PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert joins us to discuss if the D-backs improved enough to compete in the NL West

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

We are joined by MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert to discuss the Arizona Diamondbacks’ offseason moves and if they improved enough to compete in a tough NL West in 2023. We’re also taking a look at who is still available on the free agent market and what divisions could like after MLB’s next expansion.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! 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. $200 in Bonus Bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. Promo code req. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Bonus must be wagered 1x and stake is not included in any returns or winnings.Super Boost: Valid 1 Odds Boost Token per customer after opt-in each day for eligible Super Bowl LVII prop markets only. Token must be used BEFORE placing eligible bet between 6-9PM ET daily. Odds boosts and prop markets will vary. Max bet limits apply. Tokens are non-cashable, non-refundable, and cannot be withdrawn. Boost Token expire daily at 9PM ET. There are no restrictions on the funds a customer will receive if their bet wins. If their bet loses, they will not receive any reward. Offer period valid 2/6/23 - 2/11/23. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms.OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNX_SPORTS15” 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.comChitown Cornhole: Check out Chitown Cornhole at http://chitowncornhole.com and make sure to follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chitowncustomcornholeboards/Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. Order by February 8th for guaranteed shipping in time for Valentine’s Day.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.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX. And just to clarify again, again, not your mayor of Phoenix. So please stop asking me questions about the Super Bowl experience and things happening in downtown. People have parking questions there. They have so many parking questions for me. And then they're not even going to listen to me.

she's going to ask me where the parking garage behind the AMC is that I park in every day and then not follow my directions? That's on you. Don't ask me directions. Is that a real story? That's a real story that happened yesterday. It's wild. But this guy over here, he's my vice mayor. One and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman.

Pictures and catchers in one week, Derekers and catchers in one week. It's getting real. I don't even know what we're going to do with ourselves. I don't even know when we're going to do this show because we're going to be out there. Are we going to change the schedule? Should we announce that now or wait until a later time? I don't know. But we thank you guys for being here.

Of course, this show is brought to you by the Drafking Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. And we are very excited to be joined by a man who I have been lucky enough to work around for a number of years covering the Arizona Diamondbacks. He absolutely makes the D-Backs beat the best beat to cover. Be careful with your words. I know. Well, I'm just saying.

It's true. But his joy for baseball is infectious, and we're just pleased to have him here. it's Steve Gilbert from MLB.com. What's happening, Steve? Fixers, it's great to be with you guys today. How is everything going? Your nickname of Finksters is one of my favorite, but everything is going great, sir. I guess how was your off-season before you disappear into baseball for the next nine months? It feels like it's kind of flown by as what it feels like. It always feels like that the off-seasons go quick and sometimes the seasons go fast, but of course, 2021 felt like a last It lasted about six years.

So it kind of depends on how that goes. Right. I was going to say, by comparison, how does it feel for you to get back to a normal off season for the first time in two years? Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Yeah, I was just thinking it's going to be the first normal spring training we've had since the start of 2020, but really 2019. And then, you know, you had the lockout last year and all kinds of different disruptions.

So, yes, be great to get back at it. It's great to have it be normal again. no labor disputes, hopefully no virus interruptions and no more masks wearing in the clubhouse, so that'll be good. Yeah, that's something I felt like wasn't going to end. It's like that and the Zoom calls, I was like, is this going to be permanent? Because this feels like this is too easy for them to do it this way. But speaking of the off season, the D-BACs made some moves during their off-season, the biggest one,

obviously being the trade of Dalton Varshot to the Blue Jays for one of the best catching prospects in Major League Baseball and Gabriel Moreno. What were your thoughts on this particular move and how it impacts kind of the young core that they're building towards right now? Well, it seems to kind of fit, you know, another young player, another, another top-rated prospects. I know I've been listening to your guys' show and I've heard you talk the last couple of weeks about all the different prospect rankings and how the Diamondbacks have so many guys

ranked in the top 100, top, you know, 20, top 30. So I think that kind of fits with the timeline and the time. frame that they're in. I think, you know, getting Gurriel kind of helps them this year a little bit kind of offset the loss of Varshot. I think that's kind of, I'm really curious to see how the loss of Varsho plays out in the clubhouse because he was, as you guys know, real popular in there with his teammates. He won the Luis Gonzalez Award, which is voted on by not just the players, but the staff and the people around the ballpark in terms of, you know, who's the best player to be around. So I think they'll miss some of that. But it'd be interesting to see because Moreno is supposed

to be an outstanding catcher. And that's a whole of Diamondbacks have, you know, kind of had as far as depth in the organization goes. Steve, this obviously isn't the first time that you've seen this, this team have some top prospects, right? Going back a few years, the DeBax Farm System was also very, very good, not that long ago. Things didn't necessarily pan out for a lot of those guys. Do you feel the need in your role to kind of tap the brakes a little bit, you know, help fans understand realistically what expectations should be for some of those guys? Or do you think that this widespread optimism for this team really is warranted right now? Well, it sure seems like it's warranted right now. But again, like you just never know how guys pan out.

It's, I remember when, you know, I'm dating myself now, but, you know, when John Patterson and Nick Beerbrot. and Brad Penny were going to be the, I'm sorry, Jess is probably before you were born. Wow. You were going to be. They were going to be the big, they were going to be the big three for the Diamondbacks. And, you know, Brad Penny ended up having a very good career, but the other two, you know, the other two guys didn't necessarily. So, I mean, you just never know. It certainly seems, though, like a guy like Corbyn Carroll, sure seems can't miss.

But, you know, we've seen guys, younger players. That's why you want to have a lot of them because some of them are going to fall by the wayside and the more depth that you have and the more of them that you have. And I think that's kind of the way they've built this farm system is to continue to kind of try to have waves and depths of guys coming up. Do you remember a time that the D-BACs had a position player like Corbyn Carroll that was this highly ranked ever in their existence? Like it feels like I've never really- Justin upton, maybe? Justin upton was what I was going to say, yeah.

Justin Upton maybe would be, you know, Travis Lee was a big deal back in the day. He was, yes. Yes, he was. You know, that was supposed to be a real coup that they signed him and they spent a lot of money for him. And again, like, that was before some of these rankings were as popular as they are now and as widespread as they are now. So it's hard to know, like, you know, what the hype was with some of those guys back then. But Justin Upton kind of jumps to mind and maybe a guy like Travis Lee. It blows my mind, Steve, just like the depth of knowledge that you have about this baseball team being in the role that you've been for as long as you have been, right?

I mean, you're talking about Brad Penny and Travis Lee and all these guys that I barely remember, if at all. But I'm curious, Steve, just like from your years of experience being on the beat and doing what you do with the Arizona Diamondbacks, do you have any fun stories that just kind of stand out over the years that you could share with our audience? Well, I mean, there's so many. If I had to pick a couple off top of my head, in 2001, I was in Philadelphia. It was one of my first ever road trips. And I had a rental car. And this was back, Jesse, just for your information, the Phillies played in a stadium called Veterans Stadium before.

I was aware. I didn't know that. Okay. So I was headed through the lobby to go to the parking garage and get my car to drive to the ballpark. and Luis Gonzalez was sitting in the lobby waiting for a taxi cab. Again, this is before Uber's. And he said, hey, do you mind if I get a ride with you to the ballpark? And I said, no, sure.

This was August probably of 01. And we're driving to the ballpark. And again, before GPS and before all that, you know, so I had a rough idea of where I was going and trying to follow some directions. But I was going more on feel. And that was a big mistake. This was a big mistake. You know, Gonzo gets on.

We get on the road and Gonsal's got his little flip phone and he's on the phone talking to somebody about something and I'm making turns here and there. Suddenly we look up and it looked like, you know, we could see Rocky running through at any moment. It was one of those kind of neighborhoods. And Gonzo takes his phone down, looks over me and asks if I knew where I was going, although it was a little more colorful than that. And I heard him on the phone going, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to get to the ballpark. I don't know what this guy's doing. but I don't know where he's going. So we finally make it to the ballpark, right?

I don't know how. But we made it to the ballpark. He got there. That night, he gets a home run into the upper deck of veteran stadium becoming like one of eight guys ever to do that. Wow. A small group of guys. So, of course, post game, I go in there.

And the first thing he does, he comes running up to me. And he goes, you have to give me a ride to the ballpark tomorrow. We have to take the exact game wrapped. But there was no chance we were going to. going to be able to take the exact same route because I have no idea how we even got to the back one. But sure enough, I did drive the next day, no home run. No, right. The magic wore off. It's because you didn't get lost. If you've gotten lost, then he would have totally hit three home runs that day. Oh, man. That's true.

You guys, you guys remember how intense Todd Stadde Meyer was. I got him lost going to pro player stadium in Florida when he was, had to get there early to throw a side session while he was rehabbing. And I swear I thought he was going to absolutely wish my head. It's a tall task. It's a lot of responsibility getting them there. All right. Well, I guess as a baseball fan in general, one of the things we wanted to, we're wondering is what your thoughts are on the rule changes and how it's going to impact the game. Hey, I'm a big fan of the rule changes. I think that I'm not a fan of the shift. I think it's kind of made for some boring baseball.

Yeah. Guys now just trying to hit homers. And again, you know, you kind of get used to. to a ground ball at the middle is a base hit, and now it's like right at somebody or a shallow line drive to right field. You're thinking, oh, hey, base hit. Nope, second baseman's right there to catch you.

So I think that's going to be great. I went down last year to the minor leagues to do a story on Corbyn Carroll, and I watched a couple of AAA games. And those puppies were done in like 2.35, 240 with the pitch clock. So I came back to Phoenix singing the praises of that pitch clock. Quick baseball games for the wins. Nobody loves the pitch clock more than a beat writer, right? And I think fans are going to love just the pace.

You know, there is so less wasted time with that. So I thought that that was, I'm a big fan of that. I know some of the veteran pitchers are a little nervous about that and, you know, maybe don't like it. But I think for all the rest of us, it's going to be good. Ian Kennedy and I had a few debates about that last year. I'm like, man, I just watched the AAA baseball, and it was so much more of the training than watching three and a half hour baseball games.

No kidding. Well, it's like we saw the challenge system in place at the Arizona Fall League game, right? And, like, that was more fun than I thought it would be, because not only did they have it down to it being very quick, so it doesn't really delay the game much, but I wasn't expecting these huge ovations from whichever dugout won the challenge, and it was, like, fun. Like, it added to the game.

It was kind of hilarious the way that they were treating it. You could tell they were just kind of playing it up and making fun of this situation. But it was still great to have this, like, cheer, you know, from the home dugout because they got a strike that wasn't called a strike. And I think we forget, too, how quickly we become adapted to the rules. For instance, again, when I was down there last year for the AAA game, the Albuquerque manager came out to argue a call at second base. And I was like, what the heck's he doing out there? You don't argue those are just challenging, but they don't have challenges. minor league. So, you know, you quickly forget that, oh, yeah, we don't see many arguments on the,

we don't see any arguments on the base paths anymore in situations like that. So we adjust to those things pretty quickly. Going back to the off season real quick, we don't have a crystal ball around here, Steve, but I know that you do. So, so do you foresee, obviously, the debacks have taken care of a lot of the biggest needs that they had over the off season. They did do some things to add to the bullpen as well. But I think a lot of people are maybe looking at the bullpen as an area they could continue to add. And I know Mike Hazen has also talked about potentially wanting to add there more already. Do you see that potentially happening in this, you know, next few weeks leading up to the season? I will get to that in a second, but you just reminded me of another really good story when you

said Crystal Ball and. Okay, great. Yeah, let's do it. Randy Johnson, there was a particular writer who will just not name, who used to ask Randy Johnson questions, and Randy hated to speculate about things. And so Randy, a number of times answered with, you know, I'm not Nostradamus. I don't have a prediction. They'll look into that. I don't have a magic eight ball, he said one time.

And I remember then, this was in spring training in Tucson, and I went scurrying around looking for who sold magic eight balls. So I could get him a magic eight ball that he could keep in his locker. And the next time he pitched afterwards, the guy asked him a question and Randy reached in the back of his locker and pulled it out. And anyone who's been around the beat knows that, of course, everyone knew that that was something I had done. Yeah, yeah. New who the prankster behind that was, for sure.

Exactly. So getting back to your serious question here on baseball. Yeah, it's really interesting to see what, I think they've added a lot of depth to that bullpen. giving themselves a lot of options. I'm not sure that they added a ton of, you know, it's hard to say that they added somebody with a really, what's the word I'm looking for, like a low floor. I think, you know, I think there's some guys that have potential to have high ceilings. It'll be interesting to see how they all do.

I think they're kind of banking on the fact that out of quantity will come quality. And the bullpen was always so hard to predict from year to year. I mean, they thought they were in great shape last year when they signed, you know, two veterans that had a proven track record in Ian Kennedy and Mark Malanson. And it seemed to make sense, right? Like, okay, we're not going to, you know, go with unproven guys. We're going to go with some guys that have had success. And it didn't necessarily work out for either of those guys last year. And so this year, who's to say who could step up?

You know, maybe this is the year Kevin Ginkle steps up and becomes their closer. or one of the guys that they acquired puts it together and has an outstanding season. So we're going to have to see on that. I don't know that they're going to do anything between now and the start of the regular season, though. Oh, my goodness, there's some. You couldn't even give us the courtesy of coming into our studio? That's how it was. You're embarrassed of me?

Come on, man. I didn't recognize you without your U of A hat on there, man. That's so good. It's all right, Steve. There's still time to make it right. We can get you down. you will have you in studio at some point. Yeah, I'm definitely going to put me down for definitely coming down there.

Just let me know what Saul's off days are. We will do that. You guys certainly don't have enough fun down there. That's right. Oh, here, Saul, this is for Saul. There you go. There you go. Yeah, I love it.

Love it. Well, one of us is the realist here, and one of us tends to be a little bit more optimistic. Considering the D-BACs playoff aspirations, it feels like things are still a little bit bleak because it feels like a lot of the playoff kind of positions are already occupied by teams like the Mets, Padres and Dodgers, even though we haven't even started the season yet. So it feels like the likely path to the postseason for Arizona is to beat either the Phillies, the Brewers, the Giants, or the Cubs for maybe the final playoff spot. Is that a reasonable view for 2023, or is that still being a bit too optimistic considering where this team's at? You know, I don't know that it's necessarily too optimistic if things all break right for them. I think they could certainly be in playoff contention.

I mean, if you're telling me that Corbyn Carroll's going to have a good year that Jake McCarthy's going to build on what he did last year, that Alec Thomas's swing is going to be more like what they saw when he first came up as opposed to, you know, towards the end of it. his time last year. If Evan Lingoria is going to be a contributor, if Christian Walker is healthy and delivering what he did last. I mean, there's all those things that you could make a case. And I think that's, you know, for most teams heading into this, except for, you know, five or six or a handful of teams that made you go.

No chance. And you don't want to be one of those teams where it's no chance. And I don't think they have, I think that's not the Diamondbacks. I think they do have a, have a chance in making a playoff. So it's going to be exciting to kind of watch. and see how these young guys come through. And I think a lot of it's going to depend on, you know, how they perform. And also some of the guys you're counting on the veterans, whether it's Zach Gallen or Merrill Kelly,

you know, can Madison Bumgarner bounce back? There's always going to be fun things, I think, to watch this year. Steve, I'm curious what you think about the situation moving forward with baseball at large. Obviously, expansion has been a topic in recent years and the possibility of baseball going from 30 to 32 teams. I don't know if you saw yesterday, but Jim Bowden from the athletic put out a hypothetical look at what new divisions around baseball could look like if we went from 30 to 32 teams. Theoretically, there'd be some movement on that front. Is it crazy to think that there could come a day when the Arizona Diamondbacks are no longer in the same division as the Dodgers and the Padres? Obviously, there's a number of different ways that you could figure out who goes where in those divisions.

but do you think that is a possibility at some point? I mean, it certainly seems like it could be if they expand and it seems like they're trying to continue to blur the lines between the American and National League. I mean, it used to be such a sacrosync thing where it was, you know, he didn't play. And then, okay, we had, you know, I was with the Brewers with Bud Sealing when all the interleague play came out.

And that was, wow, I can't believe we're going to have interleague play. And now we don't think twice about it, right? So, again, it's one of those things that we adjust to. So I definitely think that the balanced schedule helps the Diamondbacks a little bit because they get one fewer series, two fewer series against the Dodgers and the Podgers. I think that certainly will help this year. Again, that's a year-to-year thing. Who knows where they're going to be five, ten years for now. But I think that could seriously help them in terms of their playoff aspirations.

Do you think that schedule is good for baseball, seeing division rivals less and getting a chance to see all the teams? in baseball, at least in some way? Look, I'm not happy about it because I lose a trip to San Diego. Okay. You're right about that. Yeah. And there's going to be some longer flights. But putting my own self aside, it's very hard to do.

Yes, I think it's good for baseball. I just think that, you know, sometimes 18 games against teams in your own division can be a bit much. I know people like to see certain teams come to town. Now you'll be able to see the Yankees come to town. on a more regular basis, the Red Sox, you know, teams that we don't normally get to see here in the Valley, I think we could all do with a few less Diamondbacks Rockies games, you know, in particular. All due respect to the Rockies, but you're right about that. Especially at Coorsfield.

Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, once you get to about game number 12 or 13 against the Rockies or, you know, I mean, every year there's a couple teams in the division. and I think there's just not much interest in those games. Steve, I'm curious what you think about kind of continuing with possible changes for baseball moving forward. Derek mentioned earlier the system that we saw in the Arizona Fall League where players were able to challenge balls and strikes. Of course, there's also the just straight up Robo-Ump situation that we've heard a lot of chatter about for a long time. Do you have a sense of which of those might be more likely for baseball to implement moving forward?

I don't really have a sense of that. I'm a big fan of umpires. I mean, I went to, I did a story and embedded with umpires for a week at the umpire camp back in 06 and gained a new appreciation. When you go behind the plate and strap on on that equipment with no glove in a junior college game with guys thrown in like the upper 80s, you start to realize just how hard that job really is. Yeah, yeah. But it certainly seems like we're moving towards. boards robo umpires again i don't have any inside uh information on that but um it almost gets to the point where now when you have that box up on the screen it's it's just no way for umpires to win i mean

it's amazing how many calls they get right but the two or three that they miss in a game always seems to uh to cause the most issues so i think that's the box is inaccurate right because they're not calling the strike zone like that today but then like you said the framing makes them just look like absolute, you know, idiots that they can't get a call right, even though their strike zone that they're calling is different than what's displayed on TV. So, and then you're going to see, you know, will we put less emphasis on catcher framing if, uh, if you go to robo umpires? And that's, you know, it's a trend in this game where you'll, you know, you see, we'll see it a week from now. Uh, when the catchers are out there in a bullpen taking, uh, taking pitches off a pitching machine

and learning how to pull balls up into the strike zone and the best way to frame. So that's a whole other evolution in the game. We talked about the biggest storylines for this team heading into the season. What are your thoughts on what the biggest question is for the Diamondbacks as far as taking that next step from where they were at last year

and making it into the playoffs potentially this year? Well, I think, again, the bullpen is, it comes back to that in large part, you know, and can they find, some people that can that can shut things down, especially later in games. I think last year there were just too many times where the margin for error was too small. And you lose games.

You know, Kevin Towers used to say that when you lose games late, it counts the same in the standings as losing them early, but it just feels different. It just takes the energy and the life out of a team, and I don't know how you quantify that, but he used to say it was kind of like, you know, you go out to dinner and you have a great dinner and everything's great. And then you've got to wait too long for the check and you're just sitting around and it kind of spoils your memory of the evening. Yeah, like everything else was perfect, but it just took too long for the check.

Yes. So, you know, you have a great seven, eight innings and guys are feeling good. And then they lose. It just, I don't know, it just has a different feel than it does if you lose earlier in the game. So I think that's going to be a big thing for them. And again, then, you know, the offense, too, to kind of give them. a little bit more margin for air by scoring some more runs. Well, we look forward to seeing you out at Salt River Fields next week, my friend, and excited. Maybe this guy's probably more excited than you and I, but very excited for the baseball season to get started next week. Well, it's Christmas morning for Jesse.

I mean, you can just out right now. Like, look at that look at his face. I mean, he's not going to be able to sleep next Monday or Tuesday. He's going to stay up for 48 hours leading right up to Wednesday. I guarantee you in Jesse's apartment, he's got a calendar and he's got like little X marks going, right? Counting down the days and the hours until he gets to go out. I've been deprived of baseball, Steve. I won't take this slander.

I need it back in my life as soon as possible. He's got a baseball advent calendar and he opens up a little door every single day. There's a piece of chocolate in there. Yeah, like, like how have you been deprived of baseball? It's only been a few months. I know. He was on a fall league too. Come on, man.

I caught the bug, Steve. I caught the bug, what can I say? I'll tell you what, we'll beat that audio over the years. We'll beat that enthusiasm right out of. Yeah, 162 games. Yeah, for sure. Hey, man, we appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming by.

Guys, it was a lot of fun. Take care. Thanks, Steve. And he's the best. And when I say what I said introducing him, I meant every word about it. Steve literally makes doing this job more fun. Yeah.

He does it with, he just loves baseball. And I mean, it really goes to show that when you do what you love, you only think about how much you don't want to get back to doing it during the off season. That's very short. We didn't even, we didn't talk about Steve's newsletter, which was arguably the most important topic. Yeah, we're going to have to talk to him. He has a wonderful newsletter. As a matter of fact, most people in the industry, when you bring up Steve Gilbert to them, they go, oh, yeah, I'm subscribed to his newsletter. So he has a win the day newsletter that we definitely have to get him back. That maybe we'll use this as a reason.

Yeah, now we have an excuse to get Steve Gilbert in studio. So we'll figure out when Saul's off so that they don't fight. And then we'll- Exactly. We'll coordinate it. But I'll let him know. We have plenty of Four Peaks beer in the refrigerator. There you go. We stocked yesterday.

Max was very mad at me for not helping him. He was doing it so inefficiently. I think he really didn't want your health. Yeah, he didn't want my help. And that's the thing that was driving me nuts is he was putting the wow weed in one can at a time. Wow, weed is Arizona's number one wheat beer, right? It doesn't deserve. I mean, I guess maybe he was giving it the respect.

it deserved by putting in one can. I have a different method. I kind of open up the case, do a little slide and move. It's much slicker than that. It's much faster. But Max wanted to make sure that every label was pointed forward and I appreciate him for it because Four Peaks beer deserves that. The labels are very nice looking. The labels are beautiful. You have to honor the work that the graphic artists people have done. You're right. They've done some good work. It's much better than the Arizona iced tea can that has the price on it that you know once again devalues the item itself. But Four Peaks Brewery Company beers, there's so many sports sporting events in February so make sure you have a Four Peaks in your hand at all times whenever attending this stuff.

If you hadn't had a chance to try Arizona's number one wheat ale like I was talking about, it's the Wow Wheat. Come on down to Old Town Boondocks for the tailgate time machine on Saturday, February 11th. Try Four Peaks newest innovation. It's pack full of Arizona citrus flavor, perfect for light drinking in the desert sun. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. And of course, don't stop sending Jesse your suggestions for what furniture he should buy for his house. It's still, things still aren't looking good.

It's still looking like Chase Field over there. And I mean that with all the Chase Lounge. But of course, once you tell him what he needs to buy, get yourself some furniture over at morefurniture.com. Have it delivered with their white glove delivery service. We received that here at the office. And of course, it was incredible to not have to lift a finger. Not only that, they brought it in and they put it where you want it to go. That was the best part.

Askin Saul, like over here, over here, a little bit over here. That's the best part. So good. So say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture.com. There is quite a few free agents left on the MLB market, to be honest, Jesse. I'm kind of surprised by it. I guess more than surprised. I guess I'm surprised that everything moves so fast during the off season and then stopped.

And now you have kind of this batch of quality players that are still kind of sitting around. I imagine that part of it is possibly that they're asking. prices too high right now for teams that are looking for kind of a budget not to call them bargain bin guys because there are very good players left but it is kind of the it's like the bottom of barrel and at this point it almost feels like teams are trying to wait some of these guys out to maybe lower their price tag a bit and get them get them on signed on maybe lower the number of years they want there's yeah there's a few guys like when i wrote about possible free agent targets for the debacks a few weeks ago maybe a month or so ago at this point some of those guys

are still out there, which feels a little crazy because, as you said, there are some pretty decent baseball players that are still out there and they've just kind of sat for quite a while. The biggest names that come to mind for me, Michael Waka, guy I don't really expect the debacks to really have any interest in. They got Zach Davies. Their starting rotation, as we talked about yesterday, is crowded enough as it is, at least on paper. So I don't think they would have any interest there.

But other guys that are still out there, jerks and pro far, pretty solid player, had a pretty decent year last year for San Diego. He's still out there. David Peralta, right? D-BAC's legend, David Peralta, still unsigned, I can't speak. Still unsigned at this point. So he's still out there as well, along with a number of relievers. There's Matt Moore, Michael Fulmer, guys that we've discussed that the D-BACs could be

interested in at some point. So it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Still interesting. A couple of other storylines. Oh, Andrew Chaffin. I don't know if you brought up. Andrew Chaffin. There you go.

But Andrew Chafin right now is probably one of the highest rated relief pitchers still available on the market. And somebody that I know we would love to bring back. I don't know how the feeling is internally within the organization. But I know it's somebody that we've kind of adored as not only being a quality relief pitcher who kind of fixed a lot of his issues once he left here that he had coming out of the pen. But he's just a tremendous personality, you know? Yeah. Like there's something to be said about somebody like Andrew Chafin coming back to this team. I think, yeah, one thing that is holding up the market for Chafin, maybe Matt Moore,

other relievers out there. I think I read this from Ken Rosenthal in a story he wrote at The Athletic at one point. Matt Strom signed with the Phillies for two years and $15 million back in December. And Matt Strom is not necessarily, you know, like a headliner reliever type, right? People don't really view Matt Strom that way. But if you're giving that guy two years $15 million, then it kind of bumped up the price tag for a guy like Andrew Chafin or guy like Matt Moore, some of the others that are out there. And so at this point, I just think there's some, there's some negotiations that have to happen between, you know,

agents and teams. And those negotiations are tricky right now because the players are saying, hey, look at what Matt Strom got. Um, writer. I'm sure there's other players as well that that could be in that mix as well. But look at what so and so got. Right. And look at how my numbers compare it to theirs. This is what I think I'm worth. And teams are just kind of waiting this out until eventually Maybe those asking prices come down later on. Even Ian Kennedy signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers, which just goes to show that even somebody that one season ago was still thought of as a reliable relief pitcher closer, ends up having a bad season and now finds himself signing a minor league deal with a team instead of, you know.

It's never, it's never great when your setup man signs a minor league deal the year after they leave. He has, he has the lowest war of any real. relief pitcher on the free agent market. Ian Kennedy? Ian Kennedy. Yeah, I mean, I think he had the lowest war of any of any reliever in baseball last year, at least according to fan graphs. Don't quote me on that, but I want to say, I want to say that's accurate.

Not great. And like you said, though, the thing here with Matt Strom signing for that much and looking at his numbers, it definitely doesn't make it any easier for teams that were looking for some sort of deal when it came to relief pitching on the free agent market. And like, I feel like that. That's currently where we're at, right? Just kind of waiting closer to the season and waiting for those, you know, for some of these guys that are unsigned to get a little desperate, you know. Elvis Andrews still out there.

Yeah. 14-year veteran Elvis Andrews who still plays baseball. Close my mind. Still going to be interesting to see if anybody pulls the trigger on Trevor Bauer. Yeah, he's still out there too. I imagine we won't see that, but I believe it or not, I've seen a few fan bases bringing him up and talking about. overlooking whatever his past is. Don't you think, though, don't you think that if that was going to happen, it would have happened by now?

Like if teams were willing to make that choice, I don't think. I don't think Bauer has a sense of urgency to do it. I think he has a reputation to rebound, like you're trying to, you know. So it's kind of one of those situations where sometimes if you just go away for long enough, everybody will kind of forget and they'll look more at the value that you can provide a team than what your past was, right? I think it'd be an even worse look for a team if they weren't going to sign Trevor Bauer, right? They made the decision not to. And then when spring training rolls around, you know, a couple of guys get dinged up or whatever.

And then they're like, oh, man, we really need a starter. Like, if you bring in Trevor Bauer, like, out of desperation, like, as kind of a last minute play, I think that the optics of that are even worse. So I would be pretty surprised. Yeah, because it feels fake. It feels like you didn't sign him originally because you didn't want it. but now the times are tough and you don't have a choice, you're willing to overlook the moral obstacle here of bringing them on to your team.

It's like you have morals, but you're willing to compromise them at a certain point. That's at least how it would appear. It would not look great. Well, anyway, that's not great. I still wonder, I don't think that any of these guys are going to end up on the Arizona Diamondbacks. I think that's the biggest question a lot of DeVax fans may have.

With so many guys available, what will we see? I feel like the Diamondbacks still don't know. how things are going to play out for them internally with the starting rotation, having so many available starting pitchers, who is going to move to the pen, which one of these guys are going to step up and potentially, like Steve Gilbert said, win a roll. You know,

there's a lot of guys that really could. The door feels more open this year than last year. And again, you've got to realize that the closer door didn't close until, like, halfway through the season. That's when we really started to give up on Mark Melanson. And then the immediate answer was to turn to Ian Kennedy. So I don't feel like the opportunity was there last year for some of these guys to potentially win the closer role like it is this year.

Yeah, it's open, man. I mean, it's out there for the taking. I think maybe Scott McGuff would be like your favorite, which feels a little crazy to say. That's wild. He pitched in Japan last year. Like the man hasn't pitched to the majors in eight years now. 2015 was last year that he threw an inning in the big leagues. And I think he threw like four or five of them for the Marlins.

So, but I mean, he was a closer last year in Japan. He has 69 saves over the last couple years. Nice. I knew you were going to say that. So maybe he's your front runner, but I mean, Miguel Castro throws 98 miles an hour, hasn't necessarily had the numbers to line up with that the last few years. But he did pitch in the postseason last year for the Yankees.

So, I mean, maybe he gets a look there too. But it's open. It's really open. And I don't think the kneebacks are going to be in on any of those relievers we mentioned. But I wouldn't say it's impossible. I mean, we know they're still interesting. in acquiring bullpen help, they don't seem super optimistic about that at this point. But maybe if those asking prices come down a little bit more, then that's something we could see.

Is there a deadline for them to add free agents at this point? Or can it be something that as they progress down? I don't think so. Yeah, they could add potentially an arm that doesn't get picked up once the season gets closer. Yeah. Maybe if they get through spring training and start to realize that they might not have the options they thought they did internally for the bullpen role. They might reach out at that point, might just get, you know, again, they didn't spend that much money this offseason. Their biggest move was that trade to bring in Gabriel Moreno.

And it does vastly improve this team, I feel like. But it still wasn't a lot of money being spent by the Diamondbacks. I feel like there is still money in the budget for them to go after one of these guys. Maybe. I feel like it's posturing. You know what I mean? I feel like this could be posturing, just trying to show that you don't need them. And maybe if you want a job, you'll lower your price tag a little bit.

I still feel like that. I think there's like some desperation that sets in on both sides. Like once you get into spring training, then players are like, okay, I just need to find a team. And teams are also like, oh man, our reliever situation does not look very good. I think we need some help. You've ever been at the bar at 1.30 in the morning. You know what this feeling is that he's describing 100%. Options get limited.

Your time is running out. We got to make a move here. And it's on both sides, really. So yeah, I totally get where you're going with that one. Of course, we thank you guys so much for being here. If you haven't already done so, please subscribe to the PHN Export's YouTube channel. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when we go live or any of our wonderful shows on the network go live.

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It's the best place to spend. the Super Bowl, especially if you don't care about watching the Super Bowl, right? Like, it's going to be on their big TVs all over the place. They're going to have a Jumbotron. It's going to be great. But if you want to just race go-karts and play video games while everybody else is watching the Super Bowl, that's your prerogative to do so at the Octane Raceway and Maverick. So make sure to check out, they have this crazy four quarters of food feast thing where every quarter of the game, they'll bring you food.

So maybe that, if you're not paying attention to the game, maybe that's how you stay engaged with the game is by knowing which course you're on. You can have Buffalo chicken cases. Diias in the first quarter, followed up by fresh seasonal fruit in the second quarter. See, it's not all. It's not, it's grilled vegetables. There's all sorts of options. But of course, in the fourth quarter, you're getting the assorted house-made cookies and ice cream Sunday bar. Like, do I need to say anymore? Say less fam, right? Just go down. Watch the big game at Mavericks with dozens of 4K TVs, a 20-foot jumbotron, 5,000 square foot restaurant featuring a chef curated menu, the delicious craft beers and custom cocktails and so much more. Enjoy the Super Bowl

experience at Mavericks book in advance at mavericks.com slash the big game. Did you see what Mike Farron did to Steve Gilbert's good name on Twitter? Oh yeah. Did you see what happened? I did. So I tweet noted D-BAC's beat writer legend. Steve Gilbert is joining the show. That's right.

And Mike Ferrin says who. Who? And then Scott Bordeaux replies. Scott Bordeaux, right, former Arizona Republic columnist legend says legend, man, that's devaluing the word, right? Steve. And Steve would probably agree that he's devaluing the word legend by calling Steve a legend.

But we don't believe that around here. We believe that Steve is every bit of legend that we say he is. I've known Steve for 12 years and the one thing that I will say, the only thing that's ever disappointed me about Steve is when I couldn't be his friend. It was like the popular kids in high school and I was on the outside and I just wanted to be part of the inner circle so bad. But I love having him on the show. And of course, we talked to him a bit about what the new MLB

divisions would look like if they did expand, it seems like expansion is something on the horizon for Major League Baseball. And it's pretty interesting looking at how some of these divisions could shake up. Leah, do we have that graphic for the divisions by chance? Yeah. Jim, Jim Bowden went crazy. He did. He went nuts on this.

Midwest, Southwest, Pacific Coast. I kind of like that. West, east, north, mid-Atlantic, Southeast. So this gets rid of American League and National League. together and we just have eight brand new divisions. Jesse. It's fascinating. What do you think? It's fascinating. Well, so, so there's a few widespread criticisms that this is drawn and we'll get those out of the way first. For the listeners, for the listeners, we got the Midwest comprising of the Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, and Twins, which is very interesting, especially having the Cubs and the

White Sox in the same division against each other. That's fun. That's part of what this would do, right? It would take those, those teams that are, you know, a few miles apart that are in the NL and the I'd put him in the same division and they'd play each other all the time. Like the Rangers and the Astros, both being from Texas in the Southwest division, along with the Cardinals that don't make a whole heck of a lot of sense being in the Southwest and the Kansas City Royals. Jim definitely took some liberties from a geography standpoint. Yeah, for sure. St. Louis Southwest. No, I don't even know if I consider Kansas City to be Southwest.

No. Those are both like definitely Midwest. I would put. I would just call that South. Yeah. Then the west one should be southwest, the one that says west. Yeah, there's a lot of geography confusion here. The Rockies are part of the Pacific Coast division.

The Pacific Coast with the athletics, the Mariners, and the Giants. Meanwhile, the Angels, Dodgers, and Padres are all in the West with the Diamondback. So how do you put the Rockies in a division called Pacific Coast? I don't. And then you've got the same thing. DNVR literally has a shirt that says no coast bias. Yeah, yeah. And then you put the Rockies in the Pacific Coast Division.

There's some coast bias right there. I don't like still being in the Dodgers division. That's why I don't like this. I don't like this proposed realignment one bit because of that. In the East, you still have the Yankees and the Red Sox hating each other, but now you bring in the Viterol that is the New York Mets and the Phillies. That division is going to implode. The fans are going to all murder each other.

And that's how that's going to end right there. In the north, you have the Reds, the Guardians, the Tigers, and the Blue Jays, which I don't hate that particular alignment. Yeah, I mean, that seems fine. That seems fine. And they're all like that geographically, I guess, kind of makes sense. Like Toronto, Detroit and Cleveland, since, like, yeah, they're all pretty, they're on the north part of the country. I think it makes sense.

Now, in the Mid-Atlantic Division, we have the Orioles, the brand new expansion, Charlotte. What are they calling them? The Charlotte. There's no name. There's just the Charlotte, in parentheses, expansion. I don't think Jim tried to name the Charlotte baseball team. Well, I've seen this thing going around. Do you want to name the Charlotte baseball team?

I don't want to name the Charlotte baseball team, but I thought I saw a thing going around that actually had a name for what the Charlotte baseball team was going to be called. It was, I don't know, it was something kind of weird, and I wasn't expecting it. But, you know, Howard Ballzer had a shirt of it, so I got to find it on Twitter. How about the Charlotte Webb's? No.

Do you get it? No. I get it, Jesse, and I hate it. I hate it. I love that. I love it so much. I love it. Don't encourage him.

Whatever you do. But yeah, no, I mean, I don't know. The Charlotte, actually, you know what? That's growing on me. It actually is amazing. It's the web of a glove. A spider logo would go crazy. Like a spider web on a logo would go crazy.

That's true. You could have the little spider as like the alternate logo like on the patch or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That's all right. I'm kind of with it now. Then also you have the Pirates and the Nationals in that division. Then in the Southeast you have the Rays, the Braves, Marlins,

and the brand new expansion Nashville Blanks. Yeah, so this Jim is making the assumption that the expansion teams are in Nashville and Charlotte, which is a pretty big assumption because I think some people would maybe say Nashville and Portland would be more likely. Portland has been pushing very strongly for a team as well. The Nashville group has Dave Stewart attached. to it and Tony LaRosa. They got a hole on website. Yeah.

They're serious about that. Good luck with that. As a former from DeBax, we wish you the best in your future endeavors when it comes to those two individuals. But yeah, it's very interesting. And I think that any moves potentially that could get the Diamondbacks out of that division would be great. Elizabeth likes it.

I still hate the idea of still being with the Padres. Yeah. So it's DeBax Angels, Padres Dodgers. I don't like it. Which is kind of a word like that might be worse. Like that doesn't really improve things at all Because you're kind of less insulated from the Dodgers and Padres Because you're in a 14th division instead of a 5 team division

I guess you throw the angels in there Which maybe you're not that worried about the angels Given that Art Moreno is going to be the owner for the foreseeable future But yeah, I mean you don't have the Rockies and you don't have the Giants anymore So I think that might be even more difficult for the debacks But this is just I mean this is just Jim kind of taking a shot in the dark right Right. Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows how this would work. I do think that there, someone else floated around an idea on Twitter. This is from Micah Rumsie. Hopefully I'm saying that right. He had the Diamondbacks with the Padres, the Rangers and the Astros. As the Southwest Division. As like a Southwest division. So which makes sense, right? Because you've got like the two Texas teams. And then it's a little weird to pull in the Padres. But they are like they are like a little bit closer to Phoenix geographically than like the LA. teams would be. And then you'd have Oakland, Giants, Sam, Francisco, or Angels and Dodgers all in one

division. And that makes so much sense. Yeah, that's like the Bay Area plus Los Angeles. That makes sense. And then the Mariners get thrown in with the Rockies, the twins and the Brewers is being kind of like a north, a north, northwest, I guess, north, northwest, I don't know, however you want to call it. I would call that one, the Pacific Coast still. It's those southwest, west. No, no, not west, I guess, because it's the twins, the brewers, the Mariners and the Colorado Rockies. So that's just, I don't know. Yeah, it's a little hard to come up with the names. But I do think that there are, there are a lot of different ways that this could go.

Because Arizona is like in this weird spot where it's not part of the Pacific Coast, but it's kind of close to there, right, obviously. So, you know, there's a world in which the debacks are like the one team that gets looped in with all the Pacific Coast teams, which would be terrible in a lot of ways. But there's also another, you know, maybe you're, maybe you're with the Rangers and the Astros and the Rockies or something like that. So a lot of different ways to go. Yeah, it seems like a difficult division no matter what because now we're, now we're still

got San Diego and now we're facing the Houston Astros. Yeah, being in a division with the Astros would be unfortunate too, but not having both the Padres and the Dodgers. Although I guess in this arrangement we're talking about the Deepaks are with the Padres and the Astros. And you could make a case that that's just as bad as being with the Padres and the Dodgers. The point is, is everything's on the table now that we have the designated hit in the national league.

No rules matter anymore. Now is just a good time to change everything. Bring in the bigger bases, bring in the shift banning, bring in all the shit, the pitch clock, the new divisions, just do it all at once.

They're going to do rollover outs, right? So if you turn a double play when there's two outs, then you got the first out of the next inning. Give me aggregate scoring in a series. I want the score to continue from one game. Really?

Carry over. All right, carryover. So is a series then, just like, like it goes in your record, is just one game. Is that what you're saying?

I don't know. I don't know. That's a lot of baseball to play to get one win or one loss. I don't know. I don't know about that, Derek. But you can be a winner, whether it's the regular season, whether you're betting on a whole series or an individual game. It doesn't matter.

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Go to Underdog Fantasy.com or download the app. Sign up with promo code PHNX, and Underdog will match your first deposit up to $100. So you can draft up to six NBA players with no positional limits, and whoever scores the most fantasy points wins the night. Also, you can win the night, whether you're on the Underdog Fantasy Sports app or not, by also using the Game Time app to get your tickets to your favorite sports. events, concert shows, everything you're looking for. And game time, they really are about rewarding procrastinators. And that's what we are here for. We are here to put off things that we have to do until a later time. Jesse should be the face of game time. He really should. I mean,

not only has he described the app several times is very aesthetically pleasing. It's aesthetically pleasing. He's been used it for years. And I am a procrastinator through and through. So I think I'd be a great advocate for them. Jesse doesn't even know if he's going to illegal Pete's yet tonight or not. He's still, he's keeping us on the fence waiting for our big party tonight at illegal Pete's. But that's because he's a man of mystery. Can I get tickets on the on the game time? You might be able to get tickets on the game time app. But I have to wait till the last minute. Right. That's why I haven't told you yet. But if you do, if you do, you'll save up to 60% off when you buy tickets last minute on the game time app. And the best way to support us is by buying

your tickets for tonight through the show link in the description. Well, we thank you guys so much. Big shout out to Steve Gilbert for being here. Can't wait to get out to Salt River Fields next week. Keep an eye out for our change of schedule because we will be moving the show so we can make it out there for workouts and to chat with some of these Diamondbacks players. But we will be back tomorrow.

Until then, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. This guy's at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The Charlotte webs, Derek. The Charlotte webs.

The people kind of like the idea. I'm just saying. I'm with it. I'm with it. We appreciate you guys for being here. Thank you so much, as always, on behalf of Leah, Jesse, and myself. We thank you for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you get lost driving

Luis Gonzalez to the baseball ballpark.