PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Randal Grichuk RETURNS To Diamondbacks On One-Year, $5 Million Contract

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Become a PHNX Diehard for just $4 a month! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube The puzzle is almost complete! Randal Grichuk and the Diamondbacks have agreed to a one-year, $5 million deal with a mutual option for 2026, and we are discussing how the move completes the team’s position player needs this offseason. We have more from Mike Hazen on Grichuk’s role and what other work needs to be done. We also have more on what the projections look like for the D-backs in the Year of the Snake, how House Bill 2704 could impact the team’s future, and the newest additions to MLB the Show 2025. Join Derek and his guest Jack Sommers from Sports Illustrated 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/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 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/ Gila River: Win a Lamborgini! Visit https://playatgila.com/promotion/350k-lamborghini-luxe-giveaway/ 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! 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! 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, Randall Gritchick is back, and everyone should be excited about that. If you're an Arizona Diamondbacks fan, I got this guy joining me to talk about projections and so much more today. We're glad to have you guys here. We are one week away from pitchers and catchers reporting. We've got lots of talk about. Let's get started. 30 seconds.

We're not going anywhere. You shouldn't either. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast right here at Studio K. Good to have you guys here. Big ski to you all. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. very excited to be joining, joined by my friend Jack Summers from Sports Illustrated. You guys all know Jack, of course, a great voice in mind in the Diamondbacks community

and also a person who is equally excited about the Diamondbacks bringing back Randall Gritchick. So we have a bunch of one on that, right? We also have some pretty impressive projections for 2025 to see if the Diamondbacks can live up to those, as well as a new bill that has been introduced that might just ensure that the Diamondbacks not only stay here, Arizona but get that Chase Field building all repaired and fixed up but of course thank you guys all for being here great to see you guys here in the chat Aaron Hughes says well that guy on the right looks familiar sure does doesn't he he sure does also shout out to our producer large intimate Kevin Thomas on the ones and tears today great to have you guys here

great to have everyone here great to not be by myself Jack thank you for joining me because that gets very very fast but Gritchick he's back we talked about it last week we said this was a really smart deal, especially once you started to see what the annual value was going to be on a Gritchick deal. It was going to be similar to essentially what his mutual option was for 2025 already based on that contract he had last year. But he does sign a one year $5 million deal with the Diamondbacks with a mutual option once again for 2026. Thoughts on Gritchick being back. It made most sense. He was always the best fit. He was always exactly what they needed. Absolutely. I mean, you know, the minute you have Gurriel out of the liner, what are you going to do? You went out three left.

handed outfielders against a left-handed pitcher. That wouldn't work. It was just obvious from the get-go. Right. He was a guy. And everybody else was going to be entirely too expensive. I think that's really what it comes down to when you started to see what Gritchick cost. And what he did in 2024, we have his stats once again from 2024.

And I mean, again, I know this is in limited plate appearances, but still some impressive numbers lashing 291, 348, 528 with 875 OPS, 12 home runs, 46 aren't. RBI, just added a lot of versatility. He was really clutch for them in big pinch hit situations. Like, there was just a lot of times that you felt like based on the platoon situation that you kind of wanted to see more of Randall out there. Like, he would kind of get on a roll and then you'd see Jock Peterson based on the matchup the next day. Still probably something we're going to see with Gritchick in 2025, the platoon situation.

Yeah, for sure. And, you know, it's funny. Last year, he actually got like two-thirds of his plate appearances in the outfield. Yeah. Everyone thinks of him as a D-H. Right. You know, he's more than solid as an outfielder, and he works on it really hard, even at this age.

You know, I got to see him working with Dave McKay once in the locker room. You know, and here's a guy. He's in his 30s. He's an outfielder. And what's he doing? He's running around the locker room practicing his footwork with Dave McKay. Yeah, yeah. You know, and to me, he's just a coachable guy.

He's likable. They like him in the clubhouse, and he posts when they need him to post. I know that that stuff is part of coaching in baseball. but it still never ceases to amaze me to see the same little league drills that we did. And just the same things, the same fundamentals that coaches worked on when you were a kid, still working, especially with guys like Gritchick, who's basically a vet now in Major League Baseball. Well, that's what makes them what they are, right? The repetition, take a guy that's talented and let him work that hard, there you go.

Yeah. You got a professional. Well, Mike Hazen was very excited on Gritchick back. Here's what he had to say last night in regards. to the deal getting done and Randall coming back to the team. We're happy to have him back. He was a major piece to what we did last year offensively. I know we've lost a little bit of firepower here in the home run department.

He certainly adds that back for us, especially against lefties, but played really well for us down the stretch in all phases. So we're happy to have him back. I think it continues to build out the depth of the roster for us. And that's really what it's about, right? I mean, it's depth, it's answers, that DH situation that we know the Diamondbacks have kind of been looking to fill this off season. But it's like you said, two-thirds of his plate appearances were in the outfield. He just adds more versatility to this team than just being a DH, which is one of the things that a lot of the potential options would have been limited to, right?

Just being a D. For sure. You know, I think also the team is probably a little likely to give Kattel a few more days off his feet. Yes. You know, and he'll probably DH against left-hand pitching a little bit more. frequently and they can, you know, throw one of their right-handed backup infielders in it or play second base. And that opens things up for Gritchick to go play outfield, you know, and let Alec Thomas or whoever sit for a day. Yeah, he did opt out of a deal that he had, which actually was $6 million for 2025, right?

But he also got as part of the buyout or part of the opt-out 1.75 million. So like in a way this kind of all kind of is a wash. It's like he got a chance to explore free agency. he comes back to the team. Hazen talked about that. He talked about appreciating and wanting these guys to go out there and see what they're worth in free agency. We saw Lourdes come back to the team.

Now we're seeing Randall come back. And I mean, it's something that you kind of appreciate that these guys do get a chance to go out and see what they could make on the market, probably something similar to Arizona, but wanted to be here and ends up coming back. I think Mike put it the best way we summarized. He says, you know, this way the player comes back

with peace of mind. Piece of mind. Yeah, right. Like, you don't sit here on this team unhappy, knowing you're getting paid what you got paid, but wondering what you might have been worth on the free agency market. And he actually ends up coming out slightly ahead, right? Yeah, he does. He does. 1.75 plus 5 is 6.75. That's a lot of money to me. I'm telling you. Well, you do that, right? You all go, oh, it's only $750,000. Only $750,000. Think about what you're saying. I probably won't see that much money in my lifetime. But, uh, grid, Richick's role will be similar to last year. We know that.

But it sounds like he will be splitting time with, and this will make a lot of our listeners very happy, one Pavin Smith. Here is what Mike Hazen said about Gritchick's role in 2025. It's probably similar. It's probably similar. I think this is probably a healthy amount of Daching versus lefties. You know, he was able to,

depending on how the alignments go with Ketel, if he's down versus a lefty, deaching, you know, that changes things a little. bit depending on what we do in the outfield defensive alignments what we want to do he could certainly spell garyl versus lefties and go in the outfield and let garyl have a day at dh or two so we'll we'll probably mix and match that around uh and certainly we know how much of a weapon he was as a pinch hitter so there there is going to be plenty of opportunity for that too uh groundhog mama points out that he's very easy on the eyes that's also a plus right like guys absolutely jacked jacked

He's handsome. He's living good. He's living a good life. He makes me sick. And he has $7 million extra now. But he's also a very good baseball player. And that's the great part about this is that we really do have, as Hazen said there, someone that brings a tremendous amount of versatility.

As much as you love Jock Peterson being a part of this team, you kind of see what the Rangers paid him and know what he did for this team. It's not to say Peterson was bad. He was tremendous for this team. in a limited capacity, right? He wasn't just not, he was, you know, D.H, platoon D.H. Didn't play defensively. And, I mean, he got paid a lot of money by the Rangers,

much more than I would have wanted to see the Diamondbacks pay to bring him back. I feel like they get the better end of this with Randall and his versatility, still in there in the DH slot. And honestly, his numbers are there, even against, you know, I know his numbers against lefties are great. I think we have those numbers. I mean, these are ridiculous. right but again it's a limited you know plate it's a limited capacity so limited plate appearances

and you know again it's he wasn't terrible against righties either these are just you know the reason why he's going to be in there and and the pavement's going to have an opportunity as well well you know gritchick does that every year almost i mean for the last five years he's over 900 ops against lefties right you know so you know what you're going to get there yeah again it just goes back to limiting him against righties and all of a sudden his numbers are going to look better well and we've talked about it a bit, right? The pitching last year was atrocious for this team, the starting pitching overall, right? And we know that they went through a lot of adversity. There was a lot of injuries. There's a lot of reasons why their numbers were bad and why they basically finished

in the bottom five as far as ERA for a team and such for starting pitching, right? But the, everybody expects that to be much better with the addition of Corbyn Burns with a healthy, you know, Zach Gallen, even, you know, Jordan Montgomery, depending on what ends up happening with him. Like everybody feels like the Diamondbacks pitching staff is going to bounce back. I feel like the best part about this is even with the losses, the Diamondbacks had the number one offense in baseball. I don't think that they will need to have the number one offense in baseball if the pitching staff is as good as we hope and think it will be with the addition of Corbyn Burns. And honestly, I don't think that they're taking that much of a step back with the loss of Christian

Walker and Jack Peterson. When you're bringing back Richick, you're adding Josh Naylor, and you already have guys like Gino and, you know, Corby and Carroll that were playing much better in the second half last year. Well, you know, regression to the mean works both ways. It does. So, you know, part of what was going on with the offense last year, it's a lot of great performance. And same thing with the pitching, but in the other direction. Like, you know, their peripheral stats, FIP and all of that stuff was much, much better

than the actual results of the ERA. So I think, you know, if you ran back the exact same team, you expect to take a step back on offense and a step forward and pitching. Correct. And then you add in the personnel changes, adding Corvin Burns, losing some of the hitters that they lost. I ran some projections on our end. And I actually came up with a loss of about seven war on offense and a pickup of about

seven war on pitching. Yeah. You know, so it kind of washes out. And I mean, they still look like a high 80s, low 90s win team if they're reasonably healthy to me. It's the same result, but just it's going to look different. Well, we have a lot more on those projections after our break. We'll get to that.

But before that, we do have to talk about the Diamondbacks being done, adding position players, right? I mean, we knew that the 40-man roster is at 40 players. We knew that at this point, you know, the Diamondbacks were getting close to being done. And we know what's left, right? So here's Mike Hazen confirming that he thinks they're done, adding position players outside of maybe a trade or something happening and where the team's focus is now. Yeah, I think the offense. The position player group is probably put together barring trades happening. You know, things become available or there's ways to shift it around.

But I kind of like the balance we have right now. You know, rounding out the right-handed side was important for us. And then, yeah, we'll still stay focused on the pitching. We still have some work to do on the pitching. But we'll see. It's getting late. But, you know, we've done deals in the past in the next couple of weeks in past years. so hopefully there's opportunity that's so I still think there's enough in the market right now

with teams with unfinished business and having to do stuff that could present some opportunities for us. I know it's Mike Hazen playing word games and it's probably not as like coded as I think it is but there's just a lot of things in there that sounds like he's kind of talking a bit about like needing to maneuver pieces more or you know again like a trade might happen

it might free up some stuff like you know again, it really feels like... I parsed the shit out of that. Yeah, right. No, I mean, I'm telling you, brother. I'm like, it's hard not to because there's... You want to take it at face value, but there's a lot of things he said there that does make it sound like, obviously, if this is the team that they end up with, it's still not terrible, right?

And we've discussed that they do still have maybe not great internal candidates right now, but some pretty good blossoming, you know, guys that could end up filling that back-end relive a role that they're looking for to close games out, right? But we know that they want to add that player one way or another. And it feels like the only way that they can really get it is at this point by making some sort of trade, starting pitching makes the most sense. Right. Could be a combination. Right.

It could be because outfielders are also kind of plentiful as well, right? Well, what I'm talking about is a combination of a trade and then sign. Right. Like shedding Jordan Montgomery's contract. Right. And then using that money or savings to go sign a reliever. I mean, you know, the way he's talking there, other teams have to wrap up their offseason, kind of get their shit together. Yeah, yeah.

You know, he really made it sound like he's waiting for other teams to figure it out so that he can make his move. Yeah. That's why I followed up and asked him. I said, well, are you leaning more towards trade? Yeah. And then he hemmed and hog on, I don't know, I don't know. You know, he wouldn't commit that it's more likely to be a trade. So just everything he said makes me feel like it's going to be both.

I think he's going to make a trade. and then that trade is therefore going to open up being able to sign a reliever. I think that's where he's headed. Right. And that's the thing is, is that the relievers that we would maybe want them to trade for, like Ryan Halsley, we know are kind of off the market a little bit, or at least Cardinals have said he's off the market that they're not trading him, right? And there's other guys.

We've talked about Pete Fairbanks in the past as being another potential trade candidate. But for the most part, all of our candidates at least trying to be, I think we threw Halsley in there when we did our ranking in there, right? for the most part, we were trying to be realistic and think who of the available free agent candidates that are out there would make the most sense. And since then, that pool has reduced even further, right? So, like, now we're looking at a few guys, and you actually found something interesting in regards to the guys that they might be considering. Yeah, this is a little bit wonky, so I apologize for it. Now, we're going to get a projection. We're going to get deep in the weeds.

So go ahead. Get your stuff on. I was just, I looked at nine guys today, right? So, you know, four free agents. So you had Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, Craig Kimberle, Kyle Finnegan. And I looked at some trade targets, Helsley, Mason Miller, who is also really untouching. Yeah, right, yeah. Still fun to talk about. And then also Fairbanks, and we talked about Kyle Finnegan, not Kyle Finnegan, David Binard, who had a pretty bad year last year. So I'm just looking at all the projection of all these guys, you know, who's got the better ERA and so forth.

But there's a metric out there, which some may be familiar with on Fangren. It was created by Enosaris, and it's the Stuff Plus, Location Plus, and Pitching Plus metrics. It's really deep, involved stuff. But at the end of the day, Saris is convinced that the Pitching Plus metric correlates to future reliever performance, specifically with relievers, better than the projection systems come out on the ERA. So I'm like, okay, well, amongst these guys, who are the top guys on this pitching plus? And of course, Hellsley and Miller were one and two. We can't have him. Right.

Kelly Jansen was number three. Oh. I was really surprised by that. Kelly Jansen was the third highest ranked guy on the pitching plus metric. That's such a diamond. It's such a Diamondbacks closer because it's like a guy that has miles on him, a guy you don't really believe in that much, you know, like maybe of the available options, it wouldn't have been the top guy you would pick.

but somehow he would come in and get 45 to 50 saves and you would just be blown away. And yes, I'm talking about Fernando Rodney. But you never know, right? You never know with these guys. And I think Kenley Jansen, again, it's mostly about at this point the Diamondbacks being able to add that guy. And Paul Seawald was a guy that when you looked at his statue, you weren't blown away by him. Paul Seawald himself would tell you that his pitches aren't that impressive. And he throws two.

And it's hard not to guess which ones he's going to throw, right? But like, he's always ranked well in this. He's always ranked well. And he, I mean, I know Diamondbacks fans are always going to have a bit of, you know, of anger with him. And not necessarily remember his time with the kindest of memory. However, you know, again, I've said this time and time again, the Diamondbacks would not have made the playoffs in 2023 without the additional Paul Seawald. And it really is amazing what having that guy with closing experience and, you know,

years of doing it under his belt can do for the. the rest of this, especially fairly young, you know, bullpen that the Diamondbacks have. Speaking of years of doing it, I highlighted Jansen just because of the way he came up in that ranking. I have a personal favorite. I want David Robertson. You do. I know he's 40 years old.

Okay. But he's still got really good stuff. He ranks well in his metric. You're not going to get any old man hatred out of this, this duo right here, not one bit, sir. Well, the other thing I like about him is that he's got closing experience. He can pitch in the ninth inning. Sure. but he can also set up.

So like if they want to try him as closer and put Puck and Martinez as set up guys, they can do that. If it's not working, they can flip one of those other guys in or the other way around. Or maybe have AJ Puck come in as a closer based on the matchups for that particular night

and use him as a setup guy. Well, say for example, they go with J-Mart and say, all right, let's give him another shot. Let's let him close. But if he's faltering, if he's, you know, not behaving well on the mound

when things get tough as he's been, known to do a few times. Maybe, you know, they go, okay, let's give Robertson a chance. Yeah. You know, I've got a guy here that can close in the ninth inning that is like a good backstop if Martinez fault us. We figured out how to fix Justin Martinez because it was really simple. You just need to go give him a pep talk at the beginning of his outing. You don't need to wait until things fall off the rails because once they do and then you go give him a pep talk, he gets everything back on track. Just start the ending with the pep talk. Just start it then. But no, I mean, again, the options are dwindling, right so like when we talked about my kazen's comments there i think there is also a reason why he is

kind of not committing to anything because he still doesn't know himself right there might be something that comes up that blows them away as far as a trade and it's going to bring them somebody of like a ryan healthy caliber there's not a lot of guys out there that are available that that would be of that caliber right so that's the thing is is that it does feel like you know like what you said the freeing up some money and going after one of the available you know free agent closers is the most likely option. You just don't know. You know, you don't know what's going to be,

what's going to happen, and you don't know how some of these other teams might feel about their roster as they move closer to opening day. Not a lot of time left, though, because pitchers and catchers report one week from today. In fact, we will be out there one week from today, spying on them and watching them do lunges and stuff. So that's going to be exciting.

But that also means that baseball is here. So that's very, very exciting. Got to catch those skipping. drills. Oh, I love it. Again, it's the fundamentals. I can't get over what they make these guys as grown men still do. I would like every kid in Little League should come out and watch like pitchers and catchers reporting or the guys working out to see the, the, the, the, rolling the ball on the ground to each other and to see them doing all the stuff that kids might think like, I can't believe they're making me do this. You know, it's done at every level, done at

every level. But we are going to talk about projections for 2025 and things look very good for the Arizona Diamondbacks on the other side of this break. This man also has some projections on how Randall Gritchick impacts all of this as well. So don't you guys go anywhere? We will be right back. Of course, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Bet365 has 90 million users worldwide. And of course, they pioneered live in-game betting.

So you can thank them for that. That always makes betting on live sports more fun. They also offer the widest range of games and markets available for live in-game betting across 78 sports. and they also stream 780,000 events each year, which is still something that blows my mind. With their early payout offer on basketball, you can be a winner if your team goes up by 20 points with an instant payout on straight bets and parlay selections,

which will also be marked as winners. So again, you know, I have no idea what's going on with the Phoenix Suns. Is Kevin Durant still Phoenix Sun? I don't know. But again, their games are very erratic, and you can bet on them and you still win, even if they blow that 20-point lane. download the app and use code PHNX 365 when you sign up.

New customers right now get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet $5. Use the code PHNX365. Deposit $10 in place a bet for $5 to get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. Bonus bets can be used on the spread, totals, player props, futures, and more. Whatever the moment, it is never ordinary a bet 365. Must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem wants help, call 100 next step. Text next step to 533, 4, 2, or visit problem gambling.

a z.gov. Well, the Carol Royce team is a family owned and locally operated realty team right here in Arizona. They can help you purchase a home, sell a home. It doesn't matter what you got going on. Carol Royce can make sure you are covered. They have an unbeatable track record having sold over 12,000 homes across the valley. Carol knows the Arizona real estate market.

And you need that when you are trying to find a home. Of course, there are all sorts of, I guess you could say, good and bad deals to be had. You want someone like Carol Royce in your corner. You can rest easy knowing you're not just making the right choice with Carol Royce. You're making a guaranteed one. Love your home as a new buyer or Carol will buy it back from you. You don't really get people offering you that. And if you're looking to buy your dream home, you probably looking at Zillow, Reilater.com,

other websites like that. And Carol Royce has access to thousands of off-market homes that you just won't find online. So make sure to check out her website at Carol Royce team.com. You're considering buying a home in 2025. the name to trust is Carol Royce, your home sold guaranteed reality, move up to one of our listings, and we'll buy your home for cash, have questions, call today, or visit Carol Online at Carolroysteen.com. That's carolroyce team.com. All right, well, we got some projections, and the projections look pretty good for 2025 for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

I'm sure most of you already thought that the projections were going to be pretty good. I mean, not great for next season, nothing mind-blowing, nothing that's, I guess out of what you would expect, but baseball prospectus dropped their projections. And here we have the National League West. They have the Diamondbacks currently projected to win 86.8 games. So we'll just say 87 games, which is right there with what they did last year. And again, probably not a surprise to a lot of Diamondbacks fans.

I'm sure people probably want this to be higher than that with the addition of Corbyn Burns. You know, it's like you added this number one, you added the best starting pitcher available on the free agent market. Why aren't the projections higher? Right. And also it's still a dogfight because, you know, Phillies and Mets and Braves are all still projected ahead of the debacks. So, you know, it still pegs them as a third wild card and in a dog fight, you know, to hold on to that because there's four or five other teams like right behind them. Now, you got the bet 365 projections for the Diamondbacks. What do they have on there for their over under for this year?

So Bet365 has 85 and a half. Okay. And Prospectus is at 86.8. So you've got to hit the over there. Now Dodgers are, Bet365 is 1035 and they're projected for 104. Yeah. That's. Imagine being projected at 104 wins because the projections are supposed to be conservative.

Right? Yeah. Like it's supposed to be like and the computer doesn't know what to do with it. It's like I, yeah. 100 like how many 162 games the 161 wins that's how many we're projecting but we have a potential under here that you might want to consider smashing let's go smash it what we got Padres 89.5 over under bet from bet three six five did they not know what's going on in san diego right now I know right yeah and their their projection is 82-4 and they haven't done anything all off season well I would go hit that right now before that changes that's definitely a good idea and honestly I I feel like 89 and a half is very high considering the lack of moves of Padres have made this offseason, loss of jerks and pro far. I mean, this team already has a lot of internal strife going on.

I mean, there's lawsuits and there's arguing and there's fighting about who's going to control the team going forward. I don't know. That seems especially based on prospectus's projections, that that seems like a easy, easy deal. Do you do the sports books take the projections in the, I mean, is it very similar? Okay. They do their own. It's not like they're just pulling from fan graphs or baseball perspectives. They've got an army of people doing the same thing.

Sure. But, you know, of course, it's not only about actual project. They're setting that line based on where they think people are going to bet, not necessarily actually how many are going to win. Popular teams are going to usually have a higher number. What do they know about Padres? Everyone's going to want to bet the Dodgers, so they're going to put that number up. Yeah, that's a good point.

That's a good point. What do you have for the Diamondbacks for your projection? You did your own, right? Yeah, I did my own. And I came in right at about 85. Okay. So in the same zone. I mean, you know, the funny thing is, and we talked about this before, the projectors actually went down just so ever so slightly with the addition of Randall Gritchick.

And you're thinking, what? But it went down 0.1 wins. Why? And prospectuses did too. Because they were, I looked at them yesterday morning when I got up and they were at 87 and now they're at 86.8. Okay. And that's because on paper, his projection, Gritchick's projection, isn't very good. I don't believe that.

Well, we have it up here on the screen. And the main issue here, and we have 250 plate appearances and only a 718 OPS, and you compare that to both his career in 2020. You're like, oh, what's going on? And the main thing is that the projections aren't catching up to the fact his usage pattern. because he's getting now two-thirds of his plate appearances against lefties. Prior to 2024, 70% of his plate appearances came against righties, who he doesn't hit all that great. And so the projection systems aren't yet able to wash out all that prior data.

Okay, so the reason he's going to beat this projection, most likely, like he did last year, maybe not quite as great, is because he's going to see left-hand pitching 65-70 percent, of time. Do you think he's going to have less plate appearances this year than he did last year? Last year he had 279. I put 250. I mean, you know, just kind of just picking a number. It's 250 to 300.

Okay. Interesting. Well, I mean, again, there's a lot to like there. I think the biggest thing to like there is the fact that that would, based on their projections, put the Diamondbacks as the third wild card team, which is all that really matters in baseball anymore. Right. I mean, the third wild card team for the last couple of years has caused quite a bit of noise. and I mean, you know, that's one thing about it is, is that what a lot of analysts are saying,

there's a lot of people in the baseball world who are taking a look at this Diamondbacks team and think that they are the best team, best chance to beat the Dodgers. And, of course, that would come in the playoffs when despite this win total, all that's a wash at that point. It's pretty much just about two teams playing each other in a series. Yeah, well, by the time you get down to that, it really comes. down to health, right? I mean, you know, the Dodgers pitching staff, if everyone's healthy, but is there a bigger if in the world? Yeah, right, right? No, I mean, you could say that about every single team. Do you think that impact, like, is there any, is there any universe where the

Diamondbacks actually have seven starting pitchers on their roster? Do you, do? No, they're not going to do a six-man rotation. Right, right. You know, I mean, if they kept all seven guys, what are they going to do? put both Ryan Nelson and Jordan Montgomery in the bullpen? I don't know. Right. I mean, it doesn't make sense. I mean, Jordan Montgomery loves it in the bullpen. He can at least go hang out there.

I'm not saying he has to pitch out of there, but he loves the guys down there. Well, I tried to break out like the different possible scenarios. Like, okay, well, if they actually end up in an off chance, they finish spring training with seven guys and none of them are hurt. Yeah. Then what do you do? Yeah. You know, I went through that.

I was like, okay, they're probably going to leave Montgomery in the rotation then. If he gets to the end of spring training and he's still here, it means he's pitching well. The team didn't have a trade for him and he's healthy. So what are they going to do with them? They're not going to bury him in a bullpen like they did last September. So he's going to be in a rotation. Now what do you do with Brandon fought and Ryan Nelson? Correct.

Ryan Nelson? Because you keep him stretched out? Like what do you do? Which one would you rather stretch out? So I think in that case, they probably put Nelson in the bullpen as like a long reliever. And then send fought to AAA and keep stretched out. It's just nothing fits, right? Like, how else would you do it?

Can he go to AAA at this point? Oh, sure. He's got options. But, I mean, the point is, is his repertoire, like, you know, he's a starter. Yeah. Whereas Nelson, you know, he's kind of fastball reliant. You can kind of see him as a reliever. But I just can't imagine he would do that.

Right. Especially after the success he had last season, right? It's hard to deny that Ryan Nelson was at one point their most valuable pitcher over, you know, a stretch longer than just, you know, a few weeks, right? We're talking about a month plus. Ryan Nelson was their best starting pitcher. And I mean, again, he did it with a limited but very, very, you know, I guess very accurate arsenal, right?

Like you didn't really fastball heavy, but he could pretty much land his fastball wherever he wanted in the second half of the season. And it felt like he really took a huge step forward as a starting pitcher. His numbers absolutely back that up. But the numbers love the Diamondbacks pitching staff. That's for sure. We have the Zips projections for ERA plus next year. now for those of you i'm not jesse i'm going to do my best here i guess maybe i should get you involved

era plus takes in to consideration opponents and park factors and other things that era doesn't necessarily take into consideration basically what it does is it contextualizes era okay to league run environment and park factors right right so it's not about opponents but it has to do with your home park and the road parks you're likely to pitch in right and then also the league run environment And then the league average in this case would be 100, right? So they would have those teams like the Giants and the Orioles that you see there on the screen right around league average. Every team above that would be considered above average in projections and below. Obviously, you can figure that part out.

But the most impressive fact here is that these projections have the Diamondbacks as the number one starting pitching staff in baseball with an ERA plus of 113. And again, that's incredible. It just goes to show that this Diamondbacks team should be in a much better position. pitching-wise in 2025 than they were last year. I think Connor said it earlier in the chat, but I will take a regression on offense, especially fluky offense like the Diamondbacks had last year where they would score 20 runs in a game

and then two the next night, right? Like, I will take more consistent offense, but less of it, and I will take a pitching staff that is going to be the key to this team, not only winning games, but going far in the playoffs should they make it. Right. And the other thing, too, which doesn't get enough play,

but if your rotation is really healthy and getting deep, then you're protecting your bullpen, which gives you that much better chance when you get to the postseason. Because how many times we see it, you know, teams got, you know, great bullpen, they get halfway through the postseason if they make it, and then the arms are just shredded. Well, and it's hard not to feel that that back-end reliever

that Mike Hazen is trying to find is really the key to this team being complete, right? Like that addition to the bullpen really does make Justin Martinez as a setup guy and AJ Puck as a deadly left-handed weapon that you can use at any point against you know some of the opposing team's best hitters in the bullpen available for you to use like it just feels like it makes this team really really complete and that's all that's missing at this point yeah and let's not forget about Kevin Ginkle I mean you know his September kind of screwed up his season pitching line but Kevin Ginkle's still really good right and he actually pitched better than

his ERA last year and his ERA wasn't bad right So, you know, I mean, that's another guy that, like, really he could step forward if you need him to. Right. Well, we do know that one of the complaints last year was about the heat at Chase Field, cramping. The Jordan Montgomery, not liking how swampy, you know, Arizona can be. He wasn't the only one. He wasn't the only one. We in the press box stand with you, Jordan Montgomery, for sure.

But we are going to have more on a state bill that was introduced this week, a House bill that could. change things drastically for the Arizona Diamondbacks over at Chase Field. We will be talking about that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? I had the chance to try out for the very first time cornbread hemp's wonderful selection of products and let me tell you they offer the first USDA organic CBD gummy in the US USA it's proudly made in Kentucky and it is a very very organic natural product. I will also say this as a THC user I had a

a very strong misconception about the power of CBD Gummies. I was sent some wonderful nighttime CBD Gummies, and I stepped up to the plate. It was like, oh, I need the big boys. Give me the 1,500 milligram pack, right? These things knocked me out cold, and I had one of the best nights of sleep I've ever had. They are full spectrum.

They're made from flour only. They're vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free. So you don't have to worry about that, but it's just an awesome opportunity to get better sleep, Better sleep leads to less stress, better recovery. I mean, just some great things. And I'm a big advocate for not only THC, but CBD products helping out with sleep because I have a hard time sleeping. So you want a better night to sleep.

Give cornbread a try. They're offering pHNX listeners 30% off your first order. Just visit cornbreadhemp.com slash pHNX and use code phnx at checkout. That's cornbread.com. slash PHNX use that code of PHNX for 30% off your first order. This is the good life. And speaking of the good life,

got to make sure, it's hot. It's already hot again. I hate it. You know you hate it. You didn't want it to be 80 in February. Like, we were okay with it. There's people coming in the town for, you know, the open, they're thrilled.

They're like, oh, it was like 15 degrees where I came from. I'm not ready for it. I'm thirsty. I know you are thirsty. So stop by America's Thursday. Stop. Get yourself something to drink. Of course, if you haven't,

join the Inner Circle program for free. I'm very mad at you for not. You already should because, again, it's free. Just got to download the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But I know you're going to Circle K already. So get the inner circle app and go and save yourself some money. You'll get your first five polar pops for absolutely free. And trust me, once we cross 85, 90 degrees, you'll thank me and you'll probably cash in that offer finally. You'll also save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips and three cents off every day after that. So make sure to check out Circle K. You have one by you right now. So go get yourself something to drink. And, you know, again, it's going to get hot fast. We don't like that. Speaking of being hot fast, we know how hot Chasefield can be. We know how many renovations are needed. It's kind of become a joke. I almost, I hate clarifying to people because, you know, you always have the general like, oh, I heard your stadium roof is broken and like caving in. It's like, no, nothing's actually wrong with it. There was just a safety and that determined that the setup that they had for years was probably never really that safe and needed, you know, some sort of backup safety mechanism to make sure nothing catastrophic happened in the event.

You mean like the tables snapping and wheat wet wet. Yes, right. Yes. I've made the comparison to the movie Ghost Ship, I think, for in the past. That might be a little drastic, but still nonetheless, we want to make sure that nobody gets hurt watching a baseball game. It's the reason why, like, I'm so okay with the netting being extended. because it's so great to not see those awful events. I mean, they happen more than you think in a game because people were just getting hit at times and not, it wasn't a major thing, but still very unpleasant to get hit by a foul ball that's going 95 miles an hour off the bat, right? But we do know that the big problem here with Chase Field overall has been a lack of, I guess, responsibility for the renovations for the upkeep of Chase Field. There's always been the disagreement about whose responsibility it is,

considering that it's property of Maricopa County and the Diamondbacks merely have a lease and reside there and play baseball there. And a new House Bill, House Bill 2704 introduced last week, its purpose is to reallocate taxes collected relating to county stadium districts, which means that building across the street. And the bill would allow the state to reallocate taxes collected on site at things like vendors, merchants, restaurants, ticket sales, all of that to fund and, be used for, quote, reconstructing, equipping, repairing, maintaining, or improving the major league baseball facility owned and operated by the district. So it's a deal that's very similar to what the Cardinals have set up at State Farm Stadium. All taxes generated by any kind of purchases at like cold beer and cheeseburgers or the stadium or the team shop or anything like that, those taxes would go back to essentially a fund that is only used for,

this fixing up of Chase Field for the maintenance, for the maintaining of the building. This would not generate any new taxes. It would just reallocate taxes right now that currently go to other things. You don't want me going over those other things because that might start getting a little unpleasant. However, you know, it's also a fairly decent way to fund the stadium, right? Nobody wants to be taxed, especially people that don't give a damn about baseball. Nobody wants their taxes impacted to pay for a billionaire's, you know, a playground where his team plays, right? But this would be a fairly, I think, that's, again, similar to the Tempea situation with the coyotes, right? This would be a, it makes sense.

But one of the caveats that I read that I thought was really interesting is it's not just the taxes generated by the property. It's also income tax from employees who work at Chase Field, including the baseball players, which, There's a lot of money in that right there. There you go. They actually, they did kind of make a point to say that they would still allocate the portion that goes to education. And that would still go to that. But all of the other taxes essentially collected would go to helping the Diamondbacks

maintain Jays Field. And it would reportedly generate $15 to $20 million per year, which is a lot of money. And again, it's one of those situations where it makes sense. there's there's a certain unpleasantness to it if there's a downside if there's something that people would argue against it's the fact that there are a portion of those taxes that go to pay for all sorts of things across our state prisons education you know i'm i'm sure roads and things like that right so those that's where it would miss out and there's the potential that even though this wouldn't increase taxes that the lack of funding for those other areas that i wouldn't be getting

you know, tax revenue from a facility like Chase Field might need to make it up, right? But overall, it does feel like it makes a lot of sense for these kind of deals where the taxes that they're paying are, you know, it's a tax break, but it's really not a tax break. It's just allowing them to put those taxes towards a facility, which is ran by Maricopa County still. I think it's also important to point out that, you know, I guess they're looking at a bill anywhere between four or five hundred million. Those things always go up, right? Right. The Diamondbacks say that, you know, they're ready to put in about 300 million of that. Right. So this 15 to 20 million a year that they're going to collect, it's going to be, you know, everything's over time. And the whole

renovation project is in stages. Right. It's going to be stage one, two, three. That's going to be done over a period of however many two, three, four years. So, you know, the Diamondbacks are still going to be paying for most of it. But then once they get all that in place, they want help. So that's, you know, make sense. The phrase that Derek Hall always uses is public-private partnership, you know, and they don't want to carry the 100% of the load themselves. Right. So this, the help that they're asking for, Ken said at the Corbyn's press conference afterwards out in the hallway there talking about, you know, the fact that the Cardinals have this same kind of tax recapture deal, which is what you just described, the 2704.

He said, why not us? Right. Why would the Cardinals get something like that? and not make it available to the Diamondback. Especially considering a few things. Not only do you want to consider the catastrophe that was the Arizona Coyotes leaving the state, right? But the Diamondbacks play in the heart of Phoenix. Their stadium is right there, downtown. It's kind of been an ongoing battle for years.

I remember at one point when we were discussing this, the end of their lease seemed so far away. Now, here we are in 2025, and their end of their leases in 2027. Now it's, now it's so close that it's making me and other people very nervous and rightfully so, right? Sure. It's, it's, it's, you feel like the situation can be easily corrected, but you also feel like, you know, we've, we've unfortunately seen these situations turn fairly nasty. We've used, we've seen time, you know, running out be used as kind of a weapon for negotiations.

And, and, and that's kind of a tactic, right? So it's just not something anybody really wants this to come down to. right but yeah overall I think if this money is being generated and that's going to be generated going forward into the future the diamond backs are probably willing to even put up the money up front and and essentially get paid back from this you know fund it over the years as far as making those renovations or whenever they have to do it they also you know like you said they could do it in slow stages and and you know make sure that certain things that they need to address immediately can get addressed especially the air conditioning situation and the safety of the safety of the of the roof, which, from our understanding, I mean, I was there not too long ago. It looked like they were working on that. So I think that we are going to have that corrected already this offseason and come the beginning of 2025, we get that open, we get that roof opening music. We get it back. I can't wait. I'm pumped. Yeah. Well, you know, I think that the other thing, too, a lot of people talk about is EAC, right?

Yeah. And, you know, that system isn't going to change. I mean, the big cooling system downtown, where they run the water through, you know, cold water through the pipes and all that. That's not going to change. But what they can do is they can upgrade some of the infrastructure around that to make that system work more efficiently. Yeah, I was told that they could expand the size of the facility, right? They can expand the size of it. They can also improve, like, the insulation. Because, you know, one of the problems they have is the place is very leaky.

You know, they go in both directions, not just water coming in. Get a test to that. Yeah, like they were saying, like, even if the roof closed during the rainstorm that rained out that exhibition game, I mean, we've seen it, right? Where, like, it leaks at the crack in between the two panels and like, or the two pieces of the roof. And it's still, and that, that right, that it like goes right down the middle of the mound, too. Like, it's not even like it's in an area where it's not super convenient. It's very difficult for, you know, you to play a baseball game when you have potentially water leaking right on the mound of pitching. Well, it's everything.

It's the seals of the doors and the windows and the panels and the roof. Everything's got to be sealed. I get it more tightly. I have a house that was built in 1992. I can very much relate to what the sun does to a building and how much I've had to replace already. Meanwhile, you see me, I have a little portable fan that I sit there within the press box blowing on me during. You know what? The best part about him is when he sees me being hot, he'll turn it on me.

It's a great guy. He's a great guy for that. not many people would share their fan like that, especially considering he has the foresight to bring it, right? But yes, I mean, it is like one thing Hazen brought up, especially about the Gritchick signing and something that someone asked him about was in relation to Gritchick's family being here in Arizona. And he really didn't have an answer much on that.

But he did speak on the fact that, like, living here in Arizona is a benefit. A lot of players want to live here in Arizona. They want to have one place where they live during spring training and the regular season. and a lot of them already make their homes here. So even when they make their home here, they are signing with another team, and they're essentially on the road for 162 games per year. And like that's something that was very important to Corbyn Burns, right?

It's a great selling point for a lot of teams. But however, you want that, right? Like you want to do things. And I think that making Chase Field a place that isn't kind of laughable at times is very important to your ability to not only, retain talent, but attract other free agents and people like that. Like, yes, people living here is great, but they also want to play in a facility where they, you know, hear these things from players that play here, and they don't really

want to play in a place that's muggy at night because they have it closed up and it's hot outside and the air conditioning doesn't really work inside well. And, and I mean, a lot of other things. Like, I've talked about it in the past, but I was proud to see that after the spring, you know, after the World Series, you know, year, you kind of saw them taking a different level of pride in Chase Field that really wasn't there at times. And it's something I brought up in the past where I don't feel like all of it is very hard, right? Like, yeah, stuff leaks, but you could at least take some Ajax to it and scrape off the disgusting calcified leak marks that are dripping

down the wall or dripping down this section that make you as a fan or a person attending a game there look at that and go gross, right? Like, I mean, I know public facilities sometimes are gross and we kind of learned to just deal with it. But it impacts it. And it's the thing that makes the difference between a place like Wrigley Field and some of those places that are iconic that when you go there, despite how old they are, they seem very new and they seem very polished.

And a place like Chase Field that really isn't as old as it seems inside. You know, it's just it's in this damn desert. That sun is trying to kill us. And I've tried to warn you guys of that. No way listens to me that that son's trying to kill us. but Connor invested in one of those neck fans for the summer evening games in the upper deck. Very worth it.

It would be nice to have the AC fix upgrade so we don't have to rely on that. Well, you get that or you get the ballpark pass. One or the other. You're going to have to pick. I'm sorry. You're going to sweat and die or you're going to get that.

But all right. Well, we have more, of course, before we get out of here. And that more is on the changes being made to MLB, the show 2025. This man doesn't play it. But we are going to talk about some very funny scenarios that we'd love to see.

in that video game since they're going all realistic and simulation with it. We'll be talking about it on the other side of this break. You are watching the PHNX Diamondback show. And I talked about that sun. I'm not joking about that sun. If you live here in Arizona, there's no reason for you not to have an amazing pair of sunglasses and shady rays.

Is the sunglasses to have? They are quality shades built to last, but they also have a crazy, insane replacement plan and lost broken plan that maybe I've already taken them up on more than once. But they do tell us, and I can attest to this, that if you lose your sunglasses, they will send you a brand new pair.

No questions asked. If you break your sunglasses, they will do the same, even if you do that on day one. Also, if you don't love your shades, because sometimes buying stuff online can be tricky. You can exchange them for a new pair or return them worry free within 30 days. No risk at all when you shop. Their team always has your back with personal and fast support. They also have some amazing color rush lenses right now that take polarized lenses to the next level. They're amazing.

They make all the colors and life pop. Just makes life prettier, basically. Also protect your eyes from that sun, which, like I said before, is trying to kill you. So get yourself some Shady Rays right now. And exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays has given out their best deal of the season. Head to ShadyRays.com and use code PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Also, branded Bills, great company for you to check out.

We love branded Bills. They have made some amazing hats for us right here at PHNX, and they can also make some amazing hats for you and your brand. If you're looking to stand apart from the crowd, branded Bills has you covered with the best custom headwear. You can start your order and their dedicated team will help you create the exact customer apparel you need. Or if you're just a fan of hats like I am, you can go to their website at brandedbills.com. Check out the amazing hats they have.

They have Suns hats. They have deals with U of A and ASU. And of course, like I've talked about before, they have some amazing hats honoring the state of Arizona, which I am very big on. They are a local company from right here in Mesa. and of course they have everything you need whether it's snapbacks truckers fitted beanies or teas so head to brandedbills.com right now and use code phnx for 20% off your first order and tell them the mayor sent you they'll know what you're talking they'll know they'll know

they'll know uh all right well before we get out of here we do have to talk about MLB the show 2025 big part of the baseball world and i love the fact that they're always finding new ways to expand it I think, you know, the college football thing, NIL deal, all that. It really, like, college football is fun. And, like, some of the stuff that my friend Megaran was telling me about while playing, it just blows my mind about, like, some of the real personal aspects that when they get into the simulation, being recruited, hitting the transfer portal, all this stuff that you can do in college football. It's great.

It's amazing. And now a lot of that is coming to MLB, the show, 2025, because they are adding collegiate teams and most importantly, metal bats. I cannot wait to hit with a metal bat in MLB, the show 2025. That is going to be electric. That's all I want. They put the ping in their trailer, and it was definitely the right call. I need a, I need like a road to the show customization.

Like, you know, you can have different bats. Yes. I need a metal bat, but I can just use in the MLB. Yeah. That's what I want. Like, I want to be Jock Peterson, the bat collector, but I also want to bring metal bats for my collegiate days with me up to the major league level, right? like I want that.

Speaking of Road to the show, they added a career mode for Gunner Henderson, Paul Schemes, and Ellie Dela Cruz from my understanding. No Corby and Carroll. I don't get a Corbin Carol. I need a Corbin Carol. I want to get my shoulder injured

and then go spend time with scouts becoming a better baseball player. I think that's very valuable for young people to learn while playing a video game, right? You're like, oh man, six more weeks of sitting with these scouts just watching games.

This is wild. I have to watch a whole three-hour baseball game and only four times during the three hours that's the scout next to me actually talk to me. This is a crazy thing to having a video game, but I want it. No, seriously, you start your career now in high school. That's kind of cool, right? That's actual part of baseball. I want the full experience, though, Jack. I want them to put the full simulation in there where you have to struggle financially and single A because you're only making $13,000 a year.

Right? I want someone to come to you and offer you PEDs and you have to. to decide whether or not you take them and live with the ramifications. Like your career mode ends with you working at Foot Locker because of the bad decisions you made. I don't hate that. I think if I think, no offense to people that work at Foot Locker, by the way.

I didn't mean to besmirch the good folks that wear referee jerseys at Foot Locker. But again, just an idea. I want some ramifications. I need, I need you to be offered PEDs. And then if you accept the PEDs, every game after that, right? You have like a random percent chance of being outed in the, some lawsuit.

Yeah, right. Yeah, like something. I want them to come and offer you predatory loans. Like they're going to give you, you know, money for you as a minor leaguer, but then you have to pay them 10% of all of your future earnings and then have that. It's the Fernando Tatis mode, I guess is what that would be. I don't know. I want a mode where-

I want the whole experience. I want a mode where you can gamble on the games and then blame your manager for the gambling. Or your translator, whatever. Whatever it is. Just whatever you wanted to. I got to confess, Andrew Salford just came to mine, too. No, no. Oh, yeah, well, that's what.

Well, I'll tell you, I mean, honestly, if we're going to do this, I wanted to become a baseball life simulator because baseball is, in my opinion, an awful, awful sport for you to be a part of as a young player. The potential, like, the potential is amazing for what could happen to your career. But the struggle is real. Like, you have to, like, a version of the Sims where you live with four other dudes in a house and you also have to work a side job on top of being an outfielder. You know what I need, Derek?

I need a mode where, forget high school. I want to start in the DR. And I want to live in that. I want to live in that academy. At the Diamondbacks. And the dorms. I want to eat the rice and beans. I love it.

I need the full experience. Let's go. I'm down for that. No, I do think, like, it's funny. But honestly, like, when you, video games are so kind of boring and predictable, like, we know the path of a, of a, of a, of an athlete and and some of the ups and downs, right, that they've included. Video games, by the way, are amazing.

And I just have to say that. Like, as someone that's played them my whole life, I can't believe that I was playing Nintendo at one point. Now I'm playing, you know, these simulators and all this stuff. But, I mean, really, if you want to make it fun, if you want to make it crazy, do this stuff. Like, honestly, like, again, some of the things I've heard from people, I've never played college football 2025 myself, but I've heard just some crazy things about the career mode and the,

you know, the path that you can go down. I want if you like you could become a really bad player and not make it to major leagues, right? But then the Savannah bananas pick you up and you can have an electric career as a Savannah banana. That would be at that being the same. It reminds me earlier I was going to mention, you know, I wanted to start in the DR. What if I wanted to start in Japan and just get offered? And then I could be the trendsetter that, you know, says, no, I don't want to go to the Dodgers. I want to go to literally any other team because there's more than one team in baseball.

I've heard that. I've heard that. I think, again, the beautiful part about this is like all of this means baseball is here, Jack, and I'm so excited for that perspective. Yeah. Like it's the offseason really kind of, you know, it stumbles along. It's not as long as it feels, but it just feels like major league baseball doesn't do a good job of like what football does, which is making their sport go through those offseason periods of time and just generating interest in them, right? You know, it's just not exciting. But pitchers and catchers reporting watching guys do squat thrusts and lunges.

Yeah, man, give it to me. I'm ready. I got a proposal, by the way. What do you got? Make the offseason more exciting for baseball fans. What? Let's hear it. Start, have a all-star game before the season starts and have the voting kick in for one month, like, right? You know, during the month of February.

Why not? Yeah, get it out of the middle of the season, right? Yeah, exactly. Welcome everybody back to the game. You won't have guys begging out, Chris. They're rough and sore from. playing half a year. All the pitchers, all the best pitchers will be available because they're all got to pitch one or two innings. They haven't pitched in a game yet. I love this idea so much. And then you

just promo the heck out of it during like, you know, from January 15th to March 1, get all the voting done. Well, and then you're voting on a full season? A full season, that's what I was going to say. The part I like about that is you're not just voting on half of a season for who deserves it, right? You are kind of giving them. Who is the best April? Yeah, you're giving them their shine for an entire, you know, season. I love this idea. Well, he is Jack Summers. You can follow him at Shoe Wizard 59. See, it took me forever to get, I still don't know what you're old one. I didn't even have a number in mine.

You got, you got Sports Illustrated. Check out, Jack, on everything they have right over there at Sports Illustrated for sure. See, Arizona Diamondbacks on SI is the way we're branded now. It's sI.com slash Diamondbacks, right? S.I.com slash MLB slash Diamondbacks. Yeah, get that in there. But yeah, make sure to check out. He has amazing staff over there of writers, so they do some wonderful stuff.

And of course, he's had years of experience with Diamondback. So I appreciate you stopping by, sir. We appreciate all of you guys being here. We cannot wait for next week. So again, this is it. This is literally the last show without some sort of baseball activity in our lives. I'm so excited. Next Wednesday, we made it.

We did it. There were casualties, but we did it. Let's go. We didn't all survive, but we made it. Oh, man. Oh, well. But anyway, we are excited to be back next week. So make sure to join us on.

Wednesday. Again, we'll be out there doing the pictures and catchers thing and then talking. I might have Jack back, so I don't know. I appreciate you being here, sir. Thank you so much for being here. Follow him. Follow me on Twitter at Kapp underscore K-Mann with a K. Follow our guy. Large intimate, Kevin Thomas at Kev-O posts. Of course, our

show is at PHNX underscore D-Bex, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you guys. We appreciate you so much for sticking with us through the off-season. Baseball will be back next Wednesday. Very much looking forward to that.

Glad the Diamondbacks got their business settled up. Let's get ourselves a closer and make this a complete team. Hope you guys have a wonderful week and weekend. We will see you back here next Wednesday. Until then, behave yourselves, enjoy yourselves, and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have yourself an elite back-end reliever. Now go get it, Mike Hazen.