PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - MLB rule changes will make the Arizona Diamondbacks and baseball more fun in 2023

Starting point is 00:00:09 Hello and welcome into today's edition of the PHNX Daback show, brought to you by the Drafking Sportsbook app. America's number one rated sportsbook app. As always, I'm Jesse Friedman, the vice mayor, the thunder stick. And I'm joined by what kind of appears like. Derek Montia. The mayor here at PHNX, here to talk wrestling. That sounds about right.

Starting point is 00:00:36 That sounds about right. Yeah, you resemble Derek an entire. too much in this moment. We are, of course, delighted to be joined by the one and only Danielle Cortez, who is a photographer who takes pictures for us and the debacks and basically everyone in the universe as far as I'm concerned. Also, a professor at Kronkite, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, apparently.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Yeah, apparently. Apparently, that's what they say. Thank you all for joining us here for this afternoon's show. We have a lot of great stuff to get to. we're going to talk some Evan Longoria and some comments from Mike Hazen. We just spoke with both of those people earlier today as the Diamondbacks made the Evan Longoria signing official. But before we get to that, I feel like this has become a daily thing on the show where we have to catch up with the latest rumors on Carlos Correa because this story is just wild and all over the place. So yesterday, John Heyman of the New York Post reported that Carlos Cray's camp is in touch with at least one other

Starting point is 00:01:38 team as talks with the New York Mets have stalled. He did say that one of those teams is the Minnesota Twins, which we sort of suspected, of course, that the team that Carlos Correa played with last year, which I'm convinced some people still don't recognize that Carlos Correa was a member of the Minnesota Twins last year. But he, in fact, was they offered 10 years in 285 million in the past, which figures to be a somewhat competitive offer at this point. Danielle, how do we feel about this Carlos Correa nonsense that's happening right now? I have no idea how to feel about this. Like, you remember the night, like, we all remember the night.

Starting point is 00:02:13 It was like, what, one in the morning when the tweet came out. All all Mets fans were asleep at the time. Yeah, it's like, yeah, like three in the morning down in New York. And it's like, like, Carlos Correa signs with the Mets. Right. Like, I don't know, man. Like, it's crazy. Like, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:02:33 I really don't know. It's wild. It's so much fun. I love that we finally have some news, like chaotic news that isn't the Arizona Cardinals that we can talk about. Yeah, fair. Fair. It's great. You know, and for all that's going on in the world, I think it's really fun to have a little chaos that is pretty inconsequential.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Yeah. I mean, it's been kind of entertaining, right? You see Steve Cohen come out and make the comments that he did. And then, of course, all of this has happened. And it looks like kind of a similar situation to the San Francisco Johnson. which reportedly also agreed to a deal with Carlos Correa not that long ago. I did think it was interesting in this story. John Heyman quoted one Mets person.

Starting point is 00:03:16 We're obviously not sure who this person is exactly, but this Mets person said, ultimately, I don't think Mr. Cohen is going to let him go. And that seems to be kind of the overarching storyline here is that, yes, there's some messiness to this situation. The medical issues with Carlos Correa are apparently serious because Bud, Two teams have found it at this point. The Giants are not as crazy as some people might have thought they were. But it seems like at the end of the day, Steve Cohen is going to stand his ground here.

Starting point is 00:03:46 And even if there's some risk, Steve Cohen is taking on all sorts of risks. Right, right. Clearly, he's not a very risk-averse individual. So I think at the end of the day, we're kind of all expecting this to happen. Heyman also talked about in this story that Scott Boris has had several clients in past years, have somewhat similar situations. J.D. Martinez, that deal that he signed with the Boston Red Sox after the 2017 season, of course, a heartbreaking development for the debacks at the time when J.D.

Starting point is 00:04:17 walked and became a member of the Red Sox. There were some provisions in that contract that were similar, giving the Red Sox some insurance in case a particular injury issue popped up. J.D. Drew also with the Boston Red Sox back in the day, apparently there were some similar language. So the idea seems to be, and we've talked about this, before, you basically just put some insurance provisions in this contract so that if this particular issue, which is his right ankle, if this issue causes Carlos Gray to miss some

Starting point is 00:04:44 time, then maybe part of the deal isn't guaranteed. And that's, that's kind of the approach they seem to be taking here. Yeah. Remember back when we thought that the debacks were letting J.D. Drew walk, or J.D. Martinez walk because they were going to sign Goldie and A.J. to an extension. Right, right. Oh, man. Yeah, it was kind of like a pick, pick which was. you want you want to extend. We thought they had a room for one of them, but not all of them. And then they went out. And then,

Starting point is 00:05:10 oh boy. Bringing back any of them. Oh, boy. Difficult, uh, difficult, uh,

Starting point is 00:05:14 difficult memories for, I just, I love the mystery around this whole story. Yeah. Like, there really is. There's literally no insight that anybody could offer to this. And it's just so much fun.

Starting point is 00:05:23 Like, this is, this is honestly the first story that has really come out about this in like, more than a week that offered anything of substance. Yeah, like the initial, very, very little news has come out about this.

Starting point is 00:05:37 But good on John Heyman for digging past that and finding at least a little bit more information. Ultimately, though, I still think we're in agreement that Carlos Cray will probably be in New York Met at the end of the day. Might just be sort of a matter of time on that. Switching gears here over to the Dback side of things I mentioned earlier, the deal with Evan Longoria is officially official. Before we get into anything else, Danielle, just your thoughts on Evan Longoria. coming to the debacks, what's your, what's your take on this move?

Starting point is 00:06:07 I like it. I mean, you look at, it's one year, $4 million. Yeah. I don't see a downside. Like, feels reasonable. Yeah, I mean, he's older, obviously. His numbers have been dipping quite a bit lately. But again, at one year, four million, what's the downside?

Starting point is 00:06:23 If he plays well, you got a great deal. If he doesn't, then don't play him. No such thing. No such thing is a bad one-year contract. Don't play them or trade them or whatever. Like, there's no downside to it. He brings a great veteran presence. You know, we've...

Starting point is 00:06:38 Yeah. One of the things that I feel like the debacks have been missing, you go back to, like, what, 2017 when they had a fairly young team and somebody like Gregor Blanco or Chris Ionnetta was there. Didn't necessarily produce like you thought they might, but they brought in a presence that I think Evan Longori can bring as well. He commands a lot of respect. Yeah, absolutely does.

Starting point is 00:07:02 Yeah, I did some research on this, and honestly, my mind. my mind was blown and hopefully your mind will be blown too by this. Evan Longoria has 58.1 career wins above replacement, according to baseball reference, pretty big number. If you look at every position player who has ever played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, there's only one player who has accumulated more wins above replacement in their career, only one position player, I should say,

Starting point is 00:07:28 has accumulated more wins above replacement in their career than Evan Longoria. That, of course, being Paul Goldsmith, right? We know that. very close though. Paul Goldsmith is at 58.5. Evan Longoria is at 58.1. So prior to the 2022 season, which of course was a huge year for Goldie, Longoria actually had a pretty healthy lead in that regard. But yeah, Longoria is, I know he's not the player that he once was, obviously, you know, he's 37 years old. He's not going to be the guy he was back in Tampa. But this is like low key, one of the more legendary players who has ever played baseball. I mean, he was an incredible third baseman, especially during his time in Tampa.

Starting point is 00:08:06 He's had a couple nice years with the San Francisco Giants of late as well. Of course, the million dollar question here is what it will his role be with the Arizona Diamondbacks? Did they bring him in to basically take over for Josh Rojas at third base? Or is there maybe some room for balance here? So we have a clip from Mike Hazen talking about Longoria's role within the organization and what that might look like in 2023. I don't have an idea of it at bats, but yes, we talked with Evan about that, you know, given where he's moving into his career, that, you know, I don't know that 550, 600 plate appearances is the best way to maximize his contributions to our team. Having said that,

Starting point is 00:08:51 I don't know what the upper bound is necessarily going to be. We still very much like Josh Rojas, and Josh is going to play a lot and is going to be a big part of our infield as well. So they're going to complement each other, I think, at third base to some degree. And then, you know, Josh is obviously going to end up playing a lot of second base for us last year and may play some second base for us, giving us opportunity between Josh, Evan, Cattel, others to utilize that DH role at times. And there'll be others probably in that mix, the outfielders, et cetera, you know, paving. So maybe allowing us to give Christian a few more days off than we did last year. least off his feet, there will be a lot of flexibility for us to be able to maneuver around all those spots.

Starting point is 00:09:39 As Elizabeth said in the chat, from the shadows, yes. Nobody ever accused Mike Hazen of having the best lighting during his in-office press conferences. But yeah, the idea here, the takeaway from Hazen is that this appears to be sort of a platoon role. I was surprised Evan Longoria actually used the word platoon when he was talking about the role that's been described to him. So he talked about his role kind of starting with a platoon with Josh Rojas at third base. And then, you know, maybe there's some room for him to fill in at DH and other spots on the roster as well. So for everyone who was concerned, you know, did you just bring in a 37-year-old to, you know, just take playing time away from Josh Rojas?

Starting point is 00:10:21 I don't think that's the case. It seems like the debacks are kind of viewing this as a platoon situation over at third long, uh, Josh Rojas rather, has not hit lefties particularly well. in his career, whereas Longoria had very good numbers against lefties a year ago. Danielle, does that maybe put some fans' minds at ease knowing that, okay, you know, we're not bringing in Longoria to be 2011 Evan Longoria, right? This is a different role. Yeah, you know, I would hope it would. Right, right. It's a different situation. When they signed Evan Longoria, my first thought was, was it 2013, I think it was?

Starting point is 00:11:00 Something like that. Something like that. When they brought in Eric Chavez. Oh, yeah. Expected to be, expected to be, you know, everyday third baseman. Yeah. Oh, man.

Starting point is 00:11:10 Pretty similar, like, career credentials. That's a great comp. I didn't think about that. And he just, he wasn't that guy anymore, right? Like, we wanted him to be the old Eric Chavez of his Oakland 80s. He was still very good. I mean, 2013, you nailed it with the year.

Starting point is 00:11:26 2013. He had 281, 332, 478 for the, feedbacks, nine homers, 44 RBIs. I only played 80 games, which I guess is somewhat similar to what you're expecting from Longoria. But yeah, that's a great comp. You're kind of expecting him to be that sort of guy.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Platooning, he's obviously, you know, 37 years old. He's not the everyday player that he used to be anymore. Sure. And he compliments Josh Rojas really well, right? He hits lefties. Josh Rojas doesn't necessarily hit lefties. Right. Not yet. Not yet, at least.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Not yet, not yet. He's a gold glove caliber defender. Josh Rojas struggled. third last year. He was a gold glove caliber defender. Whether I have a long glory is still he's 37 years old maybe not a base maybe not anymore but you know you don't lose the glove like in your like he's still fine he can still make the place he does still have a glove yeah yeah he does still own a glove um so yeah I think he compliments the debacks really well I think he's a great fit um for what they're trying to do right it's a young group

Starting point is 00:12:26 they need they need that veteran leadership yeah to push them over the edge because they got a really good talented group they really do they really do and and mike hasan also talked about that um one of the other reporters made a comment about this move feeling like something that that kind of ups the floor of the team rather than the ceiling yeah you're not necessarily expecting Evan longoria to come in and you know hit 35 homers and 100 rbis or anything like that at this point um in his career and it's kind of been a trend for a lot of the moves the deep backs have made this off season it feels like at least for 2023 there There's some long-term ceiling, you know, especially with a guy like Gabby Moreno and whatnot.

Starting point is 00:13:04 But for 2023, a lot of the moves they've made feel like, you know, kind of insurance policies, making sure you have depth around the roster. They've made a couple moves in the bullpen. But Mike Hazen spoke about just the ceiling of this team and how it might be even a little bit higher than we might think right now. I think Lordus getting back to 2021 raises the ceiling. I think Moreno taking a step forward in the position. that he is raises the ceiling. So I don't think that it's, I don't think it's a hundred to zero. I do think the outside acquisitions in aggregate the bullpen if it becomes not the

Starting point is 00:13:42 28th to 31st performing bullpen, we've raised the ceiling on our team. I think Ryan Nelson, Drey Jameson, Brandon Fott, Tommy Henry, Corbyn Carroll, Alec Thomas, Jake McCarthy, you know, that group of players, Cattel, getting back to Cattel, you know, Pardomo taking a step forward, that group of players, Josh Rojas pushing the envelope defensively at third base and around the infield,

Starting point is 00:14:16 like those areas for us, if those things improve, I think there's some ceiling to where we can go. There's some ceiling here, apparently. And, yeah, my case, in the lighting, it's still, it just, it gets me, it gets me every time at this office. We need to get him a ring lighter or something.

Starting point is 00:14:35 But yeah, I think what he's talking about here is pretty compelling, not just in the, you know, the long-term future where you hope this team has ceiling, but even in 2023, this team is projected to win about 84, 85 games based on some of the publicly available projection systems. But all those names that Hazen just listed off. And I think it's just kind of cool maybe as a fan to just hear Hazen kind of dream a little bit on the future of this team. and even potentially the present of this team in 2023 and how good maybe they could be.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Yeah, I mean, they're a young team last year. They showed, you know, they showed a lot of promise. Yeah, they really did. I'm sure you were at the, at Corbyn Carroll's debut. There was a, there was a. That was one of the coolest days at the ballpark. Yeah, there was, there was, I hate this word, but there was a vibe there.

Starting point is 00:15:25 There was a vibe. There was a vibe. There was that, undoubtedly. This is it. There's actually a few. here that we can look forward to. And, you know, their problem was, they're really young. How do you solve that problem?

Starting point is 00:15:38 You give them time. And so another year under the belt, another more at-bats is never a bad thing for a young team. And who knows? You know, like we said, they're super talented. This is a really fun and exciting team. So give them another year and who knows? I'm excited. I am legitimately excited about what this.

Starting point is 00:16:00 team can do and you know they might make playoffs who knows i've been telling people they're making the playoffs so i'll just say it right now d-backs are making the playoffs this year well you're you're not nearly as crazy as uh jacob franklin who just who just walked in the room who when we had him on the show yesterday uh his draft king's pick of the week was to bet on the arizona diamondbacks to win the world series yeah of course entirely rational and reasonable as jacob stops in now to would you like to defend yourself a little bit jacob is that's why you're here you are just a killer of That is correct. The reaper can confirm.

Starting point is 00:16:34 Okay. All right. I like how that ended. That took a nice turn for the positive thing. I will at least allow Eli in the comments to dream. Eli said the debacks are going to win the World Series or are going to the World Series. Maybe he's not quite as crazy optimistic as Jacob. Eli is much more rational.

Starting point is 00:16:54 But yeah, you can't help but hear that clip from Mike Hazen and kind of be like, oh, this team really might have something moving forward. And obviously we've known that, but just hearing Hayes and talk about that, I think is pretty cool to hear. Are you coming to the inaugural PH&XT party? Yeah, I think so. You better be. I'll give you all the information right now in case you, in case you don't know, just everything about it. Join us at the inaugural PH&XT party presented by Four Peaks. We'll be out at the Dobson Ranch golf course. We are renting out the entire driving range, come hang with Big Drive Energy, the PHNX crew, and fellow diehards for a night of golf, free food, drinks, contest, prizes, and more.

Starting point is 00:17:36 Our PHNX Suns crew will be hosting a watch party for the Suns versus Timberwolves game. I have a feeling people will be maybe watching like their show before the game happens. And then once the game starts, people might just kind of creep away because the Suns are just difficult to watch at this particular point, at least for me, at least for me. Our friends at Four Peaks will also be out there providing beer samples and swag. So check the link in the description to reserve your spot right now. And for our diehards, check Discord for your special link where you'll save 20% on this awesome event. Danielle, we're counting on you on you being there.

Starting point is 00:18:10 No pressure. I'm there, done. Okay. All right, good. I will be playing ping pong, at least attempting to play ping pong and defend the crazy amount of pride. I've talked quite a bit of trash about my ping pong skills to this point. as Max gives me a death stare through the window here. But yeah, we're going to have a whole lot of fun out there.

Starting point is 00:18:29 Even if you're not like a hardcore golfer, which I am not whatsoever, I'm honestly so bad. I'm just so dreadfully bad at golf. But I can play ping pong at least a little bit. And Derek is here to say in the chat that Jesse will beat you in ping pong, which, yeah, we're continuing to go with that narrative. Derek, we have that guy in the chat. I'm pretty sure. Somebody is pretending to be me.

Starting point is 00:18:54 Somebody is impersonating you in the chat. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what's happening. But anyway, be sure to join us out there at the Dobson Range Golf Course. That's next Friday, Friday the 13th, which is absolutely. I know. I know it's unfortunate. It's really unfortunate the way the scheduling worked out. I'm inexplicably good at ping pong.

Starting point is 00:19:14 Really? I'm really good at ping pong. Oh, gosh. Okay. Now, I'm really uncomfortable. I lack confidence in a lot of areas in my life playing ping pong ain't one of them. Oh, my gosh. See, that's kind of what I said.

Starting point is 00:19:23 but you said it with way more confidence than I think I ever have. So now I'm kind of, now I'm kind of terrified. But at this point, you can no longer really be impersonating Derek because Derek, he's not that good at ping pong. He would never talk about his own ping pong skills like that. We're going to transition here into some conversation

Starting point is 00:19:42 about the rule changes coming to Major League Baseball in 2023. Major League Baseball will not be the same this year, Danielle. It is, there's a lot of, a lot of things happening. A lot of changes coming to the game, which I personally think are pretty much all good things. I think we're kind of excited to see what this looks like. Elizabeth is calling for a ping pong fight. And Max says, I will mollywap, Jesse, in ping pong. I'm here for ping pong trash talk.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I am here for it. I'm just terrified at what I've done. I've said all of these things that I know I'm going to, I'm going to regret saying. And Max is, My ping pong table. It's a real thing. I have seen that thing every day. I have seen that thing

Starting point is 00:20:26 in my garage. You have one in your garage? Oh my gosh. That's another level. You know that when someone's like sacrificing their garage, like you're willing to not like have a place to like park your car or store things. We have a two car garage. You have a two car garage.

Starting point is 00:20:39 It's a one car garage and it's a one car and one ping pong table garage. Okay. There you go. That's the best kind of garage. The essentials. The essentials. That's what that's what garage is you're for. But yes,

Starting point is 00:20:50 be sure to draw. join us next Friday. We would love to see you out there. As I was saying, lots of things changing about baseball in 2023. We have a graphic that shows kind of a rundown of all of the things. We're not going to talk about everything here at once. One of the biggest changes is the shift restrictions. This has gotten a lot of conversation around the game. For those of you haven't seen the official rules, we have it for you in this graphic on the screen. There are three main parts to the shift restrictions. The first one being that all four infielders must be on the infield dirt when the pitcher is on the rubber. Secondly, infielders may not switch sides. So a lot of times

Starting point is 00:21:27 you see teams try to put their best defender on the pole side every time in order to, you know, try to put their best defender where the ball is likely to be hit. And then four man outfield formations are prohibited. So they have some provisions in there to keep teams from just completely breaking everything we know about baseball. Initial thoughts, Danielle, on just kind of the future of the game and how the shift restrictions in particular will impact this. For the most part, I'm on board. Okay. I love the four-man outfield, like, band, because it applies to two people, right?

Starting point is 00:22:00 Yeah, fair. The only people in this effects are Joey Gallo and DJ LaMayhew when he plays the defense. Right. DJ LeMayhew when he plays the devax. That's it. But other than that, I like it. I feel like an old man at Arizona Falle, we complaining about the player's hair getting too long when I see the bases.

Starting point is 00:22:18 Or it's like, you know, you've been down on the field to Arizona Fall Week. Yeah. The bases look ridiculous. And for me, it's just... I actually don't know what you're talking about. What looks ridiculous about that? They're huge.

Starting point is 00:22:29 They're huge. They're so big and, like, cartoonishly big. Yeah, they hate it. I hate it. I hate that. But, you know, I get it. And I'm down with it, but I just hate how it looks aesthetically. It's a terrible look.

Starting point is 00:22:42 It reminds me of, like, those Little League bases where you have, like, the orange base on the outside where the runner has to hit. And I just hate it. I hate it. But I get it. So not a fan of the bigger bases. I'm not a fan.

Starting point is 00:22:56 We'll maybe talk about that. I'm a fan of the idea. I'm not a fan of the execution on it. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. Because I, you know, I was, when I played baseball, I was a little player. I stole bases.

Starting point is 00:23:08 I am all for stealing bases. I love base running is my favorite thing to do in the entire world. I think it's like one of the most exciting parts of the game. I love it. So anytime you can get back to that, I am down with it. Yeah. The shift is good. Down with the shift.

Starting point is 00:23:23 Down with the shift? I guess. There's a part of me that's like, like, hit, like hit different, adjust your swing, whatever. Right. But then also it's just like we're way past that point. There are no more Tony Gwittins in this league other than maybe DJ LoMayhew, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:40 Like Stephen Kwan. I've done. Yeah. Yeah. They just don't exist anymore. it's a different, it's a different era of baseball. So I get it. Yeah, it really is.

Starting point is 00:23:50 The pitch clock is the one that's really interesting to me. Yeah, can we pull up the graphic? Pitch clock. So real quick, you've got a 30 second timer between batters. You've got a 15 second timer between pitches when the base is an empty, 20 second timer between pitches when runners are on base. And then pitchers are limited to two disengagement, which is like a pickoff or a step off per plate appearance.

Starting point is 00:24:12 You like this? Yeah. Yes and no, I think the time of games are great. You know, I worked in Arizona Falle League game a couple years ago. That was an hour and a half. Phenomenal. Whoa. It was an hour to half, 10 inning game.

Starting point is 00:24:28 It was like an hour, 15 minutes before they went into the extra innings. It was phenomenal. That's wild. But at the same time, I just, I cannot imagine some pitchers going along with this. Like, could you imagine Max Scherzer getting called for, for a pitch clock violation. Yeah. I cannot wait for that day.

Starting point is 00:24:49 Yeah. There are going to be some players throwing tantrums on the pitch of the game. I think we're all prepared for that. And it's interesting because it affects Zach Allen. It affects the debacks pretty heavily.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Because, you know, if you've watched Zach Gallen at all, the man is very slow. When a runner gets on, game's over. Like, you know, you sit the old adage, like, or the old cliche, like, it grinds to a hole.

Starting point is 00:25:14 It does not grind do a halt. It immediately stops. It is game over. You know, my friends in the photo, well, we always had like this bet going, like over under how many times is that gallon throw over? Most I ever saw him throw over was 11 times. In a game? No, one inning. Oh, my gosh.

Starting point is 00:25:33 Oh, my gosh. So it'll be interesting to see how he adjust because that's a big part of his game, right? When he gets a runner on, his job is to throw everybody off their rhythm. Yeah. It's funny to say, like, you know, for a picture of his caliber, like a big part of his game is throwing the first for no reason. Yeah. But it actually kind of is, right? Like you watch, you know, it is really funny. You can find a rhythm, right? Yeah. First pickoff attempt, he's just lobbing it over there. There's literally no point. A lot of them are not serious. And then it just gets progressively, like, more serious. So it'll be interesting to see how he adjust to it. Yeah. Yeah. He's the, he's the biggest one in my mind. I think there's going to be an adjustment period. across all of baseball, especially for this one. Pitchers are not going to be happy about this.

Starting point is 00:26:17 There's no question that when the pitch clock was brought up, pitchers were not on board. I think the players association at large was not really on board with any of these real changes. But the reality is, you know, in order for baseball to kind of take this next step forward, those kinds of adjustments are going to be necessary. And these are the best athletes in the world. I think you're pretty convinced that you give them enough time.

Starting point is 00:26:41 They'll adapt. and Zach Callan, well, he was pretty darn good before the pitch clock and it'll probably be pretty darn good after the pitch clock, even if it might take him a little while to kind of figure those things out. In minor league baseball, when they implemented the pitch clock, game times decreased by about 25 minutes, which is significant. It's not going to make games last an hour and 15 minutes, I don't think. But, I mean, baseball games have just gotten significantly longer over the last 30, 40, 50 years. This isn't really like, oh, you know, fans today can't handle the slow place of baseball. It's like, well, back in the 50s, baseball games were not this long. Yeah, they also didn't have like three minute long commercial break.

Starting point is 00:27:22 Right, right. There's also that a lot of things have changed over the years. So in a lot of ways, this is kind of just getting the length of baseball games back to where it used to be, not that long ago. Games have just gotten considerably longer for a variety of reasons. And I think another part of this kind of going back to the shift real quick is there should be more balls in play. There should be just more action. There should be more balls that go through for hits, especially for left-handed hitters. I wrote a deep dive about this over on go ph andx.com where I walked through all of the debacks hitters and who would be the biggest beneficiaries, who would maybe be hurt a little bit by some of these things.

Starting point is 00:28:03 and I think they have several players who could benefit a lot from the shift restrictions that are being put into place mainly because they just have so many lefties, right? It feels like it's all lefties. It's kind of fixed that this offseason, but there's still a lot of lefties there. So guys like, you know,

Starting point is 00:28:20 Alec Thomas, Jake McCarthy, I think it's likely that you'll see a benefit for them probably would have seen a benefit for Dolan Varsho. Of course, he's now over in Toronto, so the debacks won't necessarily get to see that. All in all, I think these changes are just going to make baseball more fun at the end of the day. And it's like, that's never a bad thing. That is never a bad thing.

Starting point is 00:28:42 And to what you were talking about earlier about base running and how like that's just such a big part of the game and something that people really enjoy, the pitch clock stuff and especially the limit on the number of pickoffs is really going to help the running game across all of baseball. I wrote about this as well over on go phnx.com. I made some absurd claims about how Jake McCarthy could steal 60 bases. And I don't think that's like that outrageous. If you look at how many stolen bases he had during his last stint in the majors last year, and you like extrapolate that over a full season and then factor in a little bit of an uptick due to the rule changes, you might have just some bonkers, some bonkers things. Not only for McCarthy, you've obviously got Alec Thomas, who runs a little bit.

Starting point is 00:29:28 Maybe he takes a little bit of a step forward this year. of course, Corbyn Carroll ran a decent amount when he was in the minor leagues. This team is just going to be fun. I mean, they were fun to watch run the bases last year. That's just going to get more accentuated in 2023. Yeah, and the Deepak's playing an old school brand of baseball, right? You know, they didn't hit a lot of home runs last year, which is really the style and the era of baseball that we're in right now.

Starting point is 00:29:53 Right. They got on base. They stole bases. It was fun. Yeah. And so this is really going to help them. I feel like, you know, more stolen bases, never a bad thing in baseball.

Starting point is 00:30:06 No. You think there's like a, is there like an upper bound? Like if we had players stealing like 100 bases, but would it be like, okay, maybe, maybe we're going to go back to the regular bases, I guess. I don't know. Like, Corbyn Carroll might push that. Who knows?

Starting point is 00:30:21 It'll be fun to see. Corbyn, like, you know, you watch Gordon Carroll in person. You think he moves on TV. That man moves in real life. It's unlike anything. It's unlike anything that I've really seen, at least in a baseball game. I mean, there's some very fast people, especially in other sports. But, yeah, I mean, it's just wild watching that man run the bases.

Starting point is 00:30:40 He didn't even steal much last year. I think he had two stolen bases. He was pretty conservative, I think, you know, makes sense. First stint in the big leagues. He's looking, you know, he's trying to keep his spot on the team, right? He knows he's a major leaguer, right? He has that assurance. He's going to be an everyday player.

Starting point is 00:30:57 Yeah. Go wild, man. Yeah, yeah. I mean, with his speed, I think DeBax fans are already kind of obsessed with watching Corbyn Carrey run the bases. And hopefully that just gets all the more in, in 2023. But yeah, there's definitely going to be some changes up and down the roster. If you really want the deep dive perspective on these things, go check out a couple of

Starting point is 00:31:18 articles that I wrote over at go p.h.nx.com. If you are not a diehard, be sure to become one. That's how you get access to those articles, which were diehard only pieces. so you have to be a diehard in order to get access to a few things over at go phnx.com. We give away a lot for free now, but not quite everything. Those deep dives, you will have to be a diehard. And you not only get that content from me, but you also get it from Gerald Borgay, who covers the Sons from Craig Morgan covering the coyotes, Howard Ballsar, covering the Arizona Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:31:50 A lot of great content over at go phtonx.com. So be sure to become a diehard if you have not already. There's other perks too. you get a free shirt or hat every single year. You also get 20% off merch and events, as is the case with the PHNXT party. So maybe now is a good time to become a diehard. If you're planning on coming to the event anyway, we would love for you to do that. Become a diehard today.

Starting point is 00:32:14 And you can do so at go phnx.com slash die hard. Have you spent any time on the draft king sportsbook app? I have not. That's a, I mean, it's kind of like, it's what, it's, one of those things where, you know, especially this particular time of year when there isn't baseball to bed on, it's like, I mean, baseball is the best sport. Yeah, baseball is the best sport, but I was in the minimum of the employees. I wasn't legally allowed to bet on baseball. That's fair. That's fair. That is the most valid answer to that question that anyone could have all for it. There you go. There

Starting point is 00:32:49 you go. If you haven't already downloaded the Javking Sportsbook app, be sure to do so. The NBA season is indeed heating up. Baseball will be heating up soon, but the NBA right in the thick of things right now, even though the sun's not. NBA season is heating up. The suns are very much hot. The suns are cooling off considerably. But there's a lot of great bets to be had over at the Draft King's Sportsbook app if you're not an employee of Major League Baseball. So make sure it's legal before you do it. But download the app now, sign up with the code, P.HNX, place a $5 pregame money line bet on any NBA team to win their game and get $150 in free bets if they do. do. That's code PH&X only at draft king's sports book. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.

Starting point is 00:33:32 See show notes for details. If you missed yesterday's show, we gave several draft king's picks of the week. One of them was Jacob Franklin, selecting the Diamondbacks to win the World Series. But me and Sean DePaz gave some more reasonable bets that you might want to consider. The last rule change, Danielle, which you alluded to earlier, is bigger bases, which is pretty simple. It's basically the bases are going from 15 inches square to 18 inches square. I haven't seen these up close, honestly, but you have, and you're saying they look ridiculous? They're ridiculous.

Starting point is 00:34:07 Okay. They're ridiculous. So I watched an interview with, I'm forgetting his name, but a guy who works for Major League Baseball was a big part of these real changes being implemented. He did an interview with John Boy, and he talked about how baseball players are bigger. now. They're just, and so it's like, okay, like we have, we've had 15 inch bases for years and years and years, right?

Starting point is 00:34:32 That was put back and put in place. I don't know how long ago. But believe it or not, major league baseball players are just bigger. I mean, Aaron Judge, there's nobody of that size playing in the 1950s. They're actual athletes now instead of just guys coming off their second shift at a steel mill. Right, right. Exactly. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:34:49 Which I think is an important thing to consider. Like, we're, we're so used to seeing the same bases year after year. and we're used to the size of the bases. And like you're saying, even though I haven't seen them up close, I think a lot of people will have that experience of like, oh, wow, they got like the jumbo version of the bases this year. But I think it makes sense. And a big part of this is simply to prevent injuries.

Starting point is 00:35:13 That's been something we've seen an unfortunate amount of over the years, just, you know, collisions on the base. There's not a whole lot of surface area there. And so when you have two very motivated people trying to get at the same very, very small target. Too very big motivated people. Too very big motivated people trying to get to the same target. It makes sense that you'd want this to be a little bit bigger. Feoretically, this does shorten the distance between first and second base and second and third base by about three inches or so. Whether or not that makes a huge difference, I don't think there's really been a whole lot of evidence to say that that

Starting point is 00:35:47 makes a huge difference. But hey, I mean, how many times have you watched a replay where like an inch or two is bang, so who knows? Yeah. So I think it's possible. that, you know, some of those plays on the margins could, you know, favor base runners instead of, instead of the defender, which is another thing that I don't think anyone has a problem with, right? We're all about base running and stolen bases and the whole thing. This should just continue to accentuate that, if anything. I've also heard the bases are slanted more. I don't know if you can speak to like, did the shape appear any different to you?

Starting point is 00:36:18 I think when you broaden the base, it just, you know, it naturally has to change the. shape of it. Okay. Fair enough. I think that's pretty much it. It's like, it's, yeah,

Starting point is 00:36:30 it's basically just a regular base, just big. Just big. Okay. And so the proportions have changed a little bit. Yeah, like I said, I'm down for the,

Starting point is 00:36:40 for the idea of it. I just think they look so ridiculous. It'll just, it's just like, just a laughably big. But, you know, when you think about

Starting point is 00:36:47 exciting plays in baseball, you think about, you know, go back to, to the, to the ALCS with Dave Roberts, pinch running. everybody in the entire world knew he was going to seal that base.

Starting point is 00:36:57 Yeah. And he did it anyways. Right. It was so much fun. I will love base running. It's one of the best. Even if it increases it just even slightly. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:37:07 Like 1% more stolen bases than I am all for it. Yeah. I mean, the pickoff restrictions will probably do considerably more for, you know, kind of improving the run environment than this will. But still, yeah, I mean, if this contributes to that, then great, right? and nobody has any problem with that. I feel like in some ways, like, me getting used to the bigger bases

Starting point is 00:37:28 will be sort of like as we've all gotten used to like bigger iPhones. Like smartphones are just kind of enormous now. Like if you showed someone in 2010, like an iPhone 14 Pro Max, they'd be like, no, I'm not putting that large of an object in my pocket and like carrying it around with me everywhere. And now we're fine with it. And now we're fine with it.

Starting point is 00:37:47 Yeah. And Apple continues to make phones about, I don't know, half an inch bigger like every two years. So more cameras more yeah I'm a little concerned about where it's going like at a certain point do I do we need to make like huge pockets and in clothing in order to like accommodate the size of our smartphones. But but yeah with time I think people I think people will adjust and things will probably be all right on that front. As far as rule changes that might be coming not something we have in place for 2023. But there has been a lot of reports and we saw. this in the Arizona Fall League. This was put into practice in the Arizona Fall League. Just at Salt River Fields and I guess they played a few games at Chasefield as well. The Ball Strike Challenge System, which is one of the greatest things that I've ever seen. So good. What's your, what's your impression of that? Why do you love it so much?

Starting point is 00:38:39 I love holding umpires accountable. I think everyone likes holding umpires accountable. If you've known me for a while, one thing you know is I do not like umpires. I do not like refs, I don't like any of it. I am, I was going to say I'm not ashamed to say it, but I am a little ashamed to say that. I once got kicked out of a Boys and Girls Club basketball game because I was arguing with the ref. I do not like refs and umpires at all. So I am so glad to hold them accountable.

Starting point is 00:39:08 And if you watch the game at Salt River Fields this fall week, it was fun. You know, pat your head, challenge. The entire dugout goes crazy. You see it on the screen. It's so much fun. I love it. even just from a pure entertainment standpoint. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:21 It's fun. I love it. Everyone in the stands is just like, I don't know, at a baseball game, you can kind of get in, you know, you're talking with people, you know, you're eating your hot dog and whatnot. You're not necessarily dialed into the game action at every moment. But when that, you know, hitter or I guess catchers and pitchers can do it too, managers cannot do it, which I think is an interesting part of this. But yeah, when you have people, you know, indicate that they want to challenge by tapping their heads,

Starting point is 00:39:48 It's just like everyone is just locked in to the game at that point. It's great. And you know, it depends on the umpire too. Like there were some games where I was at a game where an umpire lost, what, four challenges in a row. Yeah. I was at another one where the umpire held up the entire time. So it's, it's an interesting, it's an interesting little fold in a baseball game.

Starting point is 00:40:11 And you know, like we said earlier, the more, the more fun you interject in baseball, the better. Yeah. Who's going to argue against people having fun at a baseball game? Other than like the wave, I'm not, I'm not, but you know, that's another topic. Have fun. You know, make baseball fun. Baseball is the greatest game in the world.

Starting point is 00:40:30 I love baseball more than anything in this entire world. And so getting more people into it, like, I am all for it. That's why we, that's why we have you on the show, Daniel. Yeah, I think, I think it was great. It was, I mean, the first day I saw it. I was like, oh, this works. Like, this is totally what. they should do. And at least for me, it's kind of a newer development. We've been talking about

Starting point is 00:40:51 robo-unps for years, right? But I actually, I spoke with Jordan Lawler, where the D-BAC's top shortstop prospect about this after the fall league. He said he likes the challenge system more. Robotic umps is just kind of, I don't know, stale and impersonal. Like the umpire at that point has a sad job where they're just like relaying what the computer said. It's not nearly as interesting. And also the technology just quite isn't there yet. Yeah. You know, what was it, two years ago in the Arizona Fall League where it was rough. Did they use Robo Amps in the Fall League two years ago? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:23 Okay. Yeah. The season before this last season was at, it was at Salt River Fields. It was entirely robot? Wow. It was rough. So was it like guys just didn't agree with the calls a lot of the time? I think a lot of people didn't agree with the calls.

Starting point is 00:41:39 Interesting. Yeah, like I said, the technology, the idea is there? The technology was not. I mean, like how egregious are we talking? There was some, there were some horrendous calls. That's, that's, well. And I remember, you know, like dugouts going crazy, like the crowd's going, what little crowd, there is going crazy.

Starting point is 00:41:57 And the uproars is like, I don't know what to do, man. Like, it's in like, I was told. The poor umpires still getting yelled at, even though he's not even not even making the call. And he's like, I know it wasn't a strike, but it's like, it's in here. But. Right. So, you know, I love that, that this system eliminates that. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:42:15 still a human element, which is fun. I like it. As much as I dislike umpires, I like that there's still a little bit of a human element, but then you can also hold them accountable, right? It's like the perfect balance. Yeah, I love it. And what, you get three a game?

Starting point is 00:42:31 Yeah, you get three a game, but you keep them if you're right. Yeah, and it's great. I think, you know, when I was at an Arizona following game, I'd be sitting there, you know, taking pictures and then uploading on my phone, and then I see, you know, the challenge,

Starting point is 00:42:44 I drop my phone and like watch it. It's great. I love it. Yeah, it was just so cool. Like you said, there's still some improvements in the technology. I think even for the challenge system to be put in play, they need to make sure that's that's fully dialed in before they put that into play. But it sounds like from what I've heard, it's close. The technology is close. Maybe, I don't know, maybe next year we would be at the point where if they wanted to, they could implement that as part of major league baseball. I suspect it might take a little bit longer than that just to get buy-in from everyone and, you know, for that to officially happen in the big leagues. But it sounds like there's a lot more momentum for this than just for straight robo-offs. They tried that in the minor leagues and kind of like what you're talking about with the fall league.

Starting point is 00:43:28 It was not particularly popular. Even if the technology was good, I get the sense that it's like, no, like I want there to be kind of a human element. I just want the ability to like maybe make some corrections in some of the. bigger moments in the game. Yeah. And I mean, if you disagree with a call, it's, it sounds as fun to argue with a robot as is with a natural person. Like, give me, I'll argue with Angel Hernandez all day, right?

Starting point is 00:43:53 Like, it's, it's a fun, I think it's a great fix for, for a problem. Because, you know, if you follow like the umpire tracker, right, you know, the umpires, that, that, that, that, that, uh, you know, that Twitter account, what I can't remember what it's called. Yeah, yeah. gave me a new, new respect for um,ires. They, you know, they don't miss as many calls as you. you think they do. Right. And so this system really allows you to change the few that they actually

Starting point is 00:44:18 do miss. Right. It's not a taking it all away from the empire. Yeah. It's not a job that a human being can do. Yeah. Like, it's not. It's just not. It's in neither is being an NBA referee or an NFL referee, but like even more so in baseball when you're, you know, making these calls on balls and strikes 250 times. Yeah, you're going to miss a few. You're going to miss a few. It's inevitable. And I think most of the time it doesn't matter and we're fine with it. But every once in a while, there's a big call and a big moment. And if we have the technology to fix it, then maybe let's maybe let's do that. Nicholas says an um could visually see in real time the strike zone they are setting with this and make in game corrections.

Starting point is 00:44:56 It's an excellent idea. I think that's a great point that I hadn't even thought about. Yeah. It's they can they can make adjustments. Players are expected to make adjustments. Coaches are made to make adjustments. Why not apply that to umpires, right? That's a great point.

Starting point is 00:45:09 Yeah. I haven't thought about that. That's a great point. Transitioning here, what's your favorite piece of furniture in your house? Outside of the ping pong table. Outside of the, oh, I don't know outside of the ping pong table. I have a pretty comfortable couch. Pretty comfortable couch.

Starting point is 00:45:23 Big family couch. Okay. Well, if you're looking for an extraordinary couch, be sure to check out our friends over at more furniture. I'm moving into a townhouse shortly here in a couple weeks, exciting stuff. I have a lot of furniture to purchase. I'll definitely be hitting up our friends. over at More Furniture.

Starting point is 00:45:41 And you can say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head over to MoreFurniture.com. Those lovely recliners, Danielle, that you've seen in our office. They are all for more furniture and they are absolutely delightful. Man, you had to peel me away from those before the show. Yeah, yeah. Daniel might have just hung out there in the recliners the entire time. I was fortunately able to drag her over here so that we could do this. But, yeah, going back, just kind of final thoughts here on some of the rule changes

Starting point is 00:46:07 and things coming to baseball in 2023. My expectation is just that like it's just going to be fun. Like I just think it's going to be fun. Baseball has made some changes here and there over the years. But at the end of the day, they haven't done anything like this. Like this is more change than we've seen at least in one year. Arguably ever. Like I don't know if baseball has ever made like these big of changes.

Starting point is 00:46:32 And I think there's probably more to come. I'm just excited for, you know, spring training. when everyone's going to be angry and everyone everyone's going to be violating the rules and, you know, there's going to be some growing pains with this. But in the long run, I feel pretty strongly that this is going to be better for baseball in the end. Yeah, I mean, for the most part, spring training is way too long, right? But now it feels great. They might need it to be a little longer.

Starting point is 00:46:56 Zach Gallin might need a little bit longer to figure some things out. Get all your grumpiness out, get all your arguing out of the way. And then once regular season starts, once open a day hits, We're ready to roll. There you go. There you go. Well, thank you all for joining us here in this Friday live edition of the PHNXD Back show. This is like the second ever live show that we've done on a Friday.

Starting point is 00:47:18 Usually Fridays are audio only. But for this point forward, you're going to have to look at our faces. I guess you don't have to. You can still listen on audio. But you can look at our faces if you want to on Friday. We love interacting with you in the comments. If you haven't already, be sure to drop a like on this video. It helps out the YouTube algorithm, which Danielle, we're all about.

Starting point is 00:47:36 helping out the YouTube algorithm, which I've said on three straight shows now, but I'm going to continue saying it. Also, be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app, wherever you get your podcast, leaving us a five-star review. It helps the audio podcasting world algorithm, I think. All about those algorithms, baby. It also just kind of helps my general self-esteem, as well as Derek self-esteem. So we would really appreciate it if you would do that for us. Thank you all once again for being here on this final edition this week of the PHNXD Back show. Thank you to Danielle or Derek, I guess, as I should say. There we go.

Starting point is 00:48:16 Sunglasses back on, the hats back on. Let's talk wrestling, baby. We appreciate Danielle hopping on with us today. We appreciate you for listening or joining us here on video. I guess I should say Twitter handles real quick. Yours is at Aberka, Danielle. Abricadale. I knew I was going to butcher that.

Starting point is 00:48:35 Mine is at Jesse and Friedman. You can follow our show account at PHNX underscore Dax, but of course all roads lead to PHNX underscore Sports. That's on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Thanks again, everyone, for your time. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's even more fun when you ban the shit.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - MLB rule changes will make the Arizona Diamondbacks and baseball more fun in 2023

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