PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers have been bounced from the playoffs by the San Diego Padres

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

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ding dong the Dodgers are done baby let's go hello and welcome in to another edition of the phnx debacks podcast right here on PHNX i of course am your official dodger hater otherwise known as the mayor of phnx derrick montia this guy he's impartial but he secretly hates the dodgers too it's the one and only journalist of this podcast the thunderstick jessie freeman 11 wins just doesn't get you what it used to it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't in this economy? Yeah. Oh my God.

111 wins just doesn't get you what it used to. But yes, of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. Guys, we're elated.

We couldn't be more excited. And I think there's a really good reason why, at least for me personally, as someone who not only covers the Arizona Diamondbacks, but also roots for this team. What we saw was the Dodgers win a franchise record 111 wins,

the most in Dodger history. Most wins in the national. National League since 1906. My God. It's been more than a century since a nationally team has won that many games. But here's the thing is that not only I feel like the Dodgers were very confident, foolishly confident, maybe even arrogant. What makes you say that, Derek? This quote from Dave Roberts earlier this season, that's what makes me think that this quote from Dave Roberts says.

Oh, this was not during the season. This was before two weeks before opening day. Two weeks before opening day, Dave Roberts says we are winning the World Series in 2022. We are winning the World Series this year. Put it on record. Well, guess what, Dave? That shit's on record, my friend. Oh, why?

Why would you even say something like this, Jesse? Why would you even be, with baseball being the way it can go with, I mean, you're just begging the baseball gods to do something to your team. Have bad luck happen, injuries, whatever, when you come out with something as confident as that, right? but just why with his experience, this man has coached this Dodgers team to being the best team in National League and has seen them not win the World Series. I don't understand where this arrogance came from earlier in the season.

I think it's like a speak it into existence, sort of a situation. But I mean, there are things that you can say to your team, or to other coaches or front office. staff or whatnot that you probably wouldn't put on record. Right. And I think Dave Roberts is maybe realizing right now. He demanded it.

He said put it on record. He wanted it on record. But also, do you think that Dave Roberts is necessarily like, do you think he regrets that comment now? Because honestly, I kind of doubt that he does. I think he, from his standpoint, he probably thinks that like if the Dodgers lose in the playoffs, they lose in the playoffs. And they're going to get tons of hatred for it no matter what he said before the season

started. So maybe he just wanted to kind of instill confidence in his guys before the season started. And so he came out and made a comment like this. But to your point, we don't see a lot of major league managers say these kinds of things on record before the season started. And I think there's a pretty good reason for that. I think the idea there you might be on to something like he's going to get that hate anyway. Exactly. I think in my opinion, what I've seen is like I've had the opportunity to see Tori Lavello.

off the record and it's my favorite thing in the world. I can't tell you how much I enjoy talking to off the record, Tori Lobello. He's a much more interesting person. Oh, yeah. He comes across sometimes on the mic. He drops the up of like so much. It's great. But anyway,

the bigger thing there is Tori would say something to us off the record. Maybe like this if he felt this way. But I don't think that he would be confident enough at any point for him to make it like part of his, is, you know, like pregame speech. You know, when he's talking, you know, pregame press conference, everything like that, right? I've even talked to Brent Strom this year off the record.

Brent Strom kind of was always like, you know, like he was always talking about like tempering expectations because it always felt like he knew something we didn't. Even when it come to guys like Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen, right? Like you could be like these guys are just incredible right now. He's like, yeah, until teams figure him out. You know, he always like, because of his experience, he knows that like it's, there's always going to be that plateau for a guy that's having success or even maybe a regression, right? But another guy who was very confident in his team, not just Dave Roberts, but Freddie Freeman on the Padres before the series started when asked about the Padres coming in hot, Freeman said they're hot and we've been hot for seven months. That's a little arrogant, I think, as well. But I get where he's coming from, right? The Dodgers have been a good team all season long and they would get these questions about facing off against teams that just happened to be on a role when they're playing them.

and the Dodgers have constantly had to kind of answer this question as the season's gone on. But in this case, the Padres with an incredible five-runs, seventh inning, came back to beat the Dodgers and to advance to the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies. You're welcome Phillies for me visiting your city and blessing you with that extra good luck. That's where that came from. Absolutely. Absolutely. You're welcome fighting Phil's.

But the people are mad, Jesse. When we talk about the Dodgers losing, Yeah. People are mad. And when I say people are bad, we've heard everything from calling the playoffs rigged to saying that this was in favor of a team that was a lesser team somehow winning it, even though those teams like we've talked about do have to, you know, face a wild card series before making it to this point. They have more games. The advantages that we laid out for the home teams for the higher seeds were there. However, as we talked about, you know, now what we're seeing is the lower seeds came in and took care of business in some of these, uh, series. We might see three out of four potentially be the lower seeds if the Cleveland Guardians can pull off the upset tonight at the Yankees. But let's take a look at the updated brackets for the playoffs because as you can see, with the exception of the Astros, the Phillies, Padres, and now maybe even the Guardians snuck in. And these are all teams that were wildcard teams. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. What's happened. I think Major League Baseball is

recognizing the ramifications of expanding the playoffs and understanding that like, oh, these teams really might win. These teams really might. These teams that won, you know, 88 or 89 games or whatever the Phillies won this year really might be a 100 team like the 100 win team like the Atlanta Braves. Like this is something that's going to happen and it's going to happen regularly in the postseason. I don't personally have a problem with that. I think there's a danger to expanding the playoffs too far. I think 12 teams is already probably as high as I would be willing to go personally. This was a blast, though. This was fun.

Yeah, absolutely. Exactly out of it what you want from the expanded playoffs. Expanded playoffs aren't fun. If the lower teams just get squashed and the higher seeds advance anyway, this is what it's all about. This is what baseball is about. Anybody can win any given series at any given time. I think it's the reason why changing it from the one game series was that was an insult.

When you talked about teams coming in and playing 162 games and then having their playoff destiny decided by one single game, when you don't play one single game against the team all season long was absurd. The three-game series seems to work out nicely, and now it wasn't that much of a layoff because it is only a three-game series. But now what we are seeing is potentially the fact that that layoff might have been bad for some of these teams. I don't know what the answer there is, but I liked the format. And so far, this has been a very memorable postseason, I feel like.

And of course, the big reason why is because the Padres have now taking out the Dodgers. And like I alluded to earlier, as a Diamondbacks fan and supporter, this gives me hope, right? This is the exact thing. You want to see. Like, yes, your team was 20 games back in the standings for the N.L. West. But when it came to getting the job done, the Padres took care of business against the Dodgers. And people are losing their fucking minds over it.

There's an LA Times opinion article. Oh, I love this. And in the piece, Paul Thornton says, he wrote this in an art, in an art, These are his words. These are real words. He said, if there ever was a case for canceling the playoffs and awarding a championship to one team because it was so clearly better than all the others, the 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers would be it.

I'm out of here. This is ridiculous. I'm ready to take it. You're going to talk about giving it to the team for winning 111 game. What the hell is wrong with people, Jesse? There's a reason that we have the playoffs to decide these sorts of things. Hello, the 2001 Seattle Mariners have entered the chat, by the way. The Seattle Mariners ask them about winning 116 games and then going on to win the World Series.

Oh, wait, you can't because they didn't. They got beat by the Yankees and the ALCS, and then we all know what happened in the World Series. Thank you, Randy Johnson. There you go. But anyway, speaking of which, the Mariners, who happened to extend their playoffs by playing two games in a double-header back-to-back against the Astros, Really did everything they could to kind of hang around, but now they have been eliminated as you saw. Two home games and one.

That was something else. I couldn't believe checking in on the score of that game, 16 innings, 17 innings. It was just incredible. It got to a point where I was like, okay, even if the Mariners do win this game, they're not going to have any pitchers left for the next day. I have no idea how that next game was going to take place. It's like Logan Gilbert has to throw a complete game. Otherwise, the Mariners are kind of sunk. And I mean, obviously the Astros bullpen would have been kind of sunk too.

but they wouldn't have had their backs against the wall like the Mariners would have. And the Astros do have a deeper bullpen as we saw. The Astros probably do have a slightly deeper bullpen. Yeah. I just don't know how you can't be excited about the future as a Mariners fan. Yeah. Like that team. George Kirby was so good in that game.

And Logan Gilbert, like both of those guys, I want to say you're 24 years old right now. Yeah, guys this age throwing out there. Yeah. Just deal it. That was crazy. It makes me feel so non-accomplished. Come on. Come on.

Like, look, you're already past your athlete phase. You're already in your journalist phase. Your pants. What are you talking about? I'm like an old man at this point, but it's fine. Oh, man. But speaking of the bullpens, playoff bullpens have been on another level.

It's just incredible. And I mean, the Diamondbacks, I think this just reiterates to us how far the Diamondbacks still have to go to compete with some of these teams, especially seeing some of these performances like the Astros versus Mariners game that went so long and required so much from the bullpen in order for those teams to keep that game scoreless for as long as they did. I just, I sent out a meme from our account, like looking out the window at all of these hundred and two mile per hour passballs that you're thrown in the strike zone by relievers.

I don't know what that's like. And I don't know where the Diamondbacks are going to turn to find those kind of arms. But Kevin, Kevin Gingle through 98 and Luis Frias did eclipse 100 miles an hour a couple of times. I don't think those pitches were anywhere close to the strike zone. No. No, not at all. But yeah, it's pretty crazy. just watching some of these other postseason teams go in and have multiple guys that can throw 100 miles an hour or more.

Watching Josh Hater in that series, just insane what that man is able to do with the baseball. And I mean, go up against the heart of the lineup like that. Like, Hayter has had a difficult season, right? There's been a lot of criticism to the Padres for making that trade in the first place, right? Yeah. Which I don't, like, I don't know if you can even really blame the Padres. Like, how are they supposed to know that Josh Hater, this guy, he's basically been, untouchable was going to come over and suddenly not be able to really get outs anymore and walk a bunch of guys.

But he looks like his old self now. The criticism was essentially that they were trading one of the best, like the best closer in the game for the best closer in the game. And that it wasn't necessary because they already had somebody. They already had a closer. Right. But I think what we're seeing is what they were hoping that they would get out of Josh Hater. They knew that this guy was elite when it came to closing games. And maybe they didn't feel that way prior to acquiring him.

Josh Hader just has playoff stuff, right? He does. Like he has the kind of stuff. And these are the kind of relievers that we're seeing perform well in the postseason. Yeah. You don't see a lot of finesse relievers in the playoffs having success. You don't see a lot of finesse relievers in the playoffs to begin with. But the kind of guys that the Diamondbacks have primarily relied on over the last five, 10, 15 years, it feels like,

those aren't the relievers that we're seeing having success in the MLB. place in the MLB postseason right now. It's the guys who throw 100 miles an hour. It's the guys who, you know, occasionally maybe their command can be a little bit shaky, but it's the kind of stuff where even if you know what's coming, you still can't hit it anyway. And it's almost more more nerve-wracking when you ever played the show and you guess the pitch right?

And then you still don't hit it, right? Like, how frustrating is that when you knew a fastball low was coming and you still can't fucking hit it, right? That's, that's exactly what's going on with a lot of these guys. And I think the biggest thing is that they're stepping up to the situation. Like we talked about like Drey Jamison this year and, you know, the additional adrenaline from making his first major league start and stuff, getting him over, you know, the velocity numbers that we've seen from him in the past in Reno, right?

And that right now is almost what's happening with some of these relievers. Like you're seeing the best stuff from them all season long because these are big moments and the postseason is just. Yeah. Even Josh Hater, Josh Hader didn't use to throw 100 miles an hour. But in the playoffs, Josh Hader throws 100 miles an hour. That's right. Hater, haters going to hate.

Hater's going to hate. Ben says, I never doubted Hater would rebound. He also says he drank the haterade. I'm not going to let this go by without acknowledging it, but someone in our comments, Pugs and Hugs, great name, by the way, I love Pugs, says our team may stink, but Chase Beald is beautiful at least. That's a first. I have to admit, we've been doing this show for over a year. That's the first thing I think I've heard someone call it beautiful, but God bless you for doing so.

Oscar Gonzalez is life Jesse isn't he he's he's really a joy he's just a joy to watch and watching guardians fans show up to the game and like a full on SpongeBob onesie is really it's really great it's fantastic and more than anything uh just the Cleveland Guardians are awesome they are very very much a team that's been fun to watch they have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball they have one of the youngest teams in baseball they have the youngest team in the playoffs so You talk about the Mariners being encouraged, but look at what these Cleveland Guardians are doing against this New York Yankees juggernaut that spends all the money. I mean, with the Padres and the Dodgers situation, that's good and all. But the Padres are basically doing what the Dodgers are doing.

So it's not as much of upset as this. And it doesn't inspire much hope for DeBax fans. It's like, oh. Go spend a bunch of money. If you want to beat the $290 million payroll team, go spend $270 million. Those aren't the exact numbers. But you get the idea. It's not a blueprint that the Diamondbacks are equipped to follow,

whereas what the Cleveland Guardians are doing right now is something that they absolutely are equipped to do. Yeah, they are. And that's one thing that the Diamondbacks still have, right? I mean, we're going to answer some mailback questions here shortly. But the rebuilding process for the Diamondbacks feels like it's so much further along than it was at the start of the season. And I think that's the important thing. We were hoping to see them rebound like this. They did.

We were hoping to see them get back on track. But a team like the Guardians definitely, and even the Braves, even though they got bounced, these are teams that the Diamondbacks really need to pay attention to and hopefully structure their contracts and their team and their future in a similar way, just so that way we can be good for a long time. Speaking of bullpens, by the way, the Dodgers scored one run in the series against the Padres bullpen, which just was incredible, just was incredible. Bullpins, I mean, if you have multiple guys, you can throw 100 miles an hour. That's, I mean, that's really the benchmark for being ready for the playoffs.

In terms of your bullpen, you need those kind of guys. And the Padres had them. And the Dodgers also sort of have them. But when push came to shove in those games, the Padres were just able to outperform some of those names on the Dodgers that we've been hearing for a very long time. And the Padres just came out and were better in those games. Well, from Alec Thomas robbing Joivado twice to Seth Beers, opening day walk. off. Jesse has you covered with his new piece on GoPhNX.com about the 10 most memorable moments from the 2020 season. I think he nailed it. To be honest, it's an incredible list. And I hope

that you go check it out. If you're not a member already, sign up to become a member. Is that one locked or did you leave it for free? It is. It is locked. Yeah, you're going to have to get it. Anyway, go get a membership. That way you can read it. You haven't got yourself membership? Just making me out to be this evil villain. He's a fucking awful. I was like, oh, Jesse, don't lock it. He's like, I'm going to get that money, son. But anyway, check out that piece. Get yourself an annual membership. You'll get a free t-shirt over at the PHNXLocker.com of your choice,

including the good boy, Cody, back here, and all the wonderful t-shirts that we have to offer. If you get yourself a month-to-month membership, you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of your membership status, you will get members-only access to our Discord, members-only invites to some of our events, as well as members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com. Be the best-dress fan in the valley with our amazing liner shirts. And like, yeah, I wear these button-up jobs all the time. I'm wearing this eager shirt. But when I'm not doing this show, I'm rocking PHNX gear all the time. And that's, that's no lie. That's not an ad read. That's just a, that's a fact. That's a testimonial.

But of course, if you're here right now in the YouTube channel, we thank you guys for being here. We're sorry we're not the coyotes show. We know we fooled some of you. And that was our hope. We're like, let's get that coyotes time slot. Maybe we can make some new friends. But we thank you guys for being here. Subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't done so, already. Sign up for notifications that way you don't miss when we go live. When the coyotes go live, they're going to be here for you all season long, we promise. That commercial that Leah and them did was incredible, by the way. I'm very happy to have Pack Therapy back. But of course, also, if you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, subscribe to us

there. Leave us a five-star review. We thank you so much for doing so. And we thank you so much for checking out our partners. I had to tell my friends this weekend that I was, I'm sorry to be doing Reads live when I'm with them, but they were talking about buying tickets to something. And I was like, did you guys check game time? And they all looked at me and they were like, don't. And I was like, I'm going to because game time is the place to buy tickets last minute, especially if it's on Saturday or Friday. You want to go to the WWE show like my buddies did.

Buy your tickets on game time. Get up 60% off the last minute. Procrastinators. My friend got, he had a meeting and got canceled on him. So he wanted to go to the show last minute. Got his ticket 60% off over at game time. You can too. It's great for you procrastinators, for us, for everybody.

Not only that, get your tickets to sporting events, concerts, shows, whatever you're looking for over at GameTime. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description and download the GameTime app now. Have it ready for whenever you need it on your phone or your smartphone or your iPhone or whatever you call your phone. I don't know if you call their phones anymore, but Jesse, it's Monday. It is Monday. I know what we do. You guys know what we do. You know, every week is Shark Week here.

You know, every day is Earth Day because we recycle. And of course, every Monday, we go to the mailback. Let's go. All right. 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 out. All right.

Let's get to the first question, Leah. Josh Hunt asks, Captain Caveman recently visited Philly. Jesse Friedman recently visited San Diego. DeBue. Over which city is better to visit. Oh, wow. This is, so I don't know if I have to argue on behalf of the good folks of the city of Philadelphia because that's going to be hard for me. I am an island boy and if you give me a beach, I'm happy, right?

That's all I need is a beach and alcohol and whatever, even if it's a bad beach like the ones in Florida that I went to that were disgusting. I just sat on the beach and stared at the gross water. But here's the thing. San Diego is San Diego. It's really hard to beat. I mean, I feel like it's one of the best places that you can take a vacation. I feel like that ballpark is one of the best ballparks that you can go watch a game. It really is.

It's a great weekend. I'll say this about Philadelphia. I had a great time. If you want your kids to get like a true educational experience while also going to see some, you know, postseason games, I love Philadelphia. It reminded me a lot of Washington, D.C., where a lot of that, like, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and stuff. It's very historic. It's all close to each other. So it's kind of, it was beautiful weather, very old.

And I enjoyed it. I definitely enjoyed my time in Philadelphia. We did all of the touristy stuff. We ran the rocky steps, took pictures with the statue, the whole bit, right? But, again, if you're asking me, the much better time is getting drunk on the beach while I watch my daughter nearly drowned in the ocean. So that's, I'm going to be hard to not take San Diego. Yeah, it's a tough, it's a tough choice for me between those two. My dad is originally from Philly, so I've been there.

I've been there a number of times, the city of brotherly love, right? The city of brotherly love. You'll see more people smoking cigarettes than you've ever seen in your entire. Yeah, I think it's kind of an East Coast thing sort of. It is. But the cheese steaks, Jesse, I'd left out the cheese steaks and I'd be remiss to leave out the cheese steaks. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

The wah-wahs and the cheese steaks definitely deserve your consideration in this question. I think Philly just and maybe any local San Diego people get angry at me for this, but I think Philly just has more like culture, just like a more well-established identity as a city sort of, just because it's been around for so long. And yeah, there's something about that. Like there's something special about going to a city that's been around for a very, very long time where the roads don't make any sense whatsoever. But you put up with it anyway. Yeah.

And yeah, it's a fun city to walk around. I feel that. I feel that because that's how like Washington, D.C. I didn't think was going to like get the emotions out of me that it did. Right. Sure. And Philadelphia is very similar, right? It was just, it's an older city.

All the architecture was beautiful. I was constantly stopping to take pictures of buildings and stuff. stuff that I had no idea even when they were. I was like, I don't know, this is cool, though. I'm taking a picture. I don't exactly do that in San Diego, but again. San Diego has like SeaWorld too. I believe that me and my family frequented the zoo in San Diego when I was growing up.

And I do believe it's one of the best views that you'll find anywhere. And yeah, beaches in San Diego are also extraordinary. So they're very, very different. They're almost. Yeah, they really couldn't be more different. Because San Diego is a true representation of a West Coast city and Philadelphia is a very, very East Coast city. And San Diego is like a vacation destination, right? Whereas Philadelphia, like, I don't know if people are necessarily going to Philadelphia, like just, you know, for a weekend getaway or something.

I wouldn't have if I wasn't required to by my family. Yeah. If Meguran hadn't dragged you along, I doubt you would have wound up there. But I had a great time. And I mean, again, he's from there too. So it was like great to go see where, you know, like where he lived and things like that. You know, it was a special weekend to go. I did that in Syracuse and I visited like where my dad's restaurant used to be.

Sure. We used to live. And they have seasons. They have like fall colors. Yeah, we were talking about that before we got on air. The trees were, I'm an old man status now because I just, I was like, this is beautiful. Set it 45 times in the drive between. What else we got, Leah?

Kyle Collins asks, seeing how Valley Sports are trending, Yotes living in Tank City and sons fighting for the championship, Where do you see the debacks headed next season in regards to this? Does it feel like the cards and debacks are in similar places, young talent trying to reach the next level? I don't know if I would put it with the cards and the debacks in a similar place. I don't know about that. The cards feel a bit disjointed and broken and like they're still trying to figure some things out. What makes you say that, Derek? Oh, yesterday's game.

I don't know. I mean, going to see my father who's in hospice who had nothing but terrible things to say about the Cardinals. I was like, that's the first thing you said to me. I walk in the room. My dad's like fucking Cardinals, you know. But here's the thing is I will say I feel like the Diamondbacks are in a completely different place than the Cardinals. I feel like the Cardinals feel like they're closer than they actually are. And they're trying to add those big pieces to get them over the hump.

You think they think they think they're closer than they actually are? Because I don't feel like they've established a core, which is a step before where they're at. They're right now trying to add that D. Hopkins or, you know, Hollywood, Brown, those guys that are supposed to get them, you know, that next level up, that free agent that's going to do that thing. And they've been doing that. They did that with JJ Watt. They did that with Hopkins. You know, they've done it a couple of times. And I still don't feel like they have their core figured out. I feel like the debacks are much closer to figuring out their core now than they've ever been. And once they have that established, then they can really address what free agency

needs they have to get them over the hump. I still feel like they're not there yet. I still feel like they have some positions that they need to lock up. Right. And maybe that comes sometimes with that next step of going to the free agency and acquiring those pieces in order to make them a contender. But I really feel like the Diamondbacks are much further along because they're being maybe more honest about their position than the Cardinals might be. Yeah, I think that's a good point.

Yeah, the Cardinals are a hot mess right now. I believe our Cardinals crew is live right now talking about the Trump. They just went live and they'll be live again at four because there's just so much going on today. They had to do two shows. That's great. Definitely check them out. They're hardcore working overtime over there because they cover an insane football team that is really all over the place right now. We only cover 162 games.

Yeah. Yeah. They have 17 games. Right. Yeah. They can do two shows in a day. But yeah, I think that honestly the debacks, I think you're in a different position than every other professional team in the Valley. Yeah, I like what Charles Woodall Pike just said.

He said the debacks are probably closer to winning than anyone else in the Valley other than the suns. Yeah. And that's it. And they're also like the debacks are on the rise right now. I don't know if I don't think people are like frustrated with the devax. And I know the bullpen I guess was frustrating, right? But like coming into this year, you didn't expect that the team was going to contend and they didn't. But they made, you know, significant strides over last season.

So I think the debacks are still on the rise. They're young. They're kind of fun. right, they're fast. I think it's just a much more enjoyable product to watch right now than the Arizona Cardinals who are supposed to be a lot better than they are. The bar is set a lot higher for them with Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury and some of the other guys they have.

And they're just consistently underperforming where that bar is being set for them. I agree. I agree. And I think the one thing about the debacks is that it is frustrating because they should have even been further along, it feels like, right? The bullpen, we've talked about this. The bullpen wasn't going to be perfect. It's not like they were going to only lose 15 games or something like that.

But let's just say, you know, 10 games added to the win total for this season makes this season an incredible success. Versus it looking more like what we expected, right? Right. So, all right. What else do we got? Oh, Espos. You're going to have to carry this one. I'm going to have to do this one.

All right. Espo asks, which WWE wrestler would make the best MLB manager? All right. We crack knuckles on this. This is going to get deep. There's a couple of different ways I could go with this. So I'm going to go in all three directions. First, my first thought isn't a wrestler, but a manager.

And that's Paul Heyman. Paul Heyman, the wise man for, of course, our tribal chief, Roman Raines, would make an excellent manager. I think he's the best strategic mind in professional wrestling. He's a great character. And could you just imagine him managing a baseball team standing on the top set? step in a baseball uniform looking all devilishly at his team. It would be great. Historically, I'm going to go with Rowdy, Routy Piper. Piper would be an incredible manager. Some wild names. Routy, Routy Piper was one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, right? But the thing about Piper

was he was a bad guy most of the time. Like when I was a kid, he was in the cartoon that they had like this, they had this cartoon where they were good guys and bad guys and they kind of got into hijinks and adventures like 80s cartoons usually did. But I could only imagine the epic rants and arguments with an umpire that piper would have it would put lu penella to shame it would be incredible uh he would you would literally be a madman modern day wrestlers i'm going with set ralins uh set ralins again another strategic mind crafty uh and i think he would do anything anything that it takes to win we've seen him do that in the ring uh i'd be remiss to not also say sammy zane i'm sorry how many answers are you allowed to give on this question giving you

all your answers like those four i don't think espos asks for your top five i don't care i'm giving to them. All right. What else we got? Oh, wait, that's all, that's, that's our next question. No, go ahead, throw that one up. Let's do that one. Let's do it. Let's do it. Brandon Buckingham asked, rank three offseason positions to target players of fit. Yes, I know Jesse Freeman wrote that article already. So I guess this one's for you. What do you think? Let's do top three, though. What do you think are the top three needs? Do you think all three are bullpen related? Third base is out there. What do you think they're targeting? I mean, number one is got to be the bullpen, right? I don't think there's, I don't think there's really any questions about that.

Mike Hazen did mention in his presser on the last, on the day of final media availability, that he thinks the debacks can never have too much starting pitching. And that's a message that Mike Hazen has been preaching for years and years and years. Absolutely. And I think especially after what we saw in 2021, he learned his lesson the hard way, right? The debacks came into that year not having the starting pitching depth that they needed. And it had a very, very difficult result for them, right? it did not end well for them when a lot of those starting pitchers went down. So starting

pitching is definitely going to be in there as well. I've sort of hypothesized that third base is something that they'll look at. Mike Hazen did not mention third base as a need. I know we talked about Evan Longoria and his interest in joining the debacks. We don't really know yet if that's something that they're interested in. I think it's something they could at least look at just given that Josh Rojas didn't seem like an ideal fit for the position. Emmanuel Rivera is not a well-established major leaguer at this point. So I think it's something that they could at least consider. And Mike Aizen also mentioned catcher at one point during that press conference as

something the debacks might look to target. Yeah, I don't think Carson Kelly's job is 100% secured at all. But yeah, no, I think definitely third base and bullpen is the direction I see them leaning. And I mean, even the third baseman is kind of, it's adequate, right? I think they're in a better position than they were to start the 2022 season. Yeah. Emmanuel Rivera was pretty good. Like, all things considered, I don't think the diamond backs expected Emmanuel Rivera to be as good as he was.

So I don't know if he's a long-term third base solution yet at this point, but I think it's worth giving him a look and giving him some pretty regular reps. The other thing we should mention is just a right-handed bat in general. Mike Hazen did talk about how the devax are a little bit overly left-handed, which is a secret to no one. They've had many lineups throughout the year where there were literally, really no right-handed hitters in the lineup one through nine. So I think that's something that they should probably look at as well.

Gabriel in the comment just said Justin Turner one year, $15 million deal. Justin Turner's old, man. I know. That's what makes him a perfect fit for picking this team picking them up, right? I don't hate it. You're talking about Evan Longoria, Jesse. Yeah, no, I don't hate it. I mean, Justin Turner has aged extraordinarily well.

He's been in his 30s for his entire prime, which is wild. I don't really know how you do that. No, I don't know. But yeah, Justin Turner has, he'd still had a pretty good year for the Dodgers. I want to say he's coming up on 38 years old, which is, yeah, I mean, he and Evan Longoria are pretty much the same age at this point. So if you'd consider one, you'd maybe consider the other. Why not? Right now, get down on the Draft King Sportsbook app.

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One per game day all season long. It's this simple. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Use promo code PHNX. That's promo code PHNX on the Draft King Sportsbook app. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes. for detail. Also, cheers to our friends of the Four Peaks Brewing Company. Of course, we've got some

amazing events coming up with them this season, this fall, all season long. But stay tuned for more information about that. In the meantime, there's not much time left to enjoy spooky season over at the 8th Street pub. So make sure to get down on the haunted brewery tours. Yeah, Four Peaks. Monday through Wednesday, two tours per night. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy these wonderful beers, wherever you get them, and enjoy responsibly. Can we get some more mailback? Before we go on to the more bailbag questions, let's put Ben's question from the chat up real fast. Shout out to Isaiah Chavez in the comments. Hello, sir. Glad to have you with us. And Ben says, not to stir the pot, but what about a better

defensive second baseman and having Cotel D.H. full time? Yes, having Cotel D.H. full time. I think that's something they really might have to look at as a possibility for next year. But what happened? Like, wasn't Cattel good at second base? Last year, his defensive metrics weren't good in center field. You didn't play much second base. The metrics weren't great there, but it was such a small sample size. But you're right. Ketel Marte a few years ago was a pretty good second base.

That's what I'm saying. Like it's kind of wild. And I wonder if injuries have hampered him to the point where he can't get back there. Sometimes that's it, right? I mean, especially if you talk about explosiveness, right? You have a hamstring injury that doesn't go away. It's hard for you to be explosive to catch, you know, to get those fly balls that are coming at you, the screamers, to the left to the right, things like that.

He just didn't move well. It just, it looked like, it looked like his athleticism as a whole just took a step back, which I do think the hamstring could play a role in that. But I don't know. I mean, Catelle-Marte is not that old. He's still in his 20s. He should still be in a spot where, you know, I mean, if the injuries are that bad, then you probably shouldn't be playing in the first place. You want him to be able to play second base, especially after giving him the contract that the diamondbacks just did. You don't want to have him, you know, DH.

for the next four years or whatever. So I think they're in a tough spot with Catelle. They need his bat to come back and the defense is something they really could use as well. It's tough using him in a D.H spot and not being able to use that spot for other guys. All right. What's our next mailbag question?

Chris says, throwing it back to a previous show discussion topic, home field advantage. Do home teams and baseball have an advantage without field familiarity, anticipating caram's and such? I definitely agree with that. That's one thing I've been really impressed with with this young outfield is that they adapted so quickly to the weird characteristics of Chase Field. And that's definitely an advantage, I think, especially when you talk about some ballparks and baseball.

Some outfields are way more straightforward. Others like the Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, even San Diego Padres ballpark. They do have weird. Or Oracle Park in San Francisco is kind of a mess. Yeah, or Oracle is absolutely a mess. Doors, windows, sheds, whatever, garages. You know, it's got everything. It's like one of the clubs that they talk about on SNL.

But, of course, you know, you do also have what we've seen in this postseason, right? Yes, we've talked about the batting at the bottom of the inning. But the crowds have been electric in the postseason. And I think that's another thing to be said about having home field advantage. What's odd is is so far except for the Astros, it really hasn't mattered because the teams that didn't have home field advantage have advanced. And now we see the guardians pushing the Yankees. to a game five tonight. So it'll be interesting to see how this turns out for them.

I do think like once you've made your rounds like in your division, you probably get pretty comfortable with the ballparks there. You know, we saw Alec Thomas, Rob a Homer in Coorsfield, which is a really big outfield to patrol. But I do think like once you've been an outfielder for a team for a while, at least the ballparks in your division, you probably feel a similar level of comfort there. And that was the point of playing 162 games.

and most of them against your division. I mean, almost all of them at one point were against your division, right? So it's like the idea there was that the entire season was a playoff and you got to be so familiar with each other that by the time the playoffs came around, if you were playing each other, yes, there's a, that familiarity is there. Mark Graves in the comments is, I'm a Giants fan. Would you give Mad Bum and McCarthy for a prospect? That's an awful question.

That's an awful question because I know where he's going with that. And it's like to unload Mad Bum's contract, would we give up somebody that we coveted it? Oh, heck no. I mean, not Jake McCarthy. No, you can have Jake McCarthy. That's for sure. You can have Josh Rojas. I mean, do you really think that by getting off of Madison Bumgriner's contract,

you're going to get an asset like Jake McCarthy with that money? No, you're basically going to get Mad Bum for nothing is what you're most likely. You can't go out. I mean, yeah, Mad Bum's going to make $37 million over the next two years. You can't go get Jake McCarthy. with $37 million. You can't go get a player like that for $37 million. Jake McCarthy is 25 years old, right?

Those guys aren't on the free agent market to begin with. So I could see the debacks moving Bumgarner. I do think there's a way for them to do that, but I think it involves them eating a lot of the money rather than packaging some sort of a prospect in the deal. We've already seen that with Bronson-Aroyo, and yes, Tuki Tucson is not a superstar in this game at this point, But he's still thrown pretty well and still has some potential.

I don't think that's a road the team wants to go down again. All right. What else we got, Liam? Don's bread asks, you got hired to cast the next James Bond, and it comes down to the final two people, and you can only choose one.

Who would you choose Josh Rojas or Madbub? We know where you're going with this. I love that Don's bread just narrows it down to Rojas and Madbubhub for us. I appreciate it because you knew that's what we were going, but if I could, if I could, I hate to do this because I know there's rules to this question, but Alec Thomas would be an incredible James. I could see that. I could see that.

He's very dashing. He's very charismatic. He's got a debonair to him. He's our young king, right? So, of course, that's where I'm going to go. Let's take a step back, though, and say Josh Rojas or Madbomb. Now, isn't Madhub more of a cue at this point in his life? Isn't he more of a like the boss giving out?

Yeah, that's fair. I'm not seeing Madbom in a tuxedo blow up a limousine while parachuting out of it and, you know, saving a person. Like maybe he'd be the one calling the shots or playing some other role in a situation. Matt Bump would be the villain, right? I was about to say villain. Yeah, he would be the one that tied Josh Rojas to a table and trying to cut him in half with a laser. My gosh. I'm just saying.

That's, we're talking James Bond. Josh Rojas is definitely my bond in this situation for sure. Yeah, I'm on board with that. Gabriel says James Bond needs sex appeal. Rojas has sex appeal according to all the ladies in the stand yelling at it. Oh my gosh. Sure. I hear you.

Anyway, we got any more, Leah? Got one more. All right. Kyle Collins says, what are your top three favorite baseball movies in no particular order? He goes, Field of Dreams, Major League, and Moneyball. Those are excellent choices except Field of Dreams. It's a garbage movie and don't even get me started on it. Is it not worthy of the notoriety?

No, Field of Dreams is absolutely not worth the notoriety. It's not a good movie. It doesn't have a high replay value. It doesn't entertaining to me to watch it. I don't like Field of Dreams. I'm getting some looks in here like I'm crazy. And I know this is a baseball podcast, but Jesse, I'm going to let you start since I know your options are going to be limited here potentially. Yeah.

So Moneyball is the one of the three that I've seen. Yeah. All right. Over the off season, we'll do a full-on, a full-on baseball movie thing where I go in and actually watch all of these things because it's honestly a crime. I haven't seen them. But Moneyball is it? I can attest to that. What about?

You got two more? Or is Moneyball it? You have two more baseball movies that you've seen that you like or no? Two more. Oh, you just want me to give like the top three from what I've seen. Yes, top three. Does Angels in the Outfield count as a baseball movie? Okay.

Angels in the Outfield was. I mean, honestly, it's a very cringy movie. And I haven't seen it in years. And Saul is utterly distressed at the thought of that movie. The look of disgust on Saul's face right now. It says it all. You got to realize it's a limited amount. There's a limited amount.

The rookie is also a great base. The rookie is that with Brendan Fraser? You think I'm going to know the actor in that movie? Come on, Derek. I'm going here. Okay, I'm going first to Sandlot because I can't not of the sandlot. You know, it's the samlott. Little Big League

is one of the most underrated baseball movies ever. Little Big League is so weird because it's like label the kids movie, but it's just slightly too advanced baseball wides for kids to really like get it. It comes down to like Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey

Jr. being the villains of the movie and they're actually in the movie. If you haven't seen Little Big League, you have to see that movie. It's fantastic. Last one I'm going to is a league of their own. A League of Their own. I went to see that when it came out in the movie theater. I saw it twice in the theater and I was like 10. So it's, or 11. I don't know. I was pretty young though. So a little big league is what I'm going with. Saw what are your three? What are you doing? Well, first of all, Mark Cooper said the natural and the natural, it to me is the same as a field of dreams. I think that is just an overrated, awful, awful movie. I don't like it at all. I mean, baseball movies can tend to be that. I don't know. That's why I like fun. One kid's movie is kind of more. League of their own.

Yeah. Next level. Love it. Major League. The original Major League. The original major league. Is it. Yeah.

And then at the Sandlot, love it. Those are the three for me. Yeah. I love Moneyball. I actually do kind of like Field of Dreams. Because, I mean, if you're going to talk about the, you know, baseball and you know, everybody loves to smell their own farts in baseball, right? Right.

Right. Like, that's what Field of Dreams is. Like, oh, let's bring back these crusty fucks in the corn. And, you know, that's it. That's it. You know what I mean? So, but other than that, Jesse, you're dead to me. Well, that was a given.

Yeah, we knew that already. Little Big League, or no, Major League. I went to see Major League when I was entirely too young to see it. And what was funny was, I've told this story. I'm probably on this show before. I went with my friend and his mom. So there's the scene where they undressed the manager, like the standee, and I couldn't bear the embarrassment of sitting next to my friend's mom

while they showed a naked lady on screen. So I literally excused myself and went and sat in the back of the theater and watched the scene play out. So I wasn't missing it, but I also wasn't going to sit next to my friend's mom and watch it. We thank you guys so much, of course, for being here and for checking out all of our sponsors. Of course, we've been talking about OGs and their wonderful gummies. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, did you just say you went to the back of a movie theater to watch somebody get undressed? Yes, yes, I did openly admit that, yes. No shame in my game.

When did that movie come out? I was like 12 years old. Like I was, it was weird. But, okay. I was, like I said, I wasn't missing that scene. I also wasn't sitting next to my friend's mom all that. Anyway, of course, OGs, we talked about their sleep edition gummy. It's my favorite thing.

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They're all about flavoring life and flavoring your dreams over at OG's Brands.com. Or on Instagram at OG's Brands can find their products at your local dispensary must be 21 years or older to purchase. And a shout out again to our friends at Moore Furniture. We are living in the high life here at the PHNX studios. Thanks to all the wonderful furnishings that we have from our friends at More Furniture. you can spruce up your home with the Moore Furniture Fall Sale at morefurniture.com. Right now, you'll receive a $100 gift card for every $1,000 you spend. Come on, get yourself a new living room set, then you get yourself some of these awesome recliners that we got in here.

It's a wonderful way to spend the highlight of the sports season. Not to say, you know, of course, we don't want to take away from baseball's regular season, but between the postseason, hockey being back, football, basketball starting at the end of the month. This is a great month for sports and make sure you're ready for it. Basketball starts this week. This week. Yeah, Wednesday the Suns play their first game. Let's go.

But of course, we thank you guys again for being here for joining us. We hope you guys enjoyed your brunch along with us. And this is where we'll be for the off season. So that way we can maybe make it out and see some more Arizona Fall League games. So you should do that too. Follow us until then on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. It is a Cleveland Guardian stand account now, by the way. And of course, all roads leads you at PHNX underscore Spitz. Okay, I have two more baseball movies before we go. Let's go. All right, you ready for this? All right. So one baseball movie we didn't mention is 42.

Oh, outstanding, genuinely outstanding baseball movie. Genuinely, one of those movies that I loved and I kind of forget about because it's like I. It doesn't really feel like it's a bait, like it's about much more important things than just baseball the end of the day. Right, right. Right. You're right.

And I mean, I get stuck in the 90s too with a lot of my baseball movies. I won't lie about that. But I think it's because like you said, like the, if it doesn't, have a montage of a baseball team playing a season as it progresses in the movie i don't really acknowledge it but let's go what else i mean harrison ford's in 42 that's not like make you feel more at home um all right and then air bud is the other there's a i'm telling saul come back in here you said air bud anyway all right i didn't say it was good i just said it was a Baseball movie.

And it exists. And I don't really remember that much about it, except that it was probably corny as heck and horrible. He said Airwood. So it's a baseball movie, and I've seen it. So it warrants mentioning, Derek. That's what I'm saying. Like, I loved Rookie of the Year when I was a kid.

Then I watched it as an adult. And I was like, his tendons, he'll do his bone. Get the fuck out of this movie. What is this shit? Anyway, thank you guys again for joining us. Remember all Rhodesley to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We enjoy you guys being here. And of course, on behalf of Jesse Lee and myself, we appreciate your time.

Remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you watch movies that aren't field of dreams. I'm lucky to watch it.