PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Arizona Diamondbacks will send outfielder Alek Thomas down to Triple-A Reno according to reports

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

It’s not goodbye…it’s see you soon. According to Nick Piecoro from AZCentral, the Arizona Diamondbacks will send rookie outfielder and Young King Alek Thomas down to Triple-A Reno prior to the end of the season.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly.  Bad Birdie: use code “PHNX” to take 15% off your next Bad Birdie order! https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Sit in the same seats we do! Check out https://morfurniture.comUnderdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Liquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. I, of course, am your mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This guy's the thunder stick. He's also my vice mayor. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman. How are we doing, Derek? I'm all right. I mean, we got some bad news, but nothing too concerning, of course, right?

We're going to explain to you why our friend Alec Thomas being set down isn't cause for alarm at this. time. But of course, this podcast is brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app. America's top rated sports book app. Per reports from Nick Piccoro at AZ Central or Arizona Republic. I don't know which one we are. I don't know what they call it now.

It's whatever. I swear it changes like every day. It's the big newspaper. You guys know who Nick is. But according to Nick's report, Alec Thomas will be sent down to AAA Reno. Obviously, we do not want to see our young king get sent down. So we understand if you are upset by this. We're a bit upset by this too, but I think we have a good reason why.

Before I go, I want to, before we go on, George Mello in the comments says, cheers from Brazil. DeBak's fan since 98 here. What is up, George? Thank you for joining us. And by the way, we thank you, George, for making us the 12th highest download, the 12th ranked baseball podcast in the country of Brazil. So thank you for that. Yes. We are, yeah, we are the 12th ranked.

It's all George is. It's probably all George's all George. It's all George. We appreciate George. Brian Adala says, What's the newspaper? We don't know that anymore. I certainly don't know. I would see one in a long time.

Jesse, what are your thoughts on Alex Thomas being sent down to the Aces? I mean, so first of all, like once you establish a brand like Young King, you know, and you make graphics with the cape and the whole bit, like it makes these kinds of things a whole lot harder to deal with, you know? We don't accept it. We're not. We're not here for it, to be honest. Yeah.

So I know this is a hard moment for a lot of people. But it does make a little bit of sense, right? If you look at Alec Thomas's numbers over the course of the season, he was okay in May. The month that they called him up, he was pretty good. Very okay. Yeah, yeah, he got off to like a really solid start. And then things just kind of dwindled from there. If you look at his OPS month over a month since then, it's gone down every single month.

Up until the month of September, where Alec Thomas is at 127 with a 138 on base percentage in a 164 slugging percentage. It's not great, Derek. Not. In 58 plate appearances. So that's still a pretty decent sample size to be putting up those kind of numbers. So I think this does make some sense. Alec Thomas, when he first came up, I don't know about you, Derek, but I kind of thought

that there might be an adjustment period here for him. He has a weird swing. Like, he just has sort of strange hitting mechanics that I think easily causes him to, like, pull off of the baseball. We've seen him hit a lot of slow rollers, you know, on the pole side that seems to be what he's doing almost every time up at the plate now. He always looks off balance, right? Yeah. Like when he's hitting, he always looks off balance, even though you don't see him fall a lot, you know, when he's struck.

You know what I mean? Like, yeah, with his. Hopefully it doesn't lead him to fall to the ground. You know how ridiculous batters can look when they, when they strike out. And especially with an off balance swing like his, you don't see that necessarily at times. Yeah. But yeah, it definitely doesn't look like a great swing. We just thought of it as being effective.

It was effective. But then dating back to July 1st, he is slashing 215, 248, 296. Yeah. Not great. And it's basically like Geraldo Pardomo pretty much for the last few months. Without the good numbers with runners in scoring position. Right. Because as you know, Geraldo Pordomo is a known risk king in taco providers.

So we love that guy. But we also understand that these guys are all growing. They're all trying to get better. this point, I think that's what the organization is trying to do is, is help them get better. So I feel like being by being sent down to the Reno Aces, especially right now with the Aces in a postseason situation, that Alec Thomas can get some meaningful at bats in some big games, you know, high pressure situations that, you know, just give them some more opportunity to grow and, and again, get those at bats.

I'm convinced that this has nothing to do with the Diamondbacks. It just has to do with the Reno Aces being like, hey, like, we're about to go to the playoffs. Can you like send us someone? Can we get Drey Jameson and Alex Thomas back? And they're like, no, you can't have Drey. Ryan Nelson's hurt. But tell you what, we'll give you Alec Thomas and we'll send Baxter over there for a couple of games. And they were like, hard pass on the bobcat.

Okay, that guy, he swings at everything. But Alex Thomas, they happily accepted back. I feel like Thomas has gotten away with kind of having some poor offensive numbers because of his defense. Yeah. What we continue to see him do on a nightly basis, it's almost forgiving of any. you know, shortcomings he has elsewhere. He's just absolutely been incredible. Brian Abdallah says give them loop low.

Absolutely. He'll hit three home runs in the playoff game down there, AAA. We know that. Yeah, I mean, Alec Thomas's defense is still, I mean, it's graded out as, you know, he's graded out as one of the best center fielers in all of baseball throughout the entire season. So I think it makes sense that like you're going to have quite a bit of leash with a guy like Alec Thomas, given that he is the defender that he is.

but there comes a point. I mean, you know, at three whatever OPS this month. I mean, you just can't have that in a big league lineup every day. So I think this move does make sense. I know there's a lot of people might view this as like picking Pave and Smith over Alec Thomas, which I guess is fair, right? Like that is sort of literally what's happening. I mean, Pave and Smith just came up and Alec Thomas is being sent down.

But I think you have to view this as like we all know that Alec Thomas is part of of the long-term future here, right? Like, there's no question about that. This is just a matter of the debacks want to see what Pavin Smith can do in these last couple of weeks. The abats are important for a guy who has been hurt for as long as he has.

Whereas Alec Thomas, you know, if the playoff run ends this weekend, which it could, it's a one-game playoff if the Aces will play to start this thing off, it's okay. Like Alec Thomas has had plenty of at-bats this year and he can, you know, just kind of hit the ground running with the off-season.

in trying to make some adjustments for next year. And the Diamondbacks actually, I think, just made this roster move official. We just got an email. That was the ding on Jesse's computer. Yeah. From our buddy Pat O'Connell. See, this is why I don't mute my laptop for these things. So that when the D-Backs send us emails, I get them and know instantly.

The Diamondbacks have reinstated a friend of the show, Jake McCarthy from bereavement leave, and they have sent Alec Thomas down to the AAA Reno's, Trino-Rino Aces. Pat O'Connell, by the way, from the Arizona Diamondbacks. is a phenomenal guy over there who we've worked with, I've worked with for a very long time, ever since I've been covering this team, I think. So Pat and I have known each other and have been friends and have worked together in getting me access to this team. He's moving on from the Diamondbacks.

And so we just wanted to wish him the best. He's been absolutely one of our favorite people to work with over there. And we will miss him greatly. So shout out to Pat. Yeah. It's all, I mean, it's kind of a brutal job doing what Pat does. like Pat works absurd hours. Anyone who runs like a player in media relations department for a team that plays basically

every day for six months, you got to feel for the guy. And he's like the guy that goes on the road with them the majority of the time. So he's there all the time. And we'd also like to thank him for leaving so that we got to enjoy incredible crumble cookies last night. And the press box. As much as we missed Pat, I mean, that was. That was, it made us feel better. Yeah, the cookies made us feel better.

Um, upcoming calendar here for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not a lot of games left on the schedule. This is it, folks. Two more against Houston, a three game set against the Giants. And then they wrap up the season in Milwaukee. Wait, you just mean like the blank days on the six, seventh, and eighth. That's just like a long weekend or something. No, no, Jesse.

Jesse, no. Oh, gosh. This is it. What are we going to do with all of our time, Derek? You know what we're going to go? You know what we're going to do? We're going to the Fall League, baby. Join us out at the Arizona Fall League.

That's where we will be. That's what we'll be covering. We got lots of guys on this Arizona Diamondbacks team to still cover. This isn't over. This just becomes the Cooper Hummel show, the Davis and DeLos show after this point. The Jordan Lawler show. The Jordan Lawler show. The Jordan Lawler show.

Yeah, that Jordan Law. That's exciting. Come on, folks. You're not excited. Get excited. But anyway. Not to be mistaken for the Jordan Looplow show. Two different.

I'm still never going to not know which one we're talking about when it comes to that. But I want to give a very petty shout out to the Chicago White Sox crew as far as our All-City division goes, which, as you know, is the most important division in all of baseball. The Chicago White Sox have once again dropped down below. They're back down here below 500 with us. So good, misery loves company, and we love them to be as miserable as we are. They lost the division. They got to watch the Guardians clinch the youngest team in baseball to clinch their division, which is something that maybe could be said. about the Arizona Diamondbacks soon with all these youngsters coming up and comprising the rock you know

once you i mean you know when you have like several 38 year olds on the team it makes it hard to be the youngest team of baseball but we we need to do something about that you guys but anyway uh of course chicago cubs rockies you guys are down there below us um jessey actually has a very a wonderful article that he wrote about the Arizona diamondbacks pitchers and their best pitches that you can it's not it's not out yet oh god i'm not supposed to tell me well anyway anyway Anyway, that's coming soon. I guess for audio listeners, it'll, it's probably out by the time that you get to this. I'm not allowed to tell you anymore, but anyway, go get your membership over at go phnx.com.

If you haven't done so already, get an annual membership. You'll get yourself a free t-shirt. Like this guy over here on the wall that's very popular. Everybody's got a, is that Cody the Coyote? Cody the Coyote. And yesterday in Tucson, we saw so many of them. I love that shirt. I've loved that shirt from the day your guy's logo popped up in my messages.

So Cody's great. You can get Cody, you get the Sun Devil one. I don't know about the Sun Devil one right now, but get whichever shirt you want over at the PHNX Locker.com for free with a PHNX membership. If you get your, that's the annual membership. Get the month-to-month option. You'll get your first month for just 50 cents. And as Jesse says, 50 cents.

Come on. Jesse would even spend that on an app. No, I wouldn't. I definitely would not. He's so cheap. Anyway. If I have to as much as put in my credit card info, I am not interested. He hates it.

He hates it. He hates it. That is where I draw the line. But see, don't be like Jesse. Get yourself a membership. Month if you like us, you stick around. Maybe get the annual membership. Regardless of your membership status, she will get access to our members-only discord

and members-only discounts over at the ph-NX Locker.com. For those of you that are here with us right now, thank you guys for joining the show, especially George and Brazil. We also had somebody from Russia. Is that right in our chat? This is crazy. We thank you guys all for being here. But if you are not already subscribed to the PHNX YouTube channel, make sure to do so.

Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever. we go live. And if you're listening right now on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe there and leave us a five-star review. We love you for it. I'm not going to stop talking about how much money I've won on the underdog fantasy app. The people here are sick of it. And I'm just over here with a bunch of ones in my hand throwing them around the office for fun because I made that kind of money over at the underdog fantasy app on pitch counts. That's on pitch counts, folks. A thousand dollars I made on pitch count. So you can only imagine what you can do.

It's like the worst story though. No, it's like. God, it's not. It's a great story. You tell someone like, hey, I just want a thousand dollars on the Underdog Fantasy app. And they asked you like, hey, like, how'd you do it? Like, what'd you bet on? Like, what'd you bet on? And you're like, yeah, I bet on five pitch counts, most of which landed by literally one pitch. I got 99 problems, Jesse, but a pitch ain't one. Let me tell you. And you can get your money. Whatever you want, though it's the Jesse. Make your money over at Underdog Fantasy app. Of course, it's all sorts of options. And, yes. You can decide on how many pickums you add.

You go higher, you go lower than whatever they give you. They gave me the pitch counts. I didn't make that up. I didn't request that. That was their game. And I played it and I won. And you can too over at the Underdog Fantasy app. Just search in the app store or click the link in our show notes.

Sign up with our promo code of PHNX and we will double your first deposit up to $100. That's Underdog Fantasy promo code PHNX and get on the action today. And bet on pitch counts. Bet on those pitch counts. Uh, anyway, are you happy with yourself? You're belittling my thousand dollars. See, I mean, I bought Leah coffee with my thousand dollars. A thousand dollars is a thousand dollars.

So you get nothing. I mean, I didn't really expect to get anything anyway. Well, come on. I bought you chick fillet the other night. You did. Well, you did not buy me chick filet. You bought me a. It was his choice.

It was a coffee. It was an ice coffee. A vanilla cold brew. Do you see how, do you see how appreciative of it is? He's not even appreciated it. I appreciate it. Getting two of my $1,000. If you're going to say that you bought me Chick-fil-A,

like that's a little misleading. That's all I'm saying. You're the worst. Anyway, this is what we do. We bicker on this show. We do that every day. Every week is Shark Week on this show. Every day is Earth Day.

But every Monday, you know what we do. We go to the mailbag. Let's go. I feel box. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go wow. Mark is never going to let salad and go go.

He says not even salad at salad go. How dare you, Derek? Hey, you know, that's definitely not. We are never going to salad go together, me and this guy. But let's get to our first question from Twitter. It comes from our guy over at, is it? Kyle, that's it, Kyle, Colin. Because we were talking about Alec Thomas already.

Kyle wants to know what's the concern level with Alec being sent down and slowly regressing through the season. Do we still think he has a lock on center field next year? because he spends some extra time in Reno to get the bat right, worried his bat might behave like Kelnix in Seattle. That's honestly, there is a big part of this that, again, I think a lot of organizations are kind of expecting at a time a player like this to regress. We've seen a lot of the top, you know, minor league prospects

that have crossed over and made their debut in Major League Baseball be sent back down. Spencer Torkelson, just one that I think of off the top of my head. I really think Alec Thomas is a big league. player. I think I was expecting when he got called up for him to be sent back down at some point throughout the season just because you get into a place like they were with Stone Garrett where he didn't play in a game for what five games I believe something like that. You don't want to. I mean, he was only hitting like 400. So that's all. Yeah, like why would why put

him in the lineup? That's just crazy talk. You know, there's no need to pinch hit with him or anything. But, you know, the idea there that that if you're going to sit someone like Garrett that long, you might as well send them down. It's not a demotion. It's more about getting them more at bat so that they're not sitting on a bench not playing baseball, right? I mean, to be fair, Alex's not going to get a ton of the bats with this move necessarily because the aes have three more games, right? And then we'll see how far their playoff run goes. They're going to win the thing, but that's a whole other. Yeah, they're absolutely going to win the thing.

But yes, I think that there is a fair amount of concern here. But it's not like it's not surprising necessarily like you said, right? we've seen a lot of top prospects come up and, you know, maybe have a good few games like Alec Thomas did, but, you know, struggle to have really any staying power at the big league level. What I will say is that Alec Thomas is 22 years old. If he were 24 or 25, I'd be like, there's like some real risk here that Alec Thomas might not pin out, which of course there still is, right? Like that's always a possibility.

But I don't think you're overly concerned at this point when Alec Thomas is like three years younger than a lot of the other D-BACs prospects that we're seeing debut right now, right? He's like four years younger than Stone Garrett. He's three years younger than Ryan Nelson and Dre Jameson, give or take. So he's a really young guy to be playing at the big leagues already. And I think, you know, there's going to be a growth process here that has to take place. He's ahead of projections because he was supposed to not even be in the major leagues until 2023 according to MLB prospect rankings.

Sure, which is always full proof. It's always 100% accurate. 100% accurate and you have to take it word for word. But no, the thing there is, is that like Jesse said, he is very young and I think there is plenty of time to develop. I do think that, you know, maybe, maybe like Michael McDermott said, seeing the AAA versus MLB numbers about how many more at bats he'll get at the AAA level. Yeah.

That's really what it's about. And especially, as someone else alluded to, you know, Jordan Looplo has been getting his playing time. so it's not like he has been playing every game, getting those chances and getting those major league at bats. We do know that the Diamondbacks want to take a look at guys here at the end of the season. That's the reason why they shut Bumgarner down, allegedly, is that they want to get more eyes on the young arms. And they also want to give Merrill Kelly that chance to get a second or two more starts

to get to those 200 innings. But I do believe that, you know, they do, in fact, want to see some of these guys. Payment Smith, I think, is a big reason why Alec Thomas is getting sent down because Payment Smith has been doing well, and they want to continue to see where this guy fits in. They have a lot of talent, and I think this franchise just wants to be careful that they don't make the mistake about who they find,

who becomes expendable for them and that coming back to bite them. You know, that Payven Smith was one of those guys that they saw a lot of potential in at one point. It's still wild to me that Payven Smith was playing center field last year. Like this year, the Diamondbacks have like three center fielers that are all above average. Last year they were like, hey, let's take this first base.

Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a center field. Things were great laughing. Next question, please. Rick Eye, the Buckeye guy. This one's a Jesse question. He says, how did Frius get a hold and a loss?

Because he finished an inning or someone else gave up his runs. I didn't know that was possible. Well, we know how he got the loss. That's for sure. Yeah, the loss is fairly clear. But yeah, as far as the hold is concerned, it is possible to get both. It doesn't happen very often. But if you look at the official Major League Baseball definition of a hold,

There's two different ways you can do it. One of them is the player enters with a lead of three runs or less and maintains that lead while recording at least one out. Obviously, he didn't maintain the lead, right? So that sort of- That disqualifies that version of a hold. Right. Number two, however, is he enters the game with the tying run on deck at the plateer on

the bases and records an out. And that he did do. He pitched part of two different innings. He came in the game in the seventh inning. And there were runners on base that would have represented the, the, the tying run in that game and he did record the final out of the inning. So he gets a hold for that and then he comes back out for the next inning and that's where he gets the loss. So he winds up with both of them. Definitely not something that you see every day,

but it is possible. All right, there you go. There's your daily Professor Friedman educational tour for you. Yes. What else we got, Leah? Do you think the debacks should get in new uniforms next season to match with the new look sons? Oh. You mean like the, like the Sun's uniform that like just came out. Oh, Jesse. Yeah. Have you seen these bad boys yet? Yeah. Look at that. I still don't know how I feel about that. Oh, I hate you so much. They're gorgeous. They're gorgeous. I love them so much. Especially when I saw them on the players. You know, they have black shorts that match. The trim down at the bottom is a similar trim with the

gradient on it. I just love it. I love the gradient pattern. I love the way that they're using it. I like that they're bringing back the old school sun's purple, the, you know, the streaking sun logo, whatever you want to call it. Here's what I'll say. We know what year it is. It's the 25th anniversary, officially, right? It is. It is. Let's do it.

Let's bring back the purple and teal. Let's bring back the vest. Let's bring all of it back. I don't want to hear it. I don't want any arguments. If anything, come up with something new, you know, but incorporate. Look, I know. Ken Kendrick. You love the Sedona Red. It's time to move on. Maybe we can get like a copper or purple to teal gradient, kind of like the sun's got, something like that, some trim. I don't know. But I want something. I do want something. I want pin stripes. I want it all back. I want Colorado to kick rocks. They can go make their colors that ugly, dark green like their license plate and their City Connect jerseys. Give us back the purple. It's ours. We want it. We deserve it. We want a World Series in it. And we should get it back. That's my feelings on it.

I mean, yeah. You've expressed your feelings, obviously. You don't like the new Sunday jersey. No, well, okay, put it, put it up there again. I don't like you. I think I like it. Truth be told, I take my group chat with my, with my two older brothers very seriously. All right.

And I have not really had a chance to look at this uniform in detail yet. But in there in the group chat earlier today, not long ago, one hour ago, maybe two hours ago, my brothers are looking at this uniform and they basically said it was trash. And so that is the only exposure to this uniform that I had before coming in here. So I'm trying to develop my own opinion. And I think I do like it. There, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's actually pretty nice.

I don't know what, I don't know what they're seeing that I'm not seeing. But it looks, it looks pretty dang nice to be. I really like it. And I mean, the sons have had a black jersey before in the past. And, you know, it was, it was popular. It was the sunburst jersey, but it was in black. I remember some good, some good times in that jersey as well. But I just think the Valley jersey was like, like, can you?

ever really beat that? No. And this is replacing that, right? I don't know. That's a good question. That's a good question. I don't know if it's replacing it. I know that maybe someone in the comments could help us out with that, but I do like all of

their jerseys. And I'd like the fact that the sons keep doing things with their jerseys to keep you interested. Yeah. You know, I think some of the combinations the Diamondbacks have had this year have been great, to be honest, real slick looking. But I would love to just see them kind of move back in that direction or just. Just do something different.

Do something fun. I still have the Serpientish jerseys, but they need something. They skin black pants with the Serpianzish jerseys. Yeah, they do. Give us black pants with the Serpianish jerseys. For a while, they did like the throwback Thursday thing, which I thought was pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. Fans are obsessed with purple and teal, right?

And getting to see it at least once in a while, I think was a fun thing for them. But yeah, they haven't done that this year. Yeah. I wish I were more optimistic about your request, Derek. But it's not going to happen. But let's let's let's look at it. Let's hope. We impact this, Jesse.

We can lead the revolution to making them do this. Don't you understand that? Okay. Come on. Get on board, everybody. All I know is I think the diamond, I don't think the diamond backs are like sitting up in their offices like, huh, I wonder if fans would like it if we brought back purple and teal.

I think they well know the answer to that question. this point. Well, okay. See, that and that that bothers me because one, you're not wrong about that, but two, I don't get holding back from what would work and make your, your team just more appealing, something that would interest fans, something that would sell a bunch of jerseys, right? Like, yeah. I mean, you're, you're, you're turning away money. And come on, there's plenty, there's so many baseball cards to buy. You need that money. If they actually did that, it would go crazy. Right. I know. Everyone would be, yeah, it would absolutely go crazy. But yeah, I mean, there has to be some other reasons here that's just keeping the team from wanting to do. Pride,

ego. That's why. Anyway, you can get all of that stuff out of the way by simply enjoying some OGs gummies from our friends at OGs. They will make your pride and ego go away. It'll make you a much happier person. But they did something that just totally changed the game. We've been talking about it so much. It's their brand new sleep edition gummy, which I, can't get enough of, Jesse. I say that because one little 10 milligram gummy that is

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Jesse can attest to this. You keep me up past 10. But in reality, I just have a hard time sleeping. And I know a lot of people choose to use OG's indica strains for a good night's rest. And this special sleep addition gummy takes it up to another level. That CBN, again, is a compound that specifically helps you not only fall asleep, but stay asleep. And the sleep addition gummy flavor is AquaBerry, and it's just incredible. So we highly recommend you check out our friends at OGs, a local dispensary near you.

If you can't find them, go to OGs online at OGs.com or Instagram on OGs brands. You can find their products everywhere at your local dispensaries. Their Arizona's top selling gummy, and you must be 21 years or older to purchase them. So make sure to find them and enjoy the best night's sleep you've ever had. Also, this Wednesday, of course, is the final Wednesday of the month, so you need to join us out at Four Peaks, the 8th Street Pub, where we will all be broadcasting live this Wednesday. You can enjoy $3 kilt lifters and wow pints, which is what I will be drinking all day. When you mention you're here with us. Jesse's not going to be there with me.

But I will have a surprise, special surprise guest, drinking beers with me. In order to fill in as a co-host at Four Peaks, you have to drink the beers with me. Jesse's the only one that doesn't get to drink beers. And here's the thing. I don't get to drink beers. He even drank beers with me. Even he drank beers with me. You say that like I'm not old enough to drink beer, which is not the case.

Are you, I'm going to need to see your idea again, sir. Because you must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. You can't make it out to Four Peaks. Make sure to grab yourself some Four Peaks. wherever you get your beers at and watch us online. We'll all be down there at Four Peaks, having a fun time and broadcasting live. Michael McDermott says this prevents me from ever being a co-host then. Michael, that is not the only thing that prevents you from ever being a co-host, sir.

All right. Anyway, that's a dig. Let's go on to the next question that we got for Mailbag Monday. Sean McNally says, I know you kind of covered this on the pod Sunday, but how's this for a spot for Pave-in? D-H-pinch hitter. up on Sunday first basement, emergency outfielder. I mean, it's either that or trade bait.

No. I think honestly, that's kind of what they're contemplating. I'm sure right now that is also why they're giving them some playing time to determine how they feel about him. But again, we kind of brought this up. I feel like the Diamondbacks are just, you know, it's baseball is one of those games where you can easily part ways with somebody and they instantly make you regret it, right?

The Diamondbacks have been lucky enough to pick up a few guys who have been, very good for them at times. Maybe not consistent, but like Reyes Maranta, for instance, has been a very nice pickup for this team. Emmanuel Rivera has been another guy, and these were guys that the Diamondbacks either got as being DFAed from another team or as a trade, you know, so I think they're trying to make sure that whatever, whoever they see as being expendable really is somebody that they are okay with parting ways with because of how much other talent they have, you know,

and I think Payman Smith might be on that bubble. Future Dodger, also have Paymond Smith. Oh, Gabriel. Oh, you monster. I don't know if Pavin Smith could viably be looked at as trade bait right now. Just kind of looking at some of the numbers that he's put up in his young career so far. Meaning value-wise is what you're saying. You're not going to get the return for him that his potential future could be.

No, no. I mean like Pavin Smith in his career, I think this is from baseball reference. According to baseball reference war, he's been worth like half. a win in his major league career. And it's a new, it's a new measurement statistic that we use in the press box. It's called wins, wins above pavin.

Wins above paving. He's right there. He's right there at zero war. Yeah, he has been very close to replacement level so far. And unfortunately, I mean, that's a pretty big deal in terms of like how front offices actually evaluate talent,

whether you have joined the analytics movement or not. That's a pretty big deal. And of course, they have a bunch of other more advanced things that they're looking at as well. But if a guy's been near replacement level, they're just not going to fetch you much of anything on the trade market. So I think the debacks could trade him. Like I'm not saying it's impossible to trade him. He's not even up for arbitration next year. So he's not going to make very much money. He's a movable asset, but he's not a valuable asset. Like he's not something you're actually going to

get something of significance in return for at this point. So I don't know where that that leaves Pavin ultimately. I don't think he has a clear role with the team moving forward. We've talked about that a lot. So it's just sort of a dead end. And I think that's why they're giving him playing time to show if he has a little bit more in there

than what he's shown so far. All right. Let's go the next question. Hey, Ouse. Hey, Ouse. Honorary Ouse is here. With Halloween coming up, can you guys give us some suggestions

for D-BACs-related costumes? What do you think? I mean, obviously, So I think Baxter is the obvious choice. Baxter is sort of the obvious choice. Right. That's a little bit boring. Yeah, that's boring.

So what are we thinking? I am thinking that you get a friend together and you come as Muppet Man, Randy Johnson. So that means you get a friend to sit on your shoulders so that you're extra tall. And then you get yourself a triple extra large baseball jersey and it's big pants and you wrap it around the two of you. One person guides the other one walking. Maybe a big mustache, purple hat. Maybe a bird that you can kill.

Maybe a bird smashed on your shirt or something? I don't know. That's my question. Brian Abdalas is dressed up as the bullpen and blow up parties. That's... Wow. That's sad. That's really sad.

What are you got? So on the topic of uniforms, we all love the purple and teal, right? So what you got to do, you don't come dressed up in the purple and teal. uniform, you embody the purple and teal uniform. So you need to make it so that like you are like the jersey itself. Like head to toe, you are like the jersey. Okay. Right?

Is this make sense? You follow me here? Would like the neckline be up at the top of your head kind of thing? Yeah. Some seams going down and then like your whole arms are the sleeves kind of thing? That is that is exactly it. Yep. This is a good idea.

I'm shockingly surprised at how much I like this idea. Yeah, I don't know. If you just dress up in the uniform, you're not going to get anywhere. Yeah. Nobody's going to notice. It's just going to be like, yeah, you're like vintage diamond back. Sure. But if you embody the jersey, Ken Kendrick, I mean, he might, he might see that.

And he might be willing to make some moves based on that. So if you want to, you know, be the change that you want to see in the world. It's basically what I'm saying. Jesse made me think of a good idea. Okay. So you get yourself one of those muscle suits, right? Big muscle suit. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Okay. Get yourself just the vest part of the purple and spinstripe, you know, the Okay. Not the shirt that goes under just the vest, right? Okay. Rock that with a S-C-S-G, Stone-C-S-G, Stone-Cold, Stone-Gite.

Oh, okay. You go as Stone-Cold-Stone-Gerry. You go as stone-cold Gary. That's what you go as, right? That way, you know, you can kind of mix the, side. Stone Cold Steve Austin character and Stone Garrett together. You come as a large, bring a baseball bat, but also a beer with you. This sounds, I mean, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a great house.

You have a bat and you have a beer. That's great. That's a great combo right there. Any of the Photoshopped items that we've posted on Twitter, I mean, there's a wealth of ideas. You come as like Jake McCarthy, Mulan with a rake. You send us a picture. We'll send you merch. I'm not even joking.

Or Christian Walker with his drink cart. If you come as Christian Walker with a little cart of bourbons behind you everywhere you go, send us that. We'll send you merch. Best Halloween costume related to our to our memes wins. Maybe we'll replace like the meme with just like a picture of you. Maybe you'll be our meme. Maybe you'll become the meme. All right.

Let's do it. Leah, we got more questions. Oh, I love this. This is our final question of the day from our friend Josh Hunt. first of all I want to thank Josh Hunt this guy has done so much for us here at PHNX for us specifically he has been an incredible member of our community

and not just that but beyond that Josh is come here he's worked with us he's sent us amazing memes half of our memes are from Josh so we want to give him a shout out and I guess Jesse I'll let you start things off what was your best memory at the ballpark this season um you stand out yeah I mean I'm I'm I'm sticking with like half a season here, you know, because I just got here at the end of June. I feel like for me, the biggest moment was the day that Drew Jones was at the ballpark.

There was just something about that day. I'll be honest with you guys. There are moments covering the Arizona Diamondbacks where you're like, does this like really have any significance, you know, like, this team isn't, they're not the Yankees, right? Like, they're not in the thick of a playoff race. Like there isn't an intensity about every game that they play right now, right? But on this day when Drew Jones is at the ballpark, Scott Boris, his agent is walking around, right? All of the front office people are there.

I was dressed in a matching onesie. Derek was dressed in basically a onesie, yes. But it was just a cool thing to be a part of. As someone who hasn't spent a whole lot of time at the ballpark over the last few years being out of state, getting to be there for that moment and getting to cover that moment and ask Drew Jones questions and talk to some of the people involved there. That was really cool for me. I will say that for me personally, it's still hard to get over the relationships and friendships I've made. So cliche. I know. Come on. It's all about the friendships. But when I say this, I say like,

like Jesse, I've been covering this team for 11 seasons now. It's hard sometimes for the moments, especially when so much of it is just kind of, you know, a baseball game being played. But like you said, there's not, there haven't been a lot of moments. Like I was there, you know,

during that magical 2017 season. I've seen some highs and I've seen some lows. I've seen some incredible moments with this team. This season has been very encouraging, but they've also not really been in the thick of any kind of playoff race or anything at any point, right? And so when I talk about the relationships, I just mean deep down inside, I am still such a fan of this team. I'm such a fan of the history of this team.

I still remember weeping tears of joy when they won the World Series, right? So it's like for me to have somebody like Luis Gonzalez fist bump me and say, hey, Derek, how's it going? without and like actually knowing my name and who I am. Like, I have no business being known by Luis Gonzalez. You know what I mean? Absolutely not. Absolutely not, right?

I mean, it's moments like that. I got to plant a tree with Randy Johnson this year. And can you only imagine how much I was dying inside? Like this man in his flannel with his work gloves that he brought himself. We all used like provided work gloves. He brought his own. But it's just, it's moments like that. around people that I truly admire and have for a number of years and just kind of being able

to laugh with them, joke around with them like I did with Randy Johnson at the cold beer and cheeseburgers thing where I basically told him, he's a legend. He can live by airport rules. He can have beers at 6 o'clock in the morning. He can have beers. You can have peanuts as a meal. You can have whatever he wants because he's Randy Johnson. So I still really get excited around being some of around some of these people. To be honest, the, the last couple of days have been pretty incredible. I think for me, uh, chatting with Tori, uh, saying thank you to everybody that has done so much for us this season. Yeah. We're, we're still a very new thing. You know, this podcast, this, this entire network. And I'm just very thankful for the support we've received from the

Diamondbacks and truly all the like relationships that Jesse and I have established by interviewing these guys and doing all of this stuff. But it really is to me, like having some side conversations with Derek Hall and, and, you know, Luis Gonzalez and people like that that just, I'll never forget. You know, it's, it's kind of weird to be around people that you've admired so much in your life and just to kind of like, I don't know, be, dare I say friends? That might be too much, but I'd like to think of it that way. So, I, you know, and I'll also say baseball wise, I think, Like Jesse said, seeing the guys get called up have has been my favorite moments this year. Yeah.

Seeing Corbin Carroll. The day Corbyn Carroll got called up. The day, Corbyn Carroll. And like what you were describing with Jew Jones, there was just this electricity in the air. The day Corbin Carroll got called up. Like the Diamondbacks acquired some big name free agent. That's what it felt like. So it's really cool to see these young guys that we've kind of done our best to cover and find out more information about and get excited about.

now coming up and being a part of this major league club. So it's just been a fun season to watch. This season has been so it's been such a turning point for this franchise. And I feel like the future is so exciting. Now there's some expectations though, right? Next season, there's a lot to live up to. I feel like based on what they did this season. World Series or bust, you know?

That's right. It's not wrong. NL champions at least is all I'm looking for. Yeah, if they don't at least get the pennies. Oh my gosh. Turn this place into a parking lot. It's too valuable to have as a stadium in the downtown area. Again, thank you guys.

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Minimumage and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Game time. We want to talk about game time as well, because you know what, Jesse has been trying his best to inform us, to educate us on game time. And I still, I still want to buy my tickets early. I still, even on the Game Time app, I want to buy my tickets early, Jesse's like, stop it, wait until the same day. It's like I can't even procrastinate as hard as I used to procrastinate, but you need to do so.

It is counterintuitive, right? Like we're all used to procrastination being like the bane of, at least for me, it was like always the bane of my existence growing out of procrastinate and doing everything. Everything. And then comes along the game time app and it's like, you should. You should. That's good. Like you're missing out if you're not. Why aren't you procrastinating?

What the hell? Don't you have better things to do for right now? Buy your tickets tomorrow. You save up to 60% on tickets. And here's the thing. Game time actually, like, you'll go on there and they'll be tickets priced, $13, $15. You go the day of $5 tickets. And they're in a much better section than you would have gotten for like the $13

ticket. So make sure to jump on there last minute. It's great for all of us procrastinators. there and we need to procrastinate more on stuff. So the best way of support is by buying your tickets through the link in the description below. And I think we can also get a link out there as well in the comments for those of you that are here and want to buy game time tickets to something today. It's Monday. I don't know what's going on. But I do know bad bunny is going to be at Chase Field. I think tonight. I think tonight's the bad bunny concert. Is it tonight? It might be. I know it's on Wednesday. It might be Wednesday. Wait till the day of bad bunny and then get your bad bunny tickets. By the way, bad bunny. incredible WW wrestler. Just telling you guys that guy is clutch. Speaking of clutch, this guy's leaving.

He's going to be gone for a few days. Speaking of clutch, what does that mean? I need you around and you're just abandoning me. But looking forward to having Faj, our friend Jack Summers from Sports Illustrated is going to join us as well as Daniel Cortez. So Jack Summers comes on when I leave. That's the way it works.

Yeah, that's the way it works. And also shout up to Shonda Paz who just got an apartment. We're proud of him. We're happy for him. Just want by and splash that. Honestly, that is a serious accomplishment in this economy. That's the best news in this economy, for sure. Okay, one last thing.

Where are you going to be? Okay, I'll tell you. I'll be in Seattle. I'll be back where I was a few months ago. Yeah, I decided I wasn't really enjoying being around you all. So I'm going back, you know. No, it's gorgeous in Seattle this time of year. So I'm going to go hang out with some old friends.

And yeah, I figured I might as well do it when it's lovely out. side and miserable here, then wait until the winter when it's miserable there and lovely here. So that's the plan. But before we wrap things up, I have to point out, I know we talked about this a little bit yesterday. You know, the Luke Weaver Robbie Ray incident that we talked about yesterday. So I recognized afterwards, after we talked about this on the show, that Major League Baseball was the source of this video.

So like this video that was going viral everywhere on Twitter, Major League Baseball, they're the ones who posted it and they also captioned it and said we got an old-fashioned national anthem standoff with like a laughing emoji face right and so the the irony here is that the umpires who ejected luke weaver and ravi ray work for major league baseball the same entity that is like laughing at this moment and promoting this moment on twitter as being like a hilarious thing that happened so i just thought that was like kind of weird and worth bringing up also the game ended up being, I believe, a 13 to 12 game that the Royals won, but they ended up using six relief pitchers.

You know who they really could have used? Luke fucking Weaver! Robbie Ray wasn't starting in that game. Ravi Ray won that game. He won that standoff psychologically. He won it physically. He won it on every level. There was no amount of, like, Luke Weaver took all the Ls in that.

But Jesse's right. MLB, what the hell? Can we not have fun? Can we not do fun things? Yeah. Like they even admit it's fun. They thought it was fun. Everybody thought it was fun except the umpire who wasn't having any of that bullshit.

Right. Anyway, let's get back to having fun. It's the end of the season. I mean, are either of these teams going to the postseason? Come on. Can we just?

Yeah, Mariner's are. Yeah. That's like Robbie Ray knew. He had nothing to lose there. Don't mouth the Mariners, Derek. I know. I can't do that.

But of course, we thank you guys for joining us. We're going to miss Jesse this week. But make sure to tune in and have a. Enjoy us with all of our guests here. Of course, on the meantime, you can follow me at K-Ban-UrSk underscore K-Bahn with a K. You can harass Jesse over at Jesse N. Friedman and tell him he's bad for leaving the state right now. You can follow our account, PHNX underscore D-Backs.

Please do that. We're so close to 5,000 followers. We are. We want to get there. And if we do, it doesn't. Secretly, we're going to shower you with gifts anyway. But if you get us to 5,000 followers, we're going to shower you with gifts. So we have all sorts of stuff.

We talked about it yesterday. But make sure to join us on next Thursday's. episode. That is going to be our big giveaway episode. We're going to give somebody a pretty cool prize package consisting of like everything we've kept to ourselves this season. Everything that we've hoarded. Everything we've hoarded all season on.

I got lots of Serpy interest jerseys to give away though. So make sure to tune in on that day. If I come back from Seattle and we've hit 5,000 followers, that's going to be like a really cool thing. Jesse will be optimistic for an entire episode. I will say nothing negative.

Oh my God. For 45 Five consecutive minutes. Let's make it happen. Log into your burner accounts. Call your family members. Let's go. Of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, we thank you guys so much for joining us on your lunch.

We appreciate your time. Always on behalf of Jesse, Leah, and myself, we always thank you. And appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you get us to 5,000 followers.