PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Hurry up and BUY!

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are breaking down all of the pre-lockout Free Agency madness, including the Texas Rangers spending over half a billion dollars and being happy about the D-backs not doing anything. 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, officially known as your mayor of PHNX, and I am joined, of course, by my vice mayor, my friend, my co-host, it's the Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. I'm a little afraid, Derek, for when everyone sees your mustache on the live show. I don't know. I don't know how that's going to go. The world's not ready for this mustache, Jesse.

Let me tell you something. I grew this mustache, and I instantly had a hot, tub in my backyard, Jesse. I don't know what's going on. Things are happening. It's kind of mystical. It's kind of magical. I like saying over here a lot now. I don't know. I never used to say that. Now I'm like,

look at this guy over here. You know, now I'm just saying it. Oh, I have no idea what's going on. The transformation is happening, though. It's almost complete. And I want to remind everybody that this show, regardless of the status of my mustache, is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King

Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX and simply for betting $1 on any NFL team to score in any way, shape, or form. You will get $100 in free bets should that team score in any way, shape, or form. It's that simple. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Jesse, winner, winner chicken dinner right now can apply to a lot of teams in free agency. The hurry up and buy policy is in effect for everybody. it is almost the end of the night.

The bar is closing or, you know, like I think of this more as like Disneyland. Like when you are present at Disneyland in that final hour before they close the park down or the shops down, you see a frantic, an absolutely frantic purchase, purchasing rate from people. They don't know what to do because they don't have time. They're out of time now.

So they're just going to buy stuff. It's the same thing with Black Friday. You went to the store to buy a 77-inch TV for, what, $398? And you expected them to have more than one. Ah, you fool. But while you're there, pick up some pajamas and some other stuff that you wouldn't normally have bought just because you're there. And other people are grabbing and buying and you get caught up in the grabbing and buying. A lot of teams in Major League Baseball, Jesse, are caught up right.

now in the Black Friday grabbing and buying. We don't have much time left. And there is a frantic pace at which teams are signing these big name free agents right now. There really is. And unfortunately, the Diamondbacks are not among those teams. Of course they're not. Not that we're surprised by that. Not at all.

But yeah, I saw someone tweet this out. I thought it was hilarious. Someone tweeted out, why don't we have the C. BBA expire on December 1st at 1159 p.m. every year. I mean, this is kind of fun. It's like the, it's like the trade deadline, but like free agency style. And it happens in late November when normally, like normally the hot stove doesn't really heat up in baseball until, you know, first couple weeks of December. You got to win your meetings. That's kind of when things start to heat up. Even on the free agency front, we're not used to seeing this much action in

November. You're right. kind of fun. Like, it's kind of enjoyable to have so much going on this early in the offseason. The winter meetings are typically where the rumors start coming out about certain teams making moves, which teams are going to be active. That's when we would have learned about teams like the Texas Rangers and the Florida Marlins of all teams surprisingly being big buyers this free agency season. And like you said, the Arizona Diamondbacks have yet to do anything of note. In fact, they missed out on the one guy we thought that they reportedly might have a shot at, which was right-handed reliever Kirby Yates, who has agreed to a two-year contract for $8.25 million with the Atlanta Braves.

Good, great. The Braves, the rich get richer. Good for you, Braves. You're going to lose plenty in free agency, I'm sure. So take whatever you can. But so far, the big winners, I guess if you want to say that, is the team, Jesse, that has committed a staggering $561.2 million in guaranteed money to free agents so far this offseason. The Texas Rangers. Their middle infield is wild.

I mean, to have Corey Seeger and Marcus Semyon, I don't know if there's a better middle infield and baseball. There probably isn't. I mean, Marcus Semyon and Corey Seeger, I mean, this is insane. What's wild to me, Jesse, is the amount of years that they have signed these guys to. Corey Seeger agrees to a 10-year, $325 million contract. Marcus Simeon has seven-year $175 million contract with the Rangers. And then tip of the cap to our brother in over in Colorado at DNVR, John Gray also agreed to a four-year $56 million deal with the Rangers.

I'm a little concerned for them. Like as much as I, as much as this is like, yeah, let's do it. Let's stick it to all the big market teams. You go get your guys. We like this, right? We're down for this. We are down for teams like the Tigers and the Rangers popping back up and doing big things. The Miami Marlins, again, very active.

Miami Marlins spying on our exes have signed. Robbie Ray. Robbie Ray goes to the Miami. Or I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. I was reading that way. I'm sorry.

Robbie Ray agrees to a five-year, $150 million deal with the Mariners. I apologize. But the Marlins get Avicale Garcia for a $53 million deal. Max Scher with the Mets are close to finalizing a three-year $130 million deal. The biggest per year deal in Major League Baseball history for Max Scher. Crazy. And also. $43 million a year.

Yeah. And also he would be the oldest play. to ever receive a 100 million plus dollar deal. Yeah, I mean, he's 37, I want to say. He's like mid-upper 30s. Like, it's insane how that man has managed to age. But going back to the Rangers real quick, like... Sorry, go ahead.

Yes, please. I'm just concerned, Derek, that I don't know, like, on paper, this is really exciting. And it should be great for the next few years. But it's a little weird for them because the Rangers were not. not exactly, at least in my mind, I haven't really been viewing the Rangers is this up and coming team that's about to take over the league or anything. They have some, you know, they have some nice pieces, but that's not exactly the way that I think a lot of teams view them around the league. The Tigers at least have some, you know, some really, really good prospects on

their way up through their system. So them kind of pushing the chips and make sense. The Rangers, it's like, okay, well, you have Marcus Sevin and Corey Seeger. I don't really know what else you have at this point. So I think this is a bit of a risk for them, but it's a risk that's, it's, I mean, got to be really fun for their fan base, right? I mean, this is what it's all about. I mean, free agency is about improving your team. And for them, you know, maybe in six or seven years when they're paying, you know, Corey Seeger and Marcus Semyon, who will then be in their mid-30s, you know, combined $60 million. You know, maybe then this doesn't feel so good, but, but that's a long ways away. And for now, this is.

for now this has got to be an exciting day to be a Texas Rangers fan and more than anything, it's just so refreshing, Derek, to see the headliners. All of the teams making big moves so far have been, relatively speaking, on the smaller market side of things. And that's just so refreshing and so needed for this sport. I mean, I guess, but these are still big cities. They're big cities. Like Phoenix is also a big city, right?

Right. But your market size. Right. Yeah. I mean, as far as baseball goes, I would still consider Phoenix to be a small market team. What does that even mean? Like, I don't even know what that phrase means. I don't know.

Small market means that you have a smaller amount of, I think, people that are attracted to the sport. But I don't know. Like Phoenix is huge. The population is huge. So the potential. It's the fourth largest city and third largest city in the U.S. by population. I think it's it's, it's fourth. It's New York City.

It's Chicago and it's L.A. Yeah. And after that, it's literally Phoenix. Right. So it's not like, it's not a small market in terms of the number of people. But you're right. It's like a small market in its own way where like people don't really care. But by the way, every other city you named is so big it has to have two teams.

Right. Right. Yeah. And then somehow there's Phoenix that, you know, gets, gets 12,000 fans to a lot of their games. But yeah, I guess that's sort of a separate issue. But for the moment, I mean, it's an exciting day in baseball just to see. I mean, the Red Sox, Dodgers and Yankees have spent a combined like 20 million or something so far.

The Dodgers grabbed Andrew Heaney. I think the Red Sox and Yankees have grabbed a couple lower key names. But it's just fun. And I hope it continues. I hope that this trend goes on. and, you know, Carlos Correa picks a smaller market team, too. We'll see what happens. That Robert Raymond Esquire signing with the Mariners is going to be big

because I think that Seattle was already a pretty good team, right? So if they get the Robbie Ray from the Blue Jays, that could be a formidable team. And they're going to have to, that's going to be a fun division to watch because it feels like they're all trying to get better. They're all pushing their chips in, except for the A's who are just like, yeah, we don't really need Bob Melvin anymore and we're going to let Starling Marte walk and Mark Kana walk and the A's are kind of a different story right now. But the angels are trying. I mean, they have Noah Cinderguard now. Yep. So we'll see. Here's where we stand. Texas still at the top

with over a over a half a billion dollars committed. Oh my gosh. This is like the Diamond Vax signing Zach Ranky twice in one day. Yeah. And two days. The New York Mets have committed to $254 million in free agents so far. Toronto, $121 million. Most of that to that Kevin Gousman signing, five years, $110 million. Seattle with $150 million signing of Robbie Ray. Detroit has committed to $77 million in free agents,

and they're trying to spend way more than that. The Astros have committed to $67 million. Miami, $53 million. The Angels, $45 million. St. Louis, 44, and the San Francisco Giants, who won 107 games, 36 million. So they're still active in trying to get better as well. Obviously, they are going to need to with some of their losses, especially Buster Posey, leaving due to free agency.

But that's a lot, or not, I'm sorry, retirement. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money spent. And this is just, I don't know, this is, like we said earlier. This is exciting, but it just, it's a lot. It's a lot. It's like Black Friday. It's a lot of spending all at once, and it seems like it was brought on by the uncertainty of the future, right?

I think that teams don't know how the new collective bargaining agreement is going to impact their ability to sign names like this. So I think some teams just wanted to get out in front of it. I don't think that there's going to be huge changes to the labor deal that are going to impact free agents. but who knows, right? Collective, the collective bargaining agreement can swing in some wild ways. And we know that one of their priorities is, you know, competitive balance. So I don't know how this thing's going to work out,

but I'm not really surprised to see teams going crazy like this. I am surprised to see the teams, you know, like the Rangers that are the ones that are spending the money. Yeah. it's it's really wonderful and i'm i'm curious what you think derrick what do you think it's like today to be a dodger fan and watch max scherz ergo and corey seeker go and be like yeah we're this team that spends almost 300 million year in and year out but we're out here just letting guys walk and i don't know if they're even i don't know if they're going to bring back chris taylor

excuse me either chris taylor is another top target out there for a lot of teams there's not a whole lot of depth in center field which is a position he he he's viably can play. I don't know if the Dodgers are going to want to give him, you know, 60 or 70 million either. Yeah. And some of these teams right now just want to spend, right? I heard that that that's what brought the Marlins up for me earlier and made me think that for some reason they signed Robbie Ray is because the Marlins are, have been in on so many guys. And I think one of the last tweets I saw said the Marlins were in on trying to get in on Chris Brian you know so there there's you know there's a lot of these kind of teams like the marlins

you know i don't know they're not typically the team that goes out and gets those big free agents i think they've tried to let you know their their farm system kind of thing that has worked for them in the past work out and and it really hasn't maybe they feel like their young guys are in that position right now for them to supplement them with you know some top tier talent right i mean I've talked about this before on other shows, but we have these three phases that every team kind of follows now. There are some that circumvent the process like the Dodgers by just outspending everyone else.

And in some cases it works. Obviously, it hasn't worked all the time because the Dodgers still are going to walk away with this whole situation over the last 10 years with only one World Series. when this team has been predicted at most, the start of most of the seasons to be a World Series contender or predicted to be the, you know,

they're pretty much the favorite, like every year. Yeah. So it's got to feel, I don't know, disappointing, even though they won a World Series, you know, just to have the one, I feel like a lot of Dodgers fans, you know, feel like there should have been a dynasty there. There are a lot of Dodgers fans that feel like there should have been with how talented this team was and how they were picked every year to win that there should have at least been like three or four World Series during this time period.

You know, you you had a great farm system. You have owner and management that are willing to spend. and you have this weird mix of luck that we've talked about where they just took certain guys from other teams that weren't even top three agents and somehow turned them into absolute all-stars, you know, or at least they turned into that

during their time with the Dodgers, depending on which way you want to look at it. It's satisfying to be a team in their division and to see this happening, right? It's good to see these teams, all of these teams, all of them, one of them all brought down a peg or two. The Giants are the only one that earned by respect with what they did last season, right?

But I'm happy to see the Padres not be able to spend their way right into, you know, a pennant race with the Dodgers. And I'm happy to see the Dodgers now not be able to keep up with the spending of other teams. It doesn't feel so good, does it? It's not so great, is it, to be on this side of it? I think it's funny. I've been reading some tweets from Dodgers fans today. and the few that I've read,

I kind of get the vibe that they're actually kind of okay with this. You know, they view Corey Seeger as like, I mean, the Rangers, as happy as we are for them, they just gave Corey Seeger 10 years and 325 million. 10 years, 325 million. That's 30, I'm not good at math, Jesse, but that's $32.5 million a year, right?

That's 32 and a half per year. Wow. That's something. else. I think that's what's weird about baseball is I, I could never sign off on committing this. I, I don't know if, if you told me that the Arizona Diamondbacks were in the same position right now as the Rangers. Yeah. I would, I would, I don't know how I would feel about this. If, if the Diamondbacks were the Rangers today, I'd be stoked, but also like kind of horrified. kind of horrified

Horrified doesn't even like How where? How's the money? It's like I don't know When my wife comes up with some kooky scheme And she's like we should just Drop everything we're doing And go on a road trip this weekend And it's like how, where

With what money? And who's going to watch the dogs And where are we going to go? And with your car, do you remember the last time We went up north how it kind of stalled out On the middle of the freeway and we had to like go No, what? We want to fly there? And then what? We have to Uber around everywhere.

No, I see, I can't do stuff like that. And it's the amount of spending. I question that. I would definitely question the commitment to players like this for this long of term. And the impact it's going to have down the road. I would also question if this is going to be enough to get the team like the Rangers over the hump. Like what is this going to do? Is this going to start building a team?

Again, do the Rangers, I'm not familiar with the Rangers farm system and their young players, but do they have a young core of like young SARS in place and they're ready to supplement it with, you know, this next level of, of, you know, top tier talent? I don't know. I don't know. That's the one interesting thing about all of this. But I do think that one thing that all of these deals have done, they've leveled the playing field all over the place, you know. The Toronto Blue Jays, that seemed to be a team. team on the rise have kind of been picked apart by free agency now.

And I question if they are going to be as good next year as they even were this year, which wasn't good enough to make the playoffs. I'm happy to see a team like the Dodgers, obviously, losing players like Max Scherzer, especially. I did not want to see them make him a permanent member of their rotation for the next four years, right? That would have been so hard. Yeah.

not something I wanted to see. The Dodgers rotation is kind of like, it's a little bit decimated now. I mean, Julio Urius and Walker Bueller, I mean, not a bad one-two punch, right?

They're going to be okay. They're going to be a really good team. But after that, their depth is a little shaky. David Price is not really, you know, he's not really the guy that he once was. We all know that.

And beyond that, it's just a little bit, it's just a little bit shaky. Dustin May had Tommy John's surgery. His health is kind of in question. I know they got Andrew Heaney as a free agent, but we talked about him before. The peripheral numbers are nice,

but he's not really a slam dunk starting pitcher either. So there are some question marks for the Dodgers, and they've had just endless pitching depth for years. Like we're just used to the Dodgers having nine or 10 starting pitchers that are better than the Diamondbacks first. you know, the Diamondbacks first two, basically. And then, and then they had like three guys they could call up if they needed to. They could also be very, very good, right?

Yeah. And I'm sure they'll make moves. Like they'll, you know, they'll do some stuff. We obviously, this is not the end for them. But, but so far, I mean, they haven't really done much to, to solidify themselves in the NOS over the Giants. And I kind of feel like it's, there's a decent likelihood that both teams might take a little bit of a step back going into next season.

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And yes, I said heck a little while ago. But best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your cash whenever you want. Don't forget to use our code of PHNX for all new users on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. You will get $100 in free bets if any team scores. And you just

bet $1 or more on that game. Remember, 21 and over only Arizona only gambling problem down $1,800 step new customers only eligibility restrictions apply cdraftkings dot com slash sportsbook for details jesse uh is is the clayton kershaw era in in l.A. over is that i i don't is that time over so i do you how do how do how do dodgers fans feel about that do is he a guy that they still rally behind is he still their guy or has his lack of performance in the playoffs and such kind of worn on them now.

Are they to the point where they're ready to see him go? That's a really good question. I haven't really searched out an answer to that question specifically. I'll have to text some of my Dodger fan friends. Let me ask you this. Would you as a Dodger fan? That's a terrible thought. That's a terrible time.

What does that even mean, Derek? Would you have a baseball fan if you had Clayton Kirshan on your team at this point? I mean, would you want him back after this period of time, you know, being this guy for your team? Or, you know, knowing what he's going to command in free agency, would you prefer your team didn't commit to that kind of financial, you know, I don't know, potential albatross, you know, a guy that's had health issues and also issues ever really showing up in big games and especially in the playoffs. It's a really good question. I personally feel that Clayton Kershaw is just so synonymous with the Dodgers franchise at this point. I mean, he is just such a staple there and, you know, future Hall of Famer, all of that. I have a pretty hard time seeing him leave.

I think the Dodgers clearly have a willingness to be like, you know, hey, we like you, but we're not going to pay you what you're asking, you know, given what they've done today, right? they're clearly willing to do that. But Clayton Kershaw just has so much clout with that fan base and that city that I just don't know if I can see it. And I think there's going to be enough concern about him around the league that I don't think some other team is going to pay Clayton Kershaw 30 million a year. You know, I think I think everyone kind of understands that he's just not quite that guy

anymore. And I feel like he's going to wind up with the Dodgers, especially after losing Matt. or officially, they need starting pitchers. And I don't, I don't know what other direction they're going to go to fill these spots. If they don't, if they don't retain someone. And he kind of makes sense as being that guy. So I like what you're saying. I just don't believe it.

I don't believe. Really? I don't, well, I don't, what I don't believe is I don't believe, like, I think a team like the Dodgers, especially like you said, based on the Corey Seeger move, I think they are very willing to part. ways with guys at this point and spend money in other ways, right? And I think that that's part of it. I also don't think other teams aren't willing to pay Clayton Kirshah an absolute truckload of money. I think that's what it's really going to come down to. I think Clayton Kirshah leaves,

not because the Dodgers don't necessarily want to resign them, but I think because some other team backs the Brinks truck up to his front door the way that we've seen some of the of these other deals. Let's be honest, Robbie Ray was very good last year, right? Very good. Obviously, Sai Young, what the fuck does this even mean? Sye Young Award winner, Robbie Ray, what?

Earned himself with one great outstanding season, a five-year $115 million deal. Now, that's actually compared to some of these other deals, that's not even that much. Yeah, no, it's lower. Like, it's on the lower end of what I expected. So I'm impressed. I mean, I get it too because I don't think Toronto with their spending was going to commit that to him.

So they, you know, good for him to go get maximum value at this point. Who knows, you know, with Robbie Ray's track record, there's. and I hate to say this because this is going to sound like, once again, shitty ex-boyfriend talk, but there's a good chance he's going to be more of what he was, you know, at times during his career than going back to that returning to form from that side young season, right? It's probably somewhere in the middle, right? Yeah. He's probably not going to consistently have a walk rate that is quite that low.

But he clearly made some adjustments this year that made a- Clearly. But I think it's smart of him to get this kind of deal because for someone like him, this is probably going to be it. You know, this is going to be it as far as his big deal. And it's probably the most money that he could have gotten. So. And it's with a contender. Like it's with a team that's not a terrible team that he could be a big piece that helps them turn it around. The mergers, I feel like, I feel like you have. to be, you have to be careful with the, with the C word, with the Mariners.

That was a terrible word. Yeah, I just meant like contend in their division, not contend. They're just, they haven't made the playoffs since 2001, Derek. They haven't made the playoffs in 20 years, which is bizarre, because Jerry DePoto makes eight trades and signs seven free agents every off

season. Yeah. And every year, they basically finished in the exact same spot. Doesn't make any sense. It's a futile effort. They have some issues of their own. We'll, we'll see what happens with the because it's it's not a great division that's the weird part like when you yeah it's the astros and then everyone else archives over at the nvr rockies they have a shirt that says basically n l west participant oh my gosh as a as a participation trophy the orange slice and then it says back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back and it just

keeps going on underneath. Oh my gosh. Wow, that thing sells. That's what a shameful shirt to be. Hey, across your chest. I find it to be hilarious just because as much as I would never want to give

into that negative of a mindset, I get where they're coming from in this division. This is a tough division to be in for us other teams. So what you're saying is that the Mariners situation is even more. all the more shameful because they're kind of a crappy division. Yes, that's what I'm saying. That's exactly what I'm saying. Like there's never some juggernaut coming out of that division.

It's always somebody else. Well, the a mariner. The Astros are kind of a juggernaut. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of this. It's kind of a similar deal where the Astros are generally on a similar level to the Dodgers. It's just that the rest of the division. The division just doesn't have as much depth as the NLS does.

Whatever. Anyway, good luck to them. Good luck. Never winning that division. I get to watch Robbie Ray pitch next spring. So I am excited for that. I just, I love, I love the idea of all of those teams spending all of that money just to still lose to the Astros. It's going to be, it's going to be something.

That's probably fair. We'll see what the Astros do and free agency. Jesse, I just want to remind everybody that you have been writing. even though you've been traveling, you have been riding your ass off. And I need to applaud your efforts because I know how late you got in last night and how you got up. I almost miss my flight. Man. To all the Phoenicians out there, Thanksgiving, like Sunday Thanksgiving weekend is horrible.

It's a nightmare. I literally was. Sky Harbor Airport. Yeah, I was waiting at Sky Harbor for about probably 40 minutes just sitting in the car, waiting to pull up to the terminal. It was insanity. But anyway, I digress. No, I appreciate your tale on your journey.

And I appreciate that you were here. I wish we would have had a chance to see each other. I know you were here to see family and you had a lot going on. I had a lot going on. I was really enjoying the Thanksgiving break too. I have honestly been putting a lot into this show and into PHNX. And it was nice just to take some time off. for the family and not do much else other than watch some cartoons.

We went and saw in Canto in the theater, which I encourage everybody to do because that's a wonderful film. And I'm still singing the songs from it as we speak. I will say this, though, go check out Jesse's writing since he worked so hard on it. And he did so much while he was traveling and doing all this stuff over at go p.nx.com. I know this is coming out on Tuesday. So I'm not going to I'm not going to rub in your face if you're listening to this now, how you missed out on the deal. Instead, I'm going to hope that while you were hanging out, having your Thanksgiving weekend with your family, that you got a chance to get in on the great PHNX deal we had over for a membership deal.

Go PHNX. Got yourself an annual membership. You got a code for $60 to the PHNX locker. Then they had a bunch of T-shirts on up to 50% off over there. Jesse, and I bought 17 shirts. I bought 17 shirts. Everybody's getting a shirt. Everybody I know, every family member is getting a shirt.

But I hope you guys became a member. If you missed out on it, I'm sorry. But, you know, hey, come be a member anyway. Maybe you give a membership away this holiday season. You can become a member over at Go PHNX. You can become an annual member and you'll get that free t-shirt still over at PHNLocker.com, regardless of if this is after the holiday. or you'll get your month to month with your first month being 50 cents.

So please do that. Join us on the members-only Discord. Get those members-only sales when they pop up. And yeah, I hope you got in on those sales at the PHNX Locker.com. Jesse, I love our shirts. I love them. It's what my entire wardrobe pretty much consists of now. That and baseball shirts like this high stinky cheddar cheese shirt I'm wearing right now.

But I wanted to ask you before we can. go, are you at all either disappointed or surprised that we haven't seen any moves by the Arizona Diamondbacks with all of this free agency frenzy going on? I'm not necessarily convinced that we won't, actually. Between now and, I mean, we still have between now and December 1st, which, I mean, you're probably listening to this on a Tuesday. So, I mean, we have until the end of Wednesday. We have this entire day.

We have this entire day and we have all tomorrow. Right, exactly. So I'm not convinced that the diamondbacks won't make any moves. As I tweeted out earlier on Monday, I heard the diamond backs, some of their front office people, I think it was Amiel Saaday, who said that he wants to get the diamond backs into the market a little bit sooner this year. Ideally, obviously they're not trying to force anything, I don't think. But ideally, I think they want in on the market a little bit sooner than they have. in the past when they're bringing in, you know, Joachim Soria as pitchers and catchers have already reported, right? Like that's not the ideal outcome. And especially with how much unknown there is this season going into spring training and everything with the CBA negotiations, I think there's added incentive to avoid that.

So we heard earlier today here on Monday, Zach Buchanan tweeted out a few names that the Diamondbacks have shown interest in. Kirby Yates, obviously, we've already said he's, He's gone now at the Atlanta Braves. But Hunter Strickland, Willie Peralta was also brought up in that conversation. So those are a couple guys to keep an eye out on. Brian Shaw was also mentioned there. Those were the three names that Zach Buchanan mentioned.

So it could be one of those guys. It could be, I'm guessing it's probably going to be a bullpen arm. But we'll see. Certainly anything could happen, but I would not be surprised at all if the Diamondbacks get in on the action here. And speaking of bullpen arms, that's the exact topic of Jesse's article on go PHNX.com. So again, go become a member. Check that out.

I am not surprised at all and I am not concerned. I'm actually, I'm actually delightfully pleased. And I know that sounds weird. Why are you, why are you delightful? That's odd. It is.

It is. It's because at times this team, this organization, any sports team, they have to lie to us like they lie to anybody else, right? They're in a big press conference with all that stuff, with all these people. They have to say these things. And sometimes opportunities come up that make them look like they were either withholding the truth before or, you know, kind of hypocritical based on what they said earlier as to what their actions eventually were. The Arizona Diamondbacks have not deviated from the plan that Mike Hazen said they were. were going to follow, right?

He was very adamant that they were not going to look to external candidates to fill positional needs. That doesn't mean that they're not going to, they're not going to stray, they're not going to feel the waters, they're not going to see if they could get a guy or whatever, right? But for the most part, they're not offering someone like Corey Seeger, $325 million in a 10-year contract. And I don't want to see them making those kind of moves.

at this point. I can just sense, I can just sense listeners just throwing flames of hatred at you right now, Derek. No, I'm rejoicing that the Diamondbacks are sitting out to free agency while all of the other small market teams are catching all of the headlines. We talked about this, though. The direction that they're following is the direction that they said they were going to go. What I'm more, what I'm pleased about is that they're, again, this goes, this goes back to my. years of Black Friday shopping experience, Jesse. You get caught up in it.

Next thing you know, you're out in the parking lot and you're filling your trunk with a Tupperware set that was on sale that you didn't really need and picture frames that you thought everybody in your family would love. And now you realize what a terrible, terrible gift that is. You just, you get caught up in the buying and you, you're making offers to guys. you miss out on one guy. So now you have like this money set aside that you're going to spend on these three guys. So now you're throwing more money at this guy because you guys missed out on this guy and you have the ability to spend a little more than you were going to.

There's a lot of that that goes on with baseball teams when we talk about the free agency market. Right. But the bigger problem is you have as you talked about at the beginning of this show, this weird time frame now that's causing people to act kind of crazy, right? Black Friday is a ridiculous idea, by the way. Making me spend all my money on one day. I have to choose on which deals I buy, Jesse. If they would just stretch this out to like the black shopping month of December, it would be so much easier on me.

I could get two, maybe three paychecks in to get over here and buy some of this stuff. But when you put it all on one day, it makes me have to choose, right? And it makes me not like, I get panicky. I don't know which one's the best choice. I don't know if some other deal is going to come along down the road. I'm going to be pissed that I committed this much money to Corey Seeger for 10 years. I don't know if those things are going to happen when I'm shopping at Walmart on Friday at like 5 o'clock in the morning. I make bad decisions, and I think teams are doing that exact thing.

I think that they are trying to get in before this deadline. I think they're trying to make some big splashes in free agency. I think they're trying to get their fans excited during the. offseason and kind of get get their fans excited before we go into this extended period of no baseball and fans kind of being pissed at both owners and players for you know being these selfish billionaires in the eyes of so many blue-collar people right so i i get the motivation behind wanting to make an impact now before we get to this lockout i'm just not said like like we said about the ranges. I'm not sure of all this spending is going in the right direction. I'm not sure

of all this spending is going to necessarily lead to these teams having the success that, I don't know, a team like the Astros, let's say, has had, right? Because even though the Astros only had, you know, like haven't hit, you know, won the World Series every time they went, their continued success, I would say, is worth whatever money they've spent on free agency over the past, you know, five to seven years because they... Which isn't really much. I mean, the Astros have lived for the most part on, you know, your Dono Alvarez and Corey and Carlos Correa.

Yeah. And they're young players that they brought up through their system that became superstars while on the team. And again, they're not, they're not breaking their budget to resign them because they're trying to continue down a path of creating the next generation of, of, of, of stars for their for their franchise i want the diamondbacks to do that and i don't want them to get all reactionary and start you know throwing money around that they don't really have to spend right there are still going to be free agents after a new labor deal is is signed and and we're back to

baseball so it's not like this is their only chance to sign guys it's just the time where for some reason crazy money is being thrown around and teams are trying to do their best to and i i think players want to get signed too before this whole thing should yeah right they they want yeah they want that piece of mind to know that they're signed with a team and don't have to still figure that out after the labor deal is is done it might be an equally chaotic scramble you know come february uh when hopefully the lockdown ends i mean maybe we maybe it ends before then we'll see um but if if it does end in you know early mid-february as a lot of people have predicted we might see round two of this then i mean there's going to be some guys who don't sign

between now and wednesday and uh and it might be it might be a crazy week or two leading up to when pitchers and catchers report uh come february so we'll we'll have to see what happens but derrick i have to you're such a realist today i don't know i don't know what happened to you today but you're just so you're just so logical and and i don't i don't know i don't know what's happening here it's the mustache jessy it's the mustache i got i'm older now i'm more refined more refined okay all right well well it makes sense yeah no it doesn't don't see i appreciate you but don't placate to the mustache the mustache wants you to believe that but see it's taking over my life anyway you guys can follow us on social media of course you're going to see more

of this mustache on our live show. And I've, yeah, come, come to the live show just to see Eric's ridiculous mustache. It's terrible. I'm cosplaying as Shane Defenbach is what I'm doing.

But we thank you guys for checking out the show. You can get me on Twitter at Shane Defenbach. No, I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. This show is at P.HNX underscore Dbacks. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports.

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And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you spend half a billion dollars in free agency.