PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series BAD For Baseball?

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

The World Series table is set! The Dodgers and the Yankees will square off in the Fall Classic and many people couldn’t care less. Is having the two teams with the biggest payrolls in MLB competing for the championship bad for the game? We have all the reasons why Yankees vs Dodgers is good for MLB but bad for baseball fans. We also have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions about our favorite childhood Postseason memories and more! Join Jesse, Derek, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. When 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is a New York Yankees versus Los Angeles Dodgers World Series good for MLB, but bad for everyone else? We're talking about it right now in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere? Your edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHMX. This man XME is occasionally known as Jesse Friedman, but he is always known as the Thunderstick. Welcome in, of course, to another edition of our show. And welcome in to our first, I guess, World Series preview edition.

of the show. I don't even want to call it that. No one wants us to do a world series preview. Nobody wants us to talk about this world series at all, and we will talk about why. We will talk about that a little bit. For sure. But of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app now. Use that code of PHNX365 when you sign up, choose your offer, and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. Also, drop a note to me on Twitter and let me know why I can't be happy, even though I won

money on Bet365 and lost my free fantasy football game that I don't pay any money for. And yet that makes me more sad than I should be used to it by now. I've almost lost all my games. But that's not that's a hot take for a different time. We need to talk about the hot takes on this World Series. Of course, we do. It is the worst possible timeline for many of us. It's the Los Angeles Dodgers representing the National League against the New York Yankees,

representing the American League. And now here we are. Uh, not great. Not great at all. But it is what it is. And it is a world series that in theory is going to be viewed quite a bit, right? It is going to have much better ratings than last year's, uh, world series. But, uh, last year's world series was more for real baseball fans.

It was. This one's a little different. Yeah. Last year was for ball knowers, Derek. And, uh, this year is for, I don't know, everyone else I guess. I don't know. I think we have the perfect way to put it, Jesse. Leah, our very own Leah Merrill, put it perfectly in a tweet.

Here's what Leah had to say in regards to who this World Series is actually for. And it's, I can't read that. You want to read that out loud, Kevin, because of my eyes aren't good anymore. Yeah, so Leah had the right idea here when she said, huge matchup for people who don't care about baseball, but bought a hat once. So good. So good. It's, it's, I'm not sure if there are two.

professional sports teams to have more people wandering around wearing their hats, but don't, like, don't actually care about the teams or know anything about the teams than the Dodgers and the Yankees. It gets even worse. Yeah, like my daughter wanted a Yankees hat. And there was a brief moment where despite what that actually meant, I was simply excited that she wanted any piece of baseball memorabilia, you know, anything to wear. That was a win for you as a parent.

It was a win for me. 100%. But it wasn't, Jesse, because why did she want it? She wanted it because one of the characters on Percy Jackson wears a Yankees hat. That's why she wanted it. And the hat makes the girl invisible. So my daughter wanted to pretend like she could become invisible with her Yankee hat. So that's how that happened.

Like not even the Cowboys, the Celtics. I'm thinking of like the other iconic franchises in the U.S. Like I don't see that many people walking around in Cowboys. hats or Celtics hats or I mean I guess part of that is that baseball players do literally wear hats like it is inherently a baseball thing in that sense but yeah there's something about just like the the fashion side of of wearing a Yankees hat or wearing a Dodgers hat that I never really understood it's relevancy I think I think there was a time where those teams the ones even you're describing were the teams like when you when I went to high school everybody here in Arizona was

wearing cowboys gear. It wasn't just because the Cowboys are America's team and all of that. It was because they were good in the 90s and people jump on the bandwagon for teams like that and then they become fans simply because they're good. I think we don't see that as often anymore because we don't really have teams dominate a sport to where like people just jump on and become bandwagon fans. I guess the best comparison would maybe be the Kansas City Chiefs where you see

a lot of Kansas City Chiefs fans everywhere and those people did not exist like 10 years ago, right? You couldn't find one. No, you couldn't. No, absolutely not. You couldn't find a single one, right? I mean, the Yankees and the Dodgers do have the benefit of being in highly populated cities. And, like, you know, again, like my father told me when I was young, if you're Puerto Rican, you're rooting for the Yankees.

Now, that was back in the 90s, right, early 90s. But, like, there was a thing where, like, cities without, you know, a team kind of gravitate towards or people in those cities gravitate towards a team. The Yankees at one point were just an unstoppable force in baseball. And again, that goes even back to the late 90s. There was that stretch that they had there at the end of the 90s that really did solidify a lot of people as Yankees fans for life. And I mean, I guess maybe that's it a little bit. They've sparsely won since then. But I don't know.

I mean, it is one of those things that it's kind of like odd how a team like the Yankees or the Dodgers just that hat can kind of represent in general baseball. Yeah. It's just a baseball hat, you know. And these are, I mean, these are the two most storied franchises. in major league history, right? For the New York Yankees, this is the 41st time that they have gone to the World Series,

which obviously the Yankees have been around for a while, but 41 appearances in the World Series is utterly ridiculous. It is ridiculous. And the Dodgers... That stretch in the 40s would have made me not... If you're not a Indian fan, you just stopped watching baseball for that stretch where they won like eight out of

10 years or something ridiculous. It was, it was absurd. And the Dodgers are, they don't, this is not their 45, first appearance in the World Series, but it is their 22nd. They are, they are in second place behind the Yankees in terms of World Series appearances in their history. And this is the 12th time that the Yankees will be taking on the Dodgers, which I guess just sort of makes sense. If you have two teams that make it a whole bunch, they're going to wind up playing against each other. And as you see here with this graphic from our buddy J. Kuda, Kuda, Kuda, Kuda? Yeah, Kuda. We'll go with Kuda.

We're not going to be. This is remarkable to me. If you look at the more recent history between these two teams, they have been neck and neck to an insane level. Their last two games, each team is one one, their last four games, each team is one two. Their last six games, each team is one three. That's crazy. You can go all the way down to 20 games and that pattern holds. Their last 20 games against each other, the Yankees and Dodgers have each won 10 games. That is true for their last 30 games.

They're split even at 15 and 15. 50 games are split at 25 to 25 60 games are split at 30 and 30 that's not I don't know I don't know how this is possible but I do think even though you know a lot of these a lot of these you know games were played when these rosters looked pretty different than what they do now I also think that with the current rosters that that each of these teams actually have that we are we are set for a a very competitive what I think is a very evenly match world series. And regardless of, you know, the payrolls and the, you know, these two just giants of the sport facing against each other, I know there's, there's some people who are not happy about

that and understandably. So I do think it's going to be, the baseball itself, I think is going to be pretty fun to watch. And honestly, at least it comes down. Like, yeah, there's no underdog here. There's no team necessarily to root for that you feel like is, is lesser. than the other team, which kind of makes that fun, right? I mean, these aren't, this isn't like a scrappy Dodgers team. Like, this is the two biggest teams or two biggest payrolls in baseball, essentially,

going up against each other. And I mean, while a subway series might have been cool, Jesse. I mean, I feel like it would have been the same thing, but the Mets just had a different feel about them. I think a lot of people would have been behind the Mets in the series and they would have had a chance to root for some sort of underdog, even though the Mets aren't that real actual scrappy, you know, mid-spending underdog, right? They're right up there with those other two teams.

The Mets led the league in spending this year. The Yankees were number two. That's right. Yankees were number two, doctor, number three. That's all because of that Otani contract. Well, I think the Dodgers are technically, at least, according to Spottrack number five. But yes, it's just because of the Otani contract being deferred as much as it is. And as they're anti-Oskar Hernandez being deferred.

There's some other guys that have deferrals as well. But yes. in terms of the baseball itself, I will maintain that I think this series will be very fun to watch. This is this is Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Jean-Carlaltoe, who apparently is back in his prime against Shohei Otani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. Tommy Edmund, you forgot to throw Tommy Edmund in there. You're right. Shoh-Hoyotani, Tommy Edmund, and Mookie Betts.

Freddie Freeman is he was hurt. He's no longer in the middle of the Dodgers line of Tommy Edmund is, is the, the new cleanup guy. Yeah, I think that in terms of the baseball itself, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's, you know,

five former MVPs all facing against each other. And, and yeah, I mean, it's really the two marquee franchises in, in the sport. So, yeah,

I think that for as much as I understand some of the negativity surrounding this, and if you're a D-Bax fan, this probably is your worst possible outcome. These games are, are probably going to be pretty entertaining at the same time. We got, by the way, our guy Kevin Thomas, aka Big Sexy on the ones and twos today. Kev, can you scroll back a little bit?

I think Nicholas first had a comment that said, is this the law of averages playing out in real time? This is actual nuts. And that's in regards to that record, which the uncanny. The uncanny. The uncanny. They just swap who wins games against each other, I guess. That kind of makes this fun, right? I mean, essentially one team has to finally win more games than the other team in this scenario,

and it just so happens to be for the championship. Ernesto says Star Power is Star Power with historical teams playing. The ratings will be immense. And yes, that's a huge, huge point. If you could scroll up, there was another one from Ryan. He had a question for me, which, I mean, this isn't really about what we're talking about. But he said, I'm curious, Derek, what team did you root for before the debacks even existed? I'll give you my rundown.

First it was the Atlanta Braves. What? I didn't know about this. Yeah, this was because when I was 10 years old, the only games that were on TV here in Arizona were Atlanta Braves games on TBS, the Super Station, and Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox games over on WGN, and both of those were here locally.

So those were pretty much my teams to pick from. I didn't really care for any of them particularly. I didn't care for the game of baseball much. I was a basketball fan, Jesse, but that's only because I didn't have a team to root for, I've said that many times. But things changed. I did start to root for the Yankees.

That was my team because, again, of my father's influence. And the team that I rooted against more than any other team was the Los Angeles Dodgers, despite what this chat will tell you. The reason why was because in August of 1992, I went to a Los Angeles Dodgers Expos game. And the Expos came back to win the game late. And the Dodgers boohooed their way into the clubhouse. And instead of doing a thing that they had done every Sunday, which was come out and sign autographs for the fans, they decided to send their PR person out to tell us that the Dodgers would not be coming out today because they were boo-hooing about losing the game. So you know who did come out, Jesse?

The Montreal Expos. They came right out of the clubhouse hearing about the Dodgers and their ridiculous actions. And they signed baseballs and stuff for us. And that day, I partially became an Expos fan. And I forever became a Los Angeles Dodgers. hater. So there, I hope that clears up any confusion about who I'll be rooting for in this world series. Did you get any expos autographed? I have a ball that's autographed by the whole team. In fact, I gave one guy a ball. Wow. And they started just passing it around and everybody like signing it.

Like this is the 1992 expos. This would be the 1992 expos. So, so, so Delino DeShields. Yes. Moises Alu. Yes. Larry Walker. Moises Alu was the only person who like I actually like remembered signing that ball but that's funny i don't know i was not very i was i was like 11 years old so i didn't really know you still have you still have this oh i still have this ball yes i absolutely have this ball we got we got to dust it out and bring it out but yes yeah there you go um and also like again it's it's mostly about you know watching a team like even i feel like even when i was rooting for the yankees i was doing it just in the interest of my father there's a small there's a video that went around viral of a small baby watching a sporting event with his father and the opposing team

scores a goal and the dad gets upset and the baby gets excited and he looks and sees his dad get excited or upset and that was basically me as a child for a little while I really didn't care about the outcome but now I do and now I very much care about the diamondbacks and I don't care about either of these teams I'm sure a lot of people don't I think that's the complaint about this is it really does feel like it is one of those world series where it's hard to get behind either one of these teams if you don't care about essentially the outcome right like you know yeah whatever, I'll root for this team or that team. You kind of, if you root for any other team in baseball, you probably hate both of these teams. Right. And you just wish both could lose the World Series. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of people who feel that way.

And I certainly understand that. I think the other question that I want to get to here is like, is the fact that the Dodgers and Yankees are playing in the World Series? Is that fact indicative of some problem within the sport? Like, is this like a breakdown in some facts? passion. And I do think that we should remind ourselves that last year was about as polar opposite of a situation as you could imagine with obviously the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rangers did spend a little bit of money last year. So, you know, they were, I think, in a much different camp than the Diamondbacks were. For sure. But yeah, I don't really view this that way necessarily. I mean, it's I think in baseball in general, we've had a reasonable. degree of parity in recent seasons, not maybe ideal, but not terrible at the same time. Baseball itself just has enough randomness where you're going to have a range of outcomes in the

postseason. And sometimes that is going to be sort of the most obvious one, which is literally the one seat of the National League, playing the one seat of the American League. And maybe that feels a little boring. In a larger sense, though, I've said in the past and we'll continue to say that I think baseball does have just a fundamental parody problem with the fact that some teams are spending, you know, twice, three times, four times as much money on their roster as other teams. I don't think that is ever going to be an ideal situation for the sport.

And again, I'm not blaming this World Series outcome on that completely. I still think it's acceptable to have the Dodgers and the Yankees play in the World Series every now and then. but that's a larger issue with baseball that I think continues to, continues to be the case. And this year's World Series matchup is not exactly going to talk anyone out of that narrative. So there's a little ways to go, I think, for the sport in that regard. I feel like, though, when we look back at the regular season,

there wasn't a problem with parity, considering the way that everything happened. Now, given we do end up here at the end with the two top seats playing each other. And I think it goes back to sample size. The talking point last year was that the buy was bad. And they needed to maybe change the playoff format because these teams that just got in are the ones making it to the World Series instead of the teams that should be there theoretically, right? The teams that got rest, the teams that had a higher seed, the teams that had to play less games, the teams that were at a lower risk of being bounced because they didn't play the wildcard series. Yet here we are now with both one seeds in. And I mean, now it's like, is there a problem with baseball?

I will say that the overspending thing is kind of funny when you look at how close all these teams were in record. It once again shows that you don't necessarily have to spend the most money in order for you to win a lot of baseball games during the regular season. And we've also seen that having those star players doesn't always equate to those guys stepping up and being clutch in the postseason and leading their teams to victory. This just so happened to be the case this year. Yeah. Right. And I mean, given these two teams. are very good and very stacked.

Like you couldn't imagine, like, it's hard to imagine a team being as stacked as these two particular teams are. At least in terms of like middle of the lineup star power. Correct. Yeah, they're both off the charts. And like when we advance if this, if this becomes a problem going forward, you know, then it's a problem. I think the spending thing in baseball is something will never fully understand.

I think I saw a tweet that said the owner of the guardians has a higher network. worth than the owner of the New York Yankees, right? But the Guardians don't spend that money. I will say rich people get rich and stay rich by not spending their money. So that's not a surprise to me, that the higher worth is the guy that's spending less on the team. However, it doesn't mean that there isn't the resources there to spend on the team. Just like everybody believes about Ken Kendrick and the Arizona Diamondbacks. I have even said on record on this show that I do feel like Kendrick's being fairly honest about the fact that when they have extra money to reinvest back in the team.

they're doing that exact that exact thing and he did put his money where his mouth was this past off season with how much money the diamondbacks spent on on free agents and bringing in other players but we still ultimately don't know at the end of the day how much money the debacks make how much money can ken kent has to spend or not to spend and all that and like all of that is probably going to be kept secret and until it's transparent we won't know how big the actual gap is all we know is how much teams are choosing to spend versus teams actually are spending. Right. There's no doubt in my mind.

When we're talking about how big these two franchises are, the Dodgers and the Yankees, that these teams don't make more money than the other teams in baseball. I just think I have a hard time believing that. There's a revenue difference for sure. And I guess like to what you were saying about the guardians owner, like, you know, the net worth is one side of the equation. But the other side of the equation is how much revenue the team is actually bringing. are you making right so yeah and every owner's going to have a different idea of like you know how much

of my own wealth am I willing to put into this or do I just want to sort of run this like you would run a normal business where you try to make it so your your income and your expenses line up and whatnot and honestly again there's times where like you became wealthy enough to own a sports team by having other you know other assets other things you're doing in life other companies you own other things that you're making money off of so that's usually the reason why why these guys are still going to have a net worth and it doesn't mean that they're required to turn around and put that money back into their team, right? But at the same time, that's the conversation we're having, especially when you look at the

difference in payrolls and when you get a World Series where two of the top five payroll teams and three of the top five made it to the final four, you know, and all of that. So, I mean, it just, it sucks. And I think realistically at the end of the day, that probably is the reason why people hold these two teams as being such villains, right? It's it's it's it's the amount of money they spend what they're able to do versus what other teams are able to do and honestly the track record for winning. I mean, the Dodgers feel it feels like the Dodgers have won the NL West every year for like

the last 10 years, you know, and then you have everything. It's almost literally true. It is almost literally true. And then you have the Yankees that basically have won so much that it makes everybody sick. So I think that's why we get to this point, you know, where people don't really want to watch it. True baseball fans. fans of other teams aren't really that interested in this.

The interest is there, though, because ticket prices are astronomical for this World Series. They appear to be starting out at around $1,000 just to get you in the building and maxing out somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000. Average single ticket price right now is two grand. Can you imagine if this goes to seven games, what the prices would be for game seven? I cannot. I literally cannot. It's going to be pretty crazy. But yes, to the conversation about parody, I think there is an issue in the teams

are spending wildly different amounts for there. There's a number of layers there of exactly why that happens, as we kind of discussed earlier. But there's also this element of randomness once you get to the postseason that almost like corrects that sort of. It makes it so that even if you did spend a bunch of money. and your team is more talented. You're not really guaranteed anything in October.

And the Dodgers have experienced that first hand here for a number of years in a row. So, yeah, I still think in a perfect world, this is something that I would like to see Major League Baseball fix. I'm not one of those people who thinks that a, you know, a cap and a floor is a terrible idea. There's a reason that all of the other major sports do this. And it's not to say that it's perfect or it fixes all of the problems, but I think it's pretty clearly. a better situation than what Major League Baseball has in place right now. But frankly, I don't really see a path to a salary cap at any point. I don't think the Players Association is ever going to agree to something like that.

So this is probably the way it's going to be for the foreseeable future. And thank God for the randomness of the postseason, right? It does give those teams an advantage. But spending money on free agents doesn't always pan out. And even if even if things do pan out, you get to October and really anything can happen. I think the biggest problem with a cap is how baseball is structured prior to you receiving a big payday. You as a young player are kept under the thumb of the organization that drafts you for so long. And you basically live up, unless you're like a really highly touted draft pick, a real, you know, like exciting young prospect,

you're most likely going to be living in poverty for the majority of your time as a minor league. And then you also have the fact that when you come up to the major league club, there's still years of control before they let you out. That is the main reason why when it comes to baseball, you like players have like maybe one or two chances to get a huge payday and a huge contract. And outside of that, it's based on annual performances and things like that. It's just I think that's the one reason why the MLBPA fights so hard for not having a salary cap is because they think these players are are, are, are owed rightfully every dime that they could possibly make from a team and it shouldn't be restricted by a max contract like NBA or some sort of yeah max contracts are kind of weird I still don't really understand how max contracts work uh we don't have to it's not the NBA rules just seem so arbitrary yeah thank God baseball is I this ball's way less complicated that's the positive year arbitration and the years of control young players have oh man there are I mean With a cap does come like a bazillion rules that you have to learn as a journalist.

So, hey, I'm not too disappointed about that side of things. There's already a bazillion rules you have to know with the tax, the luxury tax, essentially, right? Yeah, I mean, I think the concept of a tax is fairly straightforward, right? Yeah, but they had to break it down and have additional brackets and figure out. There are different brackets. There is a level of complexity there, but it doesn't come anywhere close to what, you know, poor Gerald Borgay has to try to figure out on it. You just feel that way because we understand this stuff.

We know this stuff. Yeah, that very well could be true. I still love the concept of arguing for yourself worth before your team while they try to tell you how you are not worth the money you're asking for. But hey, that's arbitration. We thank you guys so much for being here in the PHN exports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so right now. Hit that notifications button. That way you don't miss whenever.

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issue I was talking about here. And I got something that helps your self-esteem issue momentarily on the other during this break. So make sure you stick around for the break. And also stick around for after the break when we are going to answer your mailbag Monday question. and so much more. We are going to talk debacks, we promise. Are we? I guess. I guess we have to.

We'll see what people ask in the mailbag, but generally that's what happens. Yeah, it's, he already, spoiler alert. He knows the questions before. All right. We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere. But speaking of a confidence boost, make sure to check out our friends at Blue Chew. Blue Chew isn't a single product.

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So stay tuned for more information on how to come hang out with us. And more importantly, whether it's with us, with your friends, with your family, with your significant other, you do you at Heala River Resorts and Casinos, visit play atheela.com for more details. All right. Well, I do know it's World Series time, but that we don't care about that around here because this is a Diamondbacks podcast. As Jesse reminds me every single day when I try to put all sorts of other team information into the rundown. But of course, this one, this hurts a little bit to say right now. but every year is our year on the PHNXD Beck's podcast. Every month on this podcast, Hispanic Heritage Month.

Every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day because we recycle. But of course on Monday, we go to the mailbag. Kev, let's go the mailbag. All right. Always fun in the mailbox. What are we got today first, Kevin? All right. So our first mailbag question of the day is from Chris who asked, why did the MLB decide to not have a World Series this year?

They didn't even announce the winners of either championship series either. What is happening? It's almost like the mayoral race at PHNX. It just disappeared. It did. It did. What happened? All those lovely political ads that we had every day. It's gone to dust. I don't know. I can understand a lot of people feeling this way. I think ultimately. in denial. Yeah, yeah. I mean, just not wanting to watch it. I'm a big person for that. Like, I don't like sports to mentally hurt me, right? So like, I don't let them. When I don't, when I don't want to do this anymore, I just change the channel. I watch something different, right? And I get it. There's probably going to be a lot of baseball fans aren't going to watch the World Series because of these two teams

participating in it. That's fine. I think that's fine. Plenty of people are still going to watch the World Series. The ratings are going to be good. They're going to be good. And that's unfortunate because it's going to kind of reinforce a thing of like, oh, these should be the teams that are there. But it's it doesn't mean anything. I mean, I think that having honestly random teams in it every single year is the best thing for baseball. And so far, that's kind of what it's been. I mean, I know the Dodgers kind of are there in the playoffs a lot and the Braves and some of these teams. But I mean, at least you're not seeing this dynasty forming from any particular franchise in baseball.

And that at least keeps it fun. Yeah, I mean, I think we're at a point where baseball fans are just not going to be happy no matter what happens. If it's Rangers, D-backs, then the uproar is that these two teams did not deserve to be there, right? It's a five-seed in the American League versus a six-seat in the National League, right? The Phillies, the year before that were also a sixth seed that made it all the way to the World Series.

And then when you have a situation like this where it's one, seed against one seed, then the uproar is that, oh, you know, it's so obvious. These two teams spend all this money. Just let them go straight to the World Series while we're at it. I don't know if there's any scenario where like everyone is actually happy. I don't really think that exists. And not to say there aren't valid points being made in all of those scenarios. But yeah, this is this is going to be a World Series where some people are very heavily invested.

and I do think we can say objectively that this is good for baseball in that there's going to be a lot of eyes on the product. There's going to be more, there's going to be overall more interest than there's been in a World Series in probably a very long time. And that is a good thing for the sport, especially having all of these marquee names, guys like Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Shohei Otani having this much star power on this stage. There's a lot to be said for that and for the league and in their interests moving forward. So there's a lot of there's a lot of positives from from that standpoint for sure. Brett Johnson says John Boy last year cried about the regular season being pointless last year because of the five, six seats making it. If your team isn't in it, then you'll complain. And that that is true.

I mean, yeah, there is something to be said about favoriting one team or another and obviously how that impacts your opinion of it. I don't think this world series should be missed. That's my feeling on it. I do think that this is going to be a really good series. And it's if you're a fan of the game, even if you just want to do what Ryan is doing and saying, I hope both teams lose, then,

you know, I mean, you could still watch some pretty fun baseball. I don't know. I don't, I don't plan on, um, ever missing the world series based on the teams that are in it.

However, I could see like sometimes if you feel like your team was wronged or something, how you just wouldn't want to, you know, do that. I don't really feel that's the case with the Diamondbacks this year. The only person that wronged the Diamondbacks were the Diamondbacks. And Peace of Yoshi said something, scroll back up. He said in regards to, did we deserve to be there?

I don't know what he means by that, Jesse. Does he mean the Diamondbacks or to be the Mets? I don't know. He roots for a lot of things. He's hard to read. Yeah, he's like half and half. And I mean, then, though, I mean, if he's talking about the Diamondbacks, right, which I'm sure he is, that's a fair question.

Do the Diamondbacks deserve to back their way into the world or into the playoffs last year with 84 wins and then go on the run they did? Well, that's why the playoffs are fun because anybody can really win. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean the Mets, even though they were also in that 60th of the National League, like they had 89 wins this year, which I think in general is just a more respectable place to be. Like we can all get on board with an 89 win team making a deep run into October. Shut up. You know that's how many teams the Diamondbacks won, and you know that makes me sick to my stomach crack now just hearing. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, there's definitely going to be Anthony Kashervin said like if you don't love me at my and had a picture of last year World Series that said you don't get me at my this. And while that does seem still seem like it's putting us down, he's not wrong. I mean, you, this is this is what baseball is. It should be random. It should be fun every single year. And yes, Gloverettie is talking about that Dodgers Padres game with having. 12 and a half million viewers.

That was very true, but that was between you, Darvish and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and that was a huge vested interest in Japan to watch that game. But like, yeah, marquey matchups, name, like those players make a difference, right? They, yeah. It's like us. Post game shows make a difference for us, you know, to the, what, 40 people that are watching right now, you get what we're saying, because usually there's about like 200 more of you in here watching a post game show.

And of course, we wanted the Diamondbacks because the, the, to go far in the playoffs because of our love for the team and wanting to watch this team do great things. But we also have a vested interest, believe it or not, in the success of the Diamondbacks. And again, there's something to be said there about like, I understand MLB wanting, you know, the big marquee names in the world series. And that being a win for Major League Baseball, I just don't think it's one of those things where because this has happened, you can say like, oh, MLB got their way and they figured out a way

to get these teams there. No, they actually didn't change the formula from last season at all. And people believe that that playoff formula was flawed based on the results of last season. It's almost like you can't draw conclusions about a system after two years. What? I know. Shut up. I will draw conclusions whenever I want to.

And I will get erratic about my response to it. All right. What else we got, Kev? Question number two comes from Peace of Yoshi, who wants to know, would this Dodgers run have happened if Geraldo Perdomo didn't make that one? post before they actually lost the series. The FLA post, which he put on there. I'm not putting this on Domo.

First of all, Domo does no wrong. So he will never be wrong in my eyes or Damon's eyes ever at any point. Certainly never be wrong in Daman's eyes. Absolutely not. Since Damon isn't here right now, I must protect Domo at all costs. I will say that I felt like the Dodgers did, you know, again, like the Padres thing, a lot of things going on. people talking about the choke job that they pulled last year against the Diamondbacks, right?

Like there was a lot of people questioning this Diamond or this Dodgers team and their ability to go on in the playoffs. And there was a point where during that series against the Padres, we all thought it was a rap for them. So I don't, I don't blame Domo for this, though that post did fire me up. And it was one of the greatest days in Damon's life ever. but it's it's still more of the Padres fall. I blame the Padres for the Dodgers being. I'm still very. I'm still surprised, frankly, that the Dodgers found a way to come back and win.

It really was it really was dumbfounding. Like the Padres just suddenly couldn't hit anymore. Yeah. And that was that was that. But yeah. It's like Dave Roberts actually figured out something that worked. You get to October and anything can happen. Volume 100 and however many years we played this game now.

All right. Well, although granted it's a little different now. Postseason used to be very different, you know. Don't even get me started into the 162 games season actually being the playoffs. That's all the other thing. What else we got,

get? All right. Question number three is from Brett Lee Johnson, who wants to know, well, the crowd of fans that complained about the first round by being a disadvantage or the regular season being pointless, be quiet?

or is that going to be a topic whenever a wildcard team makes it to the LCS? First of all, that word bleeped out is bitch, and I am not going to shy away from using it. Second of all, no, no, I don't think that there ever, like it doesn't feel like it's ever going to not be a thing where we talk about the format being this or that. I mean, yes, he's right, and it comes back down to the Diamondbacks last season being criticized in the postseason and Major League Playoffs format in general being, you know, criticized. One of the two of us on this set did that exact same thing. I don't remember which one.

But I will say that, Jesse, this is one of those situations where, like, what we were just talking about. It's like, no matter what, you're, if your team doesn't get there, you're going to feel some sort of ways about it. And you're going to look to say, well, how, how, how were we wronged out of this? You know, last year, the format was fine. Last year, everything was fine. And, yes, those people are probably going to go away because it's, it wasn't just last year, right? It was the Phillies making it to the World Series as a sixth seed the prior year. So it just, it started to become a pattern enough that people brought it up. But like Jesse

said, two years. Yeah, that's the problem. That's not a pattern. It's not a pattern. That's twice. That's not. But it hasn't existed in this format for very long. So that's the problem, right? It's not haven't been around very long. And thus when you see the additional teams that are supposed to be the lower seeds that are supposed to lose in that first, you know, that first round or then they're supposed to lose in the second round, make it, then you start questioning because other sports don't go like this. The lower seed always loses and except in that one, you know, one underdog kind of scenario. Baseball is just different.

I mean, peace of Yoshi makes a good point. The Astros, they went to the World Series. They, they don't, they haven't had any problems with, without it. It hasn't felt like, yeah, I continue to continue to say. what I've said a zillion times on this show. I feel like a broken record complaining about the layoff is loser talk and we should all move on with our lives. Although it is funny also that there is a layoff happening this week.

Very long one. The World Series is not start until Friday. So according to those people, Derek, the Yankees and Dodgers, they're both just going to be, they're not going to know how to handle it. They're both going to be in a terrible point. place. The whole world series is going to be awful because both of these teams are trying to recover for four days without baseball. Is it different? Because it's both teams. Like the major

complaint is that it's not even because one team got a layoff and one team didn't. And you could say it's actually more fair for the team that did get to layoff than the one that didn't. But for some reason, because it worked out in the way it did for the last two years, the process has been brought in a question. But no more. Now it'll be about spending and the top teams in baseball and not it being pointless to even have a regular season right that'll be the talk just give it to the teams that spend the most right all right moving on what else we got keff all right question number four from hanley they want to know how much was the met's postseason a quote magical run signed ryan the grouch well ryan the grouch as jesse pointed out earlier they did

spend a lot of money on their team so they weren't like financially an underdog i think the reason why is because the Mets team is a team that kind of like had different heroes step up. You did have your Francisco Lindor being, you know, essentially an MVP candidate down the stretch of the regular season. But aside from that, you had a bunch of the guys that they didn't really spend the money on stepping up and being the heroes for this team. And it was also a team that was almost in dead last in major league in major league baseball at one point.

And not just the first week of baseball, a significant portion into the season. They were down there with the Marlins and the Rockies for the worst teams in the National League. So I think you do have to believe that this was a bit of a magical run, even though it didn't end with the desired result. And you have to believe that there was some sort of magic involved between grimace and the Rizzlers showing up at the playoff game they won and, you know, Pete's pumpkin and the OMG sign and the OMG remix featuring Pitbull. There was some magic there, Jesse.

It felt like they had a new good luck charm every single week. I mean, the real losers yesterday were not the New York Mets, Derek. The real losers were number one McDonald's. By far. They don't have, they're not going to get like months of free advertising anymore. The guy has a chair. He has a chair. Is that chair just permanent now?

They're just going to have a permanent purple chair? I don't know what chair you're talking about. At Met Stadium. They dedicated a chair. Oh, you're right. You're right. I've got to get a purple chair to grimace. Yes.

In 10 years, there are going to be baseball fans that have to explain that to their kids. It's not going to make any sense anymore. It's going to be like us telling people why there's a bobcat representing a team of snakes. Those things are natural predators. Jesse, it makes no sense at all. Bob, don't ever name your mascot after a damn sponsor. What are we doing here? The other big loser yesterday was, I mean, Jose,

Glazeus yes but also Jose Iglesias is musical career because it really took off it really took off you think you would have ever got a remix with Pitbull if it wasn't for this route I I can't really speak to that but probably not oh yeah they got a lot of stuff going on yeah I'm sure he'll have he'll have some lingering benefits from this whole ordeal for sure but had the OMG narrative carried all the way into the world series that would have been something. Yeah, would have been.

That would have been. And Jesse, I have something to counteract this that may be a reason why this isn't a magical run. Mm. Because essentially, if you beat the Milwaukee Brewers right in the playoffs, right.

You are guaranteed a spot in the World Series. The Yankees did it in 81, Cardinals in 82, Phillies in 2008. Cardinals again in 2011, Dodgers in 18, Nationals in 19, Dodgers in 19, Dodgers in 20, Dodgers in 20, Dodgers in 20, Braves in 21, D-Backs last year, no World Series this year for the Mets. Wow. So actually the Mets, like, somehow this goes from being magic to being just a flat-out embarrassment. Right?

I mean, what a blunder on their part. Rejecting the magic. Yeah. Yeah. I just. Nine and one. Nine and one in teams since 1981. I'm not going to point out once again that that's the year I was born.

because Kevin's wearing a shirt that also has 1981 on there. It's making me feel very old. But since 1981, 9 and 1 teams that beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs. So there you go. I don't know. Maybe not magic. What else we got, Kev?

All right. Next question comes from Michael. They want to know, what do you make of Jordan Lawler's Dominican League performance? We are so back. That's what I make of it. Jordan Lawler has never been more back. It's just a Lidom.

I don't know how to say it. He's part of the Tigres de Lise, as we decided they were called. And he has been killing it, Jesse. He really has, yeah, 444, 522, 889. That's a slash line right now. An OPS in the in the 1400s, two homers, six RBI, two stolen bases. That's in 23 plate appearances. And it occurred to me that 23 played appearances is, it is clearly not very many.

but it's also like a quarter of the number of played appearances that Jordan Loller racked up the entire regular season. So yeah, he's getting a much needed opportunity. He's spent splitting time at shortstop and third base so far. That's interesting. Which is interesting. I don't know if that's the Diamondbacks orchestrating that or maybe just kind of the way that he fits on the roster.

But yeah, this is a big opportunity for him. And, you know, I wouldn't go too crazy with these numbers. Like if you spend some time studying a Dominican Winter League roster, you'll find that a lot of the pitchers or, you know, a lot, like I would say majority guys who have pitched in the majors, but it might have happened like eight years ago, you know, like some of these guys are getting up there in age a little bit. You can play in the Dominican League Winter League forever as far as. Yeah, some guys do do stick around for a decent while.

So I don't know if like this is equivalent to double a pitching or AAA pitching. It's a little hard to make a comp like that. But nonetheless, you want to see Jordan Lawler succeed in a situation that seems set up well for him to succeed. And he has done that so far, to say the least. Jesse, he is teammates with Amelia Bonifacio. Yes, DVACs legend, who has been playing in the winter Dominican League since he left the DeBacks pretty much. Since 2006, he's been playing for the Tigres de Lise there in Dominican Republic Yeah

I mean this is I think that's what's so much fun About that particular league I know that like I think the Cessbit is family Barbecue Boys cover it extensively because of of that Like the fact that you can have like Guys that have no business still playing the game Literally playing with some of the top rookies in baseball right now And everybody in between

Well and I think like as as baseball fans and sports fans at large like one of our favorite things to do is just list off like some random athlete from like 2008 that you really enjoyed watching and have fond memories of like that's just what we do as sports fans and the dominican winter league is an awesome opportunity for that because there's just a bunch of like random relievers from 2006 it's like oh my gosh they're still pitching in the dominican winter league i really wish we got that in the afl yeah that's what's missing from the afl star power from 2004 Yeah, you're right. They should do like a combination of like some, some veterans who are like totally washed veterans with some of the prospects. It would be a lot of fun. Yeah, as far as Jordan Lawler's teammates are concerned, you mentioned Emilio Bonifacio, which I think is quite fun. People probably remember Bonifacio coming up with the debacks and debuting with them. Nobody remembers that.

You guys my age. I remember that. I remember watching Amelia Bonafacio back in the day. And a couple of other names people might be familiar with Dow Lugo is also on Jordan Lawler's team. Let's go. Lugo was a fairly well-regarded D-BACs prospect about eight, nine years ago, and was actually the centerpiece of the J.D. Martinez trade, a centerpiece of what the Tigers got, not the centerpiece of the trade overall. And the Tigers, not the Tigris.

Correct, correct. Thank you for making sure we clear by that. distinction. So yeah, like the main piece that the B-backs traded to the Tigers for J.D. Martinez in 2017, that player is playing with Jordan Lawler in the Dominican Winter League. Another former D-Backs prospect, I'm not sure people are going to be super familiar with this name, but Leover Puguerro, he was a main piece in the Starling Marte trade. When the Diamondbacks acquired Starling Marte from the Pirates entering the 2020 season, Pugero was a very highly regarded prospect with the debacks and continues to be a pretty interesting young player.

He's gotten a little bit of big league experience now with the Pirates. Hasn't really put up great numbers. He's still only only 23 years old. So maybe we see more from him down the road. But yeah, I thought that was kind of a kind of a funny, funny connection with those two. Those two guys playing with who is right now certainly the best Diamondbacks prospect. While we don't continue, while we don't expect Lawler to continue to slash 444, 522, 889, I will continue to monitor how he's doing down there because, of course, this is, I don't want to act like Jordan Lawler has been forgotten, but I felt like there was some excitement around him coming up.

He did come up. It wasn't spectacular. It didn't blow you away. And then he kind of went back down to the minor leagues. And I'm not going to say people forgot about him. I know a lot of Diamondbacks fans are talking about him. They're very excited to see him. But, I mean, with the current situation, the Diamondbacks have going on financially,

Jordan Lawler being a potential star is, is huge for this team. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, it really is. It really is. Going into 2025, Lawler is definitely going to be one of the biggest X factors for this team. I mean,

you could see a scenario where, you know, maybe he spends most of the year in AAA and is still kind of trying to figure some things out. Or, you know, God forbid he gets hurt again and struggles with that. Or you could also see a scenario where Jordan Lawler is with the Diamondbacks on opening day or if not on opening day,

soon thereafter and you know blossoms as a as a star level everyday player like i'm not expecting that outcome but the range of outcomes there is is very wide because jordan lawler is one of the best prospects in all of baseball my prediction is not only will he be called up but his locker will be right next to gino sweres is in the clubhouse and gino will be his yoda riding in a little backpack hitting him with a read and making sure that he learns everything in baseball next season as much as possible. So looking forward to that. Of course, I'm also looking forward to getting back to some of more of your mailbag Monday questions on the other side of this break, including some of our favorite childhood memories of the MLB postseason. So make sure you don't go anywhere. Of course,

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And I can't thank them for this beautiful Arizona hat I get to wear. Speaking of Arizona, it is sports. Is that sports time of the year around here? Even though baseball is going away, we got football, we got basketball, we have college sports. We have all sorts of things going on. So make sure to check out Game Time. And you can save big with Game Time. Save up to 60% off on last minute deals.

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That's good. Is that disappointing? No, no. I mean, it's like the bark bark, right? It's like that people want us to bark more. I think the amount of barking we do is fairly appropriate. And honestly, I don't know if Damon deserves more effort, right? No, at this point, no.

Right. I mean, come on. He doesn't even show up for work here on PH&X Diamondbacks anymore. Oh, what's going on? All right. Now we're going to throw it to Kevin who's doing Damon's job. Kevin, what do we got in the mailbag? All right. Next question comes from Tim. Tim wants to know that aside from 2001, can you guys rank the top five Diamondback seasons?

Oh, aside from 2001. So aside from the best. Aside from the best. Well, I think, I mean, I know Jesse wanted to do this separately. So, Jesse, I will allow you to go first on your particular list. Okay. So I think we're probably going to agree that number one is last year, a regular season had its, Had some lows, to say the least.

D-BACs only wound up winning 84 games, but you finish the year in the World Series. Correct. That's number one. Number two, I have the 2007 Diamondbacks is my number two answer, because they went to the NLCS, and they're the only other Diamondbacks team that has managed to do so. They had the whole anybody, any time narrative going, which I thought was very fun. It was a lot of fun. This was Chris Young.

and Bradman Webb. Right. Yeah, this was, am I getting confused? Was Chris Young on the 2007 Diamondbacks? Yes. Yeah, okay.

Thank you. And now it's also the year. He was their top war player that year. Okay. And that's also the year that Justin Upton came up. Eric Burns, Orlando Hudson. You mentioned Brandon Webb. There's a lot of very lovable players on that team.

And then number three of the 1999 Diamondbacks, who are the only Diamondbacks team to ever win 100 games. And I also feel, That was a huge year for this franchise. I mean, it was the second year of the franchise's existence, even though they got bounced in the first round to the Mets, winning 100 games and making the postseason in their second year as a franchise was absolutely enormous.

So I have that as number three. And I actually, I have the top three, the same top three. Okay. But those two are swapped for me. And mostly the reason why isn't for how far they made it. It was for the pivot. from an opening season where they almost lost 100 games. They lost 97 games in 1998 to winning 100 games in 1999.

We often talk about how fast the turnaround last year was, right, to a winning record. No, two years. They went from one of the worst seasons in baseball to making it to the World Series. But that pivot was incredible. And I think that that's what solidified a lot of people as actual Diamondbacks fans. I've talked about it in a show quite a bit. But there was a mindset change with the ownership group.

There was an immediate pivot from the first season and the second season when they saw the regression and season ticket holders that dropped off because they knew that or not that they knew. Jerry Colangelo knew and they finally started listening to him that this particular town was not going to be interested in going to a baseball park to hang out with their families and have picnics and just enjoy the vibes. This town wanted a winner. this town wanted a team that wasn't going to just kind of metal and mediocrity like our other sports teams did for so long here. I mean, the Cardinals coming to the Valley left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths in regards to like getting this franchise and then having them just kind of suck for a long time, right? So I just, I think about how important that was, how important that difference from that season to 99 was. And I mean, obviously, you know what they ended up doing

two years later, you know, but like it was just a pivotal moment in establishing this franchise in this city, you know. Yeah, it really, it really was huge. Yeah, those could probably go in in either order for me. Number four, I have the 2017 debacks because Archie Bradley triple and wildcard game, I need to say anymore. It's the most electric moment I've ever experienced my entire life. It was, that was.

That and seeing the Rocket WrestleMania, those two moments. There you go. Yeah. I also think that was one of the most, one of the best Diamondbacks teams ever. Looking back at the pitching staff that 2017 team had, I mean, it was really, really good. Even looking at like their run differential,

I believe the only team with a better run differential was the 1999 team that won 100 games, as I mentioned earlier. So that was a really fun year for this team. And then number five, I have 2011, the Diamondbacks in 2011, 194 games. This was Ian Kennedy winning 21 games. and Daniel Hudson having a great year as a number two starter behind him.

Paul Goldsmith debuted that season, which was obviously a pretty big development for this franchise. So, yeah, that's my number five. Is that the Ryan Braun loss? It is. It is. But they did. At least they showed some life that year in the postseason.

You know, they lost the first two games in Milwaukee, but then they came back to Arizona and run both games. And then they went back to Milwaukee and it was a very closely contested. They essentially got smoked in every other loss in the playoffs outside of that, right? Like they either lost, they lost three, they got swept or they only won one game in the series. That was the only one I remember really being competitive. But yeah, I mean, I don't, that's it.

I agree with you. Yeah, you're really not wrong. Like 20 last year's debacks, four, they lost four games to one in the World Series. 2007 debacks got swept in the NLCS by the Rockies. 1999 debacks, they lost three games to one to the Mets. God, that Rockies, that year, I remember 2007 being one of those years

where everything was going our way. Everything was clicking. The team was so good. But then the Rockies just like became this unstoppable force. And like even as crazy as it is to even talk about a Rockies team making it to the World Series. Like it was even crazy.

crazier to watch it happen and just, you know, match up with them and have Troy Toulowiczki and that team just destroy you. But anyway, uh, yeah, that's, I think my list, like aside from swapping those first two picks, my list was identical. Um, and for all the same reasons. I, I, I have moments, I think that, you know, I think of certain seasons and they kind of stick with me a little bit more than other seasons, you know, there, I've had a lot of fun covering this team. When I look at this list, Jesse, I have almost. been covering this team for half of the seasons that they've existed, which makes me like basically want to shrivel up and die right here live on this program right now just due to age.

But it's it's funny how like you can still have some favorite moments, you know, like we had a lot of fun with Wellington Castillo on this team. We had a lot of fun with just some of the different incarnations of this team as the years have gone on but um yeah i think i think that's probably it that's probably our order this exercise was basically a matter of picking which postseason year to yeah how are you gonna because they've they've only made the postseason seven times and we're out we were told to omit 2001 so you basically had decided to leave one are we leaving out and we both left out 2002 uh where the diamond backs uh one 98 games they made the playoffs but then they got swept by the cardinals in the first round and that

sort of just feels like if you have to pick one, that that would be the, that would be the year to leave out. If you want to talk about feeling disappointed, it's coming off of winning a world series. Yeah. Winning more baseball games just like they did this year and then getting absolutely trampled by a St. Louis Cardinals team. Yeah, Randy Johnson, like he kind of got shelled in game one of that series. I was looking back at the box score today.

It was pretty, pretty weird. But I guess, you know, I mean, it was, it's not like he wasn't a 42 year old. man at that point i believe i don't remember how old he was but he was i don't think he was he 42 in 2002 jesse i'm fairly certain that when randy johnson was 30 i was this age 38 season 38 season which is still to be fair on the older side for sure shut up but he won he won the si young that year anyway so it wasn't like it wasn't like randy johnson was washed by 2002 no he was at the top of his game and just yeah it was just how to clunker basically for 40 years old.

All right, Kev. It just goes to show that you get finer with age. What do you got? Next question comes from Goldie Snakes. And they want to know, is Gallen already D-Backs Hall of Fameworthy? Or what would it take for him to get there? One more good year or a long-term re-sign. Oof.

That's a great question. I think we've kind of talked a little bit about how Zach Gallen had a really hot start with this team and has been this team's ace. Like there's no denying that. But I don't know if you would consider him, I guess, probably. like there's not there's not a big class to pick from as far as debacks Hall of Famers are concerned right and I want to say that what they did in last year's postseason probably would be maybe enough to solidify him in there mixed with that

you know MLB record for the most the longest consecutive starts with three runs or three runs or less that streak being part of his you know time with this team I just I don't I don't know I don't know of that gallon right now if that Gowan wasn't a part of this team, let's say going forward from this point on, if you would really think of him as being one of the greatest players in team history. I mean, the franchise is young enough that I think he probably is one of the best pitchers in franchise history. The debacks have actually had a number of really good starters over the course of their existence. But Zach Gowan is one of them. I mean, he's been the ace of this staff basically ever since he was acquired back in 2019.

Would he be on your pitching Mount Rushmore for the Diamondbacks? That's an interesting question. Would it be Randy and Kurt? It's Randy Kurt, Brandon Webb. Those guys would all be in front of him. That's tough. I have to think about that. I really can't think of a fourth one that I would make a much better case for than him.

Yeah, so there's there's Granky. There's Dan Heron, I guess, would maybe be in the conversation. I mean, we could talk about pitchers. that pitched for this team that had a legendary career, but I guess more of like about what they did for this team while they were here. Right. Right.

Patrick Corbin's a damn fine pitcher and he did lead that Nationals team to a World Series, but he didn't do it as a part of this team. Yeah, I don't think that Corbyn would be in there. I'm looking at the like the baseball reference war leaderboard for the D-UACs all time. And it's actually really interesting. Zach Rankie is currently eight, well, not currently. He is going to stay at 18. point six baseball reference war for his debacks career.

Zach Gallin is at 18.4. So they're 0.2 away from each other. Gallin is going to pass Granky this season. Yeah. So yeah, I guess by according to that, Gallin is your number four, your number four guys. Is that just the war in their time as a diamond back?

Right. Okay. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Granky's career war is way higher than that, which is why he has a shot to be a Hall of Famer. But yeah,

in terms of what they did for the debacks, it's very, very similar as of right now. So I guess the answer is yes. At least right now. Yeah. I mean, that could change in 50 years, but right now,

yeah, I would say that Gallin is a Diamondbacks Hall of Fame. I just don't know like because so far it's just Gonzo in R.J. Right. Like we don't know kind of what their criteria are for this, like where they're drawing the line here. Of course it's those guys. Yeah.

Yeah. That was the correct place to start. And if you're a legend, you're probably going to end up in there, right? Like if you're a Mark Grace and Matt Williams might end up in there, right? Like all the 2001 guys. Yeah, everything kind of have to put in there. But yeah, I don't, I don't know.

I definitely think the gallon will have a case, especially if you were to resign with the Diamondbacks, then, you know, at that point you're looking at a, you know, 13 year, 10 year in Arizona potentially. I certainly think he would get in at that point. But if he does leave in free agency next off season, then it's a pretty interesting question. All right. What else we got there, Kev? Next question comes from Sean McNally, who wants to know,

what does the future hold for Chase Field? Did Jake... Oh, Centerfield. Sorry, yeah. My bad. Wrong abbreviation there. Well, we don't know what the future holds for Chase Field. Yeah, that's also.

The whole question is why, but the one here is what does the future hold for center field? Did Jake do enough offensively to convince you it should stay his spot? Regardless, what does the future hold for Alec? I feel like he has never shown any positive consistently. offence consistency offensively sorry yeah i mean in regards to alec that's the biggest problem with alec there's no doubt about alec being a elite an elite defender in center field and if his bat was decent average he would be up there as the every center field that's pretty much the the

idea there i i don't think i don't give up on alec thomas i believe very very strongly in alec thomas i think that there could be a situation where the diamondbacks trade one of these guys. I mean, that's not out of the question. No. I just don't know if like now wouldn't be the time because I feel like Thomas's value is probably fairly low considering what you believe the true potential in him as a center fielder is. I wouldn't be surprised to see things next year very similar to what we saw this year. I don't think the outfield is going to be the thing that changes. I think they're going to lose options out there like when they could play Randall Gritchick and, you know, other other, you know, situations like that. But I wouldn't be surprised to

Jake McCarthy the everyday outfielder, nor would I be surprised to see Alec Thomas get right and called back up and playing in the outfield as well. I mean, he could be that fourth man in the outfield that, you know, essentially replaces Gritchick. Right. Yeah. I think you're going to go into spring training, maybe kind of starting where you left off, where Jake McCarthy maybe has the upper hand there given the season that he just had. Alec Thomas, I think still has a shot, though, you know, in spring training, if he's able to show that he's made some majority, adjustments to his swing, which it feels like we have that conversation every spring. But I still think Alex Thomas is young enough where there is room to improve.

Obviously, he missed a lot of time with injuries this past season. And that was a big deterrent for him. But yeah, he's he's the best defensive center fielder on the team. And I think the diamond backs would love to have his glove out there. It's just a matter, as Sean said here, that, you know, it's just a matter of finding some consistency offensively. And maybe the debacks do look at trading an outfielder. They've made an annual practice of doing that. They dealt Dominic Fletcher last year.

They dealt Dalton Varsho the year before that, obviously. So maybe we see that again. Maybe the Diamondbacks try to sell high on a Jake McCarthy after the season that he just had. Not expecting that. I think they're at a point depth-wise where you don't have like so many outfield options. It's not like you feel like you need to move someone. Especially with other guys. minor league system like Chaparro and stuff being no longer an option well Shapiro I think was more of a more

of an infielder um but uh yeah like hoary brosa I guess is is an option there yeah I'm sorry yeah like you do still have some semblance of depth like if you were able to get something really valuable for Jake McCarthy then then maybe that is something the diamond backs would explore I know I yeah you're right because if of those two guys Jake's value is actually, you know, obviously much higher, especially considering some of the things he did at times last year than Alex. So maybe that could be it. I just, you know, again, it seems crazy to trade away the player that's playing well for you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It would be a risk to trade Jake McCarthy because then, yeah, you pretty much would be counting on Thomas being

close to an everyday player for you. And that's, there, there are some, there are some questions there for sure. All right. One more question. What do we got here? Kevin. Last, but certainly not. least we have a question from Travis Moore. Travis wants to know what is your favorite moment from watching baseball during your childhood. I was eight years old during that 2001 World Series. I was in love with baseball and the

D-backs and my dad is a Yankees fan. Watching Gonzo bloop that ball over the infield is the best sports moment of my life. I imagine so and it's got to be made even sweeter by that moment of sharing it with your dad. I think, I mean honestly a lot of my baseball moments

as a kid unfortunately, because I didn't have the Diamondbacks in my life are kind of centered around moments like I described earlier. That Expos moment probably was one of my favorite moments of watching baseball just because of the turnaround. And like it was kind of something weird out of like a movie, like seeing fans, you know,

all kind of sad and ejected turnaround and like get ready to start walking up the stands only to have the entire Expos team come out and like suits and ties and stuff because they were getting on, they were getting ready to travel and go, you know, go back to i imagine montreal so they all just came out and did something cool for us uh i will say that yeah like watching the new york yankees in 1996 with my dad was was something i'll never forget

because i think that that run that year my dad being just such a big fan of so many guys on that team paul o'neill bernie williams like it was just an incredible team that's kind of legendary even amongst like yankees teams that are iconic and and have names that literally are legends in the game, right? But there was just something, believe it or not, that Yankees team that year felt like it was like scrappy and an underdog and, and, you know,

had a lot of things going against it. So, but I think most importantly, it just was about like my love of baseball flourishing. I really remember that being the moment where I was like, oh, I'm hooked for life on this now, you know.

Yeah, yeah, that's a, it's a tough one for me. I, I would probably point, to 2011. I was away at college in 2017.

Probably still would have considered myself a fan of the team at the time. But yeah, I was not exactly dialed into things. And I did attend one of the DBAX Dodgers games in 2017, but all of those games were pretty miserable from the Dback standpoint. And I wound up watching the Dbacks get eliminated. So that was not great. But at 2011, the NLDS didn't go great for the DBAs then either. but I was at game three with my family and a fond memories of that.

Paul Goldschmidt hit a grand slam in that game and that felt like kind of the ushering in of the of the Paul Goldschmidt era of Diamondbacks baseball. He had come up toward the end of the season and basically ended Tim Lincolm's career. I remember that. In the playoffs, he did some exciting things as well. So yeah, the D-backs won that game eight to one. and they had life in the NLDS. Of course, they wound up forcing a game five in that series.

It didn't go their way. But yeah, that's my fondest memory of watching a postseason game in person. Also, I still hold very fondly, even though it's not childhood memory, of going to Wrigley Field with Megaran and acting like a child, even though I drank beer out of a bat. I did go up and get my first-timer certificate and my baseball cards. and that felt very childlike and I very much hold on to that as being one of my favorite baseball experiences just because I didn't care

about the Cubs at all that day. I didn't care about who they were playing. There was nothing I cared about more than just like that cathedral to baseball and making it my first, you know, making my first trip there. But in regards to that 1996 team, John Wetland also allowed me to understand that I

could wear a baseball hat that's just disgusting with sweat marks all over it and people were going to allow it. So I appreciate them for that. I also appreciate you guys so much for stopping by. Of course, we do have some more stuff to talk about before we get out of here, so make sure you don't go anywhere. But a big shout out to our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. Of course, they keep our numbers here straight at PHNXDbacks and they can help you with your numbers, especially your finances for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union, and they're

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So we'll be doing some outdoor events, including the All-City Desert Dual Golf Tournament. That is coming up on November 2nd at the Raven. our friends from CHGO, who I love dearly, will be in town as the cards host of Chicago Bears. So that means it's Greg Bragg season, Jesse. Let's go. We're going to have some fun. We're going to get drunk.

Diehard's from both markets will be in attendance. We got tea times from 8.15 a.m. to 10.45 a.m. So make sure to join us out there for that. There's going to be all sorts of wonderful things. You get a cart. You get lunch at the turn. Get a goody bag. So check out tickets over at go phnx.com slash events.

You can also join us for our trivia night. chicken and pickle in glendale that's on november 7th at 630 p.m. while all sorts of wonderful prizes for you guys out there could register your team of up to four people for free and of course ph and x and chicken chicken and chicken and pickle prizes for the top teams and i will be your emce so join us for all that fun of course we do appreciate you guys being here once again so much for our show today we will be back tomorrow with another 1 p.m. show make sure to join us then you can follow us on twitter in the meantime i am at Kappa underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman.

Of course, Kev on the ones and twos is at Kev Tom writes. Again, figure it out on your own. I'm not here to tell you how to spell things. Of course, our show is at PhNX underscore DBEX, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you for stopping by. We appreciate your time. We'll see you tomorrow.

Hope you have a wonderful evening and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when there are two teams in the World Series you actually want to watch.