PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Nolan Arenado to D-backs? Why The Cardinals Might (And Might Not) Consider It

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

PHNX BLACK FRIDAY! Up to 75% off! https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker The stove is starting to heat up for MLB, and we are discussing how Frankie Montas and Matthew Boyd being on the move impacts the market for Jordan Montgomery. With several teams interested in Joc Pederson, we have more on if the Diamondbacks can find a way to bring him back in 2025 and how would that impact potential interest in Nolan Arenado, who the Cardinals may be interested in trading. We also have answers to our Mailbag Monday questions and more! Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. 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. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, the hot stove is starting to heat up with some moves that were made already this weekend. We have more on everything and how it impacts the Arizona Diamondbacks as well as potential trade target for the debacks at Nolan Aronado. All this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of the holiday season. This man next to me deserves no vice mayor title for that because he's still. last 30 more shopping days until he's going to get his stuff done. It's the one and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman.

And of course, we got our guy, large intimate Kev Thomas on the ones and twos today. Thank you guys so much for being here. We appreciate you guys. And of course, it's Monday. And you know what we do on Monday. So we'll get around to your mailbag Monday question shortly. But we do have some things to update you on over the weekend because like I said, that stove is heating up.

And we already have some moves being made. We already know about the Dodgers going after Blake Snell. but that wasn't their only move. They went ahead and locked up Tommy Edmund for the foreseeable future, which is, I guess, an more admirable move than going out there and just acquiring one free agent after the next, Jesse? Well, you just knew, Derek,

that the Dodgers weren't going to let Black Friday weekend go without dishing out some more deferrals, right? Like, there's no way they were going to let that happen. They're deferring all of their Christmas present budget money. That's for sure. I'll push that off until 2030. But yeah, Tommy Edmund. Let's talk about it. Yeah, Tommy Edmund, a five-year $74 million contract extension.

Edmund was already under club control for one more season. So this, of course, makes it five seasons. There's also a club option for a six season, which I believe would be 2030. So the Dodgers seemed to really like Tommy Edmund, Derek. And it's understandable that they like Tommy Edmund because this guy had an 862 OPS for them throughout the postseason. He was really good. hit over 300 was hitting cleanup for the Dodgers in some of their playoff games against lefties. So he was really, really good for them down the stretch.

And he is going to sort of be their next Chris Taylor, I guess. Chris Taylor, of course, is still, I know still in the organization. Maybe that's disrespectful for me to say. But a guy who can play just about everywhere, can play shortstop and play center field. And can hit a little bit too, especially against left-handed pitching. He slashed 328, 3254, 508 with two dingers and 13 RBI in 16 games in the playoffs for the Dodgers. He's one of those guys that when you watched the Dodgers win in the playoffs, he was a big reason why. And kind of, I guess, in a comical fashion, he's, he met more to the team at times than some of their, you know, big superstars, right?

And that's why the Dodgers locked them up. I know we're probably going to go ahead and have maybe 75 more. comments from Dodgers fans saying that we're stooges and that we wouldn't we would take this deal or do this type of stuff or our franchise should do this type of stuff and they can if they want to and that is one thing they're 100% right about the stooge part maybe not so much but I will say that like as much as we want to call them the Los Angeles deferrals going forward and all that kind of stuff they are mortgaging their future essentially financially at least not with you know their assets young players and such, but they are putting off some of this debt to the future in ways they

feel they are able to manage. It might end up being a giant catastrophe for this franchise come 10 years from now or beyond. I don't really know how it's going to impact them in the future because we have seen franchises kind of get to a point where they did put themselves in quite a financial bind based on deferring this type of money that they're doing it, you know, what they're doing. But I will also say, yes, the diamondbacks could do this same stuff. So I'm not, I'm not going to ever say that the Dodgers are doing anything, you know, like that's not something the other 29 teams in baseball could do. So it is what it is. You know, maybe more teams should do it. Maybe more teams shouldn't do it. I don't know. I think that the Dodgers are kind of a different breed

like the Yankees where their financial future is fairly secure and they don't have to worry really about, you know, that debt that they're putting themselves in. My favorite thing about Tommy Edmund is that during the regular season, which granted it was not all that many of bats. He was hurt for most of the year and then played for the Dodgers after being traded over there at the trade deadline. A 412 batting average against lefties compared to a 181 batting average against righties. He's a switch hitter. But as I often point out about switch hitters, just because you can bat both right-handed and left-handed doesn't mean that you're. are good at both of them.

So Tommy Edmund is one of those guys who, who, as I alluded to earlier, definitely a better hitter against lefties. There's a reason the Dodgers are willing to use him in the cleanup spot in some of those postseason games, as I mentioned earlier. But yeah, a 1299 OPS against lefties, a 523 OPS against righties. I imagine in the long term, we're going to see those numbers balance out at least a little bit. But Tommy Edmund is, you know, he can, he can do it all. He can play some pretty good defense.

He can run the bases as well. He had six stolen bases in, you know, about a third of a season worth of games down the stretch. So he is, it just fits the Dodgers in basically every way I could imagine. Well, Kevin put it up on the screen and I should have been talking about this since the beginning, but we are having a deal of our own that is much better than the Tommy Edmund deal, especially with the deferred payments. And that is you can become a diehard right now for $36. That is the cost of a t-shirt, basically, on our shop, right?

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Get down on it now. We implore you. Of course, we do have other moves that have been made, and it's interesting, Jesse, because these other moves may impact, I guess, what the Diamondbacks might be able to get in return for Jordan Montgomery, a few comments. Comparable players that have now changed teams.

We have 33-year-old left-handed pitcher at Matthew Boyd signed a two-year deal worth $29 million with the Chicago Cubs. And then we have Frankie Montas signing a two-year deal, $34 million with the Mets. I think I'm more surprised by the Montas deal of the two. Matthew Boyd, that is a decent amount of money. I mean, Matthew Boyd is 33 years old and he just came back from Tommy John surgery. but he also had a 272 ERA and eight starts down the stretch with the Guardians and then in the postseason gave up one earned run in 13 and two thirds innings a 0.770 RA. You put up those kind of numbers in the postseason. I think you're going to I think you're going to get paid, especially now that we feel good about Boyd's health moving forward.

That one wasn't so surprising to me, but Montas getting two years and $34 million after having, frankly, a pretty mediocre season, Derek, a four point. and 84 ERA and 30 starts. It continues to be amazing to me how much money you can make as a completely mediocre, even below average major league starting pitcher. If you can go out there and give a team 150 innings, which is what Montas did this past season and just sort of keep your team in some games, then there you go. You sign a $34 million contract.

It's pretty incredible. Our friend Rickety Bridge, who once again is new to baseball, asks yeah isn't his e r a bad yes yes it is it's not as bad as jordan mcgomery's one was last year however it brings me back to the question i continue to ask can i interest you in one used jordan montgomery because with these two guys signing for this amount it almost feels like the 22 and a half million dollars that montgomery is going to make in 2025 doesn't seem like nearly as much of a financial burden for other teams as the diamondbacks might view it.

In the case of the Mets, they are betting on Frankie Montas being better than he was last year, which he has been in the past. And there are other teams that might be willing to take that same gamble on toward Montgomery. When you see these two guys sign for the amount that they sign for, it's at least encouraging, right, Jesse, that if the diamondbacks do want to deal with deal Montgomery that they're not going to exactly get fleeced and have to essentially give him up for nothing and and send money with him. Yeah, at the very least, this is, this is not bad news for the Diamondbacks. I think it can only be a good thing for them, whether it moves the needle

a ton, you know, whether you're getting, you know, you're getting another team to pick up 14 or 15 million of Montgomery's contract instead of 10 or 11, as we've sort of suspected. I'm not sure. I still think that Boyd and Montas are pretty different situations from Montgomery. You know, Boyd has had some pretty serious durability issues in recent years. But again, you show that kind of promise after coming back from Tommy John surgery, and especially in the postseason. It's just such a different situation than the year that Montgomery is coming off right now. And then Montas, I will say about him, even though the numbers aren't going to blow you away,

this is a guy who throws a four seamer at, you know, above 95 miles an hour. And that is not the pitcher that Montgomery is at this stage, right? If you have that VLO, I think you're a more attractive target for teams, even if your ERA numbers are not exactly that impressive. Montgomery, of course, part of his story this past season was not just that his surface level numbers were poor. It was also that his velocity took a step back. You know, can Jordan Montgomery be an effective pitcher throwing a 91.5 mile an hour sinker

instead of around 93.5, which is where it was the year prior. I think that's a, that's a pretty significant difference between Montas and Montgomery. A couple of things there in the chat. Berman and Baseball is trying to make some trades on behalf of the Astros. They say, hey, trade them to the Astros. We'll give you Ryan Presley throwing Jake McCarthy will give you our Jake, throwing another prospect, LOL done and done. We can talk at least.

I'm not, I'm just saying the conversation could be open there between us. Riley Dunn doesn't want any part of Ryan Presley, and I don't blame him. But hey, Ryan Presley, I mean, yeah, he is a name that I had in my list of 10 potential relief pitcher targets that I released recently. I think he was one of the less compelling names on the list, frankly, because Ryan Presley is very clearly moving in the wrong direction. I'm not sure he's really a true back-end reliever at this stage. But yeah, he's probably making more money than he's worth. Jordan Montgomery certainly slated. to make more money than he is worth on paper going into next year. Maybe there's a way, maybe there's a way that something could work along those lines. Did Erica Day pop in here and give us a good morning? Is that right, Kev? We got a good morning, ma'am. It is 113 p.m.

What do you mean good morning? And also, hey, Erica, how's it going? I just want to show you my shirt, which you can get over on the shop, by the way. That was mean and unnecessary. Yeah, no, I know. No, you would feel that way. Not only is the Arizona branded Bill's hat mysteriously missing. It seems like it's ran away.

You know, Derek's over here just flexing all the merch is just so tough. You know, Derek could have easily worn a D-Backs, P-H-N-X shirt. Yeah. Probably should have worn a D-Backs, P-H-N-X shirt. Could have. But he chose to antagonize me and Damon. You saw it? I needed him to match the shoe.

You're a bad and disgusting guy, Darren. It was just a coincidence. All right. How dare you, Kevin, make the assumption that, like, what color are you wearing under the interior? See, that looks like a very maroon and gold. I happen to be wearing kind of a maroon shirt, but that was just, you know, I don't think about what I wear in the morning. I also didn't plan this at all. But anyway, speaking of things that are in the plans, Ken Rosenthal released a story this morning on maybe where Jock Peterson might be ending up.

And we do know that the Diamondbacks still have interest in Jock Peterson, according to this report, Jesse. I mean, and that's, I don't know. I like, I still think about that Instagram post with the two little devil faces. I don't know what it means, but I still feel like it means something significant. Yeah, this is from a story that Ken Rosenthal released this morning. He wrote that several clubs looking for a left-handed hitting DHR intrigued by Jock Peterson. Certainly no surprises there, but he did also say that the Diamondbacks want

Peterson back. Also not hugely surprising. Why wouldn't you want Jock Peterson back after the season that he just had? But I continue to view Jock Peterson more so than Christian Walker at this point as a fairly realistic target for the Diamondbacks. As we've said a bunch of times, he is a very limited player. He didn't play a single inning in the field in 2024. He's a platoon guy. You don't really want him facing lefties as much as you can avoid it. And because of that, even though he put up such big numbers, in 2024. I still think there's a route to bring him back on a deal that that isn't so much more than he made in in 2024. Certainly a raise, but you know, something in the two-year, 30 million dollar range, something along those lines, I think could be, could be reasonable for both sides.

Well, with the way that he added to the offense, like you said, I don't see a reason why the Diamondbacks wouldn't be interested. The article mentions that the raise and Rangers are other possible suitors and jock if you're listening to me probably at a waterburger somewhere right now filming an amazing instagram video um you don't want to go to tampa you know that can wrote about that in the article that's a disaster he basically said that any free agent who has options like you know unless the razor your only offer on the table if you have the ability to go somewhere else you're probably going to somewhere else jock also has a history of of uh preferring the west coast. I think there's on some level. I know he signed with the with the cubs as well.

But Ken mentioned that he would probably prefer to sign west of the Mississippi, which of course, the Diamondbacks check that box. The Texas Rangers also check that box. And the Texas Rangers also are in a state with lots of water burgers, Jesse. So that does not vote well for us and his relationship with that company. What? Anyway. Is Jocka? Is that a thing like on his Instagram? Oh, it's a thing and it's amazing. Okay. Jock is the best fast food salesman on the planet. You got to go check it out.

No free ads. Max is already going to nail me for what I just did. But speaking of ads, we got some ads to discuss. Of course, some of our partners to discuss. I do want to thank you guys so much for being diehards. And again, just implore you that if you are not a diehard yet, make sure you check out that sale. It's going on for just 36 hours only, $36 the cheapest price we've ever offered our

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Of course, you can go check out Heila River Resorts and Casinos anytime and have a wonderful night out. You do you at Heala Resorts and Casinos. Visit play atheila.com for more details. All right, Jesse. Well, we have been talking about trade targets for the Arizona Diamondbacks. and we know that there have been some that made sense, some that were maybe a little bit more of a pipe dream. Of course, we also know that based on information, the St. Louis Cardinals are in the market to be trading Nolan Aeronado, at least tearing out offers on the perennial All-Star.

And we just wanted to take a look and see if he would fit the Arizona Diamondbacks needs. Yeah, Nolan Arnado, a big part of this story is that Aronado is willing to shift over to first base in order to make a potential deal happen. He does have a full no trade clause. So any deal involving him is going to, he's going to have to be on board, right? I personally think it's sort of outrageous that a team would even consider trading for Aronado

just to move him to first base. Right. At this stage in his career, the reason that you want Nolan Aronado on your team is because he's still a pretty freaking good third baseman as he has been for years. I know our buddy Foolish Baseball over on Twitter, likened this to Austin Hedges being willing to DH.

Austin Hedges, for those who may not know, is a defense first catcher who is generally about the worst hitter in the sport year after year. Yeah, Austin Hedges is willing to DH, right? Like if you want him to, Nolan Aronado is willing to play first base. But yeah, that doesn't really make any sense at all. But, of course, the Diamondbacks are,

are in need of a first baseman in the long term. And even at third base, they have some question marks in the long term as well, given the Gino Suarez is just under club control for one more season. So we figured we'd at least entertain the idea and sort of see where this goes. Well, and one of our mailbag Monday questions

kind of brought this up. And we didn't get a chance to answer that one when we get to our mailbag Monday. But what about Lourdes potentially at first base or maybe even Gino over there at first base and less, you know, Nolan over at third more, just maybe platooning guys around, maybe Aronado at DH. I mean, like you said, his defense is really the reason why you pick him up, right? Yeah, yeah.

I just don't understand why any team would want any part of Nolan Arnado, frankly, at this stage in his career, if you're not having him play third base where he does still bring a significant amount of value, you know, would it make sense for the diamondbacks to move Gino over to first? just for the 2025 season in order to make that work. I guess that makes more sense than the alternative, like just having Aronado play first base. I'm not super convinced that either of those make sense, frankly.

But let's look at Aranato's numbers for the 2024 season. I do not want to. Just so we have a sense of what we're looking at here. Well, see, and this isn't terrible. I mean, he's just not the power hitter he was, right? Right. 272 average 325 on base, 394 slugging percentage, 16 homer, 71 RBI, 3.1. wins above replacement.

Yeah, as you pointed out, like a 272 average for Aronado is fine, right? A 325 on base is fine. He's never been a guy who draws a ton of walks, but a 394 slugging percentage. Like that is pretty dang low for a guy who's been a pretty well-respected power hitter for a number of years. So what would, I mean, I guess, is there any interest on the Diamondback side in Aronado? Has there been any reports connecting him to the debacks? because like yeah like for the most part this doesn't really make sense however we do know according

to katie woo of the athletic that there's a growing sense aeronado will be traded right obviously we also know that you know the diamondbacks are willing to do what they can to bring on what they feel is the best players and this would have to kind of be a situation where the the trade cost was right for them in order to pick up nolan the the rumors are definitely more on the the cardinals side than on then on the diamond back side there have been no rumors of the diamond backs being interested that i'm aware of uh but yeah katie woo of the athletic as you discussed earlier uh did say that the cardinals are are open to a trade and that ardato himself very much wants to be uh he wants to play for a contender he wants to play in october an opportunity he hasn't

gotten a whole lot in his career sort of what happens when you come up with the colorado Rockies. So, oh, yeah, you can, you could understand why Aronado would be willing to waive his no trade clause in a potential deal.

But based on what Katie is reported, the Cardinals are not, like they're not just trying to get off this contract. They, if they trade Aronado, they want to get some real prospect capital back. And looking at this contract, I have a bit of a hard time imagining how that will happen.

Yeah, they owe him a lot. lot of money jesse he's owed 32 million in 2025 27 million in 2026 and then 15 million in 2027 74 million dollars total over in the next three seasons yes the diamondbacks want to get into a bit of a longer term i guess uh answer for first base over there but this definitely doesn't seem like it's it because of the financial yeah i guess i you know the financial impact that he would have I think the Rockies are paying five million of his 2025 salary. So I guess that brings the 32 down to a 27,

which still doesn't feel great, right? For a guy who's slugged 394 in, in 2024 and has regressed quite a bit offensively. So, yeah, I think. Then the Rockies, the Rockies had deferrals in there, Jesse. They do. They had deferrals. The Los Angeles Dodgers aren't the only one they can defer contract.

There, there are, yeah, apparently this deal includes deferrals through 2041. So, yes, there are, there are heavy deferrals in here as well, which might make this contract a little bit easier to stomach. But still, yeah, it's $32 million in 2025. It's $27 million in 202026, $15 million in 202027. So that's $74 million over three seasons. Like, you know, what does Aronado get on the open market right now? Probably a three-year deal would be my guess. he's entering his age 34 season, basically the same age as Christian Walker, also entering his

age 34 season. So yeah, he's maybe worth like three years and 50 million, something like that. So if you were able to get the Cardinals to chip in some money in order to get the three and 74 down to like a three and 50, you know, maybe you're paying 17 million in 2025 and 17 million in 2026 instead of the 32 and the 27. then it starts to make at least sense financially. Like you feel like the amount of money he'd be paid or you'd be paying him would be roughly congruent with the value that he brings at this stage in his career.

But yeah, I mean, as people are talking about in the chat, like if you're going to trade for an asset like Nolan Arnato. I want to smash my computer. You might as well just give that money. Just give it to Walker. The best replacement for Christian Walker is Christian Walker. It's probably the 50th time I've said that on this show, but it's true. You know, and again, you're doing all of this stuff essentially to move, you know, Aeronado around.

I think at least known baseball gym said it in the chat. There's no way that the Cardinals won't have to eat a significant portion of that to get out of that contract. And I don't believe that they're not, I think they're lying. When they say they're trying to get not try to get out of his contract due to like the financial obligations, I don't believe that he is worth nearly that amount of money. You talk about a bad contract for the Jordan Montgomery deal. Well, it's still a bad contract. That doesn't change anything.

But this is also a bad contract. And it's for a guy that really is, you know, again, you're, you're probably on the other side of, you know, of the peak of your career at this point. There's not a great chance that those numbers are going to greatly improve about what they were last year, this year. So I don't know. I don't I don't doubt that they're not just trying to say that like we like them we still want them. We just want to make sure we get back for them. Right. You know.

Yeah. And if we look at Aeronado's baseball savant page from 2024, you can kind of see very clearly here the regression that has happened offensively, right? It looks like Justin Turner's. Doesn't it? I mean, I'm not, I'm not trying to be insulting about that, but it's no. It's, I mean, it's a similar profile. Justin Turner definitely walks more. which I guess is kind of a knock against.

You can make a case that Justin Turner is a offense-wise as a player you feel better about going into 2025 than Aronado. But yeah, there's a lot of blue there. Like Aronado just isn't really hitting for power anymore. He doesn't strike out much. But when he puts the ball in play, he's just not making really much hard contact at all at this stage in his career. So, yeah, like if the Diamondbacks had a complete hole at third base, then maybe you could

go down this road because Aronado is still such a great defensive third baseman. He was at six defensive runs saved nine outs above average in 2024. Really strong numbers there. So maybe if the debacks had a complete hole at third, you could you could sort of talk yourself into this. Maybe you try to trade the Cardinals Jordan Montgomery as part of this in order to get off his contract and you're sort of exchanging bad deals there. Still maybe getting the Cardinals to eat some of the money in 2026 and 2027.

But yeah, the reality is the Diamondbacks decided to pick up Gino Svarez's club option for 2025. And they don't really need a third baseman. And having Nolan Arnato play first base makes, again, about as much sense as having Austin Hedges, D.H. It just, it would rob Aronado of the value that he is still able to provide at this stage in his career. We got B-Com C clearly back in the chat. And I am so excited to see you. Jesse, want to read this one? No.

I don't. Yeah, you don't. No. I'll go ahead. Take this one. B.comc clearly says, Juan Soto, he got the best cheeks back there. I think I had to say cheeks because he capitalized it that way. I can't verify if he does have the best cheeks back there, but I'll take your word for it on that one. But we do. This is just the beginning.

We got a bunch of questions in the mailbag to get to, and we are going to discuss all of them. And we promise we're not going to do any more trades like this that don't make any sense, despite the fact that we have heard a lot of people talking about. It was worth the discussion just to explain why it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. With a lot of these other trade targets, we've been making the case for why they could make sense. Errano is a name that is going to be floating out there probably the entire off season until he does get traded if it happens.

And yeah, we here at PH&X did not not really not really seen. No, but you're right though because a name like this does come up, a rumor like this comes up. and then people want to know, you know, the inclination sometimes, especially with sports, is that you kind of want a guy like that on your team. Because you remember how good they were or you remember a time when they were one of the best in the league. And he could bounce back. Like, who knows, who knows? Maybe Aronado finds a way to, you know, I think steamer has them projected for 23 homers in 2025.

Sure. It sees him bouncing back a little bit. But three years at this dollar value at his age, given that the team doesn't really have a clear need at third base. It's more at first base right now. The pieces just don't fit together for me. Yeah. And again,

despite what Tim says, sorry, Tim, I don't mean to argue with you, but the best replacement for Christian Walker, still Christian Walker. On the other side of this break, we're going to answer a bunch of your mailbag Monday questions.

We will try to get to them as many of them as possible. So don't you go anywhere. We'll be right back. Of course, big shout out to Brandon Mills. Brandon Mills has a partnership with both AS, ASU and the losing school in the Territorial Cup. And of course, you can get wonderful hats from our friends at branded bills for both of those schools.

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post-holiday season, save some money. Well, again, it's that time of the year. And we know that right here on the P.A. H&X, D-BACs podcast that every year is our year. Every month is, uh, what? The month of the holidays, right? Every month is a holiday around here. Every week, of course, is shark week.

Every single day on this podcast is Cyber Monday. And of course, on Monday, well, I guess not, they, they can't all be Cyber Mondays because they'd all be mailbag Mondays and that kind of doesn't make sense. But of course, on Mondays, you know what we do. We go to the mailbag. Kev, let's go. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mail.

But you know what it is. You hear that song. It's that time. What are we got, Kev? What are we got in the mailbag today? Yeah, I don't know exactly what happened there. But mailbag number one. I blame the producer.

I also blame the producer. This time, you know, sometimes it doesn't fall on my back, you know, a la Brent Brennan, blame injuries. Oh, God. Here it goes. Apologies on last week's question about who's bringing what to Thanksgiving, Jesse. That's not your fault.

Don't blame. No, that's Jesse's thing. Have we heard anything from Drew Jones on what he's doing to work on his swing? That has always been far and away his biggest knock against him. You want to kick this off? Have you heard anything? Sure, sure. Yeah, I talked with Diamondbacks, well, former Diamondbacks farm director, Sean Larkin

about Drew Jones in September toward the end of the season. And I was actually for a story I was doing about three players who have, have stuck out in the Diamondbacks farm system during the 2024 season. And Larkin did mention Drew Jones, who did not necessarily put up, you know, big time numbers in 2024. He spent the entire season down in Vysalia, you know, still has yet to really move up the minor, the minor league ranks. But Sean had some really positive things to say about Drew's work ethic and just how

much he has matured in the past year as a person, as a player. he also did say that some of those mechanical issues that Travis is talking about have improved immensely. Based on what I've seen from the video, I'd be lying if I said I've seen, you know, things look drastically different. It still seems like there are pretty big questions with Drew and his tendency to bail out of the strike zone, especially on pitches that are inside, sort of limits what I think could be pretty monstrous power to just being all to the opposite field. We have not really seen Drew pull the ball in the air to the left side much, much at all so far in his young professional career. So he's young enough that he's not someone that you're giving up on in any sense at this stage in his career. But I do think that those concerns still exist for sure.

As for what he is doing this offseason, that I don't have an unanswer on. I'm not sure exactly what his process is looking like. but I'm sure when spring training rolls around and we get a chance to see him out at Salt River Fields, we'll maybe catch up with him and see what he has to say. How much of his timeline is impacted by being compared to Jackson Holiday? Yeah, I mean, I think that's more of a, I think that's more outside noise. I don't think the Diamondbacks are, are too concerned about that internally. Sure.

But it is, you know, it's going to be running through, through people's minds for, for, for, a long time. I mean, Drew Jones at Jackson Holiday are just kind of natural, natural players to compare. They were, they were taken one right after another in the draft, both very highly regarded. A lot of people thought that Drew Jones would be picked before Jackson Holiday. Obviously, that's, that's not the way that things turned out. But it'll be interesting to see how, how Drew's career unfolds. I still think there's a world where, you know, this guy's going to play an elite center field, a really exciting center fields, pretty much regardless of the rest of his game, but he has to get to a point where his bat is viable in the majors. And I still think

he has quite a ways to go in that regard. All right. What do we got for our next question, Kevin? Next question comes from Michael Rokickey, who wants to know, do you think that having the draft pick attached to him hurts the market for Walker, Walker, Walker, Walker, single, double, triple, He nailed it. He nailed it on the singing on that. I don't think so. It doesn't impact the team that acquires him. It just gives the Diamondbacks an additional pick.

No, it does. It does impact the team that acquires him as well. It's not a one for one. I think the Diamondbacks are as long as he signs for 50 million or more, which is our expectation. The Diamondbacks are going to get a really nice draft pick. Right. In exchange for him, if he goes elsewhere,

I think it would land around 27, something in that range, 27th overall. It's a pretty valuable pick. The pick that the team would have to forfeit is not necessarily in that same range. Right. I think it depends on a variety of factors. But whatever team signs him would have to forfeit a draft pick for sure. It's just a matter of exactly where that draft pick. My understanding was that it was a late round draft pick.

But, okay, that's, I mean, yeah, I guess for the overall, thing here is that you do have to give up a draft pick. And for the most part, we've seen some really good players come from all over the place in a major league baseball draft. I mean, you can think about Paul Goldschmidt, for instance, and how late he was drafted. So it's not necessarily the best thing to give up a draft pick. And we know that, that again, they can't trade draft picks in Major League Baseball, right? So yeah, you can trade the competitive balance pick, but you can't, you can't trade any other picks. So I mean, this is a ton of those. acquiring more picks, obviously.

That's the only thing here going for the Diamondbacks, not bringing back Christian Walker, to be honest, is it does end up becoming a very valuable trade or a very valuable draft pick that the Diamondbacks might want. I mean, that might just be the thing where if they can bring in a comparable first basement, it just benefits them. It far benefits the Diamondbacks more than it impacts the team

that's acquiring Walker, though. And I don't think that that's going to be something that any of the teams that are acquiring him are going to be really worried about losing in order to get Christian Walker. Yeah, it depends. It depends on the team. I don't know off the top of my head exactly all of the rules for where that pick lands. I think it can be anywhere from like a second round pick to a fifth round pick that a team would forfeit.

Don't, don't quote me on that. I'd have to double check that. But I do think it's a factor for the Diamondbacks as well in that if they don't resign Christian Walker, then they get this really nice draft pick. there's there's kind of an opportunity cost to to bringing him back and then not getting that pick as a result of that. So I do think it impacts the Walker market for for them and for other teams, depending on on which team it is.

I do think teams, you know, they, they definitely value their draft picks. And if you have to forfeit a second rounder to sign Christian Walker, I do think, you know, he's not a Juan Soto level free agent, you know, like in. those situations forfeiting a draft pick is like, you know, who cares? And we're getting like the best player in the world, right? Christian Walker is not on that level. He's still a very good player. But I do think that it will have some level on, on his market.

Hard to say exactly what, though. I just don't know if the teams that we've heard that are interested in Christian Walker care very much about that because these are teams that are all competing now. And again, that's kind of more of their focus, especially to bring in the best defensive first baseman you know i i hate the more that i think about it the more it makes sense for the diamond backs to let christian walker go to another team in this deal considering the fact that we have talked about a few pretty good replacements not nolan aaronado but some other guys that would be a really good replacement for christian walker over there cost less than him and honestly put up

some pretty comparable numbers in 2024 so i don't know i still think in this case it's not impacting any team's decision to go after Christian Walker, but I mean, it could. There might be teams out there that don't want to lose any draft picks at all, and it's too valuable to them. I feel like the Diamondbacks would be one of those teams. The Diamondbacks draft picks are too valuable overall to this organization for them to lose one to go after a free agent. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a factor for the Diamondbacks as they think about what free agents they might be interested in. Because again, if you're not playing, you know, if you're not playing at the at the top of the pool with free agency, then it's like, do I really want to lose

a draft pick to sign this like kind of mid-tier player? I did find over on MLB.com. It does make, it does give some clarity on the competitive balance taxpayers. It says a team that exceeded the CBT threshold in the preceding season will lose its second and fifth highest selections in the following year's draft as well as one million dollars from its international bonus pool for the upcoming signing period. If such a team signs multiple qualifying offer free agents, it will forfeit its third and six highest picks as well. Would the Yankees fall under that category?

I think the Yankees would fall into that. All of those, you know, top spending teams that exceeded the competitive balance tax threshold from this past season. That's, I mean, second and fifth highest selections plus a million dollars in irrational bonus pool money. Like, yeah, I think. I think that has, I think that has an effect for sure. I'm curious as to what the, what picks the,

um, but we wouldn't know yet, right? So, um, overall it's going to be interesting to see what, what, what happens with that and especially a team like the Yankees with that much money that they were already committed to. You're right with like a team with the Yankees after getting to the world

series that that that's not going to be front of mind for them. Not at all. Right. They're, they're probably okay, uh, forfeited to, a draft pick or two if it means, you know, having a better first baseman than Anthony Rizzo in 2025, right? I mean, they don't have to go after Christian Walker to improve their first base situation. They can go after much, that's much smaller fish. That's, that's true. We'll see what

happens. All right, what else we got kept? All right, question number three comes from Jeff. Oh my God, that's so small. I know. That's why I'm reading to Derek. Don't, don't, don't worry your little eyes over there, Derek. Jeff from our Discord wants to know, Lordis Gouriel Jr. has played 108 innings at first base. What are your guys's thoughts on moving him to first to backfill Walker and potentially keep his bat healthy and in the lineup more. Then you may be able to pursue an outfield bat to backfill left field or rock the no fly zone outfield. Yeah, I mean, again, there's going to be like there's combinations, I think, on this team that could fill the role over there first base. And I think Lourdes could do it.

I think that, you know, Pavin and Lourdes together could do it. I just don't know if that's the route that the Diamondbacks want to go. I mean, you do open up a hole in the outfield that could allow you to maybe have, you know, Alec Thomas, Jake McCarthy, Corby and Carol out there. But again, I just, I don't know because I really haven't had a chance to see Lordus play much first, how that would go. Yeah. I know that Lordis has been actually a pretty good defensive left fielder.

He just doesn't make things look the smoothest. You know what I mean? So by comparison, we're replacing the first baseman that absolutely makes defense look effortless with a guy that makes sometimes catching a fly ball look exciting. So I don't, I just, I don't really know how well he would do over there. The Diamondbacks would know that. And, you know, we've heard them kind of open to a couple of different combinations. I think at the end of the day, Mike Hazen wants to go out there and get a first basement to play first base. That's what I think the Diamondbacks want to do. I don't think that

they're not open to this as a possibility. I just think that, unfortunately, at the end of the day, they need to replace a pretty big piece of their defensive puzzle if they lose Christian Walker. Lordus Gurriel is not an exceptional left fielder, I wouldn't say, but at least does make a fair point, which is that this would be moving a gold glove finalist out of his position, right? Lordis Gurriel was a gold glove finalist in 2024 out in left field. And as we said at the time, like that that does sort of speak to in some ways the last. of exceptional outfielders that wind up in left field, right? But I would be pretty surprised if the Diamondbacks explored this just because, as we discussed

earlier with the possibility of moving Gino Suarez to first base, this just isn't a team that likes to have guys kind of out of their natural position. This team values defense so much. even with Lordus like on paper it makes more sense for Lordis to be the Diamondbacks right fielder and for Corbyn Carroll to be their left fielder because he has the better arm right. Generally you want your better arm in right field and that's another thing that the Diamondbacks were not they were not willing to move Lordis out of left field because that's where he's comfortable and that's where he's played so many innings in his career.

If you weren't willing to move Lordis from left to right, I don't think you're going to be willing to move Lourdes from left to first base. Unless you saw like a really golden opportunity, you know, if you've got a chance to get a really good corner outfielder that you really like, you know, maybe there's a world where this could work. But Lourdes has never been any anything more than an emergency option for the team at first base. I'd be pretty surprised if the Diamondbacks wanted him to make that transition full time. Brett makes a good point.

He also says Jake also had a bit of trouble in center field at the end of the year. so I don't know if they truly are no fly zone like 2023. I mean, I guess if Alec is back, then the no fly zone outfield that people are envisioning is probably Alec and center and then Jake moving to a corner. But then, you know, you've got three left-handed hitting outfielders in the lineup theoretically every day. I'm sure they could, you know, maybe they go out and find a platoon partner for Alec Thomas or something. And like Elise says, you're not addressing the noodle alarms. you're just putting all of them out there at the same time. Yeah, that would be, that would be rough.

That would be rough for sure. I mean, yeah, the reason to do this would be if you feel it's easier for you to fill Lourdes's spot and left than it is to fill the, you know, you're opening at first base. And I don't really think that's the situation. Some of these first base targets that we've discussed in trade and in free agency over the past few weeks, like they're not breaking the bank, right? Like Justin Turner's not breaking the bank. I think there are options that the team has at first base that are, you know, going to be serviceable enough, whereas that opening in left field might actually be even harder to replace.

All right. Well, we'll have some more mailbag Monday questions on the other side of this break. Please don't go anywhere. We will be right back. There we are. Hey, hey. Well, of course, with Empire today, you get shop at home convenience, the right product for your needs, and professional installation and a price match guarantee. You've heard the name here in the Valley for years, and we know the holiday season is stressful. You got a lot of stuff going on. Maybe this carries over to the new year,

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will look in any space. All you have to do is snap a picture. And of course, it'll show you what those floors will look like. Of course, schedule a free in-home estimate today. All listeners can receive a $350 discount when they use promo code PHNX. Restrictions do apply. See empiretaday.com slash P HNX for details. And yes, Jesse and I will be out with our friend Archie Bradley out there at Wild Horse Pass, Heel of Resorts and Casinos, this Wednesday, December 4th, for a live version of this show. Die-Hards, of course, like I said earlier, are free, non-diehards. You are welcome as well.

It's just $5. We will be doing a live version of Ask Archie, essentially, with one and only Archie Bradley. we have no idea what he's going to say. So it would be good to be there in person because we can only control him so much on this show. But then, you know, we might have to censor him. We might have to save him from himself at times because RG just tells everything.

So make sure to not miss this. It's a great time. Come out, hang out with us. You can go to go phnx.com slash events for more. Get your tickets and join us for a fun time. And I mean that. I love RG. It should be a lot of fun.

But it should be a lot of fun. And, of course, I am not responsible for anything he tells you guys. Well, we're not, we're not recording this one for a reason, Derek. And I, I mean, Archie in recorded fashion is still very open and honest about the way he feels about things. Archie in a live event setting. Some adult beverages. Not recorded. Yeah.

I don't know. It's going to be, it's going to be a good time. It's going to be a good time. All right. Well, of course, Mailbag Monday is always a good time. We got some more questions. What do we got, Kev. Yes, we do. And first of all, if you don't go to that Ask Archie thing, it's not very oozy of you, ooze. I'm just going to say that right now.

There we go. I love it. Question number four comes from our guy, Brett, and he wants to know, if you were a Freaky Friday body swap with Mike Hazen for 24 hours, what moves would you make to make to be making? What moves would you make? I just like the idea of me and Mike Hazen being in the same place at the same time. both of us being like, I don't want to have my life. And he could be like, I don't want to have my life. And then we swap bodies. That would be pretty amazing. But I don't know. I mean, I think first of all, that would be a fun 24 hours because I'm going to spend a lot of Ken Kendrick's money. That's what I'm going to do in that 24 hours, Jesse.

You only get one move here, though, Derek. Yeah. Well, he said one move that's reasonable and one move that's not. Yeah. I'm going to blow everybody's mind with the reasonable move because I'm going to bring back Paul Goldschmidt Jesse okay I'm gonna bring back Paul goldschmidt I'm gonna have him play first base I'm gonna have him do it for the vibes I'm gonna have him do it because I still think he's got something left in the tank and I'm gonna do it for the fans not for me because you guys know my

feelings on him I'm doing it for you I'm gonna let you guys build that statue I'm not gonna say a word about it so that's what I'm gonna do for you guys I might even find a place for the statue to be built just for future you know future statue building purposes we'll get that area of landmarked off. That's my holiday gift to you guys. An unreasonable move, an unreasonable move is that I am going to

trade Jordan Montgomery to man, who are we who are he trading Jordan Montgomery to, Jesse? Give me somebody unreasonable that we're giving Montgomery to. We need a closer. Shane's calling for the Mariners from the

other office. Andres Munoz, straight up. Done. Shane says deal. There it is. There it is. He said it. He accepted it.

Jordan Montgomery did the Mariners for Andres Munoz. There you go. He's giving us Harry Ford in the deal too. This is getting crazy. I'll take it all. Give it to me. Jesse, do I need to make a mock trade for this?

Yeah. Yeah. If you could get some graphics cooking on these. Yeah, clearly, uh, the way that I interpreted like the unlikely move was that it was something that like the diamond backs were not likely to do.

but was actually like a conceivable thing. No, no, no offense to your, no, Jordan Montgomery for Andrus Munoz and Harry Ford deal, Derek. Not sure Jerry DePoto's going to be on board. Okay. I will start with my, I will start with my, my crazy, my unlikely move. And I am going to go out on a limb, Derek. This is great.

And we are going to sign Corbyn Burns. Oh, yes. to the Arizona Donovanbacks. Because we need seven starting pitchers. Yes, I love it. Fire me up, Jesse. In a separate move, we're probably dealing Jordan Montgomery. Maybe we're moving another starter as well.

All right. But I guess part of there, there are two different routes that you could go with this. And I like the idea of signing burns and either of them. One is that you hold on to Zach Gallen. And you for just one season, you're probably planning on letting Gallen walk next off season. because having Burns and Gallon on massive contracts at the same time seems unlikely.

Yeah. But you get like one season where you have both Zach Gallen and Corbyn Burns in your rotation. We've talked a lot about how big of a year 2025 is for this team with gallon hitting free agency, with Merrill hitting free agency. Like go get your next top of the rotation starter, but do it a year early. Yeah. So that you get all of these guys at once and see what happens. The other route.

Wait. How much money are we deferring? Can we defer a lot of money on that one? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. We can defer as much money as you want, Derek. Corvin Burns is getting $1.5 million a year.

And then the rest will be put off until 2077. The other route, you know, within, within this situation is the Diamondbacks trade Zach Allen this off season. And they basically do, they basically do a swap. They try to get something significant for Gallon, which I think they could. Yeah. And they sort of just replace him in their rotation with, Corbin Burns. Granted, either of these scenarios are going to involve the Diamondbacks probably pushing payroll above sort of what I expect them to. Oh, yeah. In, uh, in 20205. So this is why I'm not really expecting this to happen. But I think that that that would be that would be a good like the diamond box would be a good team. You could see a route to this team being very, very good in, in either of those different ways. Uh, Riley is, Riley's thrown in his soul. He said, I would actually sell my soul if we get Corbyn Burton. So that's also part of the deal. We're giving Corbyn,

soul. I don't know he's going to do with it, but I appreciate the, at least I like the idea of him having jars of souls in his basement somewhere. All right. What else we got, Kev? Well, I guess I had to give my. I thought that was two because one was reasonable and one wasn't, but what else you got? I mean, I think both of those are kind of unreasonable. Okay. So my realistic one, this is a little bit boring, but we discussed it earlier, just re-signed Jock Peterson, and just sort of lock in your your DH situation. You know, maybe you find another platoon guy.

Maybe it's bringing back Randall Gritchick. Maybe it's an Austin Hayes. Maybe, you know, there's some other guys out there that could fill that role. But getting that locked down early in the off season, I think would kind of help frame everything else that you have to do. So I'm a fan on paper of what that would do for this team. Oh, that's,

see, because when I did that as Mike Hazen, I would also show up in a pink hoodie and a hoverboard. You know, like I would just match Jock's freaky energy and I would come with it, like to the signing of Jock Peterson. I would drive my cyber truck there

and then get out and ride my hoverboard up to the table. And yeah, it would be a good time. We'd go eat Waterburger afterwards. We'd have it. We'd have fun. All right, well,

as we got it. All right. Next question comes from the Rickety Bridge. Who wants to know? I have a question. What's an ex-Walterer? It sounds like it should be in a fantasy novel, but I bet it's some sort of fancy stat. I added the word fancy because this is baseball.

Yeah. And that's our guy, Rickety Bridge, who I like, I love Rickety Bridge now more than not, I want to say the rest of you. I just love the fact that he's, he's new to baseball and he's so open to not knowing things about baseball. And I appreciate that. Because every baseball fan knows what ex-Wobah is. Exactly, Jesse. Yeah. You know, I talk about ex-woba all the time.

No, go ahead to explain to him what ex-woba is because I don't know. So to understand ex-Woba, we have to start by understanding its cousin, its little brother, if you will. Wobah. No, no, we're done. We are done. Kevin, back to a too shy. We're not starting there. We're not starting with it.

We got a rap suit. I wanted to start with just like the meaning of life, Derek. I know. I knew. I knew you were going to be like. skipped a lot of steps, all right? Upon creation, you know,

like that kind of thing. No, Jesse. Real, real quick. I can make this quick. So Wobha is basically, it reads like an on-base percentage.

And it basically, it's the same idea as on-base percentage, but it assigns values to different types of hits according to the amount of value that they actually have. So like a double, it counts for more than a single, a triple counts for more than a single, right, a home run,

all of those things. So that's the idea of Wobah. It's similar to on-based percentage, but it's like an adjusted version of it. X-Woba is the exact same thing, but based on the expected stats. So this factors in exit velocities and launch angles rather than real outcomes.

And so that is how, that is what Woba is, and that is how X-WOBA is different from Wobah. And Derek has officially fallen asleep. So we need to be. nailed it. Okay, let's go. All right. Well, everybody wants us to start cursing now that it's 2 o'clock, but that's just the time to remind our TV viewers that if you want to keep watching, Jesse, talk about ex-Woba. That's up to you. Come on over to go phnx.com and join the fun. We will

keep the party going over there, and we thank you guys so much, of course, for joining us. To the rest of you monsters, we got right. Riley wants me to explain ex-WobCon. No, no, you do not, Riley. That's not what we're going to do. You can do that another day. What do you got, Keb? Why is that ex-Wobicon and not X-Wol-Bacon? Don't even get me started. It can be, it has one is fun and one is like, I feel like I'm going to algebra class, you know? Wobicon. I definitely, Wobicon is like a new form of it. It's a Jeep. You know, okay, that's a good one. The 2025 Jeep Wobicon, you know?

Anyway, I like that better. That's actually what we're calling it from now. on what else we got let's answer some more questions yeah all right so next question it comes from angela who wants to know what about the deba or yeah what about the debacks is the ph nx dbacks crew most looking forward to this next season not playing the dodgers that's for sure um i'll start off by saying i think i am looking forward to next season being a year that the diamondbacks are not rebuilding or or just trying or whatever i do think that especially i mean honestly especially if jordan montgomery still on this team. There's a lot of guys that have everything in the world to play for next year. And I think this team is going to be all in. So I'm excited about next year. I think that this is

going to be a competitive team in 2025. I think that they definitely had a lot of things go their way in 2023 that they didn't expect. And I think they had a lot of things not go their way in 2024 that they didn't expect. So I think that they had had some, you know, some learning experiences is here. And I think that they're going to be better for it in 2025. I don't think they're going to take any single win for granted, considering how close they came and how short they're, you know, how short they came essentially. But yeah, I think that this is going to be an exciting year just to watch this team, you know, come back out with a healthy starting rotation and, and see what these guys can do in a contract year. I was just going to say just the fact that I think the team will be

relevant no matter pretty much no matter what happens right like if the diamondbacks come out next year and are destined for the playoffs or appear to be destined for the playoffs early on in the season if things are really coming together for them obviously it has the potential to be a really big year for this franchise um and if things go south in 2025 as much as people might not be so happy with me bringing up that possibility the trade deadline would become very very very interesting for this team that's that gallon like mary kelly you know potentially some other guys that they bring in on on one year deals hitting free agency so uh that's something we talked about with this season too where if the diamondbacks had chosen to sell in 2024 they also could have done pretty well for

themselves i think the same would be true next year and as much as that would be unfortunate for the team in the moment in the long term it actually could play some could pay some big dividends to to actually be able to cash in on some of those guys. That's very, very true. All right, what else we got, Kevin? Yeah. So next question is actually going to come from Jacob Schultt, who wants to know, should we normalize planting the flag for baseball?

The Dodgers jumped in our pool. I want to plant the D-BAC flag on their mound if we win a series. Yes. The answer is yes. And I think planting a flag at any time in any sport is fine. It is a flag. It is sport. If you don't like it, don't lose losers.

that's what I have to say. Same thing to the Phillies. Same thing to what happened in the Territorial Cup. Same thing to those losers from Ohio State. If you don't like it, don't let the enemy win a big game like that on your home turf. And I would say the same thing about the Dodgers. I mean, the Dodgers came here. They clinched the division and they went and celebrated in the Diamondbacks pool. And man, people will never forget it.

They'll never forget it. Both Dodgers fans will never forget it. Diamondbacks fans will never forget it. It's an act of disrespect so high with an fair. The act itself is quite innocent, actually. It's just the idea of it is so disrespectful that, I mean, it's, this is what rivalries are based on. I, I don't fault in the case of football,

the guys going out there and defending and being a, you know, like starting to fight and stuff. I don't know, this is a sport. This is what it is. But to his point, yes. And I want it to be Alec Thomas all the time, whether he's on the team, whether he's off the team. I want a retired Alec Thomas when he's 50 to run out of nowhere at one point

when the Diamondbacks clinch against the Dodgers and just plan a flag right in the middle of the pitchers mound. I do like the idea of every team having a designated flag planter. Yes. Like I think that's a fun addition to the sport. I also think that, you know, if we're going to do it for any series win on the road during the season, why don't we just do it for every win, right? like, you know, in baseball, 162 games, a single individual win.

A lot of people sort of dismiss the value of that because there's so many games and it's like, all right, what does one game really mean? But if there was like a flag planting ceremony of sorts that happened after every single win on the road, that would be like that would be a pretty big deal. So yeah, there you go, Derek. Major League Baseball should hire us to be part of their committee. of people coming up with all the great ideas. Do you want less fights?

We're going to make more fights. We're going to make this more fun. All right. What do you got? Real quick. I mean, you guys pretty much lobbed it up for me. Who would you guys pick as the Diamondbacks designated flag planner for the upcoming season? I mean, if it's not Alec Thomas?

Yeah, if it's not Alex. Okay. Because Alex Thomas is the obvious choice. Oh, that's a good question. Kevin Ginkle? Sure. Could you imagine Kevin Ginkle running just full speed? screaming the whole way

with the flag right no one's going to get in his way he's a large man they're not going to dare stop him and he just plants it and then comes off with that energy that he does after he strikes out the side of the seventh inning with two runners on in an inherited runner situation I'm pumped

just talking about it uh Dre Jameson I don't know you you know how to put fire in my blood Jesse of course it's Dre Jameson I knew you like that well else we got him

Yeah. All right. Andy wants to know what is everyone's favorite ballpark food? I love this question because it's just, I don't know if we've ever answered it. And we've done this show for a very long time. I don't know. We haven't answered this. What's that? Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think we've ever just been asked what's our favorite ballpark food. I mean, especially at this place, right, at Chase Field. I mean, I guess we could break it down to like a simpler thing. I mean, hot dogs, glizzies. I can't get enough. of a hot dog at a baseball game. I think it's because there are times where no matter what, I am just in the spirit of the moment to eat the most whatever food that is for that instance, whether it's a holiday or at a place, I usually tend to ask the dumb question of like, what do you guys make?

What's your specialty? Like, what do you guys do well at any restaurant? And I said at. I mean, it has to be a special hot dog, though. I don't think it's just some plain hot dog. Every stadium has an amazing hot dog. covered in toppings and the diamond diamonds are no different there's sonoran dog prior to them using the pork belly bacon on top was the perfect sonoran dog

that you could imagine and then they went with the harder crispy or bacon it made it more difficult to eat all the toppings fell off I don't like it go back to the hot dog wrapped in bacon that's it that's mine I think hot dogs are kind of overrated personally I think I think there's there's a really adequate adequately rated No one is saying a hot dog is like a high end culinary experience. You just rated it as your favorite bar park food. Yes, yes, because it's a, I'm trying. Like I could go.

You know I love the park belly nachos, Jesse. I do know that's my favorite thing ever. I went with like a standard item for Andy. Sure. Yeah, I can't bring myself to go with a hot dog in any, in any capacity. I In terms of other other like I mean I guess for going just standard items like nachos are also a standard ballpark item sure Oh man

Am I allowed to say my my real answer is the crispy bow buns that they once had at chase field that they no longer have anymore Which was which was sort of sort of devastating to me that was sort of my go to at the ball ball Park. Elise does bring up one of the finest meals I've ever had, which was just walking around Oracle Park with garlic fries. And the seagulls will eat them out of your hand, by the way. They do not play games. Those birds are vicious. They are vicious. But yeah, no, I mean, I don't know. I think, like, I do think that Chase Field has a lot of good food. So there's a lot of items over the years. If I'm being completely perfectly honest, the thing that was my favorite was getting free ice cream in the press box. Yeah. Yeah. You.

You refuse to stop talking about guys. It was like living in the best of times. Can you imagine there just being a little magical refrigerator that just gets filled with cold stone creamery ice creams? And then when you eat them, they just fill it back up with more. It was a magical time in my life that will never be replicated ever by any kind of happiness at any point by anybody ever. That's, uh, Max is not going to be very happy with you after this show. I think there's like there's been three or four pre ads for sure.

What else we got Kevin? Let's get us out of here before I get in trouble. Yeah, I got you, Derek. Next question comes from Hanley, who wants to know. The theme is WWE Knight at Chase Field. Derek, you are tasked with planning the event. What can fans look forward to seeing at the ballpark? Oh, my God.

They can look forward to a lot of things. They could look forward first of all to seeing, what is it? Metalingis perform. Oh, yeah. It is. Over and over and over again on repeat, right? all the fireworks, not just at the end of the game, not just at the beginning of the game. Fireworks for every inning.

Every time the Diamondbacks take the field, boom, fireworks. Every time a guy comes out to bat, boom, fireworks. That's right. You're getting three fireworks show at the top of the inning, fireworks show at the end of the bottom of the, you're getting fireworks show all game long. I would also, for the ladies, make all the debacks, you know, play the game shirtless, right? At least maybe not shirtless.

I'll bring back the gray or white vests from, from 2001, but no undershirt, just the best, just the top part. And it's up to them if they want to leave it open or closed. I'm going to leave that to their discretion. Of course, everybody gets their theme music, but they have to pick WWE songs, except Jake McCarthy, who has to pick another song other than Kurt Engels song. Because I still can't help but shout you suck at Jake McCarthy. And I don't mean that when I do that.

I mean that, you know, obviously in a loving way. All umpires have to dress like referees. They also have to do a three count at each base when a guy comes in. One, two. No, just two. Just two. We got just two over here. And yeah, I mean, obviously it would go like a wrestling card would.

So it would progress to eventually a main event where the closing pitcher for the Diamondbacks, whoever that may be, would just have to fight the three-hole hitter in a no-fall, no holds bar match right there in the middle of the infield. What's a three second count? A three second. Jesse, you know, you pin,

they pin them. That's how you win a match. You lay down on top of the other guy after knocking them out or subduing them in some way. And the referee counts one, two, three. Okay. Yeah. So in order to be considered safe at a base,

you would have to, you'd just have to kind of chill there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you have to get there and you have to make sure that, yeah, right.

somehow a kickout? I don't know. What happens when you have, what happens when you have like several guys scoring in quick succession, but like the first guy can't leave until three seconds of past. So home plate is suddenly a very crowded place

because there's three people there at the same time. No, you bring up a great point because that's actually when the rumble would take place, right? So at that point, you would have a base and three guys stepping on it and then those guys would have to throw the other two guys off. And whoever sits,

I guess whoever is still on base, when all said done, gets a title shot at the end of the night? Or like at WrestleMania? I don't know. What are we doing, Kevin? Yeah, I just have three notes for your planning of the event. Sure. First, we need to substitute.

I love our announcers. We need to substitute them with Michael Cole and Jim Ross. Yes. Every home run needs to be a slobrenocker. Yes. For sure. Undebatable. The winner of the closing pitcher that comes in and gets to save

has to turn around and point to center field. The sign. Point to the sign. Yeah. Point to the rest of the guy, Ryan in the chat. They bought that up. third all pinch runners have to tag in and out oh that's so good that's so good this is better than an actual baseball game i think yeah i think we did i think we did uh and yes cam we can use a chair instead of a bat to hit the ball

or kendos sticks too we can use kendo sticks oh it'll be great all right what else we got kev i need a question that jesse can actually understand what we're talking about all right next question going to come from Bread Bowl. No, never mind. Who's just going to ask you to recast the rest of what you were doing when you saw that? I guess.

Maybe I did. Jesse, before the show started, asked me, what's a Christmas story? And then when we all laughed and mocked him, because how do you avoid seeing a Christmas story? Like, if you have a TV and you've had it on

during the month of December, there's no way a Christmas story hasn't come across your television at some point. Then he also asked, is it that famous of a movie? That's Jesse Friedman, ladies and gentlemen. That's him in a nutshell. I feel like none of these things should have been surprising to you.

Yeah, no, I know. I know, but it's just that I have to take over the duties. And I mean, I take this very seriously, just like the wrestling thing. I had to really think about this. Now, of course, Ralphie is the star of the movie. He's a young boy, and he wants, the only thing he wants for Christmas is a,

Red Rider BB gun, Jesse. And the reason why he's not allowed to have one, as you may understand, is a BB gun's very dangerous. He'll shoot his eye out, as his mother tells him, right? So in this case, Ralphie is Corbyn Carroll, right? And the Red Rider BB gun is the 2023 rookie of the year award, which eventually they both obtained, right? The old man, aka his father, would be Tori. That makes all the sense in the world. His younger brother, Randy, Gabby Moreno, of course.

I also thought in this case maybe Lordus should be Ralphie. I was conflicted just based on Gabby being the younger brother. But it doesn't matter who plays Ralphie. Gabby is definitely playing Randy. As far as Scott Farcass is concerned, it is absolutely Dre Jameson. And do not tell me that Dre Jameson does not look like the kind of person that didn't wear a raccoon cap like that when he was a small boy. Flick, of course, would be Jake McCarthy. That's the kid that got his tongue stuck to the pole.

The one that antagonized him into doing so is Schwartz. he would be played by Jock Peterson. I think you get the connection there between those two. Christmas tree man is Jordan Montgomery, explained itself. The leg lamp would be played by Merrill Kelly because he's Fred Gile. It's Italian.

And then Miss Shields, for those of you that are media members, I guess, would be Peggy from the DeBax Press Lounge Kitchen. But that's an inside joke that I'm sure a lot of people aren't going to get. So there you go. There's your cast of the Christmas story. Jesse, any thoughts, any changes you want to make i just i just uh think it's funny that ryan said in the chat bring back jesse watches movies everyone has seen him gives us review yeah we had a special segment called jesse hasn't seen it i think

i'm going to task it with watching your christmas story and coming back with a book report on it because we definitely need to make that happen it does have 89 percent on a rotten tomatoes so that that that's that that clips is the necessary i don't care about reviews i don't care anything else it is just amazing to me. And I mean, yes, I should not be surprised. I should not be surprised. Yet I am very much surprised here that you've never even heard of a Christmas story. I probably, I think I'd heard of it.

But hearing of it and watching it are two different things. I'm going to make them watch it. I'm going to make them watch it. I'm going to make them come back with the report on it for you guys. But of course, we thank you guys so much. We know Mailback Monday wouldn't be the same without you guys. This show wouldn't be the same without you guys. So we appreciate you so much.

You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse's at Jesse N. Friedman. Make sure to tweet him and shame him about never even knowing what a Christmas story is. Our guy, large, intimate Kevin Thomas, is at Kev Posts. Kevo. Kevo Posts. Yeah.

Jesse got it. Jesse got it. All right. Yeah, we're getting there. We'll get there. Eventually. But, of course, our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs. And all roads do lead to at PHNX.

H&X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. We will see you tomorrow with another 1 p.m. episode. And then hopefully we'll see so many of you on Wednesday for our live edition of this show out there at Wild Horse Pass with the one and only Archie Bradley. Of course, until then, we hope you guys all have a wonderful evening. We hope you behave yourselves.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you think about Corbyn Carroll wearing that pink bunny suit.