PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly makes his only start with the Arizona Diamondbacks before joining Team USA for the WBC

Episode Date: March 4, 2023

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly makes his first and final start with the D-backs before joining Team USA for the World Baseball Classic. We also take a look at how the D-backs prospects stack up according to analysts across baseball.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: Our next PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch is LIVE! Join us on Friday, March 24th for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Come hang with the PHNX crew, fellow Suns’ fans and Diehards as we watch KD, Booker, and the Suns battle in the final stretch of the season as they take on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Sacramento Kings.Checkout https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-tee-party-dobson-ranch-presented-by-four-peaks-brewing-co-tickets-558125557567 to reserve your spot today. And Diehards, check Discord for your exclusive discount link!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.Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: All the best fantasy news and updates at https://rotowire.com/phnx OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four 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.

You know what day it is. You know what. It's Friday. You know what that means. Welcome in to a beautiful edition of the PHNXD Backs podcast. I didn't even know this song had that much more music to it after that part. That's awesome. I think it's a whole song.

It's a whole song, right? I think we could just sit here for like three or four minutes while our intro song plays. Jam out to it the whole time. I don't know if people would actually enjoy us doing that. I would enjoy it. And that's really all that matters, right? Welcome in. Welcome, Elizabeth.

Thank you. Happy Friday to you. Welcome in to the PHNXDXDbacks podcast. podcast. Of course, my name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as the mayor, P-HNX. This guy's occasionally known as the vice mayor. He's also always known as Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. It's a good day at spring training. I mean, better for some than others, you know. Mark Malanson, not so great. Marrow Kelly, decent. Tommy Henry, pretty good. So yeah, we're here to break it all down for you. Not terrible. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine

folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top rated sportsbook app. And yes, we were out there to see Merrill Kelly's first and only start for the Arizona Diamondbacks against an actual Major League club before he heads off to join Team USA for the World Baseball Classic. Unfortunately, after the game, Kelly was experiencing a bit of dehydration. Dehydration is what we were told. We did not get to speak with Merrill Kelly after the game. We did not. We did not.

But we definitely wanted to hear his thoughts on the start. And just I think my big thing is the kind of expedited time frame, obviously. that he's going through before he has to pitch what we call games that matter, right? Like these are games that matter, not spring training games, not stuff in preparation for the season or even, you know, it goes early on in the season where you can kind of just chalk it up to, you know, still progressing and trying to find your, find your way for now, you should say. But Merrill Kelly was very much not great today, but he, you know, he's looking, he's looking at. You really want to say that he was good and you just can't quite get there.

Well, because I don't know if I could say anybody today was great. Some were better than others, like you said. But Merrill Kelly definitely struggled at times. It had one of those weird spring training moments where he was taken out of the game after one in two-thirds inning, I think. He was struggling in the second inning and the Diamondbacks removed him during the inning. And of course, everyone thinks like, oh, Merrill Kelly's out of the game. And then the third inning comes. And surprise, Merrill Kelly is coming back out.

Welcome to the absurdity that is spring training baseball. If you needed nothing more to tell you that spring training games don't really matter, it's the fact that they can just randomly bring in a pitcher that they already took out of the game. Right. So, but Merrill Kelly did unveil his new pitch, which we've known about for a long time, but we couldn't officially say. There weren't many pitches. Well, he never said.

He never said the word. Yeah, we never confirmed. However, based on some of the things he was saying and obviously the pitches that he already threw, it was only a limited amount of pitches it could be. And of course, we can now officially say that Merrill Kelly has added a slider to his arsenal. Yeah, apparently five pitches wasn't enough. He needed six. We joked with him in the clubhouse about next year it's going to be a screwball or a knuckleball or something.

Yeah, clearly he... I always want an ethos. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that's, you know, arguably the most effective pitch in baseball. I think there's all sorts of evidence for that. No, it's interesting. I mean, Merrill Kelly was very, very good last year with the season that he had. You didn't necessarily think that, like, oh, this guy needs to do a bunch of tinkering in the offseason

and change up a whole bunch of things. Like, he's already a very good major league pitcher. He described it to us as being kind of an out pitch. Like, he's not just trying to use this slider as a, as a, as a, get me over pitch to steal some strikes or whatnot. He wants this to be an out pitch against right-handed hitters, which makes some sense. The curveball is not necessarily a huge outpitch for him.

So against Ritey's, having another weapon in his arsenal that he can use along with the changeup, along with the cutter, the four seam, the sinker. The man throws a lot of pitches. But it wasn't super effective today. It wasn't terrible either. He did get a swing and miss with the slider. He also gave up. It might have just been a single, but it was 106 miles an hour off the bat.

So there was some hard, hard contact there as well. So once we get to actually talk with Merrill, which hopefully we get a chance to do tomorrow, you know, we can kind of hear his thoughts on how the slider felt in its first official go around. But I thought it looked good. I mean, it looks like a viable major league pitch. I don't know how much he'll use it necessarily. But he threw six of them today, which was fairly significant, about 15. percent of his pitches overall.

And it's interesting that a pitcher like Merrill Kelly, who already has an established repertoire of pitches and already throws so many, to kind of incorporate a pitch that he doesn't throw as an out pitch that or a potential out pitch for him, right? A pitch that could really, you know, just kind of be a bit dominant and show a different look to certain batters. And I completely understand it. It just feels a bit experimental for something. somebody who has had success.

Merrill's had a fair share of success, especially last season. He was very, very good for this team. So, I mean, but if the slider can be effective, I think it just makes him that much more effective himself. Yeah. I mean, there aren't that many major leaguers who actively throw six pitches. Like, I'm not sure. I'd have to look into that and see if I could, yeah, see if I could like actually find someone.

Because typically they don't throw all of them well, right? So what inevitably happens is the ones they don't throw well get phased out because they're not effective, right? Yeah. And some days, like even if Merrill does throw six pitches, some days it might be four or five or he might only throw one or two of a couple of those pitches if they're not feeling as good as the other ones. But yeah, it's interesting. I don't know. You know, this might be more of an experimental thing in spring training. Maybe he doesn't carry this into the regular season.

But maybe he does. Maybe Merrill Kelly starts throwing tons of sliders and this is just who he is. We don't really know that answer yet. Maybe we see him pick it up in the World Baseball Classic, which he will be a pitcher for Team USA. And like I said earlier, this is one and only start until joining the team next week. It'll be fascinating, honestly, to see if he does use it in the World Baseball Classic. Yeah, for sure. Because then the games count, right?

Like you're trying to represent your country well. You don't want to be like tinkering with your sixth best pitch, you know, on a stage like that necessarily. So I'll be fascinated to see if Merrill still uses that pitch. as much in the World Baseball Classic. Hello from downtown Phoenix. Love the Debacks. That's where we're at right now. But of course, we have all these people chiming in on where they're from.

Shout out to I'm not. I'm going to butcher that name. But Jagirtha, I'm giving it. I'm giving a shot. Oh, oh, yes, yes. Okay. I thought you were saying you're going to butcher the name of the country. I was like Algeria is not that hard, Derek.

No, it's really not. Misa, Mesa, Arizona, right? Something like that. Hello to all of you. Rob from Phoenix says he hates the debacks, but we'll watch every single game this season and every season. I understand that, Rob. Actually, I get that a lot. Elizabeth from Brooklyn.

I think I've heard that city a few times, maybe. It's a borough, Jesse. It's not a city. It's a borough. Yeah, it's a borough. Anyway, speaking of things we hated to see, Mark Melanson did not do well today out there in his debut this spring, giving up six hits, three earned. runs a home run and striking out too. Just not the thing you want to see out of a guy that we were really hoping to get right. He wasn't pleased at all afterwards with his performance,

but he definitely seemed frustrated. And I think that goes all the way for everybody, right? Yeah. We still don't understand exactly what's gone wrong with Melanson's since joining Arizona, but he was a very effective reliever, one of the best closers in baseball for the San Diego Padres. as a part of that team. So, I mean, we still hold out hope that he is going to get right. And we saw spurts of that last season. This just first start is not, or not start, but his first outing is not, not very confidence. It doesn't build much confidence.

No, it didn't build much confidence. Yeah, Mark Melanson was not, not great today to put it, to put it nicely, gave up six hits and three runs in one inning. he talked about after the outing that he did feel there was some soft contact there and maybe there are some positive takeaways from this outing which is understandable I mean you look at the numbers most of the balls in play against him were off his cutter that was four of the six balls in plays against him were the cutter and the average exit velo of those four batted balls was only 87 miles an hour so it wasn't it wasn't like they

were you know hitting these 110 mile an hour laser beams all over the ballpark. But I will also say that's kind of how it happens with Mark Malanson. I think we saw the same thing last year. It wasn't that teams would hit, you know, two homers and a double off him or something. It was just single after single after single after single. There's just something about the cutter curveball combo that has just not been effective. And guys aren't necessarily getting a bunch of extra base hits, but they're just singling him to death essentially. And there was a homer in the outing today. But I think There were five singles.

Those were the other, the other hits that he allowed. So at the end of the day, though, the results were not great. The results weren't great, and that's exactly what we saw last year. It would be this frustrating. Like, again, not, you know, he comes in for a save opportunity, and he does exactly that. Gives up three hits, four hits, five hits in an inning that he should have shut down. Sometimes with two outs.

That was some of the most frustrating work last year to watch, where he would get those first two outs relatively quickly and easily. and then that elusive third out all of a sudden turns into one runner on, two runners on, three runners on. But Mlanson, I mean, for the most part, he definitely did not, he wasn't in a great mood about it. But he did say. I probably wouldn't be in a great mood if I gave up three runs in one inning either. In fact, he said he doesn't care at any time. He'd be in a bad mood for giving up three runs.

He even said in December, which I don't know where he's pitching in December. The Dominican Winter League, maybe. I mean, I wouldn't put it past him. He was asked about his cutter, right? About the velocity of his cutter? Yeah, the velocity of his cutter, which was 88, 89, something like that today. And he talked about where he hopes to get it up to. The cutter was at 88, 89 today.

Are you expecting to get that back up to like 91, 92 by Redros? Hopefully 97. That was the only funny thing about that. entire meeting with it was it was a good light moment yeah but we needed it in that moment too because yeah again we as journalists tend to try to be very nice to these guys in these moments right at least understand that he's not going to be happy with his performance and try to ask relatively I guess logical questions not stuff that sounds insane like were you happy with your outing today of course he's not going to fucking be happy with his outing today gave up three earned and six

hits and a home run in one inning. You know what I mean? Like, you're not going to be happy with that. But of course, with it being his first time out there for spring, he is still working on, you know, getting back to baseball condition, I guess you could say. He's getting ready for games and it was his first outing. But he definitely, he definitely seemed frustrated with it. And, you know, I don't know. I think that there was something actually encouraging about him being frustrated with it just based on the fact that, like, he wants to he he wants to be as valuable to this team as they thought he was going to be when they brought him over like this guy mark malanson from what i from what i've heard and i haven't gotten to talk to him much but i think he's basically harder on himself than pretty much anyone else than any of us could be on twitter i promise you

guys that i don't i don't know about that twitter is a disgusting place for for a struggling closer but for any athlete it's accessible let's be honest but but but i don't know about that's not I did feel like, so I mean, after he made this joke about hopefully getting it up to 97, he didn't actually follow that up and answer the question. He just kind of let it linger, which I don't necessarily want to read too much into, but it's clearly something that I don't think he has any great answer for at this point. The velocity was a little bit low coming into camp last year. Of course, that was a weird situation with the lockout and the quick ramp up and everything.

So that's typically what we. We kind of attributed that stuff to. But now, you know, who knows what it is? Below can be down a little bit at this point. Right. You know, it's not, that's not necessarily rare. But it's down to two and a half miles an hour from last year when it was already down about a mile an hour or two from the year before that. So it's definitely not a great trajectory.

We all slow down as we get older, Jesse. Quit judging. Quit judging. But speaking of slowing down as people get older, Tori Lavallo today was asked about how Madison Bumgarden is progressing in getting ready for actual live games. And he had one of the most intriguing pauses. This was interesting. That we've ever heard.

Let's go ahead and play this. He's been throwing okay. It's always kind of a work in progress for him through the course of spring training. I spent a lot of time watching his bullpens in the lab. And he's just trying to manipulate the baseball and get a feel for the ball. on his hand. He's got an unbelievable ability to take a baseball, change grips, work on stuff, and land pitches in the zone. It's hard for anybody to grab a ball and throw a forcing fastball where he wants. Bama's doing a really nice job of trying to figure some things out as far as pitch

shaping and just working real hard. And he looks good. He looks good. That is not encouraging. He looks good, Derek. He looks good. He looks good. He looks good. I don't believe you. I don't believe him. I don't believe an unbelievable ability to grip the baseball, Derek, and throw it where he wants to. That's what we're looking at now. Tori backed into the manager speak thing, right? Which is how he's normally answered questions about Madison Bumgarner. He would just go right into it. Like, yeah, bum looks great.

You know, he came in, you know, put in a lot of work. Like he's trying to do everything he can to get ready. We're excited to see him in games. All those normal things are used to hearing. Tories, Tories, whatever we want to call it. But Tory kind of gave us a little window. into maybe how he's actually feeling about Madison Bumgarner. And this is where I think we have a big advantage being a podcast

in getting to play some of these things for you, rather than, you know, seeing it just in written form. Yeah, because that doesn't, it doesn't speak in written form. It doesn't speak the way that Toil Lavello spoke. Jesse could not describe that sigh enough, that momentary pause,

that clearing of a throat. He's doing his, yeah. It looks okay. It looks okay. I don't think he does. I don't believe you. And I'm worried. And also, Evan Longoria is 0 for 8, by the way, with six strikeouts and a double play to start spring.

Yeah, Evan Longoria, speaking of not great. I'm not reading into it really at all at this point. I am. Maybe Derek is. It's only eight at bats. I think it's a little crazy early to be making any judgments. Like, I don't really believe in spring training numbers much to begin with. But to.

can hate it. But to your point, he, the man is swinging and missing at like 85 miles an hour right down the middle. We had a odd conversation about it today where it was just being behind on such slow pitches. I don't have much of an explanation for it. Obviously, you know, timing is what it is, right? Guys need to get themselves right and they need to get their timing right. That's why they start these workouts before they ever take, you know, live BP and then they're, they do live BP and then they actually play actual opposing teams, right? But swing earlier? I don't know.

Evan Lengoria was sick, right? Yeah, he had strep throat. He is a bit behind, right? And he is kind of getting some of his live BP swings that he would get on back a lot, not in front of a crowd out during these spring training games. But he just hasn't looked good. And when you, you know, when you pair that with Madison Bumgardner and the question marks around him.

Stop signing former giants. Yeah. These former giants are great. It's not great. It is not great. In the words of Dre Jameson, it puts fire in my blood. Jesse,

it puts a little fire in my blood. I'm not letting that one go. Don't think I'm letting that one go. But yes, I will reserve having fire in my blood until the regular season, but I feel like I'm going to have fire in my blood. Tommy Henry today,

one of the guys obviously competing for that fifth starting rotation spot had a pretty long outing, the longest outing of any G-back's pitcher today going three innings, giving up three hits, two runs, to earn a walk, and four strikeouts. So he looked very good at times, but he still got touched up. He gave up some hard contact still, yeah. Yeah, but the curveball looked pretty good. Yeah, he threw a lot of them. Last year, Tommy Henry was like 14% curve balls.

today was 34%, I think. So it at least appeared that that was kind of an emphasis for him in this game. I think he threw like twice as many curveballs as sliders, whereas last year he threw more sliders. Then he needed curveballs when he was in the big league. So you didn't necessarily say anything about that afterwards. I don't know if that was part of the game plan. But it was an effective pitch form.

I think the curve ball was probably his best offering in this game. But yeah, he did give up some hard contact here and there. It wasn't necessarily. the best outing that I've seen from Tommy Henry, but he was steady and, you know, he was able to go out there for all three innings. I think he threw 47 pitches. So, you know,

he continues to build up the pitch count. And from that standpoint, I think things are looking good. The time to speculate. Want to speculate? Let's speculate a little bit. Let's speculate. Let's do it.

Tommy Henry, the only guy to come out of the bullpen as far as the youngsters that are all competing for the fifth starting rotation spot. The Diamondbacks currently still looking for a long reliever. and Tommy Henry through three innings today in relief. Yeah. Maybe you can put some of those pieces together,

but maybe Henry is being looked at more for a bullpen roll at this point versus one of those guys that's currently looking at getting that starting rotation spot. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough to know what to read into and what not to. I mean, the debacks have way more than five guys right now that they're trying to get starts. Nine on the depth chart, in fact. Yeah, like there's no way that the debacks can just go through and start. everyone that they want to start.

Like there's not enough game. There's some split squad games, but there's still not enough games to do that. So you're going to be forced to bring a few guys out of the bullpen rather than having them start games just naturally. But it is interesting. Dre Jameson, Brandon Fott, Ryan Nelson, all of their appearances so far have been starting games. Tommy Henry started a game, but now he, at least in this game, he was out of the bullpen.

We'll have to see if that changes moving forward. But it does kind of go along with a theory that I have, a hypothesis, although we have no evidence necessarily for this just yet. But I think it makes sense that Tommy Henry could be a fit for the debacks in that long relief role, whereas I don't think the team would be comfortable doing that with Ryan Nelson or Dre Jameson or Brandon Fatt. I think if any of those guys don't make the team, they're probably headed back to AAA rather than making the team as a reliever.

Yeah, that's a great point. And honestly, I think the Diamondbacks have a lot of opportunity right now for those guys to get a lot of playing time, right? During the spring training, we could very much see Brandon Fott, Dre Jameson, Ryan Nelson, and Tommy Henry get a considerable amount of starts more than they would have otherwise with Madison Bumgardner taking a while to get back, you know, ready for spring training. That's true. We still haven't seen Zach Gowan in the game. We haven't seen Zach Gowan. And Merrill Kelly is going to be gone for the next week now with the WBC. so that, you know, assures that at least that rotation spot is now open.

So the next like two weeks, right? He'll be gone for all the next week. He'll probably make like one more Cactus League outing, maybe two Cactus League outings could be possible. But yeah, he's going to be away from the team for a while. Yeah. So again, we're going to get plenty of time for these youngsters to get starts and make an impression on this team, honestly. And it feels like that's the right move, even though. of course, the other guys have to get ramped up.

We talked about Zach Gallen pitching on the back lot and, you know, still getting a 35 pitches. Which is about the same as that Tommy Henry said he was, he was locked. Yeah, he was, he was three innings 47 pitches today. So they're pretty much on the same level as far as length is concerned. This is what Henry had to say about his outing and just kind of how he feels in regards to spring training and this competition. It felt pretty good. A little bit better each time.

I feel like that's kind of the goal in spring training, you know, coming out here to compete, but also to feel better each time, start to get closer to mid-season form by the end of this thing. So, yeah, better than the last time, and that's positive. What was better? Just felt like I was in a little bit better of a flow. You know, still not where I expect or hope to be,

but better than the last one. He also talked to, he, I just saw it. Did you see, did you see the frown at the end of the video? Yeah, it was a little frown. If you're on audio, you have no idea what we're talking about, but you'll probably see it on our Twitter account before too long. We're making Tommy into a meme for sure for the little pouty face he made there at the end. But, you know, of course, that's what all these guys are doing, just trying to get a little bit better from one start to the next. That's that building up for the regular season.

Tommy, though, I think, you know, he does see. the opportunity here and I don't know if he has that same protection from the organization as far as making him potentially that reliever versus I don't think we're going to see that like we said out of Ryan Nelson, Dre Jamison, or not fought at all in any way, shape or form. I don't think the debacks want to, Mike Hazen has said this a few times, I think the debacks want to be careful about losing the length on any of those guys. So it's possible that any of them could make the team as a reliever, but it would probably be in like a multi-inning, like a long relief capacity.

Because then you still have the guy stretched out and you could probably bring them back as a starter pretty easily. Whereas, you know, if you put Ryan Nelson in the bullpen, you're like, hey, you're going to be our seventh inning guy. Then it's really hard to get Ryan Nelson to be a starter again later in the season if the diamond backs find themselves needing that. Great point. Great point.

But we know one person it's not going to be, and that's Drey Jameson. I don't care what you say, but Dray Jameson, of course, if you try to put him in the bullpen, he'll say, don't do that. It puts fire in my blood, right? We're nicknaming him blood fire, Dre Jameson for now until we come up with something better. But I feel like, you know, his words resonate with me. And I feel like it's just applicable for so many situations. For instance, you know, the fact that we're here tonight on a Friday night.

friends are all out there having a good time on first Friday right now, that puts fire in my blood. That puts fire in my blood. See? I get you say leaving dishes in the sink to soak fire in my blood. No, no. That puts fire in my blood. I mean, it applies to so many situations, Jesse driving the speed limit in the fast lane and not passing people? No, no.

That puts fire in my blood. You're a monster, dad. We're going to get our use out of that one. You know, the other day, someone ate the M&Ms out of the trail mix. That puts fire in my blood. It's so perfect. It's so perfect. Speaking of eating our trail mix and all of our wonderful snacks,

we want to give a shout out to our brand new partner, our friends at Circle K, which I have been hanging out at for years, you guys. I got arrested for my first time at Circle K, and you probably, you know, whatever. Anyway, we're excited to partner with our friends in Circle K. Check out our local Circle K for the best coffee, beer, and snack selection, premium gas, and so much more. It's the place to stop before you go on a road trip, especially around the Valley.

You know, we've got a lot of baseball going on right now. I know there's a lot of people in town. We have a lot of Mariners fans at today's game. It was kind of incredible. But, of course, if you're here moving around, you need some snacks. You need to stop and get some stuff. Go to Circle K. By the way, our Circle K out here on 7th Street,

Yes, I love that one. It's so good. It's such a great circle. I filled up my gas tank there literally yesterday. Yeah, so we're very excited to partner with our friends at Circle K. To kick things off, we've teamed up for an amazing giveaway opportunity. Just text PHNX to 310 for an opportunity to win a $500 gas card. And you know we all need that.

So see show notes for details, but enter yourself into the drawing for that. And hopefully can come back and tell me that you guys, one, a $500 gift card. That would be incredible. Also, grab some Four Peaks brewing company beer while you're at Circle K, getting all of your snacks and all of your drinks. There's so many sporting events in the month of February. And there's more even in the month of March. So this is the time of the year to make sure you have plenty of Four Peaks beer on hand. Spring training tours all throughout March over at the 8th Street pub. So if you are here in town, you want to check out check out a great local brewery. Go out and check out our friends at Four Peaks. They have an

amazing tour. I mean, I mean it. A very historic tour. They will tell you about ghosts. They will tell you about the building and how long it's been around. It's incredible. Check out 4Peaks.com slash events for all your beer week entertainment. And also, those guys out at 4th, they'll be out at the M3F Festival on March 3rd and March 4th. That is today and tomorrow. So if you're watching this, you're probably missing the first day, but maybe you go out there for the 4th. Grab your tickets at M3Fest.m.3Fest.com and enjoy a wow wheat beer while you're there. Must be 21. years are older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Yeah, Mark's...

Mark has added a few singers in the chat. I see a ticket master, fire in my blood. Gas stations that aren't circle okay? Fire in my blood. You're right, Mark. Get down. We might have to tell Dre Jameson about how we've hijacked this quote from him. You're going to make me explain so many of this things to my friends.

We're going to explain Tommy Henry what you're going to do with that picture of him in the pouty face before you use it, you have to ask permission. All right, Derek. I will not ask permission. You know that, Jesse, about me. I don't ask for permission. I ask for forgiveness. And speaking of that, I ask you guys, once again, to forgive me for not giving away our

pizza last Friday. I was very preoccupied. Jesse wasn't here to make sure I do all the stuff I'm supposed to do. But we did give it away. Shout out to our man, Ryan, who actually tweeted or sent us a comment, he's at Mountain Mike's right now. There we go. Eat in his free pizza.

Thanks to you. Don't call a sphinx. We don't like that. We don't like that down and doing it either. But what we're going to do right now is we're going to offer all of our wonderful viewers that are here right now in the chat, the opportunity to win another free 20-inch pepperoni pizza from our friends of Mountain Mikes. So all you got to do, you guys know the drill. Drop a pizza emoji in the chat.

And I will add you to the wheel of names here on my computer. And of course, I will pick a winner before the end of the show. I'm really impressed with your multitasking. I do a lot of stuff. Like Derek hosts a show, and he's like keeping track of pizza emojis in the chat. He has this like little randomizer spinner thing. Yeah, we had a conversation today. Jesse does not think very highly of me.

I don't know if you guys know that or not. But he thinks he doesn't think I'm as deliberate with my actions as I am. And I understand that because I am a bit of a wild card. But I do know what I'm talking about. And I know that the Arizona Diamondbacks prospects are fucking incredible. That's my rating. That's my ranking. They're fucking incredible. But, of course, we have, we've talked to quite a bit about the Arizona Diamondbacks

and where those prospects fall on MLB analyst rankings around baseball. We got all these, what's happening here? No, I'm not. No, I'm not delivering to Algeria. I'm sorry, Elizabeth. Nice try, though. Anyway. Well, I mean, we could deliver it to Algeria.

No, but by the time it gets there, they might not want it anymore. It's not going to be as good as it was when it left the restaurant. And Mountain Mike ain't having that bullshit. Let me tell you. He's got quality control. But of course, Jesse, Arizona Diamondbacks prospects are on everybody's list. They're topping everybody's list. They're all over the list except those damn bastards at baseball prospectus.

Don't even get me started on you guys being mean. But let's take a look at where the Arizona Diamondbacks prospects currently rank across all of these top 100 list, Jesse. What a beautiful graphic. Oh, man. Sean, see? You guys ask me why I named Sean my MVP.

It's this graphic right here. Sean deserves the MVP alone for that. But shout out to Sean to pause for putting this together. And as you see here, there's a general agreement about a few of these guys. And then the rest of them are all over the place, right?

Obviously, you have Jameson, Nelson, and Moreno that are interesting cases when it comes to the top prospects list because it's based on if those lists still consider those individuals to be prospects. Well, that's only an issue for Moreno. All of them consider Nelson and Jameson to be. Prospects still. Yeah, like they could be on the list.

They just don't have them on the list. Whereas Moreno, he's on the Baseball America list at number 12 on the ESPN list at number four. But the other list don't even consider him a prospect. So he's not on those ones at all. So what jumps out to you here besides baseball prospectus being terrible at their job? Yeah. I mean, that's the, that's the biggest thing, right? Baseball prospectus has every single Diamondbacks prospect that you have on their list.

Yes, Mark. Superchat, $5 for Mark Slayer of Baseball Perspectus, fire in my blood. I'm guessing, I'm going to say that Autocrrect got him on that one because Mark's very good about spelling correctly. Baseball perspective. Perspective? Maybe a good name for like a competing outlet? Yeah. if you don't like baseball perspective, we're going to start baseball perspective. That's too hard to say. I don't like that word. I like perspective much better. But yes, taking a look here, Jesse, what jumps up off this list at you? Yeah. So like I was saying, baseball prospectus is not quite as high on everyone as on all the other guys, right? All the other outlets, right? So Corbyn Carroll for baseball prospectus is six compared to one or two for all the other outlets. We have 24 for Jordan Lawler. He is, he is 15th or higher on all of the other lists.

Drew Jones number 33 for baseball prospectus, whereas he is 24th or better on all the other lists. And then baseball prospectus has Brandon fought at 83, whereas he is no lower than 59th on all of the other list. So, yeah, baseball prospectus, and we've talked about this before, they just don't seem to think as highly of the Diamondbacks farm system as a lot of the other outlets do.

But yeah, I mean, other than that, I guess the opposite of that is Keith Law and the athletic who has three of the top 15 prospects for the debacks plus Brandon fought at number 38. Like that's pretty good. And all of the other ones, you know, are relatively similar with those four guys. Again, if you guys haven't dropped a pizza emoji in the chat, make sure to do so. And no, Brett, you can't win another pizza. Come on. Come on.

Do we disqualify people have already won? Yeah. Brett's already disqualify. All right. But, yes, when I, obviously, we've talked about Corbyn Carroll, always ending up number two to Gunner Henderson from the Baltimore Orioles pretty much. And that's fine. We're okay with that.

The athletics rankings are quite complimentary. And I think that Keith Law probably had, I mean, honestly, had a lot to, a lot of positive things to say about this team. I mean, what you say about baseball prospectus being kind of like, whatever. ever on their on their prospects. Keith Law was the opposite, right? I mean, yeah, he felt very highly about Brandon fought,

had good things to say about Ryan Nelson as well. So I mean, Fangraphs has fought at 16. Yeah, which is insane. Fan graphs is, I mean, they're the friendliest ones,

right? They have four, the debacks having four the top 16 prospects in baseball. Oh, that's just wild. Which is crazy. Yeah.

And Moreno would probably be in there as well if he qualified. Yeah, he would. Yeah. top 16 they basically have the debacks having like five of the top 20 like prospect rookie eligible people uh which is which is pretty crazy i guess marina doesn't fit in any of those categories unfortunately but the other thing that does stand out to me here derrick is uh just the lack of consensus on dray jameson and ryan nelson uh you have the athletic has nelson on the list at 82 but not

jameson MLB dot com doesn't have either fan graphs has uh nelson in 89 but jameson at seven So they have Jameson higher. ESPN doesn't have Nelson, but has Jameson at 96. So, and this does, I mean, I've read and listened to basically all of the content that these outlets have put out. And you hear a lot of different things. Some people are convinced that Ryan Nelson is the more complete pitcher and Dre Jameson is destined for the bullpen. Other people think Dre Jameson's a number two starter and that Ryan Nelson doesn't have much consistency on any pitch outside of the foreseamer. So it's interesting. They really are a lot all over the place on those two guys.

And even though the spring training numbers so far very heavily favor Jameson, I think it's important to keep in mind this bigger picture that like both of these guys are pretty good. And I don't think we're really settled yet on who is going to be better out of those two. Well, let me blow your mind really fast, Jesse. Please, please do. Today, MLB Pipeline dropped their top 30 prospect. list for all of the teams. And Arizona Diamondbacks,

obviously, we're one of those teams. Everything checks out in the top four, right? You got Corbyn, Carol, Drew Jones, Jordan Lawler, Brandon Fott. No surprises. No surprises. Five, Blake Walston. Interesting. Six, Davidson de los Santos.

Seven Landon Sims. Then Ryan Nelson at eight, and then Dre Jameson at nine. And then, of course, rounding out the top ten, the Hispanic Titanic himself, Ivan Melendez. that's fascinating it really is right i mean i think they're all like like on the 20 to 80 scale they have all those guys at a 50 overall so it kind of looks like it's sort of a tie between them in a sense and they just had to like come up with an order to put them in and william boar doesn't do this

anymore so i don't know if william bore was still doing it now that william bore doesn't do it yeah we i don't know who they got working on this stuff now but uh it is interesting to see blake waltston that high uh number five i think that's a little bit a little bit bold to say that He's the fifth best prospect in the system. He is still only 21 years old, and he pitched pretty well in AA toward the end of last season. So it's going to be a big year for Blake Walson. I think the big question about him has always been, is that four seamer velocity going to come up from the low 90s at some point? I need to address something in the chat.

Please, please do. Mike, I swear to God, if you send me another pineapple pizza, I will light it on fire. And that's not safe for this office because we have no fire extinguishers. and a very unattentive security department downstairs it doesn't help us out much but anyway

really what it comes down to is of course opinions and such like we have our own opinions after seeing what we've seen from these guys in spring training Jesse is still holding out judgment whereas I am judging all the time

just white wig on gavel black robe judging everybody but these guys I think have done a good job at, you know, understanding that they're competing for this role. And honestly, I think Dray Jameson, to me, again, not just because of the fire in his blood, but because... It is because of the fire. It is because of that comment, Derek.

But it's also because, like, again, Dre Jemison seems to, in my opinion, in my humble opinion, fighting a bit harder than everybody else, right? Like, there's just something because I don't know if he's fighting a bit harder. I just think he's pitching better, right? No, here's why I say that, is because we've talked to several people. And the general idea about Drey Jamison is that most people are surprised, not only that he got called up, but that he had the success that he had last year. And he continues to have that success so far in spring training.

It doesn't look so far like it's fluky is kind of what I'm saying, right? And trust me, we're also surprised because we weren't very high on Drea Jameson at looking at his numbers and things that we saw from him in both. know and amarillo. So I mean, again, I think I just kind of applaud his efforts. And I feel like that competitive nature and that blood in the fire might be, uh, might be setting the setting them apart just a little bit. But it's going to be a big weekend. I mean, we have Brandon Fott pitching tomorrow. Uh, so happy Brandon Fott, uh, day to all who celebrate one, one day in advance. Fought your fight fight fight. Fight your fight. I don't know. With something there. All right.

We need to get some more things for Brandon Fopp because that name's too cool to not have some sort of, I don't know, catchphrases or whatever. This is true. This is true. Yeah, you're right. Madison Bumgarner also likely pitching on Sunday. Tori did not confirm that officially. In a game? But I believe so.

I believe that Madison Bumgarner will make his spring training debut on Sunday. Tori also alluded to Zach Gallen being not too far behind. So should be seeing those guys pretty soon here. Remember, go see these teams while they're here for spring training. I know that we're going to have a chance to see more teams at Chase Field this year based on the new schedule, but it was really cool to see Julio Rodriguez standing like three feet away from me. And the building had a lot of Mariners fans. Oh my God.

Can we take a look at this picture I took? Because this picture is incredible. Salt River Fields was packed, by the way. I don't even think this picture does it justice. But you can't really see that the majority of this crowd is wearing blue and green. Greenish. I don't know. Teal? Is that what it is? Sure, I guess. I really like their sparkly numbers and letters. I was up close to them and like all of their They sparkle? Yeah, their names and their numbers. They have like a glitter to them. The silver glitter? It's kind of fucking awesome. I don't know. I thought it looked great. Like it was kind of cool. But I don't know if I believe that, Derek. You're telling me they have glitter on their uniform. Yes, Jesse. I swear to God. No, just in the numbers and the names, just in the patches. Not in the uniform itself, but in the patches. Yeah, they make it like kind of shining. year. Yeah. For sure. Okay. Yeah, see, he doesn't believe, he doesn't believe any fucking thing I say ever

I've never noticed that. I've never noticed that. No, I hadn't noticed it until I was close to them. And now I was like, that's kind of cool. The Diamondbacks should do something like that, especially with the sand color because if they added a little like sparkle to it, it would look more like sand, but it would look less like drab. It would look less beige, beigey. Why do you hate on beige? beige is terrible. Every outfit Sean DePaz wears is beige. I can guarantee. see that. Every outfit he owns is beige. He opens up his closet and it's just fucking beige

pants, beige top. It's wild. That was such an unnecessary shot at our goddamn truth. I bet he's, I don't even know, but I bet he's wearing beige right now. You guys are here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. We thank you guys for being here so much. Thank all

of you guys for being here right now in the chat. Of course, make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't done so already. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. And also, Leave us a thumbs up. We love all of those thumbs-ups. If you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, make sure to subscribe to us there as well. And also leave us a review. We love the feedback. We thank you guys so much. Grab yourself a die-hard membership if you aren't

already a PHNX diehard. We want you to join the family. We have great merch like this wonderful set of Sun's merch. I bought that Kevin Durant Slim Valley Reaper shirt immediately when it dropped. And of course, you can get yourself a free piece of merch, including these shirts, as a diehard member over at go p hnx.com sign up now get a free piece of merch every year get 20% off all future purchases at the p hnx lockerer.com you also get members only merchandise members only invites to events and members only discounts you get jesse's newsletter full count by jesse friedman no the in that he'll fucking come for you if you do say it uh and also you say this every every single day oh my god he's so angry about he's like you fucking did it again yesterday you jackass

Don't call it the full count. Derek, I think it's because you made the mistake once. And I did correct you. You're very abusive. And then you haven't forgotten about that and you feel the need to make it clear how much I will come for your head. If you make that mistake now. If you call Jesse's full count newsletter, the full count, fire in the blood. Anyway, get all of that as being a diehard member, wonderful writing from all of our writers around this place.

And of course, just become part of the family. It's also the best place to be an Arizona sports fan, and that is our diehard Discord lounge. Join today over at go phtonx.com. And of course, we thank you guys so much for doing that, those of you that have already done so. Baseball's weird, Jesse. It's weird. Max Scher is weird. Max Scher is weird.

Pitchers are going to be weird. Everything's going to be weird this year. But Max Scher definitely did a little, something a little crazy today when it came to his delivery. against hitter Riley Adams. Yeah, yeah. So Max Scher and this video has sort of gone viral. So if you're on Twitter, you might have seen this already. But I think there's at least when the video starts,

there's like 13 seconds on the pitch clock. Scherzer is set. He's pitching out of the stretch. We've got a couple runners on base. And he just, he is completely still on the mound waiting for Riley Adams to get set. Riley Adams gets set in the box. and he's just still like a statue. Like he's just not moving whatsoever.

He's basically doing like a stare down of Riley Adams. Riley Adams gets so uncomfortable that he uses his one and only timeout that he has in the abat. And then after the timeout is called, Scherzer gets right back on the rubber, is ready to go immediately, continues the exact same pose that he's been holding for like the last 15 seconds. And it was crazy. The moment that Riley Adams steps back. In the box. In the box. Fucking Scherzer pitches like that.

It's incredible. And Riley Adams swung and missed. And it felt like Scherzer probably got in his head a little bit there. Well, what it feels like is yes, that's the case. But obviously, Scher isn't trying to just pull out all the stops against Riley Adams during a spring training game. There is obvious connections to how Scher plans to kind of manipulate the pitch clock and manipulate late hitters, right? And we heard Tommy Henry today say that he got a little tired because of

kind of the up and down. Like he was in minor leagues last year. So he was dealing with the pitch clock. And then he came up to the majors so he could slow down a bit. And now he's got to speed back up. And he was feeling a bit, you know, kind of winded because of it. Right. And he says, which we did ask Tori about that the other day. And he said it wasn't a concern. Sure. He wasn't concerned about pitchers having more fatigue issues because of the pitch clock. Right. And Henry clarified that once you kind of get used to it, it actually benefits the pitcher. He feels like you get into a better rhythm as far as going quicker, right? But, you know, this kind of gamesmanship that Max Scherzer is demonstrating in this clip is the

exact kind of stuff that we heard from Major League Baseball officials when they said that these teams are going to try to find ways to gain a competitive advantage in some way based on this situation. And right now, Max Scherzer is finding a way to make hitters uncomfortable based on not only the pitch clock, but just his weird behavior, right?

Like the fact that he really can, like the batters don't have as much time to dick around with their batting gloves and kind of take some swings out of the box and do all of the stuff. So he really can sit there in the ready position like that because they only have a few seconds to do whatever and then they have to be in there.

And he can deliver that, pitch immediately and they really don't have a chance to be comfortable. You pair that with the fact that Max Scherzer is already one of the best pitchers in baseball. And like they, you couldn't really see these guys, especially the veterans, trying to find a way for this to become their advantage instead of a hindrance to them as a pitcher. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because I think Max Scherzer could have done this with the old

arrangement, right? Like there's nothing stopping you from just, there was no clock before. So you could, you could just hold your, your pitching. motion and just kind of stare down the hitter and then force them to call time. No, but the hitter can fucking spend as much time as he wants though. That was the difference. Now, the hitter has to be in the box and they have to be in there within seven seconds of the pitch clock starting. Eight seconds. Eight seconds. No, no, no. Within. Starts at 15. Yeah, it makes sense. So they have to be in by eight. So they only have seven seconds to like swing or do whatever little things they want to do to get adjusted.

Right. Annie four, I mean, there's only one time out. So Riley Adams uses this one time out. Now he doesn't have that for the rest of the bat. So I guess that's different too from also right, right. But but Scherzer, I mean, before they could have fucking let Scher just sit there in the ready position for however long. And like, that's not exactly a benefit to him. Right. But yeah. The fact now that there's a time frame, a time limit put on it and these guys got to get back in the box, especially considering that he's ready, right? Scher is ready. So at that eight second mark, the pitcher only has to be in this position for the batter to get the violation at that point. If the batter's not in the box ready with the bat ready to go, they get the violation.

So Scherzer's almost force in the hand because if he was taking a little bit more time, then there's, you know, there's that whole thing about the pitcher not being ready yet, right? Yeah. It's just like Scherzer just took control of this moment. Like the pitch clock, I don't think the way it's set up necessarily gives the pitcher, like, it's not like, oh, the pitcher controls the tempo and the hitter doesn't have any control whatsoever. Like the hitter can still take their time, as you said, for those first few seconds,

than get in the box when they're ready, as long as it's by the eight second mark. But this, I mean, if you watch it, it's just like, oh, man, like Riley Adams is just playing Max Scherzer's game, right? Like, Max Scherzer is in total and utter control of this moment right now, and he's clearly made the hitter uncomfortable because of how he did this. I'm kind of, we haven't seen the debacks pitchers do a whole lot of that. Mark Melanson after the game today did talk about how he quick pitched a guy and maybe got him a little bit uncomfortable. So I do think Malanson kind of tinkered around with that. But leave it to Max Scher to find the way to get in the hitter's heads more than more than maybe anyone else has found a way so

far. Well, when we were talking, it was Morgan's Sword, right? Which again, the name you'll never forget as long as you live because who's named Morgan's Sword and isn't some sort of actual superhero. But, you know, again, these were all things that we discussed in that meeting. And what was interesting was the fact that Major League Baseball knows that there's going to be a difference from things that blatantly try to circumvent the rules and things that these guys can do. And I mean, honestly, stuff like this with the pitchers, you know, he brought up like that pitchers aren't in minor leagues or even when it, you know, when it's implemented in Major League, they're not going to stay or they're not going to take up until that last second to deliver the pitch. They're just not because if they do, it gives the runners on base, it gives the batter just too much

ability to time when that pitch is going to cross the plate. So what we saw at As Scherzer today, that manipulation is exactly, I think, what we're going to see further from baseball because these guys, they don't want to give the, let the hitter get comfortable. They want to, they're going to switch it up. I'm going to throw it at eight. Then I'm going to throw it at six at this one. And I'm going to throw it at 10 if he's in the box earlier or whatever, right?

Like so the pitchers can honestly use this to their advantage. And that's something that Tommy Henry also said. Who do you think on the Arizona Diamondbacks is most likely? to implement some sort of strategy this way, like the way that Cherser has. It's 100% Zach Allen. It's pretty clearly. I mean, maybe other guys will try it too.

But like, I think it's important to remember, and this is something that we've talked a little bit about over the off season. Zach Allen pitched really slow last year with guys on base. Really, really slow. The difference between him pitching with nobody on base and with guys on base was one of, one of the highest differences in baseball.

I just have a little cooler over there. Sorry. Okay. All right. I'm glad you're staying hydrated, Derek. So, yeah, I think it's like, Zach Gallen did that, but I don't think that was like a quirk.

I don't think it was like, oh, like Zach Gallen kind of needs to really take his time in order to feel comfortable out there with guys on base. He would also throw to first base a ton, right? His pickoff attempt numbers were insane lines. year. But again, I don't think that that was Zach Allen's just kind of quirky and he's got to throw over to first base four times, you know, per at bat in order to feel comfortable out there. I don't think that was the case. I think he did that because he wanted to control the tempo.

And he wants to try to get in the heads of the opposing hitters. And I think that was kind of his way of doing that. In the same way with the pitch clock, it's going to look a lot different. He can't throw over eight times to first base to throw the hitters rhythm off, right? But there are some things that he can do under the pitch clock to maybe get that hitter to be a little bit more uncomfortable. And I'm sure that he's seeing what Max Scherzer is doing and probably taking some notes. And hopefully we get to see Gallen in a Cactus League game here in the next few days. We haven't seen a deba-d-d-back's attempt anything like this yet, but it doesn't mean they're not going to. And I know Tori Lobalo is very, very much interested.

We talked about a meeting with MLB officials and other things to get some clarity on the rules. I just feel like Tori really, I'm going to say this. I think Tori is a really good guy. And I don't think Tori wants to like do the same thing that maybe some of these other managers in baseball are trying to do when they're like, ooh, how can we manipulate this situation for some sort of advantage? Yeah. Tori kind of is like on the other side where he doesn't want to cross the line or have his team do anything that could potentially violate these rules. I mean, I think every manager is trying to, they're all trying to get whatever advantage they can. Sure.

And that comes down to like what we were talking about with them asking straight up if they could do this, this or this early on. The teams were saying like the, you know, shortstop in motion rule and things like that. Like we saw this with Joey Gallo shifting over. We have a shot of this absurd shift of Joey Gallo. There he is. I believe it's the left. Yeah, it's the left fielder is now in right field where he can be. And this actually is a real thing that they can do as long as they don't move the infielders.

They can actually shift the outfielders wherever they can bring the outfielders into the infield dirt. If I'm not, am I wrong about that? They can't be in the dirt. They have to be on the outfield grass. You can have, yeah, you can have five infielders. Yeah, you can. Yeah, they could bring an outfielder in. Yeah.

But I mean, the point of this shift that we're seeing here is, I mean, it's pretty similar to the kinds of shifts we've seen in years past against hitters like Joey Gallo. Yeah. It's a little different because you still have to have two infielders, right, on the third base side of the second base bag. Correct. So it's a little different there. Normally, you wouldn't have had that. And left field is basically wide open entirely.

But they're not concerned about left field when it comes to Joey Gallo. And that's obviously the reason that this shift is in place. I've talked with Tori about shifts like this in the past, and he did say that that would be something they'd consider. To my knowledge, I did miss a couple of games while I was out of town, but I don't believe that Diamondbacks have attempted anything like that in a Cactus League game just yet. But I don't know. Maybe they're kind of hiding some of their tactics. Maybe they don't want to show what their plans are. They're saving that for the regular season.

I feel like they would need to work on it some. I mean, they could be working on the backfields. We're just not making it into Cactus League games. I think a lot of teams are probably trying to hide whatever their strategies are right now. But maybe we do see them try this at some point in a game. By the way, Evan Longoria, according to Jesse and asking him, like Salt River Fields better than Scottsdale Stadium. So that discussion is...

That was the answer I was kind of expecting. I mean, if you like Scottsdale Stadium more than Salt River Fields, I just don't. You're probably a Giants fan. Yeah. You know what? You can have your players back. That's the only reasonable explanation for that, I'm pretty sure. All right, I'm spinning this wheel.

All pizza emojis are in. The wheel is being spin. Spina. And our winner is Jacelle. Giselle, we love you. And you are our winner of a free pizza. So, Jesse, confirmed for me as the... It does say Giselle.

It does say Giselle. So we will send you out that coupon. And we thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you enjoy that 20-inch pepperoni pizza very much. And we always thank you guys for being. Thank you so much for joining. us on this Friday night. I'm going to go watch Megaran do some music right down here on Roosevelt.

So if you're free, join us. Come on out. It's a free concert. He's he doing first Friday? First Friday. Yeah. So you're just going to play the P.HNX Sun's theme song? No, actually.

And the Mailbag Monday theme song? He's never allowed to play the Sun's theme song in front of me. You know that. I'm furious. Like, Megaran's one of my best friends in the whole wide world, but he doesn't do a show for a song for our show? What the shit is that? Maybe he could.

Maybe he would. Maybe he will. Maybe we can make that happen. Anyway. Everyone's coming to First Friday just to hear Meggerand play the Mailbag Monday theme song. My NHL bets did not do good yesterday. Jesse, it started out hot. I had three green check marks and then everything fell apart. Well, it was plus $2,400. Yeah, plus $2,400.

You know, sometimes you swing for the fences, right? We got Major League Baseball coming up. You can get down on some long-term bets right now on the Draft King Sportsbook. You also have the NBA No Sweat, same game parlays, which, of course, get you some bonus bets back should your bet not hit. So make sure to download the app now. Sign up with promo code PHNX. New customers can bet $5 on the NBA and get $200 in bonus bets instantly,

win or lose. Only at the Draft King's Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA with code PHNX. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Go get down. Make sure to opt in for all of those. special odds boosts and all of that stuff over on drafting sports book.

Eric, did you see how close your pick of the week got yesterday? Oh, so close. That's what I was saying. So I changed, the only thing I changed from yours was I did instead of Blackhawks plus one and a half, I did Stars money line. Oh, so you're guys. But Blackhawks plus one and a half still hit. Yeah, yeah.

So both of us were still alive. And then it was just down to the Kings. And the Kings had a two-goal lead immediately gave up one goal to go. to go down to one. And then there was an empty net for 90 seconds, and they could not put it in the empty net to give us a two-goal lead to win us our $140. I wanted that money.

You guys are speaking in the boat right now. I don't understand how hockey works. See, that's fine. That's fine. That's okay for you. So close. You can understand it better than Jesse. But one thing Jesse does understand is saving money

on tickets to events, concerts, and shows. He loves the GameTime app. And you should too, because if you're a procrastinator like these two boys over here, you know that sometimes you forget that events happen. Sometimes you don't want to buy a ticket when your friends say they're all buying tickets. But you know you're going to have FOMO. You know you're going to miss out.

So, of course, grab those tickets last minute. And the best way to do so is by using the GameTime app, very aesthetically pleasing app, very easy to use app. And of course, you can save up to 60% on tickets when you buy them last minute. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the show description. And of course, we thank you guys so much for being here. You guys are the best. We hope you have a wonderful weekend and a wonderful rest of your Friday. You can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. This guy's at Jesse and Friedman. Our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again so much on behalf of Damon. Emma's in here. I love Emma. Jesse and myself,

have a wonderful Friday and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you figure out strategy to mess with the hitters using the pitch clock. Thank you.