PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Reacting to Diamondbacks trade of Dominic Fletcher to White Sox for pitching prospect
Episode Date: February 5, 2024Mike Hazen and the Arizona Diamondbacks continue to make moves in an effort to improve the roster before spring training kicks off. We discuss the D-backs trading outfielder Dominic Fletcher to the Wh...ite Sox for pitching prospect Cristian Mena and if this marks the end of their offseason moves. We also discuss your Mailbag Monday questions, like which Sesame Street characters would we want on our team.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Arizona Lottery: Visit AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Let Someburros cater your next meal big or small! Order online or find one near you by visiting someburros.comWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
A good ski to you all.
And welcome in to another edition of the Phae to Next Skibex podcast.
Righty on PHAX.
My name is Derek Montia.
Of course, I am occasionally known as your mayor of this joint.
This is my vice mayor.
He's your thunderstick.
The one and only, Jesse Friedman.
Jesse, of course, we had a move that happened.
We knew the Arizona Diamondbacks probably weren't done making moves.
But one of those moves that is probably the size that we expected to see from the Diamondbacks at this point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
to something that we had talked about for a while now, that there was at least a chance,
seemed like a pretty good chance that the Diamondbacks would make a trade of some sort,
just to kind of help sort through some of the depth options that they had.
It didn't really make sense to have both Jake McCarthy and Dominic Fletcher in the organization.
They're simply, it's almost hard to make a case that there's a ton of playing time available for
one of them, you know, much, much less both of them.
So, yeah, the Diamondbacks once again trade from a position of depth.
This is the third time that they have traded a left-handed hitting outfielder in a span of about 15 months.
We got tons of those, Jesse.
We got a surplus of those.
There have been a lot.
And only now are the Diamondbacks at a point where it's like, okay, I think they've done enough.
I think they've parted with enough of them that they no longer have this crazy imbalance in their organization.
I don't think they necessarily have to trade another left-hitting outfielder.
sometime soon. But yeah, Dominic Fletcher was, you know, made a strong impression and it is first
taste of the majors last year. Certainly hard for fans to see him go. But the Diamondbacks get an
interesting, an interesting guy in return. And Christiane Mena is a guy that could potentially be a
starting pitcher. He has been projected as being potentially a number four kind of starting pitcher.
And very young, very young. In fact, the youngest player in Major League Baseball to
REACH AAA last year.
So what does that mean?
Not really in Major League Baseball, but the youngest player in minor league baseball.
Well, no.
You get what I mean.
Okay.
I didn't mean like in history, but I just meant last year he was the youngest player
at reach AAA.
So what does that mean and how soon is he going to regret pitching in Reno?
Very soon, immediately.
Is there going to be an adjustment period?
That's a fair question because he is going from the International League to the Pacific Coast
League.
There's been a lot of offense in the international leagues by understanding as well,
but the Pacific Coast League is certainly another animal.
So, yeah, poor Christyhan Mena having to pitch it at elevation.
It's going to be tougher for sure.
But he's an interesting get for the Diamondbacks.
This is not, you know, you look at the minor league stats.
You might not be too overwhelmed, right?
He had a 466 ERA in 23 starts in AA, 10.7Ks per 9, 4.3 walks per
some decent strikeout numbers there, a few more walks than maybe you'd like.
And then he reached AAA, as you said.
He was 20 years old when he reached AAA, which is really impressive, just in and of itself.
Results there weren't quite as good, a 595 ERA, but pretty decent peripheral still,
9.2 strikeouts per 9 at the AAA level.
And again, maybe a few more walks than you'd like to see.
So, yeah, I mean, you think about the Diamondbacks, like the players that they've had,
the pitchers, the starting pitchers that they've had break into the majors, they were not this young.
Like, Christiane Mana has a chance to break into the majors in 2024 at the age of 21.
He just turned 21 not that long ago.
And anyone really who's able to move through a minor league system as quickly as he has,
that's impressive.
Like that is a very, very rare thing.
And I can understand why the Diamondbacks were interested in him.
On Saturday's audio episode, we talked about the Diamondbacks minor league system and where they are ranked amongst baseball by both ESPN and Baseball America.
Not great.
You know, we said that there's no real reason.
Yeah, middle of the pack.
Middle of the pack, you know, lower third on ESPNs.
But this move, he was ranked the number 10 prospect in the White Sox organization by MLB Pipeline, number nine by fan graphs, number eight by baseball America.
So this should help the Diamond of the Backs farm system, which like we said,
We knew that with the draft and things like that, we were going to see some great additions.
But right now at this point, with the surplus of left-handed outfielders and the value of these young prospects,
the value for prospects like MENA are through the roof, especially for a guy that has moved through the minor league system so quickly.
So even though it feels like we're giving up a lot in a major leaguer in Dominic Fletcher and giving back this 20-year-old kid that still is unproven, still a pitching prospect,
it feels like a very good value for, you know, for considering right now where Major League Baseball is at with trading prospects.
It doesn't seem like teams want to give them up.
So it feels like a good move.
And it also feels like what you said, it's the Diamondbacks just had weird, not depth issues, but, you know, issues with having too many guys and not really allowing those guys to get the playing time that they deserve.
Don Davies with the super chat says Zach Gallant trade 2.0 let me be delusional
Go on my king you can go on and be as delusional as you want to be because who knows the sky is the limit for this kid the numbers aren't great like you said but right now strikeout numbers are pretty good yeah right what was it like nearly 11 strikeouts per nine yeah like 10.8 yeah 10 yeah we have 10.7 in double a and then 9.2 in triple a that's a that's a pretty small sample size but
Yeah, I mean, Mike Hazen has been really ever since he arrived in Arizona.
He's been in the business of trying to acquire players before they become players, right?
That's what Mike Hazen has done.
Obviously, he's not the only one.
Other 29 other GMs are trying to do the same thing.
Sure.
But, you know, you think back to some of the moves that some of the bigger moves that Mike
Hazen has made, a lot of them revolve around that strategy, right?
Some of them have worked like Zach Gallen, like Gabriel Moreno.
Absolutely.
Some of them not so much.
Luke Weaver, the debacks had a lot of faith in, of course, Carson Kelly.
Neither of those guys really proved to be exactly what the Diamondbacks were hoping for.
But yeah, I mean, that's what Mike Hazen is trying to do.
And I think he said it to Nick Bacoro and Steve Gilbert in an interview right after this move was made.
You know, this is a type of player where they get considerably more difficult to acquire once they arrive in the majors and have a little bit of success.
If you have a young starting pitcher, especially a 21-year-old starting pitcher, come up to the majors and have some success.
With all those years of control?
Yeah, with all the years of control and how affordable it is, suddenly you're not talking about trading Dominic Fletcher for that player.
You're talking about trading one of the centerpieces of your franchise for that player.
And so Mike Hazen is trying to get ahead of that.
We'll have to wait and see how this pans out.
But there's a lot to like about Mayna, I think.
The curveball seems to be kind of his primary weapon.
The thing that he's been known for most, he added a slider in 2022, I believe I read.
That's a more recent development.
He has a change up as well as fastball is in the low 90s, touches mid 90s.
It sounds like the Diamondbacks are expecting that to increase potentially as he's still as
young as he is.
So there's a lot to like about the profile for sure.
Eric brought up a brief Weiss Daniel Rivera comment.
He said, have you guys been watching the Caribbean series?
Emmanuel Rivera is batting 384 with two walks and two RBI.
Man, I'm not surprised.
There's just been something at time special about that guy.
Born hitter, Emmanuel Rivera.
Oh, the best. He's the best.
But we are giving up the greatest Italian baseball player of all time, as we have discussed.
From the minute Dominic Fletcher became part of the Major League roster, we knew he was special,
especially because Jesse was there when he told the story of picking up Panda Express when he got the call up, right?
Here's what he had to say.
We still have that video.
Panda Express went to celebrate a celebratory meal last.
So I had just picked it up previous to getting the call.
So yeah, shout out to Panxpress.
How did that man not get free Pandexpress?
No free ads, Derek.
I didn't say it.
He did.
I just introed the video.
I love that that was like the Dominic Fletcher brand.
Like when he arrived in the majors, I was there, as you said.
It was in Denver.
This was right after, I believe, maybe the day after Corvin Carroll had suffered that knee injury,
the Diamondbacks wanted extra coverage in the outfield.
Jake McCarthy had just been sent down.
The stars have kind of a line for Dominic Fletcher to actually get an opportunity in the majors.
and to what you called him earlier,
he was the greatest Italian baseball player of all time
for about like 15 days.
He was. Dominic Fletcher in his first...
By the way, by the way,
Elise is throwing shade on Emmanuel Rivera's name here.
She said, yes, he's having the one good month at the plate,
L.O.L. But that could be said about Dominic Fletcher
when he came up because, boy, was he...
He lit things on fire for those first two weeks.
He was super hot. He was insane.
But that first two weeks...
was incredible. In his first 12 games
with the Diamondbacks, Fletcher slash
462, 488,
744,
so that's an OPS
north of 1,200, if my math is
correct, with two homers and
13 RBI in 43 plate
appearances. He was kind of a big deal
for a while, and of course,
in that small of a sample, you didn't really know
who was going to last. Ultimately,
it didn't. He really struggled.
You know, didn't get much opportunity.
Just around 100 plate appearances total.
He really struggled the rest of the way, didn't get much opportunity in the majors at all.
But yeah, the reality is that Dominic Fletcher was just going to have a really hard time finding playing time with the Diamondbacks.
He was blocked by him and Jake McCarthy.
I guess we're going to come into spring training and, you know, fight it out for maybe a fourth outfielder spot.
I'm not even really convinced that having a left-handed hitting fourth outfielder makes sense for the Diamondbacks,
given that Alec Thomas, Corbin Carroll, and Jock Peterson are all already left-handed.
So it was already going to be kind of clunky.
And yeah, I mean, this makes sense for the Diamondbacks.
When you have a surplus in one area, you use it to try to make an addition elsewhere.
And that's what the Diamondbacks did.
Well, and I think he's going to be a great addition to a White Sox team that has certain members,
including Josh Barfield that are very familiar.
Yes, yes.
Shout out Josh Barfield.
to I imagine had a not insignificant role to play.
Right. I'm sure you had a little bit there.
Stephen Bardo with the Super Chat.
Thank you so much.
He said, sup, big Sox fan.
Happy to have Dom Fletcher.
You guys got yourself a good one.
And somebody, honestly, who deserves that playing time,
that that team is going to be able to provide him.
And a guy that, like, somebody in the chat said,
like he looks like an orange chicken guy.
What are you thinking?
Are we thinking a two-plate combo, Beijing beef, orange chicken?
That was a miss on my part,
not asking what his order was.
That's got to be a follow-up.
It's got to be the orange chicken because I'm not sure I know a single person that goes to PanExpress
and doesn't get at least one serving of orange chicken.
Really?
What's your order?
I hate orange chicken.
I get the terriaki chicken, Beijing beef combo.
If you get terriaki chicken, the Terriac chicken is good.
They will give you a ton of it.
It's absurd how much.
Well, they give you a ton of anything.
Yeah, that's true.
It's delightful.
Oh, my God.
Max is going to be so mad at this.
No, yeah.
No free ads.
No free ads.
No on as soon as possible.
He was better than Joe DiMaggio, who's probably the best Italian player.
Maybe. Ralph Amsden said that this was David DeLucci erasure, and he might not be wrong about that.
So, sorry, we do love us with David Delucci around here.
You know who we don't love anymore, though, Jesse?
Mookie Betts.
I mean, I don't think Diamondbacks fans ever loved Mookie Betts, for say.
I have definitely said at times that Mookie Betts and the rest of those damn Dodgers,
they're hard to dislike.
They are hard to dislike.
And I say that because typically they're very nice people.
We've had a fun relationship with them.
Corbyn Carol and Zach Gallen both went on Mookiee Betts's podcast and had a great time.
Right.
We know Mookie Betts just in general is kind of a delightful person.
And Freddie Freeman and Joey Otani, it's like the most powerful, least hateable team you've ever seen.
But Mookie Betts is trying to change that very much.
He's trying to change that, Jesse.
Here's what he had to say about Team's Facebook.
racing the Dodgers next year.
I mean, every, every game is going to be the other team's world series.
I mean, it is what it is.
It's what we signed up for.
Oh, you're going to regret that one, pal.
Did you really say that?
Like, I don't know.
I don't know if I believe it.
He absolutely did.
Let's play again.
I mean, every, every game is going to be the other team's world series.
I mean, it is what it is.
It's what we signed up for, you know.
It is what it is.
It is what we signed up for.
The rules, Derek.
That's just the way it is.
The audacity of a man who in his last 13 playoff games has a 158 batting average in the postseason, Jesse, in his last 13 postseason games, he has a 158.
So if that's the case, yes, I hope every team plays the Dodgers like it's the World Series because it means mookie bets is going to hit the ball 16% of the time.
I have a couple of problems with this.
Go off my chair.
First of all, this.
is this is baseball right where even even if you do add a player like show hey otani and you know yamamoto
you make all the additions that you made if the dodgers are better than any other team in the majors
the margin is not that big i think there's a very serious debate to be had over whether the dodgers
or even the best team in the national league right there's this team called the alana braves
that is very, very formidable as well, right?
I think you could very much have a debate
over which of those two teams
is actually the better team heading into 2024.
The other fact is that, I mean,
to say that like a series in July
that, you know, the Reds are playing with the Dodgers
is like that team's world series,
there's 162 of these games, right?
That's just not like a concept that exists
within the sport of baseball, until you get to the very end of the season, those games are certainly
important. But to say that like, you know, every time a team plays the Dodgers, it has the
magnitude of the World Series is an utterly outrageous claim. You know, even though the Dodgers are a good
team and teams are certainly going to want to succeed against them, none of those games are going to
really be all that much more important than all of the other games that they play.
I don't know why Mukie Betts said this. This is the kind of thing.
that can only backfire on you.
And this is usable for any game during the entire season
that a team wins against the Dodgers.
You can absolutely use this and use it to roast the Dodgers,
which will certainly happen.
Not to mention what could happen if the Dodgers,
like in the postseason, have some slip-ups or whatnot.
There is nothing good that can come from this, Derek.
I am pretty dumbfounded that someone who has the emotional intelligence of Mookie Vets
actually went out and said this on television.
As a man, there it is, Jesse.
I love it.
I love it.
As a man who often doesn't intend to say stupid things when he's on a show, I can relate a little bit to Moogie Betz.
I'd like to take this opportunity right now to go ahead and pronounce the words compensatory
and perforated while we're on the subject.
To Moogie Betts isn't the only one who's made a fool of himself on the wire.
That is right.
However, what I will say is,
that like I get what he's saying. He's basically saying now with the challenge that is the Dodgers,
every team is going to ramp up and play their best when they're bringing it to the Dodgers,
right? So it's going to be playing teams that do. I mean, they might come into that series
like, you know, struggling, but it's the Dodgers and the way the Dodgers are playing. They're
going to bring everything that they can. They're going to try to even schedule their best pitchers
for those series and things. There's things like that that are going to happen. So he's,
He's not wrong, but in saying it, the arrogance is just...
There's a lot of arrogance there.
It's just there in spades.
It's like, it's just the most baseball hubris you've ever heard in your life.
Baseball is a game where anything could happen.
And the Dodgers are a team that have experienced it.
That's the point.
That's what, that's what, like, is most hilarious to me, right?
The baseball gods are real.
They're real.
There's 15 of them.
It's a council.
They're very, very angry people.
and you do not want to meet them.
But if you piss them off, they will make a fool of you.
And it feels like at times that's what the Dodgers are constantly asking from of the baseball gods.
They have, like I said, they were a team that bounced back better than most franchises could have
from the things that they experienced over the last two seasons just with some of their best pitchers
and things like that, you know, committing crimes, I guess you could say, are being accused of crimes,
you know, injuries, losses, like all sorts of things.
They've gone through their ups and downs.
They've lost some of their best players to free agency,
and they just have rebounded back year after year better than any team can during the regular season.
During the postseason, they are a completely different team,
and I'm not even going to get in all that because the data is there.
But, Mookie, you're hitting 158.
Get out of here.
You're hitting 158, okay, in your last 13 games.
I don't want to hear from you about the postseason play or how teams are going to step up to play the Dodgers.
If I could show highlights, I would definitely show the last.
highlight of Gabby Moreno right now.
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Well, Jesse, of course, it is February.
It is, apparently.
It's a Monday.
But you know on this show that every month on this show is Black History Month, not just February.
We celebrate everybody, every month all the time around here.
Every week on this show is Shark Week.
We celebrate sharks, big fans of sharks.
Even though we also like snakes and it's a snake podcast, but it's a whole thing.
We're also, every day is Earth Day because we love the Earth.
We're big fans of it.
This is where we live.
But on Mondays, we're big fans of you guys and your mail.
And that is why we have a mailbag Monday every Monday.
Jacob, do you mind hitting that song, please?
Took a second.
Yeah, it came around.
What do we got for our first piece of mail?
Comes from our baby boy, Aaron Hughes.
And Aaron, oh, he went with the white again.
It's so bright and off-putty.
Jacob, what are you doing here?
We do dark motor.
My job, Derek.
All right.
Aaron Hughes says, how do we feel about Adam Duval, potential platoon at bat that can play
the field and we're going to give our bench a lot more depth?
Not that expensive.
I like the fit.
Yeah, I like the fit too.
I mean, if...
A little too much, maybe.
I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to spend much money from this point forward, if I'm
being honest.
So I think from that point, it's from that perspective, it's probably a non-starter.
I do like the fit.
I mean, I think if you were doing this,
you're probably having Jacob McCarthy start in AAA,
which I don't think is a situation
that Diamondbacks are necessarily wanting at this point.
I mean, because at that point,
you just have so many outfielders on the roster.
Like, you can't have your three starting outfielder
plus Jake McCarthy, plus Adam Duvall,
plus Jock Peterson.
I think that's probably just one too many guys at that position.
So from a roster,
construction standpoint, I think it makes sense, but I doubt, I doubt the money is going to be there.
And, yeah, I don't think the diamond backs will deem this important enough at the end of the day.
Is that, I mean, is the desire to have a platoon at bat really there in regards to the DH?
Do you really think it's a necessity that the diamondbacks will pursue?
Or at this point, is it just not the kind of thing that they want to pay for?
Yeah, I don't think it's a, it's not an absolute.
necessity. I mean, you know, you can kind of string it together and make it work. There's more
there's more right-handed pitchers than left-handed pitchers, as we said earlier. I still really
like the idea of them adding, you know, a solid, right-handed bat, you know, a guy who maybe is
more so on more so a bench player than anything else. But yeah, I mean, Adam Duvall would
be a good candidate. He did have reverse splits in 2023. Usually that's not a sustainable thing.
it probably would still make some sense for him to step into that role.
But my sense of the situation is that the diamond backs aren't paying.
There's not necessarily a ton of attention being paid to this at this point.
I think Mike Hazen did mention, you know, a right-handed bat at one point.
But Adam Duvall is probably a step higher than where I would expect them to aim.
And also there is the roster spot, right?
Like when you start looking at adding other guys, you do have to start asking,
you know who's going to go where are they going to fit in on the roster who has those options left
and i mean it it comes down to is it really is the addition that much better than some of the
options that i'mbacks possibly have it's it's better but is it worth the money and and you know
the roster complications from that point going forward you yeah duval can play the outfield actually
pretty well he's not he's not as defensively limited as a jock peterson so it does make some sense
But again, I think that, you know, Jake is probably the guy who makes the team as the fourth outfielder.
I'm not sure they're really looking to supplant him by bringing in someone else at the same position.
All right.
Next question, Jacob comes from our guy, Super Bad 76, 76 on Twitter.
Did you use my real name?
Did I say Jacob?
You did.
Oh, that's gross.
It's a little weird.
Shut up.
Get back behind the computer.
We don't do that.
I am still behind the computer just talking to you.
Get back there.
Just stop it.
Kenny asks, what do you predict for shortstop this season?
who will be the starter at the start of the season and who will be at the end.
And I think Kenny might be alluding there a little bit to maybe Pardomo starting and
sure.
Ending things with Jordan Lawler?
How likely do you think that that is?
It's really hard to say.
I think it's possible is really all I can say on that.
Geraldo Pardomo is probably the most likely option to start the season as like the everyday shortstop.
Sure.
He was an all star.
You know, he's a big factor for the Diamondbacks in the playoffs.
offs. I don't see a reason to like assume that Jordan Lawler is going to supplant him necessarily.
But yeah, I mean, in the long term, Jordan Lawler is, I think his ceiling is pretty clearly higher
than not of Feraldo Prudomo. If he becomes the player that the Diamondbacks would like him to
become, maybe he does step in as kind of the everyday shortstop at some point. And that would allow
Perdomo to serve in more of utility role, which I think would suit him really well. I think the problem
here, if I'm being honest, is Gino.
E. Juaneos-Wares, right?
He solves their problem at third base.
And now Jordan Lawler doesn't have that ability to, if Perdomo's playing well, kind of fall
into that third base, maybe at time or whatever.
Like, it almost is an all or nothing kind of thing now for shortstop.
They're probably not going to have Jordan Lawler on the roster behind Perdomo on the
bench, right?
So it's going to be one of those situations where Perdomo, most like,
does start the season and Jordan Lawler might start the season in AAA. It's probably the best
that he does so that he continues to get daily at bats and continues to play all the time, right? But
if for some reason, Perdomo does start to struggle offensively and we see Jordan Lawler have a strong
season in Reno, we could see them potentially make at least a move to bring Lawler up and maybe
start him and then have Perdomo behind him a little bit, but I don't know how that would work out. Like you said,
Perdomo was an all-star last year.
It's hard to imagine that, you know, he's going to play badly enough that they're going
to replace him with Lawler.
Like, I just, I don't know.
I mean, anything could happen, but I just don't forecast that.
So it's hard to, it's hard to imagine what it's going to be like, you know, at the end of the
year.
Last year, though, I mean, how the season ended up at the end of the year was nothing like
we would have imagined it from the beginning of the season, right?
Yeah, Perdomo would make a really fantastic.
utility player, in my view. I mean, he plays shortstop well. He's not like elite there,
but he's totally solid at shortstop. I think he plays second base well. I think he plays third
base reasonably well. Also, I mean, he's kind of exactly what you're looking for, I think,
in that role. As a starting shortstop, he, I could see Rale-a-Prauma being a pretty solid starting
shortstop, you know, in the long term as well. But Jordan Lawler, if all goes well,
while Jordan Lawler, you know, could be an emerging star who takes that that spot sooner than later.
All right.
What else we got, Faj, Arizona underscore goat, the donkey whisperer says, does Christian Walker have the cleanup spot secured?
I say no, Jock Peterson and Gabby Moreno could both perhaps be more effective, the four-hole.
I don't, honestly, I think you're absolutely right there.
I don't think anybody has anything secured.
I think that what we saw out of Tori Lavello and what we've seen out of Foslo and what we've seen out
of him in his years of managing this team is he does have a plan for the most part that he
sticks to, and sometimes to a fault, right, right, when he has, when he decides when guys are
going to get a day off. And no matter how hot they are, they're getting that day off. You also
have this factor that he does pivot on his lineup a lot. And he's not going to give any one player,
I think, anything. Like, nobody, everybody has to earn something on this team. And I think if anybody's
playing better than, you know, another player, their job isn't secure.
Their position, the starting lineup isn't secure.
I mean, there are some guys, obviously, that have that locked up.
But again, even if those guys play poorly next year, there's a chance someone could replace them.
So I don't think in a Tori Lavallo starting lineup, anything is given.
Anything is secured.
And, you know, it's all depending on what's working for the team.
Yeah, I think I was trying to play around with this the other day.
Like, what does the lineup against Ritey's look like?
Of course, that's going to be Jock Peterson's bread and butter.
That's what he's here for.
He's got to hit fourth in that lineup.
Yeah, I have him fourth.
I have my guesstimate was Corbyn Carroll at leadoff, Catelle Marte, in the two hole.
I guess those guys are sort of interchange.
Those are the only, like, those are the two solidified spots, right?
Like in either righty or a lefty, I imagine it's probably Corbyn Cotel.
That's who I want at the top.
Yeah.
And the playoffs, they alternated were against a righty.
it would be Corvin at the first in the one hole and then Ketel Marte.
And against the lefty, they switch those guys around.
I don't know if they would continue to do that.
But yeah, I think those guys in the one spot,
and the two spot makes a lot of sense.
The three hole in the lineup is really what's the most interesting to me.
Gabby Moreno was the three hitter throughout the majority of the postseason
after Tommy Fam had kind of fallen out of that spot with Christian Walker batting cleanup.
I don't know if the Diamondbacks will want Gabby Moran.
to hit third against righties necessarily.
His numbers were certainly much better
against lefties in the regular season.
So Gabby Moreno is kind of the big variable here.
If he hits third, then Christian Walker probably does hit fourth.
And then, you know, Jock Peterson slots in where Alec Thomas was
for part of the playoffs in the number five spot.
But if you have Gabby lower in the lineup,
then you're probably looking at maybe Christian Walker hitting third
and then Jock Peterson in the cleanup spot.
So we'll get to know more about what Tori is planning here over the course of spring training.
I can't wait.
I bet Tori can't wait.
I bet Tori looks at all these new pieces and is just.
He's just been fumbling with lineup cards.
Oh, my God.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, come on.
I mean, think about it.
At times the man has had to be very creative with his lineup.
He's had to try to figure things out.
I'm excited.
He's had a lot of like a lot of good number two hitters, you know, a lot of, you know, but at times
he hasn't had this many weapons.
know if he's ever had this many weapons in his time as manager of this team. It's going to be
just an exciting, exciting season to watch. It's a really complete lineup against him. It is.
Like just in general. There are no weak links in that lineup at this point. And I just got to say
something, man. I really like the answers I heard out of Jock Peterson. I know a lot of people,
there's a lot of poking fun, I guess, to be had there at Jock Peterson. There's a lot of, you know,
especially the Tommy Fam jokes, which I've gotten my fair share.
Sharon, absolutely. But I mean, when I was listening to him give his answers, I felt like he
was just a little bit of a determined guy. He posted this incredible Instagram post today.
It's a Photoshop of him in the purple jersey with the vest on his Instagram. He picked the right one.
He picked the, like, yeah, you know, like he is all in. And I think that, you know, this might be
one of those years where people are talking about what a bounce back season, Jack Peterson,
had with the Diamondbacks because it does really feel like he's coming in here,
reinvigorated a bit, you know, and excited to contribute to this team.
He also seems excited to, you know, kind of prove himself, not just assume that he's going
to come in here and be given anything, but he wants to prove himself.
He wants to prove that he can hit against lefties.
He wants to prove that he can play the outfield.
And I'm all for it, man.
I love a good redemption story.
So let's go, Jack.
I'm all for it.
All right, well, else we got.
All right, this one comes from Travis Moore.
More for me, he asks, does Tommy Troy contribute this season at the major league level?
What position is he ideally playing?
Travis goes on to be an absolute star to say, also deep dish is pizza, not a casserole.
Fight me, Sean DePaul's.
Neapolitan pizza is overrated and is mostly an expensive glorified appetizer.
I think Chris Bianco will fight you over that.
And then he went on to say ASE is not New York, but still has, I think he said pretty good pizza on the rest of it.
It does have good pizza.
I'll defend the pizza here.
I love the pizza here.
It's not terrible.
It's not bad.
There's good pizza to be had from all sorts of parts of the world, too.
That's the best part.
Arizona's a melting pot.
We got stuff from Chicago.
We got stuff from all over.
But going back to his question, Tommy Troy, do you see him happening this year?
And where does he play?
Again, we talked about some of those infield issues.
Yeah, I would probably lean on it being 2025 at this point, not to say it's impossible that Tommy Troy could find his way into the majors.
You know, he was drafted out of college, went to Stanford.
I think he projects as a pretty fast riser through the system.
But, you know, he just reached high A toward the end of 2023.
I'm not sure you project him all the way to the big leagues just yet.
So not impossible, but I think it's at least, it could happen,
but not something I'm necessarily counting on.
As far as this position goes, I think in the long term,
you probably want Tommy Troy to be your answer at,
third base in the long term. That's kind of the big question that this team still has. So,
yeah, there are a lot of places he could play where he's valuable, right? I mean, maybe,
maybe there's opportunity for him at shortstop, which is the position he's been playing
primarily in the minors. Second base, I think this is a position he could play as well. So we'll see
how it turns out. But third base is certainly where the Diamondbacks have the most questions long term.
So if you're asking me when I think he comes up, I think it's at the end of 2025.
Like the Corbyn-Carroll Jordan Lawler call up towards the end of the season.
Maybe the Diamondbacks don't bring Suarez back for the third year, right?
He has an option in the third season.
He has an option for 2025.
That's what I mean.
Yeah.
So 2020.
For the second season.
Oh, the second season is an option.
So after that technically, if the Diamondbacks don't extend him or anything, which they probably most likely won't,
then maybe in 2025 or.
or in 2026.
That's when Tommy Troy would be the everyday regular third baseman for this team.
Yeah.
I think it could be that because there is going to be a point
where this team is going to have to figure out what they're going to do
to replace potentially Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly.
There is going to be a little bit potentially of a rebuild phase right then in 2026.
So it's a good time for maybe a young player like that to get an opportunity to be there
every day starting third baseman.
So we'll see what happens there.
Now is time for the most important question.
of the entire day and there's no doubt about it.
Of course, it comes from the burritosore, aka Elizabeth.
It's small on the screen.
I'm sorry.
You're terrible.
I had to include the whole thing.
You did not need to include the whole thing.
I did.
The picture is important.
It is kind of important.
You're right.
But it originated with an NBA paint question or Twitter question.
And Elizabeth asks, inspired by the NBA paint gem,
which Sesame Street characters would you?
want on your baseball team.
God, that's a good question.
Sesame Street was required viewing in my house.
We are both.
For as uncultured as I am, I did watch me success.
On the vent, on the Venn diagram of me and Jesse, Sesame Street is one, it's baseball
and Sesame Street in the middle.
That's it, pretty much.
That's what the overlapping circles are.
Of course, based on the literary classic that everyone has read, Big Bird at Bat,
Yeah, Big Bird throws gas or hits.
We know that Big Bird is going to absolutely be D.H.
First Baseman, right?
I want Big Bird on my team.
Yeah.
Hits lefties and righties.
He absolutely does.
He absolutely does.
Maybe he rakes, though.
He rakes though.
Count von Count as the umpires.
Of course.
It's just too easy.
It's just so easy.
Strike one.
Ha ha ha ha.
He would strike two.
He would be living.
He would have such a good time.
He would be living his best.
Yeah, Big Bird's friend, snuffelobligus, pitcher, right?
He throws gas.
The trunk, the trunk angle, his trunk angle is incredible.
Like, it's none other, coming out of the mound.
That's the gulet for arm angle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, trunk gang.
Of course he throws it with his trunk.
He's an elephant.
He's a fuzzy elephant.
He's a mammoth, actually, is what he is.
Fair enough.
I feel like Oscar the Grouch has to be in there somewhere.
Third base coach.
Third base coach.
He just said bad boy, third base coach.
Driving him in.
He just doesn't have the right mentality.
He has the right mentality.
He has a fighter mentality.
I'll tell you he'd be out there arguing with these umpires left and right.
That's for sure.
He'd be giving count the business.
He would.
Is Elmo the manager?
Elmo, no, because Elmo's got speed.
I need Elmo in right field and I need Elmo.
He gives me Tori vibes.
Elmo gives you Tori vibes.
I don't know.
I mean, Elmo does bring everybody together.
That's for sure.
But I have Bert and Ernie in the infield because they are a double play threat.
Yeah, that's your shortstop second base combo, for sure.
Bernie's mischievous, just like Catele-Marte,
loves playing practical jokes, so you know that that would be absolute fire.
Grover.
Grover.
Grover's a good third baseman.
I'm going Cookie Monster as our catcher.
Okay, sure.
I mean, come on.
Cookie Monster, have you seen him?
He's got a lot of space.
As long as snuffle up against his throwing cookies.
I think that would go well.
Right.
Right, okay.
I think we nailed this one.
He'd have to have a new cookie every time.
His cookie monster would eat it before he'd throw it back.
Benjamin Hunley wants some ex-Woba numbers on the Sesame Street guys, so that's going to be your.
You're going to have to, we need a flip on.
When Damon gets back from the Super Bowl, we're going to have a make savant pages for every single Sesame Street character.
And it's going to be amazing.
So stay tuned.
You know who the journalist is, right?
The on-scene reporter?
It's Kermit.
Oh, sure.
Oh, sure.
Oh, Kermit Diff, Frogger.
Yeah, okay.
We need this in my life.
No, all I want is Sesame Street baseball in some form.
I hate when we do this.
I hate when we do this.
If I had more money, Jesse, I would bankroll this 100%.
I would be the producer on it.
A great way for me maybe to get some more money is with BEDMGM.
I tried to hit on the Suns game.
I nailed everything.
It was a five-leg parlay.
Wow.
I had the Suns.
I took the Sun's spread.
11 points.
I took Bradley Beale because he was returning to Washington, D.C.
on the over 19 points.
It was easy money.
He had 40 by the third quarter.
Jesse, I took the halftime spread of six and a half points.
The sons were up by way more than that.
And then you know what I took, Jesse?
I took Aaron Gordon getting nine lousy points.
That's all I needed out of you.
Nine lousy points.
And you got seven lousy points, seven points.
Seven points.
So you didn't, you didn't, no, I did not turn my $25 into like $400 somewhat dollars.
It was, uh, wait, was it Aaron Gordon is he found?
I said Aaron Gordon. I said Eric Gordon.
Oh, Eric, Eric, okay. I was like, are you betting on Aaron Gordon?
No, I wouldn't have bet on Eric Gordon. I'm not. And I shouldn't bet on Eric Gordon either.
But you should maybe make better choices than I did. I was going to bet on the over for Booker and he didn't hit that either.
It seemed like no matter who I was going to add to that parlay.
wasn't going to come through but maybe you make yourself a smaller same game parlay and you can hit
what you can do is sign up for bet mGM right now and use our bonus code of p h and x if you do and you
place your first bet mjm sportsbook wager through the mobile application for at least five dollars you will
receive 158 instantly in additional winnings regardless of your wager's outcome check out the show
notes for full details and now listen to damon talk about the disclaimer
Gambling problem call 100,
Gambling problem.
Call 1-800-A-Vor 6-N-Y.
Or text, Hope and Y-Four 6-6-9-0-0-0-8-0-A-1-8-1-8-A-Rog
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Yeah, we had enough.
Oh, we had enough distractions.
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Of course, if you want to join us over here, make sure to grab yourself a PHNX diHard membership today.
Go to go phNX.com.
You get all of Jesse's writing.
You get access to our Discord lounge.
This is the week.
Squeeze play makes its debut.
Come watch Coggs and two other lucky contestants.
Join him.
I'm going to be picking those contestants this week on this show.
So make sure if you want to partake in our squeeze play game, our first inaugural edition of SqueezePlay, you first have to be a diehard.
And then you have to join us here on this show.
I'm going to pick one of you to play against Cogs.
Maybe two of you.
I think I want to be a three-person show.
And then join us this, what is it, Thursday.
Thursday is the day where we are going to play some squeeze play over on the Discord lounge.
So, of course, if you are not a diehard, get down on this to join in on all the fun.
And, of course, the Discord lounge is the best place to be in Arizona Sports fan.
So make sure to join us today.
We got some more mailbag Monday questions.
Jacob, aka Faj, what do we have?
He looks at me every single time, like, oh, my God, I can't believe you use my government name.
Coggs asks on Twitter, he asks, I'll pose the...
the question officially, would you rather spend five minutes in a tub full of crickets or five
minutes in a tub full of snakes?
Apparently, this was a discussion topic at Coggs's birthday party, which we missed.
Yes.
Did you get an invite?
I mean, I got last minute invite, but I don't, I didn't get like, you know, I didn't get
the mailed invite in the mail.
I didn't get anything like that.
I was a little under the weather over the weekend.
Oh, yeah.
Kind of still am.
Hence the fact that I sound like 70% of myself right now.
Terrible.
But yes, it looked like a lot of fun.
I saw pictures in the in the Discord.
Okay, so we got to get to the question.
The question is tubful of crickets, tub full of snakes.
Are those my only two options?
That's it.
That's it.
That's it.
Are the snakes venomous?
We've discussed this and no, they are not.
We cannot put your life at risk.
Okay, good.
However, however, there's, I mean, whatever else happens to you, happens to you.
Like, whatever, like, that's a definite question that you need to,
think about here. Snakes are snakes. I get along with snakes. Hence, hence, hence, hence,
some of the fun interactions we've had in the clubhouse, right? Yeah, I feel like I wouldn't say
necessarily get along with snakes. I haven't had a whole lot of time to befriend any. But I feel
like I could, you know, and there's something less intimidating about the idea of there being just a few
snakes versus like, I mean, if it's a tub of crickets, like, that's a lot. That's a lot of crickets.
And I know they're not going to hurt me, but just being in a tub with thousands of any one, like, insect like that is just terrifying in general.
Have you seen how crickets lay their eggs?
I haven't.
Yeah.
They go and they find a hole and they lay their eggs in like a hole.
They're going to go into your ear.
They're going to go up your nose.
They're going to lay eggs in your head, Jesse.
I guess you'd have to wear like a full body suit.
That is the one.
I am not letting crickets lay eggs in my face.
So for that reason, it's the snakes.
I'll take the snakes every time.
A snake can't go up your nose?
Can a snake go up my nose, Jacob?
I mean, it would already have to be a very small cricket
in order for it to do that.
Correct.
So if you're assuming that you go in your nose and your ears and lay eggs,
then you have to assume the snakes can too.
I cannot.
I do not assume that.
I absolutely do not assume that.
The snakes and the crickets are the same size.
Yeah, what are we doing here?
I don't think that's supposed to be part of this.
But crickets are too big to go in your nose?
Look, I'm going with Jesse's theory here that even if they don't,
go in any of my orifices,
even if none of these animals
enter me at all, Jacob.
I am in fact
going with the snakes still because the crickets
it's like a million crickets. I'm not.
Yeah, it's just something unsettling
about just being like just
they'd be all over your face
and, you know, the snakes you could go in there
and you could talk to them and you could hold
them. You guys are crazy. It could be a
very, you guys are crazy. You could be a very
whole for the experience. Snakes can feel cool.
like snakes like snakes are cool snakes are different crickets are gross it's just a bug it's a bug it's a
gross bug that makes lots of sounds all those chirping in your ear that's enough to drive me notes okay
this is grossing me out and we need to move on uh let's not talk about gross bugs and stuff anymore
well else we got oh damn it it's the same question basically no uh so don's brett asked if you had to
bet on a debacks player to win fear factor who would it be jesse had to ask me before the show
what is Fear Factor.
So for Jesse and those of you, I have to do that.
I reveal all of this stuff.
But of course, Fear Factor, it was a game show.
It was hosted by Joe Rogan.
That's not important.
But what is important is it was like an escalating series of fearful events.
Sometimes they had them be like on a high rise kind of thing because of heights.
Sometimes they had them sitting in a tub full of crickets or snakes or terrible things.
A lot of times they had them eating disgusting stuff.
you know, like gross, gross, disgusting stuff.
And it's those last two reasons that my choice is Joe Manciply.
Now, Joe Manciply basically lives in like a cow farm, slaughterhouse kind of situation, right?
He does a lot of stuff with animals.
He's like a big into hunting.
So I don't think he's going to mind any of the stuff.
There's not going to be something gross because he's probably eating every part of the cow.
what computer parts we don't even want to think about having to eat or try.
Yeah, Andrew Chafin would have been a really good choice if we're still around.
He would have done anything.
He would have done it happily.
He would have done it happily.
Yeah.
Heraldo Pardomo, just the fearless vibes, the leadership qualities.
Absolutely not.
There is something that Geraldo Pardomo is scared of and they will find it.
It doesn't matter what it is.
He might get through the eating the gross animal thing.
He might even get through like, oh, we're going to put you bees on a thing on your head and bees around you.
But he's going to like be terrified of heights.
He's going to make him walk across like from one building to the next and he is going to run for his life.
Corbin.
Corbyn.
Corbyn.
Corby.
See, okay.
He's like a robot.
He's just like bad.
I think it was a John Wayne quote, but like courage is fearing something but saddling up anyway, right?
like being fearful but saddling up anyway.
That's true courage.
That is Corbin.
Corbin is going to be like,
there is no way I'm getting punked out on this show.
Like, he will do it just out of spite and not not letting people down.
He's,
that's a great,
yeah, he's a great pick.
That's a great pick.
Great selection.
You got anyone else?
I feel like Ryan Thompson would be a solid, solid choice.
You could sigh,
just fearless character on the mound.
It's the vibes that he,
that he exude.
when he's out there.
I mean, if that's the case,
then it has to be Kevin Ginkle.
It has to be Kevin Ginkle for sure.
Yeah.
Ernesto said it in the chat,
Ginkle for sure.
That's absolutely a great pick.
The quickest person out would have been
Eduardo Escobar.
Like,
in terms of former players,
Cattel Martin.
All they have to do is pull a cat out
and he's done.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
It would have been an easy time.
And that's an exposed, like,
yeah, that's brutal.
Yeah, because everybody knows.
Everybody knows that you're scared of that.
Yeah, you know, you're right.
Catel, like, reminds me of the kind of guy
that the minute that you're like,
you have to eat bull testicles,
he would be like, no, and then be out.
Like, no, I'm not.
Like, it's not that I'm scared of it.
I'm just not going to do that thing.
I refuse to.
Going with more of the baseball narratives,
I feel like Andrew Saul-Frank deserves a shout-out,
just given the many precarious situations
that he was asked to pitch in down the stretch.
Like, all right, base is loaded, nobody out.
Go get him, kid, right?
How many times did we see that play out with Asian-Sull-Fra?
We're going to have you wrestle a lion.
Yeah, exactly.
He's like, whatever, bring it on.
He's been through this before.
I love it.
All right, what else we got?
Michael Rokickey asks a professional wrestling question, Jesse, so you can take a powder on this one.
He says, I have an analogy for Derek.
Getting hype for J.D. only to end up with Jock is like getting hyped for Cody,
meaning Cody Rose in WWE, to finish his story only to end up with the rock against Roman
Raines.
Agree.
I cannot agree to that.
Because what you're saying in this instance is that I was rooting for one guy and then a more seasoned, bigger name showed up.
Because that's what happens, Jesse.
Professional wrestling is so ridiculous for this reason.
It's a television show with like an ongoing story.
It's a saga.
So you get invested.
It's staged.
Yes.
As you know now, it's staged.
And from week to week, they tell a story with their characters.
So you get invested in the story like you would any other show on television.
The problem is, is then they get to their Super Bowl time, which is like wrestling.
It's this time of the year.
And then they say, well, screw all of those stories we've been telling for the last year.
What big names can we get in here that's going to get the Normies to come?
The people that don't watch this week to week to come watch it.
Right.
So they've had this ongoing storyline.
And now the Rock is basically showing up and being the big name.
So in this case, I think it's more like the Diamondbacks were going for Jorge Soler.
but instead
Albert Pujols
is the guy we sign
like it's like that
where it's like
the Rock is kind of past his prime right now
it has no business coming back to wrestling
it's not like he stops by like John Cena does
John Cena at least pops in every six months
or a year it's like hey hey guys I want to wrestle
real fast you know and then he does it
the Rock has just been gone so to compare
those two it's not apples
to oranges or apples to apples to apples
it would have to be a returning like superstar
that was one of the best DHS of all
all time, but once he got here, things didn't go so.
I mean, Bulls can still hit some lefties, right?
That's what I'm not saying.
It's a bad choice.
I like my selection here.
All right.
There we go.
There's your answer.
What else we got, Jacob?
Uno mas.
All right.
Gabriel asks, the debacks will make it back to the world series if.
Oh, God.
If that's not an open-ended question.
I don't know what is.
My universal answer to a question like this is basically like if the stars align, right?
Like that's what it basically takes for an MLB team to get to the World Series and especially
to win the thing, right?
Like just a lot of things have to go right for you.
It's not just a matter of the talent that you have on your roster.
I guess if I was trying to answer more about like, okay, some specific things that maybe
would have to go right for the Diamondbacks to like be able to get to that spot in the first place.
I think Jordan Lawler having like a monstrous rookie year like Corbyn Carroll did.
That doesn't get the Diamondbacks to the World Series or get them a World Series win in and of itself.
But that would be a huge, a huge development for this franchise.
You know, not only him becoming that guy, but him becoming that guy in 2024 would be really, really big.
I feel like a couple of things I could say here are cliche, right?
Because it's what you could say for a lot of teams.
But I truly do feel like if this team, the way it's constructed, this lineup that Jesse talked about a little while ago, can stay healthy.
Yeah.
And can be available throughout the year and not experience major losses to this lineup.
Then I think they can do special things.
But specifically, I really feel like if Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Fulner,
can both be what we think they can be.
We already know what we're going to get out of Zach out.
We know what we're going to get out of Merrill Kelly.
If Eduardo Rodriguez can be as good as we hope he can be,
if he can be as good as his numbers have been at times in his career.
And if Brandon Fott can be that guy again throughout the season that he was in the postseason last year,
then this is looking like one of the most formidable starting rotations in baseball, you know?
Yeah.
I love Connor's answer to this question.
The devax will make it back to the World Series.
if they win the NL pennant again.
I mean, is he wrong?
That's true.
That's about as good of an answer as I can come up with.
I think speaking to the health thing that you touched on,
Catelle-Marte staying healthy is going to be a really big thing for the team in 2024.
He did, for the most part, this past year,
and he was obviously huge for the Diamondbacks down the stretch and in the playoffs,
the NLCS MVP.
They're going to need guys to stay healthy.
particular him who's had some issues with that in the past well my computer's dead you have
notion up on your computer can i have your computer because i mean normally i wondered why you closed
your laptop i was like is that is that your way of telling you to shut up and stop talking so
it's it's my way of just being like i don't know what to do now but i do have some more ad reads
to take care of so uh very excited to do that also uh very excited uh for baseball to start that's
the one most important thing we do have some
merch news, by the way, which I know you guys are very excited for.
But before that, make sure to check out our friends at Arizona Lottery.
Arizona Lottery right now is introducing a new unique ticket promotion called Arizona Adventure.
They want you to get out and experience some of these wonderful locations that we have out in the wilderness.
The places Jesse goes on vacations just to experience places like this.
But one way for you to experience Arizona Adventure is you can play Arizona Adventure lottery tickets
featuring three iconic landscapes, Picacho Peak, Monument Valley, and Camelback Mountain.
These tickets have prizes up to $500,000, excuse me, $50,000.
But you can also check in at geolocated adventures at 10 destinations across the state.
You just have to play in their app from Flagstaff to Yuma.
There's a self-guided adventures to 10 iconic Arizona destinations,
including Buffalo Park and Flagstaff, Lost Dog Wash at McDonnell, Conservancy,
and Scottsdale and Moore.
So make sure to check this out because their promotion right now
celebrate state pride and the uniqueness and beauty of Arizona,
which let me tell you, there are some incredible places for you to do a staycation.
It's not just Healer River Resorts and Casinos, right?
There's some incredible spots around town or around the state for you to check out.
So make sure that you check out what Arizona Lottery has going on.
Visit AZadventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with Arizona Lottery
and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes.
Also, another Arizona Valley Staples, Arizona Family Sports.
You can continue to watch the Sons over at Arizona Family.
This Tuesday, they're taking on the bucks at 8 p.m. Thursday versus the Jazz at 7 p.m.
Big games.
Big huge games.
Me and Jesse, by the way, this is also a supplementary P.HNX Suns podcast, if you guys didn't know that.
A closet Suns podcast.
You know, the fact that they force me to not comment on Sons is really the criminal part.
We have so many thoughts.
Make sure to get all of Jesse's very sad tweets about the Sons because he knows really how to do that well.
And make sure to check out the Sons on Arizona.
We should make our supplementary Sons podcast is like diehard only content.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's just us giving our fan takes on the Sons ball.
That's what people really want from us clearly.
Well, and everybody wants to know where they can watch the Diamondbacks next season.
still don't have information on that, but you can watch the Suns in a number of ways over at Arizona Family.
On Cox Cable, you got Channel 13.
You can use an antenna.
You can watch it on Channel 3, 3.5, or Channel 44.
I like saying 3.5.
It's 3.5, but it's Channel 3 and a half here in the Phoenix area.
But all sorts of ways, no matter where you are, wherever you live in Arizona, visit AZFamily.com and click Sons games for listing information on your area.
AZ Family is a great resource to help you find Phoenix Suns games on Arizona Family Sports.
All right.
Well, that's all we got.
But I do have a fun announcement for those of you that are here in town and have been clamoring for some of the new merchandise because we got word from our guy Tyler that there are indeed spring training hats available right now over at the team shop at Chase Field.
You can get these beauties as we speak.
They are far bluer than I thought they were going to be, Jesse.
They are.
That's baby blue.
That's not teal.
That's baby blue.
to see them. This might be some lighting and stuff in there. But yeah, that's a very blue hat.
It gives me the, like, looking at this, it gives me the vibe that it's not even trying to be
the Diamondbacks teal. It's just like a baby blue hat. I don't hate it. I don't hate it. Yeah,
it's still very cool. You know what? I also don't hate this other piece of merchandise that they got.
Jacob hit him with it. That's just a, that's just an official MLB image you can buy of the Kershaw.
home run
Gabby Moreno
pre-bat flip
I can't believe
they're selling this
incredible
selling this in the team shop
I fucking love this so much
they're doing Clayton Kershaw
like that
in the Diamondback's team shop
I know it's an official
look at it's got the little
it's got the little MLB
the little logo in the corner
it's everything Jesse it's an official
it is an official print
I just need it bigger
I need it
poster size. I'll replace the mayor
photo if Saul will give me
the budget to go buy this and get it framed.
This is the... That would be elite.
Yeah. Just have a
gigantic one. That needs to go there for sure. Yeah.
This is the Gabby Marina
three run Homer against Clayton Kershaw
in the first inning of NLDS
game one. I would
think most people have seen this picture by
now. But yeah, if you're
joining us on audio, check
us out on YouTube or you can
probably just like Google
Clayton Kirshaw, Gabby Moreno
home run or something.
Another great reason to be a diehard, by the way.
You would have got this in the Diamondbacks chat
before we even talked about it if you guys were a diehard.
So yeah, it's great, great content, great stuff.
I need it.
I need it, Jesse.
I'm going to have, you're going to have like a life-size version of this at home.
I'm sure.
The pettiness is real.
I'm going to come over in an entire wall.
It's just going to be painted with this picture.
It's going to be like this stuff, you know, just a giant covering.
Well, we appreciate you guys.
popping by. Of course, we will be back tomorrow at 1 p.m.
pitchers and catchers report next week. So we will be out at Salt Riverfields for that.
But in the meantime, we will be here at 1 p.m. the rest of this week.
You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore Kman with the K.
This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman.
Of course, Fage is on the ones and twos. You can follow him at Jacob
Franklin 4. He is the fourth best Jacob Franklin in known existence.
Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks.
But of course, all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
We appreciate you guys stopping by.
We thank you so much for your time.
And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you're petty.
