PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is the price tag too high for Sean Murphy? More from MLB's Winter Meetings

Starting point is 00:00:07 and welcome in listeners only to the All Audio Friday edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of ASMR. Also joining us still in San Diego, I didn't do a good job of that. Still in San Diego is the one and only, Jesse Friedman. Are you coming back to us, Jesse? You know, I might. I might come back to you. Wow.

Starting point is 00:00:34 It sounds like with Sean and Jacob both hopping on several shows this week, I'm kind of wondering how much I'm really needed. I am wondering that too. I'm also enjoying Southern California and looking at the ocean and whatnot. So, you know, find me an ocean and I'll come back to Arizona. We'll leave it at that. Opening day isn't that far away. Just stay out there and go to the Dodgers versus the debacks once that happens. and then you can keep covering baseball out there.

Starting point is 00:01:04 So if you like it so much, I suppose, this show is brought to you, whether Jesse is here or not by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top rated sportsbook app. Jesse, the Diamondbacks still stay plugged in to some rumors, to some guys that are free agents out there. It's kind of, it's going down on tiers a little bit,

Starting point is 00:01:28 like it was kind of some tier A, tier S, if you will, talent. And now we're taking a look at maybe Evan Longoria once again or maybe Justin Turner to the Arizona Diamondbacks. What are your thoughts on either of those guys joining the organization?

Starting point is 00:01:45 Well, first of all, they're old. Justin Turner is 38. Facts, right? There's no getting around that. Justin Turner's 38. Evan Longoria is 37. And for Longoria, it kind of sounds like based on what he said in the past, that this is maybe kind of a ride into the sunset sort of

Starting point is 00:02:05 a year for him where he's looking to come back for one more season, you know, with potentially, originally it was just the Giants Raised in Diamondbacks. Now it seems like there are other teams interested. He has voiced at some point that he would like to go to a contending team. So I don't know exactly whether he puts the Diamondbacks in that category, but the fact that, you know, he's lived in Scottsdale or at least had a home in Scottsdale for a number of years. might make him more likely to come to Arizona regardless. But yeah, I know a lot of people with Justin Turner just kind of seeing the discourse around

Starting point is 00:02:40 Twitter and how Diamondbacks fans are feeling about this. It seems like the fact that he's sort of been a staple of the Los Angeles Dodgers for nine years. Like I do sense that Diamondbacks fans are pretty on edge about that, taking a guy who, not just that he played for the Dodgers for a couple of years. Like, no, he is. Like when you think of the Los Angeles Dodgers, I think Justin Turner is one of the first names.

Starting point is 00:03:08 Not the first name. Probably Clayton Kershaw would be that. But one of the first names that you think of when you think of the Dodgers and all the success that they've had over the last number of years. So yeah, he's still good. I mean, that's the thing, right? At age 377 this past year, he had 278, 350 on base, 438 sucking percentage.

Starting point is 00:03:29 According to fan graphs, he was about a two and a half war player. He played 128 games. He's still good. And the fact that he's 38 years old, I understand there's some hesitation there, but this guy is aged about as well as you could possibly imagine. And I don't think there's necessarily any reason to think that if he came to the diamond backs next year, you know, he would suddenly just drop off a cliff. He really hasn't shown any signs of doing that so far.

Starting point is 00:03:53 I'm going to give you one more reason why he would be a good fit with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Jesse, you ready to hear his career numbers at Chase Field? Oh. In 70 games, he has a 311 batting average. The slashing 311, 385, 530 with a 915 OPS, 10 home runs, and 44 RBI. Wow. There you go. Not a bad, not a bad, I'd say less than a half of a season in his career at Chase Field.

Starting point is 00:04:25 So I'm okay with that guy coming here and putting up those numbers. In fact, outside of Coors Field and a couple of other stadiums that he doesn't really play at quite often like progressive field against Cleveland and a couple of other parks that he's maybe played a handful of games at. He has one of his best batting averages against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. So not a bad thing to have that man, that menace, that redheaded menace, gritty, aka gritty, running around our baseball field. Of course, Howler took exception today to my meme that I put out, where it was gritty in a Diamondbacks uniform, and I have no apologies to Howler. I'm sorry.

Starting point is 00:05:10 I actually just find it fascinating that the Diamondbacks still are linked to some of the names that they're linked to, including, obviously, I mean, I don't even think that they actually have to be talking about him or to him or be in negotiations with him in any way. But Dan Zb Swanson's name keeps coming up for the Arizona Diamondbacks. It almost feels like, oh, because they missed out on Zander Bogarts, now they're going to go after the next highest price shortstop available on the market, which I don't foresee happening, Jesse. No, I don't either. Are you talking about the video, the All-City video that we recorded the other day about

Starting point is 00:05:50 this? No, not just that. Not just that. I mean, there are multiple. I've seen his name linked multiple, like the Diamondbacks might be interested. And again, there's no, there's no concrete evidence to this. It kind of is like the Xander Bogart's thing. Yeah, it's like if you were interested in Zander Bogart's and he's gone,

Starting point is 00:06:09 like maybe you would also be interested in Danes B's Swanson. Yeah, that's what we talked about. A guy that was formerly in your organization and a guy that, of course, it would be great to have him come back. I just don't know if people would be thrilled. for the Diamondbacks to have to now pay Swanson what they're going to have to pay him in order to acquire his services in order to have them be part of this team. Yeah, I was listening to the Athletic Baseball show last night, and I thought, you know, Saris made a great point regarding Swanson in particular. Because of how much the market has been driven up and it has been driven up just an insane amount, especially with the Xander Bogart's deal.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Danes v. Swanson is a point where he's going to get $200 million at least. He absolutely is. I just don't see a scenario where Dansby Swanson doesn't get that, given how many teams are still interested in a shortstop. And the problem with that is that Dansby Swanson, historically, if you look at his career as a whole, he has not been that good of a player, if I'm just being totally honest. He was great this past year. I don't want to take anything away from that. But if you look at the years before that, Dansby Swanson doesn't have Zander Bogart's track record. He doesn't have Carlos Correa's track record.

Starting point is 00:07:21 He doesn't have Trey Turner's track record. He has this past year, which was great, and flashes of brilliance before that. And you need to be really, really careful about giving a guy like that $200 plus million dollars because the point that Eno made was that that kind of mid tier of the free agent market tends to be where the worst moves happen, right? Like you go get Eric Hosmer, for example, what the Padres did, right? Good player, like solid player. But the problem is as he ages, you eventually get to the point where that slightly above average player is actually well below average and is no longer really playable.

Starting point is 00:08:00 Whereas a guy like Carlos Correa or Aaron Judge or potentially even Zander Bogarts, you know, you get five, six, seven years down the road. They're probably not going to be the same player they were, but they're probably still going to be useful. Whereas with a guy like Danes B. Swanson, I know he's younger and I know there still might be some untapped potential there. but you're taking a big risk because there just isn't the same track record of performance here as there is with some of those other guys. Jesse, you have a piece up at go-PhNX.com that you wrote with our friend Ryan Herrera from the CHGO side of things. And did you want to talk a little bit more about a return to normalcy within the MLB community?

Starting point is 00:08:43 Yeah, I have to give Ryan Herrera the bulk of the credit on this one. And, you know, the headline, the byline technically says Ryan Herrera and Jesse Friedman, but we're talking about 97% Ryan Herrera and about 3% me. So I want to make that abundantly clear. But yeah, we basically, me, Ryan and Patrick, Ryan Herrera from CHGO, Patrick Lyons, from DNBR. We were all out at the winter meetings together this past week. And we all were kind of collecting quotes about, you know, what is it like being back at the winter meetings? We haven't had an in-person winter meeting since 2019.

Starting point is 00:09:18 It was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic. And then in 2021, I guess it wasn't canceled. I think it was just held virtually, which effectively, I mean, for all intents and purposes, really sort of means it was canceled. And then last year, we had the lockout. And so there was no winter meetings then as well. So, so yeah, it was just interesting kind of hearing what different, you know, other members of the media and what some of the front office executives around the game had to say about

Starting point is 00:09:44 being back together. And yeah, the overall consensus is like winter meetings is great. It's sort of like a celebration of baseball is how some of them described it. And that was definitely the vibe that I got being there. Although Mike Hazen did joke, which I think I might have mentioned on the show the other day, that like, even though we are here in person, we're still like, you know, we're still texting and calling each other on the phone. We're not necessarily actually taking advantage of the in person factor. In person factor there. Yeah, yeah. But you did say that, you know, it's still good to catch up with people in the industry that you don't see much.

Starting point is 00:10:18 And I'm sure there was still some of that face-to-face time. Well, make sure to check out that article over at go-PhNX.com. And if you haven't done so already, grab yourself a D-BACs die-hard membership. I'm not calling it a P-NX die-Hard membership. This is a D-BACs die-Hard membership over at P-NX. Not only will you get your free merch from the P-NX Locker.com every single year as a die-hard member. you get wonderful discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com, 20% off. Members only exclusive merchandise.

Starting point is 00:10:46 And also you'll get discounts coming up soon at a lot of our partners as well. So that's going to cross over. And you're going to have an opportunity to get yourself some discounts outside of PHNX as well. We got our diehards only Discord lounge as well as our events, private events for Discord members only. And of course, Jesse's wonderful articles, some of which are for diehards only. diehard only newsletter is something that you can only get as a diehard member.

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Starting point is 00:11:33 We always love the feedback. And Jesse, things are heating up in the free agency market. I guess here's what I will say is the free agency market and the direction that the value of certain players has gone really is benefiting the Arizona Diamondbacks. And the reason why I say that is because the last, I guess, big name center fielder that was available in free agency is now off the board. Brandon Nimo re-signs with the New York Mets, eight years, $162 million contract. So much money being given around the league to some. of these players so many years on these contracts as well. I will say that considering that the Diamondbacks have a surplus of not just outfielders, but centerfielders, and they are kind of

Starting point is 00:12:21 scarce in baseball. All of this does bode well for their potential trade candidates, for potential trades to come up. One thing John Heyman said is one ramification of the free agent frenzy. The trade market is dead, at least for today. Teams obviously would rather spend. money, then give up players. Good sign for the health of baseball, but again, also a good sign for the Diamondbacks that there aren't a lot of trades going on because I feel like if they do decide to trade one of their young outfielders specifically, they're going to get a lot in value back for them. Nick Picoro of the Arizona Republic reported yesterday that as many as 10 teams, so about a third of the league has reached out to the Diamondbacks about their outfielders. And a couple of them, I think,

Starting point is 00:13:08 might have reached out pretty recently, like just within the last couple of days. So, yeah, I agree. I think there is really a window of opportunity here for the Diamondbacks. And we've said it a number of times on this podcast. If you need a center fielder, like a starting caliber center fielder, if you don't get Brandon Nimmo, you're sort of in trouble. Like, there's not many other options out there. At this point, you're sort of left to the trade market.

Starting point is 00:13:33 I mean, unless you believe that, you know, a Kevin Kiermeyer, you know, is a starting level center fielder, which most teams probably don't. And so, yeah, the Diamondbacks, I think, have what a lot of teams are looking for, and they're in a good position now. I think it's reasonable to say that some of those trade discussions might escalate a little bit now that Nimmo is officially off the market. One player that the Diamondbacks have been linked to that we've discussed is Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy. Yeah. And something that was interesting that came out was that the St. Louis Cardinals were apparently in contact with the Oakland A's about a trade for Murphy. And according to Derek Gould of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the athletics sought a return of outfielder Lars Knutbar,

Starting point is 00:14:25 gold glove winner Brandon Donovan, and a power young pitcher like Gordon Grecepho in exchange for Murphy, and three years of control, according to a source with knowledge of the talks. That seems like just an absurd ask for a player. And don't get me wrong, I tip my cap to the Oakland A's who really aren't in a position where they need to trade Murphy, right? So you might as well ask for the world. I feel like it's a position similar to the Arizona Diamondbacks

Starting point is 00:14:57 who don't need to trade any of their young outfielders so they can also ask for the world from another team that potentially wants to engage in trade negotiations. Yeah, I had some fun the other day and through that that trade into, I think it's baseball trade values.com. It's like the equivalent of the NBA trade machine, but for baseball, I feel like the NBA ones is sort of everyone knows about if you're, if you're an NBA fan. But, but yeah, the trade was not close. It was incredibly lopsided. I think if it had been, if it had been one of Brandon Donovan or a Lars Newbar, in addition,

Starting point is 00:15:37 to Gricefo, the young power arm, I think that, according to the trade machine, would have been pretty even. But instead, the A's are asking for both Newpar and Donovan in that deal. So, yeah, I mean, for the Diamondbacks, this would be sort of the equivalent of, like, Alec Thomas. I don't think I'd go so far as to say Alec Thomas plus Jake McCarthy plus a minor leaguer, but it's not that far away.

Starting point is 00:16:05 I mean, Lars Newbar and Brennan Donovan are already established major leaguers, you know, who both were worth about two to three war last year, which is about what Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy are projected for moving forward. So honestly, the more I talk about it, it is sort of like asking the diamondbacks for both Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy, plus potentially one more, you know, lower level pitching prospect or something like that. And there's no question the diamondbacks would scoff at that. there's no way they would possibly consider a deal of that magnitude. When you look at some of the big free agency moves that were made, I feel like the Wilson-Contreras deal is going to be one of the best moves that was made this off-season. I say that for a number of reasons, but when you look at the deal, five years, $87.5 million for Wilson-Contreras, that seems cheap now by comparison to some of these deals

Starting point is 00:16:57 that we've seen given to short stops and outfielders. I know Contreras is older, but he's still. still just such a quality catcher. He brings such a different dynamic to your team. Not to mention that the St. Louis Cardinals stole him away from the Chicago Cubs, which has to just add such an additional level of pain to this for Cubs fans that I can't even describe. You know, like, I can't even there's not a player that I can compare Wilson Contreras to other than like if Paul Goldschmidt would have been picked up by the Dodgers. Like that's the only. That's the only, other thing I can kind of compare.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Well, I'm just saying, Gutreras going to the St. Louis Cardinals is on that similar level when you talk about fan bases that the Cubs don't like and players that their fan base truly loved Wilson Contreras was it, man. I mean, the Cubs

Starting point is 00:17:50 fans have lost a lot over the last seven years. So, I mean, I think they're used to see in their favorites go away now, but this still has to hurt. I was talking about this with Ryan Herrera of of CHU. I mean, he covers the Cubs full time, right?

Starting point is 00:18:06 I was like, is this, is this as bad as I feel like it would be like one of your big name players going to your biggest rival on the planet? And he basically said, yeah, like this is sort of a nightmare. This is sort of a nightmare outcome for Cubs fans. It is interesting that it sounds like the Cubs just didn't really, like Contreras wanted to come back to the Cubs, but the Cubs didn't want Contreras to come back, essentially, is sort of my understanding of the situation. That's wild.

Starting point is 00:18:35 But yeah, I also felt the same way. Like, like, we're going to give Zander Bogart's 11 and 280 million, but Wilson Contreras, who's, like, his offensive numbers, just in terms of the hitter that Wilson Contreras is, almost identical to Zander Bogart's in a lot of ways in terms of like his OPS, his OPS plus. Right. Very similar offensively to Zander Bogart's. I guess Wilson Contreras, I mean, they're almost exactly the same age, too. Wilson Contreras is 30 years old, maybe a little bit older, but very, very close to Bogart's. It is pretty wild that Contreras gets 87.5 million over five years. Bogartz gets 280 million over 11 years.

Starting point is 00:19:15 But I think the big factor there is that teams have doubts about Wilson Contreras' his ability to catch. I don't think teams are really high on him defensively. Apparently, the Astros sort of tried in their negotiations. They were also one of the teams that were interested. they basically said like, hey, we're interested in having conturers play left field and DH for us. But you probably is an attempt to kind of drive down the price and say, hey, we don't really

Starting point is 00:19:41 believe in this guy's ability to catch. But by all indications, I think he is going to catch in St. Louis. They seem to have enough faith in him to be able to do that. But heck, even if he doesn't, just getting that quality of a bat, you know, at that price, it seems to be a pretty darn good move for St. Louis. Jesse, did you get me anything for Christmas yet? Are you bringing me anything home from San Diego as a present? I don't do my Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.

Starting point is 00:20:09 You told me to us. You're a psychopath. That's absolutely right. I don't even understand how people like you do it. But of course, there's plenty of time for you to still get me something. And you can stop by four peaks, no matter how late it is that you have to do it. And grab me one of those limited supply December Advent calendar box. I know we're behind a bit.

Starting point is 00:20:29 It just means that I have to drink 910 beers right now out of the box. For $55, you can enjoy specialty beers, tall boys, and more. Get it for your loved one, but realistically, just get it for yourself. Purchase at their 8th Street Pub and Tempe. And make sure to check out all of the World Cup games down there. There's no place better to watch the World Cup games. And also, they have wonderful beers. And if you can't get down there to the 8th Street Pub to try them out,

Starting point is 00:20:53 make sure to grab some of their Four Peaks Brewing Company beers at your local grocery store or wherever you get your beers and enjoy responsibly, 21 and over only on that. And also, Jesse, I'm so excited. We had such a fun time the other day,

Starting point is 00:21:08 or not the other day, but the couple of times we've gone out to Octane Raceway and Mavericks. It is such a blast. And of course, it is the only full-time, indoor, outdoor track in the United States. I didn't even know that until they told us that.

Starting point is 00:21:26 And the food is incredible. I couldn't stop talking about the burger I had there to you and everybody that would listen. I mean, like, look, I'm not going to knock. This place is incredible. It's an incredible facility. Video games, bowling so much. Everything you want to do. It's a great place for birthday parties to go hang out with your friends,

Starting point is 00:21:45 pretty much for any event where you want to have a good time. But like, I don't know. I guess I don't expect a lot from like a bowling alley or, you know, a raceway, a go-kart track to provide on an elite level of food. And I'm not, I'm not, this is not hyperbole when I say this, because Jesse can attest to this. I've said this around him at least five times. It was one of the best burgers I've ever had. Like, it was such an incredibly good burger. So make sure we check out that the, the sweet potato fries were on point. Yes. Yeah. Definitely. So not, not just a great time,

Starting point is 00:22:22 but also great food. So make sure to check out Mavericks, 22 bowling lades, 85 arcade games, a state-of-the-art laser tag arena, billboard tables, dozens of 4K televisions, so much more.

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Starting point is 00:22:45 get 50% off signature bowling before noon. So make sure to go out. Say hello from your friends at PHNX and have yourself a good time. We are so excited to welcome Octane Raceway and Mavericks to the PHNX family. You've seen us having fun out there. Now come check it out for yourself. And honestly, again, this is, I got to, I got to tip my cap to the fact that we

Starting point is 00:23:05 continue to work with some amazing partners. And we're spoiled because we get to go hang out at wonderful places like Octane Raceway and Mavericks and claim that we are quote, unquote, working. Ha! Ha! It's the best, but so much fun we've been having. and you guys got to check it out for yourself. But speaking of fun, this guy over here, I know his fun has come to an end.

Starting point is 00:23:28 I know he's coming back to Phoenix eventually, but Jesse had some fun adventures at the winter meetings. And like you said earlier, a lot of this is because these things haven't been going on. You know, it is part of the baseball world that's missed. And even though people don't actually speak in person anymore, they don't go knock on a door and have a conversation and a cup of coffee, it's still great to have everybody back together.

Starting point is 00:23:54 And I'm interested to hear about some of the fun you had with those scamps from DNVR and CHGO out there at the winter meetings. Yeah, it was, I felt like I was back in college or something. You know, we're staying at this Airbnb. It's the three of us. And, you know, we're staying up until, you know, two in the morning pretty much every night. And, you know, we have all this writing. to do, you know, that we're trying to like get done for the following morning, but we're like, what's really the difference between starting this at 11 p.m.

Starting point is 00:24:26 and starting this at 2 a.m., you know, we're going to be out, we're going to be out basically the whole night anyway. So lots of, lots of just fun late night shenanigans just getting to hang out and enjoy ourselves at the Airbnb. But yeah, I will say that Ryan Herrera managed to bump his knee on like four different things on one day, I'm pretty sure. I don't want to, I don't want to say that Ryan Herrera is clumsy because I'm one of the clumsy people I know.

Starting point is 00:25:00 But it was fun. It was like the rest of the time he was fine. But he just like bumped. I think he was like into the bathtub or something. Like the like we just hear this like screech in the bathroom and Ryan Herrera is just like pounded his knee into the like bathtub apparently. But yeah, no, it was it was fantastic. I mean, the winter meetings itself is just like, like I said before,

Starting point is 00:25:23 it's like the celebration of baseball where everyone there is a baseball nut and everyone wants to talk about baseball. And I feel like I haven't thought about anything but baseball in five days, which is really about the best thing ever. So, yeah, I mean, it's hard to ask for more than, you know, talking about baseball at all hours of the day, plus being in San Diego, you know, at this Bayfront Hotel. It was a really amazing experience.

Starting point is 00:25:48 Jesse died and went to heaven. basically is I did. I did. And that's why I'm still a little hesitant about coming back to Phoenix. I get it. I get it. Money's going to run out eventually, though. I hate to tell you that. And your little Jeff Passen, Ken Rosenthal, Angels that you see in your dream, they're not a real thing. But you did get to spend some time around the real versions of those guys. And I know that you have actually a pretty interesting piece coming up based on some conversations you had at the winter meetings. I don't want to give it away just yet. But yeah, I am working on a. story, a written story that I think will be really fun. Not for release this week. It'll, it'll take a little while. There are a few more things that I need. But yeah, I spoke with Jason

Starting point is 00:26:29 Stark, right? Hall of Fame baseball writer writes for the athletic, one of the best baseball writers in the country on the planet, really. And then, yeah, I spoke with Ken Rosenthal. I have some quotes from Ken Rosenthal that you'll definitely see in this piece. I did speak with Jeff pass in, although I had to wait for about an hour and a half, I'm pretty sure it was. And He's a popular dude. He's a popular dude. He is a popular dude. And not only that, but he's got all of his ESPN compadres.

Starting point is 00:26:59 There's like six of them there. They're all chatting it up for a while. But I was patient and eventually I was able to have a conversation with him. Funny story, I actually interviewed Jeff Passon on my podcast when I was like 16 years old or something like that. And yeah, I mean, of course he didn't remember. Jeff Passes done. He's done more than a few interviews. I was going to say, especially with 16 year old baseball writers. I'm sure he gets those all the time, Jesse. Yeah, yeah. But it was funny. Just getting to approach it and be like, hey, you were on my show.

Starting point is 00:27:34 Like back in, you know, back in his Yahoo Sports Days, he was still one of the bigger baseball writers, but he wasn't nearly to the level that he is now where he's basically the most respected baseball journalist, one of the most respected baseball journalists in the country at this point. But yeah, he was great. He'll also come for your head if you try to, if you try to attack him or undermine him in any way. So like, that's the other thing. True. Is Jeff Passon isn't John Heyman. And that's no knock to John Heyman.

Starting point is 00:28:01 But John Heyman, uh, he takes, he takes his lumps when it comes to Twitter. You don't want to mess with Jeff, Jeff Passon when it comes to Twitter. That's for sure. The thing I have going for me is that I'm not short. And I feel like most of, most of Jeff Passon's like insulting comments on Twitter are, are with regard to people who are, shorter. He likes to get a talking Jake in particular a very hard time about his height. So I feel like I'm a little bit insulated from some of those things, given that I'm about 6'1. And I'm also taller

Starting point is 00:28:29 than Jeff Passon. So he really has no outlet of possibly making short jokes about me. You could nail him with one is what I'm thinking. I could. I could. I don't know if I don't know if we're quite at the level where I'm going to be, you know, thrusting insults his way just yet. But, but we'll, We'll see. We'll see how the, how the relationship develops over time. Who drew the biggest crowd? Was it Scott Boris or Jeff Passon? Um, well, I mean, I mean, it's different, right? Like, Scott Boris is, is a media target, like, all the media. I mean, they all descend upon him. Whereas Jeff Passon is just, you know, he's one of the members of the media. There's not like 80 people like surrounding him with like, you know, trying to, yeah, trying to get their microphone as close to it. Like, no, he's, he's, he's, like, he's, like, he's, like, he's. popular but just because people want to say hi and whatnot. Was Scott Boris, was Scott Boris the biggest scrum that they had?

Starting point is 00:29:26 Scott Boris, I don't, I don't understand why they refuse to put Scott Boris in a press conference room with a microphone where we can all just sit down and all get good audio and actually hear what he's saying. I spent about 20 minutes, as I think I described on the show the other day, like, holding my arm out there as far as I possibly could, trying to get my, my phone recorder as close to him as possible. And when all was said and done, Derek, we played this audio back and you, you can pick out occasional words, but you can't really tell what the man is saying. Is it, is it because he doesn't work for baseball? I mean, is that, do you think that's the reason

Starting point is 00:30:11 why? Because it's an actual MLB event and he's not an MLB employee in any way. Yeah, that probably has something to do with it. I mean, he's an agent. And like, you know, the winter meetings is an event for everyone. There's agents everywhere. But it's not like, like not in an official sense necessarily. Like the agents are there, but the event is not trying to like highlight the, it's not like we have a press conference with all the agents or anything. So it's like when Scott Boris was here with Drew Jones, he went and sat up on the, you know, at the, at the press conference table with Drew Jones.

Starting point is 00:30:46 And that was a bit of a surprise to me because that's the first time I think I've ever seen that at Chase Field, to be honest. I don't know in the past. Maybe I've seen, you know, I've seen Derek Hall down there. I've seen members of the front office, Mike Hazen. I've seen people like that sitting next to a young player or a new free agent acquisition or a trade acquisition. But I don't think I've ever seen an agent sit next to the player the way that I saw Boris do with Drew Jones at that that conference. And like you said, they gave him a microphone so that we could just all ask him questions as well as Jones. And it worked out nicely, right? It wasn't,

Starting point is 00:31:26 weird, but it definitely was unique. It's something that I haven't come across before. He's a very powerful person when it comes to baseball. And I do think that there is something to be said about you know, making that media availability just for just for logistics purpose, just so that he doesn't all of a sudden take over a big hallway like that or big, you know, area of the, of the meetings like he did because the, the screenshots and pictures and stuff were kind of crazy about how many people wanted to get in on it. But it, honestly, he's one of the few guys that almost everybody that covers every team has questions for him because he most likely has a player that he

Starting point is 00:32:08 represents on your team. Right, right. That was the, I mean, that was the reason there were so many people there is because, you know, during this time where everyone's trying to figure out what free agents are going where, chances are, no matter what team you are, you have, there's some player that your team is potentially interested in that has Scott Boris as his agent. So, yeah, I guess it just sort of comes with territory. But, I mean, you think about, like, how much power Scott Boris has in the game. Like, I don't, I'm not that well versed in agents in other sports, but I'm not aware of another agent in any sport who has as much sway and as much power and as many big name clients as this

Starting point is 00:32:47 man has. And you think about the fact that Scott Boris, I believe, at least like the baseline commission for agents is around 5%. So imagine being Scott Boris making 5% of Xander Bogart's contract, of, you know, Stephen Strasbourg's contract that he signed a while back of Carlos Correa's contract, whatever that winds up being. The list goes on and on and on and on. And he gets 5% of all of them. But he's good at what he does. And there's a reason that there's that much demand to have him as your agent.

Starting point is 00:33:24 You're not wrong. There's a reason why we're sitting here scratching our head about what he got versus what other guys got, right? Or what his players got. So I just, I need you to get home. It sounds like you're having too much fun there. We're having fun here. So we have a party coming up.

Starting point is 00:33:39 It's our first inaugural tea party, Jesse. That's a fun play on words. But it really is a blast. It's a fun event. We're going to be having a Sun's watch party, Sons versus the Timberwolves with the P.HNX, Suns crew. Not only that, but you're going to have some discounts for diehard members,

Starting point is 00:34:00 for foursums if they want to play some golf. Unlimited range balls, rental clubs included. We're going to have that jumbos screen showing the Suns versus the Timberwolves. As Saul pointed out yesterday, there will be a free kids clinic for you to drop your kids off at and then go get drunk, as Saul said.

Starting point is 00:34:15 Those are his words and not mine. I'm just putting it out there. But food and drink will be available for purchase, along with offerings from the PHNX locker and our PHNX partners. There'll be heaters, hot chocolate. Mini games, Jesse. We're just, it's going to be a blast.

Starting point is 00:34:29 We're going to have a fun time out at the Dobson Ranch golf course. So make sure to come hang with Big Drive Energy, the PHN X crew and your fellow diehards for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and so much more. So come hang out with us. We are going to be having a blast. So again, if you are a PHNX diehards member,

Starting point is 00:34:47 you'll get 20% off of this awesome event. So check the link in the description to reserve your spot now. And of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure to download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Of course, downloading the Draft King Sportsbook app, not only helps us, but it helps yourself. You've got to go make some money. I can't tell you, I can't tell you,

Starting point is 00:35:06 I can't tell you. you to go bet on the Sons, but I can tell you that there is a national NBA boost, and you can get yourself down on some winnings. Make sure to opt in for all of those winning boosts. Download the app now, if you haven't done so already. Sign up with our promo code of PHNX, place a $5 pregame money line bet on any NBA team to win their game, and you will get $150 in free bets if they do instantly. That's code PHNX only at the draft king sports book. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See, show notes for details. And before I let you go, make sure.

Starting point is 00:35:38 I know I was given Jesse a hard time. He waits until the last minute, but even if he waits until the last minute, he can still get discounts over at more furniture with the holiday clearance event. So maybe Jesse's playing 4D chess. I don't know. Maybe waiting might be the key because the holiday clearance event is happening

Starting point is 00:35:54 at more furniture now up until Christmas day, and you can save up to 50% off. I need some more Christmas-y stuff, Jesse. I need, that's the only thing. Got the presents under the tree, the tree's up, but my house is a little bit bare. So I think I might go check out what more furniture has to offer because they don't just have furniture. They have pictures.

Starting point is 00:36:14 They have paintings. They have wonderful artwork. They have all sorts of fun stuff, especially holiday swag for you to put around your house, make your house look more festive this holiday season. So check out more furniture.com and check out their holiday clearance event. Oh, boy. Well, I guess we got one more without you. Jesse is going to be still

Starting point is 00:36:35 touring around California a bit, but he will be back on Tuesday. On Monday, make sure to join Faj and myself, and hopefully the MVP will be back in the house as well. We'll be answering your questions for another edition of Mailbag Monday. Maybe, Jesse,

Starting point is 00:36:50 maybe something exciting happens between now and then. Probably happen five to ten minutes after we're done recording, but that's just the way things swing around here. A couple final things I want to mention. So we did get word earlier today, that Zach Gallen was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Major League Baseball's new pre-arbitration bonus pool.

Starting point is 00:37:11 So he's getting about a $1.7 million bonus, which is enormous for a guy who currently makes less than a million dollars a year. I mean, it's basically like, it's basically like someone giving you a bonus that is equivalent to about 250% of your current salary. It's pretty sick. I need that. I need that whole. holiday bonus, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:37:35 Let's say I'm Saul Bookman and see if we can at least get a fraction of that for a bonus. Yeah, I would personally, I would take a 100% raise. Yeah, yes. I'm not going to ask for that much. Just like the debacks weren't trying to be greedy with the Rule 5 draft or with the draft lottery. I'm not greedy. Oh, man.

Starting point is 00:37:53 So let me ask you this. Is this potentially what the eyes emoji tweet was from Zach Gallen earlier this week? Is that what the speculation is? That's sort of what the speculation is. I still don't know if I fully buy that because like, he knew. He knew this was coming. Like the calculation is based off of your war. It's like some funky new war calculation that Major League Baseball and the MLBPA came up with.

Starting point is 00:38:22 He knew he was going to get. I'm sure that Gallen knows how to calculate it. I'm sure you all. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So he probably already knew that this was coming. So I don't know. I still don't know for sure.

Starting point is 00:38:35 Maybe it's as simple as that, but I wouldn't say I'm necessarily closing the book on that just yet. No, see, look it. That's not, you don't do that. You don't, there are so many good emojis to use. Is there not an emoji with like little dollar signs in the eyes and the tongue sticking out? Like, that's what I'm using. If I get 250% of my yearly salary, I am using the eyes with the money signs and the tongue sticking out. Could you, could you imagine, though, if.

Starting point is 00:39:01 If, like, him using the eyeballs did cause a bit of a ruckus. If Zach Allen had tweeted out like the money emoji, like, I cannot imagine. It would have lit the internet on fire. It genuinely would have lit the internet on fire. I don't know if Scott Boris would have encouraged him to do that. No. No. All right.

Starting point is 00:39:26 Well, it's fun to speculate anyway. And it's fun to talk about baseball with the one and only Jesse Fried. and get back here. These guys, they're troublemakers, Jesse. I can't stay on track with these jokes. Did Faj really say yesterday after I, after I was off the show,

Starting point is 00:39:43 that I have a projectable frame? He did. I believe I heard that. Projectable frame. He did. I'm still not quite sure what to do with that. That's information I didn't need. It really,

Starting point is 00:39:55 really truly is. But you know, what you could do is you can tweet him and ask him a little bit more information about that. I would love, I would love to have a projectable frame. I weighed the exact same amount since I was a junior in high school. That sounds about right. I guess I'm one of the lucky few who has a lot more difficulty gaining weight than keeping it off.

Starting point is 00:40:17 But anyway, shut up. I hate you. Anyway, you're young and you're skinny. I get it. I hate you. In the meantime, you can ask Jacob what he meant by that. His Twitter's at Jacob underscore Franklin 4. Jesse is at Jesse N.

Starting point is 00:40:29 Friedman. I am your captain at cap underscore caveman with a K. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again so much for joining us on this Friday edition of the show. Have a great weekend.

Starting point is 00:40:45 On behalf of Jesse and myself, we appreciate you for tuning in. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have a projectable frame.

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