PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Madison Bumgarner will be a part of the D-backs starting rotation in 2023, but for how long?

Episode Date: February 18, 2023

We have your updates from day 3 of the Arizona Diamondbacks spring camp, including comments from Mike Hazen on Madison Bumgarner staying in the starting rotation and more on Josh Rojas losing his arbitration hearing against the D-backs.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 PHNX: Make sure to get your hands on our new “Slim Valley Reaper” t-shirt! Go to https://phnxlocker.com/products/slim-valley-reaper now!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 BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 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) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/ NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. BONUS bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded.  See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballlterms.OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog 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 $100Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBB15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comRoman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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.

Happy Friday and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX T-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of Salt River Fields. I'm declaring myself that now because I found out today there is no mayor of Salt Riverfields. This guy is still your vice mayor of PHNX. He's also your thunderstake, the one and only, Jesse Friedman. I don't think ballparks have mayor. stare. They do now. You still have this misconception that everything in the universe has a man.

Four Square made me think that. But anyway, this show's brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app. America's top-rated sportsbook app. It's Friday. I'm drinking beers. Jesse's drinking a beer. And we are ready and we're ready to rock and roll because we had ourselves yet another exciting day out at the Arizona Diamondback spring camp. Of course, it was it was interesting to see that Madison Bumga. Gardner being part of the starting rotation isn't just on my mind when I scream and rant about it or Jesse's mind, but seem to be on everyone's mind at Media Day. It really wasn't, it was kind of a difficult topic. Like they kind of danced around it a little bit basically saying like trying to get to the point that that is what we know. If Madison Bumgardner doesn't perform well in 2020, does he remain part of the starting rotation? And more importantly, if he doesn't perform well during spring training, does that open the door? potentially for one of the younger guys to maybe grab his spot in the rotation. The answer to that question is no, no.

It doesn't sound like it at all. Mike Hazen sounded quite adamant that Madison Bumgarner is part of this rotation going forward and it didn't even seem like there would be a question about that. I mean, what was honestly the most wild thing about that whole, that whole discussion that happened today was that Madison Bumgarner's name was never said. Did you notice that? I think they said Bum at one point. Maybe.

Maybe. I didn't catch that. The reporters who asked about Madison Bumgarner in particular, which actually was not not either of us, they didn't actually say Madison Bumgarner's name. And Mike Haysen also never said Madison Bumgarner's name, but it was abundantly clear who we were talking about throughout that entire time. And Mike Haysen did say that Madison Bumgarner is going to be in the Diamondbacks rotation in 23. He not only said that he is penciled in, he followed that up by saying that he is going to be

in the Diamondbacks rotation in 2023. Of course, he could walk that back, I guess, right? Later on, maybe things change as spring progresses if Mad Bum doesn't look as good as the Diamondbacks hope he will. But that doesn't look like it's going to happen. I think Madison Bumgarner is going to be in this rotation. We actually have footage of Mike Hazen's comments. And as you can see, He, there was no hesitation on his end about Madison Bumgarner being part of the rotation. I mean, he's going to get the ball again. He's going to get the ball again this season. So, yes, we're penciling him to be in our rotation.

And he's going to be in our rotation. So I would like to see him, you know, like I said, like with all the other veteran guys, really step up and and model what it, what it, all the, all the great things that the long Mongloreas and the Malansans and the Bumgarners have done in this game who have stood on the mound and winning World Series that I hope that that is going to really help propel our younger players. And I guess what he means there is that they are going to kind of, you know, learn a lot from Madison Bumgarner and that's what they're saying. Yeah, motivate them.

Is that what they're saying there? That's what they're saying. I mean, it's easy to look at Mad Bum's track record, right? And look at the success that he's had in the postseason. He's one of the best, if not the best postseason pitcher of all time, honestly. I mean, I mean, what he did to help the Giants win those three World Series titles in the 2010s was nothing short of remarkable. And on paper, like, that's the guy that you want helping lead some of your younger players, right? He's done it on the biggest stage that anyone has been able to throw that well.

But, but yeah, I mean, there's no secret that Madison Bumgarner is not that kind of vocal clubhouse leader. He's not, right, you're prototypical. Like, I'm going to really help the young guys along and I'm going to make sure that, you know, they have everything they need and I'm going to be there for them, you know, when times are tough. Mad Bum, you know, he's just not that guy. I think there's no questions about that. So you certainly understand where the debacks are coming from.

You know, he has the background where he could be that type of player. but I don't know that he is realistically. And that's kind of what comes into question here where the debacks make this decision is, do you really think that Madison Bumgarner, the pitcher is good enough to deserve this opportunity? And I have a guess that our audience maybe thinks the answer is no. I think to, I guess to play devil's advocate a bit,

Madison Bumgarner did have quite a good stretch last year where at times he really did look like his old self. He was good at the beginning of the year. At least by like your normal metrics. MadBum had a sub for ERA for a couple of months last year. Didn't weren't we raving about the starting rotation in general? Like wasn't the starting rotation like ERA as a whole below like two or something? The debacks couldn't hit to save their lives at the beginning of the year.

That's right. The pitching was kind of keeping them going. But Madison Bumgarner, yeah. Honestly, I could see it coming. A lot of people could see it coming. His peripherals in the first couple months were not. not good. He wasn't striking out that many guys. He was he wasn't walking a ton, but that's never been a huge issue for him. He was still allowing a lot of hard contact. And eventually those things

kept caught up with him, as we expected they would. And Mad Bum didn't really have a very good season at all by the time the end of the year came. Well, another thing that Mike Hazen talked about was the bullpen and about looking for power. That seemed to be the one thing that they went out there. And by power, he doesn't necessarily just mean guys that can throw 105 miles an hour, even though they do. They did get one of those. There's just this thing where they wanted guys with strikeout stuff. He specifically said last year in way too many situations. They couldn't put a guy away when there's two outs and one guy on, right?

And it's just that they need that relief pitcher that can come in with that strikeout type stuff and be able to handle those situations. He didn't feel like they had it at all. I know we talked quite a bit about what they did add, what they haven't added. And to be honest, I really feel like the bullpen is looking quite different at this point. Merrill Kelly told us that he sees more relief pitchers in the clubhouse than he's ever seen as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And that's just right now, you know, in spring camp. But it goes to show that they really are trying to sift through all of the arms they have to find the reliable ones,

those reliable eight guys that they can count on in the bullpen. Yeah, he also talked about Mark Malanson, which I thought was was interesting. That wasn't a question that was asked. Nobody asked specifically about Mark Malanson, but it was something that Hazen just brought up when he was talking about the relievers. He said, I believe his exact words were fully expecting a breakout

or a bounce back. Bands back, yeah, yeah. From Mark Malanson, which would be huge for the debacks. And I will say that as much as I'm a little hesitant on that, looking at some of the peripheral numbers for Mark Malanson last year, I don't know if they necessarily screamed that a bounce back is about to happen. but if you look at his track record over the years, he has had, you know, some not great seasons at times.

I don't know if he's had a season as bad as he had last year, but he has had some not as good seasons. And generally speaking, he's been able to follow that up and improve the next year. It wasn't necessarily a huge drop-off and stuff. His pitches looked for the most part pretty similar. I know the VLO was down a lot early on. That kind of crept up a little bit as the season progressed. But yeah, at least the debacks seem to be under the impression that Mark Malanson will bounce back. And I know that he's gunning for the closer roll.

We haven't even talked about Mark Malanson that much in our discussions about who will close for this team because it just seems impossible with the way that he finished last year. But he certainly doesn't think so. And I don't think the Diamondbacks think that way either. And Jesse talked about the pitching last year and at times not having the bats to back it up. but this year seems like it's going to be different. I know that they didn't go out and get a lot of guys that they're going to add to the starting lineup. But there's one guy in particular.

There's one guy in particular. And you guys know this guy. That's very exciting. And we're very excited to go out to camp and see him making these sounds with his baseball bat. That's a good sound, Jesse. That's a good sound. I like that sound. So easy, too.

It's just a, it's just a silky smooth swing, man. Was this a you were here? I wasn't. Was this somebody throwing to him? Yes, there was a coach throwing to him. And there was also, he was out there with Catelle, Arrisp King. Heraldra Perdoma was also out there, right? But seeing Corbyn Carroll, he's been working hard.

Alec Thomas has been out there working hard. I had a conversation with Alec Thomas about his preparation. He said he actually came out to Arizona a month ago and has been working out, getting preparation for spring training that entire time. Because he is going to be playing for Team Mexico in the WBC, but he said he didn't have any reservations about it. He said with it being here in Arizona, it was kind of a no-brainer for him to participate. He said maybe if he had to fly to Japan or something, that might have been different, which totally makes sense in the middle of spring training to have that disruption.

But considering that they can, you know, play here in their group in the United States, is specifically in the city, you know, where his team is, it kind of makes things a little easier for him. Yeah, and I mean, I think he would rather spend his, his offseason in Arizona than in Chicago anyway. So for sure. You know, him being here early. I don't know if I fully buy it. I think he brought the wind. Did he bring the wind?

Yeah, it's been brutal. I didn't like the wind today. I know I know we've talked up coming out to spring training and watching practice. But I have to say the last couple days, not worth it. Not worth it at all. You would be absolutely miserable if you came out and experienced the very harsh conditions. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

That it's all over field. And it was so nice. Super Bowl week. I don't understand what happened. I mean, it's supposed to colder. The tourists got all the good weather, Derek, and Arizona's are left to just freeze our butts off, at least for this week. But I am told things are going to improve. Things are going to get better because eventually we're going to crave these days.

And though that's not that long from now. That's not too far away. But another thing that's a similarity between these two guys is that last off season, I talked a bit about Alec Thomas coming into the minor league camp that they held during. the lockout and kind of looking like a grown-ass man compared to what we had seen of him in like reno aces footage and stuff he just he looked like he had gotten bigger like more muscular like he'd grown up bigger uh well that could definitely be said about uh young corbin carroll because let's take a look at these guns in this video he was talking uh but i couldn't hear him because i was just staring at his gigantic arms let's take a look at this i'm planning to use this weekend and kind of

What is going on here? I mean, the man is kind of ripped, Derek. I think we've known this. Yeah, well, I know, but he don't like those, come on, Jesse. The guns are, the guns are fully loaded now. The guns are fully loaded. Corby and Carol, he has like, he has, right, it's not a big frame, you know, and anyone who's, who's, like, stood next to him or seen him up close and in person

knows that he, like, he kind of looks like a smaller guy, but you're absolutely right. His biceps are about four sizes too large for like the rest of this body. I love it. So, so yes. Also, people are giving us a hard time about saying. The harsh conditions. I don't know. There was something about like, it was not that windy at home.

But the moment I got to Salt River Fields, oh my gosh. I was sitting in the press box and we could literally hear the wind for like two hours straight in there because it was just so it was so crazy. Ryan gets it. Ryan, those aren't arms. Those are pythons. That's right. Jen R, by the way, welcome Jen R. I saw that this is your first time joining the show.

She was out there in a T-shirt today making us look silly when you want to talk about the chumps that we are. But that's fine. I'm fine with that because I, you know what? I don't like being cold and I will do everything I can to keep from being cold. One guy that is definitely doing everything you can to keep from being cold is Andrew Schaefin because he went entirely too much space. He went straight yet. He went straight Sasquatch. and the Diamondbacks revealed his return to the team with a spectacular video that I kind of adore.

Let's take a look at that. The locks flowing. I love the locks blowing. That's probably my favorite part. I'm not sure if like the way that this video came to be was like the Diamondback social media people coming to Andrew Chaffin and asking him to do these things. Or if Andrew Chaffin went to the Diamondback social media people, it was like, like, oh, I can make you a really good video. Andrew Schafin is utterly hilarious. He's one of the best people and we're very, very excited to have him back.

More importantly, he didn't really take the questions too seriously at his introductory press conference. He didn't take any of the questions. No, he didn't, he didn't want he got hit up with the wire. Did you come back? Why did you choose Arizona out of the way? He's like, come on. You're hitting me up with a hard one. But, you know, he just, he just said he really loves Arizona.

And it was it was the place. It was one of the places he wanted to go that. gave him an offer. Like he made it sound really simple. The best deal he got in a place that I liked is I believe exactly what he said. Correct. And as Jesse pointed out, he did take a pay cut leaving that option behind in Detroit, which, of course, if you...

I mean, he might not have known he was going to take a pay cut. I mean, maybe he wouldn't have if he knew how much money he would ultimately get. But yeah, he turned down $6.5 million. And his base salary for 2023 is $5.5 million. So there's some incentives and there's an option with a buyout for now. next year. So it'll probably make more. Right. Yeah. He could potentially make up to, I think, 7.5 million. But that is with the buyout, like you said, right? So hopefully that's not the case.

Hopefully, Andrew Chathen pitches well enough this year that the Diamondbacks want to do everything they can to keep them around as much as possible. But Gabriel Ferrer is absolutely right. It was bigger than the KD News. It absolutely was. The fans didn't come out for it in the same way. But, I mean, we'll take what we can get. But I think once again, Chafin being kind of that guy in the clubhouse, like, there was two or three players that told us that the atmosphere in the clubhouse is just already, like, fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Ross said that today. Yeah, they are getting along really well. They're really enjoying each other's company. Corbyn Carroll said he's getting to know some of the guys, even though I think he said it in that video. We just talked right over it. But we weren't we weren't focused at all. Yeah, it was the 22-inch pythons.

But of course, that's the thing about it is, is this team, even though a lot of people want to say that this team is the same team, even though we talked about those goddamn Pocoda projections and how they feel like this team is just going to regress or basically be the same team that it was last year, we don't feel that. We don't, we don't see that. This team feels like it's going to be an exciting team. I actually had a friend of mine, Chris Click, from Tucson, Arizona, which if you guys are in Tucson, you probably know that name. But he bought, we don't talk about Tucson. Well, you know, beautiful Tucson Arizona. We're going to get Damon on a run on a roll all over again.

That's the last thing we need. I mean, here's the thing, though, is season tickets are being purchased by guys like Chris, because this team is a team that people want to watch. and they're very excited about. Also, I actually do have people that are worried that there might be some sort of, some sort of suspension of broadcasts or something this year. So I actually have people now kind of wanting to lock into being at these games so that should that happen? Is that really a thing?

Do you think people are buying season tickets because they're concerned that games won't be broadcast? If that's one of the reasons someone told me that they bought season tickets, would that be good enough for you, Jesse? I don't know. I don't know that it would. I don't know if I believe that. That's wild. I mean,

can you imagine if the situation with a diamond got so bad that Major League Baseball wasn't even able to step in and actually broadcast the games? As Rob Manfred said, they would be able to do the other day. Hold on. You and I spoke about this off air, uh, privately.

We talked about this with the Rob Manfred comments and even that video that we posted of Manfred saying that MLB would step in and take control. There is infrastructure that would need to be put. into place. There are crews that would need to be hired that right now are currently employees of Diamond Sports Group. And they could just bring back a lot of those. They absolutely could. And I mean, maybe the contingency plan that he discussed having does take that into account. But, you know, again, the cameras right now in the ballparks, the trucks, the production trucks, those are all owned technically by Diamond Sports Group. So I have no idea what exactly is going on

in regards to MLB saying that they could take over should valleys or should Diamond Sports Group not be able to broadcast the games anymore? But I don't know. I question that. I question how quickly that process could take place. Hopefully we don't ever have to see it, though. All I will say is that it is telling that someone from Tucson would be willing to buy season tickets because, I mean, Tucson is, what, 14 hours away, 15 hours away? It's far off from anything that's actually worth doing. Where.

No, where wants to be there. So mad respect. Mad respect for your friend, Derek. So help me God. Jen says, no, they bought season tickets to go to fan fest. You're damn right they did. That's tomorrow, by the way. It's not fan fest.

It's not fan fest. It's the MVP. MVP. Most valuable, pfand. I still don't. Did they actually come out and say what MVP stands for? No, I don't think so. I don't think so.

But I just like saying that. But speaking of being valuable, we find you guys valuable. We thank you guys for being here in the chat. And we got a little reward for you from our friends over at Mountain Mikes. I am going to select one lucky winner from every Friday show to win a free 20-inch pepperoni pizza from Mountain Mikes between now and opening day. So, wow. There it is right there. Are we doing this today?

We're doing it right now, baby. We're doing it right now. So before the end of the show, just do me a favor. If you are here in the chat, drop me a little bit. pizza emoji and I will add your name to this exciting spinning wheel I have here before me. And I will pick one winner before the end. So make sure to do that if you want free pizza. The real challenge is going to be figuring out how to put a pizza emoji in the in the chat.

Can you not emoji in the chat? I guess. Can't you emoji in the chat? I think you can. Yeah. Maybe it's not that hot. Why are you doing? You're the younger person.

You should know these things about technology. There's an emoji right there. Hey. Hey, we got it. It's not the right one, though, Brett. So we need a pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the drawing tonight for the free pizza. That's the rules. Them's are the rules. Thank you, Brad. I appreciate it. Brett figured it out. Brett's the first one entered in. But moving on, of course, we thank you guys for being here in the chat. We want to let everybody know if you haven't had a chance to do so. Make sure to go to Underdog Fantasy. Download the Underdog Fantasy app. You can not only do their pickum game on your own, which is higher or lower. They'll give you a stat for different sports. Point toll. Rebounds assists pitch counts we're riding on pitch counts this year so make sure to get down on their pickum game You pick a high pick a lower on their amount and you will instantly Be added in the win the more the more legs you add the more money you can win you going up to a thousand dollars Depending on how many legs you add so make sure to do that over underdog fantasy

You can also do your daily fantasy sports differently by playing up to five of your friends in daily fantasy sports Draft teams whoever has the most fantasy points win some cold hard cash so So it's this easy to get started. Go to underdog fantasy.com or download the app. Sign up with promo code PHNX. An underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. And don't be an underdog, be an overdog up against your friends. As Jesse Friedman would say, he loves to say that.

Am I allowed to put a pizza emoji in the chat? You are absolutely not allowed to put a pizza emoji in the chat. But I might throw one in there just to maybe get myself in there. But you can't. Max specifically said no. So I'm sorry. I don't know if he was talking to you or not. But Max said no.

Also, Chris clarified it's the most valuable party. So they actually, like, they do have the acronym actually figured out. Do they really? Okay. Well, I guess. Whatever. I'm fine with that. I still don't know if I, if I love that name.

Like the most valuable, I don't know. I mean, people, there's so much controversy over what most valuable means when it comes to players. What does most valuable mean when it comes to a party? That's a, that's an entirely different conversation. And I mean, honestly, I know they didn't want to call it fan fest because they didn't want people to, to think that they were being, you know, left out of fan fest, right? Right. But does it make you feel any better that you're being left out of the most valuable party? No, it makes me feel even worse.

Yeah, that's right. I feel worse about it, but I don't know. I'll be there. So I guess I shouldn't feel bad at all. But anyway, uh, if you guys, thank you for that. Uh, Four Peaks beer, by the way. Join them. Jesse's enjoying one. I am. Cheers. These are genuinely. These are genuinely very good. These are genuinely very good, he says. And of course, you can get these wherever you get your beers. Uh, Four Peaks is a local beer company. So of course, we want to support them. And they have all sorts of events

going on around this time of year. Not only is great to grab their beers when you're watching sports, but it's also great to go down to their A Street Pub and check out some of their events. I am going to be building a beer derby, a beer can derby car for their beer can derby. And I can't wait. And if you can't either, make sure to do so because the beer can derby is on February 25th at Four Peaks, A Street Pub in Tempe. Kit pickups are open now. So if you want to show you got the fastest beer can in the valley sign up through four peaks.com back slash events must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly and i'm enjoying one right now i'm going to a little more uh but before we do that it's time guys for another arbitration conversation let's do

it jesse this time we're i mean we're talking about the actual thing though we're not we're not going to bring in and i thought we were going to arbitrate the value of one of these beers we're not that's priceless it's price you can't put it you can't put a price i was going to say $100 you were going to say $200 and I mean we were both going to be right basically but no we actually have real arbitration talk to discuss and that was Josh Rojas losing his arbitration hearing against the Arizona Diamondbacks Mike Hazen actually went to the hearing which we found out isn't something that's very common a lot of times they don't actually send the front office people to do some of this kind of what what what you could say is dirty work but I mean it's not even like like

it's interesting because Mike Hazen has control he's basically in charge of the case that the diamondbacks present at an arbitration hearing, but he's not actually the one doing the talking. So he wouldn't, it doesn't make a difference whether he's there or not practically, but, uh, but as you said, he did make it a point to be there because he basically said like, hey, if we're being forced to like poke holes at a, at a, the skill set of a particular player, I, I want to be there in person and not, you know, in any cowardly way be, you know, hanging out in my, in my suite in Arizona or something, right? Yeah, like, like, I'm, I'm, I'm here on the other side of the country while you're in Florida at an arbitration hearing.

Yeah. It's just not a very good look. So Hazen was there and Josh Rojas was very appreciative of that. And Mike Hazen very much appreciated Josh Rojas's maturity and the way he handled the situation. He understood his reasoning behind it. Both made it very clear. It seemed to be the best possible scenario as far as the attitude from both sides going into something. like this. We've talked about how terrible this process is. Jesse and I were quite kind to

each other when it came to the Arizona iced tea can arbitration hearing compared to how some of these hearings can go, right? Neither one of us drug the good name of Arizona iced tea through the mud or brought up its stats. You know, its calorie count. The fact that it, you know, uses sugars as carbohydrates, but doesn't actually tell you what percentage of course. Maybe we should have. Maybe we should have, but we didn't do that good enough. We didn't drag its name through the mud like poor Corbyn Burns got his name drug through the mud in his arbitration hearing. But Mike Hazen's comments kind of reflect that this went well and that he kind of respects Josh Rojas for going through this process.

It's a, you know, I respect, talk to Josh this morning. Like I respect incredibly that he walked into that, advocated for himself the way he did. And that, you know, that's his right to go do that. And I'm proud of how he handled it, like a pro, like he always is. and but it it's it stinks frankly um we have to do our jobs too um and i you know we tried to explain that um but you know it's not something that anybody looks forward to in that process but it's part of the process it's a collectively bargained right for the players and you know he went and exercised that so uh and again i think right there reflects like his his feelings on it uh

He started out by just saying he just straight up hates it. Like, Hazen, that was the first question he was asked. And he, you can tell he hates this. Hazen believes in these guys. So to go into a meeting like this,

even if he's not the one verbally saying this stuff, and try to downplay the worth, the value of a player is, you know, it's a fairly difficult process for even the person that's, that's doing it, right? They know the results could be negative.

And in some cases, is, let's be honest, it's not for very much money that they're arguing over. Yeah, here was about $300,000. So, yeah, in the grand scheme of things, like we talked about yesterday when we talked about the Corbyn-Burn situation. A lot of times, these cases are not, you know, the two sides aren't separated by that many dollars necessarily. But yeah, Mike Hayson, clearly, I mean, there's no part of this process that he enjoyed.

I don't know. Josh Rojas did technically say that he enjoyed the process at one point. I don't know if he totally, totally like enjoy. I don't know about enjoy. That seems a little bit far. But it's funny because we've talked about Josh Rojas's personality and his competitiveness, his intensity. He's a fucking gamer. And we just kind of joked about it as like, oh, like that's totally on brand for Josh Rojas, you know, to go to an arbitration hearing.

But hearing him talk about it, it's like, oh, no, it is. He did the exact thing we joked about him doing. Exactly. He was going in there with that attitude of like, it's me, like, it's us versus them. We have figures to present. We're going to present figures that make me look good. They're going to present statistics that make me look bad. Baseball is one of those games that you can find both of those things no matter what, right?

Yeah. Like even a guy that has a great war. For instance, you can go pull like his defensive numbers and prove that he's not very good. How many bases did he still? Yeah, how many bases did he say? How many home runs did he hit? Not many, you know, that kind of thing, right? How many RBI did he have?

I don't care if he scored 200 runs, you know, like that kind of thing, right? So like there's something to be said about the fact that he, he understood that this was going to be a manipulation of data by both sides. And there was one goal by both sides. His side was to make him look as good as possible and their side was to not. But he did say that this never got personal. It never got like nasty. And I think that might be the difference between an arbitration hearing like his versus what

happened in Milwaukee, right? Like when you start saying things like you're the reason why we didn't make the playoffs, that's personal. That goes beyond just statistics and figures and numbers. That goes beyond how many hits you had or Corbin Burns's case. How many, you know, what was your ERA? How many wins you had that kind of thing, right? Yeah. But I don't know.

There's like Josh Rojas's attitude as far as from an organization's perspective is the best attitude that you could hope for from a player going through arbitration. I mean, just listen to the way he handled this. I mean, right away, he was just kind of joking about the process, about losing. I mean, I don't know if he was joking necessarily, but yeah, clearly his... Come on. All right, go ahead and let's play the video. You tell it for yourself. I mean, I would have taken a win. I guess you're right.

No, but it was good experience. You know, like I said before, I was happy with the initial offer, but, you know, there was There was some money left out on the table that we felt like we could win. And I felt like I was in a win-win situation. And so me and my agent decided that we were going to go and try to, you know, fight and make a case for a little bit more money. And we and the Z-backs came out on top. Jesse? Yeah, I mean, you're kind of right.

At the beginning, at the beginning, he did get a little chuckle out of his initial comment. I think that's the thing is, is he was just kind of like in kind of good spirits about like he's, he's, He's okay with the final figure he gets. He's still getting more money than he was getting. And in the long run, he was just trying to go through the process to get that little extra bit of money. Like Jesse said, about $300,000.

But the one thing that he did say during the process, like that sounded kind of crazy, was just about enjoying the experience and by gaining experience, by going through this process, like seeing what the arbitration process was from a personal standpoint and what the preparation was like between him and his team versus, is the diamond backs and how they had to advocate for their sides. Yeah, one of the quotes that stood out to me, which honestly kind of blows my mind,

at least it blew my mind initially. It does kind of make sense. But Josh Rojas said this. He said, there's some things that were said on their side that he, talking about Mike Hazen, disagreed with. But that's their job. And there's some things that I knew that we said on our side that were a bit of a stretch. So both sides acknowledged Mike Hazen told Josh Rojas.

that some of the numbers presented against him he doesn't fully agree with, or that maybe he feels that they don't well represent who he actually is as a player. And Josh Rojas also came out in that interview and said, hey, look, some of the numbers that we said in that arbitration hearing, I don't know if I even buy them myself. Like we're kind of stretching the limits of some of these things, right? And I think it's cool that Rojas is able to come out and just kind of openly admit those things. There's this formality as part of the arbitration process that, you know, you're going to make the best case that you can.

It's part of the job to do it. It's part of Mike Hazen's job. And it's part of, you know, Josh Rojas' agent's job as well. Make the best case that you can. Even if you don't necessarily even agree with the way that some of the numbers you're using represent the player. Welcome, Joseph Davis. He says, I made the live chat finally. Welcome to the show, sir.

Glad to have you here. Make sure if you are here and haven't done so already to drop a pizza emoji in the chart. I think he already did. They did. I'm just telling other people, Jesse. There's other people out there besides Joseph. We're happy to have Joseph and Brian. Glad to have you guys here.

If you haven't done so already, make sure to drop that emoji in the chat. We'll enter you into a drawing for a free 20 inch pepperoni pizza from our friends at Mountain Mike. So make sure to do so. If you haven't done so already, make sure to grab yourself a PHNX diehard membership over at go phnx.com. Of course, you get wonderful discounts from our friends at Mountain Banks. They'll give you a free $50, I believe, a gift card for joining up. I don't know. I might be just giving that away and making that up, but you get all sorts of wonderful discounts from our partners.

You get a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com as well as 20% off all future purchases. Access to our Discord only members-only lounge in our Discord. It's the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. This guy's full count newsletter as well as all of the other die-hard only. pieces on go p hmx.com and all sorts of wonderful stuff members only merch members only events discounts all that stuff so make sure to grab yourself a diehard membership over at go p hnx.com if you guys are here right now in the youtube channel thank you so much for being here hope you're having a wonderful friday night i obviously am because i'm on my third beer so i'm having a good

time if you haven't done so already subscribe to the p hnx sports youtube channel leave us a comment in the chat leave us a little pizza emoji we'll enter you into the drawing leave us a thumbs up That's Jesse's favorite thing in the whole wide world. And also, if you're listening to us right now on your favorite audio podcasting app, make sure to subscribe to us there. Leave us a review. That way we get your feedback and we can do whatever we can to make this show better. That's what we're all about.

And we're all about adjusting this show. This 5 o'clock thing is new to us, but we are so glad to have so many of you guys here. We've been having a fun time this week. And I am also very like windburned. Is that the word? I'm windburned. Like my face has been in the wind. Now we're really getting ridiculous.

Shut up. I don't like being, I don't like elements. I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. I said I was uncomfortable. I didn't say I was wind burn. I hate it. I hate it. My lips are so chapped. I'm Andrew Chafed is what I am. I'm Andrew Chafed is what I feel like. I like that. I like that. All right. Speaking of Jesse over here, make sure to give him some suggestions for furniture. I'm so sick of going to his new place and seeing nothing but Chase lounges. It's absurd. So he needs new furniture, maybe some, maybe some pictures up on the walls. So go to more furniture.com. Pick some furniture. out for yourself. Pick some furniture out for Jesse, maybe buy him a piece or two. He'd love that. I'm going to go on the, you think more furniture has pictures of Chase lounges that I can put on the wall.

God, stop it. Oh, you want framed images of Chase lounges to go with your Chase lounges. That's so meta. I dig it, actually. But you can say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to morefurniture.com and don't tell them I sent you because they know about the chair at the house

that I beat up. But anyway, the D-BACs, most value party is tomorrow. I am going to be out there. Jesse might make an appearance. It all depends on if they fulfilled his writer properly or not prior to the show. It depends on if all of the Japanese media entities that have submitted requests, if I'm able to get to all of them in time.

He had one interview and his head is this goddamn big. But interestingly enough, I was sent a photo of Chase Field from a source. And Chase Field does not look so good right now, Jesse. they're kind of like re-sodding the field and I think they're removing all of that all of all of all of the infield or all of the grass the fake grass the artificial turf which is really weird I don't know if you've ever seen the artificial turf or what it's comprised of at chase field but it's almost like fibers that they put in it's not like it's sod it's not like squares that they put down like tile or carpet it is like fiber so they were like almost like vacuuming it up so expect possibly at the

I don't know if they're going to relay it before tomorrow I doubt it because this was something that was happening yesterday, but I think we're all going to be walking on a dirt field out there at Chase Field tomorrow. Interesting. So are you saying that like since they're not laying them down in like little squares, is someone going out there and laying down like fiber by fiber? No, is that how this has to work there?

From what I've seen, they have like a bucket and they use like a shovel. Like it's really weird because one time they were fixing a dent and I kind of sat there and watched them. It was mesmerizing. Yeah, like it was like it went down. So they had to like pull up the grass on top of it and then fill in dirt so that it was it was flush, you know, that it was even. And then they had to put the fibers back in. And that's when I realized it wasn't that like they used a shovel to kind of like dig those up and then put them back down.

If you've ever, if you've ever been there and seen Chase Field up close, like walk the field, you might might even get a chance to see tomorrow. But like it is really interesting. The artificial turf looks very real. It really does. It looks like it's kind of popping out of the dirt. So it doesn't. Yeah. And Jen says, I don't think field access is happening.

Well, that's interesting. So if that's the case, then I wonder where is it just going to be held on the concourse? Yeah, I don't know. Could be yet another reason why they tried to reduce the amount of people at the event. And is everyone going on the roof? Are they going to, because they can't, they can't open and close the roof when people are in the building, but they could close the roof and then have everyone just hanging out on the top. That would actually be really cool. You're not allowed to drink on the show anymore.

That's fucking enough beer for you. Oh my God. I guess they probably don't have the infrastructure on the rooftop for like people to be walking around up there. I don't know if they have like railings or anything on the edges. I'm not letting you drink anymore. I love a rooftop experience here. And I'm just saying that's one of the higher the higher roofs that you'll find in downtown. Oh, it is true.

Yeah. I love the fact that Chase Field is, you can't miss Chase Field if you're flying into Phoenix in a plane. No. Period. You just can't. Yeah. I don't know if you necessarily think it's like some beautiful building or anything, but it, but it's there. I mean, you can't not acknowledge that it's there.

When that roof is dirty, it's really ugly. Look at how I'll lie. Is it not just that color naturally? Is that dirt that's? Oh, no, it's absolutely fucking dirt. Yeah. Okay. If you look at old pictures of Chase Field, like from like 15, 20 years ago, it's white.

Yeah. Oh, no. It's like an off white color. Like, don't get me wrong. It's not like white, but yeah, it's a white. It's supposed to be white. Jesse thought it was D-back sand. Yeah.

Yeah, right. It's the Sonoran, the Sonoran Desert color. Too many obobs. So we need to get people on the roof of Chase Field with, you know, some paper towels and windex. And we just need to, we need to watch. There you go. That's a good way. That's a good way to provide knowledge of unique experience, but also get some work done.

I like it. Everybody has to wear these shoes up here. That's why they call it the most valuable part. Because like, like, you want to talk about value. I mean, if everyone who's there is helping clean the roof. I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Jen, Jen agrees with you. says roof access would definitely make it an mv part envy part i hate it i hate mv party i hate it i don't like it uh giveaway updates by the way uh we talked about it arizona diamondbacks had a very cute uh cute valentine slash galentine's tweet that went out showing that they will have a very very cool uh zack gallon i believe it's an honor of his scoreless inning street because i think it's got the 44 point one on the base like the base is comprised of that so that's very cool uh also So we also got a video this week from the Arizona Diamondback showing off that the Serpientis replica jersey will be back this year. Very good video.

They have some young folks, I think, working over there because they had like the adventures of gumball and shit in there. I dug it. But Serbientish jersey, black on black, Jesse. No more. It's not the beige on black, which the players wear. It's not the black with the beige Serpientis that we saw last year. It is a black jersey, black Serpientis with a. beige outline and I won't lie. It looks pretty goddamn slick. I don't know if that's pretty cool.

I don't know if they're changing the Serpientz jersey this year. I doubt it because they didn't do it last year when they had that one. But, you know, it still looks like a very cool jersey to wear. Yeah. I love you, Emma. I have I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't, at least it doesn't appear to be a jersey that they will be wearing in games. I was disappointed by that. Like, why would you make the best jersey something that only the, I mean, I guess it's cool to the fans get it, but you might as well have the players wearing it on the field, too. So maybe that's something that we get it. That I don't that I don't get. And I think Chris Melton says right there, Bumbleheads, throwback jerseys in all caps, Serpientis, was the throw, did I miss the throwback

jerseys? Is that a giveaway item? Because I didn't see that one, but I do believe there were throwback jerseys. Yeah, because they were releasing, uh, they've been very busy this week. So it's very easy for me to have missed that. But, uh, it's been one giveaway item announced after the next. They got the Father's Day shirts too. That's dope. I'm excited about that. So I think this is, it's all kind of wrapping up into the MVP, MVP, MVP party.

But we will definitely discuss this next week once we have like a list of all the giveaway items. I also want to show off some of the other giveaway items from some of the other teams. I need somebody in Miami to get me the Goya Foods tropical shirt night shirt. I don't know how I can make that happen. I think we're going to, I talk to Saul. We're going to fly you out for that one. Okay, that's a must.

I need that to happen because I need that shirt so goddamn bad. But anyway, we're going to spend all of our travel budget at PH&X on just sending Derek to various ballparks to get the best giveaway. Yes, this is why I took this job. This is the exact reason why I'm here. Oh, man. All right. You know what? Let's pick out pizza winner.

If you haven't done so already, throw a pizza emoji in the chat. I got all of you guys already on there. Ryan H says August 12th on the throwback jersey. Nice. I dig it. I like the jerseys and stuff, but to be honest, I'm a bobblehead guy. I like bobbleheads. I love bobbleheads.

I miss them. It's been a long time since we've gotten them at Chase Field. And I won't lie, they, they, they give them to media. And I know that there was a period of time where we weren't getting the giveaway items anymore. And it was like the saddest, uh, those days are over there. I think. Let me tell you how good the press box used to be. There used to be free ice cream from Coltstone in this little refrigerator that you could just go and take.

whenever you wanted. I don't want to. As many as you wanted. I don't want to hear about this, Derek. No one was going to judge you about it. No one was going to shame you that you went back for a second one. It was, ah, those were the good old days, man.

Derek insists about talking about all of the incredible food items that were in the press box before I ever was there. Oh, opening day with the, with the prime rib on opening day that they would cut you off. Oh, man. Those days are long gone, Jesse. All right. Prime rib.

Okay. I can't, I can't, I can't ask. I can't even. ask you and ask him more questions. All right, let's, uh, let's click this. Let's do it. Spin in the wheel. Got Gabriel in there, giving away free pizza. And oh my God, our free winner is Brett Johnson. Hey, Brett Johnson. So congrats to Brett Johnson. Brett Johnson deserves a free pizza. Absolutely. The amount of time that Brett Johnson invests into the pH and XD backs discord is, uh, is, is really incredible. We appreciate it. Um, yeah, Brett,

Brett is the engine that makes that thing run at pretty much all hours of every single day. I'm pretty sure. So we appreciate you, Brett. People like to bring up that I got my camera stolen one time at Chase Field. And the funny part about it is that I don't know if it was Chris's fault that I got my camera stolen. But like I was charging my camera one time at a charging station. Remember when they used to have those like on the concourse around Chase Field? They used to have charging stations.

Yeah. They used to have like a little table. They had charging stations at Chase Field. Interesting. You had to have your own cord though. It wasn't like you, it was just like an area. Well, those cords would be stolen instantly.

It wasn't the cord that was stolen. It was my whole goddamn camera that was stolen because I turned around to say hello to somebody and someone literally just snagged my camera and walked away. I mean, that seems like not a not a very smart move on your part. Sure, but I blame the person that came over and started talking to me. Yeah, you're right. You're right. It's their fault.

It's definitely their. thought. Right. Obviously, right? I'm not wrong about that. But congratulations to Brett. Appreciate you, sir. Anyway, we thank you guys so much for being here. Of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure to grab the Drafking Sportsbook app. Purple Gatorade be damned. I hate purple Gatorade so much. But you know what? We got MLB bets. We got our Corbyn Carroll rookie of the year bets already marinating in there as well as Zach Gowan. I'm not ending up on a list. So I'm putting Zach Gowan down for my Cy Young winner. And you can too. over at the Drafking Sportsbook. All of those kind of MLB bets are available. You can also bet on, you know, future stuff like who's going to win the World Series, who's going to come out of the National League, American League, all that stuff. So download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use our promo code of PHNX for your new customer. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in free bets instantly only at the Drafking Sportsbook

with code PHNX, minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And also, as we are getting closer to the the baseball season, make sure to hop on the game time app. You should see my group chat. My group chat literally turned into a game time ad today because we were talking about buying pro wrestling tickets for next week. For those of you that are wrestling fans, you know who's coming to fan.

Don't buy them now, Derek. Don't buy them now. That's what I was telling them. They were all talking about how they were pretty good priced on that. I was like, what are you guys doing? procrastinate. We buy these tickets on the day of, not to mention that I might get some comps, but that's all other thing.

If I don't get the comps, I know I'm going to the game time app, but I'm saving 60% on those tickets. And you can't too. Concerts, events, Penn and Teller is coming up. I got second row seats for that. I didn't buy them on game time, but that's because I love Penn and Teller. They're like my uncles that are weird and do magic.

But anyway, save up to 60% on tickets when you buy tickets last minute. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. So make sure to grab those and grab your tickets for all the games this season. Also, I think the WBC is on there. So making sure to do that. Jen says finally Arizona is all elite. She gets it. Shout out to my friend Tony Conn.

Love you, TK. Thank you guys for being here. Appreciate all of you guys for this Friday show. I know you guys have good stuff to do on Friday nights. Thank you so much for being here. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kat underscore Caveman with a K. This guy's at Jesse and Friedman.

Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Derek, I feel like you were surprisingly calm when we talked about Madison, Bumbart. Like you didn't, I don't know, you didn't lash out in a way that I was kind of expecting you to. See, you see, he eggs me on, right? He eggs me on. He wants me to get mad.

He wants me. I'm just kind of surprised. Because then I have to go fucking see Madison Bumgarder in the locker room and he remembers what I says and he looks at me and I'm just like, I don't want to have that chat. I don't want to have that discussion. I don't have that eye contact. You know what I mean? It's intense eye contact that I can't handle.

But we thank you guys for being here. And of course, appreciate you as always. On behalf of Damon, Jesse and myself, we always thank you guys for. for being here, but especially on a Friday night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't have to go through the arbitration process.