PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Team USA is headed to the World Baseball Classic championship with Merrill Kelly on the bump

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

Team USA has advanced to the World Baseball Classic championship and will be led on the mound by Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly. We discuss why Merrill the Mainstay is a great choice despite the criticism about him getting the start. We also have your updates from D-backs camp, including more on Gabriel Moreno’s injury and if we should panic about Zac Gallen’s spring training stats.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Our next PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch is LIVE! Join us on Friday, March 24th for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Come hang with the PHNX crew, fellow Suns’ fans and Diehards as we watch KD, Booker, and the Suns battle in the final stretch of the season as they take on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Sacramento Kings.Checkout the PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch Eventbrite to reserve your spot today. And Diehards, check Discord for your exclusive discount link!Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxOGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXSPORTS_15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the P. HNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia. I love Big League Chew as this jacket illustrates. And I'm occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This guy is, of course, my vice mayor. He's also Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. 10 days until opening day, Derek.

10 days. 10 days. We're almost there. We are almost there and we are excited. And we are excited for you guys to be here. Of course, there's so much to talk about. We can't wait to get started. Of course, we have your Arizona Diamondbacks updates.

We know right now that there's a very exciting game going on just around the corner that I can't see. Jesse can't see. They position that TV very, very well so that we can't watch it while we're in here doing this show. But Japan versus Mexico, I've loved what I've seen so far. And I can't wait to see who wins this game. But of course, we do have your Dback spring training updates. Jesse was out there at Kemmelback Ranch with your updates from the White Sox game. The Diamondbacks win.

They climb Mount 500, Jesse in spring training. And a big part of that, of course, was this monster known as Corbyn Carroll, who just can't even let the poor PA announcer get out the time of the start of the game and the weather conditions before he's hitting a double and running around the base path. It was, yeah, it was literally, I mean, the game starts the first pitch is thrown in Corbyn Carroll with his speed. When Corbyn Carroll doubles, he's on second base in a matter of, you know, three or four seconds, it feels like. Correct. So, yeah, he doubled to open the game for the Diamondbacks.

He also singled in two runs later in the game. He stole a base. He walked. This kid is pretty good there. He's pretty damn good. He's pretty damn good. And it's going to be fun to watch him do this for this team for a very long time. as you know.

But another guy that is a new guy that has been doing pretty well this spring is Bryce Jarvis, who got the start today for the Diamondbacks, not to look too deeply into it. I do think it's a bit interesting that Jarvis is still in camp when some of the names we're going to discuss here have been sent down, but Jarvis had himself a nice day out there. Yeah, I think Jarvis is kind of a filler right now. The Diamondbacks are in a weird situation with Merrill Kelly still being at the WBC.

Yes. So I wouldn't read too much into him still being here. I don't think there's any chance that he makes the opening day roster. Generally, no matter how well you perform in spring training, you know, if you had an ERA over 8 and AA last year, you're probably not going to make the opening day roster. But all that said, I thought Bryce Jarvis pitched really well today. I know he gave up a three-run homer, which wasn't great. He did hang a change up at one point in this game.

But other than that, he was just in control from the get-go, some good strike-up. out stuff. His command was pretty good. He didn't walk anyone. I think Bryce Jarvis is a candidate to have a pretty big season for the debacks in their minor league system. Jarvis is a first round draft pick just a couple years ago, a guy that's kind of falling off the radar a little bit because he didn't have, didn't put up good numbers in, in AA last year at all. But I think he's, I think he's poised for a big year. Ryan in the chat's doing the USA chant. We're excited about the team, USA being in the championship.

Brett Johnson, of course, Brett is hyped about the future of this team. Unfortunately, we did have some injuries, and those injuries have occurred to both of our catchers getting hit by pitches. Carson Kelly was removed from the game today after being hit by a pitch on his right forearm, and he seemed to be concerned about that injury when Jesse talked to him after his start. It's Carson Kelly there, pal. Oh, you don't have Carson Kelly. Okay, no, no worries. But Carson Kelly, very concerned about that injury. And then also Gabriel Moreno took a 95 mile per hour fastball of his hand on, was that Sunday?

That was Saturday. Saturday. But x-rays were not needed. He should be good to go. But it sounds like Kelly, there's more concern there about Kelly potentially missing some time. Yeah, Carson was concerned when we saw him in the clubhouse. He basically said, or he was asked about his level of concern. and he said it was not minimal. So it does not sound like Carson Kelly is feeling great about this, which I mean, I probably wouldn't be feeling great either if I took, you know, 90 miles an hour to my right forearm. But he did not seem optimistic to be perfectly honest with you.

So I think that the diamond backs are, they're in an interesting position. It does seem like Gabby Moreno is perfectly fine. We've still had a lot of questions about him. I don't believe Gabby Moreno has even had an x-ray. It sounds like that that injury was really nothing. He's day-to-day. Hopefully he'll get back into a game pretty soon here.

But you don't want, I mean, I know some people might be somewhat excited about the possibility of seeing Gabby Moreno as like the primary catcher. Yeah, you don't want that right now. But you still don't want that because, you know, at that point you're forced to, you know, maybe Jose Herrera, PJ Higgins, has had a decent spring as well. Ollie Sanchez would be in the mix as well. Carson Kelly is significantly better than any of those next catchers in line. So this would still be a big loss for the Diamondbacks, no matter how you think about Carson Kelly.

And hopefully he's okay. We don't know for sure yet, but you don't often see players that concerned, that clearly concerned about an injury right after it happens. We do have that video now of Carson Kelly after the game. It's not minimal. I mean, it's one of those things where I've been hit up there before, and it's never fun. So you just don't know, and I'll hope him for the best.

Yeah, and he had it wrapped apparently immediately after the game. Yeah, he did have it wrapped. His entire right arm basically was wrapped after the game. Yeah. We're getting an update now that Mexico is up 3-0 on Team Japan. So that's pretty incredible. And there's a good chance we might see a rematch between Team USA and Team Mexico, which would be insane. In other injury news, Corbyn Martin has elected to have surgery and is now doubtful to return this season at all per Tori Lavello.

Not great. Not great. Yeah. I mean, we knew as of a couple days ago that it was going to be months, not weeks. Didn't know it was going to be the season. We didn't know it was going to be the season. anytime you're talking about a significant shoulder injury, it feels like that's kind of always on the table. So, you know, hope nothing but the best for Corbyn Martin. I know that he was pretty torn up over this,

especially with how good he looked in spring training. I was thinking of Corbyn Martin as potentially what Archie Bradley was for this baseball team back in 2017. When Archie Bradley just really struggled to put things together in the rotation, had some injuries. Corbin Martin has had kind of a similar path where things just haven't really worked out for him the way that the Diamondbacks hoped.

But this year. The way he's hoped. Like he's suffered so many injuries in a short time here. And this one, this one's devastating though. This is now a doubtful to return this season situation. And that's, you know, of course,

the worst possible route that this could come. I think the debacks were looking at him as maybe a multi-inning guy. Not like four or five. innings, but a guy who could give you a couple of innings, kind of like Archie Bradley did back in 2017. And Archie Bradley in 2017, I'd basically, you know, the best year in recent Diamondbacks history out of the bullpen. I don't necessarily want to say Corbyn was about to do that. But he gave me Archie Bradley vibes with the spring training that he was having. And yeah, you know,

certainly wish him nothing but the best in his recovery. And hopefully next year you can come back and do what it looked like he was going to do this season. In other injury news when it comes to the bullpen, now we are finding out per Steve Gilbert that Mark Melanson may not return by the, may not be able to return before the All-Star break, but he will not need surgery. So he will be back this season,

but he is going to be gone. He is going to miss. Once again, like Tori Lobello said, months, not weak. So Mark Malanson, again, another guy that to be honest, hopefully this injury is related to, you know, to some of the performance issues he was having. Yeah. Just so that, you know, maybe, maybe once he gets right, he can still be a valuable piece

of this bullpen when he returns. But he's going to come back and he's going to throw 97, you know, he's going to have a better curveball than he's ever had. It's going to just give him superpowers. See, I've gotten him to now not believe in reality and just go the fantasy route. And I appreciate that. But more importantly, what this does obviously is it leaves that opportunity open now the opportunity we've talked

about somebody just needs to kind of grab that brass ring because they are you know they they are need a bullpen arms considering that these were kind of guaranteed i think these were two guaranteed spots uh for these guys in the pen that tori lovallo will need someone to step in and provide not just quality innings but like somebody he can you know rely on for yeah you know for this situation. Luckily though, both of those guys, you know, we don't know what we were going to get out of them, right? So that is true. You know, it would be a little bit more devastating, potentially to lose like a maybe a jo-mantiply or something like that, you know, but anyway, lots of roster. At this point, just just bubble wrap everyone. Yeah, bubble wrap everybody.

Like this last week for the Diamondbacks has been kind of brutal on the injury front. And it just happened one after another. It's kind of at the point where it's like, do we have to play the remaining spring training games? Like, can we just kind of? to skip ahead of the regular season at this point. Because, yeah, I mean, Gabby Moreno, that thing, which in the moment looked bad for the debacks on Saturday. And then Carson Kelly with today and Corbin Martin and Mark Balancin last week, we had the collision between Diego Castillo and Geraldo Pardomo.

It's insane, man. Like, like, let's stop playing spring training games. Let's just skip ahead to the real thing at this point, right? Let's keep throwing the minor league guys out there to play and prove themselves. Let's keep all those starters just, you know, in the dugout. please. Ryan said Jesse is talking about 90s movie rookie of the year, which I 100% thought the same thing. I just needed to point that out. But there are lots of other roster moves. By the way, shout out to our friends, the Emeril of Sod Poodles, which some of these guys are

going to make their way down to the sod Poodles. We do have a mystery package that we have not opened and we have no idea what's in it that the sod Poodle sent us that we are going to be opening on this show. But when it comes to minor league roster moves, the best, the biggest news, obviously, is that Brandon Fott was reassigned to minor league camp on Sunday, and Tommy Henry was optioned to AAA Reno today. So there is two

of the four major competitors you could say for that final rotation spot. Yeah, yeah. These are kind of the two moves that we've sort of been waiting for that we figured we're probably going to happen. We've been saying for a while that it kind of

felt like maybe from the beginning. This was a battle between Dr. Jaymison and Ryan Nelson, when you have two guys who come up and have sub 1.5 ERAs pitching against some of the better teams in your division, you know, in September at the end of the year, you're probably not going to send both of them down starting the next season. I just didn't really see that as being something the Diamondbacks would be likely to do. And sure enough, Brandon Fott was sent down yesterday on Sunday. Tommy Henry officially sent down today after making his final appearance yesterday. So they'll be back. You're going to see, in Mike Hazen said, you're going to see

all four of these guys that we've been talking about pitch for the diamond backs this year. There's really no question about that as long as they stay healthy. But this is the timing of things. The debacks are not going to open the year with Tommy Henry or Brandon fought on the opening day roster. And to be honest, the way things are going, we should be thankful that the diamondbacks do have so many options when it comes to these young guys that they've sent down. Other notable sendouts were Mitchell Stumpo, who had himself a great world baseball classic. He did. Zach McAllister, the gigantic man, and our friend, Buddy Kennedy, your buddy and my buddy,

buddy Kennedy. And again, these are all guys that we could see throughout this season and probably will see. They've proved themselves to be reliable and, you know, be able to do things at a major league level. Buddy Kennedy especially had a really hot bat. Yeah, he had like 500 in spring training. It's crazy. So, yeah, it's another situation there where you kind of feel like no matter how, no matter if Buddy Kennedy it hit 700 in the Cactus League that he was probably going to get sent down anyway.

We joked about that with Jordan Lawler, but it kind of is the truth. Like, it's almost what these guys would have to do to really change the minds of Tori Lovolo and his staff in the front office. You know, even, even, you know, Lovolo's assessment is an assessment, but there's still a lot of other people involved in the decision making when it comes to sending these guys down. But Lovolo explained the decision to send fought down, and we have a clip of that. Yeah, the thinking is that we have a lot of guys that are competing for one spot. He, of course, was given an opportunity. We love what we saw. It was just, you know, time to get him back to the minor leagues.

get him stretched out and get a move in the right direction so he can he can prepare for a season um you know we we evaluate everything um we love the stuff we just felt like it was the best situation for him and his development at this point in time to go down and and continue growing and learning and he's going to find himself in the big leagues at some point um but we just felt like it was the right move at this time and the diamondbacks also sent down Tommy Henry and Tori Lavello also commented about what his message to the Diamondbacks left-hander was today when that move was made. What we explained to Tommy is that one day we'll be having a different conversation and we're never going to have to send him down again. And he's got some work to do.

He's close. He's going to be, he'd be very good right now, but we don't want to settle for just very good. We want him to command the baseball, command all the secondary pitches. So we sent down there to work on some specific things. He accepted it. And he'll be on his journey to get back. here as soon as possible. And I find it interesting to that Tori said that the team did discuss a possible bullpen

role with Henry, but it's not an option for Brandon Fott. Yeah, that was interesting. Also, kind of along the lines of what we've been talking about a little bit recently with Tommy Henry, maybe being a guy that the Diamondbacks would be comfortable with in the bullpen, whereas we've kind of been saying all along, the D-backs believe in Brandon Fought as a starter, which as they should, right? I mean, we believe in Brandon fought too. We think he's going to be a great pitcher in the big leagues. And when a guy is, when you feel that way about a guy and he hasn't touched the majors yet, yeah, you're probably going to try to keep him stretched out.

You want him to come in to the big leagues as a starting pitcher. Tommy Henry last year, you know, had some good games, had some not so good games. I think the debacks might view him as a little bit more of a swing man at this point. And that's not a bad thing. My voice. is cutting out. That's not a bad thing. It's been a long day for Jesse. It's been a terribly long day. No, like if Tommy Henry is your guy who's kind of your swing man who, you know, maybe makes a spot start every now and then and comes out of the bullpen, he's, I think he could

be really good at that. Like, I think Tommy Henry has shown some things this spring. The Diamondbacks talked about how commanding his secondary pitches was something in particular that they want him to focus on down in Reno, as well as, commanding his fastball. He did have a few too many walks, I think, in some of these Cactus League outings. So hopefully he can get some of those things ironed out and come right back. We've talked a lot about the long relief role and that we at times don't know who could fit that role. Is Henry that spot or is Tori Lovela? No one. No one. Nobody. We're not filling

that role. No, they're, yeah, they're not. We asked about that again today. And Tori basically said that it's not really a priority for the team. Having a guy who can go four, five, six inning, something like that. I don't know about that. It's interesting. It's interesting. I think Torrey's explanation,

and he did also say, this isn't really my department, which is fair, but Tori's explanation was basically that the Diamondbacks have a lot of guys with options that can bounce back and forth. So, you know, if something happens, if a starter gets removed early or whatnot,

they can call up one of these young, They can call up some help from AAA in the bullpen or for the rotation if they needed to pretty easily. But what happens in a game? That's what I'm saying. What happens in a game? Yeah, you can't make a roster move during a game. You can't call someone up from Reno in the second inning. Right.

So I think they could be in a tough spot. Like if one of these first outings of the season, you know, Zach Davies like gets roughed up and leaves in the second inning or something like that, it's going to be tough. Like if your bullpen isn't fresh, it's going to be hard to piece that game together. But the debacks seem to be okay, not having someone in that role. I'm not okay. Alarm bells are ringing about Zach Gallin right now with his performances, his spring training. Why do I feel like I'm panicking too early?

Am I panicking too early? I think you're probably panicking too early. I want to panic, Jesse. I want to hit the panic button. I want to hit it. He did. The Velo has been down a little bit for Zach Gallen, 91.4 miles an hour in his start over the weekend in Cleveland or against Cleveland.

Does he not? Is it not, you think it's just a matter of not really needing to show his stuff because it's spring training maybe? I don't think so. Oh, I don't like that. Gallin did, like, I'm not necessarily concerned about the result side of things. Like, Gallen has a very ugly 8.44 ERA, 2.16 whip. Like, the numbers are terrible. Nine walks to seven strikeouts.

That I don't like. That's a little, yeah. That I don't like. There's definitely a red flag there. I'm not as concerned with the results, though, as much as I'm, a little concerned about the velocity. When a guy's velo is down more than two miles an hour this close to when the season starts especially,

it's a little hard for me to believe that like when, you know, 10 days from now, Galin is going to be throwing 94s and 95s again. Was this his third start? This was, I believe it was his third start. He has 10.2. Yeah, I believe it was his third start of spring training. I mean, he's made some backfield game appearances too.

Right. So, yeah, I mean, he's fairly stretched out. He was at 70, 75 pitches, something like that. But the stuff has just not quite looked the same as what we saw last year. Do you think he regrets not accepting the invite to be on Team USA? I don't. I mean, maybe he kind of feels like, oh gosh, if I was pitching in Team USA, I'd be sucking on a much bigger stage. I don't know how he would feel about that.

Maybe, maybe. I mean, Zach Allen is an ultra competitor. So I have a feeling that he would be approaching. Team USA baseball pretty differently that he would be pushing Cactus League baseball. I agree. But Team USA did advance past Team Cuba in the semifinals and now is in the WBC championship game

possibly against Team Mexico once again. Yeah. That game is happening right now. And it is very exciting. And other exciting Team USA news that relates to us, it appears, it appears that Merrill Kelly is set to be Team USA's starter in the championship. championship game on Tuesday, even though that's not been made official yet.

But Merrill Kelly will pitch in that game for sure, even if he doesn't start. Yeah, yeah. I think Merrill Kelly is definitely going to pitch in that game. Frankly, Team USA doesn't have that many pitchers that are available. So I think he kind of has to. Mark DeRosa, I believe, said that it looks like it will be Merrill Kelly's game. I think he said that in a post-game press for the other night. So it sounds like it will be Merrill Kelly starting that game.

We don't have that official official at this point. A Merrill Clare. There you go. I like it. I like that. I like it. Tori discussed Merrill being ready for this opportunity. And of course, we know he is.

But Levalho knows the man pretty well. And my discussions with him leading up to the WBC and even his manager, I explained to him, of them that they're that merrill is ready for that opportunity always wants the ball in the biggest situation the biggest time um and it came up in the columbia game i think obviously now if it happens where he throws tomorrow it would be a great opportunity for him to let the world see that he's a pretty darn good pitcher and ready for this challenge so we're proud of him we're proud of him no matter what happens um i know he's going to pitch at some point tomorrow if he gets a start it's a great accomplishment for him the one thing i love about this

is hearing all of the guys say like how much they would, you know, like what a joke it is to potentially be playing spring training games instead of this, right? Like, yeah, we know the discussions come up. Jose Altuve got hit and we'll miss significant time for the Houston Astros now because of that. So it's not without its consequences, right? But look at what's happening to the Diamondbacks in spring training. So it's not like guys aren't getting hurt one way or another out there playing baseball. Thomas is way safer with Team Mexico right now.

He's right. Keep him with Team Mexico. Dude, the celebration that Thomas had going on with his fellow outfielders in Team Mexico, that's incredible, man. So it's great to see these guys thriving, and I hope to see Merrill Kelly have an outstanding outing tomorrow. And so does Tori, who will be watching it. He discussed whether the team would host a watch party at their, after their game over at Salt River Fields. It's hard for us because it's like four o'clock start here, but I will definitely be in touch with them. I have a group text with the group of the WBC players, and now it's just dwindled down to Ale Thomas and Merrill Kelly responding.

So I can look at face to face. And trust me, nobody likes the group text and the memes and the gifts more than Al Thomas. He loves it. But I responded today and Merrill to something today. and Merrill got engaged a little bit. He knows we're proud of them. We'll all be watching. I guarantee as soon as we turn the page on tomorrow,

what we got to do here, everybody will tune into what's going on there. And he's going to make us proud. I know that. I don't know if they're having a watch party, but we're having a watch party. Me and this guy are going to be watching that game tomorrow. So make sure to join us because we are not only going to have

a little bit of a watch party here, but then we will be going live with our regular episode, which will be a postgame episode. tomorrow after the World Baseball Classic. Basically, we're going to be live for about four or five hours in a row. He's so worried. He is so concerned. He's like, what are we going to talk about

for five hours? And meanwhile, I have a dinosaur costume, so I'm ready to go. I'm all about Team America. I'm all about everything. And of course, I'm all about, we have plenty of four peaks of beers on hand. So, of course, you need to tune in for that because Lord knows what state of mind I'm going to

be at into do a postgame show after watching a three hour not would no pitch clock no pay it's not it's not going to be three hours it's not going to be three hours anyway I got plenty of my favorite four peaks beers here so of course make sure to join us uh and grab some four peaks beer uh if you want to join uh drink do a drink a drink along we're doing a watch along do a drink along with us uh and of course uh if you want to go out and check out the four peaks eighth street pub now is the best time to do so they have spring training tours, see the ghosts, see the way the beers make, see how the ghosts help make the beers, all sorts of fun to be had. And also, new coach, new GM, the Cardinals have the third

pick in the draft. It's a big opportunity for the Cardinals team. I don't know why I have a Cardinals ad read here, but apparently people are excited for the Arizona Cardinals. So make sure to go down and check out the draft over at Four Peaks A Street Pub because that's where they're going to have a draft party, viewing party. So make sure to check that out. I don't know. I don't know. I don't Sometimes I get it. I get it. We do stuff for other shows, but you know what? Here's the thing.

It's baseball season. So I don't want to see this Cardinals draft stuff. It throws me off in my ad read. But of course, we'll take it up with Max. Yeah, we're going to take that up with Max. He's not going to be happy with me. But again, it is a big opportunity for the Arizona Cardinals. So the best place to take in this pivotal moment and the rest of the NFL draft on April 27th is at the Four Peaks, A street pub.

Must be 21 years or older to enjoy their beer and enjoy responsibly. But having the chicken tendees, that's ageless. So there's no age restrictions when it comes to the chicken tendees. You can also fuel up at our friends at Circle K. Check out your local Circle K for the best coffee, beer, and snack selection and premium gas. It's the best place to, again, fuel yourself up, fuel up your car, and make sure you're ready for this baseball season. Because you should take a road trip to go watch baseball somewhere else. The one place that's relatively close to us and within our division that you should probably

check out is course field because that place is spectacular so you are looking for a place to go do that fill up at circle k on your way out there let us know that you're doing that because of course we'd love to we'd love to see you guys uh on your road trips during this baseball season and we're also very excited to partner with our friends at circle k uh to kick things off we've teamed up for an amazing giveaway opportunity just text ph and x to 31310 for an opportunity to win a $500 gas card see show notes for details let them them win a gas card and then get out there and take this road trip that I'm talking about I can't wait to take a road trip I just got a brand new car I showed Jesse it today

I've heard Derek I made him stop in the parking lot and walk upstairs to come check out my car and he oohed and odd at it in a I mean not in the same way that I ooh and on my route for every single time I opened the door I knew he was going to get this way but you know you should have seen him he he was impressed he was impressed it's got a charging port a wireless charge I still can't get over the wireless charge I do love the new car smell yeah the new car My 2008 is... It doesn't have that anymore. He lost that a few years ago.

He's eaten too much salad and go in there. But of course, like I said, make sure to text PHNX to 31310 and win yourself that gas card. Of course, it doesn't matter how much time we take. It doesn't matter how busy we are. How much news there is to cover? How much news there is to cover? Exactly.

We do the damn thing on this show. And when I say that, I mean, every week on this show is Shark Week. And every day on this show is Earth Day. But every Monday on this show, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox.

And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go, wow. What's something interesting in my mail? Jesse told me you guys want us to do play by play. I'm fully on board with that. They want me to do play by play. They want you to do color commentary. Yeah, well, whatever. I don't know.

I'm fine with either one. Tucson's rule, Zona Tucson 93. I don't know about Tucson ruling, but that's a whole other thing. I don't want to make Damon sad. David's already, Damon's had a rough week. So don't let me go in on. Don't let me go in on that.

But what do we got, Damon, for our first question? First question comes from Sean McNally. And Sean asks, my mailbag Monday question, would you rather keep Paven or per domo? I like Paven's late inning pinch hitting and DH capability as well, as Sunday first base starts. I feel like Rojas can spell Nick every now and then, if needed, with Longo at third. That's a really interesting perspective and one that we really haven't talked about.

It feels like our conversation is, is it going to be Kyle Lewis or Pavin Smith? Yeah. But meanwhile, I think you'd be fucking insane to send Kyle Lewis down with the way he's hitting right now. I'm sorry. He has the highest OPS of any Diamondback spring training hitter of guys who have at least 20 plate appearances, Kyle Lewis has the high. And he makes it look fairly effortless. He's hitting the ball extremely hard.

He's had a lot of exit velos over 100 miles an hour. So, I mean, back to your question, I don't know. I think that with the way that this season is going, I don't feel as confident about only having one shortstop like that. I don't think Nick Ahmed potentially has that durability to play every game with only getting relief every once in a while from Josh Rojas, nor do I really feel confident in Rojas' ability to play shortstop, to be honest. Maybe situationally, maybe late in a game where you have to do some lineup switches.

I don't think the Diamondbacks feel comfortable with Josh Rawls playing shortstop. Right. I mean, Josh Ross lost playing time last year because of his defense at third base. I don't think the team is going to feel comfortable putting him in a shortstop, right, for sure. I think those days are probably over. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think the team is really facing a decision between Pave and. Smith and Heraldo Perdomo.

As we've said before, I think it really is Paven Smith versus Kyle Lewis in terms of how the opening day roster will shake out. Perdomo has got to be in there because the team needs a backup shortstop, as you were just saying. In the long term, it's kind of an interesting question. Like maybe you wind up in a situation where you can't really have, you don't really have room for both of these guys and they haven't really established themselves as everyday players. I'm inclined to lean toward Perdomo just a little bit, given how many left-handed hitting

outfielders that the diamond backs already have, Pavin Smith, I still think that there's some ceiling that he can reach offensively. But the fact that he just doesn't bring that much defensively, and frankly, I don't think he's ever going to bring a whole lot of value outside of his offense. That's kind of always been his profile. I think he could get to a place where that offense is above average,

but I'm not sure he could get to a place where that offense is good enough to be, you know, an everyday type player. Yeah. Whereas Perdomo is still young and at least for the moment, the diamondbacks need him to play shortstop. The other part of this, Derek, is Nick Ahmed's arm is not the same that it once was. That's something we haven't really talked about yet. Nick Ahmed in a play over the weekend that happened, I think it was against the Guardians. They did a double steel.

Guy Steele second. There's a guy on third base as well who comes darting home. Nick Ahmed's throw home was late. And you can just tell that Ahmed's arm does not have nearly the strength that it did before his entire shoulder surgery situation. So I think that makes Pardomo all the more valuable to this team. And I think it also makes Blaze Alexander more valuable. I think you'll probably see him get called up at some point this year. Do you think that's more of a warming up thing or do you think that's more of a, you know, this is where Nick's at?

I kind of think that might be where it's at. I mean, maybe as the season goes along and he gets more comfortable, he's able to let loose a little bit more. But I wouldn't think that that's just because he's holding back. I think that that's kind of his full effort at this point. Jesse is tough but fair. What else we got here? Brett Johnson asks, which matchup would you prefer to see Team USA have? Team Mexico, where I think the crowd environment would be absolutely elite or Team Japan for the chance to see Merrill strikeout Shohei.

and other hitters in the stacked ass Japan lineup. I like the phrase stacked ass too. That's, I like that. Honestly, I feel like. It's hard. It's a hard question.

Okay. So I feel like from a Diamondbacks perspective, I would rather see team Mexico. And then from a baseball perspective, I would rather see team Japan. Okay. Okay. Interesting.

I like the idea of Alec Thomas facing off against Merrill Kelly in a world baseball class of game. Right? That would be a lot of fun. I would love to see Shohei Otani pitch against Mike Trout. Yeah. I think that would also be pretty fun in a team Japan versus Team USA situation. Yeah.

There's no wrong answer here because both teams are great. I think overall the Team Japan versus Team USA is like a bigger like marquee matchup. But the fact that Team Mexico already put it on Team USA. Team Mexico is the only team that's beat Team USA this whole time. Right. And that's like a killer rematch opportunity. That's like for me, the rematch is the money's in the rematch. The money's not even in the first match. You know what I mean?

So it's like to get a chance to see these two teams go at it again, that's pretty, pretty great. But Team Mexico kind of has Team USA's number historically. Historically, yeah, three out of the last four. Yeah, three out of the last four games between those two have gone towards Team Mexico. And yeah, I mean, if, if the environment that we saw here at Chase Field is any indication of what we would see in Miami. be fucking electric. I mean, I'm sure they... I think it would be different, right?

Because, I mean, Team USA, there's something to be said about those games being played here at Chase Field with such such a heavy Mexican population here, right?

And also being close. They'll find their way over there. Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm sure. I'm sure. Like, it's going to be electric. It's going to be so much fun. So, all right,

what else we got? Elizabeth asks, Oh, no. Best moment from the Taylor Swift concert. I got this, Jesse. Me and me and Damon. It's not a question for me. And Damon will handle this because we were there.

If I was saying best moment, I would say, like, look, look, I'm going to be honest. This was an incredible show because of the production value and all the stuff that they could do, right? They had us wearing these light up wristbands where they were making, like, images in the crowd that went along to the song. Like, lover, there were giant hearts and stuff. It was, it was fantastic. Do you still have your light up wristband? I do. I do because apparently there's some app or something that you can use to kind of like make it work. So I'm going to see if I can figure that out.

I got yelled at for taking my wristband off because apparently that's like that's a no, no. You have to keep it. Yeah, what are you doing? What are you doing? What the hell are you taking it off for? What are you a child? Leave it on. There was a great moment where she dove into the stage like she was diving into water and then the stage became water.

And then there was like a, you know, there was a digital version. Well, because it was like a, she had like a stage with a big like catwalk kind of thing. And it was all video board. So she could do all sorts of cool effects on it. Right. So we're not talking about actual water. No, we're not. But she did do an actual dive into the stage, which is funny because to this, I've not stopped thinking about what she landed on when she dove into a hole in the middle of the stage.

But she became a digital version of herself and swam up stream. And then there was a wave. And then she was, it was incredible. Don't even get me started. It was a fantastic show worth every dime. But if you're asking what my favorite moment was, it was this moment because I'm a day. We're a lot dying and we were loving every minute. And honestly, this was worth every dime I spent on this concert plus 500 extra dollars, right?

She, my daughter is 11 years old and she just had a blast at this show. So it's like to be there with her and for her to have so much fun, like these moments, Jesse, there's not a lot of these left for me, right? She's going to be to the point soon where these moments are happening with her friends at a concert. And she's not going to go with her musty old dad to a show. How you pulled that off, honestly, Derek. If I were her, I wouldn't want to be seen. I know, I get it, but she had a blast. So that's what's different.

She likes me, unlike you. You know what I mean? Basically is what I'm trying to say. But we like you guys very much. And thank you for the questions, of course. We got some more questions presented by our friends at More Furniture. But before we get there, we want to thank you guys so much for being here in the chat. Of course, we always appreciate you. Joining us live on the show, it makes this show so much fun.

If you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe. to the PHNX Sports channel, sign up for notifications so you don't miss when any of our shows go live. And leave us a little thumbs up. Makes us feel great about ourselves. If you're listening on the audio side, make sure if you haven't done so already to subscribe to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, where available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And also leave us a review. We love to get that feedback from you guys. And also check out go phnx.com. If you haven't grabbed Jesse's newsletter, full account, or any of the other wonderful writing from our writers around here we got this guy Craig Morgan not sure if you've heard of him he thinks he's a big deal i don't know

but uh all sorts of great gerald that guy's a big deal oh yeah it's so much more but of course not only do you get those uh did not only do you get that exclusive access to those newsletter you get a free piece of merch from the p hnx locker dot com every year you're a member 20% off all future purchases you get invites to members only events members only discounts on events like our tea party coming up this Friday, which is my birthday party, by the way. We are celebrating there. He better bring me a cake, or I'm going to be very upset if I don't get cake. But we are going to celebrate out there, hit some golf balls, and have some good times with our friends, watch some sons with the PHNX crew and so much more. Play a little ping pong? That's all I want for my birthday is to watch

Jesse win in ping pong. So there's a lot of pressure there. You got to live up to the hype now. But make sure to join us for that and grab that diehard membership. You get a discount. Like I said, Members only merge all sorts of wonderful benefits to getting that diehard discount. But we have more mailbag questions, like I said, presented by our friends at more furniture. And hit me with it. What we got, Damon? Jacob asked, and I love this question, which world baseball classic USA baseball player do you enjoy rooting for the most because they are finally on your team? Jacob gives us mooky bets.

Man, that dude is fun to watch. You're absolutely right. Like, it's incredible to be able to root for some of these guys on our team. I think Mike Trout is probably an obvious choice there. I guess he's good too. He's pretty good. He's pretty good. I want to say as someone that rooted for team Puerto Rico, Edwin Diaz.

That's sad, Derek. That's sad. Is this a moment of silence? It was the truth and I hated so much. I just hated so much. I loved watching him on my team. There is something to be said about, Because one strength that Team USA has, Team USA doesn't have, you know, the Otani caliber starting pitcher.

The Team USA has a number of just dominant relievers. And if you're a Diamondbacks fan watching the World Baseball Classic, that's not something you're used to. You're like, oh, we can have Devin Williams pitch the fourth and Kendall Graveman pitch the fit. Like, oh, this is kind of cool. Yeah, yeah, it is. And it's something that Diamondbacks haven't really had much of in recent years. The other thing I will say about this question is there was this moment in I guess it was pretty much all the games that were played here in Arizona. Team USA, Paul Goldschmidt playing in Chase Field.

The announcers at Chase Field basically acted as if both teams were the home team. So it wasn't like they had like this dull voice when announcing, you know, the hitter for, yeah. Yeah, it was all, they were all like super energetic and happy. And what that meant is Diamondbacks PA announcer Chuck Drago, who's been doing that for a number of years. He announced Paul Goldschmidt like he did back when Paul Goldschmidt was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I'm sure that all Diamondbacks fans have had a lovely time watching America's first baseman do what he's done for Team USA, batting third and pretty much all of these games. He had a big home run against Team Cuba in that game. yesterday and yeah seeing him back at chase field and and the energy in the stands and it it

certainly certainly brought back some memories inject it directly into my veins but just for a little bit because you've got to go back to the cardinals what else we got damon uh Ryan asks uh how do you bounce back from disappointment like when you are in a slump how does one get themselves out that's a great question I don't know if we're qualified to answer that there I don't know We talk about baseball. I'm not a therapist or anything. I'm not a licensed psychologist last I checked. I don't think we should be cleared to be giving out this information.

But man, I mean, I feel like this is a great lead-in to an ad read about, oh, geez, for me or something, right? But yes, clearly that's what this question is for. They're not on the ad read today. But I will say this. I feel like, like, and I mean, I mean, this might be the most obvious. advice ever but sometimes when i'm like dealing with disappointment i i just need to get away like i just need to get away so it depends on what the situation is if i i'm an arizona sports fan so i've dealt with disappointment from my sports teams my entire life right so like it comes with the territory

like one of the ways that i just bounce back is trying to just kind of get a clean slate a little bit right just some time away and i think maybe that's uh what what they try to do maybe for some of these guys when they're in a slump or whatever just try to give them give them a break give them maybe some time off not exactly like hit their way through it but maybe just you know just a mental break i don't know i don't i will say this uh there's one way that i bounce back from disappointment there's one way that i feel good about myself lately and it's power wash simulator on the xbox series this game makes me feel great mentally i mean i don't know i don't know if i'm washing away the emotions or the disappointment metaphorically in the video game, but it feels that way.

We've started to adopt that around the office. If Derek is ever feeling stressed out about something, we tell him to go power wash some virtual patio furniture. And suddenly he's just back in the experience. I do bounce back pretty quickly when it comes to that. So he's not wrong. I will say like, even though I feel very not qualified to answer a question like this, I think baseball players are very well qualified to answer a question like this. question like this because that's part of what they do. If you are a position player,

right, you are going to fail the vast majority of the time and you have to figure out a way to to bounce back. And we hear baseball players talk about it time and time again that they focus on the process. They focus on the things they can control. We're probably sick and tired of hearing baseball players talk about those things. That one too. Like all I can do, all I can focus It's like that's, but it's so weird because it's a mantra that after a while you really start to understand it. It sounds cliche. Yeah. Sounds like something they're just saying, but it's true.

You can only control what you can control, right? Yeah. And sometimes what you can control is how mad you let yourself get about something or how disappointed you allow yourself to get about something. I mean, trust me, I'm disappointed to myself once every single week. So I figured out very, very, very, very many ways to get over it. But I'll say that honestly, like, it does become one of those things where it's, it's just part of life. It's kind of like failing in a way, right? Like, Jesse and I can both say this.

Like, we didn't get here because everything we did was a success. We got here because. Well, speak for yourself, right? Eric. Okay. Don't let me into that. Mr. Mr. School teacher that retired from sports altogether and moved to Seattle and gave up on the Arizona

of Diamondbacks after having a fireass Greg Schulte in First Nation? Like in what world is that not? So you just gave up and you packed up and you went and taught kids. What the hell? But no, we both have done a lot of things, right? And like, again, it's part it's whether you view it as a failure or not. But to be honest, it is, it's all experiences that help you learn. And honestly, with disappointment, I think it's a matter of having it happen and kind of realizing it's not the end of the world, whether you're in a slump or or you just kind of haven't had the best luck lately. You can always bounce back. You can always bounce back.

That's all. There's a lot of wildflowers in this state right now too. So if the outdoors is something that speaks to you, just saying. Beautiful advice. It is very green around the Phoenix metro area, relatively speaking. He can't pick furniture, but he can give you great advice on what to do when you need to bounce back out of the slump. There you go. What else we got?

We got one more question left in the mailbag. And it's Don's bread. And Don's asked, how are we celebrating the big 21st birthday mayor? I already told you, my man, come on down to the PHNXT party at Dobson Ranch. That's how I want to celebrate. I also have some other plans cooking up. The misses made reservations for medieval times over there by Solverfields. You might go catch a baseball game and then go watch nights fight for our honor and our entertainment.

So that's going to be a fun time. Honestly, just spending time, even with these people, I couldn't wait for even with. Even with us. Even with this guy. No, but the PHNX tea party, right? It's work. The first thing I think Saul told me was like, oh, it's your birthday. Do you want to like not come?

And I was like, no, actually it sounds kind of fire to come celebrate my birthday. Everyone has to bring Derek a gift. If you come to the Tea Party. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. Part of your entry fee is buying Derek something. And the sod poodle sent us a gift that I'm going to open up right now. I'm very excited about.

But of course, we talked about Jesse getting furniture. And Jesse needs to buy some furniture. still he's getting better at it though I feel like he's his experience he's learning I think he's finally figured out that you can only get so many chase lounges for one condo so uh townhouse townhouse excuse me I didn't mean to I didn't mean to disrespect your townhouse but give Jesse all the ideas that you have for more furniture we're talking this about the wonderful couches and things that that Leah was looking at over on more furniture.com so the one thing that she was very excited about, of course, was the white glove delivery service and you should be too.

They'll help you get your furniture in. They'll set it up for you. If you don't like where it's at, they'll move it somewhere else. They're great about that. So make sure to say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture.com. And also, shout out to the homies at Perito Express because they hooked us up once again with breakfast that Jesse and I ate more as a lunch afternoon late lunch snack but we were very excited to have burritos here in the office and of course

you should check out their wonderful variety not just their breakfast burritos but they're all their variety of burritos and they burrito express does now have two new NIL athletes ASU football player Elijah Badger and softball star Jasmine Hill will receive sport and cash

clothes and of course piles and piles of burritos from our friends over at Brito Express so never have two any, you know? Oh, absolutely not. A breakfast burrito is one of the most versatile food items, because I feel like you can eat it for any meal. Yeah. You can definitely have it for breakfast. But I was a mad eating at lunch most of the time. Yeah, I was a mad at eating at breakfast for dinner. Not at all. So, yeah, thank you to our friends at Burrito Express, but big thank you to our friends at the sod poodles who sent us this box that we have no idea what's in. Jesse. Yeah, yeah.

Jesse says he doesn't know. I don't know. I don't believe him all of the time. I'm a little scared. honestly. Like, is this a prank? Do you think it's... Did they put something, is something going to jump out at us? There's actual calf fries in here. Do you think they sent us? There might be a living creature inside of there. Did they send us a sod poodle? They may not be the best thing that they could send us. I can't wait to open this box now.

I'm a little concerned about the ventilation inside of this box for that, but... Ooh, Jesse. What do we got there? Oh, Jesse. We got, first we got our news release about the Amarillo, Unveillance. failing themselves as the calf fries. There we go. So what we have here, I think this one, this is a shirt.

It's a calf-rise shirt, Jesse. There's a calf, look at this bad boy. I believe it says Hodge Town. That's a Hodge Town, calf-rise, beautiful shirt. There is, I think this one's for you. Okay, this one. All right. Are you a medium, Jesse?

Yeah, you're a medium. That looks like a medium. You might want to flip it around so people can actually see. Yeah, check that bad boy out. And then in here. Oh my God, Jesse. Look at this beautiful thing. Oh, yeah.

Look at that guy. Oh, man. Hey, Damon. I don't mean to make you get up, but can we get a close up in some way of that logo? I need that as close to the camera as possible. I'm sorry to make you stand up, but this is incredible.

Let's see this beautiful logo. This thing is fire. Let's get it in there. Look at that guy. That's perfect. Look at him. Frying away. I'm putting that guy on right now.

Let's get that guy on. Oh, that fits. It fits. And it goes with the look over here. Is it a fitted hat? It's a fitted hat. We got calf fries happening.

They got my size right. They got my size right and everything. I feel like a spoiled child here. And I'm throwing this sticker. This sticker's going right on the laptop. So shout out to our friends from the sod poodles. And we are so excited to see all the wonderful minor league baseball action. Yeah.

We have the best minor league system, right? Yes, I said, I don't mean to get you up as I make them get up. Yeah, you're right. But we really do. Between the Aces, the Saad Poodles, the Hillsborough Hopes, Vesalia Rahide. The other one's got to step up, though. Yeah. Like last side check, we didn't get a care package from the Hillsborough.

He's right. We didn't get a care package. He's right. Oh, especially the Aces. Yeah, the Aces. Yeah, come on now. Yeah. The sod poodles.

Maybe some. They're up here. Maybe some jerseys? Yeah, we got to get some stickers or something. I'm just being selfish now and greedy, but I love this hat. So thank you to our friends from the sod poodles. Make sure to check them out. I don't know how many of our fans out there live anywhere close to Amarillo, Texas.

But if you plan on taking a road trip, fuel up, obviously, at Circle K. And then go check out our friends in Amarillo. As the Kerry brothers told us, it is an experience out there in Hodgetown. Well, we can't. We haven't even had that experience. I've never seen a game. I've never seen an Ameri L. We need to change that.

We need to change that. Maybe we need to go out on cat fries night because I need to go see them with the calf fries jerse and this whole bit. But again, shout out to our friends from Amarillo. And shout out to all of you. Thank you guys so much for being here. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K.

This maniac is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks. But of course, all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We appreciate you guys so much. And we are very excited for baseball to be starting here in 10 days. Keep an eye out for all the wonderful fun. We have planned.

Like I said, we have our watch party tomorrow. So join us at 4 o'clock roughly. It's going to be so fun just watching. Hopefully it is Merrill starting that game. And we're just going to throw a little, we're going to throw a little watch party where we're just. We should get a beer counter on the screen for me. I feel like that.

That seems like good. Both a good and very bad idea. Yeah, he's right. He's right. But anyway, make sure to join us for that. And then, like I said, we're going to be doing our postgame show after tomorrow's world baseball classic championship game. So keep it locked right here to PHNX. Again, we appreciate you guys so much for being here.

On behalf of Damon, Jesse, and myself, we always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you're the calf-fries.