PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Play ball!

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing the first game of spring training, the D-backs' Law Firm at third base of Van Meter, Ellis, & Rojas, and supply chain issues preventing bobblehead giveaways in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti. Of course, I am your mayor of Salt River Fields, and I'm joined by my vice mayor of Salt River Fields, the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Hello, Derek. How are you, sir? I saw baseball today, Jesse, and not baseball between guys on the same team, not some sort of drills that little leaguers would run. No, I saw real actual baseball players between grown. men on opposite teams, Jesse. So I am on cloud nine. Spring training is in full swing.

Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app right now. You guys can get down on new customers can get down right now. Of course, college basketball is the talk of the town. March Madness is here. New customers can bet just $5 on any team to win and get $200 in free bets during the tournament. If they win, you win over at the Draft King's Sportsbook. And yes, Jesse, I am really excited to have watched actual baseball today. Spring training is happening. We got to see the guys out there.

There was a lot of excitement. There was a palpable energy in the air, I think. I think that there was a lot of relief that we got to this point, even though it happened pretty fast. I think the fact of one week ago, we got the news that the lockout had ended. was back. And here we are one week later, watching actual baseball games being played. Somehow that feels like a long time ago. Like it feels like genuinely a long time ago that the lockout was happening and we didn't know if baseball was going to happen. I'm like kind of disoriented because of that. I don't understand how that was only a week ago. One of my favorite people in the

press box like I like the press box now is like school for me. Where I feel like I've been going to the same school with these guys since we were in like kindergarten in first grade we've just grown up together but like uh and you never graduate either yeah right uh but david brant from associated press is one of my favorite guys to talk to and i had to stop for a moment and ask him if it had been two weeks or one week since the lockout ended because it seems yeah it seems like so much has happened in that one week of of action not only did we have baseball back we had the free agency frenzy that kind of took place but still hasn't there's still a lot of guys to sign uh and we we you know we had a very expedited camp as far as the diamondbacks are concerned now camp isn't over and that is partially my fault i tweeted

that out on our account the other day camp's not necessarily over they're still uh having camp while the spring training games are going on so for the time being sure the guys that aren't being utilized in these spring training games are still running those same drills and that same activity that they would during this not during this time of the year but during their initial, you know, camp experience with at Salt River Fields. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. And if I'm not mistaken, I think people can still go out and watch the team practice from time to time,

even though spring training games are happening. They have very complicated rules about that as far as where you can go and where you can't, but they do have it laid out. You have to watch from the bridge, right, or something. Well, no, actually, you could go, like yesterday, they had a minor league. game between the Oakland A's minor leaguers and our minor leaguers, which was basically what the spring training game is. I mean, today's game versus the Rockies was very similar. There was only one guy in the lineup for the Rockies. That's a regular, as far as like a, you know, a starter during the

regular season. Everybody else was minor leaguer similar to what the Diamondbacks were going through. So, but apparently they had a game with the Oakland A's guys. And I, not only do I think that's cool, but you were able to go out as a fan and watch those because the minor league. league interest squad games and even the games against other teams can be viewed at what they call the clover leaf, which is for practice fields in the shape of a clover leaf. Happy St. Patrick's Day, by the way. So since we're talking about the clover leaf, you know, I spent my St. Patrick's Day at my favorite place to spend any holiday Salt River Fields.

I could spend Christmas there, Valentine's Day. They had the sweet green hats today, too. They had the sweet green hats. I really like, I'm a, I'm a, I'm, I'm a, I'm, I'm kind of a fan of the spring training hats. I know a lot of people aren't. I know a lot of people don't like the trucker hat aspect to it, the mesh in the back.

I just, I really do. And not only that, but honestly, for Arizona, especially in March and going into April, you need as comfortably airy of a hat as possible. So those hats are going to pay dividend once those final games are being played

around the end of March and the beginning of April. It's a good look. I'm with you. I do kind of dig the spring training, really the whole spring training look. I think it's a, I think it's pretty solid overall. I really like the patch for both Arizona and, and, yeah. Yeah, no, it definitely adds something that we don't get in the regular season. But jumping into the game itself, what happened, not much.

I mean, the Diamondbacks lost five to three. I'd say it was relatively uneventful. There's not a whole lot of things to talk about. from what happened, but Dominic Canzon hit a home run. I thought that was, that was great to see Andy Yerzy hit a home run as well. Both guys who have a shot maybe to, you know, to make the roster probably more of an outside chance than, you know, some of the other guys that are in the mix. But it was good to see that for both of them.

Tommy Henry, one of the Diamondbacks better pitching prospects started the game, three innings one run. Pretty good stuff from him as well. He had a good outing and he said, you know, he was definitely working on getting ahead in the count. That was one thing that has been his focus of his entire training camp. So it's weird watching spring training games because of the fact that sometimes guys are specifically working on things. Even though these are minorly guys, they're still doing that.

Like there's a part of me that thinks as a minorly guy, wouldn't you just go out there and try to impress, right? But in some cases, the best way you can impress is by doing what you're told to go out there and work on. right so even if you don't have success even like in this case he gave up the the solo home run he still had a really good outing and i think he was pretty satisfied with the work that that he's been putting in right but these minor league guys have more of an opportunity on this debacks team i think than ever and it's something that i keep i keep thinking about they not only had an opportunity to be seen by management more than they ever would during a spring training camp like this because of the exclusivity of the minor league mini-camp.

But they're also getting this opportunity in games early on that they wouldn't normally get, I don't think, out of the gate, right? I don't think that they would get this kind of playing time right out of the gate. Obviously. That's a great point. That's a great point. Yeah. And especially, yeah, these next couple, these next couple days, it sounds like tomorrow's

going to be pretty much more of the same. We're not really expecting to see any of the 40-man big league guys, at least not quite as much. although I guess Alec Thomas was out there today. And of course, believe he went 0 for three. Don't think we saw on Alec Thomas hit today. Didn't have a great day. But Jesse,

Corbyn Carroll got a hit while I was watching. He had two. I believe Corbyn was two for four. I'm not mistaken. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's not me. It's not me. It wasn't me because I was present.

So, uh, that one was close. I was really worried that it was something I was doing. You know, that's a good idea, though you're reminding you're reminding me that as long as we have this arrangement where you're attending the games in person and i'm not there i can totally just blame you when things aren't

no i don't like that arrangement that is not the arrangement we have but you can try that all you want uh speaking of those games though like you said there's going to be more of the same in tomorrow's game but uh t rolloo volo or t lov as t love t love that's the one i like t love we discussed his name. Wow. Interesting. Yeah, it's T. Love. That's what I'm going with from now on.

So T. Love, he said that several of the players' timelines have been expedited. He's pretty, he sounds very satisfied with the work that they put in in the off season. Not in every case, because I don't, I don't think everybody was doing what Josh Rojas and certain guys were. But definitely sounds like we will see some guys in the Angels matchup on Saturday. And maybe a couple of guys tomorrow, but probably

not. It sounds like mostly he's going to hold off until that game with the Angels. It'll be interesting to see what they, see what they look like. Some of these guys who have had another very bizarre off season, right? A couple years ago, it was COVID in that whole situation, you know, waiting to see when exactly that would resolve. And fortunately, this year's significantly more normal than what that was, right? It wound up being a reasonably short delay. But as we talked about was that Gallin's situation. still not totally normal right like he couldn't go to team doctors when he was having shoulder inflammation because you you couldn't have contact with team doctors during the lockout so still

he's with the conglomerate known as scott boris who attaches his own catering service right so of course uh you know you get everything everything in a one-stop shop when you sign with scott boris and he got his own medical team apparently uh but yeah you know i mean it's it is what it is what it is as far as the off season goes, but I think, again, you have to be satisfied with the player's initiative to stay ready at all times and to organize the workouts and do everything that they did.

So that part is outstanding. And I don't think many people care about what happens here in spring training. I don't think people are looking for too much. They never do. But what we'll see is kind of how some of these roles fill out, some of these positional needs. today, Alec Thomas was playing in center field. And he looked very capable of playing center field.

He looked very comfortable out there. Just like watching him in the batting cage, he looks so natural when he's taking batting practice and live BP and stuff. His swing is such a natural swing. He looks very natural playing center field. I know that might not be where he ends up. But for the time being, I wonder how soon, how long it's going to take until we see some Alec Thomas

on the full major league roster once the season starts. I don't think it's going to be very long, Jesse. Yeah, we did. We did hear Mike Hayes in the other day. He mentioned Alec Thomas specifically, I believe, as one of the guys who could win that job out of the gate. He could be, you know, their starting center fielder.

The Diamondbacks are leaving the door open on that. And that's exciting because I think a lot of people came into this season expecting service time manipulation to factor into this. the Diamondbacks would try to push back his service clock and bring him up in May, not because he needed to be brought up in May or because, you know, his development warranted a trip back to the minor leagues, but because the Diamondbacks could eke out an extra year of team control if they did that. I don't really know if the new CBA is, is the reason the Diamondbacks are maybe not going to do that.

There are some deterrence for service time manipulation built into the system, but I'm not sure if those are quite strong enough for the Diamondbacks to be pushed away from doing that. But either way, I think we would all love to see Alec Thomas, you know, on the opening day roster. Who knows? I mean, maybe he's, maybe he's the leadoff hitter on opening day just like he was in the first cactus league game today. Don't do that to me. That goes back to Low-Lone Compos comment here about how much excitement are we allowed going into the season. A moderate, a moderate amount of excitement.

A moderate amount. Yeah. I will say that the free agency moves that they have made haven't been as big or impactful as obviously are NL West rivals. The thing here is, is it still feels like they are addressing needs. When they picked up the bullpen pieces that they've picked up, they are specifically saying, we don't have the bodies. We know we don't have the bodies in-house, even in the minor league system, to fill these roles. so these are specific things that we need to lock down.

The game is crazy and it can go all over the place, right? But the most frustrating thing, I think the thing that can break a team's back when you talk about 162 game season is when you can't rely on your bullpen to hold a lead so you start to feel hopeless about your team ever winning games. Last season, I was told something about the difference between winners and losers. And it's not to say the Diamondbacks are losers, but losers come to the ballpark.

and they hope to win, you know, they, they, they worry they're not going to win. They think that they may or may not win, whereas winners just come to the ballpark every day knowing they're going to win. They might not, but they came that day knowing that that day they were going to win, right? And it's just a different mentality that the Diamondbacks don't have. It's very hard to have when you've watched your team squander leads that you worked very hard to get because there was nobody in the bullpen that could stop a run from being scored. You know, I've seen the downback's lose like six to three and they were up three nothing at

one point, right? And it's like those are the games that are the most heartbreaking when you just watch that other team come back one inning at a time with nobody, you know, not even putting the blame on one guy for giving up a three run home run, you know, putting the blame on an entire pen for not being able to do what their job is. And that's go in and hold it. the team to be scoreless for an inning. I think another part of that was the diamondbacks had a tendency to stop scoring runs. That's a funny comment. We're going to have back up there.

I hate the Dodgers. An obligatory one for the year. That's right. It's the first day of spring training games. This is, I will allow it. Let the Dodger hatred begin. Let it flow.

Yeah, but I was, as I was saying, I think the, another issue for the team was that not only would the bullp and blow leads, but it felt like the offense wouldn't consistently build on leads. You know, once you got past the fourth or fifth inning, if they were up by a few runs, the offense kind of would just go through the motions.

And even the bullpen issues, that's something that Mike Hazen talked about the other day as well, that, you know, it's very, it's very gut-wrenching for a team to lose games the way that the diamond backs lost so many last year, where you really have a game in the bag and you let it slip away. It's, you know, we say shower off, come back the next day. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one.

Like, they put up five runs in the first inning and then lose six to five. And you're like, really? Really? Yeah. You guys, came out hot. You put up five runs in the first and couldn't manage to put up another run the whole game. I know baseball is hard. That's one thing we try to remind people of all the time.

It's a very difficult game. But you would think when you came out that hot that you would be able to sustain some sort of offense, right? So I really don't know. And there's still some issues that I think the Diamondbacks have to address. And we'll talk about what we're going to do at third base here in a little bit. But before we get to that, I just want to remind everybody, once again, not like you needed to be reminded.

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But of course, we, we'd want to talk about, of course, the bullpen has been, addressed and I think that they did a good job addressing it as we talked about on yesterday's show it very much sounds like it's been decided that mark milanson is going to be the closer and that ian kennedy will be the setup man as we heard from ian kennedy's own words but we still have to figure out what the arizona diamond backs are going to do at third base and for that we're turning to our third baseman by committee that we're for the time being we're lovingly referring to as the law firm of van meeder

Ellis and Rojas. No up front fees only pay when we win. I don't know so much about that last part. I don't think that that's part of the CBA. But the law firm of Van Meter Ellis and Rojas. Shout out to our friend Chris on Twitter for coming up with this fantastic name. And it is a very, I don't know, I don't, Jesse, I don't know if I'm going to turn to these men to defend me in a court of law. If you know what I'm saying. Not at the hot corner. But what do we think about this potential battery and do we think that the Diamondbacks are going to do something other than turn to those three guys at third base? I still think so. I still think so.

I mean, we saw Jonathan V.R. sign with the White So he's off the table. Another one we lost. I still think there's this decent chance the Diamondbacks go look at is Droble Cabrera again, you know, one of the veteran options that are still out there. I believe Cabrera is still out there. Did you say there's Drewbill Cabrera, Jesse? Is that what you just said? As Drewble Cabrera? I think it is entirely possible.

let the Diamondbacks go that direction again. Because look, I mean, none of these guys are guys that you really want to start the season counting on, right? You want to give them opportunity. You want to leave the door open if they come in and prove something to you, but you don't want to put yourself in a position where you're forced to rely on them, right? And this is not really Rojas. Rojas, I think, is someone the team will rely on in a big way,

but I don't think he's going to play a whole lot of third base, nor should he. And so at that point, it's Josh Van. meter who honestly just looked defensively not quite ready enough to play third base every day. I'm not sure that's really his natural position anyway. Drew Ellis is a more natural third baseman, but his bat was was not great in the short stint that we saw last year. And of course, these are things that could change, right? These are fluid situations.

This is why the Cactus League exists. But I don't understand why the Diamondbacks would want to be in a position, you know, where they have to rely on one of those. guys to fill that role when as of right now none of them have really proven that they deserve that opportunity well matt davidson is also back as well and he's a name that's true has come up in the rotation for third base i do think that again the one thing i like about what they've done with some of these positions is they've backed up their talk about you know kind of turning to to the minor league system turning to some of their top prospects to fill these positional needs or at least

leaving the option open you know that's what mike hasen talked about in the clip that we played you know that's really what all it's all about for them if they did go out and acquire guys and pay a lot of money for someone to come in at you know third base or right field then that essentially blocks it because they want their return on investment from whatever they're going to you know pay some free agent that they bring in thus that position, no matter how good the younger player might be, is probably going to be taken up for the most part, you know,

without the opportunity for them to win it based on their performance. And that's really what it's about. They don't want to just leave, you know, positional needs open and go into a regular season without addressing those or having a game plan for them, but at the same time. And they're not going to shy away from potentially, I think, bringing in a really good player that they could get on some sort of

steal or, or at least a minimal deal. But even Hazen said that they're not really interested in like trading for someone on a one-year deal. He said if they're going to trade for somebody, it needs to be somebody that their timeline matches up with the DeBax timeline, which sounds like. It's going to be a younger, probably not as established sort of player, someone who's not going to cost that much, but still has some untapped potential to possibly break out in the future.

And team control, right? Team control being a really important. factor in that not not having a guy on a one year deal or two year deal when the diamondbacks realistically know that their window for being competitive and trying to win a championship probably is two years down the road at least right so and i know yeah you don't want to say that that that that that felt gross for me just to say so i apologize uh for even having to utter those words but we know it's true mike hazen knows it's true people in the organization know it's true the exciting thing about it though is that What we'll get to see in the meantime is we'll get to see the future superstars of this team come up through the minor league system to the major league team and have that opportunity.

And honestly, as much as we kind of poke fun at the law firm over here at third base, one of those guys could easily emerge, right? We saw some really big moments from Josh Van Meter last year. Most of them were at the plate, but it still doesn't mean that this team with these new coaches in place and their belief. and developing players might not be able to make or might still be able to make something, you know, of a good third baseman out of one of these guys, right? I just, again, it's kind of like the idea of that fifth starting rotation position being a rotating open, you know, kind of position. I would much rather see a pitcher earn that spot and them have a fifth starter that they having their rotation rather than this idea that for now we might see openers we might see other

things other than just your standard fifth starter i think i think the team is going to go with a traditional fifth starter um you know i could see the opener being a thing on occasion if a guy gets hurt or whatever maybe maybe the team would rather go that route than call up you know someone from triple a or whatnot to make this started they might not feel super comfortable with but It would be pretty weird if the Diamondback started the season planning to have, you know, an opener every, every fifth day. I have a hard time imagining that. Yeah. I don't think that's the case. It probably will be situationally, but still, you know, I think Corbyn Martin is a name to look out for there as well as Dan Strayley. You know, Dan Strelie is a guy that really wanted an opportunity like this and very easily could find himself in that, in that rotation as well. And Jesse has an amazing piece on GoPHNX.com, by the way, that you can read on this storyline

and six other Cactus League storylines for the debacks over at GoPHNX.com. You haven't signed up to become a member yet. I believe, is this one free, Jesse? This one is not free. The Ian Kennedy piece is free and unlocked. But this one, you're going to need to get a membership. I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry.

Jesse said it. He's, he's, he's a harsh, harsh dictator, but fair. Nonetheless. And so you can get a membership over there and get your annual membership. You get a free t-shirt over at p.nx locker.com. We have all sorts of great merch over there. I hope you enjoy our t-shirts. Once you order one, you'll be addicted to it the way I'm addicted to these ridiculous

button-up shirts, but you'll find they are comfortable. They make you look better. They make you feel better. They are fantastic garments. They might save your life. I don't know. That's a bold claim. but we'll see if I can back that up.

You won't know unless you try. You won't know unless you have it, right? Yeah, like you won't know. It's like if you don't have it, will you know if your life could have been saved by the shirt? I don't know. So anyway, get your shirt over at phtonx locker.com. If you're not interested in the annual membership,

we'll still hook you up with a 50 cents for your first month when you go month to month. So hopefully you try us out and you like what you see over there. And regardless of your membership status, you can go over to PHNX Locker.com. and grab yourself an amazing t-shirt. They just won't be free without that annual membership. Again, you can get not only the articles over there, but you can join us on Discord

where we'll talk about the Diamondbacks all season long, as well as members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com. But you know what you won't get at any of those places, Jesse, or at Chase Field? Bobbleheads. You won't get bobbleheads. What? And we talked about this.

We need bobbleheads. We need bobbleheads, Derek. I know. Yeah, we need bobbleheads. Well, we absolutely need bobbleheads of ourselves. That's for sure. We need to, and we'll have to limit it to the first 5,000 people. I'm sorry, but of course, you know, I hope you guys understand.

But the bobbleheads, apparently, we talked about this before. We kind of speculated a bit and we wondered if maybe the lockout in some way impacted the use of the players' likenesses until the CBA was settled in order to make those bobbleheads. And I don't know. I don't know if the lockout impacted their ability to get them ordered. But what I do know is that the real reason we will not see bobbleheads at Chase Field this season is due to supply chain issues. And that is very sad. Obviously, we are all aware of the supply chain issues we've experienced here in the country. So this is nothing new.

But Jesse, yes, the supply chain issues are in fact impacting the situation. not only with manufacturing, but with shipping, you know, with receiving shipments in Los Angeles here in the United States. It's just, it's been a mess. So I actually have a short piece up on it. It's just, it's sad to me. It's sad to me that we're not seeing bobbleheads. I truly believed once the CBA was signed, we were going to magically see bobbleheads reinstated on the promotional calendar. I guess I was just a fool for believing that, Jesse. I guess so. I guess so. It's unfortunate that we won't have bobbleheads in 2022, at least as far as we can tell. Maybe that's an issue that can still be resolved. Maybe that's something they can add down the road if those issues are resolved. But yeah, I mean, bobbleheads, I feel like, are very synonymous with baseball in a lot of ways. And it's something that baseball has that other sports don't really have. Like, you know, if you think of, about the NBA or the NFL. I haven't been to that many NBA or NFL games, but I'm not aware of,

you know, like this must have giveaway item that is specific to those sports, you know, that's kind of a big part of the culture, at least not as big of a part of the culture as bobbleheads are to baseball. And I know the Star Wars one in particular, people are probably very heartbroken over. We've had this conversation. I don't really like Star Wars, so I would skip over that one anyway. But, But I don't know. Here's my AJ Pollock Star Wars bobblehead. Yeah, that's not, no, that's not good one. I just think it's weird.

We're doing that one, because this one looks like me. So we're doing the, we're doing the Josh Colemanter, levitating the ball, Star Wars bollad. Josh Colemanter's beard is a step above yours, Derek. I have to, I have to be honest. We don't take, we don't need to take unnecessary shots at me. This is, look it. Look it.

I still think it's weird, but I'm going to. All right. I'm just saying. Derek is currently trying to impersonate Josh Colemanters pose in the bobblehead. I could never. I could never. I could never. Yeah, for our,

yeah, thank you. And yes, Maniac K, I don't, Mania QC. Maniac. Maniac. I apologize.

You see something like that. Yeah. But NHL has bobblehead sometimes. And you're right. I think, NHL. Not just baseball. Right, but the bobblehead kind of started in baseball, right?

Like that was where I originally first saw them. And then, yeah, once it transcended over to other things, I mean, yeah, everybody wants a bobblehead of everything. I still want my Dwight Shrewd bubblehead from the office. So, but I, you know, again, it just sucks supply chain issues. That's that like, I wanted to blame something else on the lockout. I wanted to be mad about the lockout for just one more thing. and this one I just can't be mad at the lockout about it.

COVID, COVID wins again, right? COVID can be mad at that, I suppose. Remains undefeated, Jesse, don't you forget. Before I go, I want to give you guys my draft king's pick of the week. Obviously, March Madness is going on, and you guys have all filled out your brackets. So I don't need to go there with the brackets, but I'm going to give you some picks that I have.

I'm going with Iowa State over LSU. I know that's crazy. I'm going with obviously, Arizona over right state, but that's a big spread. The spread is 21.5. points. I don't know if I might take right state. I don't know. I might take right state to cover the spread. 21 and a half points is a lot, but Arizona is very, very good. So I might regret that. But last, I will say Virginia Tech. I'm taking Virginia Tech over Texas. So there you go. There's your draft Kings pick of the week. I could sit here and give you my brag.

But nobody wants that. Nobody wants to hear that. We're doing a bracket thing here at work. And I'm probably going to lose. So I'm okay with that. But I'm not okay with, I'm definitely not okay with the bobbleheads thing. That still upsets me. Giselle says my family and I would get to games two hours earlier just to get bobbleheads.

You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. It was the, like, it was the thrill of the chase. It was the hunt. There were so many things about it. I don't know looking at the promotional schedule now, Jesse, how many people are going to be excited about it? about a bucket hat.

I just don't know. I mean, the Father's Day, the Father's Day shirt is always still pretty good. But when I saw that we were getting a T-shirt on Star Wars Day, my heart broke just a little bit. That's all I'll say. Star Wars Day was the bobblehead day, but whatever, I'll get over it.

We'll all get over it. We'll be fine. We'll be fine without our bobbleheads. Again, just hold on to the ones you have tightly, but not too tightly because they're crazy, fragile, and they'll break. Well, I think the only the only path to take from here, Derek, is for us to figure out how to make our own, right? I don't know how artistic you are.

I'm not particularly artistic, but I think if we put our heads together. Yeah, we have so, yeah, Josh Hunt, I'm sure Josh Hunt can figure out how to make a homemade bobblehead. So we'll, uh, well, we'll round up a crew and see what we can come up with. Not to mention, again, I don't know if you've seen Nick Sutfin's work. on Twitter with his baseball card. He is another amazing artist that we have in the mix. So we'll collaborate. We'll get together and we'll figure this out.

We need to get a bobblehead done. But we thank you guys again so much for joining us, for watching the show, for listening to the show. No matter how you're, no matter how you're digesting this show, whether you're a viewer or a listener, we appreciate you being here. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman.

Our show is at P.HNX underscore DBAX. it is the premier leader in spring training coverage. You're not going to get better spring training coverage that you get over here. Today I was a bit overwhelmed. There was a lot of stuff going on. I was very excited. Made my way down to the field. I got my own seat for once.

I didn't have to fight for a seat in the press box. It was a good day. And of course, it's always a good day when the sun is in the sky and you get to watch baseball in front of you. But we thank you guys again so much for loving baseball, for sticking with us through the lockout. That's the most important thing. For those of you that stuck with us through the lockout, bless you.

We thank you guys so much. We hope we made it a little easier to get through, and we're very thankful for you guys being here with us and listening to the show. Of course, if you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, make sure to subscribe to us if you haven't already done so. And leave us a five-star review if you'd be so inclined, if you feel we deserve it. Also go over to YouTube and subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel over there. sign up for notifications that way you don't miss any of the content coming out from our

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