PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Freight Train coming through

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing the D-backs first win of spring training, David Peralta’s adjustments leading to early success, and what’s left in the free agency bargain bins. 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 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, and I'm joined by my vice mayor, Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. So Derek, I had another go at Panda Express today, and this time I actually had a fortune inside of my fortune cookie. So what did the fortune say this time? What did the fortune say? Here we go. You have the story about opening a fortune cookie and you didn't have the Well, the story, the story was that the fortune was actually there.

Not that the fortune was actually significant. But all right, here it is. Surround yourself with kindness and beauty. And that's why I'm here this evening, Derek, to record a podcast with the one and only Derek Monta yet. I'm telling you that right now. But what you are going to get for me is hard hitting DBAX opinions and content. And also we got to see more baseball.

David Peralta is on a tear, and we're going to talk about it. First, before we go on to that, we want to let you know that this show is very kindly brought to you by our friends over at the Drafking Sportsbook. Right now, of course, as you know, March Madness is king, and you can get in on the action. Turn your team's victory into your own big win with our code over at Draft King Sportsbook, a PHNX. bet just $5 on any team to win using our code and get $200 in free bets if they do. And speaking of winning, Jesse, the Arizona Diamondbacks won their first spring training game of the year today against the Seattle Mariners. In a romp, 9 to 1, the offense really seems to be rolling in the last couple of games. But most importantly, David Peralta, the freight train seems to be rolling in the right direction.

very positive things. He talked to us about some changes that he made during the off season. He made a change to his footing a bit to just see the ball, I guess, earlier. And he worked on it a considerable amount. And it seems to be paying off so far as far as his performance and especially the drive. Like he was hitting the hell out of the ball today, even on the outs. The outs were long outs to the outfield wall. It used to be kind of like a more dramatic placement of that front foot when David Peralta would would take his swing.

It was just kind of a bigger motion. And now you see it's a little bit more relaxed. He's a little bit more crouched down on kind of a more athletic sort of position when he hits. And yeah, I mean, so far we have what like aided bats or something to go off of. But it's hard to argue with what he's done so far with a couple of home runs. So. his very first that was a home run so come on gives it was credit to do it was and not only that but you know this this actually like somehow i hadn't really suspected that david peralta would

you know be trying to make all sorts of changes and and do all of these things that he's been doing but this is a contract year for david peralta and not to say that that's the only reason that he's doing all this stuff but this is you know obviously a very important season for him. If he wants to continue his major league playing career beyond this season, he's probably going to have to find, you know, something else in his game if he wants to continue to be a big league regular moving forward. And yeah, I mean, this seems to, this seems to be working so far. And we forget, David Peralta is only a few years removed from winning a Silver Slugger Award and hitting 30 home runs. So who knows what he could do in 2022.

He said that the that front foot that is helping him with his timing to just get to the ball quicker, see the ball quicker. And that's something that's always amazing to me with baseball more than kind of any other sport. Don't get me wrong. Adjustments, coaching, making changes to your game, adapting. It's part of anything. It's part of any sport. The difference here is, though, with baseball, it literally can be a matter of, of inches, how high you raise your knee, what side of the plate you, or what side of the rubber

you pitch on, like Zach Gallen, he was talking about at one point, the change he made to have the successes that he found was based on, you know, changing where he was pitching from on the, on the rubber, on the rubber. And like, that, that kind of stuff to me is just so incredible, right? I mean, but it makes sense, too, because I don't know if you, have you ever. gone bowling and you were just terrible and then somehow you just like decided to move over one like arrow

and all of a sudden you can I might be the I might be the world's streakiest bowler I literally so one time I literally bowled like a 76 and then the next game I bowled a 190

and I swear I made like no changes. Yeah it wasn't it I didn't move a lane over. Maybe I could have bowled a 300 if I, if I made the proper adjustment, you had the right coaching out there. You had Brent Strom out there telling you, you know,

what you needed to change, what you needed to do. My wife's an infuriating person to go bowling with. I saw a tweet one time that said like, you know what's annoying is to go bowling with people who are good at bowling. It's like, bro, chill the fuck out, right?

Like that's my wife. Yeah, we're here to have a good time, right? Yeah, my wife. I'm like, hey,

we were here to drink beers and have a good time. And now I'm getting all competitive. of and angry and shit. My wife will effortlessly bowl a 220. And it's like, what? My wife, well,

I'm not joking about that. Her form is terrible. But for some reason, her bowling acumen is impeccable. She was in a league when she was a kid, so she's one of those people. And, does she have her own bowling ball?

No, I have my own bowling ball. That's what makes me angry. That's so embarrassing. That's so embarrassing. It's just getting shown up by the person using the rental. She's using the rental ball. Yeah, it is.

It's not a good, it's not a good look, but it's something you got to deal with. And it's going back to our discussion, it's something that pitchers are going to have to deal with maybe with David Peralta making these adjustments, right? See, and like, again, that's the kind of, that's the funny thing about this whole thing with this Diamondbacks team. It's not to say that this is a reflection quite yet. this sounded more like something David Peralta was doing on his own. I forget the name. It escapes me right now, and I'm kind of mad at myself that I forgot. But he was working with another player during the opposite.

Yeah, Michael, Brantley. Michael Brantley, that's it. There you go. Thank you. And he said that he's like the nicest guy in the world. And that he, they were working out up to five days per week,

uh, with hitting and just timing and all of that stuff. apparently he has some pretty amazing equipment in his house for David Peralt to go over to use. And their neighbors, they live really relatively close to each other and have been friends for a number of years. So that was something that he worked on during the off season. This off season, I'll tell you, I mean, Josh Rojas said it, but it might in fact be one of the more productive off seasons, considering these guys had to do so much on their own. And I say that because I think maybe it's just that initial.

that drive the fact that you couldn't rely on the team you couldn't rely on camp you couldn't rely on going back to the facility to get yourself ready so you had to do it on your own and you know these guys they seem ready another guy by the way that had an outstanding outing today uh one of the umberto's umberto castiano a humberto fantastic outing uh continues to do great in a starting rule And I mean just three innings scoreless. I think he gave up two hits, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe just one hit. But yeah, it looked really good. Three hits, no walk, two strikeouts, pretty solid all around.

Yeah, it was a solid day for him. And again, just another potential option for the Diamondbacks when we talk about that fifth starter role, somebody that we haven't been really discussing, but could quietly be a dark horse for that position in the rotation. I think we've we've probably underestimated humberto castianos in this and I I blame myself Derek because in in talking about who the diamond backs fifth starter is going to be. I certainly had his name in mind but he's never really been like a serious contender in my head at least in the conversations that we've had and I think he clearly put himself in that conversation today with his outing especially given

you know, Dan Staley struggling the other day and still a number of questions surrounding Corbyn Martin. So still a long ways to go in terms of where this thing actually winds up. But yeah, I mean, Humberto Castellanos was was really good today. And, you know, looking at what he did last season, he has some, some, you know, recently pretty good performance in the Diamondbacks rotation that should help him out in this race. And he made his first career major league start last season. So like, this is a guy that stepped up from a reliever role we talked about it on yesterday's podcast we've talked about it at length on this show about tori lovola wanting guys to step up and he was definitely one of them right because he gave them better starts than a lot of their starting rotation could

at that time besides merrill kelly essentially merrill kelly was probably their best starting pitcher at that time besides castiano's right wasn't wasn't necessarily saying a whole lot, but, right. No, don't get wrong. Yeah. I mean, and again, when you look at his performances, it's not like he was blowing people away. He was just, much like Merrill Kelly, Merrill Kelly's numbers aren't great. He was just consistent. And that was something that Humberto was he was consistent for this team. But like what you said, he was kind of quietly consistent. People probably can easily forget that he was in the starting rotation last season. People could forget that he could still be a viable starter for this team this season.

They do have a lot of options. The problem is, is that who is going to step up and be a regular starter? Who is going to give them that consistency? Because right now, we have a lot of guys that could start here and there, but who is going to, like, win the job with consistency. That's what's going to win it here out of these guys. I think a lot of them are going to have erratic performances. good days, up, down days, you know, all of that stuff.

It's just how many are we going to see? With spring training being this short, not having as many starts, it's not as many opportunities for Tori Lavello to see these guys and make that decision before we're into the regular season. If you had to guess what Humberto Castianos's ERA in the starting rotation was last year, he made seven starts. What do you think his ERA was? 4.25.

5-56. Wow. That does not seem right. But I guess it's a small sample size and he had some bad that made it look worse than probably. Yeah. Yeah. It's I mean, it's 34 innings altogether. So a little bit under five innings per start. He only had 19 strikeouts in 34 innings. So there's not a whole lot of, not a whole lot of swing and miss there. But yeah, I mean, no matter who the diamond backs, right. But no matter who the Diamondbacks pick as their fifth starter. I mean, you know, we're not looking at a Jacob deGrom here, right? I mean, we know the state of this rotation and you're looking for stability. You're looking for a guy who can, as you said, be consistent and, you know, give your team a chance to win every fifth day. And he certainly could be that guy. That's why all of these guys bring something to this role,

but it seems like none of them bring everything to this role, right? Dan Straeli has proved to be an Ironman and he's proved to have not only the stability, but the stamina to go as a starter and pitch in a long MLB season. Castiano just did his job, you know, and did what was asked of him and did the best that he could do and was pretty successful, even though those numbers don't really reflect it. Corbin Martin is hopefully the future starter for this team. So, you know, I don't know if you want to delay his progress by not getting him in the rotation, good or bad, right? So there's a lot of question marks

around that fifth starting rotation spot. And I don't know. I don't even know if, I mean, I would say Luke Weaver would still need to prove himself pretty much because if two of these guys kind of stood out and had a really good spring, I could even see his spot in the rotation being a little bit in jeopardy. Not much, but, you know,

if two guys shined and Tori had a hard time, deciding and and Weaver didn't have a good spring and, you know, didn't progress. I could see that. Nobody's, no, I don't think anybody is guaranteed a spot in the rotation right now outside of the, the, the top three guys, which is Gallin, Madbum, and Merrill Kelly. That's, that's probably fair. I think Luke Weaver has, I would be pretty shocked if Luke Weaver lost his starting spot at some point, but. Yeah, absolutely.

But it is, I mean, a lot of people have wondered over the years if the diamond back should just embrace the fact that he's sort of a two pitch guy. You know, he's got the fastball. He's got the change up. But he hasn't consistently had anything else. And so maybe he is, you know, a back end reliever type. And that's really where you could get the most use out of him. At this point, the diamondbacks probably don't have enough depth in their starting rotation to even try that if they wanted to. And of course, we've we've talked about.

that a little bit as well you know are the diamondbacks actually set up better in the rotation this year than they were a year ago i'm not so sure i'd like to believe so but i'm not i'm not totally convinced of that it don't you know it almost feels like we're doing it with the same guys and expecting yeah yeah it does they they still haven't done much to address their depth which was a huge problem for them last year and they still have a lot of question marks around third base and right field and they're starting pitching and even their bullpen still, you know, and not a lot of time to figure it out. The one thing about it and going back to David Peralta's success, which is how we started

down this path, is that the things he worked on really could result in him getting back not only to where he was, but potentially even being better than we've ever seen, right? That's a possibility. The potential is there. crazy things happen in contract years Derek you never know look at how much contract year Christian Kirk got paid by the Jacksonville Jaguars

I know that's a different sport but just saying you would be amazed also sometimes what coaching and changes can do to a player's game I feel like that when you want to talk about what the Diamondbacks invested in because there is

obviously going to be some questions about them not doing more in free agency and not bringing in more pieces to this team. But what they really invested in was the coaching because the idea here is is that they have the talented athletes that can do the job. But if they can just get that piece of coaching

that move over three inches to the right kind of coaching, that they could change their games and be a team full of high performing stars, you know? And I mean, obviously it's not going to work out for everybody. And it's not, these coaches aren't miracle workers. They're not going to turn guys who were hitting to 15 last season into 300 hitters last next season, right?

At the same time, too, though, those little changes could be the kind of thing that make someone like David Peralta who hit, what, eight home runs last year or less than 10 to back to being a 30 home run, 30. home run hitter. They really need him to be that guy. I mean, this, this middle of the batting order for the debacks is, you know, there's Catele Marte. And other than that, there's a few guys you figure could be above average. There's Carson Kelly. There's Dalton Varshow. Oh, Seth Beer's going to fucking smash this year, Jesse. Seth's beer. He's going to hit the hell out of the baseball this year. I would love it. I would love it if that happens. But it's hard to get, it's hard to get to a place where,

where you can convince yourself that the diamondbacks have a foreboding middle of the lineup that, you know, opposing pitchers are really going to fear. David Peralta returning to form would be a big part of that. I mean, we know that Tori Lavello certainly respects David Peralta and everything that he's done for this organization over the years. And he's probably going to bat somewhere in the middle of the order. Potentially, whether he really deserves it or not. We've seen David Peralta be kind of a top of the order, middle of the order type of

guy even in seasons like last year where he wasn't necessarily at his best. So if he can reward Tori Lavello for doing that, which I think most likely that's going to be the position that Peralta's in, that would be huge. If the Diamondbacks had Peralta and Cotel Marte, you know, maybe Dalton Varsho takes a step forward this year. And that middle of the order can become something that it really hasn't been in a while. It's hard to remember the last time the Diamondbacks had a starting last. up that you really, you know, you really felt it was going to be tough for the opposing team to get

through the middle of the order late in the game. It just hasn't felt that way in a long time. Yeah. And I mean, I don't know outside of going to free agency if they're going to get that. But I don't know, man. I mean, I think because I'm old, I've seen teams change, right? and I've seen teams that were kind of laughable at one point, all of a sudden be extremely good.

I remember that with kind of the Houston Astros, outside of, I believe it was George Springer. There wasn't a lot for a lot of people to be excited about with the Astros. And then all of a sudden it felt like those guys just became something. You know what I mean? Like they weren't anything you'd ever heard of. and the next thing you know, these guys that were on the team just became household names. Obviously, the Astros are a bad example because the minute I say that,

I know exactly what you as a listener is thinking. And you're like, yes, Derek, because they cheated. And I know they cheated. So we don't need to do this again. But I just think that there is the possibility for guys to all of a sudden emerge. And as much as Diamondback's fans, no guys like Christian Walker and David Peralta and, you know, obviously could tell Marte, at times their numbers, I don't think, reflect how good we think they could be and how highly

we think of them, right? Or maybe even how high they reached at one point, but now, you know, especially in 2021, we're hovering around mediocrity as far as, you know, hitters at the plate. it's not to say that those guys can't get back to where they were at. Yeah. And honestly, right now, this coaching staff is probably the best chance at that. Now, I don't know, I don't have many more excuses for this team if they don't find success this season. And I'm not, again, expecting playoffs or any kind of crazy huge amount of success. But I'm just talking about, you know, turning it around with the proper coaching

staff in place. I can't think of a better coaching staff in baseball. And if you can't succeed under this coaching staff or get at least get better than you were, then I don't, I don't know if it's in the cards. You know, the people have asked quite a bit about, you know, Tori LeVolo and his job security. I, I love Tori LaVolo. I really do. I think he's a great guy. I just think that if they're not, if they don't vastly improve this season, and again, we're not talking about playoffs, we're just talking about improving, then I very much could see the Diamondbacks

not bringing him back, right? It's hard to think about that, though, because seeing him out there, seeing him around the team, seeing him coaching these guys in camp, he very much is the right man for the job. And he is like just the best mentor that you could ask for. And I mean, I don't know.

I don't know if that's what you're looking for in baseball. But if that's what you're seeking, I really can't think of a better mentor than Tori Lavello and this coaching staff that they've put together. But we definitely go on. I do want to let you guys know because we're just jabber in a way. Baseball's here, Jesse. So we're excited. It is.

We're going to talk about it forever and not. Yeah, we want to talk for like at least an hour in between ad breaks, if that's okay. For sure. That's what we're going to do. It's going to be a three hour episode. We'll get there. break then, but we'll get plenty of content. But just a reminder, because

this one's for us, for our home over at GoPHNX.com, make sure to sign up to become a member over at go phtonx.com if you haven't already. You're going to get an amazing combination of content. Jesse and I were talking about it before the show. You're going to get all of this

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the app or the comic book. He doesn't know any of those things, but that's fine. I still love them anyway. Of course, we appreciate you, and we thank you. If you're already a member, we can't thank you enough for being a member at go phnx.com. Jesse, there is a lot of free agency news to talk about, and I don't know if we have enough time to get it all in, but it seemed like, I don't know. Here's what I'll say.

A lot of people talked about the free agency signing period. kind of being slow. Some people said it wasn't slow. I think things just happened at such a normal, regular pace that we, like, we literally expected everybody to be signed within the first three hours of the CBA

being agreed upon. And that's obviously not how things happened. It might have really looked really bad. But now it looks like a lot of, a lot of pieces have fallen into place. Carlos Correa signs his deal with the Minnesota

of twins, which is surprising. We talked about Chris Bryant signing with the Colorado Rockies. Freddie Freeman, we're going to have to deal with for a very long time. He signed a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for six years. Trevor's story has a new home with the Boston Red Sox, Javier Baez with the Detroit Tigers. Nick Castellanos, that's one of the ones I wanted. He signs a five-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.

were there any big surprises to you as far as who was signed who wasn't who is who is who still isn't signed because there's not a lot i mean as far as the top three agents go i think michael converto is the only uh unsigned big name that i can think of Tommy fam maybe there's uh yeah I mean there's there's really not much left at this point um I could see I could see Tommy fan being kind of an interesting guy but yeah Michael Conforto is still on the table. He's a, he's a relatively big name. But yeah, pretty much all of the big names at this point have been, have been claimed by one team or another.

And Trevor Story going to the Boston Red Sox, that was one of the big things to come out of this weekend. And that was, that was pretty crazy. I did not anticipate Trevor Story going somewhere where he presumably is not going to play shortstop anymore. Sounds like he's going to play second base. was Xander Bogart staying over at shortstop. The Rockies, of course, continue to confuse us. Nothing is new there. But yes, Freddie Freeman also, a name you mentioned,

we are going to have to deal with him for quite some time, most likely. And it's very hard to see. Any time that, you know, one of the great stars from one of the smaller markets in baseball moves into a, a bigger market for the reason, right? The primary purpose of money is, I think it's just a disheartening moment for for Diamondbacks fans and for baseball at large as we continue to see, you know, with this polarization in the game between the teams that have all the money in the world to

spend and, you know, teams like the Diamondbacks that just aren't in that situation. So, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I think we can draw some comfort in the fact that Corey Seeger is no longer a Dodger. And I think it's easy to forget that. That they basically, even though they did get Freddie Freeman, technically the Dodgers were priced out of keeping one of their own guys, which is not, I mean, obviously they could have spent the money if they wanted to, but they opted to spend that money on Freddie Freeman instead.

So, you know, they kind of just decided to go a different direction with that. And of course, Freddie Freeman feels like a pretty safe investment over six years. Well, our very own social media goddess, Michaela Perkins, tweeted out, the Los Angeles Dodgers payroll allocations for 2022 is $270 million. The Baltimore Orioles payroll allocations for 2022 is $30 million. Like, I mean, I know we're going from the high to the low, and I know we're really doing the extremes here, but it just, it just doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense how these two teams could even compete or, you know, not compete or whatever you want to call it when it comes to the, you know, the competitive balance in baseball. As much as I don't want to be in favor of something like a salary floor, it seems at times like it's necessary. you know, when we even have the Arizona Diamondbacks front office talking about spending more money, and it feels like I'm taking crazy pills because I'm like, wait, what? You guys? Why are you guys talking about? Like, what in the hell, right? But as you pointed out in your very well-written article on the spending by the Arizona Diamondbacks,

there's not, unfortunately, really a correlation between them spending more and success, right? I mean, they, it's like what they say. It's not about how much you spend, but it's how you spend it. Going back to the Rockies to further confuse the situation, they signed third baseman or infielder. I'm sorry, I'm not sure where, I thought he played third base, but infielder Ryan McMahon to a six-year $70 million contract extension. Yeah, yeah, he was a finalist for the Gold Glove Award last year.

He's certainly no Nolan Aeronado over there at the hot corner, but he's a great young player for the Rockies. And I actually thought this was really a really good sign for a team like the Diamondbacks because a guy who is young and controllable and has his brightest days ahead was still willing to sign a contract extension with his original team. And that's something that a lot of people have been a little concerned about now, you know, under the circumstances that we have with the new collective bargaining agreement in place, it kind of feels like, you know, those deals where younger players who have shown some promise at the big league level re-signed with their teams, you know, that's something that it seemed like might be phased out. And the diamondbacks rely a lot on those sorts of deals. Right. Cattel Marte signed a very team friendly deal with a diamondbacks, as did Paul Goldschmidt. And so the diamondbacks need those kinds of deals in order to be able to have success moving forward. And, you know, it's good to see a guy like Ryan McMahon agreeing to one of those deals with a team like the Colorado Rockies.

I've heard him make reference to it twice this spring. But Mike Hazen has no problem admitting to the fact that the Arizona Diamondbacks don't really have winning. on their agenda anytime soon. And I guess that's no real secret. But at the same time, too, it kind of reminds me just a little bit of, like the Arizona Coyotes thing,

saying that they were going to kind of tank out of the gate, right? It just, it makes the 2022 season just seem a little bit hopeless when they say stuff like that. Because the diamond backs ever what what is what is my case? I feel like Mike Hayes and overall his demeanor has been you know if anything like yes we kind of wonder if the diamond backs are really trying to compete but at least what he is what he has said in front of the microphone to me sounds like he's at least trying to give the impression that the diamond backs are making every effort that they can to compete well and I think again I

think they really do believe in their talent. I think they really do believe that the coaches that they brought in are going to improve the guys that they have. So until they need to do, they don't feel like they need to do anything drastic until they see the, the effects of this coaching staff on results. It's a result-driven business. It's a result-driven game. So until we actually get into the regular season and wins and losses matter, they have no way of knowing if this idea of these coaches impacting this team can flourish, can come to fruition. And even then, they still have to be patient with it. These coaches just came in this offseason.

It was a tortuous off season. It wasn't exactly the kind of start that they wanted to have for these coaches to come in. And like even during the minor league mini camp to have these coaches kind of wandering around like zombies without the ability to actually talk to any of the guys because it's against the rules, but they're still there. kind of taking in information and watching and like they could still talk to coaches. And there's other still ways that information get transmitted. But more importantly, they were just seeing the young talent that they have out there

and kind of scouting their own farm system to see if any of these guys might be ready, might be viable pieces for this team that they can call up and rely on this season, that can contribute now. I think the idea there is that there is no pressure to compete now. There is no pressure for success now. I think there's pressure to be better than they were last season, but that's it, which it's a low bar to clear. I think the pressure there is to bring in the young guys

and have them get their start, get their feet wet, and have success, you know, coming in from the minor leagues into the major league club. I don't know who that's going to be. I don't know when that's going to be. I don't know how long it's going to take. But I think that's the plan, right? And I think that they know their core that they want to build around. They know the guys that they want to maintain.

I don't unfortunately think David Peralta is part of that plan. So again, he might be playing and his success that he's playing for might be more for his own personal success rather than the success of this team. It really doesn't matter because at the end of the day, we just, I want guys to be successful, whether they're leaving this team, whether they're on this team, it doesn't matter. I just want them to go out there and find a way to be their best. That's kind of what I find in rooting for these guys because I'm around them. You know, being around them, it's human beings. It really makes you root for them. It, like, when a guy, when a guy leaves the Diamondbacks for another team because he's getting paid a tremendous amount more, I just find myself getting that little tear in my eye going, go get that money champ you know like that's really how i feel because it's hard not to when you're

around these guys and you see them as human beings they bring their kids to the clubhouse and they're playing basketball in the clubhouse they're you know you're around them a lot and it just it starts to become a different thing where you're rooting for them and their success as a human being regardless of the laundry that they're they're putting on regardless of the shirt that they're wearing, right? It's, it's the reason why, you know, again, Diamondbacks fans understandably are mad when they see guys leave this team and go have success elsewhere. And I am too a little bit, but I'm still very happy for that individual, like Robbie Ray being a perfect example of that. And I wouldn't be surprised to see David Peralta be another one of those candidates that really

finds his stride this year and then bolts off somewhere else and just becomes beloved to buy a completely different fan base because that guy is charismatic and lovable and entertaining and just a great human being right and like sometimes the fact that he wasn't hitting the ball so well last year kind of gets in the way of that but he never faltered he always kept his positivity he always kept being the person he was and that's something i i absolutely love about david peralta and something i would hate to see this team lose right And honestly, like you said, going back once again to the idea of the free agency market, it's like, and I make this in the most lovingly, loving comparison I can because I love going to Walmart the morning after Black Friday and seeing what's left to kind of pick over. You know, like, because I'm avoiding the crowds.

I'm avoiding all of that craziness. But I can still find a deal or two in the rubble, Jesse. I can still find a deal or two. And I feel like at this point, looking at the free agency aftermath, that that's all we're looking at is the rubble because there is not much left. And it's definitely not what the Diamondbacks were seeking

as far as positional needs they needed to fill. They definitely still have, at least in a perfect world, the Diamondbacks should still have some work to do. Right. And Mike Hayes acknowledged this when you asked him, about it the other day. And he acknowledged that he was feeling a little bit unsatisfied with where the team stands right now.

But yeah, I mean, there's just not much left on the free agent market. I still think the diamond backs could make a trade for a third basement. That would not surprise me at this stage in the game. I still feel like there's there's got to be some sort of backup plan coming as far as that is concerned because the diamond backs still just don't really have a whole lot of depth at third base beyond, I guess, the possible. possibility of playing Josh Rojas there every day. So we'll see.

We'll see if the team has, has anything more planned. But are you talking about David Peralta, Derek just makes me think about this trade deadline and the fact that if this does come to fruition where David Peralta, you know, sort of finds himself again, I don't know if he's going to be a diamond back for very long,

unfortunately. So enjoy every moment with the freight train while you can, everyone because if what we're seeing is for real and granted would spend all the three games so far but if this is for real then you know he he might find his way to another city come to trade deadline if the diamond backs are in a selling position at that point which is kind of what we're all expecting you didn't make it you couldn't make any can make any train puns about pulling into another city there would that last little bit uh yeah i I should have. I'm really disappointed. But Jesse, I understand. I understand because you don't

get to go use the Draft King's Sportsbook app. So you're sad and your puns aren't on point and they're not sharp. But if you've got to use the Drafking Sportsbook app, you'd be, you'd be sharp as a knife. And that's what we're encouraging you guys to do. Go be sharp on the Draft King's Sportsbook. During March madness, college basketball fans can get down on the biggest tournament of the year with the Drafking Sportsbook. Turn your team's victories into your own big win. New customers can bet just $5 on any team to win using our code of PHNX, and you will get $200 in free bets if they do.

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New customers only minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And Jesse, before we go, I would be remiss to not talk about the fact that apparently there is a super secret letter about the New York Yankees stealing signs that is going to be opened and released soon and be made public despite an appeal by the New York Yankees. This letter is from 2017, and it comes, it alleges to contain proof of the Yankee sign stealing methods from 2017

when they were busted for improperly using a dugout phone. And that was around the same time that the Red Sox were found to be using Apple Watches to pick up on signals from opposing teams. So I guess my question here is, even if this is damning, let's say to a Houston Astros extent, where we find out instead of trash cans, the Yankees were using the New York Philharmonic to send signals or something like that.

Can we, do we care anymore about signs stealing scandals? I mean, is this going to be something that people still are outraged by or is this going to be like a lot of things kind of in society where with time and with multiple offenses, our opinion on it kind of dulls where we're not so angry about it anymore. Well, I know what Red Sox fans are going to think. I don't know about the rest of us. I figure it'll be kind of a similar deal to the Astros, I suppose,

although maybe this isn't quite to that extent. But yeah, we'll see exactly what this looks like. And I'm sure some people will be livid. and people like me will not really care very much and continue eating our fortune cookies as the days go by. Now, I'm not going to say like the New York Yankees didn't have an impactful season that year, right?

2017, they won 91 games. They made the playoffs. They won their wild card game over the twins, and then they won their AL Division series over the Cleveland Guardians, wink, to go on to the ALCS and lose to the Houston Astros in seven games. So that's kind of hilarious, right? That is hilarious. You had the cheating ass Astros team beating the cheating ass to New York Yankees team.

And one team obviously could just cheat better than the other team. That's what happened here. One team was a better cheater than the other team. So I don't know. I mean, on one hand, I guess their success could be a little infuriating, especially if you're a fan of, let's say, the twins or the guardians. But at the same time, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know how much longer people are going to get mad about this. And it's kind of like a lot of things I've seen, you know, people not even. It's like the way that violent crimes kind of dull with time on the news because we've just seen them so much. and you're like, oh, yeah, okay, another shooting happened. I'm going to just keep pressing on, right? Yeah, he lit his parents out on fire, shocking. Yeah, like we just accepted because we're like, oh, yeah, we've seen this enough now.

Terrible things happen. Teams cheat in baseball. We know that. Like, of course, we, of course. And it's the Yankees, yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. Like, I'm not surprised by that in any way, shape, or form.

But again, baseball can't stop doing things to make baseball. look bad even when it's baseball doing it to itself it's hilarious and also very very depressing but let's let's let's not focus on that let's focus on the fact that you can go out to salt river fields today and get yourself a hot dog made out of ostrich and while you're getting your hot dog made out of ostrich you can also get yourself a lovely french uh soft served ice cream and where else can you get that and watch a baseball game nowhere folks nowhere besides phoenix arizona during the cactus league so i'll tell you go out and enjoy yourself get yourself some salt uh salt river fields action or wherever your minor league field is close to you this isn't going to last forever you guys it's over i was looking at the schedule and i

scrolled and it was over that's that's how fast spring training is going to be here and it's going to be gone i literally flipped up with my finger and we were already at the regular season so don't let spring training pass you by without at least ditching a few workdays and going to see if not the Arizona Diamondbacks, whatever your team is, whatever your terrible, awful team is that isn't the Arizona Diamondbacks, go cheer them on. But I'm not going to support you in doing that. I will support you going out watching baseball, though, in any capacity. So that's the most important thing. Jesse, do you have anything else, Professor? You know, I think we should mention that the legendary Oliver Perez, who made his major

league debut in 2002, has signed his sign with the Diamondbacks on a minor league contract. He's going to be a coach. Yeah. He could be in a matter. He could be in a matter of months. I don't know. I don't know how or what exactly his outlook is. It sounds like he may, he may play in Mexico, I believe, if.

if things don't work out here with the diamond back. So we'll see. He was part of the team back in 2014 and 2015. He was one of the better left-handed relievers the diamondbacks have ever had during that stint. So we'll see if he still got it. He's going to turn 41 in the middle of August this season. So that would be quite a sight to behold if he's at the big league level at 41. Between him and Ian Kennedy, I really think the diamondbacks are just trying to shore up the future of their coaching staff.

I really feel like that's what some of these moves are about, but I could be wrong. And who am I to judge people on their age? I can't believe that I'm over here judging people on being old. What is going on right now? I want to wrap it up, but we thank you guys so much for listening to us. Go on about baseball.

We could go on for hours, but eventually we have to go to sleep. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a cave where I never sleep. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman, our show, the premier coverage in spring training baseball for the Arizona Diamondbacks is at PHNX underscore D-Bax. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports.

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our amazing PHNX staff. We thank you guys again so much for listening to today's show. On behalf of Jesse and myself, we appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you hire baseball players that are over 40 years old.