PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Teams Are LINING UP for Ketel Marte…But Are the D-backs Actually Listening?

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4The Diamondbacks are reportedly fielding calls about All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte, and we break down which seven teams we think are trying to lure him away. Plus, we dive into Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes’ Cy Young-winning seasons and explore the chances they could one day suit up in a D-backs uniform. We’re also joined by the organization’s No. 1 overall prospect, Ryan Waldschmidt, to hear about his baseball journey, the thrill of seeing himself on a baseball card for the first time, and what it takes to be a good teammate.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/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/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded 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 visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesCrown Royal: Visit crownroyal.com/PurpleBagProject to learn more!Chicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website www.access-insurance.com.Visit https://www.macu.com/accounts/checking/mystyle-checking?cid=ea-PHNX-AZ-mystyleAugust2025-checking to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!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!Monarch: Use Monarch to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen 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.

Well, we are thrilled to be joined by the future of the franchise and Ryan Walschman on today's episode. But we have to discuss once again the Arizona Diamondbacks being contacted by at least seven teams to trade for Catell Marte. We're going to docks all seven of them on today's show. Don't you go anywhere. We're starting in 30 seconds. To another edition of the P.HNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of P. HNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. I'm thrilled to have you guys here today.

Of course, happy Thursday to you all. We have almost made it through this week. And I am joined by the cheese to my macaroni, the beans to my rice, the leche to my cafe. The one and only Damon Dog on the ones and Tuesdays today. Thrilled to have you here, buddy. That last part was the nicest thing you ever said. Yeah, the leche. Me and him have been drinking a lot.

Cafe Combeiche. You know how much ice coffee means to me. Ice coffee means everything to us on this show, of course. Welcome in to you all. This show is brought to you, not by Cafe Comanche, but we would love that partnership, but it is brought to you by the wonderful people over at GameTime. Download that GameTime app right now,

create an account. Use the code of PHNX for $20 off your already low. First purchase. Terms do apply. Damon, we are thrilled to be talking about two future Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers. winning the Cy Young Awards yesterday. I'm not sure if you've heard,

but two future Arizona Diamondbacks did in fact win the Siong awards. Terek Skubel, who will join the Diamondbacks this offseason be a trade, and Paul Skeens, who will be a deback in 2030, should we retain the services of one Tori Levello? That's the double-sided sword for you all. Do you want Paul Skeens?

Tori has to stick around. It's part of it. Wouldn't it be fun to say this and not mean it as a joke, Damon? And wouldn't it be fun to cover a team where you could confidently say, oh, yeah, we're going to get that Paul Skeens one of these days because we have all the money and all the power in baseball. You know who I'm talking about. Or at least be in the mix for it, Derek.

Like imagine, like, you know if you're the Dodgers or the Yankees that you have a shot at Scoobel and Skeens. Oh, yeah. Like, you know you do for a fact. You do. Just depending, especially in the Terik Scoobble situation of how much you want to give up. And if you're willing to potentially just wait for him to become a free agent and give him. him that big contract that him and the Tigers are so far apart on as it stands. I'll do you one better.

In a cap league, I know for a fact. So Britain Golden, who does our PH and X Cardinal show, trains with Tariq Scoobal consistently. They are boys. They are really good friends. Why are we using that to get them? We need to be abusing that relationship. This is nuts. We do.

We do. But Tarek Scouble is he trains here in Phoenix in the off season. He lives in Arizona when he's not, you know, he doesn't live in Detroit. Like this guy. If we were in a cap league, Derek, would I guarantee you Corbyn-Burnstile would be going out of his way to be interested in playing in Arizona? But the fact that the Diamondbacks can't get anywhere close to what the mega offers that he'll get from other teams means that he'll never, ever play here. And that sucks. That does suck.

But, of course, like I say that in jest, especially because of the relationship that Paul Skeens and Tori Lovolo developed. But, hey, maybe, maybe, maybe, who knows. Maybe Terrick Scoob will comes home. Maybe he makes the entire town of Kingman happy and proud and makes them all Diamondbacks fans. But both of these guys were extraordinarily good in 2025. There's no doubt about it. I don't really think that there was any question about who was going to win these awards, similar to the MVP awards, which will be determined tonight.

We'll get to those. And of course, I mean, it's still up in the air. But there definitely are reasons why these two guys won. even though Paul Skeen's record was 10 and 10 and 32 starts. He still had the best ERA in all of Major League Baseball at 1.97. He had a ridiculous whip of 0.95. That's in 32 starts. Like I can't wrap my mind around a pitcher having a whip of 0.95 and 32 starts.

216 strikeouts, 187 and 2 thirds innings pitched, posted a 199 opponent batting. average below the Mendoza line. Gotta like that. Led Major League Baseball and ERA posting WIP under one. He has elite control and dominance struck out those 216 batters and again he just, that 0.95

whip means not only does he not allow hits, he just doesn't allow base runners. It's a hallmark of an ace. It's why he is in fact the magical unicorn that we thought he was going to be and I mean he lived up to every bit of the, I guess

pressure of being Paul Skeens, right? There was a lot of hype around him and this man has delivered nearly 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. And again, held batterers to that sub 200 batting average. If you want to get into the nerdy advanced metrics, of course, his bat pip and his opponent batting average definitely suggests that this wasn't luck. He had incredible home and away splits. He pitched 91 in a third innings at home, giving up 18 or not. runs for a 177 ERA there in Pittsburgh and then on the road 96 and a third innings pitched for a 215 ERA just incredible. He ranked among the best in multiple categories including ERA whip and strikeouts and in this case he was just the best pitcher in the league hands down. There were other

NL pitchers that had very good seasons but none of them matched up to what Skeens did. His ERA, his whip, his strikeout combination, all of that, it led to the unanimous vote. And that seemed to please Paul Skeen's more than just winning the Sion. And I think that should be the case. I think that it's a high honor when everybody voting pretty much determined hands down that you were the only option to be the winner of this award. So again, that just kind of underscores how clear of a choice he was. Meanwhile, on the AL side, we know that Terrick Scouble has been amazing. 13 and 6 record. He has a 2.21 ERA in 2025, 195, and a third innings pitch for that Tigers team. 241 strikeouts. Again, another ridiculous whip of 0.89. He had a strikeout to walk ratio of 7.30. And this is the

craziest stat for Terrick Scuble, is that he struck out 32.2%. of batters faced. What? He struck out a third, a third of the batters faced throughout the entire season. Led the AAL with that 2.21 ERA, lowest in the league.

And like not only was it the lowest in the league, but it's nearly, you know, it was, it was what, like a run, nearly half run better than the closest guy. Like there wasn't even another starting pitcher that had an ERA that was even close, his 0.89 whip was best in AL. And again, demonstrated ace level stuff there with his 241 strikeouts in a 995 and a third innings pitched.

He averaged around six and a half innings per start. Can you? Like, I get flustered reading this stuff because, like, I don't understand what this is like. This is like when I read about rich people spending, you know, $5,000 at lunch, right? This is the same thing. you averaged around six and a half innings per start i don't know what that's like we don't have that here we've never had that here except when there was a guy named brandy johnson and another dork named kurt schilling on the mound we sold our soul we sold everything we sacrificed the

future for that and it was worth it damon it was so sweet it was so sweet but again uh scubel just doesn't have a bad outing. He gave up two or fewer, two runs or fewer in 21 of his 28 starts. What? Oh my God, it just doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. The man was incredible. And obviously his advanced metrics back every bit of that up. His FIP was ridiculous. His war was 6.8, the highest among American League pitchers, and all of his expected metrics were elite. just it doesn't matter if you're talking about actual actual stats the outcome the result stats or the saber metric stats scoobel is amazing and it's just incredible his story is incredible his rise from kind of an under the radar prospect to an elite ace in major league baseball is amazing

he's carried that tigers team for the last two seasons to the playoffs and i mean he did so specifically in September of this year, when things were going bad for that team, he was, you know, again, their stalwart on the mound. Terrick Scoobble checked every single box for the Cy Young voting, best ERA and AL, elite strikeout and control, durable ace workload with plenty of innings pitched, nearly 200 innings pitched in 2025, finished strong, made the playoffs. I mean, it's just everything, right? So I guess the big question here is after having such an elite year and being honored with the second

consecutive back-to-back-Sye Young Award, does this change anything between Terek Skubel and the Detroit Tigers? It doesn't seem to. That's kind of maddening, right? Like, there is, there are few times in a sport where a player comes along that is as dominant as Terek Scouble is. He is literally the Randy Johnson of this era. And the fact that the Tigers, aren't clamoring to sign him to an extension and make him a tiger forever is ridiculous. I guess it highlights the problem with spending in baseball, especially considering that the tigers are one of the teams that are on the bottom half of spending in MLB. Right?

You, you, you, like, I know on the open market, every team has a shot, but even then, that's not realistic, right? If every team is offering a player all the same amounts of money, what would keep that player from still picking the best situation? It's one of the reasons why the Dodgers are so frustrating because not only are they back-to-back champions and a very alluring destination as far as if you want to win or if you want to live somewhere,

but they also have the money to pay you. So again, what is to keep players from naturally signing there? I mean, the fact that the Dodgers should have ran out of money is one of the things that should make it so they couldn't be in on guys like Scoobel or Skeens in the future, but I guarantee you they will be. right at least their name will be tossed around out there about those guys right but this should change things for the tigers however i feel like him winning this award which i think we had some people

comment on yesterday's episode um one of one of our regular listeners katy basically said like i guess i guess the tigers are keeping scubel i don't think that it was a mystery that scubal was going to win the si young i think everybody kind of knew that he was the favorite here to win the si young right So if that's the case, then I don't know if that changed anything. I just think it confirmed his value increasing, and it just confirmed that the two sides are far apart on a deal to keep him there. Right. So I don't know, but I hope it drives him apart. And I hope somehow that man ends up in an Arizona Diamondback uniform.

I'm unapologetic about wishing against other franchises and teams. I think I've been too nice up to this point in the time of hosting this podcast. So I'm just going to show my true colors here and now root essentially against every team that isn't the Arizona Diamondbacks unless once again we get into the offs and have to root for the Mariners. I hear you, Derek. Here's where I'll push back a little bit. As I did with the Otani sweepstakes, like I'm rooting for the angels in the Otani sweepstakes. I'm rooting for the tigers and the scoble sweepstakes. You're right.

Because I would prefer he stayed there than anywhere else. You're right. He's not signing with any. small market team. Correct. So the alternative is he either signs with the team that he's on right now and a small market team gets to keep Tariq Scoopal or he's going to go to the Dodgers or the Mets or the Yankees essentially.

I don't know who else could even afford him. Yeah. So it's like I'll take the tigers a million times out of a million. Yeah. Call me Mr. Tiger. Yeah. No.

Call me Tony the Tiger. Tony the tiger. All right. Well, now I'm going to have to remember that. But I don't know. Do we growl? Do we roar now instead of. to do a Damon dog now that you're Tony.

They're great. Great. All right. Well, we'll do that later in the show. But MVP awards are tonight. More awards that we know, in fact, are most likely going to go to the guys that are the favorites here. It feels like Aaron Judge once again, despite Cal Rally lighting the league on fire, it feels like Aaron Judge will once again win it. He led Major League Baseball on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, Times on Base, intentional walks. foire with a 10.1 foir. All right. So again, I don't think he led the AAL and runs total bases, walks, extra base hits.

Like, Aaron Judge is just incredible. It gets old. And I think this is once again, Damon, like teams winning multiple championships, right? Like, yeah, it's great. When a guy gets honored the first or second time and you're like, yeah, this is, he's great. He deserves it.

But, you know, I think one thing we all want, unless it's our guy on our team, team is we want to see it spread around. We want to see kind of everybody get recognized. I think what Cal Rally did for the Mariners and making history as a catcher is arguably the most prominent storyline. I mean, how much did we hear about the big dumper this year, right? And I think that most people probably had never heard the name Cal Rally before the 2025 season. To say he had a breakout season is a vast understatement. He took the league by storm this year. He had an AL best 120 RBI while posting career bests in average with a 247, 359 on base percentage, 589 slugging

percentage, 948 OPS, and a WRC plus of 161, right? But again, it's just hard to argue with what Aaron Judge did. Meanwhile, Jose Ramirez, the other honorable mention most likely here on this award, is the most valuable player to his team, right? The Guardians would not be what the Guardians are. you could argue Stephen Vote wouldn't have one manager of the year without Jose Ramirez and what he did for the Guardians, right?

He slashed 283, 360, 503 with 30 home runs, 85 RBI, and more importantly, just because people tend to think of Jose Ramirez as being a little bit of a huskier fellow, 44 stolen bases over 158 games, right? Like that is a dude that does everything well. He was a gold glove finalist, the third. He had a 6.3, 4.

And, yeah, I mean, he accounted for, nearly half of the war compiled by the Guardians, position players. Speaking of franchises that don't pay anybody anything, the Guardians pay nobody anything. And you know who's pretty good damn friends with Jose Ramirez? Heraldo Pardomo, Catelle Marte. You know who has a hole at third base? The Arizona Diamondbacks.

Bring him to me. Dude, that would be... Bring him to me! That would be the move of the entire offseason. We have to do a whole show about that. Just the whole show. All right. I mean,

we've talked to ourselves into it. Start to beginning. Sell the farm. Sell the farm. Sell the farm. For everyone except sweet, sweet Ryan Waldschmidt. That's the only guy who's off the table. Oh yeah.

No, we're not. We don't touch our sweet, sweet boy. As of today. Yeah, he's going to be joining us here later in the episode. So we can't wait for that. But of course, on the National League side, MVP's. You know who's going to win it. It's the gambler himself, Shohei Otani.

it's hard to argue that anybody else deserves it. I will say that the other two candidates, honestly, like it comes down to like Kyle Schwarber once again, had an incredible year. And he was excellent all season long. He was excellent, as I just said, from start to beginning, right? No, from beginning to end, he was great all year long. The Phillies would not have won 96 games without him, right?

But again, you know, he batted, he had a 240 batting average, led the NL with 56 home runs, MLB leading 132 RBI, 928 OPS, and a 150 OPS plus. You could definitely argue for, you know, Schwabur. I don't feel like you can argue on behalf of Juan Soto. And don't get me wrong. Soto does compare favorably to both of those guys as far as some of his overall numbers. But, I mean, with how the Mets collapsed,

there's no way I think that you could give it to Juan Soto and say that he was the most valuable player in the league. Kyle Schwarber, I feel like, again, the Phillies wouldn't have been what the Phillies were without him. But Shoehoy Otani is like the most valuable player of baseball. And again, you could say that based on, you know, his international appeal. You could say it based on marketing. You could say on a lot of stuff. But, I mean, what he did for the Dodgers, what he did on the mound.

I mean, it's hard to argue that the Dodgers would be. what they are the exact way they are comprised without Shohayotani, right? Like, I don't think that team wins the World Series and makes it through the playoffs without Shohayotani. I'm also a Dodger hater, so don't ever expect me to give them the benefit of the doubt here.

But I do think that he is what makes that team a lead. They finally got some amazing starting pitching behind him, which he is a part of. You know, he is here on this list, as the D.H. N starting pitcher, but... A billion, to be exact, Derek. A billion. A billion point three, actually.

Yeah, yeah. A lot of money. A lot of money there. But I just think it's hard to imagine anybody else but Joey Otani winning it for the National League. So we'll see what happens. Probably be Aaron Judge and Otani again. And that's what it's going to be. But we're going to...

I'm done with this. I'm done with guys that are really good that aren't on our team. We are going to talk about a guy who is on our team and who is really good. and who the Diamondbacks keep getting phone calls about. Seven teams, at least seven teams, have called to check in on Cattell Marte, and Damon and I are going to call out all seven of them. We're going to try to figure out who it was, at least. We're going to do that on the other side of this break.

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When I have time off, the last thing I'm doing is checking for more events to do. But that doesn't mean that I don't hate missing out. I hate missing out all the time. So game time is my go-to. Oh, Derek is the definition of, I don't want to actually do that. But so help me, God, if I have FOMO, that's the worst case scenario. Because I'll tell Damon for six weeks that I'm not going to something. And then when the date comes, I'm like, yeah, I'm going.

My boys are going. I'm going. We're all going. And the best way to get you. You got us backstage passes. But I still got a ticket to, I got to get a ticket to get in the door, Damon. You got to get in the door. And those tickets are very cheap over at game time, especially when you're getting them last minute like I do.

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Game time. It's game time, baby. Well, it's also time to docks some baseball teams that are trying to steal Cotell Marte away from us. They're trying to take him from our hearts and from our baseball field across the street. And we know this because our guy John Gambadoro, aka Gambo, tweeted this out yesterday, I believe. This is when the tweet came out. Gambo's saying here that there's quite a bit of interest from teams interested in discussing a trade for Diamondback second basement, and Cotel Marte.

No less than seven teams have already inquired about his availability, Arizona not shopping him, but listening as they should. And I agree with Gambo on that last part. However, I do hope that Mike Hazen, if he is, if he is disrespected with the offers,

slams the phone down. And I know we don't slam phones down in this day and age, right? Like we want to get angry, but we just kind of hit the end button and then toss it aside on our bed safely so that the screen doesn't crack or nothing bad happens to it. But I hope he slammed it down because I doubt anybody offered the Diamondbacks what could tell Marte is worth.

And again, I don't like the fact that this is happening in secrecy. So Dame and I made the decision that we are going to pull up a little chart here of Major League Baseball teams. And we're going to try our best to essentially docks the seven teams that we think we're the ones calling the Arizona Diamondbacks here about Catelle Marte. Is that fair? Because we have no real information on it. We don't want to speculate.

But I do want to try to guess who it was, right, Damon? I mean, that feels fair. I mean, yeah, we got to call some people out there. Yeah, like, because they're trying to. Don't touch our sweet baby Cattel. They're trying to ruin us, is what I'm saying. And this is sabotage of the highest level. So let's take a look here.

I think we have a little chart. of all Major League Baseball teams, Damon. And I'm going to try to guess we're going to figure this out together as a family. Happy to have everybody's involvement in the chat as well. But David, let's take a look here. I'm going to start off with saying that based on what happened in Chicago, fans ruined it. So White So White Sox out.

White Sox out, Cubs out. Wow. Cubs out too. Cubs out too. Like I said, the entire city of Chicago ruined it for everybody, for Catell, for the fans, for the organization. If they were hoping to get him, those two teams are eliminated. Now, see ya.

Looking at this, I feel like we were just talking about the Yankees. And I know, like, I know Cate's beard game isn't strong, but do they still, did they get rid of the beard policy last year? I don't know. I don't like the idea of Catelle playing. They did get rid of it for the Yankees. I think there's too many rules there. Catell's not like a rules guy. You know they have jazz chislem, right? Oh, that's a good point. That's a good point. That's kind of electric, the combination of those two. I'm conflicted. So, I mean, I would venture to guess that the Yankees wore one of those teams that call. I mean, we could leave him for a second. We know what the Mets did. Why don't? Can we want to.

Yeah, we know the Mets did. We know the Mets did. That's a good point. There's no chance that the Mets did not call and inquire about Cotell Marte. I also feel like if you're just talking about our enemies in general, right, it has to be all of them, right? I mean, okay, like the Padres are losing their second baseman to free agency potentially, right? So it's got to be the Padres. I know we have a lot of enemies.

So I don't know. right and Padres feels like a safe bet. Am I right or am I wrong? Yeah, that sounds like that feels like a Padres move. It does. Okay. Here, I'm hot take alert. Yeah.

The Rockies are out. Rockies are out. Yeah, Rockies aren't trying to do anything. Let's just, let's take the easy ones out right now. Pirates, let's get on. You're right.

Marlins, we'll catch you later. Athletics gone. A's, it's been good knowing you. Hold on. Let's not so. fast about the Marlins. Don't you think that can tell Marte

could be super powered by being that close to his home? Don't you think he'll be even better? When was the last time the Marlins paid anybody? Okay, that's fine.

Get Tampa Bay out of there. John Carlos Stanton. If that's the case, let's get Tampa Bay out of there. It'll see you Tampa Bay. Angels are gone too, right? The angels aren't picking up that contract.

See, see, this is a, the angels are a team now all of a sudden that I'm thinking like, I think the angels want to splash. Okay.

You know what I was talking about the other day? With Skeens, how he's from Fuller, Fullerton, and how that's closer to the Angels, I found out that Skeens actually is an Angels fan. Oh. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Used to go to games as a kid. Okay. Future Angel. Maybe they're saving up money for Skeens. All right. All right. I think, I'll keep that open.

I'm still not sending Cotele, that, that all I don't think they called. I would say the Braves if they didn't have Ozzy Albies. Yeah, but, okay, so that, we could do that. We could eliminate elite second baseman. Do you think the Astros are ready to replace Altuva yet? No. Right? So I think we can eliminate Albi, the Braves and Houston gone.

That feels like a team that would be interested, too, if they didn't have an Altova. Right. Right. But again, you know, you got to look at some of these elite second baseman in baseball right now and say that those are guys. Can I take off the Orioles? Oh, yeah, sure. I'll let you take off the Orioles. I don't even need a reason for it.

They have Jackson Holiday, too. I am 100% sure that the Mariners called us 100%. Yeah. We, they Mariners are probably the team that Hazen is talking about that called and asked about everybody. Correct. Yeah. The Mariners is the Mariners is like I would gamble everything I own in my entire life on the Mariners. Plus they lost Polanco or a Polanco.

Not lost them for sure, but he elected free agency, right? So he's free agent. I, you know what, Derek? Let's eliminate the entire. your AL Central. Guardians, you're not getting anybody. Tigers, imagine them trying to trade for a player. Royals, you guys are out.

Twins, you just sold your entire roster away in the office or during the trade deadline. I mean, that division is such a joke. It's not even funny. I'm also willing to. We win that division every year. I don't feel like they're going to replace Marcus Simeon in Texas or Andre Semez in Toronto. Is that safe to say? Yeah, but doesn't that feel like a move that the Blue Jays would have made?

No, the Blue, you're ag, I guess you're right. I still don't think the Texas Rangers are one of the Texas. Yeah, that's another one that I think they could be involved, but they just have a good second basement. Yeah. Should we take the Nationals off? Yeah, of course, we should take the Nationals off. The hell out of. Why are they still here?

Where's our boy? My nips are. Why do I feel? Okay, so I feel strongly about. The Red Sox. The Red Sox have historically been bad at second base, but they were specifically bad this year. And you know the Red Sox are always trying to get better.

Right? Yeah. I feel like that's more likely than the Yankees because the Yankees still have jazz playing second. No, jazz plays third for them, doesn't he? Does he? Oh, I don't remember. I thought he played second. You can look that up.

I will say, so, okay. Right now we have four of the seven teams with one, two. Oh, jazz is playing a second. Okay. I'm an idiot. Okay. Yeah. Let's let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's,

they're going to address, and it's probably not going to be replacing jazz. He already feels like he's in, in there. Um, Dodgers definitely call. Yeah. And the brewers definitely didn't. That definitely didn't. Yeah. That's interesting.

You think so? They have Bryce Terang, who, of course, is the softest player in baseball, but he's pretty good. And then they don't spend any money. You're right. Yeah. Nope, you're right. I would get them out of here, too.

So we are up to- Ketel would take that pitch, by the way. Five, he would have taken it right in his butt, right on his side, right in the hip. We could cross the angels out. Yeah, I think so. I just, I do, I will say that I do think that the angels are due for like a splash move because they're going to be like, look, guys, aren't we trying? and you're going to be like, remember when you let Otani walk out the damn door?

You know what I mean? Like they're going to try to save face a little bit. But would the Cardinals do it again? Would they have the audacity to do it again and call Mike Hazen? I feel like the Reds would, right? Do you think that the Reds would upgrade from Matt McLean? I know that I think Matt McLean is very good. He had it down near last year.

But I think that the Matt McLean can also play a little bit of shortstop, right? They've moved Ellie, you haven't that? Yeah. I know. He just, he hit 20 last year. I know we've talked about the Hunter Green option before. Do you think there's legs to that? The legs to trading like Hunter Green? Yeah, for Ketel. Oh, that is not, no, I don't think so.

And honestly, you know what I think about that? I don't really, I don't really think the Reds are in on that. I don't think the Reds want to trade Hunter Green. That's the side of this that I don't know that we're taking into it. So then I think we should cross out the Reds because then they're not, then they're unsurious. Yeah. Yeah.

Who else do we want on the goddamn Cincinnati Reds? Right. Maybe Matt McLean, who we drafted in the first round. No. Back in the, who Hazen drafted in the first round back in the day. That actually would be crazy. He's like, you know what? I always was going to get my hands on McLean.

Yeah, I've been waiting for this. I don't think the Giants would have called, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean, we do. Okay. And I feel the same way about the. Phillies, right, with Bryson Stott? But Bryson Stott is not good at baseball, is he? I don't.

Another guy Mike Hazen was interested in drafting. I don't feel like Matt McLean is good at baseball. At least Bryson Stott hit 257 in 2025, which is higher than his career average. He did have a 719 O'B. Another player that Mike Hazen was very interested in trading for potentially. I think that's another interesting guy to talk about, both of those guys, really. I think the Phillies are more likely than the than the Reds personally. Okay.

Let's X out the Reds. Let's just keep the Phillies open for now because we do have to have seven teams here and we've almost eliminated. We have five. Yeah. And the three left are Cardinals, Phillies, and Giants. Well, and Toronto. In Toronto. I think that Toronto called.

I think Toronto called. I think you're 100% right. First, you convinced me. But I don't know. I think I'm going too much on the like, sentimental factor of Andres Ameinez and what he did for them in the playoffs. I just feel like when you have a young up-and-comer like that. But again, Andre Samenez, 210 batting average in 2025.

They definitely called. They 100% called. And we were like, Traja Savage, and then they hung up the phone on us. I think that's what happened. Dude, you know he's like plus 120 to win rookie of the year next year? Should we just get on it now? Yeah, we should do that. That's going to be the thing.

Um, I don't know. Yeah, the Giants don't have a good second baseman either, right? No, but like. Is it Tyler Fitzgerald? But like. Casey Schmidt, I mean, I mean, Casey Schmidt. Are the giants that serious that they're going to, they're going to put that kind of money on the table? I mean, I think they have more money than the Cardinals, but I think the Cardinals are more serious.

It's one of these teams. One of these three at the bottom, Philly's Cardinals, Giants. All right. Um, I mean, and this is the definitive list. Like, this is 1,000% what happens. I think personally, I think it's one of these red teams. I lean Phillies. You lean Phillies.

Yeah. I don't think the Cardinals got Brendan Donovan at second. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not. It's not Cardinals. I saw the Brendan Donovan might be on the trade block. Looks like the Phillies are selling.

Did you see that report this morning? Yeah, I did see that. That's really weird. So, or not the Phillies. I'm sorry, the Cardinals. So it seems like. Seems like maybe the Cardinals should be out just based off the fact. Sure.

Yeah, Royals, Guardians among teams interested in Brennan Donovan. That's the first thing I see on them will be trade rumors. New Bar also on the trade block, I'd be interested in Newport. I would 100% be interested. I think we cross out. I think we cross out Cardinals. I think we cross out Giants. I think we say Phillies.

Yeah, I agree. I think we figured it out, especially because this goes back to my theory earlier of our enemies, right? Like there's nothing that the Phillies, would want to do more than weaken us after what we did to them in 2023. There you have it. The definitive list. The Dodgers, the Padres, the Mets, the Phillies, the Red Sox, the Red Sox, and the Toronto Blue Jays. And the Mariners.

Oh, and the Mariners. I almost left them out. There are your seven teams that called and bothered us about Gattel Marte. Definitively. Definitively. Like this is it. Yeah. Frigin Jason says, imagine him and Vladdy on the same starting lineup.

Get out of here. No, I don't want to. That's terrifying. And again, when you talk about the Toronto Blue Jays wanting to upgrade, I do feel like, again, that would be a huge upgrade for them. But this is all speculation, of course. However, it's not. We really did figure it out. But we are very excited because on the other side of this break, I hope you are too. We are going to be talking to Ryan Waldschmidt, the Arizona Diamondback's number one overall prospect. I'm going to run and change into the clothes I was wearing yesterday. right after this ad break. So just give us one minute. We'll be right back. Don't you go anywhere you're watching? Of course, the PHAX Diamondback Show. Well, Pure Edibles was founded right here in Arizona,

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Go sign up right now. How is that sound? I'm going to go sign up right now. A little free $200. It's all day seasons right around the corners. It's going to be difficult on all of us financially. I am very thrilled because we are, we've talked about this young man. We have said that we would riot if anything were to happen if he were ever to be traded or anything like that.

And that's because we do believe that the D-BAC's number one overall prospect, Ryan Walt Schmidt, is a very special talent. He is an incredible player that has been through so much already in his young career. And we were thrilled to have him stopped by. Here is our interview with Ryan. I always got to start off just because baseball kind of is the way it is. Was there a moment that made you choose baseball a moment that you remember that maybe a game, maybe a player, maybe something that specifically made you go, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life?

You know, I think, honestly, my dad was a big part of it. He played a little bit growing up. He played some college ball. And I mean, from what I've heard, It's what I just jumped right into. I mean, when I was a little kid, I love picking up the little baseball bat, and he tossed me the little foam ball. Yeah. And I'd hit that.

And ever since from day one, it's always been like that. And, you know, I grew up a raised fan. So, you know, when I was younger, it was always like BJ Upton and Evan Longoria were like the two guys for the raise back in the day when I was a little kid. So I remember walking around with like a BJ Upton jersey on. So I think ever since I was little, I was always just drawn to baseball. Did you ever did you emulate either one of those guys batting stances at all or was it someone else? Who did you copy? I didn't really do too much with other players.

Like I love watching them and doing it, but I never really had much going out with my swing. Okay. I've always kind of kept it simple. You know, like when I was a little kid, I probably emulated Evan Longoria a little bit when I was in like Little League and stuff like that. But as I got older, you know, I kind of figured out what worked for me. me and being simple. And, you know, I think it was early in, like, college or even late in high school, I realized, like, I was watching, like, Shohei Otani and just how simple his setup is

and how he gets to his load really early. And, you know, that's kind of where I was like, man, one of the best hitters in the world doesn't do much with his stance. Like, he's in a loaded position practically before the pitcher even releases the ball. So in my head is, like, man, like, if he's doing that, like, that's something I should be doing. And so like, you know, it kind of started off with a stride and getting to that position early. And, you know, there was some troubles with that. And I eventually just went to the no stride and just kind of worked on just being loaded by the time the pitcher releases the ball.

So I'd say maybe in recent history, probably Otani is someone I really looked at just because of how simple his setup is and how early he gets loaded. That's probably the biggest thing I think about when I'm hitting. Well, I mean, those, the changes, the little, you know, modifications to your swing, all of that can become very complicated with time, very complex. Or in general, I'm sure the amount of advice you've been given can be very complex. So I bet I could see how like seeing somebody that hasn't success that Otani has, do do a simple swing like that is a little refreshing, especially considering that this is still, it's still just a game, right?

It's still a game. And at times like we have all this analytics and all this other stuff that can make it very complicated. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing to remember. It's still just a game and you're supposed to have fun with it. And I think that the more, especially as a hitter, the more you think about it and the more complex you make everything, the harder you make it. When it comes to hitting the ball or facing a good pitcher, you know, I think that's why I just always go back to that thought of just being simple because the game is so hard. It's hard to find success all the time.

So I think the more you add on to yourself and the more checkpoints you try and. see throughout your swing, the harder it's going to be to be successful, especially with how good the pitchers are becoming nowadays, too. I mean, they're checking up. So I think as they're going up and their stuff's getting better, the hitters got to resort back to being more simple and simplify things. Right. I agree with that. So hearing a little bit here about your dad, was your dad your biggest support going through this journey? I know that being a minor leaguer can be difficult at times. And I was just curious about your support system from your family and your dad. Yeah, my mom and dad are there every step of the way. I mean, every weekend they were flying

up to Kentucky to see my weekend series. And they missed midweeks for work. But, I mean, all the weekends they were there. And even as a little kid, all the travel ball tournaments, they were always both there. So, yeah, they've both been my biggest support system through this whole thing. Same thing with my younger brother. He plays at a university in New Orleans now. But, I mean, high school, we were teammates. But when we weren't, I mean, every chance he gets to see me play. He's out here. So I'm super excited for what he's got going on there. I hope to get to see him a couple of times play this year. But yeah, they've, they've been there every step away for me. That's awesome, man. What was it like the first time you saw yourself on an actual baseball trading

card? Like, not to diminish what we all get in little leagues, right? We all get the little leagues card. But like when you saw yourself on a real baseball card, what was that like for you? It was super cool. You know, it's kind of like surreal feeling of like making it to a certain extent. Like not the big leagues, but like you, you, you as a little kid, I mean, I collected baseball cards as a young kid. And it's just that full circle moment where you're like, dang, like, there's a little kid out there collecting my card now. Right. And he's got a little clit with those sleeves and he's got my face in there. And it's a cool thing to realize.

And you know, that's part of the reason why whenever anyone asks me to sign cards or. I come across someone who wants an autograph on a card or anything. Anyone ask me for a card friends or people I come across if I have any. I mean, I do whatever I can to sign them or give them to them because, you know, it means a lot to people. And it's something that can be very overlooked as a player, you know. You just went through a five-hour day at the field or you played nine innings or it's a Sunday. You're trying to go home after a game, but it's the least I can do. It's something that they really, it's a prize-possess.

to them and it's just something as simple as me putting initials on a card so i think it's a thing for me especially for the younger kids and the little kids who come to the game because a lot of the time they're not there to watch the baseball game like that's not what they're doing they're going having fun with their friends but they're like dang like right while's my card after the game and which which autographs can i get right like that's that's that's a fun game to play well speaking of that we do we do have one of your signed cards actually right here and uh This is one of our prize possessions around the office. But these were the cards where you go around and sign them.

I mean, you obviously had a day like that where they brought you a bunch of cards. I mean, I know seeing your own cards is cool. But when they start bringing you stuff like relic cards to sign that they're going to put out there, imagine that's like kind of another level of your journey. Yeah, definitely. And there's a lot of times fans will be like, hey, like I got a couple. Like, do you want one? I'm like, sure.

Like, yeah. The guy who made one, I think it was like our last game in the season. He, he had like a jersey and he cropped like the logo off one of a jerseys and he put it under the card. And he like created it himself. And he was like, wow, for me to sign it.

And I was like, yeah, of course I'll sign it. And he's like, I have two of them. Like, would you like one? And I was like, yeah, that thing's sick. I'd love it. So he gave one to me and I thought that was super cool. But yeah, I've seen a lot of cool stuff made by people and just it's pretty cool to just come across, you know.

You think like you're just a player playing in a small town in Emerillow, Texas, in the minor leagues. But there's people out there that really, really support you and are looking for your success. And I think that's just super cool. Yeah, you're not wrong, man. And yeah, you have a lot of supporters here in Arizona. There's a lot of people that are big fans of yours here. So it's great to have you be a part of the organization.

And I know that, you know, like you are currently the number one ranked prospect and the DeVax Farm system, how do you handle something like that? How do you, is there pressure there? Do you handle the pressure? Do you block out the noise? How do you kind of handle, you know, like basically, and I don't mean to undermine it, but like a website dictating that you're the top prospect in a team's organization? Yeah, you know, it's obviously an honor to be named the top prospect.

But I think the biggest thing for me is kind of just treating it like I'm, any other ranking and unranked. Yeah. It doesn't matter. I mean, I think for me, it's just to kind of be the same guy. I was when I first stepped in there. And I don't think it should change based off of what other people are saying and the performance that you've had.

I think you're trying to continue to be the same person every day. Successful or not, I think that's just the biggest thing as a player and just as a person in general. You know, you can't be swayed by success or fame. And I think that's what kind of gets a lot of people is when you, you get caught up in that idea of just feeling like you're just the king of the hill and you're on top. And that's when you start seeing yourself go downward is when you start switching up because all of a sudden you're getting this recognition.

So I think it's just kind of continuing to keep that mindset of just continuing to get better every day and just not being satisfied with where you're at, whether you're unranked, whether you're ranked first. There's always things you can get better at. I think that's the biggest thing for me is just kind of blocking out that, like, obviously, taking it and using it to be a positive influence on other people. I think that's a big thing for me right now, too, being here at this camp, a strength camp. It's a lot of younger guys, and they asked me to come out here, and I'm here. And I think it says a lot to not only the development, but just the entire team itself.

Like, I'm out here. I'm doing the same thing everyone else is doing. We're trying to get better, and it doesn't matter whether you're the number one prospect or you're an unranked prospect or you're a guy who just got drafted. We're all in this together. We're all a team and we're all working towards the same goal. So I think as long as we keep that same mindset, I mean, all of us should find good success with that. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Everyone should eat, right. But like, yeah, you're right. I mean, I feel like that's kind of something that major leaguers deal with all the time is that they're out there. They're doing the most fundamental drills to get better and stay sharp every single day. But then they also have younger players looking up to them similar to you in the strength camp. And yes, I know you're out there doing your thing. But, yeah, I mean, now you're getting to a point now with your years of playing baseball that I imagine a lot of people, you know, that are younger, then you look up to you for advice or just look up to you in general to kind of pick your brain on, you know, you getting to this level and, you know, being considered a top prospect in a team's organization like this.

Yeah, for sure. And, you know, we've done stuff here with, like, baseball IQ and scouting reports and looking at pitcher stuff. And, you know, I think I take pride in the intelligence I have with this game and just the knowledge that I'm able to come across throughout my career. And, you know, if I'm able to come out here and I can influence other people around me and my other teammates, and if I see something that someone else might not, for me to be here and be able to express those ideas. And even myself, I'm learning different things every day from other people that I might not notice. And I think that's just the biggest thing is to just be like a student of the game and just learning from your teammates. I think it's a lot of people have like this ego or this pride that there's someone who's younger than you or someone who might be your teammate is trying to teach you something or show you something and they don't believe that they know more than the other guy and they don't want to hear it. But I think that's the biggest thing.

That's the most, the best way to learn is to learn from your teammates. I mean, coaches and other people can express so many different ideas, but for you to learn from each other is the biggest way. And I think that's the big thing at this camp that we're really running into is we're getting information fed by the coaches. But it's really the players talking to each other. I think that's the biggest thing is sharing your experiences with each other and learning from those. Did you have a player that kind of impacted your development at all? Maybe a guy that either moved on or maybe you still worked, you still playing with that kind of had that moment for you? Yeah, you know, as I was my freshman year in college, I had a,

couple guys who were just older not necessarily baseball rated but just kind of just how to go about your business and how to go through college there was a guy I remember his name was Connor Aldrich he was a third baseman I was at infielder at the time and at Charleston Southern for my first year and I was a young kid and I I mean I was nervous you know it was your first year of college I was trying to earn a spot and he ended up being the backup third baseman behind me but he was a senior and you know, just the way he went about just playing the game, you know, he was always having a good time. He was always had a smile on his face. He was always joking. And it's easy to be a guy who's not

starting. A freshman just came in, is playing in front of him. But he was the one who gave most support. He was the one who was my biggest best teammate on the team was him. He would always support me, always tried to get me better. And I was the guy who was in front of him. I think that just speaks volumes about just who he was as a person. But then for me, that's the exact way I thought. about being a teammate. It was just pouring into the other guys around you, and I think he was a big impact on me. And when I ended up transferring to Kentucky,

I made that one of my goals. You know, I came in as a transfer, who knows if I was going to play or not. But my goal when I stepped in there was to be the best teammate I could possibly be pouring to other people. And then from that, I think it bettered me as a person and me as a player as well. Because once you do that,

then your teammates are reciprocating the same stuff. They're treating you the same. that you're treating them and that just makes you a better player as a whole is when you have that confidence and you know your teammates have your back and you're not in this alone you have nine other guys on the field that are pulling for you just as much as you're you're pulling for yourself so I think that was a big thing that I learned from him my first year of college that's so incredibly rare to considering how competitive it is at that level and like you said kind of losing your spot essentially to a younger you know younger classman right like a lot of people would have a hard time uh hard time dealing with that and it's amazing like I completely agree with you the the amount of people I've had in my life that I've emulated because of the way that they went about their business like really did have a huge impact and can have a huge impact I know you went through a pretty significant injury right with a torn ACL what was what was that like what was I guess what did you do with your time while you were off to kind of still stay

ready to play baseball and and you know how difficult was that to come back from Yeah, you know, through my off, my time off recovering, I really just tried to learn from a different perspective about the game. At Kentucky, we had a lot of trackman stuff, and I would run the trackman for games. I'd run the scorebook. And I just really tried to watch from there. Like, I learned how to read the track man when it comes to your induced vertical, your horizontal, the spin rate, stuff like that, how pitches move. I knew the zone. I was watching the zone the whole time.

So I was working on just kind of pitch selection if I wasn't necessarily in the box, but just trying to work on that and seeing and trying to learn the zone as good as I could. I would help the outfitters with groundball drills. Like just being involved was really the biggest thing. You know, because it's really easy to just isolate yourself in the training room and just worry about rehabbing. But that's a lonely place where you really don't get anything from it. You're just all negative.

Everything's negativity around you. And I think the biggest thing for me when it came to recovering from that injury was just kind of flipping that switch and kind of getting out of that negative zone where it's like, oh, why me? Like, why did this happen to me? Especially in the time that it did as I went to the Cape to really kind of make a name for myself for the next season and for the draft coming up that next year. And it could have been very easy just to be just down to myself the entire time because, you know, I was playing well. I was in a good spot. I was a good place to just kind of boost myself. and it kind of got taken away for me.

But I realized pretty quick that you couldn't do anything about it and you have to move on from there. And to get your mind in a positive space, it was really important for rehab and just to come back in the time that I did. And I think just learning just mental strength through that, I think it's honestly one of the biggest positives in my career was probably the injury. I think that is what set me up to be the player I am today.

And without it, I don't know if I would be in the same spot I would be in because mentally I feel like, I'm a very strong player right now when it comes to mentality and being able to stay constant every day and being able to stay just the same person every day and not getting too high, not getting too low when it comes to your streaks and your slumps. Because baseball is all about that. And I think that's the biggest thing when it comes to being a baseball player and being a top tier baseball player and what the separators are between everyone

because we're all good at baseball now. Like everyone has the skill set to be an MLB player where we're all standing. today. But I think the separator when it comes to how mentally strong you are and how you're able to just bounce back from adversity or be able to bounce back after a bad game or be able to just continue to put together good performances because you're not getting too high and you're not going too low. So I think that's the separator when it comes to being an elite player and being just a good baseball player. Well, we have more with Ryan Waldschmidt. We're going to post a full interview tomorrow on the GoPHNX website.

So make sure to not miss out the rest of that. We talked a little bit about walk-up music, meals over snacks, and more. But most importantly, as I go on to say in the rest of that interview to Ryan, using that time the way he did while he was injured is very reminiscent of another guy we know in Corbin Carroll. Corbyn Carroll spent his time when he was injured

with the shoulder injury with scouts and other members of the staff that he wouldn't have with or been around and was able to pick their brain and learn more about the game. And I think that that time that he spent and how he spent it is invaluable for his baseball career. I couldn't be more thrilled about him as a Diamondbacks prospect. And I think we're going to see him very soon. I suspect we will see Ryan Walschman in a Diamondbacks uniform in 2026.

I think Michael in the chat asked where will he be next year. he's going to be he should start out the year in Reno. There's no guarantee, but I think after his performance last year in Amarillo, after he comes here for spring training and all of that is decided, I wouldn't be surprised to see Walt Schmidt start the season in Reno. And hopefully that's the case. But I did want to thank all of you guys that are diehards already. As you know, you diehards are the lifeblood of what we do over here at Ph.NX.

And of course, if you have not become a diehard yet, we implore you to do so. You get a great exclusive content. You also have access to our PHNX Discord Lounge, which is the best place to talk about Arizona sports with us, PHNX personalities, and of course your fellow fans of your teams. You get a free t-shirt with your order when you sign up. You also get 20% off of merch and 20% off event.

So do not miss out on joining us. Head on over to go phnx.com and prove your fanhood by becoming a PHNX die hard today. Before we get out of here, Damon, I did want to discuss an idea, a concept that a writer came up with to fix extra innings baseball. And I, as you know, I am very conflicted about this because I am not a fan of the ghost runner rule. However, I also hate how long some of those playoff games took. Don't get me wrong.

They were amazing. They were epic. It was something we'll never forget. And I still need a good solid eight hours of sleep or else I am a mess. David will attest to that. So when it comes to fixing baseball's extra innings problem, the conundrum is two things. One, do we go back? Do we go back to 15 inning games in a regular season?

Nobody wants that. Two, do we continue this hodgepodge of regular season baseball being different than playoff baseball and just changing it? Or three, do we come up with a hybrid, something new, and something that is based on the Nintendo video game Super Smash Bros. That is right. Super Smash Brothers has figured out sudden death, and so should MLB baseball. And this idea, as much as I would like to take credit for it, is not mine.

It comes from Royalsreview.com writer Matthew Lamar, who may have fixed at least regular season, extra inning games. I suggest we take this into the playoffs and just make this how baseball is. Now, he suggested that baseball can have its cake and eat it too if they implement the Super Smash Brothers video game's sudden death rules. Now, if you've never played Super Smash Brothers or have no idea what I'm talking about, it is a wild game that combines pretty much every Nintendo video game. Every Nintendo owned character, Mario, Link, Donkey Kong. They're all thrown in. If you're asking that, there's characters you have no idea,

so I won't even bring them up, right? But it's basically this entire world of characters combined into a fighting game. And there is a, there is a version, a timed mode, where you can essentially end the game tied with a competitor. And that's where this comes down to is what Super Smash Brothers does an extra time to settle sudden death. Most of the time, players do end up basically sorting it out on their own, one guy defeating the other fairly quickly once you get into sudden death. However, if the game goes on too long, Super Smash Brothers starts dropping bombs on the competitors. First, infrequent here or there, and as time goes on, As it gets more and more sick of watching you play each other,

it just starts filling the screen with bombs. It does not care who it kills. It does not care whose game it ends. It merely wants to get the thing over with, as many of us do when we're watching an extra innings baseball game. So you might look at me, you might look at Matthew and say, what the hell does this have to actually do with extra innings? The theme here being escalating consequences, right?

eventually just so much chaos that it's inevitable that someone is going to get hit by one of those bombs and in this case so inevitable that one of the runs is going to score what would it look like for the ghost runner rule all right so here's what it would look like this would look like the ghost runner where you give each team a chance to win an extra innings game cleanly with no ghost runners in the 10th inning right so that's where it would be and that's that's exactly what we're about we're we want to escalate things here. We want to make it exponentially harder for one of the two teams to survive. So in this case, extra inning starts, 10th inning, no ghost runners. 11th inning, one ghost runner starts for each team on first base.

12th inning, you move that ghost runner over to second should nobody have scored that runner over from the 11th, right? If not runner in 11th doesn't start in scoring position, he's just there. He's just there as a lead off runner. Second or 12th inning starts on second. 13th inning should we go to that point, now there are runners on the corners. You got runners on third and you got runners on first. Should we go to 14 for some inexplicable reason? You move that ghost runner from first over to second. Now you have two runners on second and third to start the inning.

And should, for some godforsaken reason, we get to the 15th inning, base is loaded for each team to start the inning. I don't hate it, do you? Look, if we're going to do ghost runners, let's have it be to a point where in a 15 inning game, we start each inning with bases loaded. I don't hate that. In fact, quite frankly, Damon, I'm already looking forward to a 15 inning game

where it starts at the top of the 15th with freaking bases loaded. I love it. I love it. I can't believe it took Nintendo to figure it out, but I'm not surprised that it was them that figured it out. Thoughts on this? No one has crazier potential role changes

than Major League Baseball. Right. That's my thoughts on this. Right. And again, it's like, I don't know. I think the idea here is that we don't immediately go into the runner being on second base and scoring position, right? We are giving ourselves a chance to have one extra inning of clean baseball where one team wins just based on their own merit in the inning and not having a special guy already on base. But I think that, again, the escalating consequences version of this makes a lot of sense.

but more importantly, like I said, it actually incentivizes me as a watcher because quite frankly, I want to see them keep this game tied and I want to see how ridiculous things could get. And then, yeah, you go after that and you have bases loaded every single inning. And also Max says every player loads

into a Fortnite battle royale server and Last Man wins. That I'm also okay with Max. Don't threaten me with a good time. I'm there for that. Anyway, I like this idea and shout out once again to Matthew Lamar for coming up with this.

Great idea to fix baseball and extra innings. See, that's a version of baseball that I want to see in the playoffs. Right? We had some, like I said, we had some great games. But, I mean, how many times did we sit there and watch these teams go up there and do nothing and then come back and we all lost sleep for nothing, for nothing, for a Dodgers win, inevitably, right? So boo on that. But we do love you guys.

We appreciate you guys. Big thanks to Ryan Waldschmidt for taking time to join us. And as many of you said, yes, he is in Arizona. There's no doubting the stucos. and the color of the wall behind him that he is in fact in Scottsdale, Arizona. So I hope he's having a lovely time here. And again, for more from Ryan,

make sure to check out that full interview tomorrow, including his favorite restaurant that him and the boys found to eat at. So do not miss out on that. Of course, we will be back tomorrow with a very special episode that we have been promising for entirely too long. This one's for Emily Williams,

who isn't here in the chat right now. We're finally going to rank those jerseys. We're going to rank every Arizona a Diamondbacks jersey. All of them in history. Tomorrow, me and Damon, we're spending a lot of time doing it. You should stop by. We're going to have a great time. And then I promise I'll update that article for Emily so that she can always read it and stop asking me to fix it. But again, we love all of you guys. Thank you guys for stopping by. We appreciate your time. Again, your time, Ryan's time. It's your most valuable commodity. Do not waste it on people that don't deserve it. We thank you for

sharing it with us. But again, we will see you tomorrow at 12 p.m. Dune. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore Ced Man with the K. Damon, of course, the, what was it, the leche to my cat con cafe or cafe. He is available at Damon Dog with the DAWG. We are all Damon's dogs, bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys so much for your time. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful evening. Behave yourselves, Katie May. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you stop calling us about Catele-Marty.