PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ryne Nelson is named the Arizona Diamondbacks fifth starting pitcher in their rotation for 2023

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks made some more difficult roster decisions, naming pitcher Ryne Nelson as their final starter in their rotation while Drey Jameson will come out of the bullpen…for now. We also have more on Kyle Lewis making the Opening Day roster and your Mailbag Monday questions.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: www.fubotv.com/phnxBUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (https://mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1693746). Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. You will receive up to $1000 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.PHNX: Become a Diehard today! Check out https://phnxlocker.com/ to grab your membership to receive exclusive content, discounts on all events and merch, and access to our Discord chats. Manscaped: Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with our code PHNX Bets at Manscaped.com.Circle K: Make sure you’re not missing out on all this great stuff, and be stocked all March Madness long! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxFour Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Mor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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. 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.

excited. It's opening week. We have a brand new sponsor in BetMGM, and we couldn't be more thrilled to be here bringing you this show. Welcome into the PHNX Dabacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of the Great Lawn in Glendale. This guy is my vice mayor. It's also your thunder stick Jesse Friedman. We've got baseball this week. We've got baseball, not spring training baseball. Not spring training, not exhibition games. We do have a couple of extra Well, yeah, well, those games. But we do have real baseball. We got real games this week.

Let's fucking go, Jesse. Oh, man, it feels good to curse. I've been holding that back since Friday's episode. But a big shout out to our new friends from BetMGM. Make sure to check them out and use code PHNX. We will have so much more for you on that. But we are excited to be partnering with the folks at BetMGM, the king of sportsbook. So keep it locked in right here to the PHNX entire network for more on how this is going

develop, but we have a lot of fun stuff in the works with our friends at bed MGM. And of course, we have lots to talk about when it comes to Arizona Diamondbacks opening day roster news. A lot has happened almost enough for us to go full on emergency pod, but we didn't. We held back because we know we have a lot. We have lots of long week to go before we get to opening day. But Ryan Nelson was in fact named the Arizona Diamondbacks fifth starter for their rotation, much to, I think both of our surprises.

This is not a ridiculous surprise. We talked about how close their numbers were, but it felt like for a while there that Dre Jameson was trending in the direction of being named that starter. Yeah, I was mostly just angry because I released a roster projection story the night before the Diamondbacks made some of these big decisions. Of course you did. And I nailed so many things, Derek, except I had Drey Jameson as the Diamondbacks fifth starter. And Ryan Nelson opening the year in the bullpen.

But in reality, the Diamondbacks flipped those. things around. Ryan Nelson will be the Diamondbacks fifth starter. Dre Jameson will open the year in the bullpen, which is interesting, not something we really expected as of a few weeks ago. In recent days, it sounded like the Diamondbacks were maybe inching a little bit more in that direction. But yeah, Ryan Nelson is the Diamondbacks fifth starter after an entire Cactus League talking about Dre Jameson probably being the fifth starter. So I think what the Diamondbacks basically saw is that Ryan Nelson had a bit of a rough start in some of these Cactus League games. But over his last few addings, things have looked better.

Whereas Drey Jameson started pretty strong and has not been quite as sharp over his last few adding. So their numbers were both very similar as we've talked about. They both had ERAs in the mid upper sevens, which is not exactly what you're looking for. Just like in Reno, baby. Just like in Reno. Yeah. We've been here before.

You're not looking too closely at, you know, just the numbers in a situation. situation like this. You're looking at the quality of the stuff, the consistency, how deep the stuff is holding in games. There's a lot of different factors. And Diamondbacks like what they saw from Nelson. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it really was about the way that they are trending. Drey Jamison has had some excellent starts. He's had a lot of strikeouts. He's done a done, you know, what he needed to do. But if you look at his starts, his terrible starts, or I guess his worst outings are kind of more recent. Whereas Ryan Nelson has been a bit better. and I think that might be the one factor that made the Diamondbacks go in that direction.

I love Dre Jameson personally, but I also think that he gets fire in his blood about a lot of things. You know what I mean? And sometimes I don't know how that could be perceived. However, Tori Lavello did speak about telling Dre the news that he would be coming out of the bullpen. And he said he responded, well, this is what Tori had to say. He didn't care. His comment was, I just want to win baseball games, and I'll do whatever it takes. I know he wants to start. And I started, after I told him what was going on, I actually tried to jump ahead of him a little bit.

And I told him, I know you want to start, but we're going in a different direction. And I don't want to keep going over it. We're going to put you in the bullpen. You're going to help us win games there. And his comment was exactly what I told you. It's awesome. I don't care what it takes. Well, I mean, it's what, it doesn't surprise.

surprise me that Dre is ready for any challenge that comes his way. And I think the biggest thing there is remaining on the major league roster. I know there's some concerns about him coming out of the bullpen and how that's going to impact his progression. But to be honest, this starting rotation is only going to have so many spots available to it. And if the Diamondbacks are able to keep Jameson here on the main roster, then that enables him to step in and possibly fill in when needed. I mean, you have no idea how this season is going to go. injuries are bound to happen at some point, and you never know if that's going to impact the starting

rotation. So I think the idea of having Jameson here not only helping them win games out of the bullpen, but also being ready as a pseudo-starting pitcher ready to go as that long reliever that we've been talking about that they don't have, I think that that might be a pretty good plan. The concern here, which I've heard from a lot of different

people, is that if you put Dre Jameson in the bullpen, it's going to be hard for him to keep up his innings workload. It's going to be hard for him to stay stretched out. I think the diamond backs would like to use him in a multi-enning role, you know, have him out there for three, four, five innings, something like that. But you also, in a sense, hope that those things don't happen. Because if you need a reliever to cover four or five innings, it means something's probably gone terribly wrong. So you don't really want to have to do that. And the diamondbacks are

in a situation where if that situation doesn't happen, then Dre Jameson's workload is probably going to have to cut down a little bit. He's not going to be able to go, you know, four or five innings. He's not going to be a viable starting pitcher for this team anymore at a certain point. And the Diamondbacks have a history with doing things like this, where they start with guys in the bullpen. They send them down to get stretched out again. And it hasn't worked necessarily. The Diamondbacks have done that a couple times. Randall Delgado a few years back. John DuPontier is the example. A lot of people point to there's some risk there. Guys can get hurt when you, you know, have them stretched out and then you let them get not stretched out and then you try to

stretch them out again. It's a hard thing for, for them to be able to go through. So there is some risk here with the decision the Diamondbacks have made. There's also a lot of talk about this being similar to what they did with Archie Bradley in 2017, right? After he had experienced some issues starting and also, you know, they needed that kind of back end guy and he kind of fell into that role. but Levello did speak about the similarities between Bradley in 2017 and Drey this year. Yeah, when we were talking about this potential move, Archie's name came up quite a bit. Remember it was five guys and the one that didn't make it was Archie. And I think it was the right-hander that's in L.A. Shelby, right?

So we felt like Archie had a really good year and he pushed himself into it into a different place because he excelled as a reliever and I don't think he started ever since, right? I think he's been a reliever ever since that day. Yeah, we compared that experience a lot and we feel like Dre is going to help us out in a lot of areas. He's going to be used his length. I think at the end of the day he's going to be a starting pitcher. It's just this gave us a chance to have a very strong bullpen. And that's what we were looking for in this with this decision.

But we referenced Archie a lot. It's a sick burn on Shelby Miller there. Right? Right. The right-handed in L.A. Shelby, right? Yeah, you've lost sleep over Shelby Miller, Tori Lobolo. That was a long time ago, though, Derek. You don't think that he's actually moved on at this point?

and what he did to your roster and your year. But anyway, no, obviously, yeah, there are a lot of similarities. And I think that Dre Jameson, obviously, has a lot to offer this team out of the bullpen. Yeah. It's just, like you said, everything you said, those concerns are real concerns. The fact that this guy has been on a track to be part of their starting pitching rotation, it almost feels like sending him down to Reno is the right thing to do just so that he stays stretched out, continues to get stretched out, and should be ready for an operational.

when called upon. But yeah, I mean, right now again, the Diamondbacks, these are tough conversations for Tori LaValle to be having at the same time, too, they have to do everything they can to let these guys know that there is still a real opportunity for them to return to this team. If anything should go wrong and, you know, that they're kind of pretty close, you know, especially Dre, he's essentially first in line should they need a starting pitcher. But, you know, coming out of the bullpen, especially if he ends up being too valuable out of the pen, will the Diamondbacks?

want to go ahead and put him into a starting role in any way. We've seen that before where guys had success out of the pen like Humberto Castiano's, but then once they moved him to the starting role, not quite the same success. I believe it was Castiano's. Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think they've had Castiano's kind of bouncing a little bit back and forth. Yeah, there's a lot of different ways that this situation can unfold and the Diamondbacks have been pretty open and saying that we don't really know how this is going

to pan out. I think there's there is one scenario. where the diamond backs wind up not using Dre Jameson enough, and they send him down to get stretched out, as you said. So maybe he does wind up in Reno before too long. I think there's another scenario where something happens in the big league rotation, and Drey Jamison gets plugged into the big league rotation, not that far from now, depending on injuries or, you know,

how bumgarner looks, I guess you could say. And I think there's another scenario, as you also alluded to, where the diamondbacks are like, oh, man, Dre Jameson's really freaking good at this reliever thing. Maybe we should just keep him there. And maybe we should use him in high-levered situations. Maybe Drey Jameson is the Diamondback's closer at some point this year, right? Like I don't, I wouldn't say that's entirely impossible.

And it was kind of similar like what Tori was talking about there with Archie Bradley back in 2017. Bradley had a rough year in 2016 in the starting rotation. He had an ERA over five. He came back. Spring training that year looked fantastic. in spring training. And the Diamondbacks didn't have room for them in the rotation, but they're like, hey, why don't you go to the bullpen

and kind of be like a multi-inning reliever for us? And that's what Archie Bradley was. At the beginning of that 2017 season, he was going like three innings pretty much every time he came into the game. And he was really, really good at it. And by the end of the season, Archie Bradley was the high leverage reliever for the Diamondbacks. He had an ERA under two.

He was the guy getting all of the biggest moments in those games. I think that's another possibility with Jameson is that he could develop into that guy for the Diamondbacks if he proves that, you know, working out of the bullpen is something that works for him. Well, you know who else won't be getting sent down to Reno? Kyle Alexander Lewis, the 2020 American League rookie of the year, isn't going anywhere, folks, because you don't send a guy down that hit over 450, Jesse. You don't send a guy down that has done what Kyle Lewis. I don't care where he factors in.

I don't care. I don't care where you have to play him. Maybe just tell Corbyn Carroll that now he's their left fielder and center fielder while he's out there and Kyle Lewis can just kind of hang out over by the foul line. I don't know. I'm not that concerned about it because this man needs to be in the goddamn lineup and let's go. I love the fact that he came in here and won this spot. And honestly, they're, you know, the Dre Jameson, Ryan Nelson thing,

that remains to be seen if it's going to work out for them. Kyle Lewis, I don't know, that felt like that was going to be a huge miss if they ended up sending him down. Unfortunately, it does result in Pavin Smith and Manuel Rivera both getting sent down to Reno. And again, that was another conversation that Tori had to have that was not an easy conversation to have. Yeah. Very, very tough. Same with the manual, right? Manuel Rivera.

You know, we've asked a lot of Pavin. We got sent down. We told him it was going to be a couple weeks. It breaks his hand. We asked him go to Winterball. He did. He excelled. He came back.

And his swing looks great. We know we'll see Pavin soon and later. So that was a silver lining. But he's a true professional. He took it well. But they know that it was a tough decision. I let him know that. I laid all out on the table.

It's the first thing that I do. I align with him and tell him this was a challenge. for us and I think they know it's authentic and I think it might it might lessen the blow but I know they're frustrated I was one I kind of gave you some sleepless lines whether yeah very much thought I know so yeah about a week ago I gave the staff heads up like locking on this lock in on this this this situation and I stared with the staff like I've been losing sleep over it thinking about it and I think everybody was in the same boat when I was in a staff meeting talking about tough decisions.

But he's not a good team. And Michael asked in the chat, why does Tori always look like he needs a nap? L.O.L. There's your answer, Michael. There's your answer. He's thinking about having to send down Pavin Smith and he's losing sleep over it. I understand where Tori's coming from, though. As he outlined there, the Diamondbacks have asked a lot of Pave and Smith over the last six, eight months or so. last year they made a tough decision to send him down to Reno, try to get some things right with

his swing, it was just going to be a couple of weeks, and then, right, he gets hurt and he breaks his wrist, and he's out for a significant period of the time, a significant period of time, and they, you know, returns at the end of last season, is able to make a little bit of noise. But yeah, I mean, the reality here is that Kyle Lewis was so incredibly good in the Cactus League that the Diamondbacks just couldn't look, you know, a guy who won the Rook of the year award three years ago. It couldn't look him in the eye after the spring that he had and be like, sorry, man, wasn't good enough.

We need to see more. Like, you're bringing in Kyle Lewis to hit. You're not bringing Kyle Lewis to play defense. And how good he's looked in the Cactus League, I think the Diamondbacks just had no choice but to go in his direction over Pippin Smith. And I think there's something to be said about the fact that, you know, we've criticized them for holding on to guys that might not be their best option. based on their tenure, how much they're getting paid, things like that.

A lot of the decisions that they've had to make recently really feel about trying to make this team as good as they possibly can. And it feels like guys that came in here won these jobs and earned these spots over some of these guys that are being sent down, you kind of feel like in every way they wanted to go with Pavin Smith, but you just can't deny what Kalu, which is apparently what the call. Not Clue. I want to go with Clue because Clue. Like Clue Haywood? Like Clue Haywood. Yeah, exactly. But his is with a king. But Kylo, like Kai Yu, I don't know. I'm going to have to go. I'm down for a Kai Yu reference.

I figured you would me, but he's just been so good. And so I'm very excited about what he can bring to this team. The Diamondbacks needed it, man. I mean, you just look at those stretches that they had in 2022, where as much as we want to constantly blame everything on the bullpen, at least I do. There were just offensive stretches where nobody on the team could hit. And as it stands, they really needed a right-handed bat that could come in and shake things up as well as, you know, honestly, offer some of these guys a potential day out of the lineup every once in a while.

Like I'm not super thrilled about Corbyn Carroll ever coming out of the lineup, but at times you're going to have to give him a day off or DH him. So I think that even though Kyle Lewis definitely has lost a step and we've seen him play in the outfield and he hasn't been, you know, defensively, you know, the best option out there. But he can still play the outfield. He can still catch a ball. He can still be out there. I mean, we just saw a couple of things that when we saw the plays.

We were like, yeah, Corpard would have gotten to that one. You know, so. Yeah. Same with Gurriel, honestly. I mean, Gurriel is not a fantastic left fielder either. But, yeah, the way the Diamondbacks are going to use Kyle Lewis, it sounds like he's going to get every lefty. So I would expect to see Kyle Lewis in the opening day lineup against Julio Uri.

Yes. I also expect to see him in there against Clayton Kershaw, which I believe is the Saturday, Saturday game. And it sounds like I asked Tori at one point in that conversation yesterday is Kyle Lewis like a middle of the lineup type of guy for you? And he didn't really have a super specific answer. He said yes, but he added some qualifiers. Didn't seem too sure how that would shake out exactly. But I think it's possible. I think it's possible that with a lefty on the mound, Kyle Lewis could be, you know, hitting third, fourth.

fourth, fifth, something in the middle of this lineup. And based on what we saw in the Cactus League, it feels like that's pretty much exactly where you would want him to be. That's exactly it. Well, we are excited. As you guys can see, by the way, I'm very excited because it's also a pro wrestling night for me. And for most of you here in Phoenix that might be attending the WWE event downtown. It's like you and three people, Derek.

Let's not. You say that. You say that. Wait, we'll wait until we get to mailbag Monday and see how many wrestling questions we have as a mailbag this week. But speaking of which, we thank all of you for being here. If you haven't done so, subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live.

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Every day on this show is Earth Day. And every Monday, we go to the mailbag. Let's go. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. All right, let's go. What do we got for our first question, Damon? Jacob Giacoma asks, What's more likely,

Dre works as a long relief arm and eventually gets back in the rotation, or he thrives in one inning situations and becomes the closer? This is the exact discussion we were having. Yeah. I don't know. This is a very, it is tough.

I think that, I think Dre, much like how he was open to the challenge of adopting number 99, is open to any challenge. And if you're going to put him in the bullpen, I feel like the closer role is inevitably in his future. I just think that because of his personality and because I think there is something I've seen in the past

from Tori Lavello. And that was how disappointed he was. Nobody wanted these opportunities and how the attitude of some in the bullpen kind of became almost like a don't pick me. It sounded like situation. Like I'm sure guys are verbally going to say, yes, I want the ball in that situation. But I think it's how you show it with your actions and your personality and such.

I feel like Dre always wants the ball. And I think that that's going to carry over to him being that guy in high leverage situations at least or eventually that closer roll. I'm going to go. I'm going to say it would be slightly more likely for Dre to wind up back in the rotation. Just because for the moment, that's kind of what the Diamondbacks are saying. You heard Tori Lavello say, we view him as a starter. He's going to be a starter. The Diamondbacks, at least publicly, are making it sound like they still believe that

Drey Jameson is a starting pitcher in the future. And for right now, I believe them when they say that. I do think that's the future that they have in mind for him. So that makes me lean like, okay, that makes me lean in the direction of, of Dre Jameson ultimately becoming a starter again. But yes. Almost as a threat to the rest of the starting rotation in a way. Sure.

Right? I'm just saying, like, the idea of having. somebody that's capable of coming in and being in the rotation makes it that much more likely that if you don't perform that they could go that route. I mean, I'm not saying that's going to happen with Zach Gallen or Merrill Kelly, but there's a couple of other guys in the rotation there that maybe that becomes. That's fair. I mean, it's, yeah, it's kind of like Jay Jameson is sort of hovering over you. Like he's not, he's not hiding in AAA. He is right there. He's just circling over you. And if you, if you screw up,

That man is still stretched out and ready to take your spot. He is ready. He's got fire in his blood at all times. All right, what else we got? Tyler Hall at T-Baseballer 3 on Twitter asks. Will McCarthy have another solid season or will he regress? He's had a difficult spring. Great question.

We actually are wondering the same thing ourselves. I mean, honestly, really, when it comes down to it, again, there is a lot of options for this team. And much like what we were just saying with Dre Jamison, And nobody's guaranteed a spot right now. So if anybody struggles, especially guys that have options left, they could always be sent back down and replaced because the Diamondbacks do have a surplus of left-handed hitting outfielders right now

that they could call upon should somebody struggle. Yeah, yeah, they do. It'll be interesting to see where the Diamondbacks ultimately go. I'm not sure exactly how things will pan out. But can we pull up the question one more time? There it is. Okay. So I think that McCarthy is probably going to be, I know we talked about X factors a little bit on the show last week. And McCarthy was kind of like my one B behind Catelle Marte as my primary X factor for this baseball team. Just because Catell is like the guy that you've seen it in the past and he's done it for long stretches of time. And we know how good he can be compared to the player that he was last year. Jake McCarthy, on the other hand, last season. was pretty darn good, Derek. Like in the second half, there were not many players better

or more fun to watch than Jake McCarthy was in the second half. So he's kind of an X factor for me for this Diamondbacks team in 2023 just because I think I would like to believe that he can be that player over the course of a full season. But we've talked about it a lot. If you look at the underlying numbers with his batted ball data and whatnot, it appears that Jake McCarthy was pretty fortunate. to finish the year the way that he did.

Not to say that he can't do it again. I just think that he still has some things to prove. That's all I will say. And he has had since returning from an illness, which appears to have most likely been COVID, although the Diamondbacks were never, of course, able to say that. After returning from that illness, Jake has shown some encouraging signs.

He had a good day at the plate in the game yesterday, had a big hit in the game a few days ago, his first game back. So yeah, I think that Jake McCarthy is going to be a big player for this team. If he is anything like what we saw last year, that unlocks a lot of different things for this Diamondbacks team. There's a lot of guys that deserve the credit that they get for what they did in spring training, but it's still a clean slate once this season starts, right?

So it's like even some of the stuff we've seen so far out of guys like Zach Gallen, that might be a little bit concerning, still have the. caveat of happening during spring training and not really knowing what the purpose of their outing was. It definitely wasn't to win a ball game, right? So things will change and I think we should reserve all panic

trying to be reasonable learning from this guy. Reserve all panic. Reserve all panic for at least after the first 10 days. Can we wait until after the first 10 days before panic? They will have played the Dodgers like nine eight times after those 10 days but anyway. All right

what else we got, Damon? Gabby dearth at the underscore real underscore Gabby asks, assuming it's mailbag Monday. It's always, you know, you know what day it is. It is mailbag Monday. How we feeling about Cotel Marte, kind of make it or break it here? I don't know. What are your thoughts, Jesse? Sort of.

Kind of. It really seems like it. I mean, he was my X factor for a reason. I think Cotel is a really big part of this Diamondbacks team, or at least he should be a really big part of this Diamondbacks team. He was someone that Mike Hazen talked about over the off season as being, you know, like, where does the ceiling for this team come from? Cotel Marte is one of those guys. If he turns in the kind of year that we saw in 2019 or to a lesser extent in 2021 when he was hurt kind of a lot,

he can be really, really good at this, this baseball thing. And didn't have an outstanding spring training. I wouldn't say I'm too concerned about that, but it also didn't really convince me that Kattel is a different player than the player that he was last year. We've seen some better things from him defensively. But yeah, I still have some questions about Ketel and what this year will ultimately look like. Make or break it year.

I don't know if I would quite go that far, but the Diamondbacks did sign Ketel to an extension. And that extension officially kicks in, I believe, in 2025. So there's still, I mean, it's still kind of out there in the distance. sort of, and you'd like to see Catelle's show that he can be the kind of player that he was, you know, in 2019 and 2021 when he was really at his best. He hasn't really been that guy of late. All right. Last question for this segment of the baseball related questions.

And we'll get to all the wrestling related ones. Elizabeth at the Beretosaur asks, boldest non-Dbac's predictions for this season. Hmm. Hmm. I got one for you. What do you got? I think injuries are going to completely change. the landscape of major league baseball just in general just in general I don't know why that is I just

feel like what we've already seen out of the world baseball classic and spring training is just a taste out of what we're going to get now I'm still interested like for me I also think that how the Dodgers if the Dodgers are still as good as they've been without making major improvements to their lineup yeah I will be upset I will I will I will throw things like Jesse said earlier about the roof not being open at Chase Field tonight. I will be upset if the Dodgers can still be as good as they've been with, you know, again, losing some pieces and just kind of calling up guys and making, you know, a few moves. It's not like they didn't do anything, but that's just so huge for us in this

division. The Diamondbacks are going to get tested with that right away. So I'm not, again, I'm going to reserve panicking about anything for a little bit, but I'm just so interested to see how the Diamondbacks stack up to the Dodgers in these first eight games that they play against each other over the first two weeks of the season. Yeah. I'm going to go out there and say that, and I feel like I fell for the same thing last year and I kind of looked dumb for doing it, but I'm going to do it again, Derek. I think the Los Angeles Angels are going to win 85 plus games. You idiot. All right? You're just such a stupid, stupid person. I was going to go out there and say that I thought that they were going to make the playoffs because that would, that would truly be a bold

prediction. I don't know if I can, I don't know if I can in good conscience actually say that. But Anthony Rendon has had a really, really good spring. He's kind of been the guy who's been missing for the Angels a little bit. He just ever since signing that big deal with them is not really been a very useful player, frankly. If he comes around and becomes the Anthony Rendon from a few years ago, and you couple that with Otani and Trout, and then they made some other nice additions to that lineup, Brandon Drury's over there now. And I like their starting her. rotation a little bit more, more than I have in the past. Tyler Anderson was a big pickup for them over the off season.

Sneaky, sneaky underrated move. Tyler Anderson was very, very good for the Dodgers. Just the Mariners and the Astros are still in that division and the American League East is still stacked. So I don't know if I can quite go play off stare. But I think the Angels are going to be a pretty darn good baseball team and a lot of fun to watch for the first time and a while. So there you go. There's my bold prediction. Show Hey Otani is always fun to watch.

So you're at least going to get that quite often. That's true. That's true. All right. Well, we thank you guys, of course, for your questions. And I hope to see you guys out at the Footprint Center tonight on your way out there. Make sure to stop by our friends at Circle K. Let's get this guy turned around here. I got a little Circle K logo there.

Stock up for Monday Night Raw at Circle K. Polar Pop, stay cold longer. You can get your iced coffee. I know some of you are coming off of work just like us. Got to get some energy in you. Red Bull, 12 ounces. three for $8 or two for $575, 12-ounce monsters, two for $4.50, three for $6. So stop by, fuel your car up, fuel yourself up, make sure you're not missing out on all the great stuff and be stocked on all March Madness long.

Head to circlek.com slash store locator, that's circlek.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. You know they're all over the valley. And while you're there, make sure to pick up some Four Peaks beer, Four Peaks, Local Company, Best Beer, Best Beer, wide variety of beers. And of course, their A Street pub is an absolute blast to stop by and have some chicken tendees, have some beers, and enjoy all that they have to offer. They have their spring training tours still throughout the month of March, as well as their events calendar over at 4Peaks.com slash events for all your beer week needs. We've been talking about it, but of course, you can join us on April 27th for the NFL draft. The Cardinals have a new coach,

new GM, and the third pick in the draft. So it's a big opportunity for Arizona. The best place to take in this pivotal moment and the rest of the NFL draft on April 27th is at Four Peaks 8th Street Pub. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Now, Jesse, you can go ahead and take this next segment off. All right. I don't know if you

just get up and leave. I don't know if you want to do that if you want to go get Max and bring Max in here to help me out. Is this your luchador your new co-hosts now? He's going to take over for you and he's going to just go ahead and talk into the mic for you. Let's go ahead and hit up those wrestling-related questions shall we, Damon? There's still some baseball.

hidden in here somewhere. There is still some baseball, but Don's Bread, of course, is not having any of that. Don's bread asks, rank the men in terms of how red their chest will be at the end of the match. These three men, Jesse, will be facing off at WrestleMania for the intercontinental championship. Gunther is a gigantic man, who I once saw pommel another gigantic man at Joey Janella's spring break, which happened to be a wrestling show that occurred at midnight, to the point where the man's chest was just black, just black from getting hit with a giant slap on his chest. So when you're talking about that in terms of ranking these men, Gunther obviously is first because he is going to pummel both of these guys to a T.

From that point, we all know that Seamus has no pigment to his skin at all. Everyone knows that about Shane's. Everybody knows that about. See, Jesse's getting it. So it's going to be Gunther, Drew, my friend, Drew McIntyre. We're like this, me and that guy. And then Seamus, who's like that with Drew? So there's your answer on that.

What else we got, Damon? We're going to speed around these things. Let's go. A better chance of being real. WrestleMania or Madbom having a bounce back year. Jesse, I'm going to let you handle this. WrestleMania being real or Madbom out of bounce back year. What do we mean exactly by WrestleMania being real?

It is real. It's a real thing. It is an actual thing. It generates millions and millions of dollars for local revenue in whatever. Is it real money? It's real money. It's not fake money. It's not W.W.E. dollars or anything like that. No, it's real, real money.

But what are your thoughts here? I mean, well, it is staged, though, right? Everything is staged. You have learned that recently. Yeah. Yes, the outcomes are predetermined. However. So in that sense.

However, however, if you're not real, if you're jumping, like, if you're jumping off of like a scaffolding onto another man, how unreal is that? Is there a way to fake that? Is there a way to fake getting hit by a steel chair, Jesse, in your back? I don't know. I mean, maybe, but I take it. That's not exactly what they're planning on doing. It's not exactly.

But, all right. So what's your answer here? I mean, so I guess the other option is the Madison Bumgoner bounce back here. So that is a little bit, a little bit hard to believe. So it's not, yeah, I mean, it's not impossible. But I would say, WrestleMania, as silly as it is, I think it's, it's. a little bit more real. What else we got, Damon?

All right. Kyle Collins asked, who is the Pete Dunn of the DeBax Farm System Prospects? Great player getting buried behind others for whatever reason. Now, yes, Jesse, Pete Dunn, another delightful pro wrestler, has just this stupid gimmick that he's been

given. And now sometimes this happens with wrestlers. Sometimes instead of being allowed to be the cool, awesome, tough guy that we know, they put on like a newsy boy cap and make you into like a little angry kind of leprechaun character, which is what they've kind of done to him if you could. So who in the Diamondbacks organization is kind of getting buried by the fact that

that creative doesn't have anything for them at this time, right? Is it maybe a Dominic Canzone? Yeah, the Outfielder. The Dominics definitely come to mind. Especially as a tag team, incredible tag team, by the way, the Flying Dominers. I think that, yeah, I mean, like on a normal Major League. team that doesn't have eight left-handed hitting outfielders. Yeah, I think, I think Dominic Fletcher in particular, I don't know how much left he really

has to prove in Reno. Dominic Canzon, his numbers in Reno last year actually weren't quite as good. He did a lot of his damage in Amarillo last season. So I can maybe see that DeBak's wanting to send him back down there. But Fletcher, I'm not sure how much left he really has to prove. And now you've got Pavin Smith, of course, down there as well. You figure that Smith is probably going to get a call up before either Fletcher or Kanzone would. So, yeah.

I mean, they're just really buried. It's like they were standing in line and the line just got longer. The line did just get longer. Exactly. Oh, man. So, yeah. And I mean, the fact that they hit left handed anyway, just, it just makes it so that, you know, a lot of things would have to go wrong in the pig leagues for the debacks to really need

Kanzone or Fletcher at any point. So it's not to say that, you know, I don't, I don't know if Kanzone or Fletcher are going to be, you know, everyday big leaguers. I'm not sure exactly what the future holds for them. But that is at least a possible outcome. And they're good enough that, you know, most major league teams would probably be able to find room for them before the diamond backs probably will.

Michael asks, are you going to raw so I can sting if you, Derek? Yes, but my seats are pretty good. So I don't know, I don't know if I'm going to earn that sting gift. I'm also going to be there with Max, marketing Max, my God. So come say hi if you guys are at the show tonight. Can we call him Marketing Max now? That's what we, well, I mean, he wants me to call him maximum velocity, but I refuse to do that. I refuse to do that.

Yeah, that's not going to happen. What else we got, Damon? No, we already got that one. That one looks familiar. Yeah, Alberto Delgado Jr. asks, who's winning Cody Rhodes or Roman Reigns? Jesse, I want to explain this to you. Roman Raines has been the WW champion for like three years. Okay.

Which is something they just didn't do. This guy has been not only the champion of, they have two belts, one for each show, Ron Smackdown. He's both champions and has been for a long, long time. He's a dominant champion. He's to the point, he's like a, it's like if the Dodgers were actually as good against the rest of baseball in the playoffs as they are against the NL West, that's kind of what he would be, right? But they're not because we know how they fold in the playoffs. But Cody Rhodes, a great guy, absolutely outstanding individual, helped start a completely different wrestling company, AEW, that exists, and now jump ship over here just so that he could prove that he's

one of the best in the world. And I am choosing Cody Rhodes. Yeah, that's my choice too. He's a very underdog kind of character, but he went from undesirable to undeniable, which is kind of one of his catchphrases, right? And he's also part of a pretty prestigious wrestling family. So it's going to be an outstanding event. Two nights, though. I think that for me, for anything, I don't, Like, it's not a baseball series. What's next? Three nights for WrestleMania? Come on.

Like, I can't take all of that action over that long of a period of time. But they've found a way to make it a big event. And it's going to be happening while you're in L.A. So I hope that you go, you're going to go check out WrestleMania. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. You've been very agreeable today, and it's kind of scary. Saul doesn't know it yet.

But, yeah, he's sending me to L.A. to cover opening day weekend. I might go on opening. on opening night. But the rest of the weekend, I'm going to be at WrestleMania, of course. This is why they didn't send me, isn't it? It's fine. I can take it. I'm a big boy.

Anyway, we thank you guys again so much for your questions. You guys are awesome. And we are just thrilled for opening week. I mean, this is just a big week for us. And the Diamondbacks, obviously, there's a lot of questions surrounding this team. I don't know how positive we're going to be after the first week. But I think after. I think after.

going to go out and say that already there? I'm just going to say that the month of April is not easy, but the Donobbacks definitely have a lot of tests early on. And I honestly, I'm very excited. Like I talk about a matchup at WrestleMania. The matchup between the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers right now is really my premium matchup. It's my marquee matchup. Because, I mean, the complexion of this season could completely change if the Diamondbacks come out and have a strong showing against the Dodgers. Yeah. They have eight games, which is just a ton of to prove that, right? More than we know what to do with, but of course, make sure that you check out our friends at More Furniture. What you need for your home is a new recliner just in time

for opening day, maybe that new sectional. Again, this guy still trying to fill out his townhouse, which I have to say correctly. And again, make sure if you do go to morefurniture.com, check out the fine variety of furniture that they have to offer. You check out their white glove delivery service. Make sure you get that brought to your house. Without you having to lift a finger, save big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture.com. And of course, a big shout out to Mountain Mike, who still likes to bring me pineapple on my pizza for some reason. Like, so, you know, I just, I really, I really don't understand this game that we're playing now. But.

Wait, so like, regardless of what you order, he puts pineapple on it? Is that what you're saying? He basically, it's a fun game where he knows that I just like. hot pineapple so he makes sure to always include a pineapple pizza in our order. And I mean, it's for free. So I'm not complaining about it, but I am complaining about it. It just sounds like you're complaining about it. I am.

So anyway, they have all sorts of wonderful pizzas to offer, not to mention that they have an incredible lunch buffet that Jesse and I stuffed our faces at during, I think it was, was that the, the Arizona Fallie. Fall League, Home Render. So make sure to check out their locations all over the valley. You can find them in Mesa. Chandler or even Tucson that plays down south.

And make sure to tell them that Derek doesn't like pineapple on his pizza. But big shout out to Mike. And you guys head over to Mount Mike's Pizza.com or to any of those locations to place your next order. Reminder, if you're a new Die Hard, you get a $50 voucher upon signing up. So make sure to not miss out on that deal. We thank you guys so much for joining us today here in the chat. Keep an eye on our new schedule because we are going to be all over the place. But this week, keep it dialed in because we are going to have some postgame shows for you after the first couple of games.

Jesse is going to be coming to us live from Los Angeles with updates from the Diamondbacks versus those Dodgers. We are off tomorrow, but we'll be back at Wednesday just to get hyped up for opening day on Thursday. We'll be back at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and then we'll have postgame shows the rest of the week. We are off Saturday, but we will be back on Sunday to cover the series, four game series with the Dodgers. So make sure we're also at four peaks on Wednesday. That's right. We'll be at four peaks. If you want to come hang out with us in person, you should.

Take a brewery tour while you're there and visit the ghosts and see as they make the beers. That's what we're going to do. We're going to finally iron out whether the ghosts make the beer or not. We're going to see if one of the ghosts is available to come on the show that day. They tend to be pretty booked up. So our request is still pending right now. That's such a good idea.

All right. Well, we'll have to figure that out. But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with the K. This guy is at Jesse N. Friedman. Damon Dogg is at Damon Dogg D-A-W-G. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads

leads to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Appreciate you guys stopping by. Thank you so much. On behalf of Damon, Jesse, myself, we always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun on opening day.