PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Spring Training SHAKE-UP? These D-backs Are PUSHING For Starting Roles

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Spring Training games are officially here, and MLB is kicking off Cactus League play with four matchups to get the 2026 season rolling. If you can’t make it out to Salt River Fields, we’ve got you covered on how to watch every inning and what to look for as the roster battles begin. Speaking of roster battles, we’re breaking down the biggest question in camp: who’s actually starting on Opening Day? We dive into the names that could surprise fans by the end of camp. We also take our best swing at projecting the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day starting lineup and bullpen. Plus, we zoom out to the bigger MLB picture, where both owners and the MLBPA appear to be preparing for an inevitable lockout by stockpiling money. Why are so many players publicly backing what the Dodgers are doing with their spending? And what does it mean for the next round of CBA negotiations?  0:00 SPRING TRAINING HAS ARRIVED!!!  5:15 Michael Soroka: SP or RP?  15:10 Corbin Carroll & Lourdes Gurriel Jr. updates  18:00 Ryan Waldschmidt starts  29:00 Will new MLBPA leadership save baseball?  35:50 Bryce Harper & Manny Machado bootlicking for Dodgers  48:15 First spring training lineup 👀  54:25 Are you buying in on Waldy? JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120 ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. 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! 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The dark days are over, friends. Spring training games are here. Welcome into another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. Let! Presented by our friends at Circle K. We are back, baby. Baseball is back. Games will be playing today.

Welcome into your pre-game show for spring training, 2026. My name is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. And I am thrilled to watch real baseball games. played between two teams that aren't the same team. Of course, I'm joined by the man dancing right now behind the Mac. He is the Damon Barrel. He is our Damon dog.

Bark, bark to you, Damon. Happy Friday, Derek. Happy fri-ie to you all, perhaps the best fri-a of the year. Do you smell that? What's that smell? It smells like freshly cut grass. It smells like chalk being lined down the left and right filled lines. Do you hear that sound?

Is that dudes in the batting cages getting ready to play baseball? The cracking of bats. This podcast, of course, is brought to you by the official soft drink of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, Mountain Dew Baja Blast. And I can get that in because, quite frankly, not only is it free at Friday, but Max is on a different continent. So he can't even stop me if he wanted to right now. Shout out to Max, by the way, celebrating his honeymoon finally. So congrats to him and the misses. But congrats to you all for making it to today.

Spring training starts today, folks. We have four Cactus League games that are happening today. The Arizona Diamondbacks will be taking on the Colorado Rockies out at Salt River Fields. We also have the Padres taking on the Mariners in Peoria. The White Sox are facing off against their division or I guess cross town rival of the Chicago Cubs out there at Sloan Park. And then Royals and Rangers are, I guess, in surprise. I don't know.

That's a different planet. as I'm concerned. But what are we doing? Why are we here? Why are we talking to each other? Let's get out there watch baseball. That's probably bad for this show. So I probably shouldn't tell you that. But what I will tell you is that lawn tickets right now are $23 plus fees. Not bad. I know spring training isn't what it used to be. I know it's not like 10 bucks or you can get in with a canned good like I think we used to be able to do for Firebirds games. But I will say that at least it's fun to go out. During this, time of the year and really enjoy the weather and catch some games, right? It's going to be an interesting lineup today because the Diamondbacks don't exactly have a well-known name on the mound.

Thomas Hatch will be starting today for the Arizona Diamondbacks and just pitching, getting one inning of work. He was a guy that the Diamondbacks acquired on a minor league deal back in January. And again, this is not about the Diamondbacks getting a look at him, although it is, right? It's also about, you know, of course, these guys getting a chance to slow play the, you know, starters into the rotation. Tori did tell us that Michael Soroka will start on Tuesday. He will be the first regular starter to get on the mound for this team. But again, if you can't make it out, I think there's some discussions in the chat here. You can always spring the spring train, stream, excuse me, the spring training telecast for free on dbaks.tv. You don't even have to

have a membership or a subscription for the annual package, all you need to do is register an email address over there on dbax.tv, and then prepare yourself, I'm sure, for some, some advertisements that are going to be thrown your way. But for local television provider information for Dback spring training games, you can go to dbax.com slash channel finder. So they will be available. Spring training games will be on TV.

They will be streaming. And, of course, again, if you can't make it out to see this team this spring, then there's definitely options to do that as well and just watch them online. Derek, I'm begging. I'm itching to get out to some of these games. I know that my other podcasts and my endeavors on the Azy Wildcats podcast make it difficult on me from time to time. Really hold you back on this. We're going to make this happen.

I'm going to get out to some Salt River Field games. I got to be out there with my boy, Derek. I do. Well, we got to sit in the lawn. We got to drink some beers. We got to cheer on this team. There are a lot of... On the clock, by the way.

Yeah, on the clock. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm not doing it on my own time. What? That's crazy. But there are a lot of starting rotation questions. We showed you guys yesterday, Michael Soroka's response to being asked about, you know, what his role is going to be on this team.

And he did not hold back. I feel like some fans didn't love the response because I think we are conditioned to athletes telling us the thing that you want to hear that make you a good teammate. Right. So when Michael Soroka said he would be willing to do whatever it is, is to help this team win. That part was great. When he went on to say,

and I think the best way that I can do that is by starting, that's where it seemed like there's a conflict, right? That's where it seems like he doesn't want to do what is asked of him. But I would argue that that's the exact kind of attitude I want out of my guys. We are not at a point where Soroka is refusing to go to the bullpen or anything like that. He's just saying when asked how what he wants his role to be, what he feels his role will be. I think it's a foregone conclusion for many fans and even some of us that, you know, watch this team regularly, that Soroka has now been pushed out of the starting rotation into the bullpen. And according to Mike Hazen, Mike Hazen is not ready to make that assessment at all.

Yet now in a week or in two weeks. In fact, don't even ask him about it. He's done. He's fed up. He told Steve Gilbert, I will have an answer for you on March 26th. That's what he told our friend Steve Gilbert from MLB.com. When it came to his, when his starting rotation would be said? He said, that's the way I'm going to approach this. I think last year it was seven to eight starting pitchers and we didn't have enough.

And that's the unfortunate nature of the game at times with this position. Mike Hazen does not want to be asked during spring training about having too many pitchers. Because we just did that last year. And let's not forget that eventually not only did Nebel Chris Mott become a starter for this team, but we also, and a stud, by the way, a stud, I will always go to bat for Nabil Khrismat. But we also had during. Derek, I'm not sure that there's any player. Like, that's got to be like, we all have those like weird players that we love.

Weird? Yeah. The man was a god for this team, Damon. And he just... It was not a god, Derek. Look up his stats. He did step up, but a god is insanely overdramatic. And that's coming from this guy right here.

I'm saying, like, that's your guy. That's my guy. You are a Nabil, Nabil, Chris. that guy and that's that's fine but that's like that's you know that's a little bit of like a of a cult hero type of player to have i feel like yes i like with me i think what it was was the the guy deserved he earned a spot and he got this team through a wild card hunt like he was he was helping this team stay in the playoff race yeah he was good and this team also got to a point where quite quite honestly they had a bullpen start down the stretch

when they were still in a wildguard hunt, which is insane to think. So don't ever talk to Mike Hazen about having too much starting pitching. He's not even willing to hear you out on that. But Hazen did say having Zach here strengthens that part of our team, and I'm happy about that. One of the huge benefits doing this, not having a talent caliber of Zach,

but also now, or excuse me, not only having a talent the caliber of Zach, but also now it builds out another really good starting pitch in our rotation. I will say our depth is better this year. And again, there's, there's where the true question lies about what is going to happen damon with the sixth starter in this rotation you can't got these guys don't exactly have options right you can't exactly option them down to the minor league so um it would be a balance of trying to keep them stretched

out while still having them on a major league roster and it doesn't feel like that is going to be the best for whoever doesn't make the starting rotation right yeah i mean i i i i think think that that would make the most sense, right? And we know that a guy like Soroka has spent some time in different roles before. So I guess that's kind of where your mind automatically draws to, right? But he's also made it clear that he wants to be a starter. So I, you know, I think that this is going to be a battle. It's going to be a competition. And maybe, you know, I think that the long-term investment in other guys is probably going to put them over the top in terms of the competition battle. But that doesn't mean that it's over before it starts, right?

So if Soroka goes and outperforms, you know, Brandon Fatt, Eduardo Rodriguez by like a large amount, it's possible. But also, like are you going to do with E-Ride, like you try to do with Jordan Montgomery and make him a 20 million dollar bullpen pitcher?

Especially when you still have another year tacked on on the, on the E-Ride contract as well. It's kind of like it's a good problem to have to have options, but it's not necessarily. we're not feeling as confident as we probably did the last two off seasons going in with the starting rotation being like being like oh yeah we got we got gallon merrill montgomery at the top with brandon fought coming off that stellar postseason and we signed erod like this rotation's nasty i think now we're more like hopefully gallon bounces back and merrill doesn't start aging and

ryan nelson continues to do what he's done and brandon fought doesn't have the worst year of any qualified starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. It's a little bit more of hope now than it was the last two years. And I can't say his name there, but he said FOT has an option. So again, that could be, if Fott doesn't pitch well, if Fott doesn't pitch well enough for him to be a lock in the rotation, perhaps based on him having that option, he would be sent to Reno simply to stay stretched out.

I think, again, that's the biggest problem here is you can't. It would be hard to believe that Brandon Fott would be the one that doesn't make it into the rotation, right? Just because of the extension that they have him signed to, like, I would think it would make even more sense to trade him this offseason. If that's truly where you felt this was going and you like lost belief in Brandon Fought, then like try to get something of value for him because he's under contract for a while. And we all know he has potential. But yeah, it's a, the Fott conversation is interesting. He needs to have a big year. Again, Meryl Kelly here for two years.

Gallen here for one. Soroka here for one, right? Like, it's not like they don't need him in the future. This would just be about not condemning whoever doesn't make the starting rotation to a bullpen roll. And not to make it sound like that's a prison sentence, but you know what I mean?

Like, once you go to the bullpen, it's hard to break back out of the bullpen. It's not to say if due to need, the Diamondbacks might not have to do that if an injury comes up or something, you know, occurs. But at the same time, it's very hard to get that guy, that you reduce down to two innings of work or one inning of work to get stretched back out in any kind of urgent manner to be ready for the, you know, starting rotation and to help this

team win baseball games, right? So I don't know. They have a lot going on and I can understand why Mike Hazen is not prepared to make any decisions in regards to the starting rotation right now, right? You want to see them play games. You want to see them play meaningful games. yesterday we talked to Tori about what are they looking for what could he tell fans that they look for out of hitters and pitchers during spring training not necessarily results

but what are the things that then kind of earn guys a spot or whatever and he described that but of course there is a point where results are going to matter and when it comes to competition battles in camp results will matter at one point right so that's the reason why no decisions are even close to being made now

but very interesting. What are your thoughts, though, on Michael Soroka standing firm on here? Would you prefer he gave you the PC answer of, I'll do whatever it takes to help the team win? Or do you kind of like the fact that he wants to make it known that he plans on staying as a starter and wants to fight for that position? I want to be clear and say that I don't think that this is like a Raphael Devere's situation where he's like, I won't pitch out of the bullpen.

Correct. I think that this is just a player that has, drive and wants to be at the pinnacle of the sport. And let's be honest, I think starters are, you know, obviously that's a more glorified position than a relief pitcher because you're going to be out there touching the ball for, you know, hypothetically two-thirds of the baseball game about on any given night. And you have a little bit more control and impact on, you know, how the game goes. And Michael Soroka, you know, maybe he's not an elite-level major league baseball pitcher,

but he is an elite-level athlete. And it takes insane amounts of drive and willpower. to get to that spot in life and hard work. And yeah, I would be more concerned if he didn't have an idea of what his ideal, you know, position and goal for this team is going into this season because that seems like a natural human instinct. So I'm not, I'm not peeved by it at all. I think that Michael Soroka is, you know, just saying what his aim is in spring training

and it's good to have goals and people that are, that are like internally motivated to go out there and, you know, prove themselves. I like when a bullpen arm says he wants to be the closer. Yeah. Absolutely. I want the ball in my hand in the biggest moment. Yeah. Like that's why Drey Jamison is just always, he puts fire in my blood.

And for good reason, right? Yeah. That's a guy who's like, I want to start or I want to close. Yeah. That's right. Like, that's basically what he says all the time. And it's because he wants to make the most impact possible. And that's the type of mentality and attitude you want.

out of your pitchers. Correct. I agree. And then meanwhile, the other position battle, Damon, is the outfield. And we still have a lot of questions about that. So many questions.

Is Corbyn Carroll going to be ready by opening day? Is Lordis Gueriel going to be ready by opening day? Let me tell you, I said this before. I've said it all week long. I am so impressed by Corbyn Carroll's work ethic and the fact that he, and again, I've even had people laugh at me for this or kind of,

you know, try to dunk on us when we show these videos of Corbin out there throwing against the wall or running sprints, but it's like, I don't know, man, that, that, he's not out there with a group. You know what I mean? Like, he's not out there, uh, as part of the training schedule that's on the wall. I know he probably has his own schedule that's being dictated by the training staff, but like overall, it's very difficult for Corbyn because he is kind of isolated right now during spring training, right? And he is trying to do everything he can to stay ready in every possible way without being able to do the things that he can't do

with that hand healing, right? So you can't swing a bat, can catch the ball, but he can throw a ball, he can sprint, he can work on his base running. There's so many other things he can't, you know, he can work on, but he can't lift in the gym and like other things, obviously that, you know, that hand is preventing him from doing. But I mean, again, it, you see him down to just basically a little wrap over the stitches on his hand, and it's hard to feel like he won't be ready by opening day. Same thing with Lordus Gurriel Jr., right? Like there's another guy that's been training like a beast and been putting all of the work in that he can to be ready by opening day. For sure.

Lordis, meanwhile, he is out there. He is out there with like a group. He is taking batting practice. He's taking live batting practice. He's taking reps in the outfield. So Lord is just- The reps in the outfield, I think, is an important factor. I mean, like, I could see a world where you're having him hit in a cage and whatnot.

Like that's probably a little less strenuous on the knee. Lower impact, right. Exactly. But when you're out there running in the grass, fielding with, the rest of the outfielders. I think that's very telling as to where he's at in his recovery process. And I wouldn't be shocked, honestly, Derek, and I know that this is, you know, kind of a side tangent from saying like, wow, he's fielding already. But I wouldn't be shocked if he was deaching at the early portions of the season. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Maybe they do say, like,

we're going to slow play you play in the field a little bit more. But we want to get you in there but we need you in the lineup. Yeah. Because you're one of the best hitters on this team as it's currently constructed. And so yeah, I mean, that would be huge for this team if Lourdes can just be in the lineup hitting fifth, sixth on opening day or close to it. And I hope that's the direction that we're leaning in because it's insane. This guy is, he's Wolverine. We've been over this. He's Logan. Well, according to Steve Gilbert, another article from Steve Gilbert over at MLB.com, he says one player to keep an eye on this spring for the outfield is Debeck's number one overall prospect

and friend of the show, Ryan Waldschmidt, who was the 31st overall pick in 2024, the number 59th overall prospect in baseball. There's been a lot of talk about Waldy. And, you know, Steve acknowledges that it's still a long shot for him to make the opening day roster, but he's really impressed the organization. And it's, you know, I think the one thing about camp

in spring training that's so important for guys like Corbyn Carroll and Waldschmidt is that they get a chance to just be seen without, I guess, restriction, right? Like, they're just up here like any other guy. And Tori is going from field to field, kind of taking a look at what everybody's doing, trying his best to see everybody take live BP and see them run their drills and everything.

And again, when you see a guy standing out the way that Waldschmidt tends to stand out, it really is a big opportunity for him to potentially land one of these early outfield spots. And again, it might just be temporary, but I think it would be very valuable for him to get some major league time. Plus, we could see what he looks like at a major league level. Perhaps he does instantly become a star like similar to what Corbyn Carroll did, right? I mean, it's not hard to imagine that being a possibility with how talented he seems to be.

That's been the comparison I've made a couple of times. I feel like in, you know, the last few months here, Derek, and not to say that he's the Corbyn Carroll type prospect because Corbyn was a top 10 prospect, right? was, you know, one of the favorites for rookie of the year when going into, you know, that 2023 season. Walschman is not that, right? He's a step back from that. But I do think that when you look at his development in the way that he's kind of flown through the minor league system, that's kind of Corbyn Carroll-esque, is it not? Because this is a fast-rising prospect. Now, Corbin out of high school, Walshman out of an SEC school is a bit different as well. But I think you love to see that fast rise through the minors. and the continued production at every level. It's not like he's getting called up to double A in his first season in the minors, first full season in the minors,

and it looks like crap. He's getting called up to AA, and his stats are just as good as they were in single A, or in high A, I should say. So I think Ryan Walshman could be a really, really good Major League Baseball player, and the signs are there, him starting on this first spring training game, the way Tori talks about him, and you know I think just potentially skipping AAA like he could be a very very good major

like baseball player if all things break right for one Ryan Walschman it takes him back to one of the media availability we'd have in my case and where he was asked if the you know if a young outfielder could perhaps crack into it and he was like he didn't even wait for the question to finish being asked before he said yes and then they never said Walshmith's name but he said we both know who we're talking about. And I think, obviously, it was all of us knew who they were talking about here when it came to Ryan Walschman. But the injuries make it far more plausible now than it, than would have before. And again, it would be probably more for a temporary stint rather than him being here long term.

But you're kind of right. I mean, we've talked about Amarillo and we've talked about Reno. And I don't know if there's a ton to prove at a level at Reno, if you're already doing everything right. as far as the coaches assessment of you and these things that, you know, Tori and his staff are looking at throughout spring training, right? It's only been a few weeks, so it's not like they've had a ton of time to see him. But obviously, like you said, he's impressed in that time frame, and it's enough for him to be now kind of in the mix along with other options as well, right?

We don't know if Jordan Lawler is going to work out there. We don't know if we're going to see Tim Tawa or Jorge Perosa out there on opening day. Those are all very, very much possibilities. But one guy we know we will see out there, Damon, is Cotel Marte. And even though I know I should not dread dredge up these rumors and the trade talks because they're dead, they're buried, they're six feet under. We've moved on. We forgot about them. There was talk online about how close the Red Sox were to pulling the trigger.

And maybe not close at all, apparently, because according to the Boston Globes, Alex Spire, the Diamondbacks were trying to purpose. Marcella Mayer away from the Boston Red Sox, which whose name we did here in trade talks, along with one of either Peyton Tolly or Connolly Early. And apparently Craig Breslow said that that was enough. Okay. He wanted to give the Diamondbacks a stud prospect by the name of Franklin O'Reas and Tolley or early, but the Diamondbacks stood firm on not wanting that return. So it's kind of interesting to see the two sides of this,

but it almost feels like in this particular piece on the Boston Globe that they are like doing the rah-rah thing about the Boston Red Sox, not making the trade for Cattel Marte. And I, Damon, sit here with you once again and do the raw-rah thing for the Diamondbacks, not trading Cotel-Marté to the Red Sox. That's all we were going to get? No, sorry, hard pass.

Hard pass. Yeah. I mean, I always talked about, I think that when we were having these conversations, I was saying it takes for me, Marcella Mayer, one of those two pitchers that you just mentioned, Tully or early, and maybe a Jaron Duran on top of it. Yeah, you're like, you weren't even close. Forget the two guys. You weren't even throwing in the third guy. Yeah, the MLB ready guy who's going to help this team right away. Right.

And so it doesn't feel like it was necessarily close. here's what's interesting. Alex Cora came out this morning, Derek, and said, Marcelo Mayer, not a given to be on the opening day roster. He said he has to earn his roster spot. Interesting. And that he is not the penciled in starting second or third basement on this team. And that's what it was going to take to get,

Celle Marte and you turned it down? That's nuts to me. If I'm a Red Sox fan, I'm fuming. Yeah. A guy that you don't know if he's going to be starting or not, you could have was the differentiator between getting a top 10 hitter in the sport and not yeah i i mean i would have been a little bit underwhelmed with that trade package i'm sure i would have talked myself into two really you know highly touted young players like a mayor and a toli for example

but i would have wanted an an extra piece as well a third piece to feel better about that trade or uh or a a bayo i think that you know he's a little bit of a higher pitching prospect that than Tully or early is. So I don't know. I'm glad that that offer didn't get made, but what are you doing if you're the Red Sox? And again, I don't get that at all.

Framing it as some way to, you know, be excited that they didn't make the trade. As a Red Sox fan, like you said, I would be a little bit more excited or mad that they didn't make that trade. But I'm glad. I mean, imagine he starts off in AAA. He's a pot-tucket Red Sock. and all of a sudden you're sitting there and you're like,

we could have had this guy who has a 900 OPS in Arizona. And instead we're getting to watch this guy play for the or the Bay Sox. I'm pretty sure is actually what their name is. Lose this number forever. That's the point we need to make here. That's interesting. I did not see that report from the Boston Globe. Yeah.

So just interesting. Again, might be a little. No, who knows? Might be a little telephone game. Again, like Mike Hazen said, there's not a lot to gain by letting this information really get out overall. So, again, just glad that Kattel is part of this team. And I'll tell you, Damon, in talking to his teammates, so are they.

I heard Corbin, Dre Jameson, Perdomo, Lordis. I mean, I even think Nolan Aronado said something about him being on this team still. You know, like, and that's not even a guy that has been a teammate, it could tell Marte. That's just somebody that knows how good Marte is. So just thrilled that he is not a Red Sock, and I'm thrilled that he's a Diamondback, hopefully, for a very long time. We're going to take a quick break, and on the other side of this break, we are going to talk a little bit about MLB owners and players preparing for the inevitable lockout that's coming at the end of this year. And they're doing it by stashing cash away. Let's go.

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Tony Clark resigning amid multiple scandals. I still remember when we talked about the youth baseball program a while back. And I didn't think that that was going to be nearly enough to have. Tony Clark's career ended, but apparently the inappropriate relationship with his sister law and everything else has caused a world of trouble for Tony Clark. But meanwhile, both sides press on. And like we said, this isn't something that they're just going to wait until the Major League Baseball season ends to start negotiating.

Bruce Meyer and the MLBPA is going to be negotiating their side of things. And it sounds like the players are excited to have him and they also plan on digging in on this collective bargaining agreement and making sure that their side is well represented and that they stand firm on their position to not have things like a salary cap added to Major League Baseball. But according to John Heyman and Joel Sherman over at the New York Post,

the initial sense is that the cap floor that is going to be part of the first proposal would be between $140 and $160 million. dollars. Now, as far as where that puts baseball, right, or puts T, like, that that literally requires more than half of the teams in baseball to increase their spending. By a lot. Some teams are spending $60 million, $64 million, $70 million. And I think this is the most important part of this new collective bargaining agreement. There is a fund that we discussed briefly yesterday that I tried to explain and did a poor job of doing so.

But baseball teams are paid out of this fund and each team receives a considerable amount of money. And in some cases, those teams aren't even spending close to that amount of money, let alone the revenue that their team is generating. Because everything aside from the television deals, which also need to be a huge amount of money, let alone the revenue. huge part of this collective bargaining agreement are kind of part of this bigger fund, right? So as it stands, the bigger problem still seems to be the teams that aren't spending enough rather than the Dodgers who are spending too much. What the teams that aren't spending enough are doing is they are allowing the Dodgers to essentially have their pick of the litter when it comes to the best players in Major League Baseball. The Diamondbacks are one of the teams that are trying

hard to fight against that by also being very active and by doing their own part as far as signing extensions for their young players and going out and actively getting free agents like they've done. The Diamondbacks the last two off seasons, not this one, but the two prior off seasons, got the best starting pitcher available on the free agent market both years. And it didn't work out. And that part sucks for us. I wish it would have. But overall, all, they're saying here that the floor would be 140 to 160 million somewhere in that range. Then you also have a ceiling that would fall into the range of 260 to 280 million. It would have to be grandfathered in for a few years, which is, again, another reason why those

goddamn Dodgers are so savvy because they know that this new collective bargaining agreement, whatever the end result is, is most likely going to put further limits on their spending. So why not go out and get an Edwin Diaz and a Kyle Tucker? When you can, while you can, when you're making all of this money, and you're also literally making money off the money that you're putting aside just to pay Show Eutani in the future. But apparently, according to this report in the New York Post, MLB owners have also funded a war chest, they're calling it, Damon, a war chest.

Bees, when you're asking if it's inevitable that we are going to go to a lockout, The owners have a war chest of approximately $75 million per team in order to provide financial protection in the case of a work stoppage. $75 million per team. The ownership fund contains a total value of over $2 billion. And you guys don't have money to spend it on free agents? What is going on? $2 billion. Insane, right?

but meanwhile on the other side of things, I don't love how supportive players have to be of what the Dodgers are doing. I understand why they have to be supportive of what the Dodgers are doing. At the end of the day, they are trying to not only still make as much money for themselves as they possibly can,

but they're trying to also kind of blaze a path here for their future of their sport so that those guys can receive as much money as humanly possible. but in this uh the couple of guys were quoted when asked about um what the dodgers are doing one of those guys Bryce Harper he said damon quote um listen this boot licking uh i love what the dodgers do obviously they pay the money they spend the money I mean they're a great team they understand how to run it they run their team like a business and they run it the right way they understand where they need to put their money into i've said that for a very long time in regards to the dodgers it's the reason why it makes them as

an entity so frustrating because they're not just lucking into this. They are spending money in the right way and they are doing and it's leading a success. Most of the time in sports when a team throws as much money at like free agency and such as the Dodgers do in an attempt to put together a super team or an all-star team, it doesn't work out for them. Right. It's somehow working out for the Dodgers because they're making the right moves. And as we said, they have so much money that they can even overcome when they don't make the right move. So when a Roki Sasaki doesn't necessarily work out in the way you thought he would or a Tanner Scott, you can keep it pushing and just have other guys fill in or go out and get other guys because you have the resources to do so. Not only do you

have the financial resources, but you have the resources in your farm system to trade pieces away if you wanted to also get better by acquiring someone else's top star. So it sucks. But players are going to back it up because at the end of the day, players have to protect what they receive, what they get financially, right? Katie in the chat says, Bryce is a loser. Bryce Harper is a loser who doesn't want to see the sport succeed. He only wants to see the top of the level 1% players of Major League Baseball get paid.

That's what he wants. You know who else had something to say about it? Mani Machado, who told San Diego Base reporters on Sunday morning in regards to what the Dodgers are doing, I effing love it. He said, I love it. I mean, honestly, I think every team should be doing it. The Dodgers have figured out a way to do it. It's effing great for the game.

Every team has the ability to do it. So I hope all 30 teams could learn from that. I hope Padres fans boo him when he comes up to the plate for his first appearance of 2026. I mean, I can't wait to see Nick Castiano be in the middle of a clubhouse between him and Fernando Tatis Jr. I can't wait for that. I just, Derek, here's the deal. Yeah, the Dodgers spend money for the most part in smart ways. doesn't matter if they don't spend it in smart ways because it's not like the money ever ends,

but they have like $350 million television rights deal annually. I know. No one else has that. The debacks make like $60 million off of television rights deals. So it's like, yeah. They don't even make that guarantee, right? Because they get a, they get profit sharing from the overall television deal from all of the teams that MLB has in their system.

So in a case, maybe the Diamondbacks benefit from that because of us being a smaller market team, a newer team that's not as popular, perhaps the revenue generated by some of the more popular teams that are part of that MLB television deal help us. But I don't, I mean, at the end of the day, the Diamondbacks actually do make a substantial amount of money just off of the Dodgers in general, off of their luxury tax and off of all the money they pay for having that team be what it is, right? I mean, that still doesn't close the gap, though. No, it doesn't close the cap. We're literally like peasants feeding on the crumbs that the king drops from his mouth onto his row.

You know, like that's what it feels like. It's easy to say that it's good for the game and that all teams should do it. But what's more difficult is when you start realizing why the Dodgers are able to do it in comparison to why every other team cannot. And it's solely because of this annual television rights deal that the Dodgers have. I mean, not solely. Not solely. I'm not saying it's not a huge part of it. But the other part of it is that the Dodgers don't have people that are running that team for money-making purposes.

is they have a much bigger thing in mind right like it it's no they really do they have a global takeover there this is why this is why people call accuse you of being dodger derrick no this is why you accuse me of being no the whole chat will does it as well and for good reason it's because you're mr oh they're so well run they're doing everything the right way yeah they have more resources than everybody i would hope that they had better scouting better analytics better injury, you know, or medical team. But they didn't at one point. They have people in the room when they're trying to convince players to sign contracts,

Derek, that are trying to get around tax laws so that these players can make the most money possible. They are the lowest of the low on the totem pole of what it means to have good morality in the world. They're helping Shohei get freaking real estate deals in Hawaii. Like this whole thing is a disaster. The Dodgers are scum. Scum! Let's stop pumping them up. If we had a $300 million television rights deal, we'd be

signing the best free agent every offseason too. There's a reason that one team does it and no one else does. You're not wrong. And that's the reason why I hate when they try to act like it's all fair across the game. Nothing of baseball is fair. Nothing. And even the path to becoming a baseball player, right? Not fair. It's the reason why players fight so hard for them to receive the most money that they can receive when they get up here. But you're right. Like really, you can't have fairness and equality in the game when half of MLB's teams, their television deals are being ran by the league itself. And then you have other teams that literally have their own channel, like the Yankees to broadcast their games that they own.

Like there isn't even a television deal. It's just that they control everything. So there is no equality when it comes to baseball. And even a CBA isn't going to change that tremendously, a new CBA. It's going to be the attempt and they're going to try to get things closer. But you're going to have Chris Bassett's out there arguing that the parity is better in baseball than any other sport. And you're going to have other teams or other players, on other teams in favor of what the Dodgers are doing because they have to protect what they

view as their own future and the future of other players coming up, you know, to a major league level. But I'm not, I will never say that what the Dodgers are doing is fair. It's simply they position themselves in a way because baseball allows it. Baseball allows it. Everything they've done with the exception of the real estate deals in Hawaii and hiding your money from the government, everything that they're doing is on the up and up. So Kyle, we're going to have you sign this deal in Florida so that you don't get state income taxed on your deal

and it's going to be all up front and it's going to save you like 20 million, dude. Ridiculous. Hold on. Hold on. Didn't you drive to Las Vegas to pick up your truck? That had nothing to do with saving money. Yeah.

Yeah. What? You don't love Arizona? You don't love truck dealerships in Arizona, Damon? I found a car I liked and it was cheap to get out to Vegas. I get it. Listen, also, Damon, cut and cost. with my average salary is a lot different than a guy who makes hundreds of millions of dollars. Billions will it be.

Well, I'm talking about Kyle Tucker. Oh, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean, I just, the Dodgers, like, yes, the Yankees can compete with them. And they choose not to. And they deserve a lot of criticism for their inability to put their resources back into their team in comparison to the Dodgers because the Dodgers are doing that. And the Yankees are not, right? And I think a lot of Yankees fans are frustrated by that because they know it's possible, but they don't, they don't attempt to do that. Right.

Outside of the Yankees, no one else has anything close to what the Dodgers can do from a spending and resources standpoint. The Mets maybe. The Mets are just spending money, though. That's more out of pocket. Yeah, that's more out of pocket. Rather than like. They are as well ran as the other two teams, which are basically like their own companies outside of Major League Baseball in a way. Like they're just their own entities.

but they also participate in the Major League Baseball, in Major League Baseball. Brother, you go to Paxon, you go to, this is Max's nightmare right here, you go to Eritzia, you go to Abercrombie, you go to like all these like these like brands that are like lifestyle, that are like lifestyle brands. Yeah. They have Yankees and Dodgers hats at every single one of them.

And it's because those brands are next level. The L.A. and the N.Y, like they carry so much weight from just a branding standpoint. It makes sense that they would have more money than everybody, but it doesn't make sense that they're just allowed to spend more money than everybody by twice, three times, four times as much. And then it's and then they point out everybody else and go, you're the problem. And you go, what are we supposed to do? Spend 600 million on a team that brings in 200? When you hear Mani Machado says every team has the ability to do it. So I hope all the 30 teams could learn from that.

Absolutely not. absolutely none. So that's just not the case. But what I will say is... Mani Machado, what a stand for nothing loser that guy is too. But here's what I have to say about like the Dodgers is that... You got the Phillies and the Padres players caping for the Los Angeles Dodgers right now, Derek. I thought that that's supposed to be the Dodgers top competition in the national league.

It's like you, it's like you going after me, right? But like Frank McCourt, if that name rings a bell with anybody, that was the former owner of the Dodgers. he ran it, it was a mess, right? So, like, they're, there, that, I think that's to me what I remember. There's never been a time in my lifetime when the Yankees weren't a seemingly perfectly ran organization that had more resources than everybody else, right? It's, it's different when you see a team in your lifetime convert from kind of being, not a bumbling organization, but definitely not what it is.

They were pretty bad. They were bad. I mean, that whole messy divorce with Frank McCourt and how that impacted the team and everything. That allowed this ownership group to move in and take over. And that's who has systematically run this organization since then. And since then, they've done nothing but make every move right and wrong to improve this organization. They're a consortium now, Derek. And they just have just unlimited amounts of money to spend.

And it's just a who's who of, you know, the people that are, you know, backing it from a financial standpoint. What I can't for the life of me understand. and, you know, this is a side tangent and getting a little bit more personal here with myself. But this same consortium largely owns my favorite soccer club. And yet, we're a disaster. We're a joke. We stink. You're like, bro, can you pay a little bit more attention to Chelsea and not the doctors?

This same consortium of owners, like largely is involved. And I was like, well, at least I'm going to get something out of the Dodgers ownership. No, no. They're going to ruin. They solely exist to ruin my life. So they took over Chelsea and they've run us into the ground and made us an absolute laughing stock. But they're going to continue to just run baseball. It's awesome. It's the best. It really is. It's great. Well, we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to do our best to figure out what the starting lineup on opening day is going to look like for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And also, who makes the bullpen and who is out of the starting rotation. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the pH next. Diamondback show. Well, Circle K is Derek's third stop. Circle K is Damon's third stop. And of course,

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20-ounce products right now, you will save 25 cents per gallon on gas, which is very helpful with gas being the way it is. It's kind of important for us. So make sure to stop by today. Also, do not miss out on those inner circle fuel days. So to get yourself prepared for that, sign up right now. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. And you know whatever the moment, it is never ordinary at Bet365. That's because Bet365 loves to make sports more fun. They offer the widest range of games and markets available for live in-game betting across 78 sports. And that's because Bet365 pioneered live in-game betting. Live in-game betting on baseball can be

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moment it is never ordinary about 365 must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help call one 800 next step text next step to 53344 or visit problemgambling.az.gov well the diamondbacks game is about to start here shortly and they released today's starting lineup. When you take a look, a lot of guys are in the starting lineup today. Tori discussed yesterday was due to the WBC and wanting to get guys out there. This team is going to lose their entire infield

when March 1st comes around. So it was important to get those guys out there. Meanwhile, on the mound, again, Thomas Hatch, not a name a lot of fans are familiar with. He was a player that was assigned to a minor league deal back in January. So he will be on the mound probably just for one. inning, Tori said, but today's lineup does feature Cotel Marte hitting leadoff,

Perdomo hitting second, Pavin Smith, hitting third, and batting DH. Then you have Gabby Moreno, fourth, Aronado, excuse me, over there, third, hitting fifth, Carlos Santana hitting sixth, then Alec Thomas in centerfield, Ryan Waldschmidt and left field,

and Jorge Barrosa in right field. So again, one of the things Tori did tell us was teams are required, managers are required to put out so many starters for each spring training game. So it's a little bit of a difficult balance. He said that in game two, you'll see a bit more of the guys that you don't see regularly out there just to kind of go back and forth there. But again, a lot of this roster is going to be lost due to the World Baseball Classic for a period of time. It's not really like those guys are going to miss, you know, getting ready for the season.

And in fact, we've talked time and time again that we feel the WBC is going to prepare these guys perhaps better than spring training does. So it's a good thing that the Diamondbacks have so many guys participating in it. But taking a look at this lineup, Damon, I figured it would be a good time for us to predict what the opening day starting lineup is going to look like. And then perhaps when opening day comes around, we can see how big of fools we were when all of this comes to pass. But I have Geraldo Perdomo hitting leadoff.

that's first and foremost for me. Then I have Catelle Marte batting second because I feel like Catell is the lead off hitter. Do you think so? Are you basing that just on today? Are you basing that in general? I'm basing that off last season who I would, I mean, I know that this is, you can actually look this up,

but I think Catell led off more than anybody last season. Well, he only wanted to hit first or second, but there was that period of time where they finally gave up on the idea of Pardomo hitting 9th, which, they were doing early in the season last year once again. Yeah, that's nuts to think about. Right, and they moved him up to the top of the lineup, and then he has himself a career season.

So I don't know, I think Pardomo's ability to get on base and lead things off is good. I know Marte, you're not going to get them out of the one or the two hole. So you could probably interchange. Whoever is going to bat lead off, the other one's going to bat second, most likely. It's either going to be Marte first and Pertomo second or Pardomo first and Marte second. Then I am predicting Corby and Carroll is going to be back by opening day and I have him hitting third in the lineup in right field. Then I have Gabrielle Moreno hitting fourth and Paven Smith hitting fifth as the DH.

Then I have Aronado, Santana and Thomas, six, seven, eighth in center field. I do not have Jordan Lawler. I do not have Alec Thomas. I have Tim Tawa starting in center field. On opening day? On opening day. Any reason behind that? Any inside information from like being out there?

None. I will say that Jordan Lawler has the upper hand during spring, but I think Tim Tawa has the experience. And I think Tim Tawa might just prove to be a better defensive option and perhaps even a better hitter than Jordan Lawler. That's the only thing I'm basing this on. But again, it's also because I don't believe that Louris Gurriel will be medically cleared by opening day to participate. I could see him, though, as we discussed, being the DH. over Pavin-Smith as well, right? Lordus? Lordus, yeah. Yeah, I agree. We know we're going to have Merrill Kelly on the mound on opening day, but the bigger question here is what is the bullpen? So we're playing the Dodgers game one, correct?

We are playing the Dodgers on game one. And that means that we're probably getting Yamamoto, you would assume? That would be my assumption as well. Okay, so we're facing a righty, correct? Correct. So that probably means Pavin Smith is going to be in the lineup. Yep. Yeah, you're right.

You would assume that probably means Alec Thomas is probably going to be in the lineup. You would assume. I'm trying to think of guys who can pretty much solely hit Ritey's. Yeah. Because that's going to impact what I'm thinking here, how this lineup goes. Man, I hope Pavin is not the DH, and I hope he's the first basement. But I don't know if that's going to be the case or not. Why do you say that?

Because I think that means that Lourdes would be available to go. Okay. Essentially. Okay. Well, I got the lineup for us today here, if you want to look at that. Yeah. I don't know if this. That's the one I went over earlier.

Yeah, I don't know if this impacts anyone's thought process on what they would predict to be the opening day lineup or if this just doesn't really mean all that much to anybody. It very much looks like what they could put out there. You know, I mean, obviously. Mine is with Corbin instead of Barrosa, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, um, that's telling to me too, though, Derek, like, Barossa is arguably a better defender than Alec Thomas is. But they have him in right and they have Alec and center. To me, like, I think that that's purposeful because that's maybe what they're planning on kind of, kind of doing here. And they're,

and they're saying, we're going to have, you know, Barrosa essentially, you know, be in right field in place of Corbyn for now. Yeah. I don't know if that's the case or not. But that's, that's kind of the way I'm reading that. I think that it looks like Marte Pardomo. Carol. Carol. Gabby. I think those first four are pretty set.

Haven 5. Aronado 6. I'll say Santana 7. I don't think Lordus will be in the starting lineup. Let's go Ryan Walschman. and let's go Alec Thomas 9th. Okay. And I'm going to, I'm buying it.

Thomas and Centerfield? Yeah. And I'm buying and Waldy and I'm buying it, Derek. And I'm buying it. And I'm ready to have some egg on my face if that's what it needs to be. But you heard it here first on this podcast. Ryan Waldschmidt is taking this starting job in left field and he is running with it. Let's go.

Asterix. Until Lord of Scorial gets back. Let's go. I love it. I am, I am buying in so hard on him being in this first lineup. on spring train probably more than I should but I'm I'm ready I'm ready to just get juiced up about this season man Ryan Walschman the time is now I'm I'm predicting opening day lineup this guy is is the next like staple of the Diamondbacks organization

cinema let's rock cinema that is cinema that's the definition of cinema speaking of other with other parts of it we know like I said Merrill Kelly on the mound bullpen ready for this this is who I got in the bullpen Brandon Garcia as our only lefty. What about Abner? Not Abner? Not yet. Not yet. Because I don't think from what I've heard from Mike and from Torrey,

it doesn't sound like they care that much about having multiple lefties in the bullpen. But that's a lot of work for Brandon Garcia. I think he's capable of it, but he would be the only left-hander. Then I have Drey Jameson, Cade Stroud, Ryan Thompson, Paul Seawald, Taylor Clark, and Michael Soroka. Sorry, Michael. And then I actually have Kevin Ginkle as our closer. I don't know.

I've had a lot of negative feedback when I talk about Kevin Ginkle closing. I know Damon would never say a bad word about somebody from Tucson, so you're not going to get any argument out of him. But overall, I think that like the one thing they're going to be looking out of the closer is going to be guys with experience and veteran presence. And that kind of means that it's probably down to Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkle, or Paul Sewell.

So there you guys go. That's for you guys. Speaking of things. Mike makes a good. point in the chat. They might try to manipulate while these service time and call him up early in the season. So that's possible. I don't believe that makes a difference, but I could be wrong about that. I absolutely could be wrong about that. I know that they've made some

changes to the service time rules. So it could be wrong. But we made some changes to our merch store, by the way. We have our 30% off sale going on right now, boys and girls. So if you want to truly get yourself ready for the season, go check out our merch store. Of course, make sure to check out all of the Diamondbacks shirts. Get your that that wonderful jesse junior shirt get yourself the go snake's shirt more importantly go get yourself in arizona over everything shirt as part of our new collection sale ends this saturday so get in there get yourself something new visit store dot all city network dot com slash collection

slash phnx dash locker that's a lot you can also go to go p hnx dot com get to our merch store from there as well i don't think i realized how fire that murk shirt is at the bottom of uh yeah that collection. Yeah, that merch, that merch, that merch shirts go. I like the Dylan the villain shirt as well. That's one of our hardest shirts in the locker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that, I know that the all for the A wildcat shirt is up there, but it should be the red line turnover sort T-shirt. I mean, that shit is sick. That, that shirt, somebody worked really hard on making sure that shirt got made, didn't they, Damon? Somebody did. Somebody did. Somebody did. Two people in particular. Two individuals. Yeah. Well, we, I don't want to interrupt you guys

getting to go watch baseball, Damon, but I do want to honor one thing. Before we get out of here. And that is the fact that today is a very special anniversary, at least for me. Today is the day on this day back in 1992 that the Simpson episode, Homer at the Bat, featuring legends in Major League Baseball, Don Mattingly, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr., Wade Boggs, Ozzie Smith, Steve Sacks, Don Mattingley, go shave those sideburns, Mike Sosha, Daryl Strawberry, drinking the Elyxor, all of that. And, of course, it's a very formative of episode. I was 11 years old, Damon, when this episode came out.

And this is something that I will forever hold near and dear to my heart. The Simpsons are one of those shows that, like, I don't know if they matter to, like, your generation as much. I think I was the tail end of the, of the Simpsons era, for sure. Yeah, like, it's, it's. Family guy definitely kind of took the chain a little bit. It did, it did. From my generation standpoint. But, like, I grew up watching The Simpsons.

since, you know, when I was a kid with my parents and whatnot. I always thought this show got better with time, but I will never forget how big this baseball episode was for me. I probably, like, I'm going to date myself here. I recorded this as a kid on VHS and watched it almost until that VHS tape broke because it was baseball and it was the Simpsons. The old TiVo. But, yeah, man, I mean, it's crazy to me that this episode now is as old as it is.

And according to some things I read online, many public. applications still feel like it's one of the best episodes of The Simpsons that ever existed. I would say as far as having, you know, because a staple of the Simpsons became guest stars and all of this other stuff where you've had almost everybody that's a celebrity. I mean, even John Boy has been in an episode of The Simpsons, right? Yeah, John Boy was in an episode of the Simpson. I didn't know that. Yeah, he does a John Boy breakdown of a fight between Grandpa and Moe on the baseball field.

And it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. You know you've made it when you're. are on the Simpsons, just like a local band that used to dress up like Ned Flanders called Okily Doakily. They were on The Simpsons one time and they did like an end credits performance. So let me get this straight. John Boy to Dalton Feeley to the Ph.NXD Backs podcast. We are simply two connections away from being on a Simpsons episode.

Once Matt Graney sees me and realizes that I'm a real person, he's going to make me a no cartoon character. Yeah. It's got to happen. You actually are. If anyone here at Ph. And XX Sports is a cartoon. character. It's my guy Derek Montaia. It's this guy right here. Absolutely.

Guess what? Did you see the Simpsons episode the other day, by the way, that were March hit Homer with their car? Yes. Yes. I love it. And then he walks in all bloody. He's like, did you not see me? The show is amazing and manages somehow to stay relevant throughout the years. But again, shout out to them for putting out one of the most iconic baseball episodes of any show of all time. But again, let's go watch some Diamondbacks baseball, folks. It's time. We waited long. enough we get to watch a dude stand in the box and bat and it's happening very soon so go get out get down on either being there in person or the debacks dot tv or the MLB app wherever you're

watching it and let's watch some baseball we thank you guys so much for joining us we hope you have a wonderful weekend you can follow us on twitter i'm at cap underscore kman with a k damon is at damon dog with a daWG and as always we're all damon's dogs bark our show is at ph and x underscore debacks but all roads do lead to at p h and x and underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. Love you.

We'll see you back here on Monday at 12 p.m. for another episode of the show. Until then, like I said, enjoy some baseball, enjoy your weekend, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when it's actually being played.