PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Jordan Lawlar is Diamondbacks’ sole representative on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

Diamondbacks infielder Jordan Lawlar has made quite the impression on Baseball America, ranking very highly on the publication’s Top 100 prospects list. However, he is the Diamondbacks’ only prospect ranked in the top 100. Is this a sign that the D-backs farm system isn’t what it used to be? And how will Lawlar fare in 2024 when it comes to his own Rookie of the Year campaign? We’re also making some new rules for Chase Field that opposing fans are going to hate.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Michelob ULTRA: It’s only worth it if you enjoy it. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. https://www.michelobultra.com/Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them 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.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast, right? On PHMX, my name is Derek Montia. Occasionally known as your mayor of PHMX. This is your vice mayor and your thunderstick, the one and only, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, I know we're going to look at some rankings of MLB players, right, or MLB Network's rankings and where the Diamondbacks players land. Is this going to make me angry? I actually don't think this one's going to get you that angry

I don't believe you I don't believe you one bit Damon Damon I need the jar Give me the jar can you can you yeah oh there we go that's good all right let's get the swear jar out here now Add some cash because of course we're gonna talk about Corby Carroll where he's ranked and let's see if you are right about making me angry or not There I got a lot of expletives that I want to like blurt out but yeah Let's we'll see it I actually I think the fact that the diamond were just in the World Series had had an impact in lists like these i'm seeing diamond backs players higher than i feel like i would have had the team not gotten so much national attention yeah just the exposure and seeing them and now knowing who they are the arizona is just guilty of that we

tend to have some good players you know we we we suffered through the paul guldschmidt years where we all knew how magical he was but it felt like it took a while for the rest of the baseball world to kind catch on with him. Corbyn Carroll, of course, is our favorite, a favorite son. And we want to see how he stacks up. Let's take a look at where the MLB network ranked Corbyn, Carroll, amongst MLB right fielders. Fourth overall.

Wow, you were right. I am not mad about that. I am not going to yell curse words about that. That's pretty good, actually. It is pretty good. Ronald Acuna, they have number one, Kyle Tucker, number two, Juan Soto, number three. And then it's Carol. And then Fernando Tautis, they have at number five.

Then it's Sayas, Suzuki, George Springer, to Oscar Hernandez, Adolas Garcia, and then Josh Lowe rounding out the list. So, yeah. Is that the best top five of any position in baseball? It's a pretty formidable. That's a pretty good top five. Tate's is the fifth best. Yeah, that's a little wild right there. I think the only debate to be had here, like, I don't think you can put Corvin Carroll above Juan Soto or Ronald Acuna.

I think we can all kind of. agree on that. At least not at this stage. I mean, you know, Corbin is still obviously very young and it's certainly possible that he's able to continue to get better. And maybe we do rank Corbyn Carroll above those guys not too long from now. But for right now, Cooney and Soto are clearly in front of him in my mind. I do think Kyle Tucker and Corbyn Carroll, at least in 2023, they were, they were quite comparable. If we look at the numbers that those two guys posted during the 23 season. We actually have more F-WR for Corbyn Carroll here.

Carol slash four. Yes, thank you. Carroll-slash-285-602-602-506, Tucker slash 284, 369-517. So Tucker had a little bit, slightly higher OPS. His OPS plus is a little higher to you. I think it's 142 to 134. Jesse, this is Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme right here is basically what it is. They're very, they are very similar.

112 RBI, substantial. more there but what's interesting is that Corby and Carroll had the higher war here when it comes to fan graphs ranking them and I mean one thing that we don't have here on the stat sheet is is what Corby Carroll did on the base path and his stolen bases versus Tucker but Kyle Tucker is a is he a better defender than Corbyn Carroll I mean does that factor in here I don't think so I think he has a better arm than Corbyn Carroll which is not saying a whole lot necessarily Corbin Corbin Corbin's arm did not grade out well in 2023 but yeah Kyle Tucker does not his range on out on outs above average over at statcast was well below average i think in like the 10th percentile

uh so yeah corbin i think has more defensive value and also has substantially more base running value even though kyle tucker is a very good base runner in his own right uh Tucker had 30 stolen bases this past year compared to 54 for corbin carroll it's hard to compare to that the 2554 season for corbin carroll is just crazy for a rookie right but yeah um again there's there there there are lot of positives there. And again, like you said, Kyle Tucker, probably the guy on that list that's comparable to Carroll, that you might have some sort of argument about whether or not Corby Carroll should be ranked above him. But when you talk about his arm and kind of his play in right field, I think that's the part that really surprises me that Carol is ranked so high amongst these right

fielders in this situation. And again, it's not his defense. It's just watching him play as we have. We've seen how, you know, there's a lot of arms that are much better than Corby and Carol's as far as fielders go. Yeah, right field is never going to be a great position for Corbyn Carroll. And we spent a lot of time talking about this when the team brought Lordus Gurriel Jr. back. Because you know that Lordis is going to play left field most of the time, which means Corbyn is probably going to play right field most of the time, which was never an ideal arrangement. But yeah, I mean, you know, Corbin and right field is still, you know, possibly the greatest base runner in baseball. He's still, you know, still has defensive range that has some real value. And obviously is shown himself to be

a pretty good hitter as well. So yeah, from a pure hitting standpoint, I think Kyle Tucker is probably the better hitter. But Corvin just brings so much in so many ways. And, you know, Tucker is still a very good base runner, as I said before,

but no one's as valuable of a base runner as, as Corvin Carroll was in 2020. This might be another situation, like when we were talking about Zach Gallen being ranked so high, where like, I, again, looking at this list, I was ready to be angry. And yet somehow now I'm kind of wondering

if at four he's a bit overrated. I mean, you know, like, it's not that, like, if you've seen Corby and Carroll play, I understand having him rank so high. And like Jesse said earlier, the postseason run, it's probably a big reason why he's ranked where he is right now because people got to see what an exceptional player he was at times during the playoffs. And, you know, understand that this kid is a rookie in doing what he did to become a superstar for this team in one season was incredible.

Hopefully he can follow that up. and continue to be the fourth best right fielder in baseball in 2024, because if he can, it's a very exciting, that's a very exciting year ahead for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Another guy, though, that, of course, had himself a great playoff run was Catell, and Cotell in the past has kind of been snubbed a bit as far as, you know, his recognition. Obviously, part of that was, you know, he got moved to center field. He kind of hasn't been the best defender at second base at times, has gone through some injuries. But let's take a look where MLB Network has ranked Ketel Marte.

They have Keteld 5th for second baseman. Oh, Jesse, I'm really not getting mad about this. No, Corby and Carol Ketel Marte both in the top five in their respective categories. I am with it. MLB Network, you make me happy. Brought a smile to my face. Yeah, I mean, pretty hard to complain about again if you're a Diamondbacks fan. I mean, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuvae, Marcus Semyon.

I think those guys, you can't really make a case for Catella above any of those guys at this point. They have Luis Arise at number four in front of Catelle at number five, I guess. Arise and Catele, you could maybe have a conversation there. A rise was certainly better offensively in 2023 than he's been in years past, but I mean, he also hit 354. And, you know, still at an 8th and MVP voting. So, you know, I don't think there's a clear case that Catell should be above Luisarized by any stretch of the imagination. So yeah, it's, it's, uh, Kattel did not get snubbed on this list. And I don't think Corbin got snubbed on on his list either. Like I said earlier, Diamondbacks players, uh, I guess,

especially with Ketel, the fact that he was the NLCS MVP, uh, he did some big things for the diamond backs in the postseason. A lot of people were able to see that. Yeah. And, uh, fans also feel that same way, because we also have here, uh, the, the fan list for their top, uh, second baseman. And, Catele Marte doesn't move too much. He's still there at 7th, which again, that doesn't upset me because, again, Cotel isn't really a household name that many people,

you know, know of and think of when they think of the best second basement in the league, but had a chance to prove that he was, not only a great second basement, but most importantly, an offensive force with setting that record in the playoffs last year. Yeah, this list is interesting. As you said,

These are fans. I guess they submit some sort of poll or something. Of course, Bryson Stott snuck in there. Yeah, so they have two guys who snuck in ahead of Ketel in addition to who is there before. Ozzy Albies comes in at number four on this list. And then Bryson Stott at number six. Ozzy Albies will get to in a second.

I actually think that's a really interesting comparison. It was egregious to me that Ozzy Albies was left off the official MLB network list. I don't know how that happened. But Bryson Stott, I mean, he did have a really good, a really good first full season with the Phillies. I like Bryson Stott. I think he's a good player. He's a good base runner, good defender. But Bryson Stott is not the hitter that Cotel Marte is.

And I think if you asked all 30 managers right now, whether they'd rather have Bryson Stott or Cate, you know, maybe long term. I mean, Bryson Stott's still young. You know, maybe you'd want him in five years more than you'd want Cattell. But right now, I think you pretty clearly would want Catelle out of those two guys. I think the important thing here is that Bryson Stop made me hate that goddamn motherfucking song. I love that song. There it is. I had to give one in there before we got through this segment.

But I hate that song. I am not a okay. I am not a okay. I have a recording of that, Derek, on my phone that I took from the press box at Citizens Bank Park. And don't even talk. Do you listen to it every once in a while just to make you happy? 100% do. It's one of the most electric recordings that I have of anything on my phone.

I mean, frankly, most recordings on my phone are, you know, interviews from four months ago. I was going to say clips of the show probably. Yeah, well, these are just audio clips. Oh, yeah. But, but yeah, it was a real, it was a surreal experience being there in person for that. Philly's fans go absolutely berserk and I enjoy it every second. But yes, barring his ability to choose the one of the more iconic. walk-up songs in the sport.

I don't think that puts Bryson Stott at number six on this list. We can agree on that. But you were right about Ozzy Albi's being left off of MLB Network's list, which again, MLB Network, you're supposed to know ball, right? Let's take a look at Ozzy Albi's stats compared to Cite's stats from 2023. Yeah, yeah. I think they're pretty close, right? Again, Spider-Man memes pointing at each other.

Yeah, they're pretty close, which is why I don't understand how MLB Network has Ketel at number five and Ozzie didn't even make the list. Didn't even make the list. The fan list on the other hand had Ozzy Albi several spots ahead of Ketal, which I think this also would say that's probably a little bit too high on Ozzy Albies. But yeah, Albi slash 28336, 513 in 2020. Ketel 276, 354, 485. Albies had 33 homers compared to Ketel's 25.

Wins above replacement on fan graphs to pretty much neck and neck 4.2 for Ketel compared to four even for Ozzy Alvvv. So yeah, I think it's an interesting comparison. These two guys both had really good 2023 seasons. If you back it up 2019 to 2023, Albies and Marte have had almost the exact same number of played appearances. Marte has a 129 OPS plus over the last five seasons compared to 112 for Ozzy Albies. Their wins above replacement, though, are almost identical.

14.8 for Ketel compared to 14.1 for Ozzy Albies. So, yeah, I think the, I think wherever could tell is, Ozzy Albi should probably be right around in the same place. Yeah. Similar to what we said with Corby and Carl Tucker, it's just hard to, you know, it's hard to look at the stats from last year. Now, obviously, part of this too is probably their projections for 2024 as far as where they're ranked here going into the season. Yeah. And not necessarily just what they did last year. And you also know, Jesse is very much a guy who will ruin your day with talking about peripherals and how. the numbers are lying to you because this guy is you know had a better year i'll make your day

talking about peripherals derrick come on yeah uh yeah but of course uh that actually made my day very much because i'm excited to not i was expecting to get like i was expecting to rage and i've been trying not to rage as much and yeah putting diamondbacks in the top five of of major league baseball positions definitely helps me uh not rage of course but do you do you remember just real quick do you remember i think when we started this show right it was late 2021 Kattel was hurt for a significant portion of the 2021 season

but his numbers were really good and then coming into 2022 I remember looking at these lists and I remember Kattel being like second or was he first? He might have been first yeah I remember having a conversation on this show entering the 2022 season

when the Diamondbacks had reached like their lowest point in franchise history and we were talking about MLB network claiming that Kutel Marte was like the best second basement in baseball. And, and I mean, he absolutely had,

you know, he had a good 2021 season. He was good when healthy. But he also, you know, hadn't been quite as good in 2020. And it just seemed a little bit bullish at the time. It did.

So, yeah, it's, it's crazy that for as low as the diamondbacks were at that point, they somehow were still, Ketel Marte was still getting respect back then. Well, if you are not a P.

HNX die hard yet, I have some tantalizing, information that may make you change that because we are going to be having some exclusive diehard content here coming to our Discord lounge, including tonight at 7 p.m., I will be holding the first ever PHNX city council meeting. I am. I'm going to solve your problems because as a mayor, that's what I'm supposed to do, right? I'm supposed to fix problems. So come tonight, bring your biggest problems that you have in life and let my terrible advice fix everything for you. But there's all sorts of fun stuff like that that's coming to our Dyer

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is illegal Pete's where you will find Damon. Someone asked earlier who's behind the Mac. Yeah, it's Damon. Damon is on the ones and twos, but when he's not here working, which is most of his life, Every single day every minute of his day. He's at illegal piece. That's the only other place he lives. He goes by his house to sleep and that's even very brief. I'm pretty sure this is like quite literally true. I think David is either at the office at home or at illegal fees. No, pretty much. People think stuff I say on this show is a bit like they're all ha ha Derek. That was funny that you made that up. I don't make anything up. Everything I say is true. You make some things out. But this is not one of the things. Nothing about Jesse being AI was made up at all. And nothing about. David and spending all of his time in illegal peats when he's free is a lie but I actually went to

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You're right, you're right, Karen. No road margaritas are allowed. but a big ski to you, a ski to you all. Glad you guys are here. Of course, someone else earlier asked if I had had my OGs for the day. I have not. I have not had my OGs today. I can feel my weed wearing off.

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It's Corbyn Carroll. Give him his crown. Give him his scepter. But could the Diamondbacks potentially have back-to-back national league rookies of the year? Don't know about that. But we will say that Jordan Lawler is still getting some hype around him. There's still a lot of excitement around him. And he is, in fact, the only Diamondback prospect on the top 100.

prospects list for baseball America. Jesse their blurb says Loller hit the ball harder in 2023 and cleaned up his defensive play at shortstop leading to a September callup. He produced a 966 OPS in his final 70 minor league games and has a chance to bring his power speed mix to MLB in 2024 as one of the game's youngest regulars. What do you thoughts on the fact that he not only is being is on this list but I guess on the flip side and more negative

decide what are your thoughts about the farm system considering that Lawler is the only prospect now on the top 100 prospects list. Yeah, it's a pretty big change. I mean, just about a year ago, we were talking about the Diamondbacks having four of the top 25 prospects in baseball potentially. I think five in the top 100, right? Yeah, something like that. I think baseball America was still counting Gabriel Moreno as a prospect. So the Deepak's head, Corby, Lawler, Gabby Moreno, and Drew Jones, who was still very highly ranked at the time. So, yeah, this is a big change from last year. Drew Jones, of course, not on the top 100 list for Baseball America.

It'll be interesting to see if he cracks that list for MLB Pipeline when they released their new list soon. I'm not totally surprised by that. Drew Jones, we've talked about it a lot, did not have the first full season of professional baseball that the Diamondbacks probably would have liked him to see or would have liked to see from him. But granted, it was a year of injuries for Drew Jones, where once he got past one thing, it was something else popping up and keeping him from getting those regular bats. He did finish the year well in his last 10 games or so.

And by sale, he put up good numbers. I think, I think Drew Jones has a chance to go from being not on this list to, you know, even by the midseason update being very much back on this list, you know, maybe even in the top half. There's still a lot of development to be had there. We've seen some footage of his swing and some of the adjustments he's made over the winter. I think there's some promising developments there. But yeah, Drew Jones, not on this list. Tommy Troy is probably the other guy that would have been on it for the Diamondbacks that I could have seen being on it. He was not on the top 100, but he did make Baseball America's follow-up post, which was 15 players who just missed the top 100 list.

Honorable mention. They did. Yeah, he's essentially an honorable mention. He did show up there. and, you know, Tommy Troy just got, what was it, 100, 200 played appearances or something in pro baseball to finish out the 2023 season. He has a chance this year to kind of solidify himself as a top prospect in this game. So I think he's another guy where, you know, by the midseason update, it wouldn't shock me if Tommy Troy found his way on this list. I know it wouldn't have mattered because we talked about this yesterday.

We've talked about this in the past. The Diamondbacks were most likely, whether they were at number one or number two, we're going to take Drew Jones, right? but the Orioles once again have the number one overall prospect in baseball in Jackson Holiday and that will be if I'm if I'm not mistaken three straight years I don't know how to do numbers three consecutive years with them all being having the number one overall prospect and I have Bo Brock over here staring at me making funny fun faces peeking around the corner because he loves the Orioles he's going to hang a banner for having a number one for having the most top prospects in baseball it's going to be so exciting. But yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, the big, the big thing here that we are

looking for we're seeking is can Jordan Lawler follow in Corby and Carroll's footsteps in regards. Now, Corbyn Carroll didn't have like, he didn't set the world on fire when he was called up, but in his 32 games, he was pretty damn good. He was good. And I feel like there's, that's, that's kind of a big difference here between Lawler and Carol. And once again, Carol kind of changing our expectations of, you know, the leap a young man can make after getting that September late call up and then coming up the next year and having that impact on Major League Baseball. But again, looking at Corbyn Carroll's 32 games, he slashed 260, 330 with a 500 slugging percentage in 830 OPS for home runs, 14 RBI. Like he had more production in that

short period of time than a few players that were on the roster for the entire season. So Corby Carroll, even though it wasn't like immediately talked about, those numbers. are still very good. Now next year, and, and Jordan Lawler or Corby and Carroll did not really have the like same level of competition.

I felt like going into the year that Jordan Lawler has. This is a stacked class for rookies and major league baseball, including a lot of international players that have now come over and do qualify for this being their rookie season. Yeah, I think there's

there's a lot of guys who have a chance. And I think it's hard to pinpoint exactly who would be. the favorite for this award at this point. I guess Yamamoto is the most obvious answer there. He does have the best odds in Vegas for sure. Yeah, there's some, some sort of Vegas odds floating around that we saw. They had Yamamoto, number one, Junghu Lee of the Giants, number two, Nelbi Marte of the Cincinnati Reds three, Jackson Cherio four, Shota Imanaga five, P. Crow, Armstrong, six, and then Jordan Lawler at number seven. So yeah, I guess, I guess Yamamoto has to be viewed as

as kind of the favorite at this point. I know some people are a little bit hesitant to give their vote to a player, you know, who has, who's pitched internationally for as long as someone like Yamamoto has. Yeah. He's not exactly a rookie in the purest sense. But we did see Kodai Sanga get a decent amount of support this,

this past year, even though he didn't win the award. Pitchers often don't win the award. I think it would, I think it would have to be very clear that Yamamoto was, was the frontrunner, was the rightful winner in order for him to actually get it. Sure. But that seems totally.

possible. I mean, if he comes out and, you know, throws 180 innings with a 3ERA or something. Yeah, that might be, that might be good enough to do it. A big thing with the rookie of the year award is just playing time. It's just who's going to actually get the opportunity to play, to play enough games in order to put together the best case. Right, because half of the guys that are currently ranked as far as odds-wise above Jordan Lawler are guaranteed to get playing time, right?

Evenaga is going to play for the Cubs. All those guys, yeah, Yamamoto. Yeah. And, I mean, you also have Nelvi Marte, who played really well for the Cincinnati Reds last year, 21 years old. Yeah, he was very good. And, you know, Pete Crow Armstrong. There's a lot, like, the Cubs have two guys on this list, right?

So it's like, it's very exciting for them, for their future and to have this kind of young talent as part of their, you know, team. But the young guys, you know, like Lollard, they have a lot to prove, you know. And I mean, again, it's going to be about if they can actually get that playing time. And that's what I feel like is the case for Jordan Lawler. Yeah. Like we've said in the past, there's a good chance that you don't want Jordan Lawler just playing as a backup, right? So if that's the case, you'd rather that he was in Reno and not up on the main roster, you know, not getting playing time, not getting at bats, right? Yeah, yeah.

It really is going to come down to playing time for Lawler, whether he even has a chance at this. I mean, there's a world in which Lawler has a really good 2024 season, but he still isn't really a rookie of the year contender. because he didn't get called up until May or June or something like that. So, yeah, I think Lawler has a good chance to make the team. If he has a strong spring training, I don't see why he wouldn't make the Diamondbacks roster. But even then, is he playing shortstop every day? Is he kind of splitting time with Geraldo Perdomo?

You know, you'd really want him to be like an everyday player in order to really get in the kind of reps that are needed, you know, to really win this award. But yeah, he's certainly not the only one in a position like. that. Peter Armstrong, I think, still has a lot to prove with the Cubs before he would get those opportunities. Jackson Churio has yet to play in the majors over with the Milwaukee Brewers. Of course, they just gave him a massive extension. I think he's certainly a contender here as well. But yeah, there's kind of the well-established guys, you know, who are just signed internationally. And then there's some young guys who are not all that well-established at this

point. So, yeah, Lawler certainly has a chance. If the Diamondbacks want to put themselves in position to get that draft pick like they did with Corbyn Carroll this past year, they would have to call him up to the majors within about two weeks of opening day. So he'd either have to make the team straight up or they'd have to call him up pretty soon. That would allow him to qualify for the prospect promotion incentive, which would get the Diamondbacks that draft pick. And you'd certainly hate to have Jordan Lawler win the rookie of the year and not come away with the very lucrative draft pick that can come from that.

That's a great point. a draft pick that the Diamondbacks did in fact win, thanks to Corbyn Carroll, coming up in next year's draft. So that's exciting, of course. Well, this year's draft. Or this year's draft. You know, I mean, next year, this year. I mean, the draft's so stupid.

It comes to the middle of this season. I hate it. Anyway, we do appreciate you guys being here right now in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now, sign up for notifications, that way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. Drop us a like. We appreciate that. We appreciate Gabby.

We appreciate his purple hair. We also appreciate our listeners. So if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you're subscribed there as well. We always appreciate those five-star reviews. They definitely help us out quite a bit. And if you want to help yourself out, one way to do so is by having some more fun with sports on the BetMGM Sportsbook app. Damon, how'd you do on your bets? I didn't do a bet show yesterday.

Well, did you want to brag about the day before while you were at it? Do we want to talk about the fourth quarter bet before the Sun's game? Yeah, how did that go for you, Damon? How did the money line fourth quarter bet that you bet on the Kings go? I bet on King's money line in the fourth quarter and the sons had their best fourth quarter of the entire season. Yeah.

So we're gonna let that ride for the rest of the year. I'll just say it's completely unsustainable, but if you guys want to want the sons to win, my Venmo is at Damon Farrell. That's F-I-R-A-L-L and I'll continue to place fourth quarter money lines on the opposing team. It would really be helpful if you just got

Damon dog over there, Venmo too. You know, I know that's not as famous, but I'm the, it was Damon dog and I changed it, I think. That's a mistake. That's a brand because we are damns dogs. Park, part. Of course, download the BetMGM Sportsbook app yourself, and you can get paid simply for making your first bet.

All you got to do is sign up and use our code of PH&X. Deposit at least $5 into your newly created account and use that $5 and bet it at a standard odds price. Once you do, you will receive $158 in bonus bets in honor of Super Bowl 58 from our friends over at BetMGM. Of course, all you've got to do once again is sign up for bed MGM and use that bonus code of PHNX. as our guy, Eric, would say it's the best letters in the alphabet, right? The four best letters. The four best letters in the alphabet. Place your first bet MGM Sportsbook Wager through the sportsbook mobile application of at least $5.

You will receive $1508, $158 instantly in additional winnings, regardless of your wager's outcome. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to our baby board Damon. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 100, 800, 800, available in the U.S. 8778. Open Y.

467-9-N-Rexu-N-AWRashu-1-8-200-8-8-1-800-Bassachusetts. 21-A., please gamble responsibly. Call 100, 800, next up Arizona. 1,800-1-1-1-7 for confidential health, Michigan. 1-8107-1-3, Puerto Rico, in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit bedmgm.com for terms. This promotional offer is not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico. Oh, that's music. It's not the same. No, it's better. It's not the same. It's better as what it is. All right. Who taught Damon to talk that fast?

I don't think that's. It doesn't sound human. He just doesn't sound human, but you should see him do that live. It's impressive. Desert Financial Credit Union, by the way, has been a staple here in the Valley for more than 84 years. They have been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union that got me started on my home ownership journey, and they can get you started on yours as well. You can look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more.

Bank with a credit union that has your financial interest in mind, as well as the financial interests of your community. You can open a free checking account online now and get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Jesse, the LA Clippers are doing a thing, right? They have a new arena. We know that we still don't know what's happening when the Diamondbacks Arena as far as Chase Field goes. We do know that there's some renovations that are going on. And when it comes to this news coming out of the LA Clippers new arena, I'm kind of excited about a couple of things, right?

They have the rules that they have released for a section of their arena called The Wall, Jesse, the wall. The Wall is the Intuit's Dome's News. section of 51 uninterrupted rows of fans. Holy shit, that's a lot of fans in a row, right? And the rules for this section are very strict. You cannot cheer for the opposing team. You cannot wear the opponent's gear and tickets can only be resold in the Clippers marketplace. Let's take a look at the hype video for this ridiculous thing that the Clippers are doing.

I don't have that yet. Oh, you don't have that yet. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't have it. All right, well. Don't apologize. That's on me.

We'll get it to you, but it's, it's very aggressive. Very aggressive. Jesse likes the promo. He thinks it's very cool. I think they did a pretty good job. I just, I don't think of the L.A.

Clippers as being a team that has like this crazy, loyal fan base. True. They've always felt like the little brother to the, to the Lakers in my view. Could be a big reason why they're doing this to separate themselves and not be in the same building. I think it's a great idea. Yeah.

I mean, whoever thought it was, it was, you know, cool for the clippers to just share a space with the Lakers for, you know, however long that's been happening, a very long time. That's going to make it really hard for you to really build up your own brand. And it seems like they're really doing that with this new crazy thing called the wall. Elizabeth in the chat says that sounds like supporters section in soccer. Yes, it very much does sound like that.

But let's remind everyone of one thing. Ken Kendrick tried to do this, didn't he? You all remember when Ken Kendrick tried to do it. He tried to make that home plate suite behind home plate there where you can see the people on TV. He tried to make it a thing where if you sat there, you had to wear Diamondbacks gear. And what did you guys do? Oh, he's the villain because he's buying people free clothes and making them wear them. I'm sorry.

Rules are rules. If you're going to sit in that suite, you got to root for the Diamondbacks. And I approve. And it's because of people saying that that we have. the versus dog probably i don't know we started we we moved in the other direction instead of telling them they had to root for the team we started making hot dogs based on their regional tastes and we want them to feel comfortable we over corrected we over corrected i don't want that i want opposing fans to feel uncomfortable i don't want them to come to our games i want them to feel

like they're outnumbered i want them to feel like they're unwelcome and i know i am being a hypocrite right now because I've often said with the Diamondbacks fan base and how empty that building is at times, we need to welcome anybody that's willing to come in and pay their money for a ticket and spend some money on concessions. However, I like this idea a lot, Jesse. And I think we're going to get a wall maybe installed at Chase Field. And we're going to come up with our own rules for the wall, right? First, I still like the idea of the home plate suite being also privy to these rules. But we have decided that the actual wall section of Chase Field, Has to be left field.

Has to be left field. Yeah. That's where Lordus is, man. That's where Lordis is. Enough said, right? You have close access to Alec. There's lots of things there. But of course, we established some rules on Twitter.

The first being, you're never allowed to wear Dodger Blue ever. You must know all of the lyrics to a Millie by Little Wayne, which Jesse is working on. You're also required to dye your hair purple, which we are willing to go, make some, make some like at least, like a little asterisk to that rule. Like if you are willing to wear a purple wig, we won't make you dye your hair purple. It is either you must dye your hair purple or you must be wearing the purple hair wig. Right. But we will have, we will have the hair wigs available on side. That's true. That's true. We won't be making you do anything like, like dye your hair because as I've told you in the past, it almost ruined me. But we will have a few people available

on site, though, to dye your hair purple. Yeah, we'll have some hair dying stations. Of course, I know everybody want my beard teal that'll probably happen. A couple of other new rules, Jesse, I think you had a new rule for the wall. Yeah, I think that gloves should not be allowed. No gloves. Because if you're sitting in the outfield at a game, like, that's not the way you do it, right? You got to catch it. You got to catch it barehanded if a home run ball finds, finds your, it's way to you.

Or you can be like that one amazing kid in the first row in the first row. field who just snatched a home run ball. Well, it wasn't actually a home run as things turned out, but who just snatched the ball out of Spencer Steer's hands in really incredible fashion. That was so insane, looking back on it. It was one of the best cases of three. He owned Spencer Steer. Yeah. Speaking of kids, Jesse, kids only in the front row. Yeah, I think I'd be down for that. Only kids in the front row. Just setting it up so that kids can have, you know, any, any altercations between opposing teams left fielders that happen with fans happen with children because the history there is is quite

quite good from the diamond back standpoint so I just it feels like that's that's the way to go fans in this section will pay double for concessions okay why I'm not talking about I'm not talking about like our fans I'm saying opposing fans that tried to sit in this section oh okay all right because we we just we just made the rule about dodger blue but of course we know other fan bases show up. So if you are opposing fan, it's fine. You'll pay double. Oh, so you are, so you are allowing Dodgers fans to wear Dodger Blue? I am not allowing them to wear Dodger Blue ever. No, no, you're never allowed. As a matter of fact, no Dodger Blue, like, I can't emphasize that enough. It's not a Dodger fan. No Dodger Blue is allowed. You can't be an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and perhaps come with like

a jacket that's just like a, you have a jacket that's close to Dodger Blue. That jacket would not be allowed in stadium. That's where we're going on. I don't have a jacket close to Dodgerville. I'm pretty sure you do. I'm pretty sure I've seen it. I don't know. Yeah, you're designing on this area. I honestly kind of wish I did. I think it's a good color. But, uh, also we're getting everybody the Taylor Swift wristbands thing so that we can make the crowd area say stuff like like, like, like, yeah, there you go. Yeah, there you go. We'll also play Taylor slip music in that section, much to his begrudge. Uh, what I feel like the wall concept. I don't know if it works quite as well in a baseball stadium because chase field is just huge and and you know sometimes there are like little factions

of fans that will develop but you know if you're not immediately around them you often can't really even hear what they're saying or like you can't really tell what's happening so this idea is better tailored to a more intimate environment like an NBA arena but nonetheless I guess we just maybe have to make it bigger maybe it's maybe it's everyone in the outfield maybe we include the right field folks as well yeah like there's got to be something going on there's something about the 51 unenirrupted rows of fans too, right? Like that means that that particular section doesn't have like a break for like the like the concourse and stuff like that, right? It's just straight up. So we just make this extend right up to like cold beers and cheeseburgers and just have

it. I guess. I mean, there's there's not, I don't know how many rows there are there, but I don't think it's not 51. It's not 51. We're going to have some construction in the building major construction in order to, in order to make that happen. But we do have, we have the video now. We have the, uh, we have the, the promo that the, that the Clippers made. This is, um, and this is a lot. Yeah, it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's, it's kind of a, it's kind of a fun idea. Let's check it out. And on the enemy side of into a dome, lives the beating heart. The wall.

A thundering tower of Clipper fandom. 51 rows high, 4,500 seats deep. Home to the most energetic fans on the planet who proudly stand, chant and cheer for the clips and where opposing team gear is absolutely not allowed this is not your typical home court advantage clipper nation this is our home court advantage we want the noise the passion the love in its loudest forms who will be the ones to bring it will it be you join us in the wall it's absurd it's good it's such a good idea it doesn't look like a real thing it looks like it's from some sort of

post-apocalyptic movie is what it looks like it's fair it doesn't look like a real thing and like i think the like again i'm i'm i'm right now in all my asu stuff can we maybe get the curtain of distraction out there yeah there you know in left field i mean that's i feel like that's the only thing we can do to combat the wall because that's a lot that's a lot and yeah Gabe's right. How did they find that many Clippers fans? There's no way that 75% of that. They had to create them with CGI.

That's the only deal of way. That's definitely an AI audience. Oh, man. I mean, what are like most of them are just Lakers fans that didn't have a game that night, right? Isn't that the way that works? Are they going to travel to this new arena? At least makes a good point.

The angle of the seats at the top looks so high up. I would be shaky walking down from the top. Yeah, the level of steepness that they're reaching, like, you know, the top of those stands is a little, it's a little bit, a little bit uncomfortable. I can't do that. I can't do it at, I can't do it at Chase Field and it's not nearly as steep. Yeah, I mean, the upper deck seats at Chase Field are definitely steeper.

Yeah. But, yeah, the Diamondbacks would have to do some serious construction in left field in order to get the stands there to look anything like like the clippers. It's like the stands would have to, they'd have to just go like straight up into the air, basically. Imagine that. Imagine like a section that went uninterrupted from. the outfield wall all the way up to section 305. To the rafters of the building. That's basically what this would be.

Yeah, I don't know if I see the Diamondbacks doing this, but hey, it's a fun idea. I will say that the Diamondbacks need to try to figure out ways, though, to have more of a home field advantage at times. I don't know what that is. I like Gabriel's idea of let's just get the Mexican Banda to play there every game like they do on Hispanic Heritage nights. that's an incredible idea. I mean, that is literally an incredible idea. Like the Vivasuela,

but like it's just mariachi music the entire time. They're electric because they'll literally sit in right field in one of the rows. And then like in between innings, they just pop up and start playing. And it's like obviously Hispanic Heritage Days at Chase Field are already just electric and incredible. It's our culture. It's our community.

Right. Like, but I say, you know, like incorporate that in all the time. Make that part of our home field advantage. you know, just something like that would help to make, you know, this, this field that at times is very empty feel like there's some sort of advantage. The one thing that the Diamondbacks players asked for so many times last year and they didn't ask for much was just van support.

You know what I mean? Which is a wild thing to have to like almost beg for. But this team made to the World Series, it shouldn't be hard in 2024 for fans to be a big part of some sort of home field advantage of chief. Field. Yeah, I mean, and that's something that Zach Gallen wrote about in his in his story over at the Players Tribune, right? He's really excited about what it'll look like for the Diamondbacks to have the kind of fan support they had in the playoffs, but from the get-go. And I, you know, I don't know if opening day is going to be quite a World Series caliber atmosphere, but it should be a very spirited atmosphere at Chase Field, unlike, unlike any opening day that we've seen in recent years. And hopefully for the

Diamondbacks and their players, it's not just opening day. It, you know, it extends. beyond that, you know, throughout these first few months of the season is the Diamondbacks try to prove that they are the team that they showed themselves to be at the end of the year. I want to honestly know what's going to happen if you show up in opposing gear. Is there really going to be a security guard whose job is to monitor if people are coming in and certain clothes and to throw them out? Yeah, I mean, this goes back to the Diamondback story that you told earlier. I look, I look back at some of the reporting that was done at the time.

It was very amusing. Back in 2013, there was a day where a crop of Dodgers fans had the suite behind home plate at Chase Field. And of course, it was showing very prominently on the broadcast. I believe Scott Van Slyke was at the plate at the time. So it gives you an idea of how long ago this was. Quite a few. Yeah, Scott Van Slyke at the play.

There's Dodgers fans behind home plate. And the story goes, the Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick actually went down there himself. and was recommending to these people like, hey, I have other sweet options that you can have. But, you know, I really want this area reserved for Diamondbacks fans. Or at least people wearing Diamondbacks gear. And so I believe they had those people put on Diamondbacks. Yeah, they didn't want to move. And Kendrick offered like, hey, can I buy you some, you know, stuff?

And they took them up on it. Very generous offer. Yeah. It's much nicer than this, right? Like, it's much nicer than you're not allowed if you wear that clothes, right? It really does, right? Like it's a wild thing. And I get it because in today's day and age,

especially a team like the clippers who are trying to form their own fan base and trying to do their own thing in their own arena and make it theirs. Like I get it that you want fan support for your team. It just again, how practical is this? How logical is this? What's going to happen when people start showing up? And you're like,

because this became like kind of a bad, a negative hit to his reputation. And to be honest, Ken Kendrick was right. And he's right to do this. It's a bad look for the Diamondbacks to have a bunch of Dodgers fans behind home play and not showing up on TV for every single pitch. Right.

Like that narrative already exists, right, that Chase Field is Dodger Stadium East or whatever. The last thing you need is for that to be, you know, so evident on TV, even if it's only a few Dodgers fans, it's obviously not the look that you're going for. And then, yeah, a couple years later, after that incident in 2013, there was another thing that was similar with someone dressed up wearing Dodgers gear. and then they wound up, there was an usher that was there. They wound up putting on a Diamondbacks uniform. And so a lot of people were like, all right, this still exists.

The Diamondbacks are still enforcing this. But it sounded like that wasn't actually what it appeared to be. I don't think the Diamondbacks forced him to change. It was like some fun interaction with a friend who was joking like, hey, put this on or whatever. And the Diamondbacks later said that that is basically just encouraged at this point. They encourage fans behind home plate to change to wear Diamondback skier. But I don't think it is enforced as it appeared to be back in back in 2013. It's a wild thing because, again, Kendrick gets a lot of flak.

So like anything he does can tend to just be viewed negatively instantly. And I think that sucks because you and I have both talked to Mr. Kendrick, Ken, Uncle Ken, as I like to call him. And he is a delightful individual. I love Ken Kendrick. And I think that ultimately at the end of the day, really as much as people don't believe it, fully has this team's best interest in mind and it's trying to do everything you can to make this team a success.

And when it comes to that, I think defending, you know, your ballpark that does get accused of having a ton of opposing fans in it all the time isn't the worst thing in the world. It's just interesting how it was viewed then and how it's viewed now. A lot of people like this thing that the clippers are doing and are kind of behind it.

Like they're like, yeah, if that was my home stadium, I'd want the same thing. And it's like, well, I mean, I guess maybe,

maybe Kendrick was too nice about it. Maybe him offering to buy clothes Maybe what he needed to do is just we needed to see him on TV Just tossing their asses out of there Right? If we saw Kendrick just laying into some Dodgers fans Like you couldn't hear him because there wasn't a mic there But you could see him like And then the Dodgers van leaves and then Kendrick just alphas the section

And he just sits there by himself Ken Kendrick would have become like a cult hero among Yeah, exactly. He'd be a legend. Yeah, exactly. So he was too nice. He was too nice is what the thing was. It would be realistically, it'd be hard for the Diamondbacks ever to enforce a scenario in which people are not allowed to wear opposing fans gear. Right. That's just the reality.

What do you do there? Do you literally kick them out? Like the third four time you kick someone out because they're wearing an opposing team's thing, it's going to become a big deal. And people are going to like go from joking about this hype video and that they would want it to being like, wow, the clippers are kind of jerks. Like you can't really do that to people. to pay their money for a ticket.

Again, just like the practical part of things is that the Diamondbacks, there's a lot of these people. There's a lot of people who are coming to Diamondbacks games, wearing opposing teams gear. If you were to not allow those people into the building, that would be an issue. But yes, if it's, you know, one section in the stadium or whatever, there's enough sections at Chase Field where you could do that reasonably.

And I guess it wouldn't be too big of an issue. But it seems kind of impossible to enforce to me if they were to actually try to do that. Gabriel has the best idea. He said, get Baxter to personally escort them out. Look, if you've ever stared into Baxter's eyes, you know it can be unsettling, right? So all I'm saying is Baxter doesn't have to necessarily like strong arn them out. But if he came over very seriously, not in a joking mood, not like, hey, you want to take pictures with me, but just stood there and just stared down some Dodgers fans in that section, you know they're going to get uncomfortable and leave eventually. They're going to be like, why is this Bobcat still here?

And why is his eyes so human-like, right? It's going to be a weird thing. I think that Bobcat has been trying to scare away Dodgers fans pretty unsuccessfully for a very long time. He's too nice about it. He needs to do like a five nights and Freddy's thing where he's just creepy as hell and you just think he's going to murder you. But anyway, we do appreciate you guys, of course, being here. You can make sure to get more nonsense like this from us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore cave band with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. The people's producer is Damon. Again, still mad that he won't invite me on the boys' trips. but that doesn't change the fact that I am still one of Damon's dogs. Park Park. You can get him at Damon Dog. That's DAWG on Twitter. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs,

but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys, again, so much for stopping by. We wouldn't kick any of you guys out, even if you wore opposing gear. Well, I don't know. That's not true. You show up in opposing gear. Jesse's going to very much kick you out.

We wouldn't kick Maria G out. But we may- Maria G's our favorite doctor. But we might kick Moa out. Yeah, Mo's gone. Moes 86 from this chat. That's for sure. For sure.

But again, we do appreciate your time. Thank you so much. We'll see you back to your tomorrow at 1 p.m. Oh, fun thing. We're going to have our buddy Eric Crats from Fowl Territory joining us tomorrow. So make sure to not miss that. Again, that'll be at 1 o'clock. Long time, long time catcher, Eric Crats.

Long time catcher. A fantastic analyst over there at Fowel Territory. Fun guy. Catchers just know everything, man. They really do, don't they? You can, yeah, I mean, like, I think people like Eric Crats probably get overlooked because, you know, you look at their hitting stats or whatever from their 10-year career and you're like, this guy wasn't so great offensively. But, I mean, no one really knows more about the game of baseball oftentimes than catchers have been around for a while. So, yeah, be sure to be sure to join us to my.

Excited for that. In the meantime, we thank you again. We appreciate you stopping by and remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you treat opposing fans like they don't belong there. Thank you.