PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Max Scherzer Hates TANK SZN

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

On this episode, Jesse is on sabbatical so Derek is joined by Makayla Perkins, PHNX's social media queen, to give her thoughts on TANK SZN, competitive balance in MLB, and the best jerseys in D-backs history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name, of course, is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. And see, it's still highly contested around here. I just don't know where you got the idea that you were the mayor of this. I told you there was an election hell votes. I didn't vote for myself because that would have been against the rules. But this show is brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now.

use our code of PHNX and for simply betting $1 on any football game this weekend, you will get $150 in free bets instantly. I've gotten every single one of my friends to do it, and that's all our group chat is about now. So I'm happy goal achieve. Sports betting is taken over Arizona. That's right. But I'm excited to be joined,

not by thunderstick Jesse Friedman, who's out raising hell somewhere, but it's the return of the Mac. It's Retail of the Mac. Welcome back to baseball. Welcome back to Arizona. I'm so glad to have you here. So glad to have you back with us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on the show. And I'm super excited to be talking about baseball again. And to be specifically talking about the Diamondbacks, which I know seems like a contradictory statement because of how horrible they are. But I never, I know. I never take for granted talking about baseball. Although I will say, though, I feel like I curse the Diamondbacks because as soon as I left Arizona, they got really bad. Yes. Well, that is true. And you went. to govern the Colorado Rockies, but unfortunately, you did not bring them.

No, I curse them too. So I think it's my fault. I don't know. Anywhere I go, the baseball team just automatically sucks. All right. Well, what you're trampling all over my article that's coming to go phnx.com about the real curse, which is the curse of Baxter the 4th. But that's for another time.

I say that it's for another time because we still have 12 more games left in the season. And of course, it is tank season, ladies and gentlemen. It is never not tank season for the rest of this year. Tank season. All right. Tank season. Currently tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the worst record in baseball. Tank season is all we got.

It's all we can embrace at this point. With 12 games left in the season, it seems like the right thing to do because it doesn't seem like the Diamondbacks are going to win very many games anyway. What are your thoughts on just tanking in general when it comes to? to this point and going for a higher draft pick or in the Diamondbacks case, the number one draft pick. Yeah, I mean, it's hard because I'm just not a fan of non-competitive baseball. I think it has a ripple effect on more than just, you know, the record of the team. And just tanking in general just goes against like my personal, you know, like beliefs.

Like I always want to see people try to be competitive. But when you're in the spot that the Diamondbacks are in, your first 100 lost season since 2004, like, it's not looking pretty. And thankfully in baseball, you know, if you have the worst record, you're guaranteed that number one draft pick. And so, you know, if it were a case where it was like a lottery situation or anything like that, I would say, maybe it's like, maybe let's just not tank so hard. But they're guaranteed the first overall pick. And the first overall pick is knock on wood. Hopefully Elijah Green. And Elijah Green is as talented as they come.

A big prize, kind of worth tanking for. It's worth tanking in my opinion. In some seasons, in some cases, it's worth doing everything you can to possibly get that, you know,

a franchise changing draft pick like that. And I think Elijah Green is a franchise changing draft pick. So normally I don't like tanking, but in the case of the Diamondbacks, like it's time to tank. And I think, you know, it sucks for the organization

and it sucks for the guys there that are on the team that, you know, losing sucks. Like losing is not fun in general. But I just you have, I think you have to at this point. And I know that they haven't been playing competitive baseball for a while. I mean, they've been out of out of it since May. Yeah. So, yeah, it's tank season.

No, and all right. I'm glad you're out bored. Sorry, Jesse. I apologize to you now. Sorry, Jesse. Jesse's like I'm never letting this grow up on my podcast ever again. I will say this. There's there, there's some factors that go.

into some of the seasons where people tank, right? Or teams tank, I shouldn't say people. But in some cases, it's due to injury and you just get to that point. And I think that the Diamondbacks are there. I'm a strong believer that the D-backs wouldn't have been this bad this season without the, you know, pile of injuries that they had, right? And at times, this team doesn't even seem nearly as bad even right now when they're losing games as they are, right?

I mean, they put up a fight in a lot of the games that they've had, you know, at the end of the season. And they seem to somehow pull out wins that you just don't expect them to pull out, which is great for morale, not great for tank season. It's not great for tank season. But I'll say this, though, that the, you know, other organizations like what we were discussing today on the PHNX sports show with the coyotes is that the coyotes are kind of being forthright about it, that they are they are tanking almost from day one, right? They are not even planning on really being competitive this season. And that's got to be a little bit harder of a hit to players, to fans, all of that. You know, because at least with the Diamondbacks, we had a little bit of hope, not a lot.

I think people were relatively reasonable about the expectations for this team at the beginning of the season. That's the part where the tanking doesn't bother me because if you were going to finish, I don't know, 15 games out of first place instead of 50. Yeah. Is there any prize for that? Is there any difference, you know, like you're just going to. have a much further down draft pick as far as the draft goes or things like that. You know, so it's like, I don't know. I hate the idea of losing on purpose.

I don't feel like the debacks did that at all this season. Right. But at this point, I mean, just, just sit some guys is all I'm saying. Just sit some guys. Yeah. Let them get some rest until the season wraps up. I don't think that's too much to ask. No, I definitely agree with you there.

I think, you know, this season is difficult because I agree that they didn't start this season thinking that they were going to be this bad. I mean, obviously when you're in a division with the Dodgers and the Padres at the beginning before they, the Padres are a different situation, but when you're in a division with the Dodgers and the Padres who made a ton of crazy big acquisitions in the off season and you look at that and you are like a small market team that hasn't made an acquisition like that since you brought in like Randy Johnson, you know, I think that's really intimidating. And so I think the expectations were obviously lower because you know as an organization, okay, we're not going to be competitive in terms of like competing on the same level as like the Dodgers

or the Padres at the beginning of the year. Obviously the giants are a dark horse that I don't think anybody in the league saw coming. Nobody saw coming. Right. But I think that that is a good example that you can still have a good team and you can compete with the best teams in baseball with a roster that not a lot of people are very familiar with. Giants have a great young team, and I think they're going to be good for a while, but it wasn't expected, like you said. I think the difference right now, though,

is, like, you covered the Rockies. And the one thing you can say about the Rockies is even though they're not as bad as the D-VACs, they are still very far back in the division. And they've been out of it for a while. They are still able to pack their stadium with fans. Whereas the D-BACs right now are, you know, pushing 6,000, 7,000 fans.

That doesn't make me very optimistic for the future of this team just financially, because as we're going to talk about it a little bit later, it definitely seems to be that you have to spend money and a lot of it in order to be competitive in baseball. Yeah, the problem the Diamondbacks are facing is multifaceted. They're a small market team. If they're not doing well, they're not going to sell tickets, whereas the problem is a little opposite for the Rockies.

But also, too, like, it's still frustrating because, you know, diehard Rockies fans are aware of the dire situation of this team and they're frustrated with the ownership and the non-competitiveness and the horrible like roster decision makings that were made at the beginning of the year. And they know that nothing's going to change because no matter what, the seats are still going to be packed and the owner is still going to be making money and there's going to be revenue that's coming in. And so they know that there's nothing going to change because there's no incentive for anything to change. Whereas like maybe stuff with the Diamondbacks can change quicker because there is incentive to change because they're not making money. And they realize like the way that they were going isn't sustainable for the future of the team. Yes. But also the other thing too that I've been a little frustrated with with the Diamondbacks is ever since I started covering the Diamondbacks a couple of years ago. To me it seemed like there was a very confusing philosophy as to what the team was trying to do.

it seemed like retooling was the word that was used instead of like rebuilding. And, you know, they were trying to be competitive by bringing in some pieces that they thought were going to be beneficial like Madison Bumgarner, for example, which I never agreed with that decision. But that's another topic for another time. But it just seems like, you know, they've been, they've had like this one foot in the door, one foot out of the door mentality where they haven't ever committed to a full tear down. Correct. They haven't, Yeah, they've never seen. Right. They haven't ever committed to a full, we're going to go balls to the walls and we're going to bring in the highest top free agents that we can possibly find.

So to me, I've just always been very confused by the Diamondbacks philosophy. I think now they're more in a direction of rebuilding. You know, they traded Escobar this year. They've got Katel on a really, really cheap contract. So I think, you know, now they're more in the phase of rebuilding. Closer that this is closest to the rebuild. I think they've ever been. Obviously, they have a lot of prospects that are coming up through the system that they're excited about.

Luis Frius, obviously being one of those prospects. So, you know, I think this is the closest the Diamondbacks have ever been to a rebuild. And I just want them to commit to that. I want them to commit to a rebuild so that there is a clear direction for the team. And obviously tanking tank season going into this draft with the number one overall draft pick and hopefully getting Elijah Green. I think is just going to overall give more direction to the organization as a whole because at least we'll finally know, okay, we're going to tear down, we're going to rebuild. This is where we're at. And Rob Manfred has said that in the past that all the teams, all teams have to go through that.

Right. Yeah. It's the cycle of baseball. It's the cycle of baseball. But unfortunately, we're not really seeing that with some of the organizations that spend the most money in baseball. Right. Right. And so what that is saying at times is that you can, it's starting to feel a little guaranteed who's going to be there. There's always going to be those exceptions. You're always going to have a team like the Yankees that spent a lot of money that aren't really competitive. You're always going to have a team like the Giants whose payroll isn't as much as these other teams that somehow sneak in to a first place division.

Right. But those are definitely the exceptions more than the norm. Typically, when you look at baseball and you look at how much teams are spending on their payroll, you can see a direct correlation between the success. Which, you know, I don't know. But if you want to hop on Draft Kings and maybe put a bet or two on the Draft King Sportsbook app, that might be a good way to determine who, you know, especially at this point of the season, who's winning, who's going far, you know.

There's all sorts of different options on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. And I took advantage last night of betting in-game during the ninth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks. You have to at this point. It's the only way to make that. It's enjoyable. I feel like I'm supporting tank season now by doing it. But it was a bet I didn't even know.

I could make. It was at the ninth inning. The Braves were up by five. And the bet at that point was five runs, the line. So it just had to be that the Braves were going to hold that and that the Diamondbacks weren't going to score anything in the bottom of the ninth. Of course, they didn't. And of course, the Braves just added on to the score. So I won myself a clean 20 bucks real quick, just while I was also doing this job. So you can do that too on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. There's all sorts of fun bets to make. There's a lot of parlays. I've become a parlay guy. Once you hit, a parlay you become a parlay guy it's just part of the rules um but there's a same game parlay's that allow you to just combine multiple bets inside of one game for a bigger payout it definitely makes things

more exciting and in some cases uh just a little bit more favorable uh even though it's like maybe two or three options it might might be things that are a little bit more realistic and if all three hit uh it's going to be a bigger payday for you so uh there's just this is something new to you it's something new to me uh i'm still learning what i'm doing here but i'm having a good time and i've been making some money, so I can't complain. Draft Kings is definitely a safe, secure, and reliable app. And the best part is that you can deposit your money and withdraw it whenever you want, without weird complications that some of the other sportsbook apps have with approving your withdrawals or things like that. The Draft King Sportsbook app works flawlessly. Another thing about

it is once you use R code with the PHNX and get that $150 in free bets instantly for betting a dollar in football, you will get. get those bets instantly. They will come to your account. The minute you place that $1. I did it. I bet $1. I won back $2.50.

That's a profit, baby. It delighted me. It doesn't matter. You're in the green. As long as that bar stays in the green. 21 and over only, Arizona only. Gambling problem. Call 1,800 next step.

New customers only. Minimum $5 deposit and $1 wage it required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for detail. And I mean that when I say I was surprised by that bet. I saw that games were locked. So I don't know when games close, when games stay open. But that was a fun little way for me to stay engaged there.

Yeah. Yeah. It just furthered me rooting for tank season. Have you ever heard of emotional hedging? Oh, yeah. There you go. There you go. Well, and the way I do that is by writing long articles about curses that, you know,

might involve D. Baxter's head. If you're interested in reading that or hearing more about that, go check that out on go PHNX.com and become a member while you're there. You know, we're just trying to make it more fun to be a sports fan here in the Valley. We want to be fans with you. So please join the family. And you have a couple of options. You can get an annual membership that'll get you a free t-shirt. The t-shirts are amazing.

I still haven't gotten my free t-shirt that I've been asking for. They want me to pay full price for it because, you know. The mayor doesn't get free t-shirts? Hey, this is the constituents, everyone. everybody. How does the mayor not get free t-shirts? That's what I said. That's exactly what my email to Esbo said. But you can check out all the amazing designs. Those are over at phnxlokker.com. And again, if you become an annual member, you will get a free t-shirts sent out to you faster than I will get mine. There's also some great deals if you become a member. For instance, we had this week a buy one,

get one free deal that again, I didn't get. But you can get if you join the family over here at Go-PHN. I am salty about it and I'm not I'm on a shirt they're nice but again if you love what we're doing over here you like this podcast for some reason and want to support us become a member of the fan today and you'll get that free t-shirt or if you're interested in a month-to-month option you can check out this whole thing for 50 cents for your first month so please again we appreciate the sport and we thank you for tuning in here on youtube and checking us out and I appreciate Michaela returning to Phoenix because we needed her here at pHNX She's our social media queen, and we couldn't be doing this thing without you. So we appreciate that.

Does that mean I get to be like the co-mayor or assistant to the mayor? Oh, what? I like assistant to the mayor. Assistant to the mayor. She said it. I didn't. So that's, hey, that's, it's called a cabinet. You can be assisted to the assistant to the mayor.

Right. You know, we don't have to worry about labor deals expiring around here just yet. so I can appoint whatever positions I want to. But MLB does have to worry about that because their current labor deal is coming to an end on December 1st. Luckily, they pushed it out because at one point that labor deal would end in the middle of the season, which caused all sorts of problems like that old strike back in, what was it, 94?

94. Yeah, there's all sorts of things going on. A lot of talks right now about competitive balance. Max Scher, who is the MLBPA, association player representative hates tank season not a fan of tank season. You heard it here for this. I don't know what to say about that, but I kind of understand where he's coming from because really what he's looking to improve is the competitive balance in baseball.

One thing we talked about quite a bit is how this season for a lot of teams was over before it began. The Arizona coyotes, what they said they're doing, teams did with their actions. You know, their movement of players, their obvious goal to shed payroll and to basically save as much money as possible. It's understandable in a season that still had so much financial uncertainty. We didn't know when we were going to be back to having fans in the stadium, what capacity that would be at, and then when we would eventually get back to fans being back full time. That happened a lot faster than I think some organizations thought it would.

But like the debacks, for instance, they don't have that stability. of the fan base returning to the stadium like other teams do. We talked about that with the Rockies, but even within the division, Giants games are sold out almost every night. Dodgers games the same way. Padres, they've become an absolute attraction. So for the debacks, it becomes a problem when it comes to finances, right? They're going to be a team that really are going to struggle in comparison to all the other teams in the division, including the Rockies.

Yeah, absolutely. it's hard to do anything when you don't have any money coming in. That's right. And I mean, don't get me wrong. It's kind of like where we we also want to complain about the opposing fans taking over our stadium. Yet the opposing fans at times are the ones that are keeping the lights on at Chase Field. That's the honest truth, right? But what they're looking to do is they're looking to change this. These inequalities based on money and payroll, they're affecting the game. You're making it so certain teams aren't ever going to have that chance to, even go through the rebuild and be competitive that Manfred's talking about. Yeah.

What we're seeing is some teams that are so good, so powerful and so rich that they're able to stay competitive like the Dodgers year after year now for close to a decade. Yeah. I mean, I have never understood why there hasn't been a salary cap in baseball. It doesn't make sense. Right. What we have is a luxury tax, which again, if you're rich and you're making the money, you're going to afford it.

Not to mention the goal is to still be one of the top teams in baseball, which is still just going to generate revenue. and pay for that luxury tax plus them in fan support, merchandise, ticket sales, all of that kind of stuff. Yeah. I mean, in my opinion, not having a salary cap just hurts the sport more than it helps it because you have teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers who are big market teams that can go out and they can buy whoever they want, whenever they want, because they can afford it. And then, you know, when you have teams like that, you know, the opposite of that are small market teams like the Diamondbacks like the Rockies who are forced to play money ball and figure out some

magical analytical soup type of solution that is going to benefit the team that, you know, isn't going to guarantee the success of the team. You know, um, the, the A's have been playing money ball for a couple years. The Astros played money ball and it worked out for them, thankfully, because they won the World Series in 17 after they were the worst team in baseball for a whole god like three two three seasons in a row so you know money ball works sometimes but there's so many things that go into being a small market team and trying to be successful that you know you have to strategize that you just don't have to worry about when you're a big market team right you know when you're the yankees and you're the dodgers you can buy whoever you want and

you know that at the end of the day like your problems are all going to be solved because you can afford to solve your problems with money it's mostly trying to find that balance right because as we've seen in the past you can't just buy a championship. You can't go out there and put together an all-star team and necessarily expect it to gel together and become a champion. The Arizona Diamondbacks, as much as we want to talk about it, being a small market team, did that, though, essentially with their first world series. Yes.

Right. The reason why, though, is because, and I've talked about this a lot simply because this was new information that I've recently read about and I kind of find fascinating is that Jerry Colangelo just had that, that understanding of the Phoenix market and the understanding of the attrition of fans from the very first season that this team debuted, that they didn't have the grace period. They didn't have time to win fans over long term and have them stick around, watch a team that's bad to mediocre for a number of years, develop a farm system into superstar players and then go after a championship. Yeah. Right. Even one time I interviewed Travis Lee, and it was supposed to be like a nice, nice interview.

And he went off about how much, how disappointed he was on how the team changed direction based on what they told him they were going to do with this organization. Right. A lot of that is because at the end of the day, the fans are the ones that are going to make this team successful. Support of the fans, winning the fans over, and having that stadium filled with baseball fans watching this team is. is their key to success, yet they have to be successful in order to bring the fans in. It's a real catch-22 kind of situation. I also don't think that at times, even though that they do have like the lowest cost index in baseball and things like that, that they're doing enough to really bring fans in

and make fans want to be at the ballpark. Yeah, I absolutely agree. It's tough because, you know, you hate to see teams struggle like the Diamondbacks are struggling, but it seems there are also ways that they shoot themselves in the foot and they're not really trying to alleviate some of their issues like you were mentioning with like their low cost index. It's a tough one. It is. It's a catch 22, like you said. There's just no, it doesn't seem to be a clear path forward for how to kind of solve some of those. Right. And, you know, they wanted the, they originally wanted this team to be a place people brought their families to have a good time and

for it to be affordable and, you know, to, for, for, for, for, for, for, that. to be a big part of this team's culture. Right. And they've kept that up. But I think that, you know, again, there's other ways of bringing fans in. Yeah. That they haven't explored maybe less conventional, less traditional, but more, you know, modern ways to bring fans in.

Yeah. So. Don't die on me. I'm not. I'm trying not to die on you. Don't die. But, you know, I don't know. I think that there's still a lot, a lot of work ahead.

And the rebuild, like you said, is happening. now even though they're still not fully committed to it. Yeah, I don't think they are. Like, I think, you know, obviously there are still some players on this team that would garner big return if they were to be traded. But obviously, you know, they've managed to keep them because the deal that they're on is affordable, like Cotel Marte. Tell Marte.

But Marte, man, I'll tell you. I sent you a stat about him, but this was even surprising to me that he leads the majors with a 321 average since the start of 2019 ahead of Tim Anderson and trade. Turner for the best batting average in baseball since 2019. That even surprises me. And I think because this team is so bad at times, we even forget how good he is. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's true. It's easy to overlook something like that when you're just overwhelmed by the dumpster fire. That is the entire, the entire roster. But I mean, you know, this is something that we talked about when I was covering the Rockies is like when you're in a situation like the Diamondbacks are in, like

the Rockies are in, like you have to look for those things like Catelle Marte's. stat line that are encouraging because if you don't like it's just a dark doom cloud over your entire existence and your baseball team until you know they managed to figure out how to win again so yeah it's you know and i think that's the thing is there's plenty of parts of this team that obviously didn't work out this season defensively they weren't great no which is really weird because you know when they they uh i think it was what like 2017 yeah um like they had nick omit who is one of the best offensive short stops in baseball. You know, defense was something that this team pride themselves on.

And I know you just wrote an article on it. No, no, no, no, but it's, you're absolutely right. You know, I mean, it used to be our calling card. And that was the thing was even offensively, there were times where it was, there were struggles and it was frustrating to watch. Yeah. You know, but this team this year isn't a team that's going out there and watching their starting pitcher give up, you know, two earn runs,

and they're losing the game three to one, three to nothing, four, two to zero. So night after night, this team has been able to compete offensively. At the end of the day, it's been the defense and the pitching that's really let them down and been inconsistent. You know, my favorite metaphor for Lovolo's managing of like the bullpen and stuff is when you're stuck in traffic and you just keep whatever lane you move into is the lane that stops dead. Yeah. Like whatever lane you get in is worse than the lane you were just in. The opening scene to office space, right? And so like I've watched him at times manage this team where like no matter what.

he did, it was the wrong call. You know, on a game one of a three-game series, he left the starting pitcher in too long, and, you know, because he was doing well, and he gives up, you know, three runs when everybody had that feeling in their heart that he should have gone to the bullpen. Next night goes to the bullpen,

even though the starting pitcher is doing well, bullpen blows it. It's like whack-a-mole. Yeah, exactly. You think you fix one issue, and then another one just pops right back out. It's rough, you know, and it's one of those things that I don't know,

I don't know when I'm going to be betting on the Arizona Diamondbacks. to win a world series, but hopefully it won't be too long. I mean, we talk a lot on this podcast about the youngsters coming up. Yeah. And I mean, it can't, you can't help but be encouraged by things like what Alec Thomas is doing. Alex Thomas, yeah, I was about to say. With ACEs, you know, just the debuts that we've seen this season,

giving guys an opportunity to come up and get that big league time. Yeah. You know, it's, it's very encouraging. I like, you know, especially like Dalton Varshot and the improvements that he made from looking pretty awful at times at the beginning of the season to being one of their most consistent players at times now. Yeah, and that's something too that I do want to emphasize is the fact that the dark days for the Diamondbacks at the Major League level are here. You know, it's not great for the Major League People roster, whatever. It's not a good time. But the difference between the Diamondbacks and

some of the other teams, like the Rockies, for example, I know I keep talking about them, but that's just the easiest thing for me to reference. Oh, God. Just Go back to D&R. I know. I'm sorry. The best thing about the Diamondbacks, though, is like they do have a bright future ahead of them. Yes. Yeah.

Like through, you know, some of the trades that they made in the past years, like the Granky trade, like, you know, moving some of those bigger pieces and the assets they got back. Like, I do have to give credit to Hazen because he was able to retool that farm system and restock that farm system. I mean, the Diamondbacks went from what having like the 28th ringed farm system to having like a top five farm system. Correct. And obviously, you know, there had to be some big pieces. moved in order to get there. Paul Goldschmidt, Zach Ranky, like, sorry, I know that's a little sensitive topic, but I think it's going to pay off. Things were bleak at one point because the farm system was so bad and the team was so bad. The farm system was so bad. At least now that the team

is so bad, the farm system is going to provide that light at the end of the tunnel that the organization needs because, you know, I've watched minor league, I know this is kind of weird, kind of crazy, I've watched minor league baseball games this year. And I've watched. I'm so proud of you. I've Watch, you know, Diamondbacks minor league baseball team games. And there are so many names. You just listed a bunch of them. And there's still more, too, you know? Right.

I think what six of the top 10 Diamondbacks prospects are pitching prospects. Yes. And they need those pitching prospects. Like, they need them. And so there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel for this organization. How long it takes us to get there. I don't know. But at least there is that light because for the Rockies, they don't have that light.

There is no hope for that organization. Right. Because you don't know the direction that they're going in now, but the direction seems to be obvious based on the pieces that they move. You would think, but like they didn't really, aside from the worst trade in the history of baseball when they got rid of Nolan, like they didn't do anything at the trade deadline. Like they still have their ace. They have three of the best pitchers in the National League still on the roster. They still have Trevor's story.

Like, you know, they, it's just, it seems to me that they don't have direction, but then also on top of that, they have the 29th ringed system, farm system in baseball. So they also don't have a farm system to make up for it. Right. So I know that right now for the Diamondbacks, it looks scary. I totally get it. They are the worst team in baseball right now, and they're competing for a number one draft pick. But at least there's a light at the end of the tumble with their farm system. And I really believe that.

Right. Because they have so many guys in that system right now that are going to come up and I think are going to be major players. Well, we've talked in the past about like phases, right? And the first phase is building what your core of your team is going to be, figuring it out. Right. At times, I don't think a lot of guys on this team right now. now are part of the core, at least guys that are starters right now.

But I do think, you know, I don't think the future for this team is that far off. It's not next year, but it could be as soon as two seasons from now. Right. And I think someone like Coutel Marte at that point could be, you know, the seasoned veteran leader at that point of a younger team, even though he wouldn't be that old, you know, and surrounded by a youth movement, you know, that still involves guys like Pavin Smith and Dalton Bar Show and other guys, Zach Gallin still being a big part of the rotation and such at that point. It just seems like, for instance, like what you said with the Bumgarner deal, Bumgarner is the one

the guy that doesn't fit that timeline. He doesn't fit that group yet. I don't think he ever really did. Well, it was that big swing and a miss, right? And I think what at least at times my thought process or the way of excusing it has been to say that they were trying to bring in a mix of veterans with these young guys that could bring that, you know, knowledge and that experience. I just don't know if Mad Bum's doing that. I don't know if Mad Bum's chopping it up with the younger guys in the clubhouse. You know, you wouldn't think someone like Granky would be that way.

But surprisingly, he really was. Like I heard countless number of times that we don't get to see the Granky that they see when the clubhouse doors close. Yeah, it's true. I mean, thankfully I got a little bit of an inside look at that because I did work for the team. And I've never met somebody who is so committed to the game of baseball the way Granky is. like when it was time for and I was a little bit of a tangent but when it was almost draft time Granky you know had like a list of high school prospects that he had been watching and he was getting

he was getting the opinion of Tori he's like hey what do you think about this guy from this high school like he is so invested in the game of baseball I have never in my life seen somebody that invested in the game of baseball that he's watching high school baseball prospects and asking the manager his thoughts on him before the draft like so I mean you know obviously that's not something that the public is ever going to get to see, but he was someone in the locker room that, you know, the Diamondbacks players relied on to be a leader. Yeah. And it's surprising because, again, he's not a big, he's described his issues with anxiety

and such, but I just don't think he was ever a really big fan of the media process, you know, and I get it. Not a lot of people are, right? But, you know, it's, it's. There is a lie at the end of the tunnel, though. There is. And I agree with you a lot. I think with baseball, it just takes so long, right?

So it's like Mike Hazen might not even be here. By the time the decisions he made finally start paying off and benefiting this team, that's how long it takes sometimes for prospects and younger players to pan out. Yeah. And I think that's a part of the overall arching issue with baseball in general and why they're having such a hard time, like keeping a young audience interested is because, you know, in sports like football, when you have a number one overall draft pick, like they're playing in the season right after that. Yeah.

Like Trevor Lawrence is starting quarterback for his team right now. Whereas like, you know, Elijah Green, you know, people like you and I are really excited about it because we are like weird baseball people. But, you know, the general Diamondbacks fan who wants to take their kid to a game isn't going to know that and isn't going to be excited about Elijah Green until four or five years down the road when he finally gets there. And so that just like compounds into the issue of them not being able to get butts in their seats at their stadium because there's just so many issues that are working against baseball that other leagues don't have to deal with. And that's one of them is how long it takes to see the benefits of the strategy that goes. into running a baseball team. The draft itself is insane really when you think about it, right? Because of the fact that you have these high school kids that can declare for the draft, see how it goes for them.

And then, you know what? If things don't work out, I'm out of here. I'm going to college. I believe it was Aaron Judge that was drafted originally in the 31st round. And he was drafted so low that he decided to go, you know, back to college and come back out and see how, you know, and things worked out pretty well for him. Yeah. Look what just happened with that Vanderbilt pitcher. who, uh, what's his name? Jack, uh, Kumar. Kumar. Oh, Kumar Rocker. Yeah.

Right. I just have the poor Mets. That's, uh, my God. That's, uh, I feel so bad. Jordan Lawler was kind of a similar situation. A lot of people said he would have been a top three pick. Yeah. But because Vanderbilt was involved and it's like a dream school for a lot of baseball kids to go to,

that being drafted by, especially the team right now in baseball that has the worst record. Yeah. It might be a little bit of a, you know, bad situation. The, the, the, the flip side of it is. someone like Lawler could go to school and then come back and not be drafted until the sixth or seventh round the next time he's eligible or decides to declare. You know, in all those other sports you describe, when you declare, that cancels out your college eligibility. You don't have that option to be like, you know what, I'm going to try this out. If it doesn't work, I'll be back for my junior year.

You know, it's another reason why baseball is so confusing and why people are so uninterested in the draft. You know, a lot of the top draft picks, especially the number one picks, do go on to work. out but it's so long after they were drafted that you forgot even who that person was and why you were excited about the team getting them. But I mean, there's just there's just so many issues with baseball right now and I, you know, going back to our competitive balance thing, I think that's one of the biggest one of the issues that is facing the sport right now is like the lack of competitive balance. Right. Right. I completely agree. And I mean, that's that's the reason why so many people are uninterested in certain markets, especially when they're bad for years and years and

years. You know, like I, I remember a time not too long ago where the pirates were a very bad team. And now it's... They're still a very bad team. Well, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They were a very good team. At one point, they were a good team. And then, like, you know, it's years and years of being bad that now it's like they're the butt of the jokes and such. Same as the Orioles. Right. The Orioles have committed to a rebuild for what? Eight years now? 47 years, I believe. Yeah, geez. Oh my God. But I'm bad. Not betting on them on the drafting sports book app. But again, just as a reminder, you know, you can, you can go download the Draft King Sportsbook app, use our code PHNX. And for simply betting $1 on any football game, college or NFL, it's got to be professional. Again, it's not, don't go down to the high school and bet a dollar on the highest. It's not going to work for you. But go on the

Draft King Sportsbook app, bet a dollar on one of those games and you'll get $150 in free bets using our code PHNX. So please do that. And, uh, you know, also subscribe to the PHNX, go PHNX website. Yeah, we're doing some cool stuff. I think so. I think it's fun to be a subscriber. Yeah, me too. You know?

Are we allowed to be fans of ourselves? I think so. Is that self-important? Is that self-righteous? I don't know. But I'm a fan of the show we did earlier, the PHNX. Phoenix Sports. The Phoenix Sports show.

We talked today about the best jerseys in Arizona sports history. And I think I conceded immediately by showing up wearing a Kachina jersey from the coyotes. You should be mad at Derek. I told, okay, what I told him to come to this show wearing a Diamondbacks jersey because not only does he represent the Diamondbacks and he reports on them, but he knows how cool Diamondbacks jerseys have been in the past. They are cool.

They're so cool. I mean, are you kidding me? Like, this is awesome. Right. He comes here in a Kachina jersey. I did. I was excited. I was excited.

They brought the white back. The coyotes brought the white back. But I will say this, that the Diamondbacks have had some great. jerseys over history. I think, though, that a lot of people really have been looking at wanting to get back to the purple and teal. I know I'm a big fan of that. Like, we're taking a look here at some of the jerseys. We have the early one, the diamond backs, where it said diamond backs across it or the Arizona. I said today, my favorite jersey is that Randy Johnson, the vest jersey. I think that's just iconic. It's such a unique look. Even the away one there that they had with the gray.

I like the pinstripes. It was our first jersey that didn't say Arizona or Diamondbacks on it. It just had the A. And I thought that was cool. Like, I don't know, just like the one you're wearing, the purple with the A. I think that's, I don't know. It's that thing where you like, you got to kind of be in the know to know what team this is. Yeah.

Yeah. I just, uh, I miss that traditional, you know, copper, uh, teal look. I like in the newer jerseys that they did incorporate the, the teal. I'm not, I don't hate on the red and teal together. Oh my God, I hate it so much. I hate it so much. But I like that the teal is back. I really like the O-Way jersey too with the teal without a lot of red on it.

But I think it's just a matter of, you know, you got us used to something. You got us used to a look as fans. That's not a word. Purple, teal, and copper are the coolest color combinations. It's so good. Ever. In 2007, when they introduced. the red and the sand and the black, I

wanted to cry. It's so bad. And also, all the jerseys from like the mid-2000s area, horrible. Speaking, by the way, speaking of Pittsburgh, I'm mad at myself because when all the teams started going to Sedona Red and beige, I was like,

oh, that's kind of neat. And then I hated myself for saying that because I really dislike the Sedona Red and such. I mean, I hate it so much. I said earlier, I was at the, I was at the unveiling ceremony when they brought out the gradient jerseys. And I remember even like an audible gas from people at times when they came out.

Like people did not like that look at all either. The gradient was horrendous. It's just, you know, I think what I, what I, this team hasn't been around very long, right? And so it's weird to already have the differences and eras and colors and all of that. They weren't subtle changes. When you look at other teams and they make changes, they try to make it a little more subtle. They're just like, nope, we're doing. doing all new colors now for this team.

You know. Yeah. And I get it. It's they're trying to avoid the Rockies situation. Okay, but wait. Hold on. Black teams. I totally understand that like you don't want to have two purple teams in the same division

in baseball. But why did the Diamondbacks have to give up their purple? Why couldn't the Rockies do it? The Diamondbacks won a World Series before the Rockies were ever successful. So if I was the Diamondbacks, I would have walked into that meeting and have been like, where's your World Series? ring. You guys change your colors. See, they needed you as a negotiator.

I like that. She just comes in and puts down the World Series ring like, bam. I mean, I'm saying that as a Rockies fan. Like, I'm super glad that the Rockies are still purple because that's my favorite color, but I don't I just don't understand the mentality. Like, if I was representing the Diamond Vax and that whole

situation, I'd have been like, we want a World Series. If anyone's changing their colors here, it's you people. Well, and I've always, honestly, for the most part, I've always thought the color around Rockies is like a black and white team, right? Like just, and that sounds ridiculous, but there's always, they've always had a lot of black and white in their jersey. Because they had that jersey that was all black with like the white mountains. Yeah, right. So I can see that, but. And again,

it's like you said, though, there's other color combinations. There's things, especially like Denver as a whole has some pretty cool colors for their other team. Yeah, they don't have any, that's the other thing I don't like about the Arizona colors is the Cardinals, the Diamondbacks and the Coyotes up until the Cachina rebrand. We're all red and tan and black. And I just, but. Yeah. Like, I don't like that.

No, I'm with you. I'm with it. I like variety. I hate myself for being like, oh, we're like the Pittsburgh teams, you know, but they, you know, whatever. No, no. All right. Well, I'd love to see them return to that.

I think that there's some things that they could do involving listening to their fan base. Yeah. And as, as silly as it may be, I would, I wouldn't be surprised to get a, if they got a huge positive response from going, like, next season would be a perfect time to do it. Just go back. Just do the throwback jerseys. Just like what the coyotes are doing. You see the reception they're getting, especially now today with this, you know, the Kachina white jersey being unveiled and the excitement around it. People, people want this. You know, I get at times that things were new and different to us like what we were talking about with that coyote's logo,

but eventually it's what we as fans want. So thank you guys. Give us the purple and teal. Yes. Bring us back purple and teal. And copper. The copper. The copper. That's the sharp part. I like that on the black one. You know, there's the black one. I was going to say, I'm looking at the history of these uniforms on my laptop right now. And I thought my favorite all-time one was the all-purple with the teal Arizona and like the teal detail on the sleeve. But I think now that looking at this, I think my favorite one might be the all-black one with like the teal and purple A on the side.

And then the detail on the shoulder, that's slick because the A is outlined in copper and that looks so good. It's just crazy. And not to mention, I have an older Diamondbacks hat, and they recently, like, redid the purple hat with the A on it. But it's so much better now, right? Like, they made the A bigger and the, like, the thread that, you know, surrounds it is the copper. And it's like real, like really shiny metal looking. It's just cool. It's a cool hat.

Bring it back. Bring it back. Bring it back. Well, hey, if you guys are catching us right now on YouTube, we want to thank you so much. And we want to encourage you to subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast at. It's the PHNX D-Backs podcast, and you can get it on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast at. So subscribe to us there.

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