PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - PHNX D-backs After Dark: F*ck the Dodgers

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are now listening to PHNXDbacks after dark. Well, Damon, I am glad that this first edition of PHNXDbacks after dark that's audio only is audio only. Because I sit here, as you can see, with banana ice cream running down my chin, no regard at all for my own self-worth or, I mean, I have nothing. I have nothing left. The fucking Dodgers have, broken baseball and in turn they've broken me I am in shambles and I am not afraid to admit it

Starting point is 00:00:45 they have won I have lost and I'm so fucking over baseball and their lack of parity that it makes me sick I wish you guys can see Derek right now he has mascara all around his eyes he has makeup foundation running down his cheek I mean it's he is an absolute disaster he's wearing sweatpants he's yeah i wear sweatpants every day yeah it's it's it's full like you know woman in breakup mode status for for one derrick montia right now and and for good reason derrick i i i i just honestly like i i didn't want to go here and i didn't even think i was going here off the top but are you ready to stop fucking saying that these guys are likable because that yeah that's step one yeah yeah i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm

Starting point is 00:01:38 I'm over my own bullshit. Now I'm over saying they're like, well, I stood, I believe, on a chair in an office today and screamed at you about this exact topic. And it's because- No one's happy. We're all, it's causing commotion in every relationship, strained on all of our relationships. Oh, God. My wife and I aren't even speaking anymore because of this. Thank you, you piece of shit, Kyle Tucker and the Dodgers.

Starting point is 00:02:04 I don't even blame Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker doesn't want to fucking play baseball anymore. He doesn't give a shit about the sport. He just wants to make a lot of money doing it as quickly as he can. And then he's going to get out and do whatever he wants to do in life, live his best life, sing songs from the top of mountains, climb trees, all that. Let me ask you a question. Is Kyle Tucker, you know, it's been reported four years, $240 million, $60 million,

Starting point is 00:02:26 $60 million APY. Is that enough to buy you a new neck that doesn't look so fucking weird? Maybe. Maybe a new chin. It's enough to buy you, especially living in Los Angeles. anything you want, Damon. You could look like a whole other person. You could turn yourself into a goddamn cat if you wanted to.

Starting point is 00:02:44 Well, Kyle Tucker needs to do that because he looks absolutely ridiculous. So maybe that's step one of what he should do with his money. But yeah, I mean, what an absolute disastrous day for Diamondbacks fans and just, and for all of baseball fans really, but particularly fans of teams that are in the NL West, I think have reason to be the most upset in this moment. we're so fed up with this you set it on today's show to go into the season and have a zero percent chance of winning the division is insane you also have the fact that the met's paid bobbuchette an ungodly amount of money for yet another piece of shit short-term deal right that

Starting point is 00:03:28 man can also for retire after the next three years and i think he'll be fine right but i mean all of these deals, they, it's so weird. This is like, these deals are all impacting the diamondbacks in one way or another, whether you want to admit it or not. God damn, Mets get better. They've been just dying to give away money. You had the, you know, the good news that Ranger Svarez was leaving the Phillies. You also have the good news that Boba Chet is not a Philly, right? Those are things that are positive as far as one of our foes that would potentially take up some playoff spot that we might end up being able to sneak into. But you, again, you just have Ranger Suarez going to the Boston Red Sox,

Starting point is 00:04:11 who then in turn resurrected the goddamn could tell Marte rumors all over again. And I just fucking hate it, Damon. I'm just so frustrated with all of it. I'm so, like, sick of Dodgers fans and MLB people gaslighting me. I know I play a fool on TV, but I assure you, I am no fool. And I know that when you're trying to get me on board with this idea that every team should spend like the fucking Dodgers are spending, I will say no.

Starting point is 00:04:48 No, they shouldn't. And no, this is what it's, I mean, this is all careening towards a work stoppage at the end of the season. It's careening towards my unemployment, inevitably. and it's careening towards me never watching baseball ever again. None of those things are probably true, except one. You're going to have to figure out which one that is. But I will say that I don't like any of this that's going on, and I just can't feel like this is all good for the game.

Starting point is 00:05:20 There's ways to improve baseball, improve how much players get paid, but have it be at an overall level, where it's maybe players get compensated a bit more when they're younger because they deserve that instead of having to wait so long to get their superstar contract. And maybe keep some of these guys from receiving $60 million a year. Kyle Tucker could end homelessness in Los Angeles with that contract.

Starting point is 00:05:48 He's not going to, but he could. Yeah. It sucks. Derek, this feels like it's turning into, it's about to turn into a post game of our podcast that we did. earlier today on the YouTube channel. And if you haven't checked that out, Derek and I screamed and cried about the Dodgers for approximately an hour straight at 12 p.m. every single day.

Starting point is 00:06:09 But yeah, I mean, this is a situation where I just, like, I look at Dodgers fans in particular, and I say what a group of absolute fucking scumbacks those people are. Like, I get rooting for your team. I get wanting your team to win every year. I understand that, you know, like you're going to be juiced up by signing a guy like Kyle Tucker. And I don't expect you to not be. But what I do want and expect these Dodgers fans to do is say, hey, guys, this shit isn't

Starting point is 00:06:44 fucking fair. And we agree. We know it's not fair. We would be crazy to not celebrate our team's success. But we know it's not fair to the rest of the league. But instead, you have these jackasses, Derek. that come into our chat and try to tell us that we're the problem. Actually, the 29 other people in the sport are the problems.

Starting point is 00:07:09 Irm, actually, it's actually your guys' fault. And you're sitting there and you're like, no, that's not the case. It's not the case that we don't stoop to your guys's level. And honestly, it's not even possible because of the Dodgers television deal. I actually made a mistake today, Derek, when discussing how much the Dodgers television deal was worth when it were in regard to the spectrum. I said I said that it was 180 million. Now, when I type in Dodgers Spectrum deal television dollar amount,

Starting point is 00:07:44 I get a few deferring answers here. But I think in general, I believe that the total deal was 25 years, $8.35 billion. Let me say that again. 20 years, $8.35 billion. And it's just, it's absolutely baffling. How are you supposed to compete with that amount of money? $8.35 billion over the course of 25 years, Derek,

Starting point is 00:08:14 totals out to $334 million in television revenue per se. season that the Dodgers bring in. So then when they go into the offseason and they give Kyle Tucker $240 million, it's a drop in the fucking bucket. They made $100 million more than that this past year. And now over the next four years, they're going to pay this guy $240 million. It doesn't matter what they pay these players because they have more money than everybody. And the Diamondbacks will just never be able to compete with that amount of money. and truly it's just exemplifies how broken the sport is

Starting point is 00:08:56 because there is a cap. Yes, there's a cap, but it's a soft cap. And the Dodgers can decide, hey, we're just going to pay over that. We're going to pay into the tax. We don't give a shit. And so then they do.

Starting point is 00:09:07 And, you know, I guess credit to them in a way, you're ruining the sport, but credit to you for having ambition and wanting to win. But stop trying to tell me that this is fair and that this is good for baseball and that it's everybody else's fault because you're fucking wrong

Starting point is 00:09:21 and you're deluded when you say things like that. It's like having certain laws, like a speeding ticket, be monetary. Because you and I getting a speeding ticket is devastating to our income and our money supply, what we get to do with life. Suddenly, we have to pay, you know, out the nose either for the ticket, or we have to go to traffic school and lose a day of our life. The Dodgers are like, not a rich person, but a wealthy person that drives around in a very, very nice, very fast sports car and gets pulled over often. And just pays those tickets, just has the money.

Starting point is 00:10:07 They don't care. What's $200, $300 to them? Until it gets to a point where it warrant is issued for their arrest, they're fine. But in this case, MLB does never, they never issue a warrant. for the Dodgers arrest, Damon, which is what we fucking need. We need the police to get involved. We need the FBI to stop them. We need somebody to intervene in this situation.

Starting point is 00:10:34 When it comes to Dodgers fans, this is the, this is the strangest fan base that you'll find. And I'm not going to, I'm not going to generalize them in the same way you do, although you're fairly accurate and correct when you do that. I'm not going to say that they're new fans or. bad fans are not knowledgeable. I'm not going to say they don't know ball. I think that they care deeply about their team. They definitely care, right, in a way that we've never really seen Dodgers fans care outside of the, you know, the people that sit in the in the outfield, you know, essentially that

Starting point is 00:11:06 live and live and die with their team, right? We've never seen this level of caring from Dodgers fans, but they're just, they're, they're an all-star team at this point. The point I'm getting to, though, Have you ever seen a fan base that's more complacent with what their team pays a player as this? In any other city, in any other sport, giving one man like this, especially a position player, a historical deal when he did not hit 400 in 2025, would be outrageous. I know if the Diamondbacks who were briefly, and I mean it when I say briefly, connected to Kyle Tucker, I would have been mad if the Diamondbacks landed Kyle Tucker. I would have been upset if they paid this man $60 million considering the needs that they still have, considering how important we find starting pitching. But that's because this is a team that has needs. The Dodgers have no needs.

Starting point is 00:12:08 they have above average players at every position and in most cases including their pitching staff they have elite all-star level of pitching. So they didn't have any needs. They didn't have a need to bring Kyle Tucker in. That's why that this is the most fucking infuriating thing to me, Damon, is that this was just like a rich got not rich once again, not the right word wealthy a wealthy guy just flaunting his wealth right just purchasing something

Starting point is 00:12:44 that a bunch of other people wanted not because he needed it but because he could because he had the money for it because he could outbid every other person in that room even though there are teams that the met's going they're looking at the met's going wait what did you guys offer Kyle Tucker what do you wait blue jays what was your guys's offer yeah we're oh okay try 200 and 41 million at a at a one at the end of the deal because that's how much we can spend on this guy right right right i saw someone literally take your highest amount and multiply it by two and we'll we'll beat it you know i saw somebody else make the comparison in the analogy derrick today of and i think that this one is that is actually like almost 100% what it is it's as if you're telling the dodgers fans are

Starting point is 00:13:32 telling a guy that say a guy makes $200,000 and he invests into his 401k and then you're looking at a guy who makes $50,000 and you're saying wait, why does the guy who has $200,000 able to invest more into his 401k than you shouldn't you care about your future? Shouldn't you care about your level of investment into your 401k? It's not fucking possible. Yeah. It's not fucking possible. They make four times as much as me.

Starting point is 00:14:01 How can I invest as much as the person that makes four times as much as me? I have to live life. I have to rebuild the scoreboard in fucking center field. I have to make sure the air conditioning works. I have to make sure the retractable is getting used properly. Like we cannot, we cannot level with this amount of investment. It is not possible. So to say that it's equal, which every other sport seems to find a way,

Starting point is 00:14:30 to have things be equal is false. It's simply false. And again, much like their complacency to lick boot when it comes to their team paying whatever outrageous amount for a player, no matter how much they're worth it, these fans that are fans of Dodgers need to just admit that. Right? Like that's the thing is just admit it and then move on.

Starting point is 00:14:53 There's things that I would admit isn't fair. Like if other teams were like, oh, I wish I had a roof and I'd be like, ha ha we do suck it right like that's just kind of it i'm not and then i'd say actually it was broken for a long time and we couldn't open it with people inside it was a safety hazard uh but again it's like the the the the things that we have that other teams or fan bases might covet those are the things i'm going to celebrate and be proud of and say yes i'm very thankful for that i'm not going to somehow justify it and say like oh well every team could have a fucking

Starting point is 00:15:27 roof, go fucking put one in your stadium. I don't know. Why haven't you already put a roof over your stadium? Right? Like, Derek, I'll give you an even better example of that. I am a big time Chelsea fan. I love Chelsea Football Club. I try to watch all the games. It matters a lot to me, right? But I can admit that the Premier League in the way in which they handle financial fair play and which is their example or their version, I guess, of the salary cap is completely shambolic. It's unfair.

Starting point is 00:15:58 It's based off of what teams bring in the most revenue, and those teams can spend the most money. It's very similar to what the Dodgers do, except it's like almost like they, the rules are sitting there to which the Diamondbacks, if they even wanted to invest that much money, would be penalized by the sport for investing that much money. You see that with clubs like Newcastle United

Starting point is 00:16:20 who are really trying to up their level of investment, but they are being pushed back by the, rules in place, the salary rules in place that don't allow them to spend as much as the top clubs. And I think as a Chelsea fan, one of the top clubs it spends the most, it's complete and utter bullshit. You see how hard that was, Derek? It should not be that type of system. It's the reason why so many Americans then become fans of Chelsea, because Chelsea, year after year, is good. And a lot of times they're competing for a championship. So because of that, people like winners when they don't have a horse in the race and they're not from fucking

Starting point is 00:16:59 wherever the hell Owen is from you know where they I mean nobody like and this is the same thing with international fans when it comes to baseball why wouldn't they pick the Dodgers why wouldn't they pick the Dodgers when they're a winner why wouldn't they pick the Dodgers when you look at the Dodgers lineup and say yeah that's an all-star team I like that team that seems good and especially if talk about Asia as a whole, more specifically, Japan, having a huge Asian-Japanese presence on that team also just goes to, I mean, again, it just goes to extend their reach and goes to extend how much money they make and how this whole situation works out. Is that economic rule in

Starting point is 00:17:45 place in the Premier League to like keep teams from putting themselves in a financial hole? Correct. Yeah, essentially that I think that's the, the, the methodology at play, but there are owners that want to spend above their means because they want to be competitive and they're they're essentially not allowed to. But I think that it's, it's very similar to the path that we have headed down in Major League Baseball and not that major league baseball has, you know, put parameters on you cannot spend this much money, but it it almost works in that sense because they know that teams can't spend that much money. And they're perfectly okay with the Dodgers doing it because it gets them $100.

Starting point is 00:18:24 million viewers during the World Series in Japan. It gets them, you know, 50 million viewers in Mexico during the World Series because, you know, the Mexican people tend to, you know, gravitate towards the Dodgers because of the connection to L.A. Like, it's, it's just a, it's a, it's a, the entirety of the process feels like it's majorly baseball catering to international fans because they know that they have lost market share in America. So they're sitting there putting their hands up and saying, yeah, the sport is going to be

Starting point is 00:18:52 broken because of this, but we don't care because of. our pockets will be lined. And that's all that matters at the end of the day when it's all said and done. But, you know, who gets fucked? The 29 other fan bases of teams that you have to sit there and watch this happen year after year after year. And quite frankly, Derek, I'm sick of it. I know that we don't want to lock out because it affects our jobs in this podcast in

Starting point is 00:19:13 particular. But at the same time, the sport probably needs it at this point because the way that things are going are not a direction that is positive for the overall health. of baseball in America when it's all said and done. Well, we have 318 days until that dark day comes, Damon. And you know what? Ripping off the calendar. You just need to have it happen as hard as it might be, as difficult as the, like potentially

Starting point is 00:19:47 losing regular season games in 2027 might end up being. I think it's going to be for the best. This sport needs to figure it shit out. It needs to get its shit together. All in one place, gather it up in a bag and take it somewhere and figure their shit out. I don't even know. Like, it's so broken, Damon, that when I think about how they're going to transition in the new CBA, should they implement a salary cap. It's going to take years.

Starting point is 00:20:20 It's going to take years. It's the reason why I said, the Dodgers, as much as well. we hate them are actually pretty fucking brilliant for doing this right now, considering that this looming lockout is about to happen. Because should they implement those changes that that would restrict the Dodgers from doing the things that they're doing now, it's not like they're going to be able to strip them from players on their team. It's not like they're going to immediately be able to make them in 2027 say,

Starting point is 00:20:50 well, you have to reduce your payroll down from 450, million dollars to fucking 225. So whatever the outcome is of the CBA, there's going to essentially be a time frame negotiated into it for teams to get their payrolls down within the required amount. So again, if you want another reason why the Dodgers probably did this, I feel like that. And the hesitancy from other teams to spend with the uncertainty of 2027 looming on the horizon is why they did it. But they also did it because they're a bunch of bastards.

Starting point is 00:21:29 And I hate them. So I do appreciate. Yeah. I appreciate you. Appreciate everyone for joining us on this audio podcast ride. As always, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. And we are all Damon's dogs.

Starting point is 00:21:48 Bark fucking bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs. But as always all roads lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys for your time. Appreciate you stopping by. We will be back with another filthy episode of us ranting about something else shortly. Until then, make sure you behave yourselves.

Starting point is 00:22:08 And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's more fun after dark.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - PHNX D-backs After Dark: F*ck the Dodgers

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.