PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Jordan Lawlar's AFL season ends early because Arizona Diamondbacks fans can't have nice things

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

The outcome of the World Series was determined years ago and we have the proof. We also ponder if Dusty Baker winning his first World Series makes it any easier to root for Houston and have updates on Jordan Lawlar’s AFL season being over due to a fractured scapula.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: The Yotes’ play their inaugural home game at Mullet Arena this Friday. Join our PHNX Coyotes crew at Four Peaks for our tailgate/watch party. It’s free to enter and you can enjoy $3 beer specials and watch on a 20’ jumbo screen!https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-coyotes-watch-party-and-tailgate-tickets-445688655767Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Mor Furniture: Sit in the same seats we do! Check out https://morfurniture.comUnderdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Liquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNXFOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. 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.

It's your two favorite tall Caucasians, everyone. My name is Jesse Friedman, also known as the Thunderstake, alongside the one and only Jacob Franklin, also known as Faj, Father-over-Lar, Jacob. Jacob, are you okay over there? You broke me, Jesse. I broke you. In the first 10 seconds of the show, Jacob's all broken.

I just like out of all the things we could have started the show with like I just was not expecting that it just felt right just felt right uh welcome in to the phnx dback show brought to you by the draft king sports book app america's number one sports book app uh I am very excited to be joined by the one and only fodge today I want to give a shout out however to Derek Montia who is not with us today because his father Jose passed away this morning very very sad news not just for Derek but for all of us here at pH and X. Safe to say, we enjoy having Derek around. We do.

We know that his incredible personality is, you know, the work of a lot of different people around him. And Jose was certainly a part of that. So sort of a somber day for us here at PH&X. Yeah, we definitely wish Derek, nothing but the best right now. I mean, obviously, this is never easy for anybody to go through. So thoughts and pressure with Derek and hopefully he's able to come back, hang out with us once again after he goes through this with his family. Yeah.

So best, best to him for sure. Shout out to Derek Montia. We're going to go ahead and talk about some MLB postseason here. Jacob, me and Derek have talked about our World Series predictions. We have yet to hear your World Series predictions. Derek yesterday came out very, very bold. He said Houston Astros in four. So bold.

Very bold. I said Houston Astros in six. What do you got? Astros in five. I'll split the difference there. Okay. I'll split the difference. Look, the Phillies have been fun to watch in the postseason,

but I just don't think anybody's as good as they use in Astros. Like, they're just, they're pretty damn good if you didn't know. You mean the team with a 0.82 bullpenny RA and the postseason is pretty good. Yeah, yeah, not even just the pitching, but like they have people named Jordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman. Their offense is okay, too.

All sorts of stuff. Justin Verlender. Yeah, in case you didn't know, in case this is the first time you've ever, Watch baseball. I think the Astros are a pretty safe bet. Yeah, that they probably are. There are two hilarious tweets that are out there. Lee, I don't know if we have this ready to go just yet, but yes, here they are. So these tweets were put out back in 2019, Jacob, and they perfectly predict what has happened over the last two years. Both of these tweets say, their World Series

predictions over a 10-year span. Both of them tweeted in 2019. correctly predicted the Dodgers winning in 2020 and the Atlanta Braves winning in 2021 and in 2022 one of these tweets says Astros one of these tweets says Phillies Jacob this is wild yeah I just I mean even

one of them is going to be correct obviously but I don't think either of them are going to get all of them correct you don't think they're going to be right for 10 straight years are missing the debacks for the last five years of those yes the devax will certainly run the table from 2025 to 2029. Yeah, if anyone doesn't have that, they can't possibly be right.

I'm a little bit inclined to side just based on these predictions. I'm a little bit inclined to side with the Phillies guy just because he didn't predict the Washington Nationals to win the World Series in 2024, which seems like a bit of a bold take. I mean, I believe in big turn-rown. Yeah, I mean, he's coming out of high school. I don't know if you're expecting Elijah Green to make an impact in the next two years. But anyway, they probably forgot that Juan Soto is going to get traded at some point in there. Yeah, they probably didn't factor in that his contract would be up by 2024. And they would probably trade him because they would be a very, very bad baseball team at that point anyway.

But yeah, we're looking forward to this World Series starting on Friday. Jacob, it's still a very long wait. We've been talking. We talked about this yesterday as well. It's still only Tuesday. There will not be World Series baseball for three more days. So, you know, keep up the fight, everyone. We're almost there to our first game of the World Series.

Do you make fun plans when baseball's over? You know, we talked to. What do you? What do you like? I just imagine a mailbag question yesterday. Yeah. I just imagine Jesse's a little hermit and he just recludes into his little space. I feel so attacked right now.

Until March or April. Because you're so right and it's terrifying. I do find a way. I mean, I feel like in Arizona you can kind of work your way around it. because you've got the fall league going until mid-November. You've got pitchers and catchers reporting locally in early February. And you've got the holidays to kind of bridge the gap, right? We've got Thanksgiving coming up.

Then we have Christmas. And then before you know it, pitchers and catchers are reporting. So, yes, I am a hermit for a period of time. But it's only about two or three months, Jacob. It's really not that bad. Do you celebrate pitchers and catchers reporting? Like, it's a holiday? I think opening day is more the holiday.

Like, pitchers and catchers reporting is, it's exciting, but it's not anywhere on the level. of what opening day is in my personal opinion. I think opening day should be a national holiday. Saul, can we get a holiday for opening day? Heck yeah. Saul says yes. All right.

It's official. Saul did hear the start of the show. Saul did hear it at the start of the show. So we are going to do a little spying on our exes here because there's only one remaining former Diamondback in the postseason. And do you know who it is, Jacob? He's on the Phillies. He's on the Phillies.

Not on the aster. Infielder, middle infielder. Played for the Diamondbacks in 2016. Didi. Didi Ergorius is not a Philly anymore, is he? Middle infielder. I was definitely just going to say it, but this feels more fun to just make you. There you go.

There you go. Gene Gene the hitting machine. Gene Seguera is the lone former Diamondback who is still alive in postseason play. And Gene Cigura, I think, is an interesting story from a Diamondbacks perspective because, let's face it, there's a narrative going around that what happens is guys have success elsewhere and then come to the Diamondbacks and aren't as good, right? Are you saying that Gene Cigura didn't have success when he was here? No, that's exactly the point I'm making is that that's exactly what happened, right? Gene Cigura sort of goes against the grain of the storyline that people like to throw out there. and that Gene Sagarra had a miserable season with the Milwaukee Brewers the year prior.

He came over to the Diamondbacks, and I remember, I think it was Keith Law, who is a somewhat controversial baseball analyst who's rubbed some people in the valley the wrong way, mostly because he didn't think Paul Goldschmidt would be very good when he was first called up. He was wrong. But anyway, I remember Keith Law on opening day of 2016 joking about who should bat ninth for the Diamondbacks. Should it be Zach Granky, the pitcher, or should it be Gene Segura? Because there are numbers the year prior offensively were actually very comparable. But Gene Segura came over to the B-backs in 2016 and had a very, very good season.

He had 20 home runs. I think he hit about 319 that year. So it's sort of a story that we haven't heard much in the Valley, right? A guy who really did his best in Arizona and has continued to be good. Yeah, he's continued to be good after leaving the Diamondbacks. but I don't think he has had a season as good as that 2016 year that he had in Arizona. And I don't know if he ever will have a season like that again. It was very, very good what he was able to do in Arizona.

I remember being fairly confident every time he came up to the plate that he was going to find his way on base somehow. And obviously that was true. I'm pretty sure he hit, what, 320 somewhere around there? He hit 319, 20 home runs, 64 RBIs. He had 203 hits that year. Pretty impressive stuff. Yeah, no, Gene Seguro was really impressive that year. And that, if I remember correctly, they flipped him the following year for Taiwan Walker and Catelle Marte.

Wasn't that that trade? It was that trade. Taiwan Walker would be nice to have still. However, however, it is, that trade to me has always been tough at times because Mitch Hanninger, if he can stay healthy, is pretty dang good at hitting the baseball. He doesn't really, hasn't really. stayed healthy. No, that's the stipulation, right? So Gene Sagar and Mitch Hanager, like, you look at that trade in hindsight. You're like, well, we got, we got Catal Marte, but

last year or so, that doesn't look so great. But I always liked watching Gene. I've always had a proclivity for watching guys that just seem to find their way on base. And that's why I'm super excited about some of the youth that they have right now, because a lot of those guys, they have a little bit of pop, but they are pretty talented when it comes to finding their way on base. Gene was one of those guys. I've just, I always enjoy watching good contact hitters play because I think they make the game more exciting.

I've, even since he's left the Diamondbacks organization, he's been pretty fun to watch. Mitch Hanager is a free agent this winter. Diamondbacks certainly don't have enough outfielders. No. That feels like a fit, right? I'm okay. You're right. I mean, Mitch, it's funny

how that trade evolved, right? It was originally like the Gene Cigura, Taiwan Walker trade when in hindsight, Mitch Hanigur and Ketel Marte have arguably been the most valuable players to come out of there. Taiwan Walker has bounced back nicely after having Tommy John's surgery as well. We won't go down that rabbit hole too far because it's going to make people angry. You guys should do a show this offseason where you analyze every single trade in Diamondbacks history. I wrote an article last off season about every trade that Mike Hazen has made.

So I've sort of- So I'm talking every trade. Every trade in Diamondbacks history? Oh my gosh. In one podcast? In one podcast. Wow. Leah, can you produce that?

We're going to be here for hours. Poor Leah is not going to like us that day. I'm sick that day. Sorry. Can't flame her. Can't flame her. Dusty Baker is the manager of the Houston Astros and is sort of a likable guy, right? I like Dusty Baker.

I think a lot of people like Dusty Baker. And it sets up this interesting situation where everyone kind of wants to hate on the Astros this weekend. And yet, Dusty Baker's like kind of a chill dude who's never won a World Series. I believe he has the most wins by any manager in Major League history who has not won a World Series. That's a crazy fact.

He won the NL Pennant. He did. With the San Francisco Giants back in 2002, I believe. And then, of course, he's done it with the Astros in the past as well, just last year. But this season, he has another shot at possibly winning a World Series. Jacob, do you think it gives you? Are you more inclined to root for the Astros at all?

Because Dusty Baker is their manager and has a pretty good reputation around the week. No. Okay. Enough said, huh? No. I'd like it. I mean, I'm going to root for the Phillies. I don't really like either team, if we're being honest.

But I think the Phillies are more fun to watch at times. Like Astros games, as fun as Astros fans probably find Astros games, because it's just like as a casual viewer, it just feels like, Most of their games are 7 to nothing because it's they can hit. They can pitch. Yeah. The other team can't do much of either. And they're just kind of built for the postseason too, right?

I mean, there's a reason that they've represented the American League in the World Series several times over the last few years because they're just built for the postseason. They're bullpen as we've seen. So we talked about earlier, 0.82 ERA in the playoffs so far. And they also haven't lost a game in the post. postseason, which we haven't mentioned yet today. The Astros are undefeated up until this point, which I don't believe that's ever happened. I don't believe a team has ever gone a full 11 and 0 since they added the extra round of the postseason. So the Astros have a chance to potentially make some history in that regard.

But I just wanted to check. I think Dusty Baker is a likable guy. He is. And so if there is a reason to root for the Houston Astros, I think Dusty Baker is probably one of the main ones. For sure. I went and did some digging because I couldn't remember when he comes. coached in Washington for a while and I think he was fired in 2017. And so that was definitely,

2017, 2018, one of those. Yeah, definitely, definitely like for a second, I was like, wait, didn't he? No, no, he didn't. That was not him. But, you know, he is a likable guy. I definitely wish that, you know, he had a better track record of success, considering how many games he's won as a manager. But yeah, I hope that it's not this year.

I'm sorry. 2,093 wins in the regular season in the school. of Dusty Baker. He's also 47 and 44 in the playoffs. So he's fared reasonably well in the postseason as well. Mary says Astros need to win this year's World Series. But like, why though? Yeah.

Why? I need your, okay, Mary, when you hear that, I need your response as to why. All right, we're awaiting Mary's response. We're waiting the response. I would suspect it's because Dusty Baker is likable and people want Dusty Baker to win World Series. My reasoning is that nobody knows the storm that's coming.

The storm that's coming that nobody else will be able to win a World Series for the next 10 years. Because of the Arizona Diamondbacks? Because of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Okay. All right. Bold takes here from Faj. Mary says because they have been mocked at their 2017 World Series was won fraudulently. Yeah.

That's a true point. I mean, but it's like. I get Astros fans vibes. of this? Yeah, I get some Astro. I mean, yes, they were mocked, but like

for a pretty decent reason, right? I mean... Can you hear me that trash can, Leah? We're just

going to do a slight demonstration today. Just a demonstration of how the Astros won the 2017 World Series. Does that mean

fastball or curveball? Well, there was something in there. I'm really glad you didn't just dump trash all over the table in front of us right now.

Okay. I appreciate that, Jacob. Anyway, you all should go get a membership at our website at go phnx.com. You can get a month-to-month membership or an annual membership. You can get the writings of myself covering the Diamondbacks and possibly some MLB postseason topics. Craig Morgan is over here writing like 35 minute long mailbag pieces, which Leah. He got 55 questions and he answered every single one.

That man is way too faithful to. I think he needs to know that he has, you know, the ability to select things. Like, I would imagine that 55 questions, quite a few of them had to be similar or overlap. There's no way it was 55 unique questions. I don't know if I believe that. I'll go read through it today. Yeah. There were a couple of repeats that he grouped together.

But he answered all of them and he would say, like, Tyler and Matt, your question. That's the answer. Craig is. Yes. He said, Tyler and Matt, your questions were similar. So we've grouped them together. But then he would like direct like answer both of them by name and answer incredible.

That's crazy. Craig is a saint. I am not quite as saintly as Craig. But we do have some good writers over at go phnx.com. And you all should grab a membership so that you can become a part of the family. So head over to go phnx.com today. Become a member of our family. You'll either get a free t-shirt from the PhDNX locker or at your first month for just 50 cents

just for signing up. It's always a good time to be a member of the PhDNX locker. H-Nex family, Jacob. Agreed. Agree. Enough said. Also, you should go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel, which you can find, hopefully, right here if you're joining us live on YouTube right now.

Also, be sure to smash that like button here. We're live right now. Jacob's always telling people to smash the like button in the comments. Look at this beautiful. Beautiful lower third. Did you make that, Jacob? No, Sean did. I will animate it one of these days.

Ooh, okay, okay. But yeah, be sure to like this video and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That way, you can make sure that you don't miss any of our shows here at PHNX. We have a bit of an Arizona Fall League update. So cue the fancy Fall Guys graphic. There is... I'm not a Fall Guy. Oh, you're not a Fall Guy.

It's all right. You can fill in just for today, Jacob. We'll allow it. We have some sort of unfortunate news, though. Today is not a particularly happy update. in the world of the Arizona fall league because Jordan Lawler's Arizona Fall League season is over.

He was hit by a pitch on Friday and it hit him, it hit his shoulder, his left shoulder, the exact same shoulder that he had surgery on almost instantly when he became a member of the DBACs organization last year. So Jacob, I believe this is your first time hearing this news.

Why can't the Diamondbacks have nice things, right? That's the natural reaction to this. Uh, yeah. I mean, this is really unfortunate news. I don't know what the typical recovery time on something like this is. Yeah, so it sounds like it'll be six to eight weeks. That's what Josh Barfield said. So at the end of the day, this doesn't really matter. He lost out on what, 20 at bats? Yeah. He, I mean, he has like 30 at bats up to this point, something like that. So in the Arizona Fall League, you know, you've got a day off every week, maybe two days off in some weeks and you're not playing in every game anyway. way. So it's not like, you know, there's tons of a batts here that Jordan Lawler's missing out on. And yeah, six to eight weeks, Josh Barfield said it shouldn't affect his offseason really at all. He should be ready to go next spring. So in the macro sense, there, you know, there aren't any big concerns. Yeah, it's just kind of a freak accident, right? Like it's just, like he got hit in the wrong area at the wrong time. Right. sends him off the Arizona Fall League team. But, you know, hopefully a

speedy recovery. And I don't see any reason why. I need to be concerned about this really. Like it is just kind of an unfortunate thing for Arizona Fall League fans. Yeah. Get to watch that kid play because he can certainly swing it. He can absolutely swing it. And speaking of his final numbers in the Arizona Fall League, he had 278 with a 469 on base percentage and a 528.

I like on base guys. You're a big on base percentage guy? Yeah, I love on base guys. Okay, okay. I'm not a fall guy. I'm an on base guy. You're an on base guy. All right, we'll make a new graphic and see if we can get that in the works for you.

Yeah, he had 49 blade appearances all together in the Arizona Fall League. So still a decent workload for him. And, I mean, he played the entire season in the minors anyway. So it's not like Jordan Lawler missed half of the year and we're making up for lost time. This is just kind of bonus opportunities against some good competition to see what he could do. And he absolutely passed the test, right? I mean, Jordan Lawler is still 20 years old, right? He's still a fixture of the future of this organization.

So I really don't see this as being a huge hurdle for, anyone. It's sort of like Drew Jones in some ways. Obviously, there's a bigger hurdle there, right, with him missing out on his first entire season of pro ball. But on the flip side, on the flip side, it's like Drew Jones is going to be fine. He's going to come back next year. The diamondbacks have already had multiple prospects go through a similar process is what he's going through, unfortunately. But they have the ability to bounce back. And we've seen both Jordan Lawler and Corbyn Carroll bounce back and be as good as they ever were. I think they almost fake these in

like the conspirator put on the tinfoil hat. Oh man. I'm joining Espoil's tinfoil hat club here for a second. This can't be good. Excuse me. Go ahead.

How? Okay. It's the same injury almost for every single draft pick. The shoulder injury, right? Let me paint a picture for you. The first half a season

that these players can get in the minor leagues is an utter waste of time. So why not fake an and bring them to watch baseball games with the scouts. Interesting. I don't know if you're not. I don't know if that's against the rules. Like,

I don't know if that's like legal. Yeah, faking injuries generally discouraged. Yeah, well, is there a rule? Like, I don't know.

Like, yeah, see, why does this keep happening? Is it the thin desert air bad for shoulders? No, that's what it is. The organization wants to keep them close.

And they'd rather them spend valuable time watching professional baseball. games with really highly intelligent baseball IQs, then spend 100 to 70 at bats in the minor leagues. I just think they're cursed. That could be it too. But I do want to respond to the other comment that Ben had calling me Billy Bean because I like a on base percentage.

When this team was at its best this year, Jesse, were they hitting home runs other than Christian Walker? I mean, I guess not much. What was the cause of their seven run outburst innings? Was it home runs or was it doubles down the line and singles and buntz and stealing bases? And I might have a reason to be Billy Bean. And it's because this team is at its best when they are trying to link innings together. Or as manager Tori Lavello might say, pass the torch to the next guy.

There you go. he gets on base, right? You and your Billy Bean hat. Yeah, I mean, I see where you're coming from on that. I think the debacks also scored a lot of runs at times because they hit a lot of home runs. But those aren't mutually exclusive either, right? Like hitting a home run does improve your on base percentage. So it's not like home runs versus on base percentage necessarily,

although, you know, a lot of hitters do you have. A lot of hitters do you have a propensity for one and not the other maybe. so I do see where you're coming from there. But yeah, a 469 on base percentage for Jordan Lawler. How do you feel about this, Jesse? Batting average is the only stat that matters. Oh, man. I could talk about this for quite a while.

I don't think that's true at all. Sorry, Ben. I just, I had to. Anyways, continue with your Jordan Lawler numbers. Okay. I had figured Ben was kidding. Ben has been in the chat for a while. Ben is a pretty on a stats.

He's a pretty cerebral. baseball guy, so we knew you were better than that, then. Don't worry. And yes, if Ben had been serious, I absolutely would have died inside a little bit. I just sorry, I just, whenever I come on the show, I throw things into tangents and I just completely throw off Jesse's rhythm. I can't believe that people still, like there are some people out there who still view batting average as being like all that.

I did throw them under a tangent. Yeah, yeah. You'd have to try to get me off of it down. Well, it's a pitcher wins, right? I mean, pitcher wins is like, that's the lowest of the low. That's the lowest of the low. Yeah, that's a whole other level.

Batting average at least like, it's something that you have direct control. Sure, sure. The thing with wins is that like you don't really even control wins at the end of the day. Batting average, you do have a lot of control over. It's just not like the most important stat at the end of the day. This is for you, chat. So what is your barometer on?

the best judge of a hitter. Oh, wow. You just keep digging me deeper into these rabbit holes. I don't think you actually want me to get out. That's what I'm here for. Okay, so like the best stat, the best singular stat for measuring. If you're judging and measuring a professional hitter, what's your stat? I can only pick one, huh?

You can only pick one. If you must, I'll give you three. Okay. Oh, wow, three. Okay. That's a lot. I've got a lot to work with here. So if I'm picking one, it would be probably OPS Plus, actually, which is not that complicated of a stat.

It's basically just OPS, but then scaled so that 100 is average. Ballpark, right? Yeah, and then it accounts for ballpark environments as well. So I just think it's a really nice, easy, simple number to look at where some of the other stuff gets a little bit, a little bit more complicated. And what's a baseline number? For. Like for OPS Plus, like your average hitter is going to be around 100. It's literally scaled so that the average hitter is exactly, we'll have a 100 OPS plus,

which is why it's so easy to use, right? It's so simple. So, yeah, like if you look around some of the really good hitters in the game, we'll have an OPS plus around like 140. If you're Aaron Judge, you'll have an OPS plus of 200, which basically means that you are 100% better than the average major league hitter. So yeah, I'll just, I'll stick with it. that for right now. I won't, I won't give any other stats. I'll just stick with OPS Plus.

Apologies to the audio listeners and Leah, if you want to just take your headphones off for a second. Nerd! Can't deny that. Can't deny that. Anyway, now that we've completely veered off of the course of what we were going to talk about today, do you have concerns, Jacob, about Jordan Lawler being, having durability issues in the long term? No. No? No, that's a, That's a, this one, the first one, sure, maybe that gives me a little bit of a concern, but this one's just kind of a freak accident. Okay. Probably just caught him in the wrong place.

Yeah, I'm not too concerned about that. That's pretty much exactly how the Diamondbacks farm director, Josh Barfield, described it, is it basically just hit like the exact right spot to, um, to cause a fractured scapula, which is technically what the, what the diagnosis was. So yeah, no huge concerns there, uh, six, eight weeks. So Jordan Lawler will, you know, have to do some rehab here over the next couple months, but should be more than ready to go for next season. We're going to talk a little bit about OGs, our friends over at OGs.

OGs just did something that totally is going to change the game. They just launched their brand new Sleep edition gummy. Jacob, you had a chance to try the Sleepy Edition gummy. There you go, there you go. You won't want to sleep on these. Yes, you heard us right. This script I'm reading right here is just... I completely threw them off.

Sleepy time. There you go. You heard us right. Oh, geez is now... I'm getting the death stare from Max right now. Max is right now. You had it for a second.

I appreciate it. It's the first and then I'm just like hearing through the wall. It's like, hey, yeah. I blame Jacob. I just said, he asked me if I use it.

I said, sleepy time. Does it not make you sleep? Right. That's what it's for. I don't sleep on this. And it's like, he was registering my pun.

Yeah, no, I just, it's, it's just confusing to like read a script and not fully understand it in that moment. So, but no, I mean, you guys know me at this point. That's not exactly, that shouldn't be shocking for any of you at this point. Anyway, you heard us to write, oh, geez, is now flavoring dreams with a two to one THC CBN ratio. Gummy. CBN is a compound that helps specifically with falling and staying asleep. And this sleep edition gummy is in their new aqua berry flavor. which Derek is always very, very excited to talk about AquaBerry.

Yeah. I am trying to get as much sleep as I can right now. I'm about to have a child. So before this child comes, if it helps me sleep, it helps me sleep. Yeah, you're going to want to get as much sleep as you possibly possibly can possibly can because you will get none in a few months. So no, yes, exactly. You have that to look forward to.

We highly recommend you check out OGs online at OGsbrands.com and on Instagram at OGs brands. You can also find their products at your local dispensary must be 21 years or older to purchase. Oh, what did Josh say? Jacob is wearing glasses. Jesse is not. Jesse's wearing super dope hat. Jacob is not.

Jacob equals nerd. Jesse equals Chad? Checkmate. I love it, Josh. Here we go. Okay. Now I'm putting on your, I have my own glasses. You finish the disclaimer.

Oh, man. These are, do you ever clean your lenses? I do. Oh, man. These are just like cloudy. They're not even that strong. of a prescription. There's zero prescription. There's like a quarter of a prescription

in one of the eyes. I just feel like I'm looking through a cloud right now. Anyway, I'm about to move into a new house. Thank you. You should finish the disclaimer for the last. I think I did. I said must be 21 years or older to purchase.

There you go. Yeah, I already said it. I'm about to move into a new house everyone and I will undoubtedly be checking out our friends over at more furniture. See if I can I have entirely too much space. So I'm going to need a whole lot of things in order to fill said space. And more furniture is hopefully going to play a role in that.

You can spruce up your home during more furniture's fall sale at more furniture. com. Plus, you receive a $100 gift card for every $1,000 you spend. Fall guys, fall sale. Ooh. More furniture, fall sale. Fall guys, fall sale. There we go.

Fall classic. Fall baseball. Fall league. Fall league. Oh my gosh. Full circle. Full circle. Amazing.

We have an update on Caleb Smith to share with all of you as well. The Diamondbacks left-handed pitcher who suffered a pretty significant injury at the very end of last season. Not ideal in any sense whatsoever. But we did hear just yesterday. This is a report from Nick Piccolo, writes over at the Arizona Republic. He wrote that left-handard Caleb Smith suffered a tear in his elbow ligament, but has opted not to go, not to undergo Tommy John surgery, according to general manager Mike Hazen. Hazen did also acknowledge that that will, it has to play into the decision of whether to tender a contract with Caleb Smith this winter or whether or not to.

I think Caleb Smith is due to make roughly $2 million in arbitration. And so the diamondbacks have a choice to make as to whether they want to bring him back, given, you know, these injury concerns or if they want to just let him go. So really unfortunate, more than anything, I just feel for Caleb Smith, like having that happened literally. I want to say it was the last day of the season that that happened where Caleb Smith was removed from the game with that injury. And it is a ligament tear. It's a pretty significant issue. So realistically, this might mean the end of Caleb Smith's Diamondbacks career. They are certainly going to know more about the medical details than we will as of right now.

So maybe they have some optimism that he could rehab and get back and still pitch next year. but it is it's a really sad ending to his 2022 season for sure the more intriguing storyline for me is this this feels like a little bit of a trend that any elbow injuries in the devax organization it seems like they're not getting tom and john surgery i mean you look at luke weaver a couple times you look at zach gallon had a little bit of a problem yeah that seems to be i don't know if that's an one yeah i don't know if that's an organizational thing or if it's just that they feel like they've lucked out and haven't had that point where it gets so bad where they have to go through the surgery instead of letting them just rehab.

Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I think one thing that's important to recognize is that if you're a major league pitcher, chances are your UCL is not in perfect condition, right? Realistically, it's not like everyone has a completely perfect UCL and then one day they tear the thing in Tommy John surgery, right? Like there's a lot of in-between space there. And that's what happened with Zach Gallen. It did have a partially damaged UCL. But if you were to do an MRI on just about any major league pitcher, you'd find that they have some slight issues with their UCL, right?

It's just sort of part of the territory of throwing 95 miles an hour 100 times, you know, every five or six days. That's just sort of part of the process. So it's, it's, I think there is maybe a new trend of kind of trying to scoing. around Tommy John surgery if you can. It sounds like this was sort of a choice that Caleb Smith was able to make on his own of whether to go for or whether to try to rehab using other methods. We don't really know what that would look like yet. But yeah, no pitcher is going to have a perfect UCL.

And it sounds like maybe Caleb Smith's is a little bit more moderate to the point where maybe you can avoid Tommy John surgery and still pitch next year. Yeah. The bullpen certainly could probably use him as a little. little bit of a long reliever at times because he kind of found a slot as in that role this year. He had a 4.11 ERA, right, in 70 innings. It wasn't a great season for Caleb Smith. I think, I mean, part of that 4.1 ERA is when they opened the year with him in the starting rotation and it did not go well. It was like the fourth game of the season or something like that. He really got knocked around in that one.

So in the bullpen, Z-R-A is probably under four. Pretty decent overall. You need innings-eaters. You do. Yeah. Jacob's over here breaking the whole setup. He chose violence. My long legs, they just have issues.

Like, I just, I don't know, they're just kind of. I feel that. They just have so much length that I can't, you know, can't always judge where they're going to end up when I move it around. Yeah, that's fair. It's fair. It's a long-legged person problem. I feel you there. Anyway, yeah, Caleb Smith is, he's also a lefty, which is another factor in this, right?

The Diamondbacks don't necessarily have a ton of lefties, although their depth is better than it's been in the past. They have Joe Mantypli. They have Kyle Nelson, who theoretically should be working his way back from an injury for next year. And maybe, you know, those two guys being around for next year makes it so that Caleb Smith is a little bit easier to move on from. So we'll have to see. Yeah, I really liked what I saw from Kyle Nelson this year. at times he looked pretty down. It wasn't even like his stuff was overpowering.

He just, he just had good stuff. Like, I don't even know how to, it was just good stuff. Yeah. And he just had a, he had a good, easy time getting major league hitters out,

which is exactly what you want to see from a guy, but it's not a ton of major league getting, or major league experience. Right. I think they need to see what they have. And if they need to part ways with Caleb Smith, because they just feel it's better for the organization. You know, who are we to say?

We can't trust what's going to. go on, you know. Yeah, yeah. Kyle Nelson really did have a good year. I know when he came back from injury later in the season, he didn't look like the same guy and then he finished the year on the injured list. So there were some injury issues there toward the end of the year. But all in all, really good stuff from Kyle Nelson, Joe Manapplies still had a pretty good year. So from a left-handed standpoint, the diamondbacks do have some bullpen options for next year on the right-handed side of things. Things are maybe a little bit sketchier. Ben says, Caleb Smith looked good in relief. I completely forgot about his start as a starter.

Yeah. Yeah, the Diamondbacks broke out of spring training with Caleb Smith in the starting rotation. And then Iberto Castiano's. Yeah, and then Humberto Castiano came out and then he needed Tommy John's surgery, not that long after. So we won't see Humberto Castellanos, unfortunately, for a little while longer. We do have some other crazy things that have come out. Neither of these pieces of news I'm going to share particularly great for Diamondbacks

fans. And so I apologize in advance for anything on kind of a bummer note. Yeah, there you go. Just hold the microphone up close. So Fernando Tatis Jr., right, suspended. And in serving his suspension, playoff games do count. So the San Diego Padres, of course, their run in the postseason is now over. So we have an idea of when Fernando Tatis will be able to rejoin the Padres next season.

You can literally look at a calendar and pick out the day. the Fernando Tatis Jr. will be eligible to return. And guess who he's going to be playing against, theoretically, on paper. I'm just going to assume it's the D-backs. You would assume correctly. It is against the Diamondbacks. I believe it's in San Diego. I don't think it's at Chase Field.

But Fernando Tatis Jr. lines up perfectly to play his first game back off of that suspension against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Jacob, how do we feel about this? If postseason numbers do not count towards your correct. Career average, they don't, right? If I'm correct in saying this. Career like batting average?

Yeah, like any of your offensive numbers, pitching numbers, they don't count towards your career averages. Yeah, yeah, true. Then why should postseason games count toward a suspension? It's a fair point. No, I know it was only 12, so it really doesn't make that big of a deal anyway. Yeah, it doesn't make that big of a difference. But I see where you're coming from.

postseason games don't count for much in baseball other than like I guess the most important thing, which is like actually winning a World Series. But in terms of like the stats and the accolades and like the awards, like you don't win a Gold Glove Award or an MVP award or any of those things with regard at all to your postseason performance. That's completely irrelevant. So I do see where you're coming from there. But the rules are the rules. And Fernando Tadis Jr. lines up to play the Diamondbacks next year.

I will say that the Padres line up with him in it on paper. I know there are still people who think that Fernando Tatis will get hurt or something. Something will come up so that he doesn't play. Yeah, you know, he's had a, he's had the type of career that makes it hard to believe in him actually showing up and playing games. But on paper, Juan Soto, Mani Machado, and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the same lineup is pretty formidable. I mean, it's sort of along the lines of what the Dodgers have with Freeman. Turner and Mookie Betts. So obviously Trey Turner is a free agent this winter.

We'll get into that in a second. But this Padres team is pretty formidable if and when Fernando Tatez just does return. As an outsider, I do enjoy watching Fernando Tatez play baseball. And it feels like we haven't seen him play baseball in a really long time. So I think it is good for the game. Yeah. I really do hope that he starts making better decisions so that we can continually see him playing baseball games.

He's a really fun player. He is. I understand people questioning. His choice is. His integrity and yeah, some of the ways that he's gotten hurt are obviously the suspension. He was the motorcycle, right? It was the motorcycle accident. The first injury that kept him out for part of last year.

He's just got to make better choices because he's really good for the game of baseball. Yeah, he's fun. I mean, Fernando Tatis, when he's on the field, is about as much fun to watch as any player in baseball, if I'm being totally honest. Except when he plays the debacks. Except when he plays the debacks. There you go. He has hit a number of home runs against, I don't have numbers in front of me. but Fernando.D.

He's got to be up there in terms of Debex killers. I mean, obviously he hasn't had a super long career. Yeah, there's not a big sample size of that. But when he has played the Diamondbacks, he has utterly roasted them in my initial memory. I'd be curious to know who the biggest Devax killer is in terms of home runs. Like, who's hit the most home runs against the devax in their career? Yeah, we'll have to do some research. I mentioned the Dodgers have a trio of some pretty darn good hitters.

in their own right, right, with Freddie Freeman, Trey Turner, and Mookie Betts. Trey Turner is a free agent this winter, so it remains to be seen what direction the Dodgers will go there. Hopefully not there. Hopefully not there if you're a Diamond Vax fan. But we did get some unfortunate news, not with regard to Trey Turner, but with regard to Aaron Judge. And apparently, I think it was Mark Feinzen from over at MLB.com, who reported that the Dodgers

are expected to show interest in Aaron Judge this winter. according to sources. I have my doubts about this. Like, I think the Yankees would have a problem with seeing Aaron Judge go to Los Angeles. You would hope. You would think that that would be like the biggest PR night. Like,

could you imagine? I mean, Yankees fans are, uh, they have a certain intensity about them. And if they see Aaron Judge, they're far and away best player that they've had in a while, uh,

you know, go over to Los Angeles and play for the Dodgers. I don't think that would sit well with them. And the Yankees realistically have the money. where they could probably get this done if they really wanted to. So it feels like every time there's a big name on the market, the Dodgers are mentioned just because the Dodgers, they do have a lot of money coming off the books.

That's the unfortunate reality of playing in a division with LA. They spend tons of money. And in particular, this winter, they also have David Price coming off the books. Finally, they've just been paying him tons of money for a long time. That's finally coming off the books, Trey Turner, like I said, coming off the books. So they will have some money to see. spend. And I mean, it's hard to, it's hard to see. Like, who would you want more than Aaron

Judge in this upcoming free agent market? I mean, maybe Carlos Correa. Maybe they want Carlos Carrella to replace Traitor. I like Carlos Carrera. I like Carlos Correa, but I don't like I'm in a Dodgers uniform. No, no. I suspected you wouldn't like any top to your free agent in a Dodgers uniform. No, but this is going to be, this is going to be really unique. You're talking about Aaron Judge. But one of the places I wouldn't mind seeing Aaron Judge land in the chat might roast me for this is San Francisco. I know it's another division. team. Yeah.

But if there's any ballpark that holds in home runs, it's San Francisco. So if you want to put him somewhere where you feel he might neutralize, you know, his biggest asset. He'll only hit 45. Yeah. His biggest asset is in San Francisco. Yeah. Sort of makes sense.

I will admit that seeing the Phillies do what they've done has sort of made me think, like, if the Giants, yeah, Chris is not happy. This is going to go poorly. If the San Francisco. Giants came out and decided they were just going to go all in and spend a bunch of money on free agents. I'm okay with it. They would be, they would be similar to the Philadelphia Phillies. Like the Phillies don't have, we talked about it the other day, the Phillies don't have a lot of homegrown talent that came from within their organization, right? It's Aeronola and Reese Hoskins

and, you know, maybe a couple relievers, but for the most part, the core of their lineup and the core of their team came externally. And the Giants have the kind of money where they could, they could do it. They probably could. Yeah, they could. They're missing a lot of pieces still. Yeah. Like, there's still quite a few pieces away, in my opinion. Obviously, Aaron Judge would help in that. I mean, the Phillies only 1.87 games. So if you're the Giants, you know, the Giants were right around 500 this year. It's not like you need to go, you know, get the top seven free agents or something to be able to win, you know, seven to 10 more games next year. Granted, you know, you can't count. You know,

you can't count on making the World Series with an 87 win season. But the Phillies have shown us that that is somehow possible this season. Do you think about that that you've actually need 13 more wins. It's true. Yeah. And as we said the other day, all you have to do, if you're going to do it the way the Phillies did it,

you just have to spend about 150 million more dollars. I think they can make up the 13 wins with people in their minor league system. Yeah, I think that's the better route. And it's the route that they're probably going to go anyway. So to me, right, the Phillies are spending all this money. And obviously the contracts for a good amount of time, right? But you never know how a player is going to look in the seventh year of his contract,

in the sixth year of his contract. So one of those things is if you sign all these players to pretty similar length contracts, all of them end around the same time. Well, you might have some success right now. Right. And the Phillies are in the World Series. Obviously, it's working for them. Once you get to the end of that time period,

you are in a world of hurt if you have not replenished your minor league system and or if you have more money to go buy other guys, then sure. But your money's tied up right now. Your money's tied up in a lot of those contracts. And so when that money all of a sudden is out and all of your contracts expire, you're looking at three, four years of just being bad again. Yeah.

Like the way that and everybody doesn't like to say is obviously LA buys a bunch of their players, but at times they have shown a great, Like, they've been good for 10, 11, 12 years. The Dodgers are just brilliant with how they use their assets. It's not just that they have a lot of money to spend. Right. They've shown they have the ability to home grow talent better than any other organization at times.

Yeah. So, like, you have to do a little bit of both. And while the DBX might not have the ability to spend with the rest of Major League Baseball, what they can do is build for long-term success by continuing to draft smart, draft efficiently and they've seen a lot of success doing that out of the players that they've drafted recently and if they continue to do that, there's no reason that they shouldn't have continued success. Yeah.

I mean, that's what Mike Hazen's been talking about for years is trying to build something where they can come back year after year and win. You know, they were a playoff team in 2017. They were a playoff team in 2011. They were a playoff team in 2007. But there have been these pretty large gaps in between postseason appearances throughout pretty much the entire history of the diamond backs. This obviously predates Mike Hazen,

but it's something they're trying to figure out how to get right. And I think, you know, building through the farm system, you know, continuing to draft as you describe it. It's the right way to do it. That's the way Tampa Bay has been successful recently as well. Yeah. And it just seems like every, so you mentioned those, those playoff runs, right? 2001, they bought that team.

I don't think there's anybody denying that fact that they bought that baseball team. And they traded for it. And they paid dearly for it in the year's fall. with all these deferred contracts and things. Yes. And so then you look at 2000. So like I'm not counting 2001. You look at 2007.

You look at 2011 and you look at 2017. There's singular instances. It feels like 2007 you have Justin Upton. Right? Yeah. Well, Justin Upton was called up. But he wasn't particularly good. Like he wasn't a big part of that team.

But the 2017 was wild because they were outscored by like 50 runs. And yet they won't. 90 games that year. Yeah. So that's just a weird instance for me. 2011 you have Paul Goldschmidt. Yeah. And you have Ian Kennedy

coming at an ace and Daniel Hudson throwing like 240 innings with a three and a half ERA. The star is kind of aligned in both of those seasons. So that's kind of the thing, right? They all align. And those regimes got super excited about what they saw in that year

that they went and leveraged everything that they had built to try and repeat the years following. Right. Right. So like 2017, you're coming off quite possibly one of the worst seasons you've seen. 2016 was great for Gene Seguer and pretty rough for everyone else. And that included watching Dansby-Sonson get traded for Shelby Miller. Please don't hurt me chat for saying that because Shelby Miller had quite possibly one of the worst seasons in Diamondbacks history.

And Zach Rankie wasn't particularly good in that season either in 20. 2016. No. So that flipped around when Tori came along in 2017. Right. And it still felt like at that point, it was like, oh, hey, like we might actually have something going here. Let's leverage a little bit of what we have to go buy something else.

Yeah. And so it's at this point, I hope that if they make the postseason next year or even show a sign of coming close to the postseason next year, they do not repeat history. And they actually keep this core of players intact and don't try and compete with some of the high level, high spending teams. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. The debacks have had a trend of like, you know, there's a season that comes where the

stars kind of align and they get all excited about it and then they make some moves that they regret as a result. That's not the way forward for this team. And I think Mike Hazen knows that. I don't think that's at all part of his plan. The debacks need to find a way to win sustainably and win consistently. And that's something that they've really struggled to do. Yeah, we're basically just doing like a full.

history of the Diamondbacks franchise at this point. We talked earlier about our predictions for the World Series. Maybe you want to play some bets about what you think the outcome of the World Series will be. I've got Astros in six. Jacob said he has Astros in five. Derek is crazy and says Astros in four going undefeated through the entire postseason. But the Draft King Sportsbook app is the place to go to place all of your bets. New customers can bet can make any $500 NBA Moneyline bet.

and get $200 if your team wins. You can also boost your winnings up to 100% with Draft King's stepped up same game parles. It's simple. Download the Draft King's Sportsbook app. Use promo code PHNX. That's promo code PHNX on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.

See show notes for details. Jacob, we are one day away from being at four peaks, which is always an exciting time for us here at PHNX. We broadcast all of our shows from, the Four Peaks 8th Street Pub on the last Wednesday of every month. So we're excited to be out there tomorrow. We hope that all of you will come out and join us and come and say hi. We've got some pretty cool events in the works with our friends at Four Peaks.

So stay tuned for more information. There is not much time left to enjoy spooky season out at the 8th Street Pub. I have yet to experience that myself. Maybe I'll get that opportunity at some point this week. Don't miss out on the haunted brewery tours at Four Peaks Monday through Wednesday, two tours per night must be 21 or older enjoy responsibly jacob have you done the haunted brewery tour i did i went on the first one i did indeed with saul running across the room was saw so was so was everyone running across the room are we just picking on saul no chirston also ran a couple times

yeah a couple times yeah so on my arm christon i'm pretty sure broke owens cup at one point two she hit owen's like the first five seconds interesting um No, so Saul, just for Saul's defense here, like, the thing he ran from was the most unplanned thing in the entire, like, it was not planned. It was just a normal brewery noise that just happened to come with, like, the perfect timing because he was telling, I won't give away what they tell on the, like, you got to go see it for yourself. But he was telling a story about something that they were seeing and then all of a sudden it went dead silent. and then one of their pressurized things went off and saw booked it to the back end of the group. So it wasn't like even part of the actual exhibit. No, it was not part of the actual exhibit.

That's incredible. That just makes the story that much better. Anyway, we would love to see you at Four Peaks. Tomorrow we'll be live at 11am. And of course, we'll have shows going throughout the morning and afternoon over there. So stop by. Get some chicken tenders. Get some beer.

It's all good stuff over at our friends at Four Peaks. That is all that we have here on this Tuesday. Your, you know, your two favorite tall Caucasians. It's been, it's been an honor. It's been an honor doing this. It's been a weird show, I feel like. You just throw me off my rhythm, Jacob. I don't know how else to describe it.

There's been some highs and there's been some lows. There's been some highs and some lows. But we appreciate you being here with us through it all. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. You can find me personally at at Jesse and Friedman. You can find Jacob at Jacob underscore Franklin. for. Correct.

Right. Nailed it. Very proud of that. You can also follow our producer Leah Merrill at Leah Merrill. And you can follow us on Twitter. Our D-BACs account is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bax. We also have our grandiose P-H-N-X Twitter account is at PHNX underscore Sports. And that's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Thank you all again for being here with us. I did not say that Faj disturbs me. No, Chris. That did not come out of my mouth. I just, it's just, you know, then when you've got the two tall Caucasians, these are just things go off the rail sometimes. You disturb my rhythm. There you go. We'll leave it at that. Thank you all for being here with us today. We really appreciate you being here. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when the Arizona Diamondbacks prospects don't keep getting hurt. Gosh, darn it.