PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Friendsgiving

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are discussing the PHNX Friendsgiving Extravaganza, the D-backs being in the market for free-agent relief pitcher Kirby Yates, and disagreements with listeners about both Chase Field and purple uniforms. 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 the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. Let me tell you, tonight was Friendsgiving, and I was not just the mayor. I was the king of PHNX tonight. Wow. Yeah, I'm taking that. I'm taking that crown, Jesse. Of course, that voice is the voice of not only my friend, not only my co-host,

but most importantly, he is the vice mayor of PHNX. and I guess the prince of P.HNX, he is the one and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Your brisket was that good, Honda. Oh, man, I don't know. I thought it was a bit salty. The seasoning was overdone, of course, with brisket and with, like, a meat like that. You try to do a lot of seasoning on the outside.

Everybody else was in disagreement with me about it. They said it was delicious and amazing, but I think they were just sparing my feelings. However, no offense to the fine folks at PHNX and our friends. Friendsgiving, they were a test run for me making brisket for Thanksgiving, which is really what tonight was all about for me. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks over at the Draft King's Sportsbook app. You go over there and you use our code of PHNX and you have yourself a very happy turkey

day, brisket day, ham day, whatever you want to call Thanksgiving. Remember, new customers right now can use our code of PHNX and bet just $1 on any Thanksgiving NFL game and win $100 in free bets. team scores a point. Jesse, uh, Friendsgiving was a blast. I wish you could have been here for it. I know, me too. I know virtually we could not send you any pie or any of, uh, P.D's wife's delicious soapapia, but we had ourselves a lovely time. Brandon was there, the CEO of PHNX and DMVR. Um, everybody came out. It was, it was a great time. It was, um, it was one of those moments that really solidifies how much I love working for this company.

I know we talk a lot about, you know, the becoming a member and becoming a family member and all of that. But, you know, it's nights like tonight that really feel like we are family here at PHNX. And I will say that, yes, Jesse, I was the king of Friendsgiving because of my, because of my brisket. Honorable mention, first of all, the Johnny Venerable for you're not going to you're not going to really believe this when I say it but for his corn cassero

Jesse is what corn cassero he did not make it his wife made it and I can't explain it I can't really that doesn't really sound good I don't expect you to think that convinced me of that there's no way of me to convince it of it of it without letting you taste it it was without a doubt the most surprising. It was the underdog. If I could give an underdog award to any plate at Friendsgiving, it was by far the corn casserole, because it is something I absolutely would not have touched normally. Then I heard murmurs. There were talks about the corn casserole. And I was like, all right, maybe I need to try this, check this out. Fast forward to 30 minutes later, when I was eating a square of it, cut out Rice Krispies Treat style,

over the sink next to Brandon Spano, our CEO, who was also eating a square of it over the sink because we're just absolute slabs and we adored the corn casserole. That's the way that's the way Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving goes, Jesse. What are you looking forward to this Thanksgiving? Is there any particular plate or dish or, meal that you look forward to when this time of year comes around? Well, I might be in trouble, Derek, because my mom who normally, you know, we all contribute

every year, but my mom normally spearheads the Thanksgiving cooking efforts. And she has a broken wrist this year. And so she is going to be directing traffic, but it will be the job of me and likely my siblings to figure out how on earth to, I don't know if we're going to do turkey. I don't know what it's, I don't know what it's going to be, but it may be rough, Derek. So, you know, if we come back next week and, and I'm just not quite right, it's probably because I had to, I had to experience my own cooking on Thanksgiving and we'll see how that turns out.

I pray for your well-being. Let me tell you. If you want to bring over some brisket left-old is, Derek, we might be able to use that. I will save you some brisket. For sure. That, that was a proud moment for me tonight when all of the brisket was gone. You know, like when you cook something, I think that's your hope is to come back eventually and find it all to be gone. Yeah, it's like you kind of like maybe you're okay with leftovers, but deep down if you have a bunch of leftovers, it's kind of shameful.

Yeah, absolutely. Like no one, no one wanted to. Where did I? Where did I go off the path here? The people did not like my brisket. Yeah. No, for sure. Also, you know, it's an unconventional item.

I know that I have been on Twitter. on the brisket train, slandering turkey, any chance I can get. Look, I'm going to say this right now. I'm going to set the record straight. It's kind of like this very deep-seated hatred for pineapple that I have on pizza. It's not particularly pineapple on pizza, right? It's hot pineapple in general, right? But my hatred for it on pizza surpasses the pickability option that most toppings have

on a pizza, right? Like, I don't like black olives. I don't mind them. Like, if a black olive or two slips in there next to my, you know, is pepperoni or my sausage, it's not going to bother me. But I prefer Isn't that frustrating, though? Like, when you get a pizza that doesn't have a certain thing on it, and there's just like one or two of them on there that like seeped in from somebody else's pizza, it's like, all right, come on now. Like, really? Well, I mean, especially when it had no business being on your pizza in the first. Right, right, exactly. I, I, man, like, oh, some black olives from someone else's pizza bounced across what? A counter?

And landed on mine? How did this happen? I want explanations, right? But no, I am typically not like a picky person. Like, for instance, my wife brought home this ridiculous vegetable pizza that she had made at Mod Pizza, which allows you to kind of pick whatever toppings you want and put it on. They allow you to butcher it however you want to. She was a monster. She made her core workers recoil, which.

the pizza that she made because it was just artichoke hearts and whole garlic pizza pieces and all sorts of stuff i had a slice of it and let me tell you despite how much i hated the way this pizza sounded and looked it was pretty damn good i have to give her credit wow so again i am pretty open to a lot of toppings that i might not choose or pick or gravitate towards right and again even things i hate like black olives for instance is something i'm not a huge fan of on pizza I'm going to give it a pass, right? But my hatred for pineapple is the fact that once you put pineapple on a pizza, you cannot un-pineapple that pizza.

That pizza is forever a pineapple pizza. I don't care if you pick the chunks off of it. It still tastes like pineapple. It's forever going to taste like pineapple. It's never not going to taste like pineapple. That's the way it works. Fruits kind of like that. Fruit just like the juice isn't a fruit.

It just kind of gets everywhere. So, yeah. Often enough, yes, I do tell this story of how I got locked in a hotel room with my friends from the steel cage and they ordered two Hawaiian pizzas and I will forever hate them for it because that was the night that solidified by hatred for pineapple and pizza. But I realized after I kind of like pinpointed it that like there's been a period of time that I've hated it and just never addressed it like when I would get certain items from like Panda Express that had pineapple in it as an option. Right like sweet fire chicken I believe it's called. You know like it had

so you so you don't like even things like that. I'm up and some sort of a rice. I love pineapple too. That's the other weird side of this. I just ate hot pineapple. That's my personal. Okay, so if I made you a pizza and after the pizza was cooked, I put some chilled pineapple on top. I punch you in your face.

I punch you in your face. But you said you ate it hot. No, but you just put cold pineapple on pizza, Jesse. Those two things are fucking go together. No, stop trying to catch me in some catch-22, which by the way, there's the correct. usage of catch 22, which I could not get on last week's podcast. No, it's not that.

It's just, again, certain items are things that are pretty disgusting to me. And again, it's, I mean, whatever. Like, I, and here's the thing. This kind of goes back to what I was saying with the British and Turkey thing. I don't expect other people to feel the same way I do. If you feel differently, then please, I allow you and anybody else to feel whatever way you want to. I just say, I realized, I think it was last year, when certain people on Twitter were on a very high horse about being anti-Turkey, I realized reading their tweets how much I agreed with them, right? And so, like, again, you start to realize, like I did, you're a 40-year-old man and you're in charge of cooking dinner on Thanksgiving.

You get to choose. You want prime rib, have prime rib. You want brisket, have brisket, right? So turkey Thanksgiving is not anything about what is the main dish. And I think we can all agree on that. Thanksgiving like it was tonight with our friends from the PHNX and our family from PHNX, it was about being together. You know, it was about just having some time to kind of laugh and smile and talk and, you know,

joke about this job we do, you know, have this, you know, a feeling of, especially when it came to our, our designer buddy Eric from DNVR telling me that oh yeah it's your dream job but part of the dream job is that you have to do it from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night and yes well that was it when it comes to this job but i really do love it i love the friendships that we've made and i love the stuff we've done and to be honest i really enjoyed the food tonight i was very proud of how many people cooked amazing food uh shout out people gave me props for my brisk it, Jesse, but I want to give out, I want to give a shout out to the one and only

Saul Bookman for these incredible, incredible barbecued ribs. Wow, you're complimenting Saul on the pod. Let me tell you this. Earlier in the day, Saul called me up and asked me how the brisket was going, and I told him I was waiting for the stall so I could

wrap it, and he just said, say no more fan. The minute you said stall, I was like, this guy knows what he's doing. But me and Saul have been viving all day, right? Okay, all right. And that's what Friendsgiving is all about. That's what Friendsgiving is all about. And even with all of this greatness going on,

all this happiness with the holiday season, and the pending doom of the lockout, it has not stopped the free agency market from still happening. And it has not stopped the free agency rumors. As I reported, I guess I can't say I reported, but as I wrote about today, Ken Rosenthal has reported that the airs on the Diamondbacks are currently among the teams in pursuit of free agent relief pitcher Kirby Yates.

Formally of the San Diego Padres, most recently of the top Toronto Blue Jays, even though he never played a game for them. He missed the entire 2021 season due to having his second Tommy John surgery. However, teams are expecting him to be back to, you know, the same form he was at. it's weird because Tommy John's surgery used to be one of those things I think that was career threatening. And now there's a little bit more confidence when guys go under the knife for T.J. surgery that they're not going to necessarily have the end of their career. But yeah, I mean, this is a guy that at one point in 2019 had a 1.19 ERA in 161 innings basically pitched and led the National League.

I think he may have led all of baseball with 41 saves, even though he wasn't the Padres closer, right? Like he wasn't the assigned closer, but he became the-well. Yeah, it was the closer for a good while, but yeah, not necessarily the entire season from the beginning. Yeah, no, I mean, this is, this is interesting. This, honestly, this is, Kirby Yates is pretty much the prime candidate of what I, what I wrote about a couple weeks ago with the Diamondbacks chasing after ups. in free agency, right? We've seen this team time and time again, right? This Diamondbacks team over and over again,

they spend not so much money during the off season, right? They come into the off season. They have a little money to spend. And usually they get guys like Joaquin Soria, they get Hector Rondone, you know, they get Junior Gera. These are the kind of guys the Diamondbacks have brought in. And what I'm saying this off season is let's switch it up a little bit.

Let's still, we're not going to spend much. We know the Diamondbacks don't want to. So let's be realistic with what they're going to spend. But what if you chase after upside with that money instead of chasing after a steady veteran, you know, like some of the guys that I just mentioned, right? The goal here is that if you chase after upside, you might really hit on someone. And either that person becomes, you know, an excellent closer for your team for an entire season. Or maybe they're a good closer for your team for a couple months.

and then you're able to trade them and get something meaningful at the deadline. So Kirby Yates is absolutely that kind of player, Derek. I mean, this guy, this guy got like, he was top 10 in Cy Young voting in 2019. He was an all-star. He was, yeah. He had an absurd, just an absurd season all the way around. And this is exactly the kind of move that I think the Diamondback should be in on, right? I mean, there's obviously risk here, right?

I mean, he's coming back from Tommy John, which, as you said, is not as big of a threat as maybe it was viewed in the past, but it's still, I mean, it's his second time undergoing Tommy John surgery, which certainly has its risks, right? Sure. But the Diamondbacks don't have much to lose right now, Derek. I mean, what exactly are they worried about, right, with something like this? No, you're right. It's still a reasonably short-term commitment.

You're not going to, I don't know what the dollar figures look like, but it's not going to be more than, you know, probably six million a year, maybe something like that. because you're really, you're going to have to pay him for two seasons, but you're really only going to get one full season out of him, right? He just had the surgery in March. So he's probably going to be ready by middle of next season if things go well. And even that's a little bit dicey. So you're not going to have to pay him that much.

And I would rather chase after the upside along with the risk of a guy like Kirby Yates, then go get yourself, you know, another 36-year-old reliever who doesn't have nearly as much upside as someone like him does. Right. And per Rosenthal's tweet, most teams, like you said, aren't expecting him to return to form from surgery until 2023. But the debacks aren't expecting to return to form from their current predicament until 2023 either. Right. So I mean, if they sign them to do a two-year deal, who's to say he can't somehow contribute this season? But most likely would be back to his regular form by next year, which has. as we've said in the past, is kind of lining up when the debacks could appear to be competitive in this National League West, right? So, I mean, there's, it's, it's distant, it's distant light at the end of the tunnel, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Interestingly enough, he was connected to Arizona already. He went to Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona.

Yeah, he, he was selected in the fifth round of the 2005 amateur draft by the Boston Red Sox out of high school. He lived in Hawaii. He was from Kauai, Hawaii. And instead of going to the Red Sox, he did not sign and went to Yavapai College in Prescott, which is just a weird thing. What a random journey. My God. Right. Right.

Because like when you think of like Vanderbilt or something like that, then you're like, okay, I understand why he chose to opt out and go to Syracuse or Arizona State even, right? Arizona State has a great baseball program. and they've been, you know, a big, big thing for years. But no, instead he went to Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona. And then he missed the 2006 and 2007 seasons due to having, that was when he had his first Tommy John surgery was in college. Well, what's interesting here, and I need to do more research. And I know you wrote about him today,

so maybe you know more about Kirby Yates than I do off the top of your head. but he was drafted in the 26th round in 2005, right? And he didn't break into the major leagues until 2014. Right. So there's like an enormous, an enormous gap there. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm sure having Tommy John surgery in college and going to someplace like Yavapai College doesn't really like bode well for your professional career at that point, right?

Like I can't imagine, you know, having very much confidence in yourself after coming off of Tommy John surgery and missing two seasons at a pretty unknown college in northern Arizona, right? Like, and I don't know. Yeah, like you said, there's definitely an interesting journey there. You know, I think more than anything, though, is that, like, I feel someone that's been through this kind of career threatening injury more than once, like could have a lot to offer to guys like, I don't know, Luke Weaver, who has.

had Tommy John surgery or like Zach Gallen who had a bunch of injuries last season, right? So I think that's part of it. I mentioned that in my piece, but I think that, you know, that experience could be great. More than anything, though,

it's, you know, the Diamondbacks don't have much going on in their bullpen. And I don't know. There's some pretty good teams that are attached to pursuing Yates, excuse me.

So I don't know if the Diamondbacks are like breaking out of this pattern of the, you know, not going after free agents. I do like him, like you said, about your piece, right? Like he fits in more reasonably with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a free agent than a lot of the other free agent names that are available on the market

that are going to command a big, you know, payday and they're going to make a big splash as far as their signing goes, right? The Diamondbacks are definitely going to be pursuing lower key, more veteran options, people on, like I said in this article, a maximum of a two-year deal. I don't imagine the Diamondbacks at this point signing many, many people of anybody to more than a two-year deal with the uncertainty of the future for this franchise. And yeah, I just think Kirby Eats is one of those guys that kind of fits the mold right now for what this team's trying to do.

Kendall Graveman is another name that came up today. I guess we should say we're recording this on Tuesday. So when we say today, that's what we mean. Kendall Graveman is kind of a recent addition into the elite relief pitcher group. And honestly, to the point where I'm not totally convinced that he's really an elite relief pitcher, he had a 177 ERA this last year.

but in 2020, you know, in 18 innings, a limited sample size, but his ERA was almost six. And he was, he was a bit of a mess in some respect. So, um, it's kind of crazy. I mean, we've seen the, the relief pitching market do some wild things in the past, Derek. And, um, the fact that Kendall Graveman is getting three years, 24 million from the white socks. And he's not even, you know, I mean, he was a starter. And then he kind of has just recently converted to being a reliever. I mean, that's the kind of money. And, you know, And, you know, the, really what stands out there is the length that you have to give Kendall Graveman three years in order to bring him into your organization makes a guy like Kirby Yates. If you can, you know, just sign him for two years for a pretty low average annual value.

I mean, to me, that has pretty much an equal amount of upside in some ways because Kendall Graveman over three years is going to come with with more risk in some ways, right? You might be getting just a pretty average reliever as things turn out there. Yeah, and I mean, I think it's, this whole free agency thing is weird to me. I don't know how it works as far as what teams are trying to do as far as get these guys signed before this current labor deal ends. But we don't have much time, right? Yeah. You have, you know, one week from when we're posting this episode. So it'll be interesting to see how many more free agency names we see signed.

and it'll be interesting to see if the Diamondbacks sign any free agency names. They did say, I think it was Amil Sadei, who said that the team is interested this year in trying to jump the market a little bit earlier. The last few seasons, we've seen them do a lot of their signings, especially of some of their more veteran-type relief pitchers. A lot of that has happened in like February, right? a little bit close to when, you know, pitchers and catchers are reporting. And they said that they were, you know, certainly interested in kind of getting the ball rolling

on that sooner. So I don't know what comes of that. I mean, like you just said, we're down to basically a week now before the whole thing shuts down for probably quite a while. So if they want to get something done, they're going to have to probably do it pretty soon here. Yeah, that's it. That's exactly it. And again, it'll be interesting to see if they, if they,

They do. We'll be waiting, and of course, we will be reporting on it. And if we do, you will find that information on go phnx.com, just like this article that I posted about DEVX currently pursuing reliever Kirby 8. And you can become a member over at GoPHNX, either as an annual member, which will get you a free t-shirt over at the PHNLocker.com, or you can become a month-to-month member and you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. So join it, become part of the family. I have been drinking with my family members, obviously, and I can't get my words out properly. But if you want to become a part of the family, you can come drink with us over on the members-only Discord, as well as get the great membership options that are available as well on the Pha10X Locker.com. Right now, I think we still have that option available for the free. Buy one, get one free on the Phoenix Sun shirts right now. So definitely take that up. and Jesse and I have been cooking up some ideas for some little PHNX diamond bag shirt.

So don't you worry. We have. We will have some new options available on the PHNX lockers soon enough. But become a member, get your free t-shirt and give it to somebody for the holiday season, you know, bright in their, right in their year with some PHNX merch. But Jesse, we've had a lot of weird responses lately that I feel like you and I needed to address about some of the things that I thought we were. we're all on the same page with, right?

Y'all, y'all are crazy. You people listen to us. I don't know what's wrong with you, people. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to excuse my vice mayor for being a little, he's a little agitated with this whole situation, right? Because apparently there's some people that disagree, not only with our talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks needing to go back to their purple and copper and teal color scheme, but there were more than one defenders. of Chase Field of all places.

And I, all right, like, let's, let's say this. Let's, Jesse, I get it. Okay, so first I want to, I want to start off with some of the things my therapist has told me to say to my wife. And our couple's counseling has told us about, right? So, okay, I hear you. I understand where you're coming from. Chase Field is not a bad facility, despite its age. And I know a lot of people want to say, what are you talking about, Derek?

It's not very old. I get what you're saying. I am an old man, too, and I don't think it's very old either. However, in the grand scheme of ballparks, believe it or not, it's one of the older ballparks now in MLB. The 12th, the 12th oldest. So it is now older than the average ballpark. Not super old, but it's on the older side now.

Inexplicably, because it's about 25 years old, let's just say, for argument's sake. roughly yeah a little bit younger than that but like from when it was actually built to now about 25 years and yeah i i mean i understand where people are coming from i remember hearing these complaints when the arizona diamond vaks were going uh back and forth with maricopa about the facility and how how uh how like run down it was and i was i felt like a kid caught between two parents getting a divorce, right? Because on one hand, like, yes, there was times where, and I showed you, I showed Jesse, last time he was here around some of my favorite places to go around the ballpark to

take pictures from or even just watch the game, right? And so I showed you down there in that area where the photographers were, where the, like the dugout attendant kind of asked us for our credentials and wanted to make sure we were in the right place, right? Right, yeah. Yeah, you listeners probably don't venture down there because they might not be very happy with you. Yeah, they'll yell at you. That's what Jesse's trying to say.

They yelled at us too. So in that area, there's like some grates right there behind you that actually when you look at them, they're kind of pretty, right? They're like, they remind you of something from like the 1930s or something where there's a lot of like, like work done into the like filigree of this great and such. Like it's not just your average gross, just great face plate where water runs through and goes into a thing. It actually has some nice work to it. But you wouldn't really notice because it's so corroded with disgusting like calcium buildup and such from age.

Right. And I guess like that to me is a big part of what I see when I walk around Chase Field. That's my opinion. I feel like Chase Field isn't that. It's one of those places. is that if you sold it at a yard sale, someone else would take an afternoon with a scrub brush. Yeah, maybe.

If you sold it at a yard sale, someone would take a scrub brush and some soap and some water and just put some elbow grease into it. And next thing you know, you'd be going like, wait, we sold that for $10 to that guy. It's so nice looking now, right?

Like really at times, Chase Field feels like it really just needs like that, that TLC, that care that goes into other ballparks. I've seen fucking documentaries on it, Jesse, where they show like Yankee Stadium and the people that like polish the knobs and stuff where, you know, people walk in and stuff. There's nobody doing that at Chase Field.

So if you want people to like think of your ballpark in that regard, then you have to take care of it that same way, right? I've said this to my wife before, but my metaphor for this is you cannot be jealous of your neighbor's garden when you are not taking care of your own, right? your own garden, yeah, it's, well, it's, right, you look over the fence and your neighbor's garden's awesome, but you know why? Because your neighbor took the, your neighbor took the time to go work on their garden. They weren't worried about your garden. They were just doing their own thing

and they were watering it every day. And even on those times where they didn't seem like it was going to work out or soil got dry and they had to go address it or, you know, tend to it or maybe make some changes about the way that the water flows in and out of it or whatever, they did that and they made their garden nice. And like you can covet it, but you can covet it in a way where it should inspire you to make your garden nice, not where you're just sitting there going, my garden sucks.

I want to move my garden to Anderson, Nevada like a lot of people want to do. You know, like I, but that's the part, but I get where people are coming from with Chase Field. I think what you and I have discussed and brought up, especially in consideration to our cousins over at DNVR,

is that no matter, how nice you make Chase Field, the area near it and around it is still never going to be like an entertainment district. The area around it is never going to be a draw for the, for people to come. And now I get one of our, one of our friends on Twitter sent us about like Cooperstown and stuff. And when that was there, there was stuff to do relatively close for you to go over. And, you know, it was baseball related. It was Alice Cooper, but it was all like debacks. You know, you could get the big unit dog that was absolutely absurd and all sorts of stuff there right like you know i i think that uh there are some great places i will always defend downtown phoenix i love it you know i've also

said that it's kind of like a secret handshake where you kind of have to know the hand you have to know where to go in order to you have to know the area you have to know which streets to go up and turn left at and do all this stuff in order to find the good places it's not a friendly environment like most people want to go to. Most people don't want to know the secret handshake. They just want to park and be able to get out and be in an area where there's lots of restaurants and shopping and options, right? So from that aspect, it's just kind of hard.

You know, we discussed, I think, just recently when we were talking about the Chase Field changes we would make about the convention center being across the street and the train tracks being behind them and just everything that's there that limits really what they can do in the area to bring that area up and make it fun. You know, where Willie's tacos is and all of that other stuff is really the only place that stuff can be.

Yeah, it's, it's kind of, it's kind of locked with the convention center right there. I mean, the convention center is just an enormous, enormous building. And it's not going anywhere. It's not like it's a business. You can hope goes out of, you know, like man, maybe one day. Yeah, the convention center is not going out of business. Maybe one day that place goes out of business. then they'll change this all up, right?

That ain't happened. There's a few restaurants like, like across the street on, uh, Jefferson. I want to say it is. Yeah. Um, there's like a few things there. Across from like the, from footprint center where the Phoenix. Yeah. Right.

Right. There's a few things. There's a few things in there. But you're right. I mean, it's not like a district, right? Like it doesn't have like, oh, I want to just be here and hang out in this area. Right. I think if, I think if some Suns fans or.

excuse me some diamond max fans that haven't gone to some of these other places went to for instance like the one we reference a lot is the Colorado Rockies right with the mall across the street and the basically the way I describe it it's like universal city walk or downtown Disney right there outside of their state right right it's it's different it's you know like when you see it you're like oh yeah this is this is so much better than what the Arizona Diamondbacks could even do with their facility unless they somehow like scaled the building back itself and, you know, allowed for shops and stuff to be put in there, which would just be too big of an endeavor to even consider. And I know, again, the popular response, we got to a lot of ideas was that the Diamondbacks wouldn't put this money into it. I get it. I know what you're saying as far as not putting this money into these renovations.

All I'm saying is that the airplane hanger feel of chasing, field is not very welcoming. And you mix that with the fact that the roof is closed like 65 to 75% of the time. Yeah. And it's just, it's not even a airplane hanger. It's just like a warehouse feeling. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Especially when it's just so empty. Like it just doesn't, it kind of loses that exciting sports energy, right? Exactly. Like, like if you have enough pumped up fans. in any building, no matter how ugly the building it is, it works, right? And I think we've all been to Chase Field in moments like that, right? Like the 2017 Wildcard game or, you know, some of the other playoff games that have happened over the life of that stadium, there have been electric moments there.

The problem is that, you know, on your random, you know, Wednesday matinee game in the middle of July, the place is just pretty lifeless. and so it just it it just doesn't you really feel like you're just sitting there in a warehouse and there's not really a whole lot of stuff going on so yeah i know i put out a tweet where i was expecting derrick i was expecting people to just be like yeah no we we agree like here's some ideas for how we could improve you're so smart and good looking jesse no right it didn't go that way right no it did not no i have a long list of a long list of angry comments in return, which I appreciate, by the way.

I always welcome the comments, whether you agree or disagree with me. I don't think in no way are we trying to say that Chase Field is an abomination and we need to spend the money right now to get rid of it, right? You guys are all absolutely right. The team should not spend that kind of money right away. It is not an urgent need, right? What we're, the perspective we're coming from is that we, and when I say we, I really mean you, Derek, have spent a lot of time.

at that facility and not just that but a lot of time at other baseball facilities in other cities and the more that you kind of compare the chase field experience with other ballparks the more you realize we're kind of on a different playing field here we're not quite adding up the way that we need to so it's not an urgent need i think some renovations are probably needed pretty much right away i would like to see the center field a screen they just need to do something with that i've been to a lot of other ballparks and it's pretty much about the worst that I've seen. But beyond that, I mean, Chasefield is fine, right? It totally, it does its job.

It's good enough. But we're just kind of dreaming here, Derek. You know, there's some renovations that could be done in the short term, but long term, like, what would you want Chasefield to look like? And I think that's a pretty fun thing to think about in the future. I think people take unnecessary offense to it and they don't understand. We are very thankful for Chasefield. We're thankful to have baseball here.

we're thankful for the devax we just don't uh we we just want to offer up some ideas on how they can improve it and and how it could be a more enjoyable experience for all of us i personally never would have thought about renovating a stadium until i saw what they did with the phoenix suns arena right so i think that's what opens up this discussion for me because it makes me wonder what they could do to chase field in the within the limitations of the building and keeping it where it's to make it a more enjoyable experience, right? Sure. And that's what it's all about.

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Let me tell you a little secret. I don't want to put, on blast what store this was but my one of my daughter's favorite stores had had a deal on monday and then yet somehow their black friday started today on tuesday and the deal wasn't as good as what i got on monday and i don't really yeah like it was a cheaper deal yesterday than it was today so black friday doesn't mean it means that much the best the best meme about it that i saw today was someone posted the hold at like $499, hole at $4.99,

and then it was $6.99 crossed out with $4.99 above it on Black Friday, and he was like, charge! You know, like that's exactly it, right? You know, but that's not what, that's not what Draft Kings has going on for you. Draft Kings has a free $100 of free bets for bidding that $1 on any Thanksgiving game. You can get some same game parley. Of course, I am Mr. Parley.

Or, you know, I don't know, what would, sir parley i don't know i need to find i'll take it i'll take sir all right sir parley uh you know they have some offers that are sweeter than grandma's pumpkin pie you get a risk-free bet right now up to twenty five dollars if your same game parley doesn't win and again that's that's that's that's just a that's a do-over those are always good in life right so drafting is a safe secure and reliable best of all you can deposit when draw your cash whenever you want remember 21 and over only Arizona only gambling problem dot one 800 next step new customers only eligibility restrictions apply see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details and jesse yes i don't know i don't know what to say

about people's um requests about chasefield i i would say this i am easily bribed so if someone wants to put let's say a dutch bros in the press box that i don't have to pay for anymore that could completely change my opinion i would be on board and be defending. It doesn't need reservations. It doesn't mean anything. This is the greatest place ever. Shut your stupid boughs.

Don't ever talk about getting rid of it ever. I mean, I used to get free ice cream in the press box from Coldstone creamery. Those were the good old days, Jesse. Those were the good old days. I have no idea what's going to happen next year. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. I, for one, am looking forward to the end of talking to players through Zoom meetings. I know that you and I got the chance to go on field when you were here.

The last couple of games during the season, and I mean, even a little bit beyond that, if you were vaccinated, you were allowed to come on the field and chat up players. And it was so great to get back to that kind of level of contact. So more than the free ice cream back in the press box, Jesse, I want to stop doing the Zoom meetings. I want to be able to go in the clubhouse again. And I would love to be able to chat with the players, especially now with what we do.

I think it would be just a lot of fun and valuable. And who knows what happens. Maybe we can talk some guys into coming on the show. Well, yeah. No, I'm excited. The future is the future is brighter than these last couple years of nonstop Zoom interviews. There you go.

Just that's not what sports journalism is. And we're looking forward to getting back to the way it should be. So hopefully not too long. Oddly enough, on a personal note, I feel like I've gained some confidence through doing interviews through Zoom meetings. There were a couple of times where you're like, trust me, you were right in the face of like, I don't know, a relief pitcher right after he blew the game. And you just knew.

Oh, man, it's a difficult situation to just ask some of those tough questions that we are obligated to ask, you know, even if we want to tiptoe around it, it's still tough to ask. like somebody who's solely responsible for a loss on, you know, what their feelings are that they, that they blew this game, right? But I am not, I'm not opposed to doing it anymore. I'll just say that when from a reporter's perspective, it does give you a different feeling on, you know, these guys and their performances.

The reason why I say that is because I've been a fan my whole life, and I never thought of these guys as being people as much until you have to stand in a locker room and stand in front of them after a game. You know, win or lose, whether it's good or it's bad. That's the part that makes you as a journalist really associate that these are just normal human beings that are doing something a bit spectacular right now with their lives.

Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, I feel like that's in a lot of ways the biggest difference between, you know, watching the game as a fan versus watching the game as someone who's in the clubhouse a lot. Like you've been the last few years. You realize like, oh man, these are like real people. And like they're really cool, you know? Like you kind of realize like, oh, these are just kind of enjoyable people to be around. Right.

The worst part is when they struggle. Because that's the part where you almost start, at least me. I mean, other people that, I'm sure other people have learned out to disconnect their feelings on this. I just still happen. Right. So it's like when you're writing about someone struggles and then you see them in the locker room, literally sitting in front of their locker looking sad about how bad they're doing, it makes you feel empathy and sympathy for that.

person. It makes you feel bad for railing on them on last week's episode where you said, this guy can't play baseball anymore, right? Like, you know, these guys are all human beings and they all want to figure it out. They all want to be superstars. They all want to do great things with their lives, right? Right. The fact of the matter is some people are just mediocre baseball players and then a handful are lucky enough to be, you know, that those superstars in the game. At the end of the day, though, when you're around them, when we get, when we get as journal us the chance to be around them. It reminds you that no matter what, how you view them, no matter what they are,

no matter what their performance is, they're all people, they're all people. They're all people with kids and families. They all put on normal t-shirts and hats that aren't Diamondbacks related at the end of the day and they all, you know, walk out after taking a shower and go to their homes, right? So I truly miss that part of it. And I can't wait to get back to that aspect of reporting on this team. What's crazy is when we say like, you know, maybe some of,

they're mediocre baseball players. What we mean is that, you know, they are mediocre among the very best on the planet, right? So like- Great point. Yeah. To play at a major league level, you're not mediocre, right? Right. To play at this level.

They are among probably the, you know, 500 to 1,000 best baseball players on the planet. And that in its own right is already pretty impressive. So- right there, right there. I'm already not treating them like people, calling them mediocre and shit. You called me on my bullshit, Jesse. you so much. I appreciate it. But that's as easy as it gets, right? To literally, literally start calling guys that could throw a ball so fast that I'd never hit it,

mediocre somehow, but, you know, whatever. I will say that, you know, this team tonight, I was asked at our friendsgiving about what I thought about this team. And my legitimate feeling, just to give everybody insight on my initial reaction was of being very hopeful for this team. I think that the coaching changes alone have given me more hope than I probably should have. Let's be honest. Like, I probably already feel that my, like, my expectations are too high. But it's just really thinking about what went wrong with this. team at times last year besides the injuries, which are a huge part of it, kind of scratching

your head and thinking like, wow, this team really shouldn't have been this bad, right? And instead of making any super drastic moves, aside from parting ways with some relatively talented guys that were high-priced on their options like Clippard and Cole Calhoun, they decided not really to make any drastic changes at this point to the team and instead make drastic changes to the coaching staff. So I guess my hopefulness is that, you know, we've said it time and time again that this team is more talented and better than that 52 win record indicates.

So we can end on a high note here, Derek. Is that what you're telling us? Jesse, I'm thankful that I have hope. That's what I'm thankful for, is that I have hope. And more than anything, I think I have hope because I don't really think the guys on this team are as bad as they've been at times in spurts. But I think that this coaching staff next year will surprise us all and get a lot out of the same talent that struggled at times last year. I believe with you, Derek. I believe with you.

it's it's um you know i mean in one hand you kind of feel crazy thinking that right i mean 50 you wins there's not a lot of hope there but and they keep saying it right like fucking hazen keep saying like i love bike hazen but please stop reminding me that you're not going to do anything to fix this team in one season like i know you're not but can you like i i appreciate i appreciate that though because mike hazen is such a realist right like could you Could you imagine Could you imagine if the Diamondbacks had a GM where after they literally won 52 games,

their GM was just like, ah, you know, I mean, I thought we, you know, we did all right this season, you know. Like, like if he was unwilling to acknowledge the just outright unacceptable nature of the season that they just had, right? Mike Azen is not that kind of guy. He's going to tell it to you exactly like it is.

he is aware that he is held responsible for what happens in a lot of ways, right? And he's a guy who wants to write the ship. And we feel like he's done, you know, a pretty good job so far. At least, you know, obviously he's played a role in some of these hirings. And hopefully as the offseason continues and we get more into the player side of things, hopefully, you know, Mike is able to make some more positive moves for this team moving forward. Jesse, after the first season, they went from losing nearly 100 games to winning 100 games.

And it's the only, 1999, the only 100 win season. That's true. Yeah, they only won 92 games when they won the World Series, I believe. Correct. They were 92 and 70. Yep. The following year was the next best year besides 99. they were 98 and 64.

So it's kind of weird, but it's almost like these high expectations of being able to swing the win loss total as part of our DNA. Right. It's like, and Mike Hazen is here trying to just temper those expectations and remind everybody, that thing that happened, that's never going to happen again. We're never going to swing it that quickly around. However, you know, back in 2004, we won 51 games. Two seasons later, we won 90, right? So that's probably more of what we're shooting at for, I think, right now, as far as the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But, you know, we'll see what happens. We're going to be along for the ride. Who knows? Jesse says the baseball season's not going to be delayed. But stay tuned and let's see if he's wrong, because I can't wait to rub it in his face if he is. Thank you guys so much for checking out the podcast. Of course, you know, you can become a member over at GoPHNX

and check out all of our written content and other content that we have going on. That, as I told you before, you have an annual membership option that will get you a free t-shirt at the PHNX locker or the month-to-month option that will get you 50 cents for the free month. Or excuse me, for your first month. Also, over at the, at, sorry, Draft King's Sports, app.com. Jesse, I'm running out of gas, but you. This is our first episode that we've ever recorded like after 7 p.m.

Yeah, it's really, really late for me. This is what you. This is what the people get. I know, but I'm trying. I'm trying here. Our code with Traff King Sportsbook app is PHNX. Now get you that $100 in free bets this Thanksgiving. You can get me on, on Twitter and Jesse on Twitter.

I'm at K underscore K-man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports. That is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you're listening right now on your favorite podcasting app, please sign up for us there for all episodes, so you don't miss an episode.

Leave us a five-star review and then hop over to YouTube. Sign up for all of our content over there and sign up for notifications so that you don't miss any of this hot, fresh-baked Arizona sports content. We thank you guys so much for checking out the show and sticking with us here through to the end on behalf of Jesse and myself. We got to get out of here, Derek. I don't know how you made it, but we got to get out of here right now.

The wheels are falling off this thing, but we appreciate you guys for sticking with us. And remember, kids, baseball's fun, but it's more fun when you have Friendsgiving with your friends from work.