PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Jackson Holliday makes debut, magnifying Druw Jones’ struggles with Diamondbacks

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

We have breaking news in regards to the Diamondbacks newest starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery parting ways with super agent Scott Boras. We discuss this, Jackson Holliday’s making his MLB debut, and Druw Jones’ struggles with our special guest Jordan Shusterman, Senior MLB analyst for Yahoo! Sports and co-host of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast. We also discuss Jesse’s Power Rankings and updates from the farm system.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to a Thursday edition of the PHNX T-Backs podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a super agent myself. This man, of course, is your vice mayor, also your Thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Jesse, we have asked the question already before on the show, but we have to ask it once again, is Scott Boris washed? He might be. He might be because he lost a client today, Derek. He lost a client today. And I wouldn't, I mean, I can certainly understand why this happened, but I also am a little surprised that any time someone moves on from Scott Boris is their agent, because that's not something we see very often.

It's not the direction people typically go as you go. As you advance in your career, you typically move towards Scott Boris and not away from him. But we have this tweet today confirming that the Arizona Diamondbacks newest starting pitcher has parted ways. with Scott Boris. That would be Jordan Montgomery, according to Kylie McDaniel. Left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery has hired Wasserman's Joel Wolf and Nick Shanick. As his agents per sources, Montgomery was one of the Boris IV who were unsigned late into the free agency. I projected he would get five years $106 million, and he eventually signed for one year $25 million with Arizona on March 26th. First, I would like to say that the Boris IV sound like what you would label people that went through some sort of disaster.

Like people that fell in a well or something, right? I was thinking like maybe like a rocket ship. Yeah, like a rocket ship. Yeah, yeah. Like an astronaut disaster. Afterdots that were lost around space and then they got them back successfully. It's the Boris poor. But I mean, that's not too far off there.

They were lost, definitely. They were lost in free agency. Almost forgotten. Poor them. They only made like a combined $100 million. That's it. That sucks. Yeah.

I mean, that's, that's as bad as suffering gets in this country. Well, no, and I mean what she's saying there, honestly, okay, so there's some truth that we thought, obviously, that someone like, you know, Jordan Montgomery would get a bigger contract as far as years go. Yeah. And I think it does show how important that peace of mind is for players, especially players who are the age Montgomery is and the place where he's at in his career, that he felt like this should be that point where he gets that big contract. And it just allows him to feel like they're going to be in one place for a long period of time. allow their family to kind of put down some roots and kids go to school and all of that a one-year deal doesn't do that you might not even unpack boxes on a one-year deal if you're living here in Arizona you know like so yeah I just I can kind of understand the disappointment from the player that

it's not the annual value because 25 million is kind of higher than projected that he was going to get on an annual contract it's just again the fact that he knows he's probably going to have to pick up and leave after this season yeah and I mean we we talked about this when when the diamond box sign this deal. Like Jordan Montgomery had a good enough walk year that he shouldn't have gotten just a one year contract, right? I mean, I guess you could sort of think of it as a two-year contract. It's pretty likely it winds up being a two-year guarantee.

But even a two-year guarantee, like Jordan Montgomery had a 3-2 OERA in almost 200 innings and was the number two starter for the team that won the World Series. Like, you can't really have a better walk year than the season that Jordan Montgomery just had. and it appears that he was not too happy with the way that his free agency went and understandably so it's not just that the final dollar figure the final guarantee being what it was it's also that he didn't know where he was pitching right until you know this was agreed upon like two days before the major league season started you can understand any pitcher

regardless of the kind of money that might come the advantages that might come with waiting like these are human beings they don't they don't want to have their routines messed up like that going into the season. I don't know for sure how much of a factor that was for Montgomery, but it seems reasonable to think it could have been a part of this. Elise says the Boris four sounds like a supervillain team. That's a great comparison. I think Ryan here where my thought process is going is that now we need Gallin to leave

Boris so we can extend him before free agency, right? And that's, it's crazy to say that. And I know it's kind of a joke and I'm kind of. joking about it. But am I really? No, I'm not because we know Scott Boris's track record for, you know, resigning or signing an extension or resigning with the same team. It makes it not very likely that we are going to see Gallen in a Diamondbacks uniform after his contract is over. But maybe if he does leave Boris like Montgomery did, maybe that changes the chances of that happening. Again, players aren't looking for technically the absolute most money they could get. If in turn,

they can get an amount that satisfies them that it feels that that's worth their value and allows them to stay in one place for a number of years. Sure. I mean, it depends on the player though, right? It does. I think some players, I mean, I don't know out of the Boris four, maybe there were guys who came to Boris and were like, yeah, I mean, you know, just get me the most money on an average annual value. I want to bet on myself and test this thing out next year and try to try to do better. But based on how this played out, I'm going to guess maybe Jordan Montgon. wasn't one of those people.

I'm not totally sure. Well, we do have a comment that he made from his introductory press conference here with the Arizona Diamondbacks that kind of appears a little different now that this has happened. This is what Jordan Montgomery had to say in regards to this deal with Arizona and it being a one-year deal. I mean, sometimes things don't work out the way we plan it. I'm not the one creating the plan and just trying to go along with it. So I'm happy to be a D-back and try and help this team out best I can. I'm not the one creating the plan. In my mind, Derek, there are two ways to interpret that.

One of them is that I believe that Jordan Montgomery is a Christian or a person of faith in some capacity. And that when he's saying, I'm not the one creating the plan, he very well could be referring to God being the one creating the plan. Which, yeah, I mean, I think that's a very real possibility. I'm not totally sure. the other way that I could read this is I'm not the one creating the plan is him saying this guy in the powder it's this guy in the powder blue jumper next to me he's creating the plan and uh and and it sort of sounds like maybe he didn't really agree with the plan that was that was set forth for him yeah I mean and that could be it uh and of course you you have to live with it

at the end of the day because you as an athlete you have to focus on being ready you have to focus on preparing for the season, especially when you're not in a camp, having a coaching staff help you prepare. It's very, you know, you do have Scott Boris, who has a ton of resources and is as good as a team when it comes to having resources to train you and to get you prepared for a season. However, it's still different when you're relying on that person to take care of all of that stuff on the business end. And in some cases, he's, you know, agreeing to or, you know, not or denying deals that maybe

you don't even know about you know maybe just because it didn't fit your particular uh you know requests he might have he might have passed and and maybe those deals would have been better for you than signing a one year deal with 25 for 25 million i know we are happy that jordan montgomery is here and we know that he is playing now especially with a new agent for his big contract after this season most likely he could still opt in and he could still be a diamond back for for another year it depends on how everything goes. I just think that this is, you know, you could ask, you know, could wonder if it's going to be a distraction. It could be more of a motivating factor for him this season, that we maybe even see the best out of him still to be determined. But we do have somebody that is very

knowledgeable when it comes to baseball joining us. And he can shed a little bit of light on this and a couple of other topics. Jordan Schusterman from the Cespittist family barbecue, joining us now. We're joined now by Jordan Schusterman. Of course, my replacement for Jesse, which I tried to have happened several times. But now he's finally joining us here with Jesse on the show, senior MLB analyst for Yahoo Sports and, of course, host of the baseball barbecast with our guy, Jake Mint. So thank you, Jordan, so much for joining us.

I'm sure he's finally glad to see you on the show for once instead of just watching it as a bystander. But we appreciate you stop a bye. And yeah, the Diamondbacks are already not in great shape early this season. We're going to talk about that. But, of course, wanting to first get your thoughts on what's going on with Jackson Holiday and all the all the hype around him. Sure. Yeah, well, first of all, it's great.

It's great to see you guys. I'm going to see you both on the same, you know, sitting at the same desk. I did get to meet Jesse IRL in spring training. So we got to hang out a little bit on what was. I was starstruck, Jordan. I was starstruck the whole time. That day, that was the beginning of a very strange day for me. in Arizona where I did, I believe, three camps in one day driving all around Phoenix.

I think that might have been the same day as the Otani live BP home run. And I had like driven all the way across Phoenix. But anyway, the point is, is Jesse, we've made up for lost time. So it's nice to have you here together. But I'm sure, I'm sure it's not. It's really not that big of a deal. But anyway, Jackson Holiday, as you mentioned. Yeah.

Jackson Holliday, who of course is a diamond back in another alternate timeline, but instead, he's on the Orioles of Baltimore and he did make his debut. My dear friend and colleague, Jake Mince, was in the house at Fenway for his debut last night. And yeah, I mean, again, it's really a kind of a remarkable. We kind of reviewed his come up on the podcast yesterday. And it's while it's like, well, of course, it's Matt Holliday's kid. and his son of a big leaguer and he's always been talented and you have all these quotes from people who saw him when he was eight and it's like of course he's a big leader so that's all true but I think it is still worth remembering that even the top top top guys it doesn't always go this

fast you know and whether it go even for the ones that how well it goes and so for baltimore to just hit time after time after time I think this is as much of a story about the orioles and their ability to both identify and scout and develop as it is about Jackson Holiday himself. And then now how he's going to fit into what is already a crowded, you know, picture, not to mention everything else that they have coming in AAA is going to be one of the big stories of the season this year in the AL East. So Jordan, of course, Jackson Holiday and Drew Jones. I mean, those comparisons are going to be made probably for a while. Jackson Holiday, of course, already having made it to the major leagues,

Drew Jones being what appears to be pretty far away at this point. Of course, he blew out his shoulder within about five seconds of joining the Diamondbacks organization, which is just par for the course for Diamondbacks first-round draftics. It's a standard. Them's the rules. You have to injure your shoulder before you can move on in this organization. But his, I mean, his first full season last year wasn't great. I know he ended fairly well.

the Diamondback seemed to be optimistic about some mechanical changes that he made in spring training and over the off season. But it's obviously still super early. I mean, he's two for 16 with 10 strikeouts so far in Bicelya, not exactly what you're looking for. I mean, how did you view Drew Jones back during the draft and how do you kind of view him now? Yeah, so, you know, I've been very closely following the draft for about five years now. of course, it's always something that's interested me, but I didn't really devote the time and energy to be fully prepared

to kind of understanding what the draft is about and the players are involved, especially at the top, until 2020, really is when I got into it. And this 2022 class, I think this is another thing that I kind of touched on on the pod yesterday. It is important, it's easy now to be like, oh my God, you know, compare the revision, you know,

but we should not have a level of revisionist history about how the entire industry was at least publicly. Again, I tracked this very closely and there was not a single board among all the public outlets that had Jackson Holiday at number one on draft day. Now, he had obviously worked his way into the top three or five so into that group alongside other high school bats like Tumar Johnson and Elijah Green who, you know, Elijah Green also had a slow to start to your, Tamar Johnson, he's had a stronger looking like a good top 100 prospect. But it's a reminder of how difficult it is to evaluate high school hitters, high school players in general.

And you can check a lot of the boxes, a lot of the same boxes, right? When you talk about a guy like Drew Jones also coming, you know, from, from baseball family and whatnot. But I think that what's become clear is this, it's possible this was a mis-evaluation on the part of much of the industry. It's possible that the injuries and the timing of the injuries are going to make it a difficult thing to evaluate fairly to begin with, right, regardless of what's going on with the other players in the class. And so I'm going to try and be patient, but yeah, it's a frustrating. It's a frustrating start for him. It's frustrating. Now, again, it is still different than them picking him first over Jackson Holiday.

I know there's kind of conflicting reports and understandings about the likelihood of whether or not he would have, the dyingbacks would have taken him or not. if they were picking first. But again, like, this is, if, if the D-backs missed here, it would not just be them, you know, that missed on the Drew Jones evaluation. But like you said, guys, still a really, really long way to go with him. That's, that's the alternate reality that you don't really want to live in, though, for the Diamondbacks is a reality where you passed up on him or any team passed up on him right now at this point and took someone else. Like you said, there's a few guys that still, uh, that are still right up there. There's still top prospects, uh, and some guys that are taking slower. But for the most part, it feels like it would have been a nightmare for the Diamondbacks if they would have had the top draft pick overall and ended up taking Drew Jones.

So thank you, so thank you Josh Van Meter then, right? Oh, don't make you do that. Don't make me do that. Josh Van Meter, my baseball twin, we are born in the exact same day. And so he has meant a lot to me over the years. And when he gave my good friend Jake Mintz, his beloved Orioles, the number one pick, I know it really meant a lot to him. But I would say, too, like the other thing about this is, It's just think about, I mean, obviously now it's like, okay, holidays and big leagues and he's gone through the minor league so quickly.

It is, this is why I love the draft so much and why it fascinates me to no end. And you have so many people involved in making these million dollar decisions, these huge organizational choices. And there's so much that goes into it. And teams will take these players. And within months, weeks of seeing them in pro ball, you'll have pro scouts who weren't involved on the amateur side or people and be like, like, what, why do we think that? Like, it's so amazing how quickly that it can change. And that's just the nature of baseball being really hard and professional baseball really hard.

And when you're talking about, you know, 18-year-olds or sometimes even younger, it's just, it's so hard. And it's so hard. And you can apply this to other sports too. Of course, I don't follow other draft so closely. But we know that this is just a part of the game. And that's what makes it so interesting and why I always want to try and learn more about it. I mean, Drew Jones is 20 years old, right? So it would seem outrageous to call him a bust or anything like that at this point.

I think one of the biggest questions I have about his future and I'm curious how you feel about this. It seemed like when he was drafted, there was sort of a narrative that his floor was maybe a little bit higher than a lot of high school draft picks just because he was probably going to play the heck out of center field no matter what. And we've seen a little bit of doubt already in the spring breakout game. He, you know, uncorked a 94 mile an hour throw. it's a home plate, which is one of the most incredible things that I've probably seen in person. Granted, the Diamondbacks are not exactly known for their outfield arms. So I think my eyes are maybe used to seeing Corbyn, Carol, you know, Jake McCarthy and the like. But do you feel like there's, do you feel like Drew Jones has a reasonably high floor where like

even in kind of a more worst case scenario, he could still be a big leaguer who could just go out and play the heck out of center field? Or are there enough questions about his bat where he really, like there's a world in which he doesn't really make it at all. Well, if it makes you feel any better, uh, Jackson Holiday's arm not great. So, you know, you have, you got that going for him. Uh, no, but hey, listen, to your point, like, it's still too early. It's still such a small sample of bats that I, I don't want to write off, um, the bat that

quickly. Yeah. But long way to go, right? And listen, we're having the same questions about another guy at the top of that draft in Elijah Green. who he was viewed as even more at the time of a boom or bust type because of the strikeout issues that he had in high school. And so even though his physical tools were every bit as good as Drew Jones, if not even louder,

you knew from day one like this might not happen. Whereas Drew Jones, it was perceived that like, no, like he's faced enough competition. We've seen him perform at all these levels that I don't think that risk, even if we perceive the ceiling to be lower, I don't think we saw the risk as being as high. And that's what we're going to have to see. I mean, when you're talking about a hitter that has performed so, so little as far, some not to his fault and some, you know, even in the samples that he has, it's too early to feel that strongly in either direction.

Like, of course, if we're already worried about, like, making sure he's going to be some sort of big league or it is nice to know he could play a hell of the center field, that isn't going to get you all the way there. I mean, the only position where defense alone is going to get you to the big leagues is probably catcher. otherwise you're going to have to show a little bit more than that and regardless of the comparisons to the rest of his draft class right i mean there's just a level of viability that we're going to need to see and we saw some flashes of that at the end of last season but it's it's way too early based on how small of a sample that we're working with how much he's played to really know either way well jordan i am the founder and proprietor of the blaze alexander fan you came on the show today with the name number one blaze alexander fan so i feel like we should link up here and talk about blaze a little bit Speaking of arms, his arm is great, his bad has been great, but he's made some really kind of boneheaded mistakes fielding out there so far. Do you think that's just something that guys go through when they're just arriving and kind of nervous about making mistakes, thus gets in their head and then it starts happening?

It's compounded by the mental aspect of it. I think that's fair. I mean, you don't want to make excuses when you're making this many errors and the expectations. It's not like he's never played shortstop before, right? But you do have to think about how fast this kind of all happened for him, you know, relative to even a couple months ago, right? Like to have the spring training that he had and you're offensively for sure. But even then, there was no reason for him to be expecting to be getting everyday shortstop reps at the big league level. And so I'm hopeful that it's just kind of a fluky stretch.

And he can kind of, because again, the glove is not, I mean, the arms is a big part of it, but the glove has not really been the concern for him. So I don't know what, I just think that the Blaze Alexander kind of timeline and how it relates to Jordan Lawler, who of course got injured. Like one of my biggest questions about the debacks two or three months ago was, where does Jordan Lawler fit into this future? Is this someone that they believe is going to be just eventually usurp, you know, Heraldor Pardomo as like the clear shortstop? Now we weren't able to find that out, you know, because of the injury. Now Blaze Alexander has this opportunity, but it's not necessarily what plan A or even plan B was. What is he, how does he handle that?

And we've seen it's, it's been a mixed bag. And I think credit to him that he's, you know, still been able to impact the game in some real ways on offense. And I think that that we shouldn't overlook that. But it's just such a wild turn of events when you consider how we were looking at the D-backs shortstop depth chart. Yeah. I know I know you guys were not super high on the diamond backs necessarily coming into the season. And understandably so. I mean, they were I've said it over and over again on this show.

They were a minus 15 run differential team. And Derek gets mad at me when I bring that up. But I still do. We need that reality. check around here. But the Diamondbacks did make a really significant move. I mean, right at the end of the offseason by adding Jordan Montgomery.

I'm curious of that. How much did that kind of change the calculus for you guys thinking about this team? Yeah, I think it definitely helped. And I did like a lot of the moves that they made, although I think one of my chief complaints about how they did literally nothing to address the bullpen and then, you know, losing Paul C-Wald. is bad luck, but that's also part of the risk of running back any bullpen or any pitching staff is that you're going to run into that.

And so now you've kind of seen the issues with that so far. And I think Montgomery will help, in theory, cover that up just with the amount of innings that he should be able to provide and just lessen the load on everybody. But in that sense, it's sort of been borne out. And then otherwise, I think it's a little early to judge too much on some of the other offensive additions. Now, fortunately, San Diego and San Francisco are similarly kind of stuck in the mud, despite all the moves that they made, some of which I really liked, some of which I was a little bit more skeptical of. And so that's, I wrote a little bit about this at Yahoo today for a piece that's going up later, but I'm just really interested.

I think that this group of three teams, Arizona, San Francisco and San Diego, as far as trying to assess and project them out, you know, for the rest of the season, is one of the hardest groups of teams to evaluate. and whether this division is going to end up having only barely getting two teams into the postseason, which with the amount of star power on these rosters is kind of wild, but was obviously the case last year. Or do they figure their stuff out and we end up getting closer to three teams in the postseason? So I think both are still very much in play.

I think, again, they're benefiting from some sloppiness from the other teams that they're directly competing with. Well, how do you like the Diamondbacks' chances? considering that they still have a lot of pieces still to play for this team for the first time and Jordan Montgomery and Erod plus the injury, you know, the guys coming back from injury. Like it feels like they're in a little bit better of a position than those other teams considering how much star power they have returning. Absolutely. No, and I think that's totally fair.

And I think that as I, you know, despite my concerns, which I think are still true, But I think that even with those guys coming back, hopefully as soon as possible, you know, there's still some questions in terms of the depth of the pitching staff and the bullpen and how that's going to shake out and what they can replicate. And maybe that's something you can remedy with the midseason trade or earlier than that. Maybe you don't wait for July until July before you make a move like that. Maybe a Ryan Nelson, you know, plays up in the bullpen, right? Like, that's not entirely hard to fathom.

So you could see some moves that they kind of. put them in a little bit of a better spot. But that would still be my concern. But then you can also point to cyclone, it's like, listen, Corvin Carroll hasn't looked amazing yet. You know, there's still some more offensive upside still, too, that I think they can tap into. So I think, again, it's been a frustrating start,

and the injuries are not great for sure. But they're all right. They're hanging in there. And like I said, I think that there is a lot to look forward to in terms of just the whole roster improving, whether it's guys coming back or guys kind of finding their footing more. We did have some kind of breaking news today with the information about Jordan Montgomery, parting ways with Scott Boris.

Yeah. All of this is happening, you know, while he joins this team, you know, he signed this one year, $25 million deal with the Diamondbacks, which, you know, based on him getting that amount for one year is fine. But in the grand scheme of things, it did look kind of like a failure for them to not secure a longer-term deal for one of the best pitchers on the free agent. market or at least considered one of the best pitchers on the free agent market. How much do you think this plays into, you know, everything he has going on here and, you know, his impact potentially on this team? Yeah, I don't think I wouldn't overrate how much it impacts him this season.

I guess the deal that he signed and the player option that is in there is pretty favorable if he wants it, you know, but it's still, we're still talking about it through your deal, right? So maybe maybe you do interpret that as regardless of whether he gets that player option or not. If he comes back and has a season he had last year, maybe he says, all right, I trust Joel Wolf more to get me four or five year deal next winner. Then even if I do earn this player option, maybe I say screw it. And I do leave after one year. Again, not shouldn't.

I don't think the debacks care about that. They realize that this move was about helping them win this year and and build up this roster to really compete. And I think that that credit to them for making that happen because clearly one of the reactions once we saw this deal was that's all it took to get Jordan Montgomery. Like really? Like, why didn't these other teams do that? And so. And I felt some of that too.

So credit to Arizona for making that happen. But in terms of how it actually impacts them, like I don't think it's the kind of thing that's going to be. I mean, I'm curious if he gets asked about it, you know, how that I don't. There is some precedent for this, but normally it's the way around, right? like normally it's guys going to Boris. And so this is an interesting, an interesting development. And we'll see if it's any sort of trend. Although it is also always funny to me like when you hire like after you've signed the deal.

But it's not like you did sign a big deal. So we'll see. It can't be a coincidence. I mean, to me it's that it's that simple. And you don't see that many guys leaving Boris in that way. I mean, the only other one I can think of is, and if I'm totally botching this, I apologize. guys, but Cabo Reeves with the nationals, I'm pretty sure had Boris and then left Boris and then immediately signed an extension. It was like, oh, well, you can see how some of these, some of

these trends work. But yeah, I don't think it's going to like hang over the season in any sort of positive or negative way, but it'll be interesting to see him talk about it if someone does ask him. Last, last thing for me, Jordan. What happened to the central? I get both central divisions. Like, I guess they just heard the haters and, you know, suddenly the tigers and the, the, the, the, the tigers and the royals and the pirates are like these unbelievable baseball teams. Do you, I mean, do you actually buy in to any of those central teams in either league with the starts that

they've gotten off to? Or do you kind of think this is going to become kind of what we expected before too long? They heard what we were saying and they took it personally, basically. It's what it feels like right now. Yeah, I mean, the NL Central is wacky. Like,

I can't remember it being this. I've kept referring to it as far. flat in the sense that the gap between the best, whoever the best and whoever the worst team is, is about as small as I can really remember ever seeing any division. And the Pirates hot start has certainly contributed to that. The AL Central is, I actually think more, Kansas City in particular is the team I'm watching the closest because they have changed the most tangibly. Sure.

They have dramatically, I mean, they've got a, by the way, I don't know if you guys are looking, you know, we're recording this on Thursday afternoon. They are absolutely whooping on the Astros again today. Crazy. And but for me, with them, it's like their pitching has been so atrocious. And for them to not only bring in some new personnel on the field, but also in the coaching staff, start kind of moving in the right direction. Like, there's enough. It's still going to take some steps forward on offense around Bobby Wich, Union. but that's that's a big deal if that is a tangible difference there whereas with like

Pittsburgh there's it still smells a little bit too much like their hot start last year I'm more optimistic than that and they have more help coming with Paul Skeens and I love Jared Jones I haven't I there's not enough you know infrastructure change that makes me feel like I can trust it but Kansas City I'm watching pretty closely and you know it helps that the twins have been off to a relatively slow start I wouldn't doom them but and by the way Cleveland is also like they're not a bad baseball team. And so they're both going to be competitive. I don't know if any team in either of those divisions is going to win 90 games,

but I don't really care, right? It's going to be fun to watch. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Jordan, thank you so much for joining us. Make sure to follow him on Twitter at J underscore Schusterman underscore and also the show at Cespittus BBQ. Again, tell Jake we said hi and we thank you again for stopping by. I always appreciate you guys.

happy to do it. Well, big thanks again to Jordan for stopping by. Thanks to all of you for being here. Of course, prize picks is a great way for you to get down on some baseball action using your knowledge, of course, to make yourself some money. Of course, prize picks has something for every sports fan from baseball and basketball to league of legends and everything in between. Price Pack. People still play League of Legends? Yeah, apparently so.

Yeah. It's news to me too. but they even offer injury insurance. My brother was obsessed with that game like a decade ago. Yeah, yeah, I know. Of course, your brother could turn his skills from $10 into $1,000 with just a few taps. Of course, quick withdrawals, easy game play, an enormous selection of players and stat types are what make prize picks. The number one daily fantasy sports app.

Price Picks now offers Apple Pay, by the way, for quick and easy deposits in your account this season. So make sure to check that out. Go to Priceps.com slash PHNX and use code PHNX for. a first deposit match up to $100. That's prizepicks.com slash PHNX and use code PHNX. Pick more, pick less. It's that easy at prize picks. Of course, big shout out to Circle K for powering me today.

I needed the extra energy to get through everything that we've already gone through this baseball season. It's not even, we haven't even gone through a month yet. And I am already fairly exhausted. But thanks to Circle K, my gas, my car is filled up with gas. I got this energy drinking. of me and of course I got all of that at a discount thanks to being part of their inner circle membership program you can join inner circle for free by downloading

the circle k app today terms and conditions apply at participating locations visit circle k com for details but if you do you will save 25 cents per gallon on your first five phillips you also save three cents per gallon every day after that of course your premium premium member you'll get five cents off per gallon every day after that so make sure to sign up today and make sure get yourself something to drink too while you're there. Don't just get gas for your car. Take care of yourself. Of course, we do have our power rankings. A big, big shout out, by the way, to all of you guys for being here right now in the PHNXports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now, sign up for

notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live. Leave us a review on the audio podcasting side. Make sure you subscribe over there. Drop us a like. If you're here live in the show now, we always appreciate that. Gabby loves all of that. And Damon's trying as best to keep up with me and all of my... That was rapid fire. I was all over the place. Of course, Jesse is going to be a little bit more detailed with his power rankings this week. He'll go in order and not all over the place like I just did. But some things have changed, including one change that's not going to be too popular with our friends here in the chat today. Yeah, kind of a lot of things changed.

I changed a lot after just one week. I feel gross. You lost your mind. You lost your mind. I feel like I lost my mind. People will notice. those of you joining us here live right now who can see on YouTube, the Diamondbacks are no longer in the top 10.

I didn't, I think they're close. I mean, the Diamondbacks are certainly in a position where if they go four and two over the next week, like, boom, they're back at number eight or something, right? It's not like they're distant and way out of this by any means. But given the start they've gotten off to, given that five of their six wins to this point in the season have come against the Colorado Rockies, felt a need to kind of tap the brakes a little bit there and move the diamondbacks out of the top 10.

They're not the only good team out of the top 10. The Houston Astros are also not on this list, which Damon and Derek made me do. I wasn't super happy about that. You needed to get them off this list. The Astros are, I mean, they're four and nine. And I think they might have just lost to the, to the Royals as well. It might be four and ten now. So there are some, it's a balance, right, between what you've seen so far in two weeks of the season versus what you kind of expect in the

long run. We tried to take both of those things to account. But getting to the list real quick, I'll just run through them. We've got Dodgers still at number one, Braves at number two, no changes there. The Yankees going up from number five to now number three, the Orioles at number four, the Rangers at number five. And then this is where it got very difficult for me, Derek. I did not know where to go. Number six and beyond. It feels like there's a whole bunch of teams kind of in the mix together. We have the Brewers in there at number six. They are off to an eight and three start. with a plus 17 run differential, good stuff from them so far. The Guardians move from 10 all the way up to 7.

I was a little hesitant to do this because they did just lose Shane Bieber to Tommy John's surgery, which is kind of a big deal. That's fair point. But they're still 9 and 3 with a plus 35 run differential. And as Jordan said, like that's not a bad baseball team. Even without Shane Bieber, I think given that division, I still could see a path forward for them to make the playoffs. We've got the Royals in there at number eight who also have been off to a

a very good start. Cubs at number nine and then the Philadelphia Phillies at number 10. I hate this list and I do hate you a little bit for putting it together in this order but I will also say

much like many of the people in chat are saying it's fair. It's fair that you have the Diamondbacks not on here. I don't think they right now with the way they've played recently deserve to be in the top 10 teams of baseball if they would have kept putting it

to teams like they did early on. Yeah. Even honestly, even had the struggles that they did because those games against the Braves were very, very, very winnable for this team as we've discussed before in the past. They just kind of

let it slip away, right? This season looks much differently if they take two out of three against those Braves instead of getting swept by them. But that's not what happened. They could have. So easily could have. They could have won the series against the Yankees and the Braves. Those were winnable, but they didn't. And that's the reality of it.

Whether you want to say they were in those games. Because they played bad. Because they played poorly. Yeah, it's not like those teams just like the Braves are just unstoppable. It's because of defensive mistakes. Or that the Diamondbacks aren't in their league or aren't in their class. Defensive mistakes, base running airs, stuff that makes you not a top 10

team in baseball because you're playing bad baseball. That's fair. Specifically defensive mistakes that led to, you know, multiple runs scoring. I mean, it was just, you just saw it at times with this team. And I mean, to be fair, a lot of it was mistakes made by Blaze Alexander,

but he wasn't the only one that was making mistakes out there, right? So realistically, this team is definitely capable of hanging with the, the best teams in baseball and maybe even could be considered one in the future. But right now, I think it's safe to say that they aren't a top 10 team in Major League Baseball. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, it's, it's, they very much hung with the Yankees, right? I think they scored more runs than the Yankees did in that series as a whole. They were right there in all of those games against the Atlanta Braves as we discussed and they just weren't able to get over the top. And you can

look at their run differential of plus 17 and be like, oh, that's one of the best in baseball. Like, surely they should be in the top 10. But it's not. it's not that simple right uh you do have to do the little things in order to actually win those close games the diamond backs just simply have not done that to this point in the season a couple of other teams i want to mention real real quick uh who just missed the top 10 the Pittsburgh pirates are nine and three shout out Pittsburgh pirates uh they're at plus 19 it's sad what you're doing to the fans just season i i feel like i might i might be disrespecting uh the pirates a little bit but also So the Pirates very much did this last year and it did not last and people were skeptical of it.

And it ended the way that we kind of all thought it would. That's fine. If the Pirates were beating good baseball teams, I probably would put them in the top 10. But looking at the schedule that they've that they've had so far, I believe they opened with four against the Miami Marlins. We all know the state of that franchise right now. Fair. They also played the fair. The Marlins didn't make the playoffs last year somehow.

Pirates ruined the Marlins season. You could say that. People are saying. That's what people are saying. You could say the pirates have a better record than at least half of the teams on your top 10 list. You could. You could. You could say that.

And you would not, you would not be wrong. I mean, Yankees have a better record. A better run differential than most of those teams, too, just like. I think the Yankees are the only team in baseball right now that has a better record. The Pittsburgh Pirates is a wild. Just know, Pirates fans, when Jesse tears you guys down, me and Derek will be here to fight for you the whole goddamn way just stand and waving a flag on

a pirate flag Clemente Bridge yes absolutely that's where we will be with skulls with skulls that sounds lower the mass fucking incredible the pirate I will wear a pirate I will wear an eye patch for you people one with crossbones on Jesse's pirate's erasure will not be tolerated

there's there are some teams on this list though that that aren't performing well and again it's about you know where they're at and what they are essentially at the end of the day capable of with the season being still so young, right? And the Diamondbacks are still right there. But there are, you know, some of those teams at the top,

they're not doing as good as you would think. And so at least there's some hope here that, you know, this might be a fun season as far as things staying close. The Braves, you know, lose a huge part of their starting rotation, potentially in Spencer Strider. That's true. You might have Tommy John surgery. Right now the Dodgers are 10 and 5 with only a plus 13 run differential.

The Diamondbacks have a best. Better run differential than the Dodgers. So do you do with that what you will. But Tyler Glass and out me while has been just incredible. So that's a little discouraging when you see how good he is. And he's not even supposed to be one of the best pitchers in that starting rotation, but might be one of the best pitchers or might be the best pitcher. Yeah.

I mean, I probably would have considered him one of the best going into the season. But you didn't expect him to be super durable necessarily. And obviously it's so early in the season. We can't really assess durability at this point. point, but he has made every start. He's pitched reasonably deep into games. He's done what he's been asked. He had 14 strikeouts the other day against the twins.

Yoshinovo Yamamoto, also worth mentioning with the Dodgers, he's bounced back nicely and pitched well after that disastrous first start. Unfortunately. Out against the Padres in Korea. So, yeah, the Dodgers are so still, I'm viewing them as the best team in baseball right now. I do find it interesting that the Diamondbacks, like the Diamondbacks have yet to play a mid-tier team this season.

They've played the Rockies seven times and the Rockies are, we don't do the bottom part of the power rankings because it'd be a little boring, but the Rockies very well could land at or close to number 30. And the other two teams, the Diamondbacks

have played, are ranked second and third on our power rankings. The Braves are number two, the Yankees are number three. I know we didn't necessarily view the Yankees as being a 9,500 win team necessarily coming into the season, but that's kind of the team they look like right now. Garrett Claw hasn't even thrown a pitch for the Yankees yet this season, and their offense

has been good. Their pitching staff has been good enough, and they seem like a very, a very good baseball team. So it'll be interesting this weekend. Like, what does it look like for the Diamondbacks to play, like kind of a normal baseball team? Like the Cardinals are about as normal as it gets right now. I think they're six and six coming into the series. Six and seven, I think. Six and seven.

Okay. So, yeah, I guess we'll see what that looks like. Well, and of course, the Diamondbacks still have some reinforcements on the horizon coming, so we'll see how that impacts things. We have about one more week to wait until Jordan Montgomery makes his debut for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Then after that, hopefully we'll see some other familiar faces returning for this team shortly after, including Eduardo Rodriguez. It's going to be really nice to see this team come together and how well they can perform

once they do have that full starting rotation and whatever the hell they can put together for this bullpen. because the bullpen needs some help, need some help, help. That's not a plural. They need so much help that we have to make it plural. Is that what you're saying? Elise says I think the Cardinals and Cubs series will be a good litmus test. I agree with that as well. Yeah, it'll be interesting.

Of course, make sure you check out Desert Financial Credit Union for more than 84 years. Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. They got me started on my home ownership journey, and they can get you started as well. they, of course, are dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and providing financial solutions that make lives better. You can look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, investment options, loans, credit cards, and so much more. When you open a free checking account online right now, you can get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200.

And once you've saved yourself a little bit of money, you've got to treat yourself. A great place to treat yourself is at Heela River Resorts and Casinos. no one does it better. They offer an authentic and immersive experience. And of course, like I've said, I hate traveling. So don't travel. Stay. Stay here. Go on a staycation. Maybe just even a night out on the town. Heila River has you covered with an unprecedented level of entertainment and excitement that you won't find anywhere else. They've set an absolutely high bar with their dining options as well as all of their wonderful gaming options on their state-of-the-art gaming floor. Head to Heel River Resorts and casinos and let them show you what next level is all about. You do you at Heala River Resorts and Casinos.

Visit play atheela.com for more details. What happened to the Royals, Derek? They just beat the Astros 13 to 3. I think what the Royals did was one of the things I talk about in baseball, whereas you can go out and you can pay a Blake Snell. You can go out and pay a Jordan Montgomery, $20, $30 million a year. But you can also find another pitcher on the market who is almost as good as those guys. just honestly isn't ranked by analysts and writers as high or, you know, maybe wasn't in the

Sy Young discussion, but still at the end of the year put up very comparable numbers. And I think the Royals did a good job of like kind of going out and making their team better, but like not needing to spend the most money on those guys that are going to make this team better. Just bringing guys that have had success with other teams and try to, you know, bring a new team together, you know, again, they addressed a lot of their shortcomings like the Diamond backs did in the offseason and arguably they didn't spend nearly as much money but you could say they were as active as any team on the free agent market so I think that's what we're seeing yeah yeah yeah I mean Seth Lugo and Michael Walker both they both pitched well both guys we had on our radar

for the diamondbacks and honestly guys that we thought were way more realistic that the diamondbacks would pursue than the guys that they actually ended up getting because they got guys that were more marquee guys this this offseason what got into their offense though they put they put they put nine runs on 11 hits on a hunter brown in the first inning hunter brown did not get out of the first inning today against the royals yeah piece of yoshi says their offense was already pretty good last year so you know hey you know they built they built on something we'll see if it's sustainable though right yeah because like you said with the pirates sometimes it's just kind of like it's just baseball baseball's so weird you start getting confidence you start having a good time you start playing in a way

where you're not all wrapped up in your own head, which the Diamondbacks might be at times with all of these expectations. You can call expectations whatever you want sometimes, but there's still expectations. You can call it standard. You can call it a giraffe. It doesn't matter.

It's still expectations. And the expectations for this team are big coming off of a year where they made it all the way to the World Series. Whether you like it or not, the expectations change with success. And now that's what the Diamondbacks are dealing with. Hopefully they can get back to playing where they're just having fun and enjoying themselves a little bit more.

not so wrapped up in maybe those expectations. But getting on Bobby Witt MVP right now. We really are a Royals podcast. That's what we're turning into. I didn't like that. I thought that the graphic was like making fun of us a little bit for not being on the, uh, look at it.

He's like, oh, you're diving back aren't on here anymore. That's all I saw. I think he's more, I think he's doing that at all the idiots who aren't running to the bed MGM sports book app and putting down a Bobby Witt Jr. A L MVP.

That is a very good point. Plus 1,200. Yeah. Are you kidding me? All right, that's enough of that, Damon. Thank you. Let's talk about the bad. Yeah, let's talk about probables for this upcoming series.

I know we discussed it a little bit on yesterday's show, but let's take a look at those pitchers for the series coming up here against the Cardinals. This is, again, a good Cardinals team, not to take anything away from them, but you feel a little bit more confident, once again, like we said yesterday, about Brandon Fott and Zach Gowen being two out of the three pitchers in a three-game series like this. There is a grave tragedy in this series, Derek. the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals signed one Lance Lynn over the off season and he will not be returning to Chase Field this week. I guess he will. I guess he will be there.

He will be there. Can we get to throw out the first pitch? Like the ceremonial first pitch? He may be having potential nightmares as he revisits Chase Field. Fans would go nuts for him. They would be like, yeah! Can we get Gabby out there at the plate while you're throwing out the first pitch? Like that would be amazing.

Yeah, no, no Lanselin is a little disappointing. No Sunny Gray also just like as a baseball fan is a little disappointing. He's so good. But from the Diamond Ducks perspective. Not what he pitched the other day, that's for sure. Yeah, from the Diamondbacks perspective, you don't, you don't feel too bad about missing him. At least being in Arizona, Lance Lynn, we'll get to spend some father-son time with Gabby. That's right.

Oh, my gosh. Papa Gabby. That's huge. Yeah. He's a good dad. All right. Well, we do have an exciting new announcement. I don't know if you've had a chance to discuss it yet, but Jesse is going to be.

hosting his own show without me. This is the beginning of him phasing me out. I knew that it was only a matter of time before he would start taking steps to prove that I have no worth around here. But be on the lookout for on the record with Jesse Friedman and your first first guest. Yeah. First guest will be Katie Wu, who covers does a great job covering the St. Louis Cardinals for the athletic. Basically on the record, it's not it's not like a new 45 minute podcast or something. This is just a special segment that will be separate from our regular show.

I think we're going to put it in the audio podcast feed as well. Correct. So if you subscribe there, if that's primarily how you get our stuff, you will see it there. You'll also see it on YouTube separate from the regular show, as I said. And I'm just going to preview each series right before the Diamondbacks play, any particular team. I'm going to find someone who really knows their stuff about that team. So Katie Wu covering the Cardinals for the Athletic. Love Katie Wu.

She does an outstanding job. So, yeah, we're just going keep this going, hopefully throughout the whole season where you can expect a series preview with me and then a beat writer of the opposing team. So I'm excited for it. No, Elise, Jesse is not moving up. How dare you? I mean, if you're going to replace me with Jordan Schusterman, then I had to have my own thing going, you know? I get it. So this is my way of retaliating for you having Jordan on twice.

It's a backup plan. And it's a good one. It's a good one. I like it. We do have some updates from down on the farm before we get out of here. I don't know. Do we want to start with the good or do we want to start with the bad? Because these updates go in vastly different directions.

I mean, I guess you could start with the good because Christiane Mena has been that very, very good for this team. Two and O, 11 innings pitch. He's allowed seven hits and one earn run. My man's given up four walks, eight strikeouts has a 0.82 ERA with a 1.00 whip. he is looking like an absolute steel when it comes to that deal with the white socks. Yeah, the one downside with Mata so far is that the Velo tick that we saw in spring training has not proven itself to be legitimate, at least not at this point. Looking at his VLO, his fastball Velo from his first two starts,

basically exactly where it was last year when he hit AAA with the White Sox toward the end of the year, averaging around 92.5 miles an hour. So that's not necessarily a problem. I mean, it would have been kind of crazy to expect him to just instantly have a like four mile an hour velo jump the moment that he joined the Diamondbacks organization. But it did a few weeks ago kind of look like that's what was happening, given what we were seeing on the backfields and in some of the Cactus League games. We haven't seen that from him so far in these games.

But as you said, the numbers have been very good. He has really good secondary stuff that can carry him a long way. I guess sticking with the positive Caden Grice. a name that people might not be super familiar with. I did want to give one more positive there. In regards to Christian Mena, is that the other side of that trade, Dominic Fletcher,

helped the ball go over the wall while trying to catch it in the outfield. So, again, advantage Diamondbacks for now. Yeah, clearly, yeah, call the trade right now. We already know who the winner is. But yeah, Caden Grice, someone that probably heard the name, maybe not too familiar. Diamondback selected him 64th overall.

in last year's draft. He is a big dude, six foot six, 250 pounds. He was really a two-way prospect. So as Damon said, the Diamondbacks show Hey Otani, Gatine Grice,

gets to know his name. Oh, Tony at home. The Diamondbacks do not seem especially interested in having him hit a whole lot. They view him primarily, at least as a pitching prospect.

He struck out kind of a lot in his final year at Clemson so I can understand why they would want to do that. But yeah, he so far in two appearances down in Vysalia, six in a third innings. He has not allowed a hit, Derek, and he has struck out 12 of the 21 batters that he has faced. So that is a pretty electric start to a professional career. Meanwhile, on the flip side of things, not great news when it comes to more injuries happening for the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.

both Jack Hurley and Gino Groover were hurt in the same game. They both got pulled from the same baseball game. The updates are coming. They are in Arizona to be evaluated. But again, Gino Grover, a huge part of this team's future. And just not great overall. Wait, I did miss Justin Martinez. That's not necessarily a negative.

That's a positive. That's not a negative there. Justin Martinez has looked very good. And when you talk about where the diamondbacks are going to get bullpen help, Justin Martinez might be that bullpen help. In four and two-thirds innings, he's allowed three hits and no runs. He's walked two and struck out nine. And I think it's the walking two part.

That's very encouraging there along with the nine strikeout. So so far, so good for Justin Martinez. Yeah, he's throwing, he's just throwing more pitches in the zone than he did last year by a wide margin. Last year, his zone rate was 40.8%. So just over 40% of his pitches in the strike. zone. This year, it's at 52.1%, which I believe is above average. Like, if you looked at Zach Gallens in zone rate from last season, I don't have it in front of me, but I'm pretty sure it would be below 52.1%. So if Justin Martinez can find a way to

be in the zone with that level of regularity over a long period of time, he could be a very good relief pitcher in this league. There is a non-zero chance that Justin Martinez becomes a set-up man, you know, closer caliber reliever in the majors. It's never been a question of stuff. It's just a matter of if he can command it well enough. And he has had very, very big issues in that regard in past years. I don't want to minimize that. We need to see a lot more before we really buy into this, I think.

But yeah, I mean, hard to imagine a better start from Justin Martinez. I'm ready to call him up. I am. I don't think you're the only Diamondbacks fan. Yeah, no, let's, goodbye, Louise Friess. It was fun. Poindongi says, how's Corby Martin doing? Do you want to tell him?

Yeah, not great. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but he's made it, he's made a couple of appearances, and they haven't been good. And, of course, the Diamondbacks also designated him for assignment. So that doesn't necessarily mean the Corbyn's out of the organization. I don't believe we've heard yet. Yeah, not for sure. What the outcome is with him being passed through waivers.

But, yeah, he was not especially good in the, the few appearances he made. Two appearances. I have the numbers now. Three innings. Three hits, three runs, three walks, three strikeouts. None of that really stands out. Obviously, it's just two appearances.

I found it weird that they kind of extended him out a little bit. I think he threw, if I can make the game log come up. It's not going to come up for me, sadly. But I think he threw around 30 pitches in each of his outings. And that was sort of the big narrative in spring training was that the debacks were wanting to protect his arm. Obviously, he's had so many help. issues the last few years.

I don't really understand why you would want to extend out someone who's in that situation. But yeah, we'll see if he remains in the organization here pretty soon. Of course, we did touch on it with Jordan a bit there. But Drew Jones has been struggling in Vassalia, two for 16 with 10 strikeouts. And things just don't look great right now. He's still a prospect. He's still young. I think once again, though, it just kind of is amplified by the fact that Jackson

Holiday, who luckily the Diamondbacks didn't pass on in order to take Drew Jones is doing so well. He's really just advanced in his career faster than most prospects ever do. So he's an anomaly when it comes to baseball prospects in itself. It just doesn't help that he came into Major League Baseball so close to Drew Jones. The two ultimately are always going to be connected by those comparisons. But I think it was the least that said it earlier. and it hurt my feelings when she did,

but she said at least the sons, they didn't do what the sons did, which was pass up on a player to take another player and then have the one they take be a bust. I don't know if we're ready to call them a bust yet. Right, right. Yeah, I was going to say that the debacks took the player that I think almost every team in the league would have taken

if they were in that spot. Like Jackson lot is off the board. You've got number two overall, who you take in. I don't know for sure exactly how many teams it would have been, But as we were talking about with Jordan, the Diamondbacks are not the only team that we're enamored with Drew Jones's skill set. And it is very much still way too early to be judging him really as a prospect. The sample size is still so small given the injuries that he's face to date.

But this is not the start that you might have hoped for. Two for 16 with 10 strikeouts. I think he got the day off yesterday. Don't think that was due to an injury or anything. Hopefully not. we'll see we'll see where it goes from here comes back to what I was saying expectations right and sometimes those expectations can be a little bit overpowering yeah especially in the game of baseball I feel like it's harder to you know kind of overcome that from a mental perspective than it is in

other sports but you still see it in other sports it just baseball that that's why it is such a shaky ground that's why you see some prospects that never make it that are drafted very high and that's why you also see guys drafted in the 200s that end up being a superstar. It's because sometimes it's just so hard to tell when they're high school kids. And some of them, a handful of them are college kids. And to know if those skills that they're showing against other mediocre baseball players that their, you know, competition level is going to translate at a major league level. But I just can't imagine, like if you're Drew Jones, I mean, he's been around a major league

clubhouse obviously like i think he has a good head on his shoulders but i mean if i were in drew jones's position i would put so much pressure on myself so yeah that's self doubt starts creeping in and it's so much pressure yeah because i mean he was hyped up like to be potentially an even better player than his dad who's probably going to be in the hall of fame uh his dad was in the majors at age 19 hitting homers which is in major league baseball which is wild and not only that but the guy taken right in front of you is already in the majors in Jackson Holiday doing what he's doing. Diamondbacks have had, you know, Corbyn Carroll certainly, like another first round pick, another outfielder taken out of high school, has had so much success.

Like, I'm really curious what's going on in Drew Jones's mind and how he's kind of grappling with all of that. Well, I'm kind of shocked that you guys said Jackson Holiday's name and Bo Brock didn't like just a peer. Oh, didn't materialize in this room and just, yeah, Stan be like. He's just like behind there. staring at him. Yeah, no.

That's usually a bad signal. I'll tell you, the Orioles, you know, they just have an eye for talent. They've done a great job at whatever. Like, it's like they have a, like someone's on Twitter. It's like they have a factory producing these guys at time. And they all look alike. They don't. Yeah.

Do you think, I was just going to say, do you think that if Drew Jones, like, had the appearance of an Adley, Ruchman, Gunner Henderson, you know, that general type of player, like, do you think that that would have is that just what the Orioles just always draft people who look the exact same way i don't diamond backs for sure how like they like vibes guys so i know that that's like something like oh you're only you know uh colton wong you're you're you're like hitting like 183 in your last 10 of games but how is your vibes how are the vibes jason you look like you look like you look like you're from the early 2003 yeah just an absolute we have to keep you on the roster yeah well uh you you can see all of these guys well i don't know about

about Colton Long, but you can see Jayce Peterson live in person on May 9th versus the Padres. So make sure to join us for our takeover event. Not just that. We have all sorts of wonderful events, including our Keeping It 100 golf tournament, which you should all sign up for because, let's be honest, you're going to get more in giveaways from our sponsors and prizes. Then you're going to pay even for the event. But of course, if you're a diehard, you will get a discount.

The prizes and stuff are crazy. Like last year? Last year, I mean, you got you got fed in the morning, fed in the afternoon. That's already two good meals that you got right there. That's already 25, 30 bucks worth of value right there. You got a free polo. You get free polo. And then that's not even the good bags and all this stuff.

There's rumors about free merchandise this year, potentially PHS branded. And then, of course, Derek, we have boots set up all over the place where you could win prizes and then a raffle afterwards. It's like adult Halloween. You just go trick-or-treating. but some of those sponsors might be OGs and stuff like that. So make sure to check it out. Join us for that. We're going to have some fun.

I'm going to be out there trying my best not to make a fool of myself. By the way, I don't know what to call her. Our queen of content, I don't know what her title is, but Lindsay Spano questioned me even golfing. She didn't even say, are you good at golf? She said, do you golf? Like, what kind of insane question is that to ask a person? And yes, I golf. Am I bad at it?

Yes, I'm very bad at it. But I will still be out there having a fun time. I mean, it'd be a pretty reasonable question to ask me because the answer is really no. No, I get that. Yeah, no. I got clubs that have covers on them. They're cats flipping you off. Like, I'm there.

I'm ready. So, of course, join us at Dobson Ranch Golf Club on May 10th for that scramble. It's a 7.30 a. It's on a Friday. So you're going to have to, you know, call out of work or play hooky or whatever. I will not blow up your spot. So, of course, I won't, if you're calling out of work sick, I won't take selfies with you and post them on my account or anything like that. But get your tickets for that.

Get your tickets for the takeover on May 9th. It is Gabby Moreno Bobblehead Night. So it's a great night to get out there. And of course, it's a great time to join us for that. And of course, if you are a diehard, all of that is cheaper. You also get a free t-shirt from p.nxlockery.com. It also pays for itself. You get Jesse's written content.

You get access to the Discord lounge and so much more. So join us over here, become part of the family. Also, shout out to Arizona Lottery, who's trying to encourage us to get out and see more of this beautiful state that we live in. Their new ticket promotion, Arizona Adventure, it's all about that. They have three ways to play, including their new lottery tickets that actually have some iconic landscapes on there, including Monument Valley and Camelbeck Mountain. You can also check in at geolocated adventure spots at 10 destinations across the state from Flagstaff to Yuma.

You don't have to have a sick route for in order to go to those locations, but Jesse might encourage you to buy it helps it does help and you can enter tickets online for a chance to win one million dollars in cash in Arizona travel prizes Arizona Lottery says proceeds from ticket sales support environmental conservation among other important initiatives across the state Arizona lottery is not just about playing games and winning prizes it's also about giving back to the state and its communities Visit azieadventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure for a chance to win one million dollars in cash in Arizona travel prizes Also, if you do want to go to more baseball games than just our takeover event on May 9th, we have a couple of other takeovers or you can get your tickets anytime through game time. And of course, when I say anytime, I mean game time is the place for last minute ticket deals. You can save up to 60% off by buying last minute for sports, concerts, comedies, and all sorts of other shows.

It's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. And of course, if you get down on a major league baseball game right now, you can use that code of first pitch and save $20. off between now and April 14th. Not a lot of time to use that, but if you want to head out and see the Diamondbacks take on the St. Louis Cardinals, it's an absolutely perfect app to do it through. Jesse will tell you it's very aesthetically pleasing, and I will once again tell you it's going to save you some money, and that's what I'm all about. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime.

For a limited time, all users can get $20 off at any MLB purchase of $150 or more in the GameTime app with Code First Pitch. Terms do apply, that's Code First Pitch for $20 off from now until April 14th only. time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, Diamondbacks will be back here at home at that building. He will be out there making sure that you guys get as much information about this team as you can get. Of course, you can follow us in the meantime. I'm at Cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's

dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You got anything else? That's all I got. It's all I got to. Drop a like. Drop a like before you go. We do appreciate you guys being here.

Of course, we will see you tomorrow with another post game show on Friday. And in the meantime, you guys have a wonderful night. We thank you for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you fire Scott Boris.