PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Five UNDERRATED Diamondbacks players for the 2024 season

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

The Diamondbacks addressed several positional needs this offseason, thereby increasing the competition for available positions. We discuss five players who Diamondbacks fans may be underrating as potential difference makers in 2024. We also have more on Paul Sewald working on adding a change up to his arsenal and MLB the Show unveiling their ‘Women Pave Their Way' mode for this year’s game.SUBSCRIBE 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/Arizona 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!NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!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.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/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.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This is my vice mayor and casually known as your Thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And Jesse, we are here in the middle of spring training, aren't we? We are. We are smack dab in the middle of time and results that people don't care about, really. They're glad baseball games are being played. But at this point, I think we're all just waiting for the regular season.

And we're not even halfway through spring training games yet, right? Yeah, I remember when a lot of guys were asked about the initial excitement of the season on day one. Yes. A lot of them were very quick to point out that, like, yes, of course, I'm excited today. But ask me again in three days and see if I'm still excited then. But yes, the Diamondbacks do not play baseball today. And I don't know what to do with my hands. We don't know what to do with ourselves.

I'm all out of whack today. I have no baseball game to cover. I know, I know. But of course, the one thing we heard was it's like Groundhogs Day every day after that because you just kind of get up. You do the same thing. You don't really care about the results. And then you wake up the next day. You do it all over again.

That's where we're at. But of course, the Diamondbacks are still working on a lot of things. A lot of the players out there obviously are working on things. And that's the reason why, you know, of course, during spring training, the results, especially for some of the, I guess, I guess the main guys that you are looking at to have good results might not be there. Right. Sometimes especially pitchers are working on different pitches. They're working on just small changes, things that that might help their game. Paul Seawald discussed working on his changeup a bit, a pitch that he doesn't throw. He has said in the past that he's kind of a two pitch pitcher.

You know, he says people know what he's going to throw. It's just a matter of him throwing it well enough that they can't hit it. Right. And this is something that he laments frequently, you know, that I'm throwing, I'm throwing 91 and I'm throwing a sweeper. and for whatever reason, because of, you know, the arm angle and whatnot, Paul Seawald is still very, very difficult for hitters to pick up. But, you know, no matter how good your two pitchers are or your two pitches are that you have, there's still a certain predictability factor that comes with any pitcher who only has two pitches.

And, of course, as a reliever, this still works. We are a lot of very, very good relievers in the sport that only have two pitches. But Paul Seawald said that he wants to be an All-Star in 2024. for. And a way for him to kind of take the next step and, you know, reach that next level is to add a third pitch. And a change up is the, that is the pitch that he has chosen to add. He's looking to use it as a weapon against lefties. And as we discussed the other day, he is setting a very, very high bar for this pitch. He told us last week that if he cannot strike out Shohei and Freddie, then the pitch will not survive to opening day. It's obviously a very, very high bar

to clear. Well, this is what he had to say about adding that change up. It'll be interesting to see, you know, the one I got the guy out, the first guy I got out with it was not well located, but hopefully that means the action was good enough that even if it's not located well, it can get outs. And then, you know, it's set up the last out. So one-0 change up, it was a ball. It felt like it had good action. It was a pretty good location. And then it got him out with the next pitch. So it's just, we're just going to have to work as a, as a coaching staff and as a pitcher player and, and, you know, figure out how we, we think that I can use the best to be most successful during the year.

Why did now feel like the right time? Try to add that. I mean, why not now? Sure. Right? I guess. It's no secret. This is an important year for me.

And if I can have my best year, then that will be fairly beneficial for me as far as timing goes. I appreciate his honesty there, right? Because it is about evolving. It is about getting better as a pitcher. But it's also a very important year for Paul Seawald as far as getting, you know, being in a contract year and getting that new deal. He would love, I'm sure, to get that taken care of earlier than later and probably stay here in the Valley as a member of the Diamondbacks if the money is right and they can

extend him. But that's kind of a risk on both sides at this point, right? Yeah, I mean, Paul Seawald, you know, he's 33 years old. You know, next year will be his age. I guess this year is really his age 34 season. Next year it'd be his age 35 season. So I'd be a little surprised if the Diamondbacks were exploring extension. and talks at this point.

It's probably something you just kind of play it out and see what happens. But yeah, you can certainly appreciate his candor there. As you said, this is a contract year for him. And it's probably no coincidence that he's choosing now of all times to add that third pitch and try to have that additional weapon in his arsenal. You heard him talk at the beginning of that clip about the two changeups that he threw in the game yesterday. It was his second game of spring training.

And yeah, we just saw we saw two of them. I think one of them was bouncing the dirt, didn't get a swing. And the other one did get a sort of lazy fly ball. But it wasn't located particularly well, as he said. It was kind of up and away. Not a pitch that's like easy to do a ton of damage on. It wasn't really a strike, but not the place where Paul Sewell wanted to put it for sure. Well, he did talk about, you asked him if he was maybe thinking about that after the way he performed in the World Series and the playoffs.

And yes, Elise, he did address Corey Seeger. This is what he had to say. Were there, I don't know, like specific at bats or anything in the playoffs? You're like, oh, if I had to provide a change up. Yeah, I mean, obviously, in hindsight, facing Corey would have been nice to have thrown one. Sure. Maybe that would have been better than throwing a fastball. Now, found out, you know, that they had my pitches.

So, like, I guess it doesn't really matter what I would have thrown. So that's, that's on me to just be better at that. So that's something we worked on. And yeah, I mean, at hindsight, sure, I would have thrown anything other than a fastball to see you at that point. Sure. What does he mean there by that they had his pitches, right? I did not notice that in the moment. He almost said like he almost made it out like they like he was pitch tipping or something like that.

Obviously, you know, when you throw two pitches, it's not extremely difficult there to. Sure. You got a 50, 50, 50 shot basically, right? It's a coin flip at that point, right? But yeah, maybe he was doing something that was tipping, tipping off the Rangers hitters there. I don't know. But I do know that Paul Seewald has all the motivation this year

to have an even better season than he had last year. Hopefully we see that out of him. Right now, there was a bit of a drop in his Velo out there at spring training. Yeah. It's not anything Tori Lavallo is super concerned about. But it is something to keep an eye on because like Jesse said, he is already hovering right there around what like 92 91 yeah well i mean yeah you you'd like him to be 92 91 yeah that's what i'm saying right that's where that's where he has been in in the

but he's not there right now right now he's throwing around what like 88 88 89 is what we've seen so far in his there you go in his two spring training outing so he understood that reference did you hear that he understood that one well uh this is what torrey had to say about not really being concerned about Paul's drop in Velo right now. Minimal concern. We haven't had a chance to know Paul through spring training, but we've had a lot of conversation with him. This is about

according to what he's been talking to us about and he's gotten ahead of it with us. This is about normal for him. And I think when the lights go on, you're going to see things back to normal, spike up to normal. You know, I was asking Strawmews, as I was looking at some of the readings up there on the scoreboard

if this is the dead art phase of spring training because I've seen some 86s, some 88s, and some 90s and some 90s from some guys that are traditional a little bit more than that. So we might be dealing with a dead arm phase as well. Gabriel says they faced him all the time when he was in Seattle. They probably knew how the pitches looked and that's a very good point. I mean, they were probably very, very familiar with him from his time in Seattle. But dead arm phase there.

What is he talking about there, Jesse, just where pitchers are ramping up and still aren't getting over that hump of where they should be velocisional. Yeah, I think so. It's something that they can certainly happen in spring training. We've, we've seen this before. And when we talk about a dead arm in spring training, we're not talking about like an arm that is, the word dead sort of implies that it's over. It's done. That's not, that's not really what the real meaning is here. We actually saw. If you say something else like arm fatigue, that's actually something different. So it's like dead arm actually doesn't really mean there's anything wrong with you. It's just kind of a plateau. Yeah, it's just like as you're

kind of getting back into the, into the groove of throwing every day and whatnot. It just takes time to really, uh, really have your stuff pick up back to where it was before. It's a, it's a fairly normal thing. We actually saw this was Zach Gallen last year. Brent Strom told me at one point early in the season. You guys might remember that Zach Gallin's Vila was down a little bit in spring training. This stuff didn't quite look the way that we saw it in 2022. And I don't remember being said during spring training, but Stromi told me a few weeks into the season.

that Gallin had been dealing with a dead arm during spring training. So, yeah, it's certainly something that can happen. I'm maybe a little bit more concerned than Tori Lavello here. I wouldn't put it at a zero if your closer is throwing, you know, you can pick up some velocity in spring training, but I'm not sure you're going to pick up like four miles an hour. We saw Seawald average 93 miles an hour with his fastball in the playoffs. I think it was 92.2 during the regular season.

So I think he could get back like most of that. I'm not quite sure he's going to get back all of it, though. That's not good. That's not good. That's a foreboding comment. He's funky enough that I mean, he's never relied on the VLO. Like I think if Seawald average 91 flat this season, I think he could still be an effective reliever.

But yeah, I don't know if, you know, you're going to average 88, 89 at the beginning of spring training and then opening day comes around and you're, you know, you're suddenly in the 92 range. That seems a little farfetched to me. Well, if the Diamondbacks do plan on adding anybody to the roster, it's going to be a little bit difficult for them at this point. There's not a lot of room on the 40 man roster. In fact, they only have one single player on the D-Backs 40-man roster who has, who is out of options right now. The Emmanuel Rivera is the only player on the D-Backs 40-man roster right now with fewer than five years of service time who is out of options.

A lot of guys can be optioned, but Anano-R-R-Vera is not one. Rivera cannot. Players with more than five years can refuse an optional assignment, which is, that's why that doesn't happen very often. But that kind of makes Rivera feel a little bit like the odd man out here because of the versatility of some of the other guys. And perhaps,

you know, regarding that backup infield role might not be an option for this team. So, I mean, that's just something to kind of keep an eye on, I feel like. Are we talking about overreacting? And yeah,

it's always time to go. Yeah. I don't want to overstate this. Like, it's not, I mean, I know Mark Malanson, and there were some times where his, his, his, Velo was down, and that, that situation didn't look great and obviously didn't end great. I'm not, I'm not super concerned

about Paul Seawald. I just don't think that on opening day, it's realistic to believe he's going to be 92 and a half. I think it's, and even, I looked at his log from last season. He started last season with the Mariners a little bit lower. I think he averaged 91 in his first outing of the season, and then it did kind of go

up a little bit from there. So even if he's in like the 90 range on opening day. It's not necessarily the end of the world. I think he can still be effective. But yes, going back to what you're saying, Rivera isn't an interesting position. I guess you could make an argument that because he doesn't have minor league options that he's actually more likely to make the team

because the Diamondbacks don't want to lose him to another organization. Whereas other guys, they could just send them down and send them down and still have them in the organization and have them accessible. So Rivera is an interesting position. I think it's pretty. likely he makes the team. He can back up first base as well as playing some third base, but that's certainly not set in stone at this point. And Elise says any chance we trade

Rivera towards the end of spring training, if it's looking like he isn't going to make it just so that we don't lose him for nothing. You could try. We could try. I mean, the diamondbacks could still pull off a trade with other pieces and that just kind of frees up the roster spots, especially if they give up more players obviously than they're receiving in return. But I don't know, man. I think right now they're in a solid position. They do come into camp, though, with, like what Tori said there in regards to Paul Seawald. They come in a camp with a lot of guys that they don't know how they prepare for the beginning of the season. Not only did they bring in a lot of new guys at the trade deadline last night, obviously the new additions this off season as well factor in. So there's a lot for Tori to kind of figure out right now. But he is very calm. He seems very okay with everything going on. And I think again, when you compare where this team is right now to where they were at this same time last year, Tori has so many more weapons and so many more options to manage than he did last year. So I have a feeling it's it is exciting for him.

It's not a matter of who they can get to fill these roles. It's a matter of which one of these guys they want to choose to fill those roles. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And Connor makes a great point that you can keep expanding the Goldie trade tree if you trade in Norvera. Yes, let's go. Which that trade tree is still certainly alive and well because the diamondbacks traded Dominic Fletcher to the White Sox. Fletcher was the they took him in the draft. They received that draft pick from the Cardinals in that trade.

So yeah, Christian Mena is now. He lives. The gold goldschmidt lives strong inside of Mena. There you go. We have some other prospect news because MLB Pipeline.com dropped their top 30 prospects for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And there's not a lot of surprises there, Jesse. Who do you think was number one, Derek? Um, hmm, is it Jordan Lawler?

You nailed it. Oh, yes. I didn't even look at it. Let's go. Uh, yeah, it's, it's about, it's about what you'd expect. Uh, they do have, they have Drew Jones at two and, uh, or sorry, they have, they have, they have Drew Jones at three and Tommy Troy at two, which is kind of interesting. We have seen a little bit of variance in terms of which, which of those guys is, is where,

uh, they have human linnet four, which is as high as he's shown up on any of these lists, the Athletic had him at five, ESP. had him down at number nine. So they seem to be pretty high on, on Yumen Lin. They have Christiane Manet at 11, which is a little bit lower than we've seen from some of the other outlets. They have Gino Groover at five. Fantastic baseball name, which you said before. Incredible baseball name.

I think they gave him a 60 hit tool, which is, which is pretty lofty. That's exciting. Seems to be something that people are really believing in, his ability and field a hit. So yeah, nothing, nothing earth shattering. I wouldn't say it's kind of the name. that you expect to see. But yeah, all the little descriptions and everything for each player updated. So if you got some time to kill, go check out the new MLB pipeline list.

Christian Robinson in the top 20. K-Raw back in the Diamondbacks top 20 for prospects at 16. It's interesting that like ESPN and the athletic didn't have him on their list at all. And then MLB pipeline has him like right in the middle of their list. It kind of seems like outlets either very much still view him as a legitimate prospect or he's just like falling off the table completely, which I can certainly understand both of both of those perspectives. Is it,

is it Hansel Luis? Yeah, Hansel Luis is an interesting because he comes in at number six. And the Diamondbacks signed him out of the Dominican Republic in January of, what was it? It wasn't last year. It was a year before, right? And he is, he is kind of,

I've heard his name, you know, brought up quite a bit. And now they have him at sixth on MLB pipeline. And so that could be a player that the Diamondbacks got on an absolute steel if he could end up being a top prospect for this team. Right now he's in Vassalia. Keith, Keith Law was very, very high on Hansa Luis. If you go over to the Athletic and read Keith Laws,

I think he did a top 20 list for the Diamondbacks. I mean, he viewed Hans Luis as being a potential, I don't know if it was quite star level player, but like a really, really good player. And he's someone who could, you could see Hans Luis in a top. top 100 list at some point, I think, as he gets closer to the majors, you know, when you're way down in Visalia and that's the highest level you've played, it's going to be pretty tough to crack a top 100 list at that point. But he's definitely something I'd, someone I'd keep an eye on

for the future. Pedro makes a great comment. Pedro says, not going to lie, the Reno squad is going to look hell nice. I can't wait to watch them here and sack this season. Yeah, the Reno, the Reno, the Reno, aces are going to win a lot of baseball games. It's going to be incredible. We're going to go out and catch some of those baseball games in Reno for sure. And then, Connor makes a great point. Connor says, Uman Lens ETA being this year feels aggressive. And it does because he's still in AA.

He's still with the sod poodles. And they do have his ETA as 2024. Just kind of a happy thought or what are we thinking on that? Is that a bit much? That is a little aggressive. I'm surprised they didn't say 2025. I don't think it's impossible by any means. He did reach AA and put up pretty good numbers at double A last year.

So a call up toward the end of the year. I don't think is an outrageous idea. We have a ludicrous video, by the way, if you haven't seen on YouTube, of him striking out a lot of the Arizona Diamondbacks best hitters. So that probably, I'm pretty sure we helped raise his stock up considerably just with that video. Absolutely. We had our hand in that for sure. But usually they're pretty conservative with their, with their ETAs.

So I do agree that 2024 for Lynn, it's a little bit, it's a little bit aggressive for me for sure. Ocean View Coffee Shop says Jake McCarthy. starting and we actually have a little bit more on Jake McCarthy as well as some other guys that we feel might be a bit underrated on this Arizona Diamondback squad in 2024. So we'll get to that here shortly, but not sure, not sure what Jake McCarthy's role is going to be in 2024. But we do appreciate you guys being here right now in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, we would love you to do so now. Make sure you sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our wonderful shows go

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cast aside a little bit with some of the acquisitions the diamondbacks made. Also, some of the guys coming into this team might be a little bit underrated. So I just wanted to see your thoughts on maybe some of these guys that could be major role players for this team in 2024. And we're talking at a major league level. Now, some of these guys might end up starting the season in Reno. But just positional depth, injuries, all of that, we should be able to see most of these guys contribute to the team in some way this year.

Yeah, and I want to preface this by saying these are, these aren't players that I think are underrated by like the larger baseball world. Although, I mean, I guess they may also be that in some cases. But like we're not talking about Merrill Kelly because I think Diamondbacks fans have a very good understanding of how good Merrill Kelly is and what he brings to this team. I don't think he's necessarily underrated by the fan base. These are guys we think. He's underrated at a national level. Yeah, he's underrated at national level. These are guys we think that you, you all might be underrating heading into the 2024 season.

That's so accusatory. I know. He really came with it there, didn't they? You're like pointed your finger at the camera. All right, Derek. The first one on the list is Slate Sacconi. Yeah. Someone who I feel, I don't know exactly what the role will look like.

He's certainly in the mix for that fifth starter spot that the Diamondbacks have. I would be pretty surprised if he won that. I think it's more likely you see him start the year down in Reno, but also possible that the Diamondbacks decide to roster him as a reliever. This is something that Tori Lavello mentioned the other day. I asked about how willing are you to roster some of these fifth starter candidates as relievers instead? And he said that that is something that they've talked about doing.

And I know that there are some guys, they feel better about that than others. I'm not sure exactly who is who. But I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in 2024, you see Slade Sacconi play a fairly important role for the Diamondbacks, whether it be coming up as a starting pitcher, you know, in case of injury or whatever it might happen, or if at some point the Diamondbacks convert him to a reliever where I think he could be pretty, pretty darn good. Now, Elizabeth specifically accused Slade of being a player that she doesn't believe in, right?

That's, I know that she, that was one of the guys on her list. But so far, nice spring, he didn't, didn't allow any runs in his first start against white socks so far in four innings pitched in his two starts he's given up two earn runs both both of those both of those were in his last start struck out five with a 1.75 whip so uh i mean again he looked a lot better in his first start he definitely did look better in his first start and you also have to factor in that like you said he is uh he is competing for this fifth spot but he's probably a bit of a long shot as far as that goes yeah uh and i mean he could give he could be a valuable piece out of the bullpen for this team or just in general down the road when, you know, they might look to somebody

else possibly to give them some innings. Like, yeah, you know, that's, that's the biggest thing is no matter who wins that fifth starter spot, it's not a, it's not a lock going forward. I feel like they're on, you know, they, they'll have a fairly short leash if the other, you know, candidates, the other people that Tori was looking at kind of are performing well. And that's, it's, it's pressure, but I think it's the right kind of pressure. Yeah, that's fair. You know, even if Slate Sacconi doesn't win that spot, which we don't necessarily expect him to win that spot. But yeah, if he starts the year down in Reno and his starting games there, he very well could still come back to the majors and, you know, slide into the Major League rotation depending on how things are going. So, yeah, I am especially intrigued about what Slate Sikoni could look like in the bullpen.

The Diamondbacks have been fairly hesitant to make that transition with guys. They've been a kind of team that is really held on with some of these pitching. prospects and really wanted to find a way for them to make it as starters. But I wonder if this might be a situation where that transition could serve them pretty well. Slate Sikoni is someone, I think his slider has the potential to be a very, very good outpitch in a bullpen role. His fastball shape isn't anything extraordinary, but if you put him in the bullpen suddenly

instead of 94, 95, maybe it's 96, 97. And then you're talking about a guy who like maybe throws 90s. with a wipeout slider. That's a pretty compelling profile for a relief pitcher. So there's a, there is a world, I think, where Slade Cicone is pitching like fairly important innings near the back end of games at some point in 2024 if the diamondbacks choose to go that route. Another guy that maybe isn't underrated, but maybe he's just more forgotten about is

Sherman Martin. And that's another guy that could end up being a valuable piece to their bullpen. Corbyn Martin was lost all. of last season due to injury. But when you talk about keeping the Goldschmidt trade alive, Corby Martin, he keeps the Zach Granke trade alive. There you go. So does Paul Sewell technically now because we traded Rojas for him.

Yeah, I traded some other pieces for Seawall, but I'll let it slide. Corby Martin, we'll focus on him for sure because this is a guy that, again, he's had a couple of injuries that has really prevented him from, I think, living up to the potential that a lot of people have seen in him. I feel like he still could be the pitcher that we've seen in the past. And I think now with the role out of the bullpen as a reliever and kind of focusing on that as his role going forward, he could end up being a dangerous weapon for this team. What do you think?

So I guess I'll preface this. Corbyn Martin was a pretty legit candidate for a bullpen role for the Diamondbacks last season, seemed to be trending toward making the team. I wrote a whole feature story on Corbyn Martin, within the last week or so. Go check it out on GoPhNX.com if you haven't already. But he was in this race for a bullpen roll before his shoulder basically fell off. And what do you think he topped at, he topped out at Velo-Wise last spring training?

97? 98. 98 miles an hour. I knew he threw a 97. He averaged right around 97. I have him averaging 96.8 with his four-seem fastball in the month of March. last year, which of course would have been those spring training games. So he was really pitching well.

Like Corbyn Martin looked like not just a guy you could give you an inning here or there in the sixth out of the bullpen. He looked like a guy who could be important who could be pitching important innings for the diamond backs, you know, throughout the season. And I think he has a chance to do that this year. Toro Lavello said the other day that he's throwing the crud out of the baseball on the backfields. We haven't seen him in a game yet. Yeah. I'm not totally clear on whether he's really an eye. option for opening day the diamond backs haven't uh you know he's going to need to face some hitters

and cactus league games for sure before you're going to want to stick him on the opening day roster but whenever he is ready to go they're kind of slow playing him i i could see him being a pretty important piece for this team health and durability being a huge factor for him and 100% that's one thing that we haven't seen as really a healthy corbin martin yet at this point so yeah um i'm i'm curious uh very curious to see how that looks of course uh another guy that all a lot of people might be both overrating and underrating on this team is Jake McCarthy. Jake is a big question mark for this team. I know that he is beloved by the fan base, right?

Like Jake is one of those guys that people quickly gravitated towards. They enjoy, he's a great personality. He's very charismatic. And I think that, you know, he's one of those guys that, he's, he's one of the young players that really had a breakout season. But Jake's had his ups and downs. and that's the problem is the downs at times have been pretty low. And, you know, in comparison to how good he's been at times.

So it's, you know, it's never been a question about Jake being there for positional depth in regards to the outfield. But are the Diamondbacks really going to call on him this year? Are they going to look to other options or, you know, what's he going to do in Reno? Is he going to go down to Reno and hit 400 again? And then, you know, come up to the major league, you know, roster and struggle. I just don't know what to expect out of Jake. Yeah, it's hard to see him making the team to find a path for him to make the team.

I guess if Randall Grishick winds up not being ready for opening day, that might be the easiest path for him. And that does seem like a real possibility, not something Tori Lavello is openly saying they're really willing to talk about just yet. But I do think there's a world where things go in that direction. But yeah, Jake McCarthy last year, he did spend a lot of time in Reno,

which I know was certainly tough for him to swallow, understandably so. But he played 45 games there and he hit 360 with a 416 on base, a 594 slugging percentage. I know it's Reno, but 360 will play just about any level. He was really good down there. And if that is where he's going to start the season, he, you know, he needs to go back and do the same thing. He needs to show that he rakes in Reno, that he has nothing left to prove there. and even though he's a little bit buried on the outfield depth chart, you know,

he's a guy who can really bring some defensive value in a way that Jock Peterson cannot in a way that even Randall Grishick probably cannot. So if they lose, you know, an Alec Thomas, a Corbyn Carroll or whatever for a little while, you absolutely could see Jake McCarthy step in. And we've seen the kind of player he can be in the past. And, you know, maybe he could give that to the Diamondbacks again this year.

Four for 18 this spring with two doubles, an RBI walk and five strikeouts. So strikeouts aren't great there, but everything else. He hasn't looked. He has not looked great in the cactus league. It's no way around that. But it's not for him any plate appearances. Yeah.

Who cares? Exactly. Another guy that hasn't had a lot of plate appearances. It's been Jorge Barrosa. But you were telling me that you think he could be another guy that not a lot of people are aware of or are thinking about, but could be about. valuable member of this team in 2024. Yeah, Jorge Barrosa, you can go get it in center field, man.

We have seen him play center field a pretty decent amount in spring training. And I haven't seen him challenged too many times. It's been mostly routine plays so far. But does have three stolen bases. Yeah, he can run a little bit. I think the hit tool is there. His numbers in Reno are not quite what Jake McCarthy's were. It would be hard to match that.

Last year, he hit 274, 394, 456 in Reno. So, yeah, most likely he will start the season down there. But he's a switch hitter, which I think is an advantage for him in some ways. Deepak's have a lot of a lot of left-handed hitting outfielders, right, who kind of fit in this mold of the outfield speedster kind of a guy. So him being a switch hitter, I think helps in a lot of ways. And, yeah, it remains to be seen what kind of role he'll have, what kind of opportunities will open up. But I could, I could see Hori Brosa getting some major league time in 2024. and see what it looks like.

Currently listed as their number 12 prospect on their prospect ranking by MLB Pipeline. Yeah. Is Jock underrated? Are people underrating Jock? I feel like they are. I feel like, you know, I mean, even as you watch them in spring, you know, the full effort isn't there, which is completely understandable because it's spring.

But I don't know if people are really expecting as much out of Jock as he might be able to give the diamond bags. he just like like in 2022 jock peterson hit 274 353 521 he had an 874 ops if he had if he had duplicated that in 2023 and been a part of this diamond backs team he would have been the best hitter on the team like no no diamond backs hitter at an 874 ops last year right yeah um so i i just think it's important to note corbin yeah i think it was probably corbin um yeah those guys were all bunched up together. Christian Walker was right there too. Corbin had an 868 OPS.

So that is very, very close. Cotel had a 844 OPS. So yeah, I think Corbin was right there. Like you said, he would have been statistically the best hitter on the team. Statistically,

he would have been. And again, he's a platoon player. So it's a little bit different. You know, Corbin is playing every day. Jock Peterson in 2022. The Giants were,

we're protecting him against lefties a little bit. But even so, he has the, ability to really be an impactful hitter in the middle of the lineup, especially against Ritey's. And his expected stats really didn't fall off from 22 to 23, even though the actual stats did. So I just think it's important to recognize how good Jock Peterson was a couple of years ago

and how good he could be in 2024. And you're right. He actually walked a lot this spring. He has three walks this spring. So he will be that for this team as well. He'll be a guy that gets on base a lot. And he'll be a runner on base for this. team a lot. Not a great runner, but a runner nonetheless. Yeah, he will, he will have to run the

bases a little bit. Yes. You might not be especially quick, but yeah, his strikeout rate was his lowest in a long time last year. His walk rate was his highest in a long time. So there's some promising signs for for Jack Peterson. The positional battles will continue. It doesn't sound like they have any kind of date set for when Tori's going to make any decisions on any of this stuff. But they do have a lot of a lot of things to kind of get figured out before opening day comes around on what is that March 28th

March 28th three weeks from tomorrow three weeks from tomorrow so we will be of course here bringing you all the updates on what is going on with those positional battles and with these guys that we think can really contribute here and again we don't expect most of these guys to start the season

on the major league roster but this is a matter of guys that we feel are going to to be sneaky good guys for this team and might not be getting the love that that they deserve or maybe might not be known yet but might get that chance to be known by the fans a little bit more this season speaking of getting to know things a little bit more let damon be your guide to illegal pete's uh he's there all the time so you might as well just go ask him what's good anyway like go go see what they got on the menu today and then check in with damon on the patio where he'll

be enjoying arizona's strongest margaritas uh and probably eating reverse nachos, and he'll let you know on what to get. Maybe some wild weeds. Let's go. Let's go. Wow. Man, now I'm thirsty. Illegal Piz has it all.

They really do. They also have an incredible patio, like I said, they have a full bar, full menu, piping hot queso, everything you need to enjoy your week. Kick the Monday blues with $3 margaritas all day long or ease your way back another week with $2 tacos every Tuesday. If you work in health care or education, you can take your team to lunch at illegal Pete's every Tuesday and enjoy. Buy one, get one free entrees.

and don't forget to unwind after a long day at their happy hour 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day. Illegal Pete's your go-to spot for brittos, buddies, and beer. And Damon. Also, speaking of Damon, make sure to check in with him when you make your bets over at BetMGM. Sport folk. I talked about this a little bit yesterday, but I'm still fascinated by these matchups that they have for MLB future bets in regards to just two players, head-to-head, who's going to hit more home runs. they have an incredible assortment of future bets that you can get down on right now for Major League Baseball, not just MVP and rookie of the year, all sorts of other stuff too.

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Its promotional offer is not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Oh, that was a good one. That was a good one. By the way, if you're not a diehard yet, get down on a diehard membership right now. You get all of Jesse's content. You get access to all the fun stuff we're doing in the Discord, including city council meetings, squeeze play, the only game show right now on PHNX, and all sorts of other discussions, as well as some behind the scenes looks being from us over there at spring training. So get down today, join us, become a diehard.

You get discounts with our partners and you get discounts on our events, like our upcoming takeover of the Chasefield pool, where we will be there in person to defend the pool to the death if we have to. Right? That's the way that works. To the death. To the death. Yeah.

That's what we do around here. We make sure that nobody, no one's ever going to celebrate in our pool ever again. But join us become part of the family. We'd appreciate it. We love you guys for doing so already, those of you that are already diehards. MLB the show 24 has unveiled a brand new mode in their road to the show. It's called Women Pave Their Way mode. And per MLB the show for the first time ever,

you can create and play as a female ball player with a unique road to the show story that evolves with the player over the course of your career. And I think that's incredible. I think it's really, really cool. And the internet is in shambles over it. The internet, of course, is in shambles. Can I say, I'm just going to say this, as a father of a daughter, don't ever bring any of that mess to me, because I'm not going to hear it, right?

Like when it comes to them incorporating women into anything, I'm for it. I am, I love it in my comic books. I love it in movies as heroes. I love all of it because for me, it allows me to share something like baseball with my daughter, right? If she feels excluded from it, we can't really bond over it. and like sports for women can very much be that. If there was any sport, if we're being honest, that women could absolutely play the same as men. I feel like it's baseball, right? I mean,

they always want to talk about physicality and all this other stuff. Baseball is baseball. I mean, I don't care what gender you are. If you can throw a 98 mile per hour heater on the edge of the zone, I want you on my team. And I don't care what gender you are, right? But when it comes to stuff in video games, we're really going to nitpick about whether.

That's what gets me. Whether there are really women in Major League Baseball or not or have this as a mode. Are you kidding me? So, yeah, since when we were using how realistic something is is a barometer for like what should and shouldn't be video games, right? Just that general concept is outrageous to me. If I can create myself in a video game, it is about as unrealistic as if I create myself as a Major League Baseball player is about as unrealistic as could possibly be.

Do you think he's going to put in that his weight is 145 pounds soaking wet? Absolutely not. He's not doing that. Come on. What are we doing here? I don't think the game would allow me to put my actual weight in. I don't think it would work. No, this height and weight combination doesn't work.

You're not a real person. But I mean, we've seen girls playing the Little League World Series. We've seen girls set the world on fire in baseball. It just doesn't feel just like a lot of things involving sports and women. It doesn't feel like women are the idea of women in baseball isn't warmly received by people, which is absolutely absurd. one of the greatest baseball movies of all time is about when women had to take over and play baseball

because the men were being sent to war. So like, come on, what are we doing here? Like, first of all, we have some tweets here that I think illustrate the point we're trying to make. First, got Jared Krabis out here saying, dudes are really getting out here getting upset that you can play as a woman in MLB the show because it's never happened in real life and then creating themselves as a playable character

looking like Mark McGuire in 1998. It's a video game, my guy. It's going to be okay. What else we got here, David? Our girl, Jordan. Jordan says, how dare MLB the show include women in my very realistic game that lets me make an all-star team of dead baseball players to go up against the current Los Angeles Dodgers?

That's an absolutely outstanding point. And then Antonio just says, stop complaining that's unrealistic that women in MLB the show. You can literally fly in the game. Wait, how do I get my like my player to fly? I'm not going to tell you what am I missing in road to the show you need that home run celebration yeah and you need to there's a home run celebration that makes them fly unlock it in the community market yeah like pay for it with your show points or whatever they're called or course it's behind the paywall and of course damon knows of course david and then you can equip it to your player and then

it's pretty beast yeah but do does that mean that they fly over home plate and therefore don't touch the base so there's on each home run celebration we're still getting the point here right and each home run celebration there's three different like weird things that they do on second third and home play and the portion between third and home is the portion where he flies. Okay. I've had that equipped to my guy before. I can tell you that from experience. I mean, let's be honest here.

I mean, people will be like women in baseball is unrealistic and then they're winning their 10th consecutive World Series with the Chicago White Sox. Yeah. There is nothing realistic about this game. Let's stop it. All right. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know.

Like this is all crazy to me that anybody. would be upset about an option where you can create a player as a woman and allow it to go down the road like i was telling jesse my daughter made a character in a video game and then i ended up writing an entire book series about it right like that inclusion is important like the what women are supposed to create themselves in a video game and make themselves a dude like that's yeah yeah we all want to make ourselves in a video game we want to make it look like us and i mean that's what But video games now are going in that direction where, you know, you can make it so detailed that it looks like you. It's a story about you, right?

Yeah. Not to mention the fact that women also are playing video games like more than ever now. So let's not act like they're not a decent percentage of the people wanting to play this, right? Like, yeah. I don't know. This is crazy to me. I think also Major League Baseball, obviously, I mean, as much as any sport really needs to be growing the game and doing anything that they can to grow the game. And I know this is the show doing this, not like Major League Baseball itself.

Sure. But Major League Baseball certainly seems to be on board. This is something that Rob Manfred has talked about a fair amount, making sure that, you know, girls who want to play baseball have opportunities to do so growing up. Those opportunities have not existed as much as they should have in the past. And we do have some examples now of women who are in the Atlantic League playing independent league baseball. Chelsea, you know, a league that is actually affiliated with Major League Baseball. So, yeah, I mean, it is definitely a.

a lot of progress has been made in terms of women being more accepted playing the sport. And again, a video game. I mean, you don't even have to have a conversation about how realistic something is. It is a video game, right? It is just for fun. You're trying to make it appeal to as many people as possible. You know, I can't imagine why anyone would really have a serious problem with this. It's because people just react like this.

And the craziest part about it, it is the, it's, it seems to be, guys who look a lot like me that just overreact to the situation and they have been represented represented you know their entire lives in everything they've watched whether it was comic books television shows movies whatever right like it's it's it's it's easy to label it as like oh the the world is oh it's it's it's some sort of woke thing or whatever dude it's just literally about uh the fact that women have contributed to baseball there's more women in baseball as a part of baseball than there ever has been. And it's like Jesse said at the end of day, it's a video game.

It's a video game. Yeah. And that's all. I mean, the more, the more thing, like the more cool things you can do in any video game, generally the better. Right. Like I think. And you can argue by the way, MLB the show has done a better job of growing the game even

than MLB themselves, right? Like they made that Negro Leagues mode from last year such a cool. Yeah. Experience from an educational standpoint. Like they, they made it not only very informative. and interesting, but they made it look slick, and they made it just like, it's just such a cool addition to the game.

So, like, again, if you don't want to play the video game as a woman, there's a very simple option for that. And it also could maybe just involve, I don't know, shutting the fuck up on the internet about it. Like, maybe, maybe that,

maybe that. But anyway, I don't know. I'm still going to be in a little dad protection mode when people need to get so upset about, you know, women being included in stuff because it's absurd to me. It really is. This conversation, just more than anything, makes you want to go home and open up

that movie the show and do the most unrealistic thing. Oh, yeah. Like, let's go create the five foot two player who weighs 350 pounds and has a 99 speed rating. Should we talk about how I created Jesse Friedman? Oh, yeah. No way. Yeah. You created me, Damien?

You remember that? Oh, maybe, no. I think you were a fire. I think Damon did tell me this, actually. One of the best minor league prospects ever, right? Yeah, he's a, did he ever meet? Did he ever reach the major league level? I believe he's in the Marlins organization.

Oh, yeah. Not even in the majors? No. No. Damon. Jesse, I don't play this all the time, but every time that you went out there. No. Every time you went out there, you gave seven strong.

No, he's not. He's going to act like he's not aware of how long it takes to move through the minor league system in baseball. Yeah, but we all know how. You cover this. Ford for a winning. Road to the show has a way of making that process go a little bit faster. No, no, it does not. When you play on a good difficulty, Jesse, come on. That's fair.

R.A's character mashes 80 home runs and 100 stolen bases every season plus the league NLCS and World Series MVP for six consecutive season on the Diamondbacks. How is that not realistic? Fair. How is that not realistic? Come on. Yeah, I mean, the integrity of the video game is important here, folks. I had an MLB, the show league recently where James Outman was.

exceptionally good. And Damon has been telling me all about how unrealistic it is that James Outman could possibly have an OPS north of 900, right? Well, first off, that is unrealistic. And second off, I just want you to have some self-respect and some shame. Yeah, have some dignity.

I was building a team with like rookies from the 2023 season. It's pretty epic. Trade him. Get rid of him. Get rid of them. There's other rookies. Cut them. DFA. I don't know who I'd replace him. This is public enemy number one. I know. Well, Jesse might be public enemy number one after some of the things he said. But anyway, we do appreciate you guys for stopping by.

We do appreciate you, of course, for joining us every single day. But we will be back tomorrow. We got ourselves a 6 p.m. show following the Arizona Diamondback Spring Training game. So we'll bring you some updates from that as well. Of course, big shout out to Chris. We just wanted to let Chris Melton. We're so glad you're here in the chat. No, we love you.

We definitely miss our mom. And we hope we just want you know we're thinking of you today on this day. Of course, in the meantime, you can make sure the rest of you maniacs out there, follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore K-man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Damon is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. There's some dissension about whose dogs on air.

We are Damon's dogs has become a pretty loaded statement. There's a lot of controversy. Like when we say it, it's not, it's not sincere. Yeah, it's not right. We used to be a connected to. We used to be connected and dangerous as a podcast. And then stupid Ryan Thompson and Alex. I'm Alex dogs and you're just Damon Dog, you know.

They throw a wrench right in the middle. Yeah. We're no longer dangerous. No, man. You can follow him at Damon Dog. That's DAWG. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

again, we thank you guys so much for your time. We'll see you back here tomorrow at 6pm. You guys have a wonderful evening. Sorry that there's no baseball. We tried to do something about it. We tried. We tried to get a wiffle ball game going outside the office and it just wasn't picking up stage.

Yeah, we definitely. We should be playing backyard baseball or something right now. But of course, we do appreciate you guys for stopping by. We'll see you next time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't underrate Jock Peterson.