I am projecting to hit more.

Alec Thomas, 800-OPS doesn't necessarily mean 30 bombs. But, yeah, I think I don't think that would necessarily be a good thing. But yes, could Gabby hit 20 home runs in 2024? for, I think he could. I'm not expecting it, but I think that Gabby Moreno has the raw power ability to do that. It's just a matter of what kind of approach. Yeah, the playing time and what kind of approach he takes at the plate. Yeah, because he could go back to taking what's given to him.

And that's not terrible because this team is going to be able to generate base runners. I mean, power probably is going to be the problem. Not nearly as much though as it was last year because they've added some power. They've added some pop here with Gino and Jock Peterson and the names they've had, even Grandel Gritchick. So, I mean, these guys are going to contribute in ways that are going to make this team a better team offensively. But I think the idea here is, is that you're right.

Gabby does focus more on what gave him success last year offensively at the plate. Yeah. It was more of the Gabby Lane, you know, hits versus it being. That's what it was in like the first half of the season. And then in the second half after he returned from the shoulder injury and into the playoffs, we saw a different version of Gabby Morena. where he was he was tapping into that power more uh so yeah i i don't think 20 homers is totally impossible all right well we appreciate you guys we love your bold can i can i can i throw in a couple

i would love to what do you what do you got d i think kevin ginkle makes the all star game okay wow someone said 20 saves before the yeah i i a couple of the chats really been like we're on like telekinesis right now like i'm thinking the same thing because my last one was ryan it hit it on the money Otani goes to federal prison. Oh my gosh. That's number three. I mean, it's the reason why they wanted him to walk back that comment about the wire transfers or at least, you know, it was interesting about that, speaking of that. I know we haven't, I know we don't want to talk about the Otani situation anymore.

But the wildest part about Otani discussing, you know, in the press conference that day when things like were off with the, with his interpreter, explaining everything to him was when they were having the team. meeting. That's wild to me. That that was the moment where like he was maybe picking up enough from him talking to the team in English for him to realize that he was lying about what he was saying or whatever. I don't know. This whole situation, much like Jake said, has me feeling very much like a conspiracy theorist when we know what happens. That's all going to get swept under the rug and no one's going to get any. The only guy that's going to suffer anything here is the guy that probably should, which is eBay. But we're not going to talk about that anymore. We got a opening day and last time I checked,

Otani does not play for the Rockies. So we're focusing right now on the Rockies and then the Yankees, much to Jake's dismay. But we do thank you guys, of course, for being here. We thank you guys more for being diehards, by the way.

David becomes Otani. That's good. Well, that's what's going to happen after he commits assault on me for the things I said about. I was going to say it's going to happen after the Cardinals trade down and don't draft Marvin Harrison Jr. Oh, my.

Don't even. It would be a hard moment for Damon. have capacity to deal with that amount of anger right now that I'm hearing from the PHNX Cardinal show. But what I do want to tell you guys is, of course, the best way to watch this show and any show on the PHNX network is with a frosty, four peaks in your hand. Right now, Four Peaks, of course, introduced their brand new beer, their bad birdie, juicy golden ale.

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That's a bold take. I need this. I need this beer in my hand. And I need Max Simpson to get us some goddamn beer in the office. Yeah, what's going on with that? Juicy golden ale. Me and me and David have our little stockpile of hidden beers and, you know, other THC drinks that we're not letting anybody else know about that we're hiding.

But we need some more beer, especially that beer if it's better than wow wheat. Of course, you know. I think Daniel Kasten had an amazing video he put on Twitter, which was basically us at Four Peaks listening to the waitress, tell us the specials, knowing we're just going to order chicken tendees. Like that's, I mean, you can tell me all the specials you want, but get the chicken tenders at Four Peaks. They're unbeatable.

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Of course, we know all about their AZadventure.com promotion going on right now where they are encouraging us to get out and check out this beautiful state of ours here in Arizona. Arizona Lottery says proceeds from the ticket sales from their Arizona Adventure Promotion, support environmental conservation among other important initiatives across the state. Of course, you can play with their brand new lottery tickets. You can also play by entering tickets online for a chance to win $1 million in cash in Arizona travel prizes. And of course, the fun one where Jesse takes his rap for is you can check in at geo-located adventures at 10 destinations across the state from Flagstaff to Yuma. So Arizona Lottery, not just about playing games and winning prizes. about giving back to the state and its communities,

visit AZadventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure for a chance to win $1 million in cash in Arizona travel prizes. Oh, Jesse, I know we are not done talking about Jordan Montgomery, and I am glad we are not. Of course, we have here a lot of information now that we have to talk about, or at least consider when it comes to Montgomery. I mean, we know, obviously, he doesn't fix the E-Rod situation, considering he will not start for most likely a few weeks after joining the team.

But there's also some more interesting stuff involving like his contract and the ability to sign a qualifying offer, offer him a qualifying offer? Yeah, in order to be eligible for a qualifying offer, a player has to be on the roster with that team for the entire season. So it appears that if Montgomery, and I'm not sure if it's the 40-man roster or the active roster itself, Montgomery is certainly not going to be on. on the active roster. But I think it's also possible that he won't, that the move won't even be made official until after opening day. And in so doing,

that would make Jordan Montgomery not eligible for a qualifying offer this off season, which would help his case, right? Jordan Montgomery, if he does wind up just spending one year with the diamondbacks, he would rather not have a qualifying offer, offer to him and then therefore a draft pick attached to him. right that's an advantage that he has that he's had this off season is that because he was traded

last year he didn't he wasn't tied to draft pick compensation the diamondbacks are not losing a draft pick in signing jordan montgomery and it looks like the same will be true if he were to hit the market next year because he will not be on the roster as of opening day um so yeah i i'm not totally sure whether it also would include the 40 man roster um if it did then that could keep the diamond backs from making this move official until after opening day uh i imagine Montgomery's camp would rather not have a qualifying offer attached to him. So maybe that was part of the negotiation process. But yeah, we don't know when this is going to be made official, but I wouldn't be surprised

if it wasn't made official until after the season actually starts. We talked about things that impacted his decision to come to Arizona. That very well could be one of those behind the scenes negotiations that did allow him to take Arizona's offer, whereas maybe another team offering the same amount wasn't willing to do that. Yeah. And also it's not, it's not a, I guess it helps the Diamondbacks out a little bit to not have to consider that because how are they going to get Jordan Montgomery on the roster right now considering their 40 man is at 40? I mean, Elise is saying when do you think opening day rosters will be announced? They're really taking it down to the minute to the last minute with this decision and they absolutely are.

And it really depends on whether this Montgomery move is being made official before opening day. If it's not, which is kind of, I guess my, maybe my guess for right now. then the Diamondbacks have to, they might not have to clear a 40-man roster spot, right? If they're doing the thing where they're keeping Rivera and Jace Peterson and sending Blaze Alexander down, then they're good from a 40-man roster standpoint. But if they are,

if they do want to, you know, move on from one of those guys, then that would open the door for them to make the move with Jordan Montgomery. So, yeah, we'll have to wait and see how that turns out. But yes, they are going to have to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to get Montgomery on the team.

And if it's not Rivera or Peterson, then it's a little tricky. I guess Pavin Smith would be an option there. He's on the 40-man. You know, you look at the pitchers that the Diamondbacks have. I don't think you're moving on from Andrew Saul-Frank or Justin Martinez or Corbyn Martin. So, yeah, the debacks in a bit of a tricky spot when it comes to freeing up that 40-man spot. Um, someone in the chat is asking about the, uh, Joey says, what channels the deep backs on for MLB package? Yeah.

Again, Elise, known baseball GM, uh, answers him by saying they haven't announced channels yet. Another last minute decision. That's, that's wild to me. I do know that they have it like they have it, like they have it, it feels like they have it figured out. I know, for instance, on direct TV, like I said before, uh, I believe ballies used to be on 686. And when I watch one of the spring training games, they added on 689, which is right there with

there are other sports networks like root and the other things that you can get on direct TV makes a lot of sense that it would be there but i don't know if that's the case i don't know if they're actually going to leave it there if they're going to change it and i agree that there is probably uh this is probably not ideal i know a lot of people are still confused about the tv stuff and whether or not they're actually going to be able to watch it if you have cable of any way direct tv uh cox here locally dish it's going to be on there there's not a separate package and it's not a matter of them not airing it on those cable channels. But MLB, I think, is waiting entirely too long for this to happen because it's because they're,

it's because they're negotiating, right? They want to get as much money as they possibly can from all these cable distributors. And, uh, and so they're going to try to drag it on it as long as possible. They're, they're doing the Scott Boris thing. And it's probably going to end the same way that it did for Scott Boris, where the diamondbacks might not get as much money as they're hoping to get. Um, but yeah, I, I imagine that's the hold up here.

Derek Hall told us a few days ago that the negotiations between MLB and those cable distributors were still happening. And he did say that it could take all the way right up until opening day. And I mean, that's exactly what seems to have happened. So we should know tomorrow. We should know before the game starts, you know, you should find out what channel to turn your TV to. I wouldn't be too concerned, though, about not having access to the games. I think if you have one of those, one of those, you know, the Cox or direct TV or whatever it is,

I think you can be pretty confident you'll be able to watch. Well, Keith Law was fairly confident in the Diamondbacks acquisition of Jordan Montgomery that 29 other teams screwed up. Yeah. And he tweeted out as such, this is what we have in regards to this tweet from Keith Law, including an incredible response from our guy and our closer, Paul Seawalt. Keith Law said in regards to Ken Rosenthal's tweet about Jordan Montgomery being in agreement with the Diamondbacks for $25 million a season, he said,

29 teams should hang their heads in shame over this. Yeah. And Paul Seawald responded saying, not the good guys, though. Sunglass emoji, snake emoji. I don't know what I like more about this. The fact that Paul Seawall responded at all, the fact that he called the Diamondbacks the good guys, which we've been calling them for a very long time, or the fact that he felt the need to add the deal with it, sunglasses, emoji, and a little snake.

I think it might be that last part. A couple thoughts here. So first of all, Keith Law is right. We touched on that yesterday. 29 teams probably should hang their heads in shame over this because basically every team in the league could have used Jordan Montgomery. And, you know, I don't think any D-BACs fans are disappointed in that the debacks were the beneficiaries of that. But it is still, like, I still think this is a move that shouldn't have been possible for the Diamondbacks. He deserved more.

He deserved a bigger guarantee than $25 million after having a 3-2-0-E-R-A in almost 200 innings and leading the Rangers, you know, being a big part of the Rangers run. of winning the World Series. I mean, you can't really ask for a better walkier than the one that Jordan Montgomery just had. But as far as- We need to get him a world's greatest dad mug. That's what we need to get them. Everybody's saying, best dad ever, right?

Seawald. See, Walt. Yeah. And as far as Seawald is concerned, I remember Derek Hall and Ken Kendrick at the very first day of full spring training, they told us that someone had come, or maybe it was multiple players,

had come into their office and thanked them for investing into the team. Yeah. And in an ESPN store, several days later, Paul Seawald. I don't know if he was one of the people, but he was, you know, maybe there were multiple people, but he was one of the people at the very least who came into their office and thanked them for spending money. And there's some history there with Paul Seawalt.

He's coming over from a Mariners team that has been criticized quite a bit in the last couple years for not, you know, not being willing to take that next step and investing in the team, for being close, having the core to win and just not pushing all the chips in. And Paul Seawald with the Diamondbacks is not having that problem, right? And if I'm him, I'm probably really happy to be in a place that's been willing to make those investments. Well, we do have unfortunate news. I know all of this has been very happy, but the injury bug does not stop biting the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks have lost Jordan Lawler.

As Jesse said, what are we going to do in Reno for a shortstop now if Blaze doesn't go down there? This son of a bitch. But of course. Me, Derek, and Espo just all yell at Jesse at this same time. We just couldn't believe in the audacity that this man had to think of the... I was pointing to a potential lack of organizational debt. It was too high level of a conversation for all you guys. Jesse just said, you're not intelligent enough for this.

I just said, you don't know balls. Yeah, that's what he said. Of course. No, they could find someone to play shortstop in Reno. But yes, this is... Nick Piccoro reported this. Yeah, this is a big loss for the Diamondbacks for sure. Man, these first round picks just can't seem to catch a break injury-wise.

I know. But yeah, Nick Bacora reported just before we went live with the Diamondback shortstop, Jordan Lawler, tore a ligament in his right thumb and will require surgery on injury that will likely sideline the club's top prospect for at least the first two months of the season. So you're not talking about just a few weeks here. This is going to really butt into his season, which is unfortunate. it, you know, not just for for the Diamondbacks, but for Lawler himself, you know, trying to build on the season he had last year. And I think the first few months of the season were going to be really important for him and trying to prove that he could really rake in Reno and earn that call up back to the big leagues, probably not going to see Lawler in the big leagues for a good while at this point.

That's unfortunate. But the Diamondbacks do have depth there as long as they keep Blaze Alexander on the roster. And I will go to whatever. I don't care if it's a bus station. I don't care if it's Sky Harbor. I'll go wherever I need to go. And I will park my car in front of whatever door I need to park it in front of to make sure Blaise Alexander doesn't leave.

But of course, I'm very excited to Jesse. I can't stop thinking about opening day. And I mean, the Diamondbacks just added a lot of wood to the fire, really, when it comes to this short Montgomery thing. It's going to be sad if the move isn't official because how, I mean, how cool would it be for DeBax fans too? Obviously, Montgomery's. not going to pitch on opening day. But just for him to be in the ballpark, to see him in the uniform,

that would be really cool. And I don't know, I don't know if we're going to be able to get that. But I did want to ask you with, well, I know you're such a huge fan of baseball. At least I think you are. What are you looking forward to most tomorrow? I know that we all have our own things. I'm not talking necessarily about performance on the field because I know you want to go in there and talk about like how much, you know, the vertical movement, you know, pitches are going to have and such. But is there a favorite moment of you that you look forward to Jesse's looking forward to looking at like baseball savon. Oh he loved

there's there's fucking horizontal and vertical break now in Chase Field there's also exit Velo on on like he doesn't have to go to statcatch he doesn't have to go to baseballs vaunt he's got it all right in front of them. I think they had exit Vilos in there last year they just moved it I thought that was where the two

pitching matchups were last year but I could be wrong yeah well they had they had exit Vilos on the right field side oh on the right field like yeah by the the out of town scoreboard i guess if we can if we can call it that um yeah so what am i most excited about for tomorrow i just i just enjoy all of the pregame stuff yeah before opening day the bunting the uh the flyover the everything like it just feels very special it feels like uh i don't know it feels like you know the pomp and circumstance is very much part of the

Yeah, and I mean the last time I try to block the exhibition games out of my mind because they're not real and they don't count and there's no energy in the stadium because it's an exhibition game. But the last time that we covered a real baseball game at Chase Field, it was the World Series and there was a lot of excitement in that building and a lot of energy and they did the flyover there too and they did a lot of the, you know, the cool pregame stuff there as well. So I'm excited just to be back and be back in that ballpark and it's not going to be the World Series. You know, it's one of 162 against a pretty bad Colorado Rockies theme. But just as a baseball fan in general, nothing beats opening day. Yeah, you're not wrong. I guess I am looking forward to the brisket in the press box. Ah, there you go.

And they feed us. They feed us. The opening day cake and the opening day brisket. And that's a huge upset. The Korean pork belly nachos. Yes. This food's free though on opening day. And that's the big difference.

Oh, is it? Oh, I didn't even know. Derek, I thought you would like crawl across the Sahara in desert to get. I'm conflicted about the Korean pork belly nachos because they replaced the crispy bow buns with the Korean pork belly nachos. It's an absolute travesty. I mean, this is like, don't pit me against two of my favorite things, right?

So now I'm conflicted. And with all of the improvements in the ballpark, we couldn't have just made a Korean food stamp. Just a Korean like I love Korean food. Korean barbecue, Korean pork belly nachos, Korean bow buns, Jesse, they're good, go electric. It would go electric, right? Yeah. They moved Chef Tilder's euros into an actual stand now. It's not just a little thing.

I could go on for an entire another hour about food. But this man needs to get to the ballpark. I kind of need to get over there too. And you guys need to know who won the tickets that we are giving away today. Yes. For all transparency, Jesse will be my monitoring system. But see all those wonderful colors. That's all of your wonderful names that entered into our contest yesterday with your little baseball emojis.

And now with one click. of a button, I get to change the fate of one of you. I get to forever change history and the direction of your lives with the click of one fucking button. I feel so powerful. I don't want to do it yet. I just want to sit here and wait in anticipation. But here we go.

Let's see what we got. The wheel is spinning. And Jesse Friedman, if you would, please announce the winner of the tickets. All right. I'm probably going to butcher. Is it done? Okay, I'm probably going to butcher this name, but our winner is John Halanan. Halanin.

Halanon. John Halanon. Are you here, John? Because I know this sucks. John has to be here to win. So maybe those of you that didn't win, maybe John's not here. Maybe John's listening to this afterwards and realizing what a huge mistake he made by not getting off of work to watch our show at the end. Colossal mistake.

I don't know. Do I wait to John, you have a number of seconds before Jesse is going to demand that I re-spin this wheel. It would appear John might not be here. So I think we got to, I think we got to spin the wheel again. We got to spin the wheel again. Should we wait till 207? I mean, sometimes it's a little bit of a delay. We can.

We can definitely wait because we have a backup winner. We have a backup winner. We have a backup winner. So if John isn't here, our winner is then brand. Brandon, Brandon, again, you said you're going to butcher this name. Pratis? I think. Is Brandon Paratus in the chat?

See, we'll keep doing this for a long time, by the way. I'll let Jesse leave. I'll just keep sitting here pressing the podcast. This is good podcasting. All right. Well, I know. There's someone here right now that's probably figuring out how to change their name to John Hallinen or maybe, you know. You really shouldn't be giving them an idea.

Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right, I guess. I mean, it is what it is. But let's see if we can get somebody that is here in the chat. John Allen has won twice, ladies and gentlemen. Where are the odds? This is incredible.

Oh, man. All right. Well, I guess we'll keep doing this until we pick a winner. But some people are going to be very sad. Oh, my God! Oh, I thought it was going to be Elise. Sorry, Elise. Wow, you just had to cheat.

At least didn't even know that. Lee didn't need to know that. That felt mean. That was rude. I'm sorry. Did it? Is Aaron L in the chat? Aaron L.

I was very specific about these rules I thought yesterday when I said you had to be present to win. And yeah, I mean, I guess I guess I have to remove Aaron L now, too, unless Aaron L is here. So far. Give Aaron L a few seconds. I will give him. This is crazy. It's crazy. It's like, it's like why sign up if you're not going to show up the next day?

If you're not going to be here the next day to win it. I don't. don't have an answer for you on that. And people are saying fixed and rigged. Trust me, if I rigged it, it would be for one of you guys. Yeah, we would have rigged it so that we didn't have to do this for 20 minutes. In the chat, right? Transonic 8 is Transonic 8.

Jesse's supposed to be my audit firm here. And I'm just waiting for you to say a name of someone that's like actually commenting in the chat. I'm trying to run this fairly. But if I could, I absolutely would have. done this. We got Chris C. I know Chris C. I think we know Chris C is here. I think Chris C was the guy yesterday that was asking me over and over and over again, when are we going to do the contest? Chris, if you're not here, I've given up all together on this entire process, Chris, you have let me down.

You've let the people down. You've let yourself. I feel bad for all of these people that are all going to listen to this afterwards and realize that they were going to do. I just don't get. I think we have more live viewers today than we did yesterday. I know. So how is it? There's a bunch of people who are here yesterday that are not here today. I don't have an answer for you on that. But I don't know if that person's in the chat either.

Oh, okay. He is. Okay. I think he is. I'm ready. Oh, wait. Is Aaron here? Aaron is here?

Where's Aaron? Where's Aaron? They said he's here? Okay. I don't see it. Okay. Aaron is. All right, Aaron.

All right. Aaron, you're our guy. You got two tickets. So congratulations to Aaron L. I'm glad you're here. And you get those tickets. So, of course, make sure to go ahead and reach out to us. Stop the count.

Stop the count. Thank you. We miss each of. Thank you, Sean. Aaron L was catching up and he got here. But we're taking the L out of your name, pal, because you're Aaron W now. You won those two tickets to opening days. So congratulations to you.

Thank you guys all for entering and for being here. We're looking forward. to an incredible season. So, oh, my God, I cannot wait to watch baseball tomorrow. In the meantime, you can make sure to follow us on Twitter. Aaron, that's where you're going to get at us. And let's, Aaron, do you have a Twitter? I should ask you that while we can still communicate,

because after the show, who knows if we lose you. But anyway, we definitely can be reached on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse's at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, Damon is the people's producer. He's at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs.

Bark, Bark. Our show, of course, is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again so much for your time. We appreciate you being here. Aaron, make sure to reach out to us on Twitter so we can get you those tickets ASAP.

Again, congratulations to you. And we love all of you guys. Thank you again for being here today. Thank you to Jake for taking some time to stop by and talk about his snakes. And of course, we hope you guys all have a wonderful night. We will see you on opening day. We got a pregame show tomorrow

and a post game show. So we are doing it big. Make sure to keep it locked in right here to PHNX. And again, we thank you for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But damn it, it's so much more fun on opening day.