PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Does Edwin Diaz’s season-ending injury spell the end of stars playing in the World Baseball Classic?

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

A series of unfortunate injuries in baseball have already completely changed the landscape of the World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Edwin Diaz’s season-ending injury raises questions about MLB superstars participating in the WBC, and injuries to Corbin Martin and Mark Melancon immediately impact the D-backs Opening Day roster.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Our next PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch is LIVE! Join us on Friday, March 24th for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Come hang with the PHNX crew, fellow Suns’ fans and Diehards as we watch KD, Booker, and the Suns battle in the final stretch of the season as they take on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Sacramento Kings.Checkout the PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch Eventbrite to reserve your spot today. And Diehards, check Discord for your exclusive discount link!Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxOGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXSPORTS_15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/ NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in. Happy 316 day for those that celebrate. Of course, that means you want to stomp a mud hole in your friend's ass and walk it dry. Happy stone cold day to all of you. Of course, this guy's not going to get that. No idea what you're talking about. I'm very excited. Drink some Steve Wisers and do some podcast. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app.

America's top-rated sportsbook app. We are the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as the ringmaster. This guy over here is occasionally known as stunning Jesse Friedman. Also, the Thunderstake. Jesse? You see, you have your fun holiday today, Derek. Yes.

I had my fun holiday two days ago. I refused to acknowledge it. And I actually didn't even make mention of it on the show, which was a huge mistake on my part. Absolutely. As a former math major. Yeah. We missed high day. Yeah.

No, I know. You see, you know what I'm talking about. I purposely did not acknowledge Pye Day. You know that, Jesse. That's nerd stuff around here. And like, you know, we leave that up to Princeton, you know, that kind of thing. Princeton. Yeah, I'm taking shots already.

I know it's too soon. But anyway. We're our producer today. I know. I'm really trying to make Damon sad. You're a bad, bad guy, man. Anyway, welcome on. And, of course, I'm just angry because the injuries are starting to pile up in baseball.

I hate it. And you hate to see it because it doesn't, it means very bad things for the future of things like the World Baseball Classic and players participating in that tournament. But of course, we have plenty of Arizona Diamondbacks injury updates to get to. And some that some of you may or may not applaud. So we'll get to that. But of course, today, the Arizona Diamondbacks were out at Sloan Park taking on the Chicago Cubs. Madison Bumgartner was on the mound and he looked pretty damn good, Jesse. He did.

He did. Yeah, a second inning, not so much. A second inning. Base is loaded, one out. The Diamondbacks, of course, did the thing that they seem to do every single day of every week. Yes. They took Madison Bumgarner out. They put in Zach McAllister, who got the last two outs of that inning without allowing a run.

It was impressive. And then sure enough, Madison Bumgarner comes back out for the third and fourth innings. We had to literally explain to the scorekeeper today at Sloan Park. like, yeah, the diamond backs do this every day. So just be aware this is normal practice for them. But yeah, I mean, Mad Bum, when he came back in, those third and fourth innings were about as good as I think I've ever seen Madison Bumgarner in a Diamondbacks uniform. I think he had three punchouts in those innings six up, six down.

It was a pretty solid outing for him overall. He got better with time, which is something that we hope to see Madison Bumgarner do this season. But even though he did struggle to put away guys early, like Jesse said, he did get better as the game went on. And he had this to say in regards to his feelings on that and why things went his way the later the game went. Nothing. I didn't change anything.

They just quit fouling them off. I swear I didn't change it. It was mostly just Gomes. He was the main one. But that whole inning, I was, you know, it wasn't the sharpest. So, and then Gomes fell in, I was off, made it worse. But if you go back and look at the box score, it was a scoreless end. That's what I'm happy.

Love to see Mad Bum in a good mood. It's always makes for a good press conference. He's a big box score guy. Yeah. You know? He's a big box score guy and he's a, well, I mean, maybe not even box score guy. If his team wins, Madison Bum Garner is pretty much always a happy camper at the end of a game. Like even if his stuff wasn't great.

Oh, and he'll generally be pretty happy. He'll take full accountability for it as well. I remember one time after a game, he said if he had to go up out there and give up, I think, five or six runs every start to get a win, he would. Yeah. He was joking, but obviously he was just like, not really. So also my first initial reaction to that clip, I haven't seen Madison, Bumgarner in person too often this spring.

He looks lean, man. I don't know if anybody else felt that way looking at that. But it definitely speaks to his preparation and how he has kind of been getting, trying to get himself in the best shape that he can. And also we know that he has been working with pitching coach Brent Strom a lot on his off speed stuff, especially that changeup, which seemed to be pretty damn effective today when he was working well. Yeah, the changeup was a pretty good pitch for him today.

He had a low and in changeup to Eric Hosmer that Hosmer swung over the top of for a strikeout. That was a pretty impressive pitch, something I haven't really seen Bumgarner do much of. He definitely does look leaner. I believe he said earlier in the offseason that his weight normally ranges between 240 and 260. He kind of always has his entire career. But this season in particular, I think he's around the 240 mark. So he's kind of on the lower end of that.

But yeah, he looks lean. We know that Bumgarner's been working on not only the changeup, but the cutter. Apparently, he's experimented with a new grip on his cutter. Seemed to work pretty well today. I wouldn't necessarily say he got tons of whiffs with it or anything. but by and large, it was a pretty good outing for Madison Bum Garner. And I know people are like going to be almost angry that Madison Bumgarner pitched well because it's like I know some fans probably want to see Mad Bum struggle in a sense just

so that they get, you know, an earlier look at some of these young guys. But the reality is the DBEX are paying $23 million to Mad Bum this year, no matter what happens. And it is good news for them that he at least appears to be looking good at this point. So hopefully this continues moving forward. as the season gets closer. Well, on the other side of that coin, if you will, is that Brandon Fott came in out of the bullpen.

You look good. And had himself an afternoon. Four innings pitched, three hits allowed, one earned run, no walks, seven strikeouts. Seven Ks. And almost all of them with his four seam passball. I think I saw one slider down in a way, which was a good pitch. Almost everything else was a dotted corner with a four seamer or a four seamer up that got a swing and a miss. So we've geeked out quite a bit about the spin rate of Brandon Fod's four seamer,

the fact that it seems to play pretty well as a swing and miss pitch. And we certainly saw that today at Sloan Park. We also saw Corbyn Carroll robbing an extra base hit of Cody Bellingerner that might have been a home run. Potentially, yeah, it probably wouldn't have been a home run, at least possible. It was a little hard to tell. But yeah, Corbyn Carroll, we didn't see much of him in center field last year. it was mostly left field and it sounds like it's going to be mostly left field this season as well. I think the debacks are going to have Alec Thomas and center.

I think Corbyn Carroll is going to be their everyday left fielder for the most part. But you can tell if there comes a day when the debacks want Corbyn Carroll to be their everyday center fielder, the man can go get it out there. And he certainly showed that on that long fly ball off the bat of Cody Bellinger. Who else look good out of the bullpen today for the Diamondbacks? because we're going to get those injury updates, but it sounds like they're going to need some guys stepping up here soon. Yeah, Cole Solcer struck out the side sort of depends.

I don't know. Do you feel like if a guy allows a hit but strikes out three batters? Is that still striking out the side? Where do you stand on this? No, striking out the side, I feel like, is a very deliberate three up three down kind of thing. Yeah, like that. So Solcer didn't strike out the side. Yeah, but three in a row is still damn impressive.

And especially after you've given up that hit, right? Again, that's the kind of stuff that Tori is looking forward to see how you bounce back from adversity in any way, whether it's giving up a hit, a home run, six hits, six home runs. He really just wants to see how you can react to that negativity, to that, you know, to things going wrong for you. But the Diamondbacks have plenty of things going wrong for them because the injury updates are here. and if you wanted to test how deep the diamondbacks were early on, you're going to do that. Corbyn Martin is getting an MRI on his right shoulder after having some right shoulder discomfort.

It did not look good. It did not look good. And there's some terms being thrown around here that we don't like. But for the most part, we'll wait until a diagnosis comes out. But it sounds like Corbyn Martin might be lost for quite a while. It's a shoulder. It's not an elbow as far as we know.

So for those people who are sounding the Tommy John Bells already, I don't think this is that. But yeah, I mean, shoulders aren't great either. So no matter what, it looks like a pretty tough break. And I think Corbyn Martin was going to make this baseball team. And he was having a pretty darn good spring. So really, really unfortunate. It's heartbreaking. It really is because, man, this guy has been trying to find his way.

He seemingly accepted this role as a reliever and was looking damn fine. during spring training. Also, Mark Melanson will be lost for a considerable amount of time. He was getting PRP injection today out months, not weeks. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a while for Mark Melanson. It is a subcapularious strain in his right shoulder. I'm not saying the rest of that.

Am I trying to say the rest of that? Abbreviations exist in the medical field for a reason. Yeah, this is unfortunate. And this is huge too, considering that Mark Malanson, a huge question mark, a guy that has not looked good this spring and absolutely was going to be one way or another a major part of their bullpen this season. Yeah, yeah. I mean, whether fans liked it or not, I think Mark Malanson was going to, you know, he's not, I don't think he was going to be the close or anything, but I think he was at least going to be on the opening day roster. you know initially you have some questions when something like this happens is this kind of a mystery injury list into the debacks kind of trying to pull something here just so that they can you know

work with mark malanson a little more and try to help him rediscover what what has made him a very effective reliever in the past i don't think this is that it sounds like malanson is going to open the year on the 60 day injured list which would open up a spot on the 40 man roster uh that i'm sure the debacks would would you know benefit from using in some ways but um but yeah it's it's unfortunate that the mark has to go through this as we've talked about he works as hard as as anyone he's harder on himself than than anyone he really is other than maybe the twitter verse at times where uh the the the mark milanson chatter can get pretty brutal i don't even know if you guys can be as hard on him as he can be on himself to be honest and this really sucks there's part of me honestly i think

that to piggyback on what you said, there are probably people out there that do believe that that's the case here, that he's not doing well. So this is kind of a way to maybe hide it. I'm going to be honest with you that that's not the way baseball works. And maybe it is. Maybe I'm being a bit naive here. I think teams pull stuff like that on occasion, but it's really clear that this is not that. And not only that, but Tori Lavello has said in the past that those decisions oftentimes are completely out of his hands because it's up to the medical staff now. Depending on how honest he's being there is one thing or another, but I tend to be gullible enough when it comes to Tori to believe him about everything. You're pretty gullible with Tori, with everyone in the office.

You're just a gullible person in general. Are you fucking kidding me that you're going to say that to me, Jesse Friedman? You don't even get me started on all the things you've been gullible about this week. This week alone. Don't even get me started on that. But anyway, no, I think that Tori is being pretty. transparent when he says that. I do think it's kind of like going back to the thing he

joked about with the espresso machine. Even though he's joking, he means that he really couldn't make that decision. He really would have to go through the medical team in order to make sure that providing something like that to the players during the middle of the game. I mean, that's kind of common sense, right? No, I'm totally not. I'm not saying it's not like what I'm

saying. A manager wants to put a burger stand in the dug out and they don't have to check it with the medical team. Let's say they're a big fan of like Jake Paul. They want to bring his prime energy drink into the end of the, you know, dugout, right? They're going to get the medical staff involved there, and they're going to say no. Unfortunately, though, this is very serious for Mark Melanson.

And, and again, it kind of may have been some of the reasons why he was struggling this spring. Yeah. I don't know how much of this injury was impacting his ability to perform. Yeah. Considering how serious it is. It could explain a lot. Yeah, it absolutely could. And it's sometimes, sometimes players don't know that they're injured.

Sometimes they don't know that something is actually physically wrong with them. They just think that they're not able to hit their spots anymore. Maybe their velocity is dipped. Sometimes this is the case. So and to be honest, I hope that's the situation. I hope Malanson can get right and bounce back whenever he does return to this team. But like Jesse said, it does open up a roster spot for somebody in the bullpen. And honestly, we kind of gave one to Corbyn Martin, I think,

in a few cases, so you could potentially say two spots in the bullpen are opened up. Yeah, I was kind of surprised. I asked Tori Lavello today before the game started at Sloan Park, you know, how does how does, how do these injuries impact the dynamics of your bullpen competition? And Tori base pretty openly said like, yeah, two spots are opened up. Pretty much implying that Corbin Martin was going to make this team. Mark Malanson was going to make this team. As we've been saying, as we've certainly expected. But yeah, I mean, this does open the door for some other guys.

We mentioned Cole Solcer earlier. He, you know, three strikeouts in the game today. That was good to see. Zach McAllister was the guy who came in and got Madison Bumgarner out of that very difficult spot in the second inning. By the way, he's just a gigantic human being. He's a very tall human being. And he's got, yeah, he's got like this kind of sidearm sort of delivery going, which is maybe a little bit of a different look that the debacks would like. Is he Australian?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I heard that or I'm literally just making that up based on the fact of his size and the fact that he throws. He's born in Peoria, Illinois. So, no, I'm just making stuff up. I'm just making him foreign for no reason other than he's like he's a gigantic human being and he makes me feel like a small like hobbit type creature. 6-6-240. Yeah, Jack McAllister is listed that.

It's fairly large. Had some good seasons. I mean, 2017. for Cleveland. He had a 2.6.6 strikeouts and 62 innings. He's had some really good years out of the bullpen, but obviously it's been a little while since those things happened. But he's certainly on the list of guys who, you know, maybe take a little bit of a step up on the depth chart. I think Jury's Familia has a really good chance to make the team at this point. We talked about him yesterday. He's put up some really good numbers so far in spring. especially just in that kind of role

where it might just be for you know the two three months that they need them as far as in the bullpen but you know definitely a guy that's shown up in spring training and you know we talked about Scott McGuff already looking very good we know that he was going to be really good he was for sure going to be in the bullpen but other injuries have kind of

popped up a bit perdomo is day to day with a chest contusion Castillo has neck discomfort Yeah. He did pass through concussion protocol. Yeah, he did. And of course, those were kind of one in the same situation. Diego Castillo and Geraldo Perdomo collided yesterday. It was pretty interesting.

Trying to make a play in the infield. So, yeah, the video of it did not look great. But, yeah, I think this is one of those things where both of these guys are not going to miss any kind of significant time. It sounds like they're basically both day to day and should be able to. Get back in the lineup sooner rather than later. That's what Tori Lavello had to say today. So no real concerns here, but it looked immensely painful when it happened. So he's not to feel for these guys a little bit.

I do know that I needed an update, and so does my friend's sister on Christian Walker, because she's very concerned. And I'm a little concerned. Your friend's sister. Big fan, big fan of Christian Walker. Scratch from the lineup today. Why? He was scratched. So he was hit by a pitch on Monday.

Oh, okay. I think it was his left leg. Yeah. And, yeah, he was hit by a pitch. I, of course, you know, gets the nasty bruise that hitters tend to get when those things happen. Tori Lavello basically said that Christian Walker, you know, if this was a pivotal game of any sort, he would be playing. So this was a scratch. DeBacks thought he was good to go, but they wanted to make sure that he wasn't adjusting his swing or anything to try to kind of, you know, adapt to the way that he.

feels now that he has this enormous bruise. So you mean to tell me that spring training games aren't important games, Jesse? Yeah, that's kind of what I'm doing to tell you. Oh, man. Damn it. Damn it. Well, uh, I am having myself a delicious, uh, as I'm calling it right now, Steve Weiser, uh, from our friends at Four Peaks and you should too.

They have a wonderful variety of beers and they are. Did you just spill it? Do you spill it on your laptop? A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. That's all right.

Though it's not the first time, Jesse. And it won't be the damn last time that I spill four peaks beer on this laptop. But I'll tell you. That's how you break in a laptop. That's how you break in a laptop. I'm going to go take a six pack out and dump it in my new car here soon. That's what that's, I'll break that thing in too. But of course, you guys should all make sure you are stocked up on four peaks for all the wonderful sporting events happening in the month of March.

You can also, if you are here for spring training and want something else fun to do, check out their eighth street pub for a variety of reasons. They're going to have a blast down there for St. Patty's Day. But more importantly, they'll give you spring training tours throughout the month of March. And check out the facility. See how they make the beer. See how the donuts are made. There are no donuts. I'm just saying that.

And there's also ghosts. So make sure to check that out. Also check out their calendar at 4Peaks.com slash events for all your beer week entertainment needs. And again, you already know the best place to spend St. Patty's Day. It's at the Four Peaks 8th Street Pub. Of course,

hang out with your favorite degenerates and enjoy a damn good time. Must be 21 or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so. We thank you guys for being here in the PHN Sports YouTube channel. are always awesome. We appreciate the love. Make sure to subscribe to the channel. Sign up for notifications if you haven't done so already. That way you don't miss when we go live or any of the

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We were talking, of course, about more injury news with the World Baseball Classic. We were very sad, but it was a it was a place for us to come together in the Discord and and console each other. Of course, we know the terrible news that happened, awful news out of Miami about Edwin Diaz. While, of course, you may have seen it. You may have heard if you didn't hear Team Puerto Rico, my team. my little tiny island. They overcame the adversity of beating another little tiny island in the Dominican Republic.

And who was an all-star team, I will say I openly chose the Dominican Republic as my favorite to win. And they are now going home. I think we both did. Yeah. I mean, it was hard to pick against them. They didn't make it out of pool play. They didn't make it out of pool. And they had the best roster like in baseball history, it felt like at least.

It really did. But we talked about where they were vulnerable, and that's exactly what ended up being exposed. But then you see teams like Team Mexico and Team Venezuela who both have excellent pitching and weren't picked nearly as high to go as far as they have. And both of those teams have done it on the back of just a good team play. Maybe the Dominican Republic was too much like an All-Star team. Maybe it was too many good stars on one team. I don't know if I buy that. I don't know.

I'm just saying, like, you know, because there's always- Maybe if they didn't have Julio. Rodriguez, they would have been better. Yes, of course. That makes so much sense. What did Julio Rodriguez bat in the world baseball classic? I don't know, but it's like, but that's not how this works though, right? Because like in baseball, really, really, really good players can go 0 for five, right?

Like we see that. Like, Mookie bets in that team Mexico game for Team USA. I think he was 0 for five. That's what I'm saying. But it doesn't mean that having Mookie bets in that game was. a mistake from the get-go, right? I'm not saying it was a mistake. That's what it sounds like you're saying, Derek.

Here's what I'm saying. Here's what I will say to explain. How many times have we seen teams in any sport put together an all-star team on the court, on the field, on whatever? I feel like you're talking about the NBA. Let's say the NBA. You're talking about like Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving. Are you kidding me?

How about every attempt that the New York Yankees had it several years where they didn't win the World Series or even make the playoffs? Like, it happens in every sport. He's had some pretty darn. How many World Series have the Dodgers won? That's true. But I mean, but the Dodgers didn't.

I think you're just talking about. How many World Series? Okay. Well, they wanted in, they won it in 2020. Exactly. Okay. Yeah.

They won it one time. My point is, is that it's not, baseball is that kind of sport where it's no guarantee that putting together an all-star team is going to instantly win you games or a championship or a tournament. It doesn't, it just baseball doesn't work that.

way. And to be honest, a tournament like this does have people in it who have other alternate reasons to play much harder than a team comprised of MLB All-Stars. Am I right? Because those guys don't have much to play for. Yes, country. Yeah, they want to win it, but they don't really care. They're all multi-millionaires and they're all going to go back to their teams and be stars on their teams and play a full season. But interesting. But if you, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, you got you, if you like some, a lot of those teams have that mix of like guys that have been retired for years guys that have never played a single inning in major league baseball i mean it just it's a different dynamic because a lot of those guys this is

the most important baseball that they're playing and maybe have ever played and you can't say the same about the all-star team that was the dominican republic team right that's true but i still don't think that means that like there were too many stars on the team or that they would have been like they would have been better if they hadn't had so many stars i think to your point earlier baseball is just like this. You can assemble an absurdly good team in baseball more so than in other sports, and it just doesn't pan out the way that you expect it to. Correct.

Like Mike Trout, Mookie, Bet, like these guys can go 0 for five. It happens even if they're facing, you know, like a guy who isn't pitched above AA or something. Those kinds of things happen. Whereas in the NBA, like Kevin Durant in the NBA is not going to be, you know, like you bring up some guy from the G League. he's never going to outperform Kevin Duran, right? Like, that's just basically never going to happen.

Whereas in Major League Baseball, those kind of things do happen. Like, the guy from AA might have a better game than, you know, Julio Rodriguez or Manny Machado or whatever. That's just part of the territory of baseball. I don't know. Well, like, Durant's a perfect example because I know it was more. Why did I have to bring up Kevin Drain? No, no, I'm just saying it's more due to injuries and everything else.

But like the Brooklyn Nets, for instance, tried to put together that All-Star team. Sure. They tried. It just didn't work out. But it's more of a, like, in basketball. Well, that was more. That genuinely can be a problem if you have too many stars in basketball because it's, I don't want to say baseball is not a team sport, but it's just different. Like in basketball, you need the way that your players play to be compatible with each other.

Whereas in baseball, when you're assembling a lineup, you just want like a lot of good players, right? Like, you don't necessarily have to think about the way that they fit together as much as you do in other sports. I'll say this. Maybe when you're talking about in a defensive alignment, but I think sometimes, sometimes what happens is that a lot of these guys are the best player on their. their team their entire lives up until like a point like this. And I'm not saying like, oh, they let their foot off the gas. But sometimes when you look around you and you see Juan Soto and Julio Rodriguez and and Mani Machado in the dugout all next to you, it's easy to be like, well like, yeah,

these guys got it if I don't like, you know what I mean? It's easy not to be like, I got to do this. I got to be the man. Right. But that's not even the big story here because I know they did not make it out of pool play. But the big story is Puerto Rico. eliminating them and then celebrating and having one of the most devastating injuries that could have happened in this world baseball classic happened to one of the most high profile you know players in major league baseball edwin dyes uh you mean the reliever that the meds just signed for what was it five years and a hundred million that's that's it that's it yeah like considered widely considered the best reliever in all of baseball was celebrating with his team they were jumping up and down and apparently um graphically injured his knee basically is the best way to put it it was kind of odd because

it didn't look like there was any kind of cause for it other than just jumping up and down celebrating like yeah i i know a baseball field especially when you talk about the pitching mound and that area there could be some uneven surfaces that potentially are uh you know a pitfall but it didn't look like that it just kind of looked like they went down kind of to the infield and celebrated and And then next thing you know, Edwin Diaz is on the ground. He looks extremely like he's in extreme pain. The team looks very concerned around him. And eventually they carry him off the field.

And what was the diagnosis with his injury? Did we get one day? I don't remember. Yeah, the Mark Balancin thing filled my medical capacity for the day. That's the most that he could do. I mean, it was a season-ending knee injury. It's pretty much being widely reported that Edwin Diaz needs surgery and will miss the season. And that sucks.

I mean, that sucks for, you know, you certainly feel for Mets fans in that whole organization right now. It's just one of those freak kind of things that happens, you know, it happens. He's a tear of his Patello attendant in his right knee. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And actually, the coach of Team USA was informed of this injury during the. the post-game press conference and was taken a bit off-guard.

He didn't know. Mark DeRosa here about what happened. I didn't see it. I don't, I'm not familiar with what you're. So he got hurt and perhaps badly hurt during the celebration. Really? Puerto Rico won. Yeah, I mean, I just feel for Edwin, I feel for the Mets organization,

just an unbelievable moment. We were watching that game. I kind of had to hit the dugout around the seventh inning. So I kind of lost track of it. But, yeah, guys get super excited playing for their country. It's a shame that something like that had to happen. I hope he's all right. Now, obviously, the conversation that this is going to bring up,

the discussion it's going to create is how is this going to impact Major League Baseball players and particularly superstars participating in the World Baseball Classic in the future, right? Yeah. Obviously, this is something that we need. know that a lot of people refer to the world baseball classic as quote unquote meaningless games it's a meaningless tournament you wouldn't really say that about like the FIFA world cup or other things that the Olympics it's not meaningless and I think it's up there with that kind of stuff where it's a world you know it's it's it's about playing for your country and things like that but it is you know

it is happening now during this time of the year it is one of those things that a lot of people don't consider to be as nearly as important as a major league baseball season. And obviously to teams and organizations, it's not. Like they want to support their guys. They want to let their players go out and be a part of this. But at the same time, you have to wonder if this, especially an injury to this high profile of an athlete, is going to impact how teams allow their superstars to participate in this going forward. Yeah.

To the people who are making the case that the World Baseball Classic is meaningless. All I will say is when is the last time that you saw people charging the field celebrating a Cactus League victory? Right. Like this thing mattered. Otherwise, Puerto Rico wouldn't have been celebrating as hard as they did. And as we described earlier, this was kind of an upset. Like, the Dominican Republic was an insanely talented baseball team. And yeah, you better bet Puerto Rico is going to celebrate. And the reality is, this is a freak accident. This didn't even happen during the actual game. If someone wants to talk about, like, oh, a pitcher gets hurt because he's pitching in a high

leverage situation and, you know, his arm got messed up somehow because he was putting more strain on it than maybe he would have in a backlock game. That I understand. And I think you could have that conversation. This was a freak accident that happened while celebrating an incident that had obvious importance. If you look, maybe even less so in the U.S., but if you look at other consequences, but if you look at other countries and how seriously some other countries are taking the world baseball classic. We've talked about the viewership numbers in Japan, how seriously other countries are taking this

and how into it they are. This thing matters. You really can't make the case that like, oh, that, you know, this is a worthless thing. It's not worth the effort. There's a reason that the celebration was happening. And it's just unfortunate. It's just one of those things that happens from time to time. And I don't think there's any way around that. The bigger thing is, is that this could have happened during a spring training game to Edwin Diaz, and no one would be like maybe we shouldn't have spring training anymore, right? It's not. Well, some people go there too.

Yeah. There are people out there who think that spring training is just this thing that gets everybody hurt before the season starts and we shouldn't do it either. I don't agree with that. That's a whole other conversation for another time. And that's people who aren't aware about how these players have to ramp up. It's like, Jesse and I see all of the effort that these players put in behind the scenes. you might hear them referred to as like, oh, they threw a bullpen today or a BP.

They also threw. No, let's not go there again. Shall we do a back lot game. They threw, you know, these things. But it's like these guys that come back from an injury, it's a slow road back from an injury. And the reason why is because they're taking essentially the same road that they would to prepare for the season during spring training when they were starting from zero. Right. And that's that's why.

It starts with, starts with, they're tossing at 60 feet and then they're tossing. They're doing this. They're playing catch. And then they're, they're throwing a bullpen. And then they're throwing a backlock game. And now they, we got them in Reno. I mean, that's, that's the reality of baseball. It takes this time for these players to ramp up to a point, especially pitchers to where

they can throw a hundred pitches plus in a game and then also have us then complaining about the fact that pitchers don't throw over 100 pitches in a game anymore like they used to, you know, all that crap. But like, for real, it's. It is something that, of course, is necessary spring training. And I don't think that an injury to a star player, unfortunately, should really impact teams deciding on to let their players play. I'd be furious if I was a Mets fan. So I am 100% with people that want to be emotional about this.

It's hard to lose a star player like this and, you know, kind of be okay with it. Like you kind of feel like you want justice in some way. And part of that could be like, hey, we need to change the way that that this tournament works because this isn't, this isn't right and we can't have guys getting injured like this. You know, I just think that it's kind of like what we've talked about,

the pitch clock when there's going to be, there's a high profile game that's dictated, the ending of it's dictated by the pitch clock. People are going to be mad about it. As long as that doesn't happen, then people will be fine. It's kind of the same thing with World Baseball Classic. Jesse and I have been very excited about,

about the high level of participation from the superstars in major league baseball. Yeah. It has what has made this year's tournament so exciting. However, the double edge sword to that is the fact that these guys could get injured playing at any time, practicing. They could get injured walking out onto the field. Like there's just so many variables that could come into play that could cause these guys

to potentially miss some playing time for their major league baseball team. And that's where people are going to really, you know, get bad about it and draw the line. Yeah. I don't, I mean, to answer the question, our headline, I don't think this is going to impact stars wanting to participate in the WBC. If anything, I think the WBC so far has been very successful. The Chasefield portion of it is now officially over, which I know a lot of people are sad about. I mean, I think it's been incredible these last few days to have Team USA and that star-studded

lineup and all these other countries here. Get out there and watch it because it was going to be gone in a blink of an eye. It was basically gone in less than a homestand. And that's what it ended up being, you know. And the world baseball classic has been a lot of fun. It's just it's condensed and it's it's very quick for a reason. They want to get these games over with. They want to get these guys back to their team.

They don't they don't want to take, you know, too much of their time to impact their, you know, their preparation for the major league baseball season. But I'm starting to get more and more on board. with a middle of the season with the World Baseball Classic. Could you imagine?

The All-Star break is now two weeks long. I like it. And we're going to do the All-Star festivities and then we're going to have two weeks of baseball awesomeness. And then we're going to go back to the regular. I mean, I kind of dig it. Right? I mean, it'd be pretty fun.

I don't know if the powers that be, though, as Talk and Jake put it on our show yesterday, I don't know if I could really see the commissioner, the Players Association. I don't think that's going to happen, unfortunately. Yeah, that's a good point. I think we're stuck playing it in this little box that we have here in March. But as I was saying, I think that it's still been successful so far.

There haven't been really any other major injuries that I'm aware of. Certainly nothing all that significant. This is a freak accident. It sucks. I understand that. But if you're a star player and you want to participate in the WBC and represent your country. I don't think you're looking at the fact that Edwin Diaz, you know,

suffered this horrific knee injury while celebrating a victory. I don't think you're going to look at that and be like, oh, maybe I shouldn't do this. I just don't think that type of injury is something that would actually concern you. All right. Well, I'll tell you guys this much. We got to see Team USA advance out of Pool A. That's, we're going to accentuate the positive here, right?

Yeah. And honestly, I know that's, sucks, but I don't want to overshadow how much fun it's been to watch this tournament, how much joy I got out of seeing Puerto Rico beat the Dominican Republic, even though it was absolutely ruined there at the end. But yeah, Team USA did a great job. Merrill Kelly, not so great. No, not great, but I mean, he wasn't terrible, right? He wasn't terrible. Pitch three innings, gave up four hits, two earn runs, two walks, and one strikeout. Wasn't great. Didn't blow the game. and helped Team USA advance out of Poulet.

I mean, Team USA is substantially better than Team Columbia. I'm just going to be honest. Wow. Team Columbia. Let's, can we talk about Team Columbia's jersey just being the Boston Red Sox fucking City Connect jersey? Can we talk about that for a second?

Oh, my God. I kind of dig, I kind of dug yellow. Team Columbia was rocking yesterday. But yeah, I mean, they had Gio Orchella, and they had Jorge Alfaro. and not a whole lot of big league, at least established big league caliber talent,

whereas, of course, Team USA utterly stacked. I know Merrill Kelly wanted, he wanted the ball in a big game. He wanted the ball against Team Mexico, didn't get that opportunity, but was able to pitch in this one, which was pivotal, right? Very much so.

Not exactly a do-her-die game, not exactly a must-win. We'll get into those details in a second, but was a very important game. It was an important game and they had to score a certain amount of runs in combination with Columbia possibly beating them. Right. It is weird. It was weird.

Let's get to it. Fan graphs made a graphic showing all of the possibilities and it doesn't make any fucking sense to us. But here it is. So basically for like most scores, if for most situations, if Team USA won this game by three runs or sorry. Won this game, period. Yeah. If Team USA won the game, they were moving on. And as long as Team Columbia didn't win by more than three runs, Team USA was still moving on.

But there were some scores, as you can see if you're joining us here on YouTube, where it wasn't three runs, where there were some situations where if Team Columbia had won eight to five or beyond, right? Eight to five, eight, nine to six. Those are all still. Team Columbia would have advanced. And then you get this little corner down here. where if they scored, if they fucking scored 14 runs somehow and USA scored like 12, uh,

team Canada snuck in? Like what in the hell? This tiebreaker shit is so weird, uh, in the world baseball classic. I, I kind of like it just. Yeah. I mean,

we talked about it before the WBC started. It's the, it's the quotient, which is just dividing the number of runs that you allowed by the number of outs that you converted. This chart also not necessarily. exactly, exact, exact, because it assumes that you get, that both teams get 27 outs, whereas if Team Columbia had walked off in the game yesterday, then Team USA would have fallen

a little bit short of 27 hours. Stop it. Stop it. I don't want to hear. I was talking with people in the press box. We were all confused. We were all like trying to do math and figure this out. Fan Graves helped us out with that chart.

But yeah, there was a fascinating point in the game yesterday, Derek, toward the end. It was three to two, right? Team USA has the lead. going to the bottom of the ninth inning, Ryan Presley comes in and shuts the door, so we didn't have to really enter this conversation seriously. But fun little thought experiment, if Team Columbia scores one run in the bottom of the ninth,

it's a three-three game, right? At that point, if Team USA wins, or if Columbia wins six to three, so say they hit a three-run bomb, walk it off, they win six to three, Team USA still advances. Because of the extended innings? Just because of the way that the rule works. Team USA still, Team USA, as we showed in the chart, if it was a three-run deficit in most

situations, Team USA still would have advanced even if Columbia won. However, if Team Columbia had won this game seven to three, then Columbia would have advanced. So if Team USA gives up one run, you got a tie game three to three. What that means is that if you're a Team USA, anything can happen except for a walk-off grand slam. If you will have a walk-off grand slam, then there you go. you gone and done it, you lost to Columbia, and you don't get to advance. So weird. So what I'm saying, Derek, is if the bases had been loaded in a 3-3 game and your team USA,

the only thing that can't happen is you lose on a walk-off grand swing. So you walk in the run, right? So you walk in, I think you walk in. You lose the game by one. You lose the game by one, but you still advance. Or you could bach. Would you rather do, would you rather walk or bach in the running run? No, I'm going to walk in the run.

You're going to intentionally walk in it. You're going to intentionally walk. Okay. Because I want them to know I'm doing it to them on purpose. I don't want them to think it was an accident. I want them to know that this was a strategic move. You're not going to have Ryan Plessley go out and plunk the guy. No, fuck no.

Fuck, no. And then what? Miss him and then have the ball go back to the backstop and have three runs score. Get the fuck out of here. I had having that happen. I'm just fascinated to know. That's a great. That's a great point because like.

Do you think Mark DeRosa would have done that? I don't think. So I think Mark DeRosa would have been like, no, we're just going to go and try to win the game. No, because are you stupid to at that point? Like, it kind of reminds me of at the end of a football game, as lame as it is where the team is like, oh, hey, it's a tie game. And we're just going to not even go for a touchdown. We're just going to try to get as close as possible and run this clock down and then kick like a little dinky field goal, right? And you're almost like, that's lame.

What if you miss the field goal? Why don't you go for it? but it's like still there's a part of you that's like, you know that that's the best coaching move. And even if it's lame and even if it's not as exciting as the alternative of trying to go for the big hit or whatever, that doesn't matter. That's not what you're trying to accomplish here.

You're trying to just make sure that you win by, you know, the smallest margin possible, right? With baseball, though, that doesn't, there's not really any time in Major League Baseball where losing a game is going to help you in any way, right? So there's never a time in Major League Baseball. where that would even come up as a strategy. Yeah, but in the World Baseball Classic,

you can lose the game 6 to 3, but you can't lose it 7 to 3, so you might have to do some weird stuff. I kind of love it. I kind of love it. Maybe we should talk about getting this into baseball. But other news from Chase Field is that Chase Field is falling apart. No, it's leaking.

It was raining. It was raining pretty hard last night. It was. But, however, it's going to rain from time to time in Phoenix, Arizona, much to people's surprise. And it's going to happen during baseball games, especially in late August, right? When the monsoon season comes around, right? And my bigger problem is you said from what you noticed that it was leaking on the on-deck circle,

which that's not just like leaking. That's like actually impacting the game at that point. Yeah. Yeah, that wasn't great. And I believe when I left Chase Field, I also saw that it was leaking in the stands as well. I don't know if that was happening during the game. But yeah, it wasn't a great look. You know, you've got, I didn't see the attendance yesterday, probably 35,000.

There were a lot of people there. Not a great look when you're hosting this big national event. You've got, you know, Ken, Ken Rosenthal and J.P. Morosi and all the national crews and everything out there. And the, and the chase-filled roof is leaking while it's raining. You're embarrassing us. You're embarrassing. Not a great, not a great look. You're embarrassing us in front of the other journalists, you guys. Don't do that.

Speaking of being a great journalist, Jesse over here told me that the only time that he's really ever been starstruck, covering a baseball game was about Team USA. And specifically about Mookie Betz and Mike Trout walking into a room together. Maybe it was Mookie Betz's daughter. That was really what I was. Starstruck by. Yeah, no, I mean, that actually makes a lot of sense.

But Betz did talk about what it's like playing side by side with Mike Trout. And it did feature a cameo from his adorable daughter. We got that clip for you. The main thing is just that he's a normal dude. I mean, you know, just, you know, You know, obviously, obviously we all know the baseball side of it, but, you know, just getting to be in the clubhouse and just,

we just simple things like going to eat together, going to hit together, going to take defense together and stuff. You just get to know someone. And now I don't even really pay attention to the baseball thing. I just look at him as my boy and we're out there. I'm just out there playing with my boy. And, you know, he just happens to be Mike Trout. I love the idea that you have to explain that Mike Trout is a normal person.

It would be like knowing Batman or Superman and having to tell people that like, oh yeah, Aquaman, he's cool as shit. He's just a regular guy like us. Yeah, he can troll the like dolphins and shit, but he loves Starbucks and eating hamburgers and stuff. He's a regular dude, you know? Yeah. That's what I feel like MookieBats treated us to you right there. And his daughter stole the show. I don't really remember listening to much else besides watching his daughter.

One more thing on Merrill. We touched on him briefly. just to kind of give a little bit more specifics about what happened there. Three innings, four hits, two runs, two walks, one strikeout. He just wasn't sharp. His command was a little all over the place. He had thrown an equal number of balls and strikes for the first inning or so of this game. So you could tell he was visibly frustrated.

But, you know, I mean, you're glad to see that Team USA was able to pick him up. They didn't score a bunch of runs, but they scored just enough. and the team USA bullpen was absolutely stellar. I know they're starting pitching. They don't have a whole bunch of ace caliber guys, but the team USA bullpen. What's up? Devin Williams, Ryan Presley, Adam Ottivino,

and maybe that's part of the way that this team was assembled because, again, they kind of knew that you're not going to get a starting pitcher that it's going to go more than four, maybe five innings, like in an extremely good night, maybe in a very important game. Like maybe Shohei will go five innings, six innings, right? But for the most part, you're not going to get that out of any guys. So it almost feels like part of the strategy here was to put together a really solid bullpen for Team USA. And aside from the slacking by Team Mexico, I think that that might be an interesting strategy moving forward.

I do have some WBC picks for our Draft Kings pick of the Weeks here in a moment. So keep to stay tuned for that. But of course, let Jesse know also what furniture he should buy for his house. I have a new car that I could move furniture in. I'm not offering that to any of you. I'm just saying, though, if you have any ideas, maybe I can help Jesse. The sick grab for is better anyway. You keep saying that.

That is absolutely not the case. You do not have more cargo space than I do. And do your seats even heat up? Do your seats even heat up? My seats do not heat up. Yeah, then shut up. Well, actually, they do because they're black. Yeah.

In the Arizona sun, those seats really do. trust me i bought i put i bought a car with heat seeders i've heard that joke six times today jesse but uh well jessie i just love that that was like a necessary feature fuck yeah like derrick montia lives in phoenix arizona and he just had to have seat heaters it's still cold here for four months out of the year so and when i say cold i mean really nice but still uh my butt gets cold uh not anymore though My butt stays warm. Jesse's butt is going to stay warm with his brand new more furniture that he gets for his condo. And you can suggest plenty of stuff for him and maybe suggest some for yourself.

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by checking out OGsbrands.com. Must be 21 or over to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. We are going to get to that draft king's pick of the week right now, Jesse. But before we do that... Because your last WBC, draft king's pick of the week... This is the last one. Well, I'm saying the last one that you made was so remarkably successful. So that's why you're doing it again.

What was the last one? Didn't you pick the Dominican Republic to win the whole thing last time? I did absolutely not. I did not pick the Dominican Republic to win the whole thing last time. You just said it with my heart. Yeah, no, I didn't put my money on it though. But before I put my money on something, one thing I could have put my money on was Trevor Bauer making some sort of PR move

to potentially get himself back into baseball. And I'm not, I'm going to say this. I don't even think this was that bad of a move. I honestly think considering everything that Trevor Bauer has gone through and his reputation, he did the one thing that I actually thought was a pretty understandable move to keep playing baseball. The Yokohama Bay Stars. Sign with Japan. Sign with Japan.

And of course, you know, obviously we know that that is, I mean, honestly, it's almost like when a supervillain does something that you're like, ah, Lex Luther. That was a good one. That's what I feel about this. Like Trevor Bauer has a terrible reputation. Of course, there's never actually been anything. There's never, there, there are no charges against him. He was not found criminally liable of anything and he was not in, you know,

but he did receive the longest domestic violence suspension, I believe in Major League Baseball history. And honestly, it's one of those things that we know, we knew. some team was going to have an interest in him, but we also knew that there is a period of time that they need to let this kind of heat on Trevor Bauer die down. So by going and playing in Japan, I feel like it's his opportunity to stay playing against a high level of competition,

stay ready and stay at, you know, stay on top of his game while also playing for someone that's probably not going to have the same scrutiny that he would have experienced playing for any major league baseball team here in the United States. Do you think that a major league team two, three, four years from now? Yes. Swoops in?

Yes. Signs Trevor Bauer. Yes. I wouldn't even be surprised if it's next season. Really? I wouldn't even be surprised if it's next season. Isn't that a pretty big like PR hit though? Like you really think a major league team is going to take on the kind of scrutiny?

Like I know we've seen, we were talking about this on the DNVR Rocky show yesterday. I was on with Patrick Lyons. we've seen guys go through situations somewhat like this and then teams eventually come around and they're like yeah no we'll still have you we'll still have you play for us um but this one i don't know like trevor bower is kind of i don't know it feels like fans were able to kind of forget about some of those other things with with other guys that have happened i don't know if people are going to forget about what happened with with trevor bowler or at least what was said to happen I know there's kind of some gray area with his whole situation,

but you think teams are going to be okay with that? I think that teams would already be okay with it. I think it is the backlash that they would receive. Why didn't the team already sign it? Because of the backlash that they would receive publicly for signing him. So you think the team is okay with it, but they're not okay with what it would do. The public relations nightmare that it would be for him to be a part of the team, right? So here's the thing.

One, we love a comeback story in the United States. We love it. We do, but I mean for even if we don't want to look into the fucking reason why that person is coming back, Jesse. And two, time heals all wounds. People forget. People forget. So when time passes by, what will happen is people will start to justify that he should play a major league baseball again. And they'll do it based on the fact that he was never convicted of any crime.

And people didn't really like Trevor Bauer before this happened. No, absolutely not. He was always kind of a fucking nightmare. I mean, Trevor Bauer was a part of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, and that is something that we don't talk about nearly enough, considering the bullet that they dodged as far as everything that went on with him. Just from the fucking time that he needed to warm up by fucking long throwing from the outfield was enough to be like, what is with this guy, right?

But you like, honestly, I thought that was kind of cool personally. After a while, I got on board with it too. but I think it comes down to honestly that's the weird thing about charges like this incidents like this it really comes down to people know so many details about this kind of horrific relationship

that he had and the way that he treated another person and it makes it hard whether a crime was committed or he was convicted to still like see him as being a person that even deserves to play in Major League Baseball but the problem is is at the end of the day if you can help a team win baseball games, not only will the organization be willing to look past that,

but so will most of the fan base. I mean, Trevor Bowers is a pretty darn good pitcher. I mean, it's what it comes down to. The 2020 was insane for Trevor Bowler. So as long as he doesn't fall out of being a good pitcher, then he will be back in Major League Baseball. And the way that he can do that is by playing someplace like Japan,

where he can continue to start every five days, not fall out of any kind of rhythm or rotation as far as playing for a professional baseball team, and then make his comeback in 2024. In 2020, Trevor Bauer made 11 starts for the Cincinnati Reds, had a 1.73 ERA, a 0.80 whip, and 100 strikeouts in 73 innings. I kind of understand where you're coming from. It's like if he's able to do that for your team,

and he's shown some signs that he's maybe grown from this whole incident or at least started to show signs of being careful in the public eye. Maybe maturity, maybe remorse, maybe showing that he has some remorse for his actions. Maybe that compiled with the fact that he still can help a team win baseball games will absolutely be enough. And then honestly, you go through that initial wave of people being mad. And if you sign them in the off season, maybe you can get that over with. Maybe you can get the anger over with before you even get to the season. right and then you don't have to worry about like oh man people are going like you're always going to have opposing fans holding up signs and using any kind of you know information that they have against an opposing player so no matter what bower is never going to be free of that scrutiny when he travels to away games and performs in front of visiting fans it's just going to be how much one organization is willing to take the risk on him and i hate this conversation because we know it's inevitable just like when we talked about this the first time we knew it was inevitable that something like this would pop up i don't believe we

directly said he would go to Japan, but I do think we brought up like pitching overseas as a potential, you know, landing spot for him. And that's exactly what has happened. So it's a one year contract worth, I believe, $3 million. On top of the $20 million that the Dodgers is still paying him for this year. Not bad. And I believe that, um, I believe that he has the ability to walk away at any point if a major league team offers him a deal and sign him. Yeah. So it's, I mean, there's no risk. it the full year. Maybe even doesn't make it the full year. If somebody has an in, if somebody is in a playoff race and has an injury to one of their starting pitchers, maybe we see Trevor Bauer back before then. Yeah. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. Anyway, I'm done with this trash.

I'm mad and I'm getting fired up here. But I want to get on to my draft king's pick of the week because we only have so much world baseball classic left. And I want to pick on world baseball Classic. I want all of my relatives right now from Puerto Rico to just shut off the, just shut it down. Shut it down. I'm going with Team Mexico as the favorite

with a one and a half run line. I'm taking that at plus 195 because that's... Over Puerto Rico. Over Puerto Rico because that's a great value and I do think they're going to win by over two runs. Team Mexico is just on fire. I see Team Mexico on a, they're, they are on a direct

collision courts with team Japan who won their game against Italy and advanced by the way which we did not address. Yeah. And then I also have Team USA beating Team Venezuela. They are the favorites with a one and a half run line. So I'm going to take them

winning by two runs or more over Venezuela and David Peralta and Eduardo Escobar and his fear of cats. And that's a plus 130 value. So some pretty good values there over at Draft King's sports book. Make sure to go get down on that and get down on the NBA no sweat same game parlayes, which will get you bonus bets back should you lose.

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So join us. Maybe you get your tickets for up to 60% off on the game time. It does. It does appear that game time has some Taylor Swift tickets available. It does appear that there are some game time. Taylor Swift tickets available. So wait last minute. Wait until tomorrow morning.

Hit it up. Save up to 60% when you buy tickets last minute. and the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description below. And then join me and then buy me a beer. And they'll offset some of the ridiculous cost of parking and everything else. I don't know. Have a good time, though. No matter if it's Taylor Swift, spring training games and more, you can save big with game time.

We thank you guys so much for being here. The Clutch Canuck in the comment said, I'm relieved that Catelle isn't playing in it anymore. And I'm going to say kind of the same. But he will rejoin the diamond backs we're expecting by Saturday. Excellent. That's what Tori Lavello said today. Excellent. He was also, Kattel played some center field, which the made the diamond backs a little nervous.

Don't ever do that. Don't ever do that again. Yeah, Tori said today that the D-backs requested that he be moved back to second base and that request. That request was honored. Another fun little WBC tidbit, Dominic Fletcher Homeward against Joe Hottomi. Hey. Hey. Not, obviously, Team Italy didn't come away with the victory there. Big 9-3 win for Team Japan.

Mitchell Stumpo also had a pitch that made Shohei Otani do the Shaihoi Otani face. That was pretty good. Oh, I didn't know. I'm going to show you that clip. I'm going to show him that clip that I'm going to get it on our, on our P.NXDbacks Twitter account. So you guys can see it as well. We still have to post the Chachy PT stories about Stefan and Chris Carey. Those things are a nightmare.

But anyway, we thank you guys, of course, for being here all week long for our interviews. And when it's just the two of us, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This guy's at Jesse and Friedman. Our show, once again, is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you guys. We thank you so much for being here.

And we hope you've really enjoyed the World Baseball Classic as much as we have outside of that one terrible injury. On behalf of Damon, Jesse, and myself, we always appreciate your time and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you stomp a mud hole in your friend's ass and walk that shit dry and that's the bottom line because stone cold said so