PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - NL West divide widens as Dodgers add another All-Star in Teoscar Hernandez

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

When will the Arizona Diamondbacks start deferring contracts? That’s the thought on all of our minds as the Los Angeles Dodgers proceed to nab another All-Star - former Seattle Mariner slugger Teoscar Hernandez - and get him to agree to a deferred deal. We discuss if it is fair for the Dodgers to be making money off of these deals and why more teams aren’t doing it. We also have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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 in to a Monday edition of the PHNX G-BX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am the mayor of PHNX. This is my vice mayor and your Thundersick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Skiy, Jesse? Yes, ski to you as well. To the people's producer, Damon, behind the Mac and a ski to you all. Very excited to be back after a wonderful weekend away, taking naps.

I took lots of naps this weekend. Did you is what I did. We also celebrated Three Kings Day at my house, which is kind of like a tradition back in Puerto Rico. And no matter how old my daughter is, she still wants to do this stuff. She's 12 years old. I thought we were at the end. But as a dad, I will take as many of these years where she still wants to do this stuff as possible. So I hope you guys had a wonderful Three Kings Day to those who celebrate.

And the Dodgers definitely had a wonderful Three Kings Day because they continue to be showered, with gifts and those gifts continue to defer the payments for said gifts until later years. But the Dodgers get another All-Star to sign their contract and defer money and Tay Oscar Hernandez from the Seattle Mariners, a big-time slugger, and the guy that they were kind of targeting as their potential, I mean, factor in as a big outfield bat for them. Yeah, so I texted you and Damon yesterday. He did. What was it about 11 a.m.

And there was a tweet that had just come out from Jim Bowden, who does some radio hosting over at MLB Network Radio. And Jim Bowden tweeted that Andrew Friedman, the head honcho over in Los Angeles, had come on their show. And it said that the Dodgers are, what they're focused on right now is acquiring, a right-handed hitting outfielder

that can crush left-handed pitchers and hold his own against righties. And I saw that. There was only one guy. And I texted you and Damon and it was like, yeah, the Dodgers are going to get to Oscar Hernandez. This is going to happen. There's only one player in free agency who is available who clearly fits that description. And that was to Oscar Hernandez.

And sure enough, just what was it, six, eight hours later, something like that. The move is official to Oscar Hernandez goes to the Dodgers. And yeah, I mean, he is a good player. He is coming off a bit of a down year by his standards in, in 2023. He had 258, 305, 435, still hit 26 home runs, 93 RBI, OPS Plus of 106. That was a down year by his standards playing with the Seattle Mariners, but he's still a pretty good player.

And the Los Angeles Dodgers, Derek, they strike again. Quite an upgrade from David Peralta for sure. Yes, that is true. They signed him to a one-year deal worth $23.5 million per Jeff Passon, per the report, $8.5 million will be deferred with payouts from 2030 through 2039. And we know all about how that works. We do. We're familiar with that.

Did you really expect you to go any other way? No, no, but is there ever going to be a point where the Dodgers actually, like, regret all these deferral payments? Like, is there going to be a point, let's say in 2035, where Dodgers fans from the future who are just small children right now, maybe even three, four, years old, are just furious at what the Dodgers are doing now because of how it's going to impact the team then. Or, or Jesse, are the Dodgers just going to continue to get richer off of these deferred deals, considering the fact that they have some sort of investment plan with an insurance company that's just making them money on the money that they essentially have to put aside for deals like the Otani deal. And I'm sure like they're going to do,

even though this is just a minute $8.5 million. Just a little amount of money, right? But, I mean, it just, it almost feels unfair that they are able to make money off of the way that baseball structures the CBT, right now, the CBT and the way that they have to like, like we've discussed at length with the Otani deal, they have to put the money away. Right. But they figured out a way that in that short term that they could make money off of that money while it's put away in some sort of investment account. And I mean, I guess I'm asking if it's fair. but it's fair, right? Like, I mean, there's nothing in the rules against it.

They're playing by MLB's rules. So I guess I just have to ask, why aren't, why aren't more teams doing this? Why aren't more teams following the Dodgers lead on this? That is a fair, a fair question. Yes, I do think it is important to note that other teams have the ability to do this. This isn't something that the Dodgers can do and other teams can't. Once again, anytime a player takes deferrals, we talked about this a lot with the Otani situation. They're walking away for money.

Money today is more valuable than money tomorrow. If to Oscar Hernandez is going to get paid out, you know, $8.5 million between 2030 and 2039, he is taking less money than if he was taking that $8.5 million today, right? That is just the nature of how money works. At the same time, while any team can do this, there is this reality of like, okay, but why are the Dodgers the only ones that actually are doing this? Yeah. And I think there's a couple of reasons.

Number one, the Dodgers love deferrals. This is pretty well established at this point. There were deferrals in the Moogie Betts deal. There are deferrals in the Freddie Freeman deal. Obviously, there are extreme deferrals in the Shohei Otani deal. This is something that Andrew Friedman has a long history with. He really likes deferrals. If there's an opportunity to do deferrals, he's probably going to do it because, again, money

today, more valuable than money tomorrow. The Dodgers saved money by doing it this way, as long as the player is willing to do that. And it seems like they're financially savvy when it comes. to doing it. Like I said, I mean, a big part of this is the idea here that like, not everybody is going to understand how to make money off of their money. Some people are going to take their money. They're going to put it in a savings account. They're going to get that 10 cents, you know, 15 cents. Yeah, the savings account that pays up 0.001%. And then there's other people that are like, oh yeah, no, I put mine in a CD. CDs are right now off the charts. It's 5%

right now on a CD. And that's actually real. So if you are interested in investing your money, check out scenes. But like, yeah, like someone like that is going to turn around, someone who doesn't necessarily need their money right now, but has it, and they can invest it and they can put it into an account that they're not like, I need a savings account, Jesse, because I don't have very much money. Even with all the bragging I was doing about the money I spent on Christmas, that's more just because I'm an idiot with money, not because I have a lot of it. Now, I also need my savings account to be in within arm's reach. I need to be able to get that money out and have it come to me an emergency situation, but people that can commit that money to a different

type of account, they're going to make more money off of their money. And we can both start out with the same amount of money. I have $5,000, they have $5,000, but in five years, their $5,000 will have done much more, whereas mine is probably in like the negative as far as money that I've gained. You know what I mean? So it's like, that's kind of this situation with the Dodgers where they do have a plan as far as putting that money aside and they do make enough money as a franchise for them to be able to put that money aside not have it impact them in the same way that other organizations have to have that impact. I mean, we still don't know anything about the Padres finances and such, but there is a point where the five, Padres had to take out a short-term loan, right? I mean,

that was something that was, you know, documented. So it's like not, not all the teams out there have the same amount of money that the Dodgers do in order to make these moves and even deferred these contracts, right? Totally. But like, let's be real, right? If you were a free agent, why wouldn't you want to sign with the Dodgers right now? You know they're probably going to give you more money than anybody else. And even if you have to defer your contract, sometimes as a person, you're like, well, I might screw up with my money if I got given all to me right now. Like it's almost a little nicer to have someone be like, we're going to hold on to this for you right now.

We're going to give you like $3 million a year, 10 years from now for 10 years straight. So you're going to be square once you retire or whatever happens after that point. But, you know, that's just something that is not that unappealing to guys that are making money right now, but their future is uncertain as far as when, you know, what 10 years from now, what they're going to be making, right? Like, it's satisfying to know your future is taken care of as far as those deferred payments. Plus, you get to play on this team and be a part of this team. Yeah, and that's the thing I keep going back to is to Oscar Hernandez could have signed a multi-year deal elsewhere. There's no question in my mind that that was an option for him.

For sure. He is a, he is certainly a good enough player to warrant more than a one year contract. This isn't a guy who's 37 years old, right? But if you're to Oscar Hernandez and you're coming off a down season by your standards, you know, you're faced with a choice. Am I going to take that three year, you know, $50 million deal? Maybe it was something like that that he could have gotten elsewhere similar to the Lord of Steel, probably.

I think those two guys were valued pretty, pretty similarly. Sure, yeah. Would you rather do that? or would you rather, you know, play one year with a team that has an insanely good roster and then and work with world-class hitting coaches. The Dodgers have, of course, a long pass now of it's not on, just on the pitching side. Jason Hayward Wright goes there last year and puts together the kind of season that he did.

J.D. Martinez goes there last year and puts together the kind of season he did. It's like, where else would you want to go on a one-year contract? And then at the end of that one year, you have the opportunity. to hit the open market again. And if you have the kind of season you think you can have, then you can get a whole lot more than three years and $50 million or whatever it is that he could get right now. So it does make sense.

And the fact that it is the Dodgers, it's not, you know, people say like any team can, any team can give out these kind of deals. Yeah. But the Dodgers have an advantage in that, number one, they are a very desirable place to play, given the roster that they've put together. And number two, they are a great place to go if you're trying to kind of and get your career back on track. And Teoska Hernandez is certainly in that in that situation.

Yeah, you're not wrong. Elise says that deferring a one-year deal is kind of crazy and that he's drinking the Dodger Kool-Aid. The Dodger Kool-Aid. Yeah, I will say at least when looking at this deal, it's not like he's deferring 20 million of the 23 and a half million. He's deferring, you know, eight and a half million. So he's still getting a...

Yeah. Like it's... This isn't an Otani level of deferment or you're deferring like everything. That's a mention 15 million. million dollars in one year to have as actual money that is in your bank account is not yeah that's that's he's he's not going to be slumming it he'll be fine financially I'm sure but uh I don't know if the Dodgers will be fine I mean I'm sure they'll probably be fine but their luxury tax payrolls estimated to be close to 309 million dollars 100 million dollars

next year 309 three hundred and nine million dollars sorry I'm bad with numbers for 2024 but according to Cod's contracts, this will be the fourth straight season, the Dodgers owe on the luxury tax. So they're going to be getting hit when it comes to... It's not the luxury tax there. It's the competitive balance threshold.

Yeah. So the competitive balance tax threshold for 2024 is estimated to be $237 million for every team in baseball. So the Dodgers, this is how it breaks down, Jesse. And this is wild to me because it's not just a straightforward like, oh, hey,

you're getting taxed 50% which is where they're at, they're at level three now, which is the most that you can get taxed. It's not just 50 million or 50% of the amount they're spending over the competitive balance tax. That breaks down in tiers that really like at 20 million dollars. Every 20 million. So, okay, the first 20 million is taxed at 50%. The next 20 million is taxed at 62%. The next 20 million is taxed at 95%.

And then there is a fourth tier. beyond that where you are being taxed a hundred and ten percent. That's tough. Right. So the Dodgers right now will pay an estimated $54 million in luxury tax for being above the competitive balance tax threshold in 2024. That's wild to me, Jesse, because they are close to doing obviously what the Mets did last year, I believe, which was what was it like 110 million?

I think the Mets. were further over. Yeah, 110 million, I think, is what they paid. So, I mean, we are getting to a point now where the competitive balance, if you will, is just teams paying in taxes as much as other team's entire payroll is, you know, and the Dodgers now are approaching that territory. That's why it was so key that they defer the Otani deal and that they defer as many of these payments as they can to the future because of how much money right now they're being.

tax not. Yeah, so the Dodgers before making this move, their CBT hit was it, I believe, 288 million right around there. The CBT hit for this deal is right around 20 because there's some deferrals. So it's not the full 23.5 that we've talked about that math in the past. But yeah, because this deal, the Dodgers were already at about 288. So this deal pushes them from that second to highest bracket into the highest tax bracket. Right. So some of this money to Teoska Hernandez is being taxed at the 95% that you mentioned. And then some of this money is being taxed at the 110%, aka the Steve Cohen tax, as some people have been saying in the chat. So the true value of this deal, Derek, is a heck of a lot more.

The true expenditure here for the Dodgers is a heck of a lot more than $23.5 million. If my math is correct, this is actually costing the Dodgers $44.8 million. That is how much will be paid out to Teoscar Hernandez both now and in the future as well as the tax that the Dodgers owe on top of that. So yeah, I mean, that's a lot of money to pay for a guy who had a 106 OPS plus last year. But yeah, he's a Teoska Hernandez was an All-Star a couple of years ago, as you said earlier. And yeah, I think there's some real potential here for him to have a better season than the year he just did with the Mariners. Ryan saying Jesse loving all the math and flexing his brain. Derek is Jesse spotter.

Math is power. Yeah, no, I mean, when we get together and start talking math and money, like, we're really in our wheelhouse. We've got a great day today. Baseball podcast. But speaking of the Mets, by the way, they continue to be a mystery. They are an enigma wrapped inside of a mystery. And I can't figure them out. They signed pitcher Sean Maniah to a two-year, $28 million.

deal with a player opt-out after the 20-24 season. Maniah in 20-23 in 10 starts had a 4.44 ERA, a 1.24 whip, 25.7% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate, 3.90 FIPP 1.1.4. Yeah, and he was both a starter and a reliever for the Giants because, of course, if you pitch for the Giants, if you pitch for the Giants, that means you start at a price. approximately 12 games and you had like 23 appearances out of the bullpen or something like that. That's how that's how it's works over there. Unless you're Logan Webb.

Yeah. Logan Webb is the one exception. He's allowed to just be a starting picture. But yeah, so from an I was 37 appearances, 10 starts. You gave the numbers. He was, as you'd expect, considerably better as a reliever than he was as a starter, a 418 ERA out of the bullpen compared to 482 in the starting rotation. So, yeah, he's not, he does not necessarily project as this great starting.

pitcher. I don't know exactly what the Mets intentions are here with him. I imagine they're going to be looking to get at least some use out of him in the starting rotation. You're probably not signing like a long reliever for two years and $28 million. I think we can safely

safely say that. I would fucking hope not. And I don't think Shaman I would want to sign with a team that wasn't going to give him a shot to pitch in the rotation. Obviously that's where the money is. There were suitors that were going to pay him to be a starter. And if if the Mets weren't going to be that, then you know, there is someone else there that probably would have.

But what are the Mets doing? What is this team that they're assembling? Yeah, I don't know. Is it like the Thunderbolts, which is a whole other Avengers reference, I would have to explain to you for a long time. I mean, I don't get, maybe more Suicide Squad might be a little bit more app with what they're doing over there. But their acquisitions this offseason, Harrison Bader, Luis Cerino, Joey Wendell, Jorge Lopez. Sean Mania?

Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, they've got some guys on minor league deals too. Oh, yeah. Trace Thompson, Chicago legend. Yeah, Austin Adams. Austin Adams. The pitch with the Diamondbacks a little bit in 2023. Jose Iglesias also.

But yeah, what are they doing? Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, it's like because they're- They're just trying to field a team next year? Because they're the Mets and they have money, of course. They have Steve Cohen. They can't have an off-season and not spend, right? Like, they don't know.

what? They can't do that. And so what they did is they didn't spend, they're not spending at the top of the market, which I think this would be kind of a weird time for the Mets to do that after the incredible, you know, disappointing down year that they just had. But they are still spending a decent amount of money here.

I mean, Manaya's deal averages out to $14 million a year. Harrison Bader, 10 and a half. Luis Severino, 13 million. Between those three guys, I mean, that's almost $40 million for 20,24 alone. I mean, $40 million is a lot of money. And you look at, you know, you look at $40 million, and then you look at how those three players performed last year. And you're like, wasn't there a better way to spend $40 million? Yeah.

Right? Like, Mania wasn't all that great. Severino had a 6.65 ERA last year with the Yankees. Harrison Bader. We touched on him the other day. He was probably misused. He should have had more bats against lefties and not as many against righties. but he had a 622 OPS as well.

I've explained this before. This is my Black Friday shopping theory. This is why you win when it comes to not going Black Friday shopping. Because you go in the door and you saw in an ad for a store that they had a 70-inch TV for $23. And they had, you know, like all this stuff that is not going to be there when you get in the door. Sure. But you have money in hand. You were ready to spend.

So now you're just picking up whatever. Even though you know it's not even good gifts, you're just. like, yeah, picture frame, it's five bucks and it's this and that, right? I mean, they didn't get deals on these guys by any stretch of the imagination, but I kind of said this is what was going to happen after some of these big deals started happening. There are going to be five teams, four teams that were rumored to be interested, that were interested, that somehow discussed internally that they were going to be able to budget this much money for some of these huge stars. And when they did not get them, they still have that money to burn. Not as much. And no,

they're not going to give somebody else. They're not going to give Shamanai Yamamoto money, right? just because they're desperate. I hope not. Just want to throw it away now, right? But what they will do is they're willing to spend now at this point. And you're a big discount by comparison to what they were going to spend. So they have no problem giving you potentially exactly what you're asking for. I think that's the reason why so many free agents were in a holding pattern until these teams finally,

until these big players landed with their teams. And then the other teams started spreading that money around a little bit more. I said it in the best. I think you're doing a disservice to your client. if you're an agent and you let them sign before Otani landed and until Yamamoto landed, you know, once those guys land, yeah,

I mean, now you do. I don't know how much like Otani was holding up the Harrison Bader market. Like I think, because guys are in pretty different situations. Again, it's about money. It's about budget.

And of course, there's going to be teams that are interested in you. And once that that happens, the ones that didn't get him now, they're still, like you said, you're not going to go a free agency sometimes without adding to your team. You just have to do it in order to try to show the fans.

base that you're making an effort to improve and be competitive next year, right? Sure. So, I mean, again, it's really just about trying to get as much money as possible. And again, there are going to be a lot of teams that come under budget this year because they had those discussions. They thought they could afford it and they figured out how they could and the deal never happened. So they're still going to try to get better.

But the Mets, I don't know if this is better. I don't know what this is. Yeah, it's interesting. And yeah, I was mentioned in the comments. there's also the tax on all of these guys, too, just like we talked about with the Dodgers. They're probably $320 million next year. Jesse, it's more than the Dodgers. Yeah, their CBT is like 320.

Yeah, which is higher than the Dodgers. And yeah, I mean, if these three guys cost $40 million, if you factor in the tax, I mean, there's a good chance they're paying like $70 million. I know. I know how much to break down Joey Wendell, how much he's getting based on 110% over the CBT. If you add together the wins above replacement over on fan graphs of all of the major league contracts that they've signed, the guys that they've signed in major league contracts, it is minus 0.3. And that's not totally fair because like, yeah, Severino had this big down year. Jorge Lopez was terrible last year, even though he's been good in the past. So that, you know, that's a good part, a big chunk of this.

But, yeah, signing, you know, five players to major league deals and spending a pretty decent amount. amount of money, especially when you figure in the tax and, you know, seeing the production that those guys had last year, it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily vote well for the New York Mets. I mean, they're banking on these guys to bounce back. And there is a world in which Severino comes out and has this crazy season and maybe the Mets are out of it and they trade Severino and they get a bunch of stuff at the trade deadline. Like, I do think there are some ways that this could end well for them. But, yeah, at first glance, you're not super impressed with their what they've done in free agency so far.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHN Exports YouTube channel, all 62 of you here live right now. That means there should be 62 likes. So drop a like the other 50 of you that haven't done so already. Make sure to subscribe to our channel and sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live.

If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we appreciate you as well. Leave us a review. We always appreciate those five-star reviews and make sure you're subscribed over the there on your favorite podcasting app. Of course, right now is a great time with the start of the new year for you to check into doing some home renovations. And there is the one company that we can highly suggest that you get your flooring done through.

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Is there like a special floor for tap dancing? Is it a special floor? Yeah, is it a special floor? Yeah, is it? I don't know. I assume there is a tap dancing floor. I think part of it might be the fact that it is like on top of the carpeting here in the studio the way it is. And it just has a nice sound to it.

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Visit CircleK.com for details. We're getting some good tap dance. We're getting tap dancing. Well, I knew it was special shoes, cogs. That wasn't the question. We knew it was special shoes. That wasn't the question. We knew it was special shoes.

Oh, like cogs, you're oversimplifying it. We understand their shoes with little metal bottoms on it. We get that. Yes, thank you. Yeah, it is a hardwood floor over there. So that's what makes it so good to tap on. Yeah, there you go. See, we're getting you answers to questions.

Even when there are questions, we don't know sometimes the answers to all this stuff, but we do our best. And as you know, every year on this show is the year of the snake. Every month is national blood donor month, I think. That's what January is. That's a new addition. Yeah, every month is national blood donor month. You should always do that, especially if you're a universal donor. Every week is still Shark Week, which the sharks love the blood, so there's a tie in there.

But every day is Earth Day here at the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. And every Monday, you know what we do. Every Monday, we go to the mailbag. Damon, shall we? My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. And then what makes me go out.

It's also National Glockoma Awareness Month. And, of course, every month with Derek Montia's. So it's national glaucoma awareness. Smoke that weed. All right. Well, what do we got, Damon? And our first question in the mailbag comes from Brett Lee Johnson, our guy, Brett, who could probably have shouted this question to us from wherever he's at.

Brett says, when will the Diamondbacks start deferring every single one of their contracts since that seems to be the meta? Yeah, you're not wrong. There you go. I don't know. The debacks do not often sign the kinds of deals where that would make sense. I mean, and yes, the Teosker, her name. situation is weird.

It is a one-year deal. We don't see deferrals on one-year deals very often. But, like, are the, I mean, where the Diamondbacks going to, like, defer money on, I don't know, every year, they're signing usually a couple of guys to one-year, five- or six-million-dollar deals. You're not going to, you're not going to defer money when it's that little. They did defer money in the Zach Rankie deal. Yeah. So they have done that with the bigger stuff in the past.

I don't think there's any deferrals on Eduardo Rodriguez, as far as we're aware. deferring on Madison Bumgardner a little bit. What do you? I don't even get the joke. He's not with the team anymore, but they're still paying him. I guess that. I guess that makes sense. I was trying.

Anyway, yeah, no, I don't know. The answer there is that the financial future is much murkier for the Arizona Diamondbacks than it is for the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the Diamondbacks, again, it's about having that money now that you don't really need in order to defer it down the road, right? and that might not be a possibility. I don't know. Yeah, we have no idea how much the diamondbacks are making.

But I do believe Ken Kendrick's claim that they are just reinvesting it back into the team. It's just a different amount that you can reinvest back in the team than the Dodgers have. And that's really, I think, what it's going to come down to. There is no competitive balance in baseball because there's just such a wide divide between the haves and the have-nots. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah, I don't really have any, any, gripes there. Well, I made things very sad.

I brought this move down quickly. It was Mailbag Monday. The chat got your jokes there. Yeah, good. That's good. I love you, chat. What else we got? Rick Hughes at DBLLS3 on Twitter says,

I'm getting the feeling that a reason a DH type hasn't been signed yet as Dbacks are looking for a one-year deal, leaving the position open for Ketel in 2025, with Troy and Lawler close and Jerry P. already in the middle, infield, is already getting pretty crowded. my way off the mark here. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if Citell the plan in the future is to move Cetell to D.H. I don't know if that's necessarily it. But I would not be surprised if the Diamondbacks are trying to sign someone on a bit shorter term of a deal.

And again, if it's J.D. Martinez, I would probably be viewing this as the last potential multi-year deal that I could get of my career. I'm not saying he's that at the end of it. But like if he could get three years, that's much better for him. at this point than him signing a one-year deal. Yeah. Just to secure his future there a bit. I don't think he's going to get three years. Oh, I'm not saying that.

He probably could get two, and you're right. I mean, if he gets a two-year deal and then hits free agency again at 38, no matter how good he is in those two years. I don't think anyone's given Martin J.D. a two-year deal if he's 38 years old. So, yeah, I think there could be some, there could be something, too, the Diamondbacks trying to get someone on a one-year deal as opposed to to two. There are a number of guys available. in this free agent pool that would make some sense that you would maybe like to get on a one-year deal instead of a two-year deal just as kind of part of the negotiation process. There's no such thing as a bad one-year contract, right, as the saying goes.

So there could be something to that. I don't know if the debacks are necessarily concerned about a two-year deal in the sense of blocking Ketel from the DH slot. Like we talked about the other day, his defensive metrics were totally fine at second base in 2023. Is he a plus defensive second baseman? No. Do you project him moving forward to be, you know, above average?

No, you don't. But I don't think it's such an immediate concern that you have to be like, all right, we got to have the spot open next year, at least not at this point. So I don't think that you need a one-year deal for that reason. And I also don't, I don't think you're necessarily concerned about Tommy Troy and Perdomo and Lawler, you know, just becoming all of those guys taking huge step forwards and steps forward and then Cattel needs the DH slot instead of the second base slot.

These things have a way of kind of working themselves out. You're not going to assume that, you know, all of those prospects are going to develop that quickly. There's still a lot of questions to be answered with Lawler and Tommy Troy. certainly Troy just got his first taste of professional baseball over the last few months of of 2023. So I wouldn't, I don't think that will be factoring into their thinking too much. Well, if you're not done with questions about those guys, I got another one for you.

What we got here? Damon, the mailback from Travis Moore. More for me asks, what is a perfect scenario for Arizona's top three prospects being in the same lineup in the future? What year could that feasibly happen? where does Troy play in the infield, assuming Lawler, sticks at shortstop? That's a great question. And a question that has a lot of variables.

I don't know if we could really pin that down. I mean, I think obviously it feels like whoever doesn't play at shortstop will be playing at third base between those two guys. I think that's probably fair to say. But who knows if that even ends up being how things work out. I doubt that we will see that any time in the near future. I would probably say what, like 2026 maybe would be 2025. I mean, Drew, I assume that Drew Jones is the third is the third member here.

Yeah, I mean, Waller Troy, and Jones are pretty clearly the top three prospects on this team. So yeah, 2026. That still feels a little bullish to me, honestly, for Drew Jones. Not that it couldn't happen. I mean, if he's asking one the earliest, we think it could happen. Yeah, I guess the earliest. Like, I don't think you're going to be. going to see that in 2025. The 2026 that gives Tommy Troy a couple years in in the miners that gives

Drew Jones a couple years to go from you know low A all the way to the majors which there's a lot of development that needs to happen in those years but yeah I guess it's possible. We could be seeing a scenario where at the end of 2026 you know Drew Jones makes his debut for this team like we've seen with Lawler and like we saw with Corbyn it's just again Corbyn's just he's changed everybody's level when it comes to this stuff. And it's not realistic to ever look at the amount of time. It took Corby to especially bounce back from that injury and make it to where he was the rookie of the year.

Yeah. And ever compare any other minor leaguer to him. It's just he's a, he's a unicorn. MLB pipeline says that Drew Jones and Tommy Troy, their ETA is 2026. Doesn't Tommy Troy feel like a fast call up though? Like just his profile of player? Yeah, yeah, him being a college guy for sure. I think Tommy Troy could be up in 2025.

I don't think that's outrageous. Yeah, I don't think that's crazy to think for sure. But yeah, if we're talking about all three of them, then it's got to be at least 2026 for me to feel comfortable like doing that as a possibility. Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, anything can happen. You never. Yeah, who knows. Who knows.

All right. What else we got, Damon Dogg? Next question comes from Preston Smith. That's Preston J. Smith 88 on Twitter. He says any interest in Jock Peterson at D. lineup is right-handed heavy and could be more affordable than Martinez, Soler, and Belt. I don't know than belts, but I definitely think that Jock Peterson could be more affordable than those other two guys. Yeah, I agree.

I think Belts is going to get a one-year deal. There's no way. Whereas Jock Peterson, I think he has a decent chance to get two years at this point. Belt would just rake here at Chasefield. Well, I don't know, man. I mean, like eight years ago, yes. but Brandonville, his underlying, some of the underlying numbers there are a little concerning. He struck out a ton in 2023.

But Jock Peterson, yeah, he's the name that we've talked about a little bit in the past. Originally, we were just looking at Ritees, and then Mike Hazen talked about that the debacks could go after a lefty too. And so we talked about Jock Peterson and Brandon Belt and Switch hitter in Carlos Santana. I think Jock could make some sense for sure. Diamondbacks. We looked at this the other day on this show. The Diamondbacks, as of now, you could make a case. Their lineup against lefties is actually better than it is against Rite's. Against Rite's, you're expecting Corbyn Carroll to be crazy good. You're expecting

Cotel Marte to be solid, even though he'll probably be better against lefties as he usually is. And then beyond that, like Christian Walker, Lordus Guerriel, Eohenio Suarez, you hope to get some kind of positive value there. But those guys are probably going to be better against lefties. So I do think there's a case to be made that adding a left-handed bat to this lineup would potentially be more beneficial than adding a right-handed bat and Jock Peterson would certainly be that.

There we go. All right, well, let's what got, Damon? Michael Rokickey asks, which of the in-game games do you think you would be best at? I can see Jesse killing the fries, sink or swim game. Boy, I'm going with the memory, the flipping the card memory game. That always looks absurdly easy. Yeah, but it's not though. No, it's so easy. It's all of your

the approach that you put into it. You can literally go one, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, but you have to go. Yeah, you can't sit there and think about it. Time is a factor there. But it is a, it's a simple game to beat fairly easily. They're yes, sitting from the press box, Derek, it's an extraordinarily easy game. But actually being on. But actually being on You're right there. Being on the Jumbotron. And it's not, it's not just a matter of strategy.

It's a matter of being able to remember all these cards once you've seen them. And I can do that when I'm sitting in my little office chair up in the press box. I don't know if I could do that under the pressure of everyone, everyone watching and booing me when I mess up. It's got, it's one of those games that's definitely harder than it looks. I think we can all acknowledge that. I'm stealing the second.

base and running. Yeah, that was my pick. That was my pick. Yeah, that's the only game that I think I would be good at. I think I think I could be one of, like the little kids who go, they start in right field, right? And then they run to second base and they get like entirely too much time to bring the base back so that they're, so that they always are able to make it.

I think I could pull that off. The most disappointing game of all the in-game games is the hot dog race. and it is due to its predetermined nature. Yeah. That is coming from someone who is a pro wrestling fan. What I am saying is that you are out there, you're in a hot dog costume. You got to rally back, hold it onto your back,

and you're just running for your life. You are running on behalf of the hot dog on screen. And most of these children think that their effort is somehow impacting the video that they pre-decided they were going to play hours before the game even started. These kids have no chance, but you know who does me? Because I've memorized every single one of the final video shots. And I know based on who rounds third and where they're at, who's going to win.

So if you ever want to doubt me, just fucking put some money on it. And we'll see who will put your money where you're mouth there. See if you get down on beating me when it comes to that. Ryan asked, the hot dog race is fake. Did I, am I, did I, did we not know that? Is this like me revealing pro wrestling is fake? Yeah, right. That's exactly.

Oh, Jesse didn't know what fake meant when it came to pro wrestling. Yeah, I have no idea. He thought The Undertaker was a real undertaker. That's all I will say about that. I'm trying to think of what other other games were missing. They used to do this. They used to have people catch pop flies. I don't know.

I feel like I haven't seen that in a long time. Oh, that's cash money. Yeah, that would be fun. Oh, yeah. It's like three. It's like three. You have to catch like three, five miles. Oh, yeah.

Everyone goes pretty high. All day. All day. Yeah, I think I could, I think I could do that. Yeah. There's a while. There's the one where you have to get like the Oreo down your face without your hands. Oh, right, right.

Right? I feel like you would probably be pretty good at that. Oh, you know I would be good at that. Yeah, you would be pretty, you would probably murder. You know, sometimes when I fall asleep on the couch with an Oreo on my face, that when I wake up, that's exactly how I get it down to my mouth, Jesse. I'm a pro at that. But, yeah, no, there's definitely some predetermined stuff in there. I'm sorry, I hate to tell you guys that.

But I will tell you what's not predetermined. It's the action over at BetMGM because it's not allowed to be. Also, it's based on real sporting events and it'll make betting more fun. I made some money this weekend and it had nothing to do with my knowledge of the teams. Do you have common sense? Can you look at basic facts and determine when one team is obviously not going to win? Then you could win some money over at the BetMGM Sportsbook app. If you download it today on iOS or Android at visit or visit betmjim.com, you can sign up using our code of PHNX.

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No Lamar Jackson. No anybody. It's a rainy day. It's a muddy field. I mean, the under, whoever is starting at Pittsburgh. Well, Nogh Harris arguably can drag an entire team to the end zone. But Naji Harris, anytime touchdown,

and then the Steelers winning, covering, it was a no-brainer. It was a no-brainer. It turned $10 into $122. Just like that. And you can do that too over at the bet MGM Sportsbook gap, and you do it with a lot. our bonus code of P H&X.

Even if you lose, you will make some money back. Again, just use that bonus code of PHNX. Place your first bet MGM Sportsbook Wager through the mobile application of at least $10 if that bet loses. Your bonus bets will be available once your initial wager settled. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 1-800

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I'm sorry, Elizabeth. Yeah, you really ruined some people's lives. I really blew it today. Your little revelation about the hot dog race. People aren't happy about this. I hope my daughter wasn't watching the first five minutes when I was talking about Three Kings Day. All right.

I'll tell you, I can make it up to you by taking you to a sporting event. And of course, if I were to do that, even though I'm not actually offering to do that, I would say that if I were to do that, I would buy you tickets through GameTime. And that's what you should do, because Game Time is the place for last minute ticket deals. It's the fastest-growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. Not only is aesthetically pleasing, but you will get the best deals you can find on last-minute ticket deals to shows, concerts, events. Don't miss out on anything.

Don't have FOMO in 2024. Use the GameTime app. snag the tickets without the stress, download the app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. And also, we thank you guys for being diehard members if you are already. One, if you are not, join us over at go phnx.com, become part of our diehard family. You will get access to all of Jesse's writings, all of his newsletters, everything we have to offer. The Discord Lounge, which is the craziest.

You guys are insane in the Discord lounge, by the way. It is the craziest place to be an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. You also get a free t-shirt from p.hnx locker.com and so much more, including discounts with our partners, special invites to events, discounts on events like our upcoming takeover in July, where we're going to all be by the pool at Chase Field, so do not miss out on that.

And of course, Saul's probably still going to get mad at me, but I'm going to give away two tickets to that throughout. At some point this year, I'm going to give away two tickets. You're probably going to wind up paying for this. I'm probably going to wind up paying for it, but that's fine. Won't be the first time. Won't be the last time. We love you guys, though.

We thank you for being here. And let's get to some more mailbag Monday questions. Damon, what do we got? Nerding on the debacks. Love that. Twitter handle says, any rumblings about adding Gary Sanchez in place of a DH would allow Gabby and Gary to rotate catcher of DH,

keeping them both fresh. This could easily outproduce a dedicated DH with Gabby having to catch 120-ish games, which may wear him down, reducing his offensive production. And I don't hate this idea at all. I think anybody that the Diamondbacks can bring in at this point that's going to fill more than one need for them

seems like it makes sense. It seems like it's the savvy move considering that they still have like some positional needs that they need to fill that they're, you know, I mean, they're fine. They could go on this season the way that they're currently constructed, but in order to truly make them contend, it feels like they have to address those needs. Yeah, I kind of like this idea.

I think that if you had, if you sign a left-handed hitting DH, like Jack Peterson, who we talked about earlier, that happened, then there would be this question. I think someone asked about this in the mailbag as well, what are you going to do against lefties? Jack Peterson is your DH. You don't really want to start him against left-handed pitching, at this point in his career. What are you going to do against lefties? and Gary Sanchez would be a great answer. Gary Sanchez in 2023-267-304-680 against left-handed pitching. He was very, very good against lefties.

Gabby Moreno, of course, also very good against lefties. It would be a pretty good situation if you had both of those guys in the lineup at the same time. So, yes, it does make some sense. Give Gary Sanchez 40-ish starts as a catcher. Give him another 40 starts, 50 starts. whatever it winds up being as a DH in games against lefties. Yeah. Or, you know, whereabouts.

I think that could, I think that could make some sense for the Diamondbacks. The big question here is going to come down to money. You know, if you sign Jack Peterson, if you're giving him 11, 12 million, do you have another like $7,8 million to give Gary Sanchez? I don't know. I would suspect that might, the Diamondbacks might not have that. But on paper, it does kind of make sense pairing a left-handed DH with a guy like like Gary Sanchez.

That number, that budget number, it's all. It's imaginary, Jesse. It can go up and down as much as we need it to. Don't forget that. All right, what else we got? We got Chris trying to take over the whole damn show at the history fan on Twitter asks, when is the gallon and Christian Walker extension coming? Who is in the running for the number five spot in the rotation?

Thought pitched his way to the third spot. We need another all-star bullpen arm. Hater anyone? Oh, Chris. See, Chris knows how this works, though. Yeah. Chris knows that because sometimes people will submit multiple mailbag questions in separate tweets. Yeah.

And if that happens, we're going to, we are absolutely going to pick one of those. Yeah, no, he put us really in an awkward position here. Don't tell everybody that. Yeah, see. Well, Chris himself did submit another question in a separate tweet. And when that one did not, that one did not wind up making the cut. Well, he had to space and then do a line and then space to do a line. So maybe he just ran out of space, Jesse.

but let's rapid fire these really fast. When is the Gallon and Christian Walker extension coming? March 26. Next question. April 10th. Moving on. We have no idea, brother. I mean, the gallon extension is probably never coming.

And the Christian Walker extension probably is a little bit more realistic. But I'm not sure if that's even the direction the team might want to go in extending him. Christian Walker is by far one of the first or best defensive first baseman in all baseball. And his offensive numbers are pretty damn good too. So I don't see a reason to move on from him. But I mean, many people were fairly unsatisfied with his production during the postseason run. And that's understandable. He did kind of.

His expected stats were good, though. Don't be fooled by the myth that Christian Walker was just abysmal in the postseason. His magical. His ex-Wobah, Derek, was like 400. It should have been crazy. I don't want to hear it. You should have had 20 home runs in the postseason according to the expected stats. Yeah, but I mean, again, like both of those extensions I would love to see happen as soon as possible.

I just think that Walker one is far more likely than Zach Gallen. And I mean, I'm not saying that there's not a chance that Zach Gallen doesn't stay here in Arizona. But there's almost a part of me that believes it would be more likely that we see what happened when Lourdes happened, where he comes to the end of his contract, explores free agents, a bit and then maybe decides to stay here versus necessarily signing that extension prior to that point because he knows his value is just going to increase year by year. Yeah, I think I guess we could answer like if they did happen, when would they happen? I do think late February sometime in March is probably the extensions that have been signed over the last few years.

That's when they tend to happen. Not necessarily all that long before opening day. Once opening day happens, you don't really see extensions happen. after that. Usually it's like, all right, we're into the season now. We don't want this to be a distraction anymore. If these things are going to happen, they'd probably happen before opening day. Let's start Chris's question back up there.

Let's just rapid fire these. Who's in the running for the number five spot in the rotation? Right now, Ryan Nelson, Tommy Henry. Slate Ciccone, Bryce Jarvis, maybe Blake Walston has a shot as well. Yeah. Coming into spring camp, I think that any of those guys could impress and become the front runner for that position. I think incumbency is a little, there's something to that with having seen what Tommy

Henry and Ryan Nelson can do. So I would definitely put both of them as, you know, at the front versus the other guys. For sure. It's not to say like Blake Walsden couldn't come in and blow away the coaching staff and absolutely get that fifth spot. It's, it's anyone's game right now at this point when it comes to the guys right now in-house versus yeah. If, you know, obviously if they go out and acquire someone, that's going to change things. Those guys are all in the 40-man roster too. So it wouldn't be, there wouldn't be an issue like there was with Brandon Fott during spring training last year was like, all right, well, all these guys are on the 40-man except for Brandon Fott. And that kind of made it

seem less likely that Fott would actually, you know, land on the opening day roster. Fott pitched his way to the third spot. No, I still think he's going to be in the fourth spot in the rotation. He did pitch his way to the number one spot in my heart, though, in the rotation. And that's important. I think I think rotation spots are are kind of semantics in some ways. Especially after the first week of the season, right? I mean, yeah, there's so much shifting that tends to happen later in the year. And yeah, I mean, even if Brandon Fod did project is like a much better starter than Eduardo Rodriguez next year, you're probably still like kind of out of seniority giving Eduardo Rodriguez that third spot. Last question is we need another all-star bullpen arm,

Hater anyone. I will agree that I think the Diamondbacks could definitely use another high-level quality bullpen arm. I just don't think it needs to be someone that's going to cost something like Hater is going to cost, right? Gabriel says we don't need Josh. I only pitch on three days rest on the second day after a full moon hater. Well, well played, Gabriel.

Yeah, he doesn't. He's not the Josh Hater from a few years ago where like you're putting him in in a seventh inning and having him get six or seven outs or something like that. He's strictly a one-inning guy for sure at this point. The debacks are not going to sign Josh Hader. I'm just going to come out and say it. He is going to be very expensive. And I think even teams that do have the kind of money it would take to get Josh Hader

are still hesitant about, you know, do you want to give a relief pitcher $20 million a year? Is that something that, you know, even a team that does have that kind of money is willing to do? I don't think that's a super obvious choice. So yeah, I do agree with the sentiment, though, that the Diamondbacks could use to add some other weapons to the back end of the bullpen. And I'm not sure, though, if that's something we're actually going to see.

All right, well, that's what God damn. Zany Antics on Twitter asks, oh, wrong one. Ryan Simmons at Zany Antics, ask, if the Diamondbacks do go with a left-handed hitter for the DH spot, who doesn't hit left-handed pitching particularly well, what do you see them doing with that spot in the lineup when facing left-handed pitching? Yeah, and this kind of all these questions kind of connect together.

We talked about Jock Peterson earlier and Kerry Sanchez and how they would like kind of pair well nicely together. But yeah, it's a good question. If they don't get that, if they don't get that part that pairs well, like they don't have that guy. I mean, I don't know, some of the splits on some of these guys aren't as significant as they are on other hitters. So, I mean, I don't know if the Diamondbacks need to necessarily make some drastic change, but it just feels like right now, you know, obviously they are very left-handed. They've always been kind of left-handed. And this is one of the things that they need to have, do something about just in order to balance their rotation.

I mean, again, we even talked about the fact that some of the guys that they don't really let hit, you know, in certain scenarios don't have that bad of splits really when it comes down to it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it definitely depends on the player. So, yeah, Jock Peterson could still hit lefties occasionally. Brandon Bell, I don't think you'd really ever want him in the lineup against lefties. So, yeah, if the debaks were to get a lefty DH but not have like the Gary Sanchez to go with it and are more looking in-house, I think that would just give a bump in the likelihood of guys like Jordan Lawler, Blaze Alexander, Emmanuel Rivera, Kevin Newman. all of those right-handed hitting backup guys.

We don't know exactly if they're going to make the roster at this point, really, with any of those guys. It wouldn't guarantee a roster spot to any of them, but it could give them the leg up over, you know, Jace Peterson who, you know, maybe not wouldn't make as much sense on the roster at that point or some other guys as well. So I think Kevin Newman is maybe the most obvious answer there is a guy who has majorly experienced and hit lefties pretty well. in 2023 as we discussed the other day. So maybe he gets some D.H. opportunity if you do sign a Jock Peterson or some of those lefties. All right.

What else we got there, Damon? Our boy Coggs, aka King Snake Coggs, asked, what are some fun baseball-related things I can do while on this 33-hour train ride to New Orleans? That's amazing, first of all. I took a train ride one time from Syracuse, New York to Phoenix, Arizona. It wasn't. Wow. pleasant. I'll tell you some things not to do.

Don't lie to your fellow passengers about your name, even if it's just for fun. Don't go off with a group of strangers to investigate the alamo if you train stops there at like 3 o'clock in the morning because the train will leave without you. I found that out. Also, some baseball related things. I mean, I'm imagining that you're traveling with a group of people

that you know. I'm not sure if this is just you. I think Karen also chimed in here. So she's what the chaperone for this trip, I believe. But what are some fun baseball? I mean, I'm guessing that there are going to be few people that know as much Diamondbacks-related trivia as cogs on the train. So that seems like a, I guess, an advantageous situation for him, but also one that doesn't seem very fair. You want him to like do trivia questions with people? Sometimes that's fun.

I mean, what do we do around this office for hours upon hours? hours a day ask each other dumb questions. Hey, I'm going to give you three stats of this guy. Do you tell me who it is? I don't know. There's dumb baseball stuff like that. What else you got? So yeah, the thing that I would do if I were COGS is I would I would download hopefully you have hopefully of internet. It might be a couple gigabytes. Hopefully it's good internet. I would download this game called out of the park baseball, which COGS might already be familiar with. It is a baseball simulation game. It basically puts you in the GM chair and you can do everything.

You can manage the injuries on your single A team if you want. And I would spend copious amounts of time playing this game as of just a few years ago. I've grown out of it at this point. I love you, Jesse. It is so much fun. You're literally traveling the world. You are experiencing things. traveling the world.

He's taking a train ride through what? New Mexico and Texas? It's not a plane. You can get up and move about. There's a dining cabin you can go to hang out in for pizza. Go make some friends, Cogs. I change my answer. Go to the dining area and order something nice and then play out of the park baseball.

See, goddamn kids need your video games these days. Can't look out a window and just enjoy life. What is the hell of wrong with you? Is that your answer for Cogs? Look at the window for 33 hours? No, I mean, 33 hours is a very long time. Guys, Jesse is truly the person that he presents himself to be on the show. It's so authentic.

That is exactly what he is doing. It's so real. It's really hard to, it's one of those games where time gets away from you. Like, I pull it up, and then four hours pass, and it's three o'clock in the morning. And I'm like, what am I doing with my life? But I don't regret it, Derek. I've never regret it. Derek, you play Power Wash simulator.

Don't act. All right, that's fair. Look, that's fair. I'll tell you my new favorite game that I just recently got into is Super Smash Brothers, and I'm terrible at it. So there's something you could spend 33 hours. Your daughter was kicking your ass this weekend. Wiping the floor with me.

What console are we talking about you? This is the Nintendo Switch, and Super Smash Brothers is not a game that makes any sense. I hate it. It's dumb. It's not. I was good at. I can have you at 115% damage with 12% and then I follow. off and die? How's that work? That's not fair. This game is stupid. That sounds like a you problem.

I will say. I will say I discovered that that game, like, why they do like tournaments with those games and with like Mario Kart is because Nintendo is smart enough to like put tournament options into the game. You can literally set up like a 16 person tournament. Oh yeah. Super Smash Brothers like that. And that's pretty awesome to me. These are things that make me feel like old because I was like these were these were pipe dreams for me when I was a kid. But I guess, yeah, I guess our, advice to you both go play video games i guess for that much um lunar forte you're god damn right i am uh you said derrick is definitely a kirby main you know it you know it i destroy with kirby it's the only character you want you want to guess who mine is it is one very specific character

i'm really good with one character and one character only who is it it is piquatchew get out of here but it was but it was best it was best in super smash bros brawl uh i think they eventually actually realized that the Super Smash Bros. Brawl edition of Pikachu was utterly unfair. He was Opie. Completely Opie. I feel that way with Kirby. Kirby's just like stupid. Really? Yeah, you can knock me way off the board

and then I can just balloon, fly myself back and take as much time as I need to and then thwomp you from upside? I'm fucking, I'm nice. I'm nice with these hands with Kirby. Good job, Lunar. All right, what else we got? Last question. This one comes from Karen. It's also about the train ride.

And she says, what do I do for 33 hours stuck on a train with cogs? And alcohol is not an option since it's a school field trip. Damn it, Karen. Why are you even going to New Orleans? I mean, that's the only way I'm chaperoning a kid's trip to New Orleans is if I can have all the hand grenades on Bourbon Street. But I guess my advice to you is to sneak some alcohol on the train. Is that a possibility? You got some OGs on you.

You're a terrible person there. You're a terrible influence. Don't eat those OGs in Texas or anywhere. Don't travel with OGs. I'm not suggesting that at all. What can we, what can Karen do? Well, out of the park baseball is great for all ages. She would have fun to.

Karen, no, Karen, don't listen to him. Abandon your child all together and then do some of that stuff I was talking about earlier. Lie about your identity. I don't know. I mean, I guess like in the chaperone sort of role where it's you and you're kind of stuck with like a bunch of high school kids, right? Yeah. And you have to watch them.

Like sleep would be my number one option on a 33-hour trip. I love sleep. I can sleep anytime, anywhere, and I absolutely would do that as much as possible on a 33-hour trip. I'm taking a trip to Miami at the end of February, and I purposefully booked the trip from 11 p.m. to like 7.30 a.m. just so I could sleep on the plane because that's like my favorite thing to do when I track. You're like intentionally taking a red eye? Are you saying you like red eyes? I'm intentionally taking a red eye, yes.

That is a choice. It's definitely a choice. It's not a great choice. But when you have to be, and there's not a lot of options to be in Miami by noon the next day, because we've got a cruise that we're taking. I'm not one to splurge to get out of the middle seat on an airplane very often. But I will say that on a red eye, it is a choice worth making. during the Diamondbacks postseason run.

I flew from Phoenix to Newark. That was like the path to get to Philadelphia at one point. Did you actually sleep? I did not sleep for five minutes on the flight there. There's no point to be on right eye. I was in the back row of this airplane in the middle seat. I had basically the worst seat on this airplane. And yeah, when you're like squished between two people, it's very uncomfortable.

Can I talk about Mangaran and how he falls asleep before we're even off the tarmac? because it's one of the most infuriating things ever. We'll be in the middle of conversation and he'll be asleep. I know I'm not that boring of a person because at least 62 of you tuned in today live to hear me talk on this show that I do. So I know I'm not that boring, but it's infuriating how fast he just travels all the time being a touring artist. So for him it's just like literally that easy. He's just, it's the light is out. He's out.

I don't think we've given Karen any helpful suggestions. Elizabeth has a great idea. She said come up with weird nicknames. for all the kids. There we go. That seems, yeah. You can kill a lot of time that way. You really can.

And like the weirder, like the more obscure reference you can make to nickname me that kid, the better because you don't have to tell them the story behind that nickname. And it just leaves that kid wondering why that lady called me snagletooth the entire train ride. You know? It is the role of the chaperone to come up with nicknames for everyone. That is part of the gig for sure. Yeah. Ryan says they need an ad of feature on MLB the show where you're the grounds crew spraying the infield of the hose.

I am all fucking for it. Let's go. Let's go. Power wash simulator, Chase Field? Down. I am down. Derek's lining the chalk. Oh, that sounds great actually.

That would on it. Like, there is a market for that. There's a market for that. Oh, I love when mini games happen in a game. Like, that's great when you're playing baseball and then they give you this quick break to do something. Stupid? Driving the ATV with a little like road grater in the back. Yes.

Yes. I'm down. I'm down. Well, thank you guys, of course, for participating in another wonderful Mailbag Monday episode. We always appreciate your questions. And more importantly, we appreciate you stopping by to check us out and listen to this guy, say words. I mean, I know you want to listen to that guy, but this guy.

You can follow us on Twitter to hear us type words out, I suppose. You can follow me at cap underscore caveman with a K. Maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, Damon is the people's producer. You can find him at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark-Bark. You can follow our show at P-H-N-X underscore D-Vax, but of course, all roads do lead to at P-H-N-X underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys so much for stopping by today. We appreciate your time. We have a special guest coming later this week, by the way. So keep your ears open for that. And until then, we appreciate you again. remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you can defer those contracts baby