PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How do YOU grade Mike Hazen and the Diamondbacks’ offseason moves?

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

The Diamondbacks finalized what could be their last major acquisition of the offseason last week in designated hitter/outfielder Joc Pederson. How do fans feel about the move and this offseason as a whole? We also dive into the D-backs’ spring training roster for 2024, which was announced shortly before the start of the show. Plus, Corbin Carroll apparently remembers everything.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Let Someburros cater your next meal big or small! Order online or find one near you by visiting someburros.comWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and ski to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And I'm very, very excited to be once again joined by this man because he does all the heavy lifting around here. It's the vice mayor himself, thunderstake Jesse Friedman. Welcome back from Washington, D.C. Yes. Did you get any laws enacted?

Anything for baseball, maybe? Maybe take care of them constantly. With the new rules? Did you get a government to look into it? Yeah, I think most of rule changes in Major League Baseball do originate in Washington, D.C., their first disgust on the floor of the house. And then, you know, eventually they make their way over to Bob Manfred. No, it was a great trip. It was cold.

I have to say, it's really delightful to come home and it's like 77 degrees and sunny outside. It's wonderful. Yeah, but then you brought the cold weather with you and it's going to get cold again. Yeah, apparently I did. Just following you everywhere. Yeah, but there are worse things than, you know, a lot of people would be happy to have it be like 60 degrees outside right now. Yes.

Yeah. We can't complain too much about what's around the corner. We need it to be, we need bad weather right now because when these people come into town to go to the waste management open and, you know, do all of that stuff. We don't want any of them to move here. Exactly. Exactly. We cannot have these people coming here and realizing how great the weather is because it's not

that great. It'll be 120 before you know it. as Jack Peterson brought up. He said, Yolo in regards to 120 degrees. I didn't get to be at the Jock Presser alive because I was walking around the spy museum and it was complicated. Well, but spies are mysterious.

Yes, it should be complicated. That's fair. But yeah, that was, I listened to it afterwards and that was definitely my favorite part was Jock saying Yolo when it comes to the 120 degree weather in the summers. I mean,

the man grew up in, I believe he's from Palo Alto, so he's from the Bay Area. He obviously spent a good chunk of his career with the Giants and then, you know, the Dodgers. Like, he doesn't know what it's like for, like he's never experienced like even 87 degrees in his life, Derek. I don't know how he's going to deal with 120, but I guess we'll find out. You can try to prepare yourself, but you can't really prepare yourself. You know what I mean? It's, you don't really get to experience it until it's real and until it's too late.

Of course, we did talk about you leaving town, and that would, in fact, cause a press conference to happen. Yes. As it did. You missed out on this. But we do have Mike Hazen's comments, which we haven't really discussed too much. And Mike Hazen was, he talked about the move and why they were interested in Jock and also some other things in regards to situational, you know, at Bats. I know a lot of people are concerned about Jock Peterson's splits. We talked about it on the show a little bit yesterday without you.

but it does really feel like he at least sounds committed in his comments about working with Dave McKay and just, you know, about wanting to contribute to this team. Like he is willing to kind of work on some of his weaknesses that were magnified. I would say last year I felt like more than other seasons. But yeah, you know, like his splits and obviously his inability to play defense or at least, you know, the people assuming he's not going to play in the outfield for this team. Yeah, I mean the Giants clearly. clearly we're not comfortable with Jock Peterson playing a whole lot of outfield for them.

They kind of made that clear as the season wore on. It seemed like they were really trying to avoid having Jock play in the outfield as much as possible. And, you know, of course, Gabe Kapler in San Francisco was kind of the king of platoons, right? I mean, they just have platoons everywhere. That's true. And so, of course, Jock Peterson fit right into the system. Oh, he was great. They did really a heck of a job avoiding him facing lefties.

I think it was like just about 90% of his played appearances came against Ritey's last year. So the Giants protected him very heavily. And it sounds like the Diamondbacks might do that. But yeah, Mike Hazen was kind of noncommittal about that. Well, this is what he had to say on the move of acquiring Jack Peterson. For yet, we still think there's some holes that we need to continue to build out bench-wise. maybe, you know, maybe looking at some of the right-handed options, potentially at some point, you know,

we've talked about spending some attention on the bullpen, you know, building out some depth there. So still working to continue to improve the roster any way we can. When the off-season is over, then we can sit back and assess that. But we're not, it's hard to say that we're not done in the sense that we've done a lot of the big stuff, but I still remain hopeful that there's more ways for us to improve this team. Well, that was actually not on the move for Jack Peterson,

but was on. I mean, kind of. It was on if the Arizona Diamondbacks and Mike Hazen are done with free agency, which we kind of felt like based on this move that they weren't. It didn't feel like any huge moves were imminent. It's not like they were going to have the budget to go out there and go after one of the top like Scott Boris clients available or anything like that. Sure.

However, it did feel like this move did position them to still kind of address some of their positional needs, which is, you know, still real. We're going to talk about the spring training, you know, roster here in a little bit, but the Diamondbacks still need to kind of have a backup catcher. And their options right now aren't, you know, like there's going to be some competition, but there could be some better options potentially out there still. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't sound like the Diamondbacks are necessarily done, but it also, I think there's also

a chance that they are done in terms of, in terms of, you know, at least the significant moves. We might still see some, you know, minorly contracts or, you know, some additions to the list of spring training invites that we'll get to here a little bit later in the show. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what the Diamondbacks do here. Our initial reaction to this was very much that you're getting Jock Peter. then you probably have something else that you're at least hoping to do to, you know, kind of balance things out against lefties. You don't really want Jack Peterson in that spot against lefties.

But yeah, it sounds like the Diamondbacks are maybe a little bit more open to having him face left-handed pitching, at least Jack Peterson, certainly, as you said earlier, wants that opportunity. And it sounds like the Diamondbacks are, you know, potentially going to give him that opportunity. Do we have that video? Do we have Mike Hayes on lefties? Okay. Yeah, we haven't, we haven't really made any final determinations on that stuff yet.

I know, I know two of the things that when we talked to Jocobel was, Jock wants to, you know, prove to us that he can play in the outfield and, and face some lefties. And, you know, we're going to see how he does. I mean, this is a, this is a competition in every way, shape, and form in terms of us seeing what the best, where we're best suited and we'll, we'll deploy Tor. I'm sure Tori is going to deploy the roster as, as it, as it needs to be deployed. But I'm interested to see what those competitive thoughts will turn themselves into coming into camp. You know, I know he's primarily DHed in the last little bit here.

So we'll see where all that takes. We obviously have a very competitive roster in terms of what could happen from playing time standpoint. I think if it didn't go that way and we were fitting at bats in for Ritees, I think, you know, depending on who the backup catcher is, Moreno could potentially see some time there, Rivera, as we're currently constituted, and then there's still potential opportunity externally too. Jesse kind of hates the idea that everybody wants to just throw Moreno in at DH at times

and then expect, like, the production, because obviously with the options, at least they have right now, right? I don't hate the Diamondbacks using Gabby Moreno in that spot. I think that makes perfect sense. It's really an asset that the designated hitter came to the National League because if your catcher is a pretty good hitter, especially against lefties, you can keep your catcher in there, you know, in the lineup in situations where you might not previously because you obviously need your catcher to get some days off. My criticism is that, yes, if Gabby Moreno steps into the DH slot, that's great. But that means that, you know, Tucker Barnhart or Jose Herrera or a pretty light hitting catcher is stepping in the catching spot in his place. So in that sense, Gabby Moreno is not really a solution in the DH slot necessarily.

But it does make sense for the debacks to use him there some. I just don't really view that as being like, oh, of course, Gabby Moreno can be there. Yeah. You know, your problem is solved. I just don't see it that way. But the way he can be there is they are going to need to give him time off. And that's the reason why, like, addressing the backup catcher role, they have plenty of options potentially. But it would be nice for them to have a backup catcher that,

maybe did have a little bit more offense to offer and things like that. And it remains to be seen. That's no knock at any of these guys that could potentially be the backup. But you and I discussed Gabby's going to need 30 to 40 games potentially off. And that's a significant amount of time off. He probably won't DH in all of those games, but that would give you the option to have him available. If you strategically place it around, you know,

maybe potential left-handed starts by an opposing starting pitcher, have them off that day, but then have them D-Hing, right? There's, there are options there. It's just like you said, you are going to have that drop-off in production from that catcher position

if one of those other guys is in there in lieu of him. So it's almost like you're putting one of those guys in a D.H. In a way, right? Like, then essentially, then essentially you're having like Tucker Barnhart D.H. Or whatever, right? But yeah, which is not an ideal,

an ideal outcome necessarily. But yeah, I mean, there is definitely something to be said for Gabby being able to be in that D. spot from time to time. You know, I mean, the man hit like 3.52, I think it is against lefties last year. He's not like if Gabby Moreno is healthy in my mind, there's there really never should be a day where where the opposing team has a lefty starter on the mound and Gabby isn't in the lineup either as

the DH or or as the catcher. So the DH slot allows you to do that. That'll take some of the DH opportunities. But it still feels like there there could be another move for the diamond backs to make here. Chris in the chat says my fit is. fire, Chris, you're not ready for this. What are you wearing? What?

Yeah, the shoes. The shoes really bring it all together. Every time I wear this, you criticize it, and then I tell you what it is, and then you feel very bad afterwards. But it is, of course, every month on this show, as you know, is Black History Month, not just one month a year. Every month on this show is Women's History Month, and every month on this show is Black Women's History Month.

But this particular hoodie I'm wearing is for Our Heroes Rock, which is a cartoon series, He's similar to Schoolhouse Rock done by a couple of friends of mine. And they told the story of Ruby Bridges. That actually drops today on YouTube. And it's a great little cartoon telling the story of a very important person, black history. And that's kind of what's their plan here is to have some of these stories told so that we make sure to keep history correct. Especially here in Arizona. I won't get to that.

But anyway. I wasn't saying for the record. I wasn't saying I thought it looked bad. I was just like, what are you? It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. You can't look at it and not be like.

It's beautiful. Whoa. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Which is the way it goes for most things you wear. Yeah, I thank you. I appreciate it. Gabriel Ferrer says February 1st and the raining Cy Young is still unsigned. Yep, because Scott Boris.

It's been fun. It's been a fun offseason. I mean, and speaking of the offseason, we did ask you guys to grade the offseason of the Arizona Diamondbacks in before the Jock Peterson move. And the results were pretty good. The 39.7% of you gave it an A, 55.9% of you gave it a B, 4.1% gave it a C, and 0% gave it a D or an F. But then we asked you to grade the off-season after the jock signing on Twitter. And this is the results.

Things moved in the opposite direction a little bit. Things moved in the opposite direction. Now 31.5% of you gave it an A. It's 54% gave it a B. we have 12.7% with a C and then 1.8% of you changed the entire view on things here and just gave it a dear enough. All because of jock. To be fair, this isn't the most scientific approach. Yeah, no.

We didn't re-poll the same people. We didn't repoll the same people. The first poll was part of our Diamondbacks fan survey, which many of you filled out on Google Forms. The second one was just a Twitter poll question, which actually got almost two, thousand votes. We got like three times as many votes on that one as we did the initial survey. But yeah, the results did get worse. Part of me blames that on Twitter just being a very negative place in general. Of course, you were going to get some Ds and ass. Of course, there's going to be an uptick in C votes. I don't really understand how you can give the Diamondbacks a C, honestly.

I understand there was some discourse happening in the comment section between whether it's an A or a B. Sure. I know Jock Peterson isn't, was not the prize necessarily of the D.H. crop that the Diamondbacks were reportedly interested in. I understand that, you know, that felt like maybe not exactly who Diamondbacks were, we're hoping to get. There was obviously a lot of talk around J.D. Martinez and Jorge Saler.

But there's an alternate reality where we pay J.D. Martinez two years, $40 million. And maybe the results of that don't end up being as good or at least as thrifty. Diamondbacks fans don't like J.D. Martinez in their minds is the is the is the what Jesse saying I will attack you right now. He is perfection. He is perfect. He is. Yes. What? Is he not? Are you suggesting he's not? Because I will fight you. You're the one who just said that the Diamondbacks give him two years and 40 million. Well yeah. Because he's worth it. It's worth every dime of it. But yes, all that to say, I don't. I think A or B, I understand the debate there. C just seems outrageous to me. I mean, the diamond. backs really shot near the top of the starting pitching market and getting Eduardo Rodriguez.

You know, they made a solid acquisition at third base, I think, and getting a Eugenio Suarez, Lord of Surreal is back. Jack Peterson. The D.H. is much better. Yeah. A C is just, it's just clearly too low in my mind. It's absolutely too low.

And I mean, Mike Hazen did talk about the move we alluded to it earlier, but here's what he had to say about Jack Peterson and how he can add to this team and improve, you know, the roster that they had from last year. One, you know, I've always always appreciated the energy and competitiveness and and the hitability from across the field. I mean, it seems like he, he's worn us out. You know, he's been in the division for so long. We've seen him all the time. It's good to have him on our side. From a, from a roster construction standpoint, I think, you know, getting, bringing Lordus back and Eugenio kind of filling in a lot of that right-handed, the middle part of our lineup was getting very, very, very, very right-handed. And I know there's, you know, he just, he does an incredible

job of hitting right-ease and felt like the division was going to stack up pretty right-handed dominant. I know there's still some lefties out there that could change that complexion a little bit, but for the most part, we felt like this was going to be a good fit in the middle. Keep Corbyn and Kattel where they need to be. Keep Alec and Perdomo where they need to be. And, and, and, and, thought this was just a good fit for us. And I think ultimately he's going to be a good fit for this team. I think, you know, again, when we talk about last year's team versus, you know, the additions that they've made, I can't see how you can't feel like the roster is improved.

But as we talked about earlier, they might not be done. We do know that the free agency market might be a little slim now for what they're looking for, especially at catcher. There's still an option or two out there. But you want Gary Sanchez. I just want Gary Sanchez. That's it. You know I want Gary Sanchez.

Why would you even bring his name up if you didn't want to upset me? Because you know we're not going to get Gary Sanchez. However, the Houston Astros might be a good fit for a trade partner, potentially, right? They're looking for a left-handed outfielder. And we've been stockpiling those for years. We have plenty of those, Jesse. So maybe the debacks could maybe make a trade here. Yeah, I actually have a bot set up on my computer that just searches for reports of

teams looking for left-handed hitting outfielders. It's kind of crazy. Because it's like, oh my gosh, the team I cover is surely interested, right? He gets a Google alert and he screams about it. He's like, we've got another one. There has to be a fit here. And Dana Brown, the Astros general manager, so about a week ago, he said, if we could somehow get a left-handed bat, preferably an outfielder with some speed.

I mean, come on, Derek. Can I offer you Jake McCarthy? It just makes sense on paper. Can I offer you a Dominic Fletcher? Dominic Fletcher, less so on the speed side, but still a solid defender at all three positions and certainly left-handed as well. Yeah, I don't know if this is still a thing, but I wanted to at least bring it up. The Astros did acquire minor league outfielder Trey Cabbage in a trade with the Angels on Wednesday.

Fantastic baseball name, by the way. Trey Cabbage. Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, that's awesome. That sounds like some sort of cool name you give someone's hair or something, like Trey Cabbage. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, so Cabbage does kind of fit the description here. So I think it's possible that the Astros already kind of satisfied the need that they had in this area.

Sure. Cabbage has barely played in the majors. He's not as established as a Jake McCarthy or even a Dominic Fletcher, I think in some ways. I think there are more questions with Trey Cabbage. Dominic Fletcher, I think, is a more valuable player. So maybe there's a world in which the Astros want to shoot a little bit higher than that. And they're still interested in pulling the trigger on something like this. And, you know, Jake McCarthy or potentially Dominic Fletcher could make some sense.

He gave up way too much in this quote, Jesse. He said that type of package will pounce on it. Are you kidding me? Like, you don't go to a car dealership with that kind of attitude. You're going to be fleeced. I mean, I feel this man is putting himself out there for Mike Hazen to absolutely fleece him. You know Mike Hazen loves to fleece other GMs of their prospects. But what would the Diamondbacks potentially get in return or what would they want in return at this point?

I mean, we do know that, of course, talked about some of their needs. We did speak yesterday about the bullpen. Jordan was a little surprised that the Diamondbacks haven't done anything to improve their bullpen. Yeah. And that seemed to be something that Mike Hazen has brought up a few times in the past. Yeah. And I think that's what would make the most. sense. Like if you're the diamond backs and you're trying to make a trade. And we've,

we've talked a number of times on this show about how a trade might make some sense. The debacks still have more depth pieces in my opinion than they can really make use of. Yeah. So if you, if you could find a trade partner, I think it could still make sense. And if in, you'd probably be looking for relief pitching. At least that would be one of the things at the top of the list for sure. The tricky thing with the Astros is, you know, I mean, the, the, the back end of their bullpen is really excellent. They have, Josh Hater, of course, whom they just signed. Ryan Presley, who spent their closer for a while, is still there.

Brian Abraeux, one of the best relievers in the game still in his mid-20. So their back end is really good. Beyond that, you know, I don't think they're going to trade any of those guys for Jake McCarthy. Beyond that, I'm not sure if I really see a reliever impactful enough for the Diamondbacks to want to pull the trigger there. Rafael Montero might have made some sense. He was someone we talked about last year as a free agent target. for the Diamondbacks, but he had a pretty brutal first season with the Astros. ZRA was around five.

The peripherals weren't great either. The Astros would have to eat a lot of money in order to make that trade. And I'm not sure the debacks even want Raphael Montero at this point now that he's, you know, 33 years old and coming off a pretty rough season. So, yeah, I think it's a dead end, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I don't really see an ideal relief pitcher. You know, Jake Myers is interesting. He's a right-handed hitting outfielder, kind of like an Alec Thomas type, who's a really,

really good defender, but not great against same-handed pitching. Jake Myers has done pretty well against lefties, but not so against righties. I mean, on paper, that kind of makes sense. Like the Astros want a lefty. The debacks could use a right-handed hitting outfielder, but I'm not sure if the Astros would want to do that. They probably want to add a left-handed hitting outfielder, not like trade one of their existing outfielder, for one.

So yeah, I think it's most likely a dead end. But again, I have this bot on my computer, Derek. And it went off the other day and I just had to talk about it. I appreciate that. I appreciate your due diligence and trying to figure out where we can send these left-handed outfielders. So but of course, we'll get to see all of these guys. We're very excited to see all these guys in spring training. We'll talk about that roster that just came out today.

We do thank you guys for being here right now on the PHN Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, Make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a little thumbs up. We always appreciate you doing that. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side,

make sure to subscribe to us over there. Leave us a review. We always appreciate those five-star reviews. And of course, we appreciate you listeners as well. We also appreciate illegal peats, which is a great place for you to fill up. And, of course, the weather was nice until Jesse ruined it. But it'll be nice again here very soon,

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and enjoy buy one, get one free entrees. and don't forget to rewind after a long day at their happy hour 3 p.m. 8 p.m. every single day. Illegal peat your go-to spot for burritos, buddies, and beers. I'm a little concerned about Damon because I don't think they have illegal peats in Mobile, Alabama, and I don't know how he's going to deal with that. And wasn't Jed Fish also there? That's a recipe for disaster. That's a recipe for disaster.

I'm saying it right now. That's a terrible idea. Damon's going to be very cranky. And then Jed Fish is in the same vicinity. as him. I don't like that at all. But hopefully, I mean, I'm guessing he probably doesn't have his OGs either, which is probably a problem.

By the way, I was shamed by Elise yesterday for my mispronunciation of the word perforated. I've been saying it wrong at times on this show, Jesse. And again, I tried to scold them the way I scold

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OG's brands has something for you, whether it's their minis, their sleep edition gummies, their mixed bag, and so much more. So to learn more about OG's gummies and where you can find them, head on over to OGsbrands.com. Gabriel makes an interesting point. It'll probably be Toronto again. They're still too right-handed. I mean, I do think that I do think the Blue Jays are still too right-handed. Oh, that's wonderful. I love that idea. They apparently were interested in

in Jock Peterson before the Diamondbacks. were able to get him. I don't know if they're really looking for a Jake McCarthy type, though. Yeah. Yeah, my bot hasn't come up with anything about the Blue Jays yet. You keep at it. You keep at it. But the spring training roster was announced,

and we do know a bit more about obviously who we know who we're going to see based on the 26-man roster, but now we know who we're going to see that are non-raster invitees. And there's some very fun prospects to see from the Diamondbacks, organization that we haven't had a chance to see much in person. So it'd be a great opportunity to come out, watch some great spring training games. Here's that list of the non-roster invitees. Yeah. It's a lot of players, man. What, 40 plus 26, 66? I think I can still do math. I don't know. Don't ask me to check your math. That's a terrible idea. Yeah, there are a lot of names

here that we certainly expected to see. It's not like you see the list of spring, you know, spring training training invitees, you know, of around 70 guys and you're like, oh my gosh, all 70 of these are shocking or anything like that. Yeah. But there are, you know, usually a few guys that are interesting that either are on the list or maybe interesting because they aren't on the list. And prospects is certainly kind of where we start with that conversation. Umin Lin, Ivan Melendez, A.J. Vukovic, Christian Robinson, all noteworthy prospects who are,

who are on this list for the Diamondbacks. I guess you and Lynn is probably the headliner there for Diamondbacks fans who haven't haven't gotten a chance to see him pitch in person yet. I'm excited to see him pitch. I really am because I've heard a lot about him. And I feel like they're as far as the Diamondbacks prospects go for pitching, he is, even if he's not ranked the top prospect, he is like has the most buzz about him. I think that fans know who he is.

They've heard about his 26 different pitches he throws and everything like that. It's an arsenal. It's an arsenal, folks. But it's going to be very cool to see him in camp, along with some of these other guys. I can't wait to see the Hispanic Titanic smashing up at Salt River Fields. But Christian Robinson, that's a very interesting, you know, name that we have talked about for quite a while.

We do know the Diamondbacks designated him for assignment. He came back or stayed in the organization. So, again, just hopefully another opportunity for him to get some chance. or to get get some eyes on him. Yeah, I don't I don't think that any of those Diamond Box prospects we named really have a great chance to make the team honestly I think they're all all four of those guys are probably still a little ways away Christian Robinson included in that list for sure But there there are still some intriguing tools with Christian Robinson for sure I think some people have kind of moved on from him as a prospect in some ways He's you know considerably older now that he was a few years ago when he was a big name prospect

there's still a lot of swing and miss there, which was an issue back in the day and continues to be a concern now for sure. But at the same time, he still has legitimate speed and legitimate power. And, you know, I think could probably hold his own in a corner outfield spot. And when you have those elements,

you're, you know, it's at least enough to put you on the radar as a prospect that we should be paying some attention to. And DeBax fans have been, you know, dreaming about what Christian Robinson can be for about five years at this point. So yeah, I think for, you know, for fans of this team, it's fun to have him in camp for sure. When I look at this list, I think of it's either young guys, like you said, that are still a little ways off.

There's a great opportunity for them to be seen by the coaching staff at a major league level. There's also just a great opportunity for them to be in camp to learn, to be coached, and to experience, you know, spring training up here. So I get that. I also get the list of guys there that are right there on the bubble. of potentially making this team like Kevin Newman. Brandon Hughes is one of those guys. Rudy brought him up in the chat. He said Brandon Hughes, I think, has a chance to make this bullpen.

And we'll talk about him. But the name that sticks out to me there is Humberto Castiano's, which you know, I am a big fan of. And when you talk about like Christian Robinson kind of being a guy that we've moved on from, at least a little bit, that is a pitcher who I felt like when I saw him as a non-raster invitee i almost asked like what is he doing here like he doesn't really fit the mold of either of those guy either of those things of either a guy close to making the roster or like you know a minor league prospect but he still is only 25 years old he had Tommy john surgery and missed all of 2023 so it's easy to kind of forget about him as an option but this man was at one time a pretty

decent starting pitcher for the diamond backs at a major league level yeah yeah kind of functioned and you know that up and down sort of a role, you know, swingman type who can, who can give you some innings. The most noteworthy thing about Humberto Castiano's in my mind is that he has seven career plate appearances as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and he went three for six with one home run and five RBI. So unfortunately, unfortunately, the DH is here. There was here, yeah, the riging everything.

Well, maybe he can DH too. Maybe you can, maybe. Yeah, maybe Cassiano. Maybe he's the very answer to Platoon of the job. Yeah. Yeah. He only has to hit lefties, right? Yeah, I think, you know, I'm not sure exactly what this looks like for Humberto Casillas.

He does have a minor league option remaining. So I guess, you know, he's in camp. And, you know, if he doesn't make the team, the debacks could send him down as kind of a depth option. He did pitch in the Mexican Winter League this offseason. So 30 and two-thirds innings there, according to baseball reference. He had a 5-58 ERA and a 173 whip. not exactly great numbers. But, you know, working his way back from Tommy John's surgery and certainly a familiar name and a bit of a blast from the past.

Going back to Brandon Hughes, that is a guy who pitched with the Cubs for the last two seasons. Vasily had pretty different seasons going from 2022 to 2023. Obviously, the sample size was much bigger in 22. He had a 3.12 ERA in 57 and two-thirds innings pitched. 1.09 whip 4.64 FIP and 1.7 home runs per 9. 2023 results not great. Yeah. Not nearly as many innings pitched.

13.2 innings pitched a 7.24 ERA, 1.61 whip, nearly an identical FIP at 4.65. And then 1.3 home runs per 9. So this is a guy who, you know, that obviously struggled there last season, but has shown that he's capable of giving you some innings and being a pretty solid relief option. Yeah, Brandon Hughes was non-tendered by the Cubs a few months ago. There are a lot of players on this list who were brought in on minor league deals that we'd already heard about. Brandon Hughes is, I think, the one guy on the list who we had not heard about. So this is kind of news for us today that the Diamondbacks have signed Brandon Hughes to presumably a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

Yeah. And yeah, I didn't pitch a lot in the majors in 2023. He had some complicated knee surgery about halfway through the season. He had an IL stint with knee inflammation earlier in the off season, spent like the minimum 15 days on the aisle, came back. And then I guess the same issue flared up again. He wound up having season ending surgery. And yeah, as you said, only 13 and two-thirds innings.

I don't fully buy into Brandon Hughes being the pitcher that he was in 2022 on the surface. the 312 ERA, the 109 whip. No, the FIP kind of tells the story there. I got to feel like in those two seasons, right? Like, they could be closer. He gives up a lot of home runs. And that's, I think that's the thing probably keeping him from really being, you know, a consistent like three ERA reliever year to year.

But, you know, totally could be a guy who could come in and potentially even make the team. Debacks have a few options from the left, the left-handed side. right we've talked about Kyle Nelson, Andrew Saul Frank, and Joe Mann's Apply. You know, maybe the debacks have to pick two out of those three. There are some other options there for them as well, Brandon Hughes being one of them. Well, and Alisa, this is a possibly intriguing invite because our left-handed bullpened up chart is not super strong. Yeah. And we've talked about that as far as the options go.

There's still some wait and see aspect to the success that some of the guys had late in the season two. I'm not I don't know what I'm I'm a bit more convinced about Ryan Thompson than I am about Andrew Saul Frank but sure they were just too good to believe that they're going to continue to be that good for this team and obviously I mean that's just that's just some of the relief options but you know I believe strongly in Paul Seawald I believe strongly in Kevin Ginkle so I feel like with that you know kind of that that in place you have the ability to maybe have some more moving parts in the bullpen we also know and I know you know you're you spoke to him, Corbyn Martin, coming back as an option for this team. So he was a guy that part of that, you know, Zach Granky trade that could potentially be the one, you know, bright spot, I guess. I mean, we got Paul Seawalt kind of because of that, but yeah, I don't want to get all into that. But spring training, great time to come see these guys.

I mean that. Like, if you don't, if you live here and you let spring training go by without coming and seeing some of these young guys play, you're missing out. It's a great chance to see them live. And I don't know why, but there's just something about. out like when I remember the first time I saw Alec Thomas out at like you know camp and he was just gigantic compared to what I've seen because every image of Alec Thomas I had seen of him was like as like a high school kid you know so it's like sometimes you you get to see these guys finally

in person and then you know I remember I remember you giving me that report I think I was still in that was when I was still in Washington I was like oh I got out Thomas is gigantic I went to spring camp today and Alec Thomas is an enormous man, which he's not. He's not, but compared to the images of what you see of him as a high school kid, yeah, you're just like, it's like he's the Hulk version of himself. So that's also fun. There's also something about, you know, just seeing major league players up close and personal, you know, they tend, they tend to look like they're considerably more ripped than the average person. Oh, yeah. Generally speaking.

So Alec Thomas's strength has never, never been an issue. never for sure never been an issue um well it is almost super bowl time and now is a great time if you have not checked out the bet mjm sports book app to do so you can use our code of phmx and you will get yourself a hundred and fifty eight dollars in bonus bets simply for signing up using that code and depositing five dollars in your newly created account and once you do wagering that amount or more at a standard odds price once you've placed a bet you'll receive $158 in bonus bets regardless of the outcome of your wager. So if you want,

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hotel visit bedmgm.com for terms. His promotional offer is not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Are we back yet? All right, there we are. There we are. Hey, Alex in the comments has a great point. He says, Brandon Hughes, two worst performances were at the end right before surgery, hit a 4.15 ERA before.

That's very encouraging. Rudy says working with Strom, I think I'll have a good chance. Let's not forget. That's how we kind of broke down looking at Ryan Thompson. Speaking of tea time, that we, when you looked at his stats for the year, he really just had two bad games that, like, ruined his ERA. He wasn't really as bad with the raise.

As the numbers indicated, right? You know, it was just a small sample size. He didn't have that many innings pitched. And, again, two bad outings kind of ruined that for him. But Brandon Hughes, I just want to point out was an outfielder as of a few years ago. Oh. And he's listed as a switch hitter. So there's a lot to offer.

Yeah, maybe he, maybe we throw. to be drooling over that. We can throw him in the mix for the D.H slot against lefties. We got to figure it out. Humberto Cassiano's. We don't need any more free agents. We're good. We're good.

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If you're not a diehard already, you can make sure to sign up today. Get all sorts of wonderful benefits, including this diehard content. We're bringing you to the Discord. I'm going to make Jesse go in there and talk to you guys more this week. And then next week we're doing a game show. We have a written mailbag for the dieharts coming next week as well. Let's go. submit your questions.

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Of course, you get all of this stuff. It pays for itself. You get discounts with our partners. So sign up today over at go phtonx.com. Jesse. Corbyn Carol. knows who was drafted ahead of him, and he has been keeping receipts. And I know that sometimes in life,

pettiness can drive you to really remember things like which teams passed up on you in the draft and, you know, all of these things. Of course, we are very thankful that all of these teams passed up on Corby and Carroll in the draft. We wouldn't have wanted this to go any other way. But apparently the other day, Corbyn Carroll proved that his pettiness, at least has driven him to remember every single player that was drafted before him. Do we have that? I've got a pretty good idea. It's Adley and then Bobby and then Andrew Vaughn.

Yep. Bladay. Riley Green. And then CJ Abrams, six. A Lidolo, Jung, Langalears, Hunter Bishop. Yep. Here's where it gets dicey. I was it, was it Minow?

Mm-hmm. Okay. And then. A. Cavaco? Yeah. Yeah. Let me know if you need hints.

I might need, I might need the show. Ooh, okay. In the show. Oh, of course. Of course. Yeah. Stott. And then one more.

And then Will Wilson. That's. I love it so much. Do you keep proceeds like this in your life, Terry? Oh, yeah. Jesse. I know every single person that interviewed for this job and didn't get it. I know every single one of those names.

I have remembered them, committed them to memory. No, that's a, that's not just a casual, like, oh, let me see if I remember. No, no, he knows those names. He knows the order. He didn't need your help. He was just pretending like he needed your help. He knew that stretch there right before us. Which one was that?

Wasn't Alex Manoa? You know, at Alex Minow. He probably could have been like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But he was like, wait, that might come off a little. Yeah, he didn't want to make it look like he was like that, that level of like. Elizabeth get it. Yes, he was pretending to struggle towards the end. Yeah.

It's kind of like where you like race someone in a foot race, you don't want to beat them by that much. So you slow up there at the end, you know, that kind of thing. I do think it's interesting that Bryson Stott is, I mean, yeah,

I don't know if he really needed that hand to get Bryson Stott. No, but, you just wanted them to say it. Stott is, of course, the guy that, you know,

the Diamondbacks just played the Phillies and in the NLCS. And I remember Mike Hazen was specifically asked about Bryson Stott. in a press conference in the NLCS because the Diamondbacks, you know, they passed on, well, they didn't pass on Bryson Stott. He wasn't available anymore. But he was asked about his assessment of Bryson Stott during the draft. And yeah, Mike said that Diamondbacks love Bryson Stott. They had Corbin a little bit higher and things certainly worked out for them. But Bryce and Stott is a good young player, one of the better players on that list for sure. There's a lot. There's a lot of good young players on there, but there's a lot of teams in between maybe maybe three and 13 that might have wished they would have maybe drafted a little differently. Some mistakes were made for sure.

But that's kind of the way it goes with every with every draft. Yeah. Elizabeth says like when an ex text, you wait, who is this? I don't remember you. That's what he wanted to do to Bryson Stott. He was like, wait, who? Oh, yeah. Scott.

also sad news corbin carroll didn't get the cover of MLB the show 2024 which we kind of didn't really think was going to happen but what i wanted to get your scathing hot take on vladdie junior being on the cover now i will say i've already heard some better options like someone was saying that it would have been cool to have like all the blue jays players that had famous dads like on the cover with like their dads like being in the background fading away and like obscurity. I don't know what that point of that was, but that's kind of cool. But also just having him and his dad maybe on the cover, like what we talked about, like having Ken Griffey Jr. and Julio Rodriguez on a Mariners kind of theme cover. But what are your thoughts on Guerrero? It's weird. Not a fan of the choice?

Well, it just feels like odd timing in that Vlad Guerrero Jr. was actually not very good in 23 is coming off. Not necessarily his worst season, but one of his worst seasons. Yeah. He's really only had one year where he was like everything that people expected him to be. In 2020, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had, you know, an OPS over a thousand. He had 48 home runs. He was everything that the Blue Jays could have wanted and more.

But outside of that one season, he's been, he's been kind of a good but not great player. baseball reference had him at two wins above replacement, two even for the 2023 season, which is less than a lot of players who played for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023. He hates fun. He hates fun. I don't. I think that I think he's a very marketable player who at some point in his career, I think it

made sense to put him on the MLB to show cover. He won the home run derby. Yeah, I just, I just don't. First father son. That's why it would have been cool to have his dad on it too. First father, father, son, duo to win, you know, the home run derby trophy. I think that's kind of what it is sometimes more about like there's, there's these big splash moments that sometimes make a guy kind of, you know, important in the baseball world.

But then when you look at that, you take a look at some of the potential exciting young players that have made a splash in this league. I know everybody hated it. But I mean, even Ellie Dela Cruz at times feels like a at least a more exciting choice. than Vladi Jr. But I still like him. I still think he kind of fits the mold of what they're looking for, for,

you know, a cover athlete on, they don't be the show. They don't make the obvious choice, man. Like Ronald Ocuni Jr. was just like, he's right there.

Like he was so obvious. He's right there. Yeah. But they're probably going to wait until Ronald Lucuna has like a down year when he's 32 and he's got like a 787 OPS. And it shows like, yeah, now is the time.

You know, we've always, we've always been waiting for. the moment to give Ronald the Cooney this opportunity. Rudy brings up a great point. I'm more curious on how many players rejected being on the cover, and that's something we don't know, right? We don't know.

I know that they are kind of, it is an honor, and I have a feeling that not a lot of guys are going to turn it down, but. I don't know why you would. If you believe in the curse, Jesse, you turn that shit down.

If you believe in curses, which a lot of baseball players do, you're going to stay as far away from that fucking cover as you humanly can. You talk about a vet. Bad year he had now wait until you see what happens to Vladdy Jr. this year. Yeah, I guess, I mean, I guess this will be this, you know, we'll see what happens here. It's a good of reason as any to keep the cover away from Corbyn Carroll.

Keep them away from our team. We got other business to handle. We got World Series got a return. Somebody compared to us to, I think it was Jack Peterson, compared us to the Royals. Yeah. From the year that they, you know, that they missed. And then they were able to make it back and get to the mountain top. Hopefully that's the path.

the Diamondbacks follow because that would be very excited. And then once they do that, then you can put Corby and Carol on the cover and then we'll be okay with it. There you go. All right. Well, Jesse, I'm glad you're back because, again, I can't do this show with, you know, the Cest fittest family barbecue boys every day. I'm still so angry about that.

Jordan Schusterman is one of my favorite baseball podcasters in the universe and he has been on our show twice doing entire episodes. Just a whole ass episode. Not a 10 minutes spot, not 15 minutes. I just force him into being my co-host for the day. And he's so cool. He's down with it. And then he always asks,

hey, where's Jesse? He's familiar with your stuff. He likes you. He thinks you're great. Never, never connected. I don't know. It's again, it's because I do these things to hurt Jesse and you know that.

I'm going to get Jake to fill in when you're gone. Don't you dare. I swear to God, if I go on my cruise and I look, and Jake is sitting here, I'm going to be furious, but anyway, you can, in the meantime, follow all of the fun that we're having on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K over there. This maniac is at Jesse N. Friedman.

Of course, no Damon today. We got Kyle on the ones and twos. We are Kyle's kids today. Are I supposed to bark? I don't know. Do whatever a kid with you. Of course, our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do. leads you at PH&X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate your time. We will see tomorrow here at 1 p.m. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you keep our stars off the cover of that damn video game.