PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Should we be concerned about Eduardo Rodriguez after another poor spring performance?

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

After two starts, Diamondbacks newest addition Eduardo Rodriguez has a 15.75 ERA in four innings of work. We have more on if it’s time to panic yet and updates from today’s spring training game. We also have your answers to a packed a Mailbag Monday!SUBSCRIBE 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 http://www.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. Someburros: 20% off your order of up to $100 when you use code PHNX at checkout for the whole month of March at https://www.someburros.com/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.

Happy Monday to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Deepax podcast right on PHNX. Bang. All right. The drum solo goes crazy. Of course, I and your mayor of PhafmX Cately. As Derek Montia, this fan next to me is my vice mayor, occasionally known as your thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. We were out there today for another wonderful, beautiful spring training game.

Happy birthday, by the way, to our friends at CHGO. We spent the day in honor of your birthday watching your Chicago. White Sox. We know that's your favorite team up there. They're the biggest team in Chicago. They are the darling of that city for sure. But we definitely have more information on the Diamondback signing of Elvis Andrus. And obviously we have a bit more of a discussion on Eduardo Rodriguez and if it's time to panic about his spring training outings. But before we get to that, we did have updates from today.

And we have good news. The good news is Cotell Marte is absolutely raking. The man's bat feeds family. And so far, it has done that this spring. Kattel is hitting over 600. He's hitting 600 right now with a 1.534 OPS so far this spring. And he just looks very comfortable. He looks very nonchalant.

He also absolutely cruised down the first baseline on a walk. He did. He did. It was great. It's great to see the speed is back when he walks, for sure. But Kattel talked about feeling great today. We have some more from him here on how he felt. and kind of how they were just playing baseball in the World Series

like two months ago, and then he's just still in the groove. No, nothing different. We just finished the World Series like two months, three months ago. My body feels great. I'm healthy right now, so nothing surprised me out there. I'm in my offense. And then we're working hard to be that kind of play now. He nothing is surprising him out there that's for sure yeah I mean Catelle Cotell went one for two today and his batting average went down so he is now only hitting 600 in the Cactus League or something like that yeah he's been he's been really locked in since I mean since Cactus League play began and again we're not really reading into these results too much we're going to overreact to everything today positively and negatively that's the way this works it's spring training a really big part of Catell's game is

is health and whether whether his body is in, you know, in good shape and whether the hamstring is good and all that stuff. And it appears to be you, you heard him say there that he's feeling healthy. And yeah, he looks just as locked in as a few months ago when he was when he was the NLCS MVP. And Jase Peterson talked about that because he brought it up twice today in the clubhouse. And he talked about how you're literally working on your health in a way because it's the most important thing. You can't get injured or you can't miss time during this period of time. You also tend to want to do more, right? Especially if you're a guy that is fighting for a position,

fighting for playing time at this point, right? You want to try to impress. But at the same time, all these guys, pitchers aren't the only ones that have to ramp up. All these guys have to kind of ramp up. So I feel like a careful balance is holding yourself back a bit and making sure that you stay healthy and you get your body just slowly. ready for this 162 game season. Kutel brought that.

That's the first thing he said was 162 games. You know, it's a long season. And, you know, right now, the results really don't matter. We don't really care too much about Eduardo Rodriguez and his 15.75 ERA. But it's still something, you know, that some of these guys do have to worry about. Obviously, when it comes to the starting rotation, there is still that spot that Tommy Henry, Ryan Nelson, and other guys are competing. for so there there is something for them to be playing for and to be coming out every day.

Tommy Henry wasn't great today. He wasn't really helped by Jock Peterson's defense in the outfield very much. But Tommy Henry basically said that he was having trouble with his fastball command. Yeah, it wasn't a great outing for Tommy Henry. I think two and a third, six hits, three runs, a couple of walks in this game for him as well. Yeah, fastball command is kind of the. the primary thing that he pointed to Tori Lavello called this a grinder for him, which I think is a pretty appropriate way to describe it. And yeah, this doesn't mean that Tommy Henry is

now buried in the competition for the fifth star or anything. It's done. He's done. Yeah, it doesn't mean too, too much at this point. But it is a reminder that, you know, spring training is long and longer than it needs to be, according to many people. But it is long. And there's a lot, you know, there's still a lot more outings to come for him and for Ryan Nelson and Slate Cicconi and, you know, the other guys who were, who have a shot at this fifth starter spot. So, yeah, I don't think it was ever a done deal that the spot was Tommy Henry's. I still think he's the frontrunner even after today. But yeah, it wasn't a, it wasn't a great day for him overall. And this is more realistic, right? Like Tommy Henry is not going to go out there and shut out the opposition every time he pitches. And usually it's it's about consistency, right? It's this is this is why. Tommy Henry isn't up there right now as one of the best pitchers in the organization. Same thing with Brian Nelson and lots of guys. They can go out there and shove for a couple of games.

And then they kind of have a game like this and maybe a couple of games like this in some occasions. But it is important for Henry right now. And this is what he talked about a little bit about like obviously keeping things in perspective and, you know, just going out there and trying to work on essentially when you're not able to have that fastball command, work on finding it. throughout the course of the game and this is what he had to say about that. Not as good today as in previous outings, which I think is, you know, a partial lead to the result. I was in, you know, their favor of counts for the most part today. And, you know, it's a hard place to pitch from for the most part. You can get away with it sometimes, but if you're looking for consistent results,

you got to be ahead and we didn't do that today. Is that something that you can tell while you're out there what's causing it to go wrong or do you have to, you know, in the next few days break down the video and see what you're doing? differently? No, for the most part, I mean, you're aiming to self-correct out there because you want to correct it in between pitches as soon as you can. So, you know, I kind of worked down my checklist of different cues that I've been working on based off of the fields and the results. You know, I'm looking for all that feedback. And so, you know, you're going down that checklist trying to make the correct adjustment in between pitches, so you're back on track. How did that process go today?

Do you feel better as you went along? Yeah, the fastball command I felt like was better as it went I don't think it was as good as it has been, you know, in the weeks previous. But, you know, it started to trend better towards the end of the outing. And, you know, I'll take that as a win. Now, he didn't start today. Brandon Fott got the start today. Is there anything? And Brian Nelson isn't starting either.

It seems like Henry and Nelson. Brian Nelson is starting tomorrow, I believe. So he's still in there. But, yeah, I wouldn't read into Tommy Henry pitching on back of Brandon Fott. It's just at this point, the diamond backs have two. many guys to be able to, you know, cycle through everyone and keep them on their normal rest. So it's just kind of necessary to bring somebody in back of someone else and Tommy Henry's that guy. What were your thoughts on Brandon Fatt today?

He was all right. I thought he looked better than the last time. Last week and good year, he made his cactus league debut and looked a little rusty, which again is not something I'd be concerned about. Today, he was better. He was landing a sweeper in the zone a little bit, got some called strikes, a little bit of swing and miss. Yeah, I thought it was a step in the right direction, neither very good nor very bad. You asked him about his change-up.

I did, yeah, I think Fott's change-up is really important. This is something that Tori Lavello had mentioned at the beginning of camp as being kind of an off-season focal point for Brandon Fott, trying to get that pitch to be more consistent. We all know about the sweeper and the incredible out pitch that that has been for him, especially in the playoffs. It was outrageous. But in the playoffs, you also saw his change up at times.

You saw his change up be really effective, especially against the Phillies, some of their left-handed hitters. Especially the aggressive nature of those hitters. And like in the playoffs, I felt like his stuff really played well against batters that are like anxious. You know, like they're out there trying to make something happen. The Phillies have a few of those. Yeah, right. And so like that felt like why it worked especially well for him. but he also talked about how that change-up is necessary to set up that slider. And this is what he had to say today about the change-up.

Yeah, it's good. That was a focal point last year and this off-season, just kind of being consistent with the slider and helping out the slider. And I think that's like the key pitch to both righty and lefties for that slider to be more effective. And that's what we thought. And that's what we worked on. And it felt good today.

I mean, that change up could be really useful to his arsenal and especially, like he said, setting up those other pitches. Yeah, sweepers are really good outpitches to Ritees, like really, really good in some cases. And I think Fawthes is already outstanding against Ritees. But having another outpitch against lefties is really important. So that's why I think the change, like if Brandon Fott is going to become like a number two starter, if he's going to take another leap forward, I think it's going to have to be because his change. up just became a more consistent, more effective pitch.

I want to say he seems different in camp this year, but he doesn't because this is how Brandon Fott is. Like the first, my first impression of him was that he was a guy that has been doing this for a very long time. And then, you know, especially once we got into the playoffs, we started talking to his family and people that have known him, they've just said he's always been like this. He's always been very calm under pressure. He's always been able to just kind of kind of be this way.

but it's just it does feel very interesting as far as fought's position this year versus fought's position last year, right? So like he was, I mean, he wasn't even like a Tommy Henry or Ryan Nelson that was like fighting for a spot. He was more like one of these guys that, you know, like he was like allegedly fighting for a spot. Right. I'm pretty sure he could have thrown four like no hitters and it wouldn't have, it wouldn't have mattered at the end of the day. But he wound up getting his opportunity before too long. Speaking of getting an opportunity, Jock Peterson got an opportunity today out there in left field. And I'm not sure if I ever want to see him out there again. Yeah, we've heard, you know, Jock talked up Dave McKay and called him the goat of base running and outfield coaches,

which I think is pretty fair from everything that I've heard. But, you know, at the end of the day, Jock Peterson being an effective outfielder, is not just all about Dave McKay, it's not just all about the technique that he can learn. At the end of the day, it takes a certain amount of athleticism to be a good, even corner outfielder in this league. Honestly. And it doesn't look, it was only like a few plays today. He did make one nice play.

I sense that he made it look a little more difficult than it might have looked for other guys. But yeah, there was one ball that popped in and out of his glove. There was another where he made, he made a diving attempt and he wound up kind of kicking the ball. So yeah, it didn't look great. And I am not so sure that he has the athleticism needed to be an even average corner outfielder. That's it's the wild thing about it is it's no knock to him personally because we saw it all over the place today. We saw Andres Chaparro hit a home run and then all of a sudden have a problem on like kind of a screaming grounder that wasn't an error by any stretch of the imagination. a ball that you would normally see Christian Walker effortlessly grab.

And maybe I'm maybe I'm giving Christian Walker too much credit there. It just. That's hard to do. Well, when you see when you see guys like struggle with like a screaming line drive or something like that and then you realize how easy someone like Walker or Ketel make it look to just. Yeah, especially Walker. I mean, smoothly pick it up.

If you're once you've watched Christian Walker play first base for like a decent number of games, Your eyes eventually adjust and you just expect like an exceptional performance level from all first baseman. Right. And that's just not like not everyone can live up to that bar. We've immediately seen that when they've like had Emmanuel Rivera playing over there. All of a sudden you're like, wait, hold on. That's a hard play to make. I thought that was easy.

Christian Walker makes that look easy. Right. But again, Jock's not here for his left field, you know, play. That's not what he's here for. Yeah. He's a good thing. He is not. He's here for the vibes.

That's what he's here for. And his vibes, the vibes are immaculate at spring trading because Jock has been driving his Tesla cyber truck. Yeah, this bad boy, he's been bringing this guy to camp. That's an alpha move. I saw it in the parking lot at Camelback Ranch today.

It is real. He's like, it's there. It's real. This is a Tesla? It is a Tesla. I believe these costs like a lot, like 300 grand or something like that.

God, I hope he didn't spend that kind of. money on this. I really hope he didn't, but maybe he did. Can I just say that if cars really look like this in the future, like if this is like your average looking car? Yeah. I'm going to be sad. Like that it doesn't, I don't know. I don't like it looks. It looks exactly like what someone that grew up in the 90s at 10 years old would make into a futuristic looking truck. Yeah, right. It's kind of like it comes out a demolition man or one of those kind of quirky sci-fi movies from the early 90s or late 80s.

And yeah, I don't know. It's like a military vehicle or something. It's what's wild is. I remember someone like I think the, it's supposed to be bulletproof glass and like they hit it at a demonstration with like a baseball bat. It's supposed to really bulletproof glass? Like why do we need that? He has children.

He has to protect them. That's, that's a silly question, Jesse. But Tori had his thoughts on Jock's cyber truck. And this is what Tori had to say about it. Yeah, it looked like it was a futuristic car. I was behind it the other day. where were we? In Anaheim, I'm like, who, what is that car

and who's going to get out of it? And it was Jock. It's beautiful. Did that surprise you that was Jock? No. Not at a hoverboard at a cyber truck. Yeah, yeah. He said it's, the thing's unbelievable.

So I've never seen him before. Jock hops out of that. He hops right onto a hoverboard. Yeah. And he just futures his way right into the clubhouse. That's incredible. They made allowing it to bring the hoverboard into left fields. Might help, you know.

Now we're talking. Maybe I do want to see jock in left field a little bit. I don't know. Let them ride the hoverboard in left field. Well, as much fun as we're having with our most recent free agent, well, not most recent because we just signed Elvis Andrews today or this weekend. But Matt Chapman signed a late night deal with the San Francisco Giants. Three years, $54 million with opt-outs after 2024 and 2025 in a mutual option for a fourth year.

Not great. Jesse, not happy about that. The Giants already look like they were coming together. They've already made some key additions that are going to make them a much improved team from last year. And now it really does feel like this is kind of putting them over the edge a little bit as a playoff contender. Yeah, we'll see.

I mean, I still don't look at the Giants and think their roster screams 90 wins or anything like that. But it makes them more interesting for sure. Matt Chapman is an excellent defender at third base. He just won another gold glove. he had a very uneven year offensively where he was like the best hitter on the planet in April and then he didn't really hit much the rest of the season but still kind of continue to hit the ball very hard.

So yeah, he's an interesting player. I think he's kind of a funny fit with the Giants because first of all, it's not exactly a great place to get right offensively, that ballpark, not great for hitters. That's true. And I also think it's kind of funny that like the, I don't know, the Giants prototype like seems to be guys who hit like their slats. line is like 233, 25, 420. Like that like, it feels like every player who's played for the Giants in the last five years was like right around those numbers.

And that's like exactly where Matt Chapman was last year. So, but he does how his ceiling is higher than, you know, a Michael Conforto or, you know, a Mike Estremski at this point. He really can be a good player. Is this less than you thought you would see him get? It's like it's less both in years and a dollar amount. Yeah, I think Scott Boris took another out, Derek. This is not what I had anticipated for Matt Chapman. Yeah, well, it's still a lot of money.

$20 million in 2024, then 18 and 25 and 16. He has the opt-outs. So I guess the idea is that if he comes out and has a really good year where he's good offensively for a longer period of time, then he can just opt out and then hit the market again next off season. But even in, I mean, even with the opt-outs, So this is still, I mean, a $54 million guarantee for Matt Chapman is, is about half of honestly what I, what I expected it to be.

I also think it's interesting. He was worth 3.5 wins above replacement last year on fan graphs. You know what Aohenio Hsuarez was worth? 3.2. Very, very similar. Granted, a lot of that is because Suarez's OAA numbers last year were really, really good. A lot of that value actually came from his defense.

Yeah, maybe they're not so different in, in 2024. Giants did save some money there. I feel like, but they lose their number 54 draft pick. Is that right? Why is that? Yeah. Yeah, it's because of the qualifying offer thing.

He was offered the qualifying offer. And so, you know, whatever team signs and loses, forfeits a draft pick as a result. And you can only do that once so that the Giants wouldn't be able to do that again if he were to opt out. So they're going to lose this draft pick

and they're not going to be able to get it back when, you know, whenever this deal does end. Well, that's not the only addition the Giants are making because according to rumors, according to reports, Madison Bumgardner wants to make a comeback. I did see that today. Yeah. I did come across that in my Twitter feed.

For the Giants. Was this specifically for the Giants? I don't care. I wanted to happen for the Giants. I specifically wanted to happen for the Giants. I mean, they just signed Pablo Sondival, right? So, I mean, we might as well go full on back to 2014. Maybe Buster Posey wants to come out of retirement.

He could also have a reunion with Nick Ahmed, who's part of the San Francisco Giants. It could end up being there every day shortstop as we talked in the past. But according to a recent story from Bob Nightingale, Nick Ahmed, he is not too happy with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He in fact said in the article that he could not bring himself to watch a single pitch of the Diamondbacks play. off run with the way that things ended. And I just want to say that's very relatable to me. Like I like, I know that a lot of people probably hear that and it sounds petty or it sounds some kind of way.

I probably wouldn't have been able to do that either. Like, that's just, that's hard. Yeah. That's a hard thing to stomach to watch the team you were on go off and have an incredible run in the playoffs and and make it all the way to the World Series. I can understand that. Yeah, if I mean, if I were Nick Omit, I'd probably have wanted no part of watching.

I mean, it doesn't even matter so much that the Diamondbacks were the team that got there. Like if, you know, if I'm a guy who just got cut from my team and I'm kind of trying to figure out what's next. I don't know how much I really want to watch,

like, you know, the full MLB postseason at that point. But, yeah, I mean, you know, looking at some of the quotes here from Nick Amman. This is a good story from our friend Bob Nightingale over at USA Today. Ahmed said, I was just trying to distance myself with it. You build a bond in a relationship with a lot of people, but there's hard feelings, obviously,

towards the organization, how things ended. I mean, he just came out and said that there are hard feelings. And it seems like he wasn't so happy with the lack of communication through that process. He said that he felt he was blindsided. He wasn't expecting this to happen. And his family was actually flying to Chicago when he got this. news ready to meet him there. That was heartbreaking.

So the timing there was pretty terrible. They had to like turned back around in the airport and come back to Phoenix. Like yeah. There's a lot of things about this that sucks. And, you know, of course he said he felt blindsided. But as some people have pointed out with the way that the organization was going, it wasn't like they were shying away from making these kind of tough decisions. So I mean, I don't know what kind of communication there could be.

But it would seem kind of like a threat to come to you. and tell you like ship up or shape up or ship out kind of thing? Yeah, I don't have a great understanding of like how these situations are normally handled. But it, yeah, it doesn't feel like you should be giving players like tons of notice if they're about to get cut or like, you know, if you don't, you know, if you don't pick things up where, you know, I don't really think that that would serve players well to kind of threaten them in that way. So yeah, I feel like at least part of this is is Nick Ahmed maybe not being fully aware of the situation and the reality that he he really wasn't performing well especially against left-handed

pitching which is really the thing that he was you know kind of his primary task last year how could you not be aware of that yeah you're hitting 212 there there's some validity to that for sure he had no plate discipline last year he lost all ability to discern off speed pitches with two strikes i mean i and i just don't know for the guy with with the playoff run and you know he was here for so long but I just don't know how much opportunity he's reasonably supposed to be given when he's the longest 10-year player in the history of the organization. Yeah. And he's not close to the best player in the history of the organization. I think that's part of it.

He's gotten every opportunity. It's like any job, right? The longer you stay at a job, the longer you think you're kind of going to be there forever and you forget that at any point. Sure. You know, you could be replaced at any point. They could move on from you. You know, like you just, you do feel comfortable because it's, it's, it's, you know, It's the place you call home.

I don't know how he would have reacted to, like, essentially being benched and riding the pine throughout most of the postseason behind Eraldo Perdomo and how that would have impacted things. And I mean, he might have just been as equally unhappy doing that, but it would have been different because I think you're still on the team. You still feel like you contribute. It sucks that it ended this way. And it sucks that he feels this way.

It really does. It sucks because, like you said, Damon, he's the longest. tenured diamond bag, right? I mean, he's definitely a guy that, you know, I mean, you wanted things to end better with, but unfortunately, that's the business side of things. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, to be totally fair to Nick, I mean, you, I think it is valid to view the decision the diamondbacks made as a mistake, frankly. Jordan Lawler came up and really struggled. I mean, his, his bats were not good. He did not look ready. The diamondbacks were clearly not comfortable playing him really in any capacity in the postseason, whereas, you know, I'm not saying that Nick Ahmed would be like

pinch hitting for a big and bad in the eighth inning or anything if he had still been with the team. But I think the team at least would have been comfortable, you know, if he were subbed in defensively or whatnot, whereas they really weren't comfortable with Jordan Lawler in really any situation in the playoffs. So I think it was probably, you know, arguably a mistake that the diamond backs made. Yeah. They've really talked up the experience that Jordan Lawler got through that. And I understand that perspective. But there's also a flip side. side where you kind of shake a young player's confidence a little bit when you bring them up and they're not really ready for it.

And again, you have no idea how much Nick's, you know, experience could have helped them off the bench or in certain situations where Jordan Lawler did not find success, right? He just was not very good at the plate. So, uh, but again, it sucks. It all sucks. It's unfortunate. Uh, but we move on. And now Nick Ahmed, uh, it's fitting because it feels very much, uh, like he is.

against us and he is literally against us now as a member of the San Francisco Giants. So it's going to be a crazy year. In that National League West, it's crazy to think that, you know, the Padres have somehow sunk down to being one of the worst teams in the NL West and they're really still not, right? Like, this division's going to be insane this season. And I'm not thrilled about how much better the Giants got. Obviously, none of us were thrilled about how much better the Dodgers got, but the Giants definitely. got substantially better this offseason. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, there's the Dodgers, and then there's the three teams clustered in the middle, and then there's the Rockies at the bottom. So, yeah, calling the Padres, like one of the worst teams in the NOS. It almost like doesn't do justice, like how poor the Colorado Rockies are. Yeah, that's fair.

You can't love it. You're giving the Rockies too much credit by calling the Padres one of the worst teams in the National League ones. Yeah, that's what we do around. Well, we thank you guys for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, what are you waiting for? Do it right now.

Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. Shane's back. That's exciting. So who knows where Shane's going to pop up around these parts. Make sure to get down on bets. Damon finally gets to nap. David finally gets some time off.

It's going to be great. You drink a peanut colada like Derek and the ballroom. A little rum floater on top. A little rum floater on the bottom. bottom for sure. Of course, if you drop us a like, you know, we always appreciate that. And if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we love our listeners. Make sure you're subscribed over there on your favorite audio podcasting app. And leave us a review. We always love that feedback. Unless you're Tim, who said I look like I'm 20 years older overnight, that's

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See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. I almost ran out of gas on the way over here, by the way. We had a long drive. I played that game sometimes. You know, that long? It's a long drive from Camelback Ranch. And, you know, my light came on, told me I need a guess. Probably wrote it out a little too long.

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on this show is still Black History Month on this show. Every month on this show is Women's History Month on this show. And every month on this podcast is Black Women's History Month. Every single week is Shark Week. Every single day is Earth Day. But, But on Mondays, on Mondays are special. On Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go to the mailbag. All right, let's get to everything in my mailbox. All right, let's get to it.

First question comes from Nathaniel kosher. Nathaniel asks, what are the odds of Elvis Andrus making the opening day roster? Jesse, talk to us about our newest member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. I think Elvis Andrus belongs in kind of the Evan Longoria, category of player for me where he's had a extended and very impressive major league career like not quite a hall of famer but the guy has 2,000 hits. I think he's like the active hits leader or something like that. That's true. And yeah, I mean, you know, you look at his 2023 numbers with the Chicago White Sox 251-304-358 was his slash line. He sold 12 bases, which is pretty impressive

to me now at 35 years old. Us old guys can get it done. Yeah. I don't. I don't. I don't. I guess so. Don't get it twisted. Us old guys can get it done. I'm impressed. But yeah, I think, you know, he certainly has plenty of shortstop experience. No shortage of shortstop experience for Elvis Andrews last year. He kind of split time at shortstop and second base. But his defensive metrics is short, we're still pretty decent.

And yeah, I mean, I didn't have him in my opening day roster projection yesterday. I updated it after the move. But I was tempted to. Like, I think it is, I would not at all. be surprised to see Elvis Andrews make the opening day roster as the backup shortstop. I'm going to need to see him in games. I'm going to need to see a little bit more before I, you know, make a final push in that direction.

But I mean, the Diamondbacks clearly made this move because they want another option in this backup shortstop race. And on paper, I think his case is as compelling as anyone else's. He's the vet that they have essentially going for this, which they don't really have a veteran infielder right now that's kind of fighting for the time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Kevin Newman's been around for. a little while but yeah and not nearly as long as Elvis Andrews that's that's for sure all right well

here's what Tori had to say about the new addition to the Arizona Diamondbacks um to be honest with you it crossed my plate a couple days ago and when I was asked I just thought he was a very good player who's done at a high level and he's still some of the metrics and numbers that were looked at still says he's he can he's playing at that high level Jeff Bannister had a history with him With Texas, he's been on the big stage at the biggest moments and he's performed. And we're always looking to upgrade it in every position. And he's played a very good shortstop. So it's clear that he's here to go and show us what he could do, a shortstop and second base.

But we're just excited about the guy who happens to be really a baseball player. I know the knowledge doesn't happen through osmosis, right? It's not like you stick the veteran in the middle of all of the young, talented, athletic guys. and it just leaks into them. But, I mean, there's something to be said about, like, the knowledge passed on. I mean, we've even heard it from, like, Slade, who was talking about Merrill Kelly, showing him the grip. We've heard this from other guys that have said, like, being around Tommy Fam and being around Evan Longoria was a big help to them, right? And not just when it came to card collecting.

So I think there's something to be said about the experience that he can bring. But I know we're going to talk about it. But Tim and the chat says we want Blaze Alexander. And I think with the way Blaze has been playing, he definitely makes a compelling case for, you know, for that backup role. Yeah, the case for for Blaz is compelling, no doubt. We talked a lot about him on the show last week. The main hang up, I think, with Blaze Alexander is are the Diamondbacks willing to put him in a role in the majors where he's not playing every day? It's pretty clear that they're not willing to do that with Jordan Lawler.

They want him to play every day. and from what I've heard, it sounds like they have a pretty similar view on Blaze Alexander that they want him to play every day as well. I don't personally agree with that decision necessarily if that's indeed kind of how they're viewing things. I think at this point, Blaze is kind of shown what he's going to show in AAA

and he's had a great spring and he's a good defender. And I think he's, you know, if you're just asking me like who would be the best option for the diamondbacks in terms of like how I would expect them to perform, Blaise Alexander is maybe at the top of that list. If he's just in a role where he's facing lefties and backing up at some various infield positions, I like what he could bring there.

But if the D-Backs wanted to play every day, it's probably not going to be Blaze Alexander. This is a Blaze Alexander standcast, just to let you guys know. We are big fans of Blaze Alexander and think that he is going to be a very good Major League baseball player. I think that's the feeling with him where, like Jesse says,

I don't necessarily agree with leaving him in AAA either. because what are we doing anymore? I mean, it feels like he's been there forever. It feels like he's been in the system forever. And at this point, he's playing at a level that looks like he's ready to make that leap to the major leagues. And I think that what I fear is that he is becoming too much of an asset,

but they're not going to utilize him. So then he becomes part of some trade. And then, again, I keep talking about this. It's, you know, over and over. But we're going to see him just rake somewhere else, and it's going to be infuriating. He's going to become like this. It's going to become like jazz.

I mean, just Blaze Alexander. Just the name Blaze Alexander is like Jazz Chisholm. It's just one of those names. You know it's going to be a huge superstar. All right, we've talked about things that are nice enough. Let's panic. Let's go to the next question there, Damon. Next question comes from our guy Gabriel,

a boldest bronze on Twitter. And he says, at which point during spring training do we start to sound the alarms for certain underperforming guys? My initial reaction is never. my initial reaction is it's spring training my initial reaction is even if they have a slow start in the first couple of weeks of April I still don't want to overreact to anything good or bad but that's not really what I do what I really do at my core is overreact about everything all the time no matter what so yes I want to overreact about Eduardo Rodriguez's two starts

in which he has not looked very good I want to overreact about his 15.7 or whatever the hell it is. Yeah. 15.75 ERA. You know, he did have four strikeouts against the brewers. And I thought that that was pretty good. But I think for the most part, yeah, I think I understand people wanting to panic. I understand people wanting to see a guy come in here, be excited about him, have Jesse throw a curse on him and say he's just like Madison Bumgarner.

And then you start seeing it. Never once did I. Never once did I say that. Who do we blame this on? It's Jesse, right? And then I'm here going, yeah, it's absolutely Jesse. Let's get him. And that's where we might be at.

But not yet. Let's calm down. Of course, it is just spring. And I mean, the one thing is that the results don't matter for someone like Eduardo Rodriguez who really isn't fighting for a spot. It just you would like to see him perform better, obviously. Like everybody would like to see him perform better. and I think that there's some things he obviously can do to get himself, you know, ready.

That's what the purpose of spring is. But I don't think it's time to overreact just yet. Yeah, I would say I would lean toward never also being my answer to this. The entire spring training. Yeah, I just, so there are some things in spring training that I do think matter. And specifically with pitchers, I think it is easier to detect these things. If a pitcher in spring training is throwing, you know, five miles an hour slower than they did the year prior or something. That's a story. Like that, that is a, that is a development.

If their pitches are clearly not moving the way that they did or, you know, some kind of mechanical adjustment isn't working, there, there are, there are things that I pay attention to in spring training, uh, that I, you know, I think are important to look at. What we've seen from Eduardo Rodriguez, though, is not concerning to me, really at all. Uh, you know, the location hasn't hasn't been great so far in his two outings, but also like Brandon Fott's location wasn't very good today and neither was Tommy Henry. He's, you know, it's spring training. Like, these guys are still working to really find their groove in terms of their command

and, you know, just finding a rhythm on the mound and getting to the point where they want to be. I go back just like the question at large, like, at what point do you worry about spring training results? I go back to an example from last season. Ketel Marte had a fantastic season for the Diamondbacks. In spring training, he went six for 32 and had an OPS under six. Like spring training results just don't really matter.

There are certain things with pitchers that I do look at, but from what we've seen from Eduardo Rodriguez, the stuff looks fine, the Velo looks fine. I'm not really concerned at all about him right now. He threw, he's thrown all five of his pitches on against the, the brewers. And like you said, yeah, I mean, some of his fastball, his forcing fastball locations were fairly terrible. Yeah. And he's always been a guy where like if he throws fastballs right down the middle, bad

things are going to happen for Eduardo Rodriguez. He's not going to overpower you down the middle too. Yeah, like he really did. His location definitely was not great. And again, there is talk about you putting witchcraft on him. There's talk of me being the Steve Bartman of the Diamondbacks. That's what people are saying. Which is a wild accusation.

But yeah, no, I mean, of course, that's a big thing. No, it's not time to panic. It would be time to panic if the Diamondbacks were contemplating and signing Madison Boomgardner. Then it would be time to panic. They're in a great position right now. And of course, we'll see him. We'll see him get comfortable and get into a group, I think, for sure.

I'm fairly certain that the domino's table in the clubhouse is his, right? Is it? Yeah. There's an incredible Venezuelan domino table in the middle of the clubhouse. So I'm 90% sure it's his. All right. Let's go on to our next question. Next question comes from Coggs.

Cogs asks, Zach Wheeler just got extended three years, 126 million. If Zach Gallen did the same thing next off season, what do you think the numbers look like? Well, I got to say, Zach Wheeler has been very, very good for the Philadelphia Phillies in the postseason.

And that's something that I think, you know, obviously is a big reason why they signed him and extended them to that amount. But if this is what a Zach Gallen extension looks like, then give me this. Yeah, three years, 126 million. Wheeler got a $42 million A.AV, which is very, very high. But you can understand why. If you were to ask, you know, most like serious baseball analysts right now to list their top five starting pitchers in the

game, Zach Wheeler would probably be on that list. He has been extremely consistent. The deal that he signed with the Phillies, I think it was like five years, $118 million or something like that. He's coming to the end of that deal. That deal might be the best free agent contract for. a starting pitcher ever. I know it's still 20 million a year, but he has been, you know, one of the best few starting pitchers in the league over, over that span. So, yeah, I mean, in terms of, I think he and Zach Gallen are in pretty different points. Wheeler is at different points in their career. Wheeler is 34 years old. Zach Gallen will be 30 when, when he hits free agency. So I think with Gallen, the A.AV is probably a little bit lower, but you're talking about

significantly more years. You're probably talking about, you know, six or seven years. We just saw Aaron Nola do the 70 or 172 million dollar thing. Zach Gallen clearly has a better track record than Nola does. So yeah, I mean, it's probably six, seven years, and it's probably north of 30 million a year, and it's probably in the, well into the $200 million range. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why. That's why. It's double the amount. All right. What next question we got from Michael? Michael says, do we need to temper our expectations on Brandon Fott. I feel like people are expecting him to pitch like an ace because of last October, but I feel like the actual thought is somewhere between that and what he was during the

regular season, which I know is a very wide berth. And yeah, that's fair, I would say. I'd say that. You answered your own question, Michael, there, because what you said there, I'm sure, is how we feel like. Brandon Fott definitely, and that's the reason why it might feel like a little bit of a disappointment when he pitches, if he's not that guy, from the playoffs last year, which there's a good chance he's not going to be.

We talked earlier about how Fott did an excellent job at kind of using some of the aggressive hitting against him to his advantage. That's not, badders are going to be far more patient during the regular season. And of course, it all depends on if he can keep that up. Like, I don't expect to see, you know, Cotel Marte and Brandon Fott performing the way that did in the postseason. So I think that's going to be kind of a, you know, it's a little bit of a, let down, but it's still to be expected.

Like you said, the real Brandon Fott is a little bit in between where he was in the playoffs and some of what he was early on. Yeah, yeah. I think the middle ground is totally, totally where I would land here. I think even when Brandon Fought first came up, you know, the people who were high on him weren't necessarily saying front line starting pitcher, like Ace starting pitcher. That was a question I got in my written mail bag last month, you know, like how high is his ceiling?

could he really be an ace in this league? And I wouldn't close the door on, you know, maybe that being possible with some adjustments like we talked about earlier. But yeah, I think a mid-rotation starter, you know, a guy who is durable, who can give you 180 plus innings. Like I think that could be Brandon Fott's greatest asset, just being able to go out there and eat innings. And, you know, have those innings be pretty good.

Like, you know, he had a 4-2-E-R-A and the second half of the season. He continued that success into the post-season. there's a ton of value to be had in a guy who's close to 200 innings and ERA right around four. Maybe it gets down into the mid-3s at some point. I think that could be within the realm of his talent level as well. I think what's key for Brandon Fodd is, again, they've talked about how coachable he is and how willing he is to listen to someone like Brent Strom. Now, Brent Strom's not going to be his pitching coach forever, but I do feel like the adjustments

are going to continue to need to be made. And the way that his adjustments helped him find that success last year, I think is going to be key. You know, he's going to still need to continue to develop. Still a young guy, we still don't know his true, you know, identity. But we just know that he has a hell of a sweeper. We know that if he could get that change up working, he could be pitching like a number two starter for sure. And, I mean, he's going to be a valuable piece of the Diamondbacks rotation, probably for years to come. I mean, I would see them more likely extending Brandon Fott than I would see them.

extending Zach Allen at this point. That's unfortunate, but I feel like that's, you know, probably a little more accurate. All right. What else we got? Oh, no. Thunderbolt 47 is here. Oh, man. You know Thunderbolt 47 loves, loves himself a Doom, a Doomsday podcast, right?

Doom. Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom. All right, Travis Moore at Moore for me. It says, how is Blaze Alexander not the best option for backup middle if infielder on the opening day roster was the scenario where this team keeps him uh keeps him long term obviously lawler is the future short top short stop the blaze seems to be uh rounding into a good asset and i know we touched on this quite a bit earlier but yeah i mean again i think it's like jesse said it really comes down to if the front office wants blaze alexander to get regular at bats he is going to be

in reno if they are okay with him being a backup and playing that backup infielder role at several different positions, then I could very well see him making the opening day roster. Right now, you know, again, all signs point to them not being super satisfied with their options right now at backup infielder. And that might include Blaze, but that might not be because they're unsatisfied with his play. That just might be because they intend on not having him on the main roster

if he's not going to play every day. Yeah, we talked about this the other day. His strikeout rate in AAA last year was on the high, higher end, 27.2% last year in AAA, which is fairly high. I think that's something that, you know, ideally you would want to see that number lower. I don't, yeah, I don't necessarily view Blaze Alexander as a Jordan Lawler level prospect. I think they're in two very, two very different classes, at least right now for me. But yeah, it goes back to our the, you know, what, what kind of opportunity do the Diamondbacks have to see in the majors for them to be willing to pull the trigger on

on Blaze Alexander. And, you know, especially with Jordan Lawler there as well. Like last year they went to Jordan Lawler before they went to Blaze Alexander. Would they do that again this year? You know, would they call up Jordan Lawler and then and then Blaze Alexander's turn would come after that?

That's a good question. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. I hope he does though. And I really do like him as a player. I think he is going to be a very good ball player. But again, it just depends on if they can get him those at bats. Michael says in the chat, unless there's a path for Blaze to get 20 played appearances a week, keep him in Reno.

And it's a valid, it's a valid perspective. Yeah, I get it. It's so weird because I guess baseball is one of the rare sports where that's the case. And that's typically why there's a problem with seeing those young stars come up, right? Like it's, they get blocked by guys that are on the team on the major league roster that they kind of wait to either move on from or, you. You know, again, like in this case, I think the Diamondbacks are looking at a lot of these guys as depth pieces. As the season goes on, they don't have very much depth at some of these positions, and they may need to call on these young guys to come up and step into that role.

I just think that, you know, Blaze does mean enough to them that that could be the reason why they're not considering him for that role. And that could be why. Yeah. Much like Brandon fought last year, like you said, no matter how good he does in spring, might not win him a spot just because right now they don't. want him to just be in a backup role. Yeah, I mean, in a sense, that viewpoint means that they think very highly of him, right? If the Diamondbacks felt that Blaze Alexander was a utility kind of backup shortstop, then call him up now because there's an opening for a, you know, utility guy backup shortstop right now.

But if you believe that Blaze Alexander has a chance to be, you know, an everyday player, like a real force in this league as an everyday player, then you would want him to go back down and kind of, you know, we're fine his hit tool a little bit. So it's a compliment in him in many ways if that's the route the Diamondbacks take. Well, on our diehard member only Discord, which is the best place to be in Arizona Diamondbacks fan, we were discussing all the future bets that you can get down on on Major League Baseball right now. You can get Jordan Lawler right now for National League Rookie of the Year. You can get a lot of these guys.

Bullish. A little bullish. How much money I'd be putting on that. on MVP? I would put, I mean, I can't bet on these things. I would put more, I would be much more Goddow putting money on Corby and Carroll winning MVP than, well, I don't know. Jordan Lawler, Rookie of the Year versus Corby Carroll MVP. I don't feel particularly strongly about either one, I guess is what I would say.

Well, whether you do or don't want to actually put those bets down, you can get down on the bed MGM sportsbook app or have one of your friends do it for you and just wink. Don't worry about it. Anyway, download the sportsbook app, though, of course. And get down on a deposit offer if you deposit and sign up using our code of PHNX and deposit at least $5 in your newly created account and bet that amount on a standard odds price. You will receive $150 in bonus bets regardless of the outcome of your wager. Sign up now for bed MGM and use that bonus code of PHNX. Don't miss out on all of those MLB future bets and all the wonderful stuff that's going on. Of course, basketball season has like what a month left?

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And now listen to Damon. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 100, 800, available in the U.S. 1078, HOPEO, or text HOPEOX-N-ROTUS 9-1-800-3-2-Massachusetts. 21-1-800. Please gamble responsibly. Call 100, 800, next step, Arizona.

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Got some wonderful Four Peaks beers over here waiting for me. Four Peaks, New Year, new beer. They have themselves a Bad Birdie, juicy golden ale. This wonderful collaboration between Four Peaks and our friends at Bad Birdie. It's super drinkable, and it is the perfect companion at the tea box or in your fridge. It is golf time. It is time. Right now is the one time of the year where you can go out at like 11,

and it still is nice out to go golfing. But don't get it twisted. That's going to be over very soon. So make sure while you can, you enjoy this wonderful bad birdie, juicy gold nail out there. And, of course, we know those hours only going to get earlier and earlier. But enjoy it while you're out there golfing. Of course, visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all of your favorite beer. and events and check out at Four Peaks Brewer at Four Peaks Pub.

Keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. Also, make sure to check out the Chicken Tendies. We are the Chicken Tendies gang over here. I would kill for some chicken Tendies right now, Derek. Jesse's starving right now. Yeah. Someone in the press box had them behind me, and I just stood there for a moment and just stared at their

chicken tendees because, uh, yeah, and those aren't, those aren't four peaks chicken tendies. Those are just regular, regular old chicken tendinges. But of course, we do have more mailbag Monday questions. Let's get to those. Damon, what else we got? All right. Chris asks, it's been a minute since we discussed grass versus turf. How are we feeling about the outfield at Chase Field?

Which other yards are turf and MLB? Does going back and forth affect players all things fields discuss? She just said like, hey, let me give you a topic. Go ahead and discuss and then she leaves the room. Yeah, no, I don't know. I mean, I think that there have been some pretty good advancements in the turf. I still don't like Chase Field having turf. It's not great, especially when you're out at Camelback Ranch today,

and you see that luscious green, green grass that they have out there. Real grass is beautiful. Oh, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's absolutely gorgeous. So, yeah, like from that perspective, I mean, we already play inside of an airplane hanger, right? and it's like do we also have to have just that that turf carpeting down as well. I think it's because you play in an airplane hanger that you have to have the turf carpeting. It looked really bad there though before they made the decision to go back to the turf.

I mean, some of those outfield areas where they stood all the time, they were just awful. Like they went from being like yellow grass to just kind of being brown spots out there. Yeah, yeah, which is understandable. Like the Diamondbacks clearly made the right decision to go to turf if in fact like maintaining the grass was just impossible, which at least appeared to be. Yeah. Yeah, the Diamondbacks are not alone in having turf. A quick search of the interwebs reveals that Global Life Field, our favorite ballpark out in Texas, also has artificial turf.

I saw that with my own eyes. I believe... That one's a shed. I believe it is a shed. I believe their turf is either identical to the Diamondbacks or very, very similar. Yeah. Certainly looked similar up close. It's wild up close, yeah, because it looks like it's growing out of the ground.

Like, yeah, and when you see them fix a hole, they like, it's, it's not like a square piece of like sod that they put down. They like, they like take it out of a bucket with a, with a shovel. Yeah, like they like, they like shovel it into the spot. Like it's weird. But yeah, they definitely, uh, it, that's the reason why it looks so natural, I guess you could say. But with time, it's artificial. It's going to look gross. They're not going to replace it all.

They're not going to pull it all up and put new stuff. I don't know. Maybe they do because they do. because they do pull all of the dirt and everything up for, you know, concerts and stuff. So maybe, I mean, that's a big part of it. I don't know. I can imagine the cost was astronomical for them to try to keep growing grass in that building, you know. Yeah.

I mean, anyone who lives in Arizona and tries to maintain their lawn in the summer knows that it's a, it's a, I mean, it almost doesn't matter how much you water the stuff. It just, it doesn't, it doesn't work. My friend Tim and not the Tim in the chat telling me. me, I look 20 years older today than I did yesterday, different to him. He shames me all the time for the fact that I simply have grass because he knows that with my grass being as green as it is, especially in like May and June, that I am using a ton of water in order to do that. That's fair.

And he is not wrong about that. I am using an embarrassing amount of water. But he has a pool and then I get back at him with that and then we kind of go back and forth. Neither of us are trying to save the earth and that's the way it works out. But yeah, I will say that growing grass. They have like sci-fi space age grass, Jesse. Do you ever see these infomercials where they like put it on like concrete blocks and put a little water on it and it grows on the concrete block?

Like, don't tell me you can't find some sort of science fictiony grass to grow in there that'll work just fine. I'm sure it'll. Yeah, Michael's right. Grass is a money sink out here. He's not wrong. That's pretty much what we have for you. Do players get hurt going back and forth between these? I mean, I don't think so.

But science doesn't necessarily, I would think science would reveal that. Like they are putting a lot of money into these athletes. And I don't think that they would, especially a team willingly make their own home turf turf if it wasn't safe. You know what I mean? Like I'm sure that there probably is some sort of opportunity there because it's not a natural material for there to be possibly more injuries. But I really can't imagine that that's a thing. Yeah. there is a quote from 2019 where Cotel Marte says some negative things about the turf in terms of like it like taking a toll or whatnot.

It certainly plays different than regular grass does and feels different if you're, you know, if you're out there playing defense every day. The other thing that I'll say is that it, I guess it's sort of a continuation of that. It plays different in that when you're playing defense on turf, the ball is just going to move differently than it does on grass. And so you see turf is actually being a significant part of teams park factors. If you switch up from grass to turf or whatever, you switch up the kind of turf, then it will play differently. It will either be easier to hit extra base hits or harder or whatnot. So it definitely does have an impact on the game. All right.

Let's get our next question here. And next question comes from DBAX, UK Western, Thomas Eastgate on Twitter. And he says to Derek, triple your wagers or dinner. night out with Corbyn Carroll. Triple your wages or dinner. Oh, wow. I don't know. That's a tough one.

That's a tough one. I do love money, but I might love Corbyn Carol more. Here's the thing. Does the night out guarantee that Corbin and I are friends now? Like, do we kick it? Did I exchange phone numbers with him?

And can I text him at midnight and just say, what are you thinking about? And like, he's going to be cool with it. Like is that, is that the kind of thing? Because I feel like that's where triple my wages. Yeah, I would definitely triple my wages. Yeah, I know, I know. You're not allowed to be friends with him.

You're just not allowed your job. Your job doesn't allow you to be friends with him. My job doesn't really allow me. Yeah, I can't, I can't really like go have dinner with Corp and Carol, but I, but I can. You've had dinner with Tori LaVolo. Have you not had dinner with Tori LaVolo? I had breakfast with Tori Lovolo. That's the same thing, basically.

And it was a group breakfast. It wasn't a one-on-one. All right. Well, that's, yeah, that's a little different. Yeah, that's a little different. You're in a Bacanora with Corby and Carol, Derek? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Somewhere fancy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Chikomalo. Maybe, maybe, maybe, what's that one? I don't know. I don't know fancy. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're going to mix it up. We're going to go end up over there at, like, we're over there on like Roseville, right? Or Roosevelt, right? Or Rosebell, Roe will end up at, like, wilderness and stuff. It's going to be a great night. Yeah, no, I'm taking the money.

I'll take the money. Thank you very much. Moving on, next question comes from Ryan Hanley, and Ryan wants to know what ingredients are you using to make? What four? And he's only giving us four ingredients, Jesse. Pretty tough. I'm going to need about six. What four ingredients are you using to make the perfect burrito?

That's easy. That's easy. Is it? Yeah. I mean, so meat is clearly one of them. Karnia is the answer there. It's carneasada. It's guacamole.

It's cilantro. It's called a Karniasaad burrito. And it is the God's gift to man. Kind and that is already the perfect burrito so I'll give you four that's how easy it was you got ridos buddies beers Oh That's four for you right there Derek Bing Oh I don't have that ad read today. I don't think you're allowed to do that See that's where he spends all his time. I told you he spends all this time there

Jesse what are your four ingredients? I don't know I like can we get some rice in there? Can we like rice? I need some cheese I need rice We gave you a A choice of anything to put it your burrito and you put in the filler that they put in there just to make the burrito bigger? Do you want refried beans in there while you're at it with your rice? I was going to request refried beans, but I guess I won't now. I also like sour cream in general.

Sour cream is solid. You know, tower cream is good. But yeah, I feel like there just isn't, there just isn't room. There just is if we only have four ingredients, then the meat is obviously really important. And I don't know, does the tortilla count in this, in this equation? No, we can't count. It's four ingredients inside of the burrito like the burrito it being a burrito is separate. It's separate.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So yeah. So guacamole has to be in there. That's a, that's clear. What protein did you choose? Did you pick a protein or do you think meat?

You don't even care. It's just whatever meat you have. Carneisada would probably be my choice too. I'm a pretty big carneasada thing. Yeah. We're on the same page about some things. But what if I did, what if I did? Or is this what you did?

No, I guess it's a little different. If I did carneasada, guacamole sour cream and pico de gaio okay all right now now i'm down i'm down for that so it's just meat and then just like a bunch of slop on top right that's fantastic that's fantastic philbert i need to make a stop at filberto's now on the way home all right uh what else we got ryan our guy ryan oh no caesar caesar says uh do you think the debacks will be above or below 90 wins this season on that cfm underscore a z that's a great question Because that's right there, right?

That is the, that's right where the diamond backs are at. Is, are they going to be over or under 90 wins? Like, it feels like under is the way to go. That feels like the safe way to go. But I'm taking the over. I'm smashing the over. I think betting lines for the diamond backs are more in like the low mid-80s. I think like 83 and a half is one number that I've seen.

Yeah. I would take the over on 83 and a half. But you're not taking the over on 90? I don't know if I'd take the over on 90. 83 and a half. Yeah. The over on 83 and a half, I think, I think is a, would be a solid bet. The over on 90, though, I, I would probably have to lean under on 90.

The back end of this team is so much stronger than it was last season, and they still reached that total. Yeah. Give me the over all day long. And even last year felt like an underachievement, right? Because of the way that July went and things like that, like you felt like this team should have maybe come close to winning 90 games last year, right? but they kind of faltered and luckily with some help they made into the playoffs but they almost

didn't and that's important to remember they did uh awful offensive production from like your corner infield spot third base and your dh spot which is just not it's not easy to survive offensively with those two positions struggling like they did yeah it should be a big improvement it's a fair point yeah they they got they certainly got better in in certain areas and uh they're i think their floor is definitely raised based on all the additions they made they have They have more depth in pretty much any situation if they were to lose someone. I feel better about the depth they have this year than they did last year. Massaum garden, I was a part of this team to start the year last year.

There were also, yes, that is another factor where there are players that were on this team last year that were very poor, right? I mean, that just were not good. He's rich, but he means that in a different way. Thank you for clarifying that. But the number, Mattis of Bombrer is a back. Very rich. You're going to get $14 million for doing nothing this year. That's a good point.

But yeah, just the general, you know, teams lose a lot of games by playing player, you know, like veteran players for too long, right? Just kind of holding on to veteran players and hoping they can find their way. You know, it's not to say this team is immune from that. There are some veteran players here as well. You don't really know what's going to happen until you see it. But they seem less prone to that than they were last year. Well, I do know what's going to happen this week. and that is out at the Phoenix Raceway.

We're going to have the Shriners Children's 500. And we are going to be out there. We're going to be enjoying ourselves. We're going to be having a great time. And the Valley of the Sun is going to roar to life when NASCAR returns to the Phoenix Raceway. The best in-class fan experience meets racing's toughest drivers for three days of action, all surrounded by the beautiful Australian mountains out there. So make sure to join us. Come on out.

Get your tickets at the Shriner's Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway, March 8th through the 10th. And it promises a weekend of good vibes for the whole family. Get your reserved grandstand tickets now at phoenix raceway.com. Also, another great place to get all of your sporting tickets for concerts, sports, events, all that stuff, is our friends at Game Time. You can, of course, check out GameTime's very aesthetically pleasing app. And, of course, get some of the lowest ticket prices on games last minute. That's the biggest thing, right? You want to go to the spring training games.

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Last minute tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Let's see. Tim wants to know when does Mena pitch next. No, we don't. That I do not. I do not have an answer. Stop acting like, like, oh, Jesse.

Let me ask Jesse. Jesse doesn't know every. Stop it. Mena is not, you know, I don't view him as a realistic candidate to make the team. So I don't know how much. I mean, it's not to say he couldn't pitch in a spring training game, but you're not necessarily, like he's not necessarily going to be pitching on a super regular schedule like some of the other guys. So if I get any information on that, then I'll be sure to tweet it out or whatnot.

Mena, he just wants to see Mena throw 96 miles an hour and make the Chicago White Sox fan sad. Today would have been a great day to throw him. That would have been a great deal. We did see Dominic Fletcher take a couple of it bats today. We also saw Tommy Troy take his first. We did. We didn't get a bad. We didn't get a chance to talk about that.

He did strike out, but he did take some pitches and look good out there. He did it stylistically, you know? He looked good doing it. He struck out, but he looked good. Of course, we hope you guys enjoyed us looking good doing this show. We thank you, of course, for stopping by. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with the cave.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the people's producer is back. He is Damon. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Of course, you can follow him at Damon Dog. That's DAWG. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs,

but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again for your time. We appreciate you stopping by. We'll be back tomorrow for another post-game recap of tomorrow's spring training game. us right here at 6 o'clock. In the meantime, you behave yourselves, have yourselves a great night. Again, thank you for stopping by and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun

when you don't panic about spring training games.