PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Diamondbacks are the only team in MLB who didn’t receive their rights payment from Bally Sports

Episode Date: March 11, 2023

Per an article from Sports Business Journal, Diamond Sports Group is late on its rights payment to one team in Major League Baseball and one team only: the Arizona Diamondbacks. We discuss what this means for the organization and for watching D-backs games in 2023. We are also talking about Opening Day rosters and more World Baseball Classic fun.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Our next PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch is LIVE! Join us on Friday, March 24th for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Come hang with the PHNX crew, fellow Suns’ fans and Diehards as we watch KD, Booker, and the Suns battle in the final stretch of the season as they take on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Sacramento Kings.Checkout the PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch Eventbrite to reserve your spot today. And Diehards, check Discord for your exclusive discount link!Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxOGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBB15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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 BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/ NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's up, everyone? It's Tori Lavello manager. The Air is one of Diamondbacks. Thanks for checking in. Hope everybody's doing great. It's time to kick off Happy Hour. And Clue Haywood says it's time for Friday beers. Hell yet, it is it's time for Friday beers.

Welcome into a PHNX Keybacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti occasionally known as your mayor of this joint. This guy over here is your vice mayor. He's also the one that keeps me in line. It's the thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Tori made that video just for us. us just for us right just for this specific episode of the show cameo thing at the bottom everything else that we got going on but it's friday welcome in guys thank you guys again for joining us this show is

brought to you by the fine folks at the draft king sports book app america's top rated sports book app we are very very excited for the weekend for world baseball classic to start here at chase field and very excited to see this game tonight between the arizona diamondbacks and the cincinnati Reds. However, we do have a little bit of breaking news. Jesse, a very important person in our hearts and our lineup cards was removed from tonight's game. Yeah, according to, I guess the Diamondbacks release this themselves, they said that according to a manager's decision, Corbyn Carroll is no longer in the Diamondbacks lineup tonight. I wouldn't read too much into that at this point. I want to read into it. I know, I want to be mad. I know you want to read into it. Did you see what happened with

Kevin Durant the other night? I don't want to get. I want to overrun it. I want to read into it. I want to read into it. I want to react about everything. That was, I mean, that was pretty clearly an injury, right? That wasn't a preseason game. This is a game that means absolutely nothing. And at the end of the day, whether Corbyn Carroll does play in tonight's game doesn't have any bearing on the success of the Arizona Diamond vaccine in the long run. So tap the breaks. Of course, by, I want to overreacts by the time that some of you hear this maybe over the weekend, I'm sure, you know, hopefully you will be figured out. Hopefully you will receive the news that it was nothing more than just kind of a routine lineup switch, which does happen a decent amount in spring training.

Very true. Very true. And it could be as easy as they need to see somebody else perhaps in the starting lineup just to see. Dominic Canzon got the start instead. Good name to see. And another good name to see is Brandon fought on the mound who will be starting for the Diamondbacks tonight. It's getting really interesting because obviously we know that there is still this competition for this fifth. starting rotation spot but there's that we talked about it we talked about some of

Lavello's comments and such there's just things that again kind of make me wonder if Brandon fought can do enough at this point to potentially win this job even even with being as good as he's been so far in his starts yeah yeah I mean we talked about the other day how like you know when Jordan Lawler got officially sent down it was like yeah he could have hit 700 and it probably wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever right with where he started the season. That's what it's starting to feel about like. I don't know if it's necessarily that way with Brandon Fought,

but yeah, the comment that we played on the show the other day, Tori Lavello was sort of given an opportunity to acknowledge that Brandon Fott was right in the middle of the conversation for the fifth starter spot. You didn't really do that, Derek. He kind of danced around it a little bit. So we continue to suspect that maybe Brandon Fott,

you know, has a pretty difficult road into the Diamondback starting rotation, if even a road at all. But nonetheless, it will be a lot of fun to watch him pitch. I was going to say in Cincinnati. That's not how this works. We're not there yet. It feels like Cincinnati.

Yeah, good year might as well be Cincinnati for where we need to drive the minute that this show is over. But Jesse actually made some roster projections not too long ago in January. And he recently updated that with his most recent observations and roster projections on go phtonx.com. go get that it's a wonderful article it breaks down a lot of what we've seen so far in spring training camp but something interesting is that jesse hasn't changed very much uh i think that some of his early projections in january ended up being fairly solid we talked about that on the show we even

talked about you know of course uh you know that the diamondbacks probably didn't have too many options when it came to who they were going to have on their on their roster who they were going to have on the depth chart and who they were going to inevitably have to send down. But one thing that's looking more and more like a reality is Jesse did have Drey Jameson in there as the fifth man in the starting rotation. And I mean, I know it's still far too early to say it's a done deal. But it does feel the more we move along in camp like this job is more of Jay Jameson's to lose rather than it is for him to prove himself at this point. Yeah, I think that I think that's a pretty fair perspective. I think Drey

Jameson has looked the best out of all the guys who did pitch in the majors last year. So Ryan Nelson, Tommy Henry, Drey Jameson. I think Jameson has looked the best so far in spring training. And I don't think that's just like, you know, the box score looks the best out of all the guys. I think if you've actually watched these starts, if you've watched some of these pitches and the way that hitters have reacted and the swing and miss and, you know, how often hitters are chasing at these pitches. I think Drey Jamison just pretty clearly has kind of separated himself from that competition.

Certainly still time. We're not drawing any firm conclusions at this point. But yeah, I had Drey Jamison is the fifth starter back in January, and I'm sticking with that right now. And it looks pretty good. Maybe I can just see the future, Derek. Maybe I'm not, I'm not making projections. I'm just telling you how it's going to be. I don't know.

I have to bring him back down to reality, because one thing we have been told quite a bit by the coaching staff and just what we've heard reiterated was that the Diamondbacks were going to go with experience. And at this point, even when it comes to that fifth. starting rotation spot. Dre Jameson and Ryan Nelson really are the ones with the most major league experience out of the pack. So it does feel like those two guys kind of have that, that edge up on Tommy Henry and Brandon Fought. Yeah.

That's the reason why it feels a bit like Fott doesn't, could do absolutely everything right and still find himself in Reno at the end of camp. There were some guys, the roster moves that were made. But before we move on to that, one interesting thing I thought about Jesse's predictions from January was that he just had an open spot for a free agent reliever. I did. The Diamondbacks had not acquired Andrew Chafin at the time. And now Andrew Jafelan has moved into that spot.

I don't know. I don't know how else to bring it to you. I have to live with this every single day. But no, again, that was something we had talked about quite a bit too, was the Diamondbacks had talked. Mike Hazen had talked about having that bullet left in the gun to pick up a free agent. But as time kind of went on, it felt more and more like they weren't going to make that move.

Chafin does end up ending up back here with the Diamondbacks after that point and has made his way into Jesse's bullpen. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're not going to sign Andrew Chafin and then send him to Reno or something. So... Just like Mark Malanson. I think Andrew Chafin's going to make a team. He has had

some groin tightness issue in recent days, but it doesn't sound like that's going to be a hindrance as far as making the opening day roster or anything. But yeah, I didn't make a couple of changes in the bullpen back in January when I did my roster projection, I had both Kyle Nelson and Cole Solcer making the opening day roster for the debacks in the bullpen. Now swap those guys out. I have Corbin Martin making it,

who I think has pitched very well so far in spring training. Officially moved to the bullpen now, I think he's really embraced that role and as at least looked very good in games, has gotten good results so far. Then I also have Tommy Henry making the team as a reliever. Debacks are likely to need some sort of length at the beginning of the season just as kind of an extra safety net. So I think that would be a good role for Tommy Henry. It's kind of nice having a lefty in that role. Yeah. Gives teams a little bit of a different look if you start with a righty and, you know,

that guy gets banged up or whatever has to leave the game early. You can kind of force the opposing manager into a tough spot by switching things up a little bit. Tough lineup decision there. Yeah. The other thing is the only concern I have there is Tommy Henry has looked really good in his starts and his last start he looked excellent. So it just makes me wonder if the diamondbacks are going to have a difficult decision in deciding whether to bring him out of the pen.

They haven't made a really, it's no secret that they're going to bring Corbin Martin out of the pen. They've been very forward about that. Yeah, and Corbin Martin's not going to be a long man. Tommy Henry. One plus. Yeah, Tommy Henry, I don't think the debacks would use Tommy Henry as like a one-inning reliever. I think that if he does wind up in the bullpen, I think they're going to keep his length. I think that they really, especially early in the season, value, you know,

having as many guys stretched out as they possibly can. So for me, it's kind of just a matter of, you know, whether that happens in the big leagues or in AAA. You also had a couple of, not changes, but I think the biggest question at this point. You had a couple of guys kind of in the end field that may or may not end up there. But the biggest thing is Pavin Smith or Kyle Lewis for the last spot in the outfield. Yeah.

Yeah. I think it's probably Paving. I think it's probably Paving just because Pavin plays. plays first base. He has experience playing first base. The debacks will need a backup first baseman. Kyle Lewis does not have experience playing first base. I don't believe, at least not

recently. That versatility will win you over with Tori every time. I think that versatility is going to be important. And Paveens also looks really good offensively. He's another guy who's been a little banged up dealing with some lower back tightness. We should see him in a game at some point this weekend, so I don't think

that'll be an issue for him. But Pavan's six for 14 with a home. Homer so far in spring training. So again, you're not... Surprisingly good. You're not necessarily reading too much into the numbers, but he did make some adjustments to his batting stance. He's a little bit more closed off.

And apparently, that seems to be working. I don't know if that's necessarily the reason that he's had some success, but it seems to be working. They're still very complimentary of his ability to read the strike zone and his plate presence, all of that kind of stuff. So, again, if he can put it together, you know what I mean? like that that skill isn't a skill every hitter has right so it's like to get the compliments he's received over the years even from veteran players about his ability to know the strike zone and know

the box that's something that unique that that he does very well but again if if you can't put all of those things together it doesn't equate to success at the plate so hopefully he's found that you know found that right combination and i i really just want to see the a Arizona Diamondbacks make the right decision on whoever's going to help this team win baseball games at the end of the day. Realistically, that's what it's all about. They did make some roster moves. They did send Blaze Alexander and Jorge Barrosa down to AAA Reno. And they have Austin Adams, Austin Bryce, Juan Cittano, Sam Clay, and Michael O'Tanias reassigned to minor league camp.

So the Diamondbacks currently have 55 players remaining in their big league camp at Salt River Fields. And when I say that the guys that are reassigned to minor league camp, I think they just walk down a couple fields maybe. You're just right here. You're not going anywhere. But it's again, some fun stuff. The Diamondbacks, obviously.

We know there's a lot of Diamondbacks in the world. Baseball classic. This has been fun, Jesse. Japan dominated Korea in this morning's matchup or yesterday's matchup. I don't know how to, I don't know when to say these games happened, but it was this morning for me. Time zones are hard. times of oh don't even get me started on that and organizing trips with my friends in different time zones that's horrible but uh japan continues to be just an absolute juggernaut in this tournament and uh even though all the check republic guys can't wait to face japan i don't know if they're really ready uh for for to face shoha y otani and that japanese team because they are pretty damn good yeah i mean japan had showy otani start game one and u darver's start

game too. So that's a pretty good. That's a pretty good one two playoff punch. Yeah. I mean, Team USA doesn't have a one two punch that good. So, uh, yeah, pretty pretty impressive stuff. Lars Neutbar once again had a good game two for four. Shohei Otani. What a great Star Wars name too. What a great Star Wars name too. I mean. I still can't get over. It's the two A's in the bar. That's the part that really just sets it over the top as a Star Wars. Star Wars does have a thing with like lots of vowels. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You don't use one vowel. Oh yeah. You use. You use. like two or three vowels and it's a double oh and a double a in the same last name like send me over the edge already take me on the millennium falcon let's go to but two uh yeah but he's he's

i mean he's he's just he's he's a superstar he really is like he's really emerged in major league baseball as a superstar i know the people uh in st louis absolutely adore him but like again today he was giving a post game interview after that win and he's just so wholesome and he's just so happy to be there and like i don't know there's just he's a breakout candidate like i really like lar's new bar i mean last year for the cardinal see at 228 with 14 home runs and 1008 games the numbers don't necessarily jump off the page sure but if you look at lars nude bar's uh baseball savant page there's a whole lot of red on larz new bar's baseball savant page so and he's not talking about like a lightsaber he's talking about other stuff yeah right yeah you get it thanks for clarifying

I just wanted to make sure people knew what you were meeting. And in other news in relation to this Japanese, Matt, or not this particular game, but the Japan versus China World Baseball Classic game was watched per a tweet from Codify in 46% of Japanese households. Do we have that tweet, Damon? 46% of Japanese households. And that's a lot of households, Jesse. I looked it up. There are 50 in 2021. That's the data I found.

There were 55.6 million Japanese households. So this game was viewed in over 25 million households. I'm sure those numbers are increased since 2021, obviously. But like it just goes to show that the popularity of this world baseball classic in some of these countries is off the charts. Like they are, people are invested and they can't wait to see. Like I feel like for a lot of maybe Americans watching this that this is just. kind of an exhibition tournament, just something that's kind of happening. But I mean, it's growing and people are invested in this. Yeah, it'll be interesting if we can get our hands on some

viewership numbers here in the U.S. when Team USA gets going. I'm curious how it'll compare. I don't think it's going to be 46% of the U.S. household. No, I don't think it's going to be that. No. I don't even get that close for the World Series. So I'm pretty sure you ain't going to get it for this. No, I don't know if this is exactly like at apples to apples comparison, but looking at some ratings from the World Series, it looks like, at least to me, it looks like we were at about 6% of U.S. households watching these games. So 6% versus 46%. That's a pretty big. It's a pretty big. Pretty enormous difference.

And I mean, I guess there's a lot of different factors that certainly go into that. But, I mean, a big part of it is just that, like, people in Japan really, really care about Team Japan. Yeah. And even, you know, even the World Series, like the climax of baseball here in the U.S., it doesn't draw anywhere near the attention that what was not even that important of a game, right? I mean, this is the very early stages of the WBC. Like, what are these people doing with their lives? Like, I don't know. Every single person in Japan is tuning into this.

It's pretty wild. I think part of it might be like a rivalry factor to a degree between Japan and China. I know that there's... I'm sure that is definitely part of it. There's a degree of that here with the Team Mexico and Team USA game. There's also the proximity of Chase Field here to Mexico and to the United States. That's fair. That's probably a decent part of why that game is sold out.

I mean, Mexico is obviously not far away. And there's a lot of Hispanic people that live here in Arizona. Absolutely. Absolutely. And also, the Team Mexico jerseys are absolute fire. But what's more fire is their warm-up kits that match the jersey, which are just fucking incredible. In other news, speaking, he said apples to apples. It made me think the Dominican Republic, the DR, the team from DR, is powered by Platano Power. And I know a lot of people don't know what that phrase means, right? So I'm going to explain it because I am, of course, rocking my full Puerto Rican gear. Shout out to our man, Rob Friedman, by the way, pitching ninja for this wonderful shirt. There you go. But plantains are like bananas, Jesse.

Oh, yeah. No, I know plantains. You know plantains are. That's platino in Spanish, right? So platinum power means plantain power. It's something that our very own Fernando Rodney at one point was a big, believer in so much so that he would walk around with a plantain in his hand when he was part of the Dominican Republic world baseball classic team but they're delightful plantains are delightful

do they just eat like just straight up plantain nope that you do you don't because it's not like a banana so you don't peel it it doesn't peel very easily it's in like the same family is a banana what's not exactly yeah it is right okay so it grows on a tree like a banana in a bunch it looks like a banana same shape it goes from green to yellow but you usually Are you sure it's not a banana, Derek? It sounds like a banana. It's very hard to peel. So if you've ever tried to peel one, you will instantly know that that is no goddamn banana.

Now, the other thing about it is when we eat them in Puerto Rico, we want to eat them when they're not ripe. So when they're very green, that's like the best time. So like, and then when we break them open, they're almost like a root vegetable, like a potato or a or yam. Right. So they don't, they're not sweet. They're kind of bland if you were to eat it. it would be hard to eat and like eating a goddamn potato, right? I think I had like dried plantain chips.

Yes. Something like that. That's the, that is the format of a plantain. So that's kind of how we make them. We make them into potato chips or something that's similar. The fire thing to make with plantains is, as every Puerto Rican, everybody from the Caribbean knows, is tostones.

Tostones are basically like the best of, best of both worlds between a French fry and a potato chip. It's flat. It's flat and it's fried. It's kind of thin like a potato chip. You can eat them like a potato chips like the plantain chips you're describing. However, when you get them in this way, they're just freshly cooked. They're hot. They're crispy on the outside.

They have that like mushy kind of like a potato on the inside. And they're just delicious and perfect. And because of this. They're like reasonably healthy then? No, they're not healthy because you fry them just like you would french fries. Yeah, you fry. In Puerto Rico, we fry everything. Everything gets fried.

It doesn't matter. It will make any. anything unhealthy in Puerto Rico. Let me tell you. But yes, you fry them and then they come out wonderful. You dip them in a sauce or a ketchup kind of sauce and they're just incredible. So basically what I'm saying is you're not going to stop this team from the Dominican Republic, no matter how much you try, because they are getting home cooked food that they haven't had some of them since they were kids. And they are going to be powered like super humans, you know, like basically like they rolled around in toxic waste. That's for.

comic books from the 60s and now they have superpowers and not lymphoma. And it's going to be incredible to watch because the Dominican Republic team, as you say, may not have the pitching lineup that the obviously that the team Japan has. I mean, well, I said team USA doesn't have the top two. Sandy Alcantra, though, however. And Christian Javier is pretty damn good. Yeah. So I just can't wait to watch it.

I can't wait to see how this kind of boils down because we have, you know, like the Czech Republic team. They won. I hit both of my bets yesterday from my Drag Kings pick of the week. So that doesn't happen often. That should be celebrated. But like they interviewed them and every single player on that team can't wait to play against Shohei Otani. And I don't know why because they're going to get smashed. But I love that team of every men.

And the Czech Republic team has a special place in my heart. So it will be waiting to happen, man. It's a movie waiting to happen. It absolutely is. If they go, if they don't have to win the whole thing. If they just get like reasonably far in the WBC, it's somebody has to make a movie about the Czech Republic. Like it's just, I don't know. I feel like Tom Hanks needs to be in that movie.

Tom Hanks should be in the movie. It should be like whatever good every man actor, you know, I don't know. I can't think of a lot of good every man actor right now to stop my head. But there's, you know what I mean? Like just the guys that look like normal ass people. you know, Matt Damon, Sam Rockwell, you know, just have a bunch of guys out there. He doesn't know who any of those guys are guaranteed.

He knows Tom Hanks, but he doesn't know. Tom Hanks. That's it. I know he doesn't know the rest. I've at least heard of Matt Damon. There's just so many good stories. And again,

if you're not watching the World Baseball Classic, again, we have a video we dropped on YouTube that kind of describes our feelings on why it's kind of a not-miss kind of thing. We know the time of the year sucks. But you're going to get Mike Piazza. setting up an espresso machine in team Italy's dugout. Like, do you want to miss that? It's not just the espresso machine I was impressed by.

It was the neat little caddy of items that he had next to it that just had like sugar and all the accoutrements that you would need to build yourself a delicious coffee. So don't miss the World Baseball Classic because, again, it's going to be over very soon. I think we got like less than two weeks of it left before we're in the finals for that. So make sure to check that out. And again, if you are. lucky enough to be going to that team USA team Mexico game have a blast uh take lots of lots of pictures of chase field looking like that because I don't know when we're going to see it like that again

it should be great I mean I think the I would think the roof would be open yeah yeah oh yeah roof and panels open yeah beautiful time of the weather but I think Sunday night should be pretty fantastic pretty awesome pretty awesome you think either of those teams will have a a espresso in the dugout man I don't know I don't know that I think I need an espresso in my house now I've been thinking about getting an espresso. If it's good enough for Mike Piazza, then it's probably good enough for me. I don't think.

I don't know if I'm ready to see a Jesse Friedman that's amped up on espresso. Like that could be. I do, I do love espresso. I do actually love espresso. But caffeine has absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. So you don't have to worry about that, Derek.

I could have like some drink with eight shots or whatever in it. It would have absolutely no impact whatsoever. He's still the same. He's even keeled all the time. He's just like this all the time. I wished that caffeine would have an impact. There were times when I desperately needed it, but it didn't do anything to me. Well, if you need your caffeine fix, we have the perfect place for you.

And that's our friends at Circle K. Oh, there you go. Get to Circle K. You have the best coffee, best gas, best beer, everything, snack selection, everything that you need for your road trips or for, hey, just getting ready to go see a wonderful game here at Chase Field. Grab your snacks, fill up on gas, and get going. and check out our friends at the local Circle K for your best options on all that stuff. We're so excited to partner with our friends at Circle K. And to kick things off, we've teamed up for an amazing giveaway opportunity.

Text PHNX to 313310 for an opportunity to win a $500 gas card. See show notes for details. Jesse and I both want to enter in and win the $500 gas card just so we can go to opening day. But we're going to road trip. And when we road trip, we road trip hard. and we have very different wants and needs when we stop by Circle K and fuel up for a road trip. Jesse apparently does not buy any candy. And that seems to bother me.

No, I'm not really a candy guy. He's not a candy guy. No, I mean, sometimes you need sustenance, right? I do not. You need something to keep you going. So I'll buy snacks. And I will occasionally buy a caffeinated beverage, even though I've already said that that has very little impact on me whatsoever. Well, I will buy the beer is what I will do.

I'll make sure. See, because that's, when you go on a road trip, you forget to bring the beer with you, right? Like you're like, oh, we'll get it there. Where are you going to get Four Peaks in California? I don't know. You're going to have to go to maybe like a beer bedmo or someplace. No, go get your circle, get your beard, Circle K, take it with you. And speaking of Four Peaks Brewing Company, make sure to enjoy some of those wonderful beers wherever you're out. It's Friday beers. Hope you all are having one right now with me. And of course, Four Peaks Brewing Company is the best place to have a beer on Friday. You can check out their spring train. training tours the entire month of March. Check out the ghosts. Check out the craft brews. Check out all the stuff they got going on. And be sure to follow them at Four Peaks Brew to get all the latest on Arizona's premier craft brewery. Also check out their calendar at four peaks.com slash events for all your beer week

entertainment. And you already know the best place to spend St. Patty's Day. It's the A Street Pub. Hang with your favorite degenerates. That's us. And have a good time. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly.

I have no problem calling myself a degenerate. This guy, I don't know if we can label him as that. But I'm slowly turning him with time. I have no problem calling you that either. I know, I know. But one day, one day we'll make Jesse into a degenerate. But I will tell you this much. Jesse pays his bills.

I know that. And I also pay my bills. So call us what you want. But you can't call us late on our payments. What you can do is you can call Ballet Sports Arizona laid on their payments. because per an article from Sports Business Journal, Diamond Sports Group is late on its rights payment to one team in Major League Baseball and one team only.

The Arizona Diamondbacks. It just had to be. It just had to be us. They do have a grace period until next Thursday, right? They have until 11.59 p.m. on Thursday, March 16th, to make their payment. I had to tell Jesse about grace periods with his new mortgage payment. I don't think he believes me still, but I try to tell him. No, I don't.

He doesn't think, he thinks he has to pay it on the first. I was like, every mortgage has until the 15. I'm, like, so terrified about missing, like, one of my first mortgage payments. And Derek's over here, like, you don't actually have to pay that by that day. Like, you get, like, two weeks or something. I'm like, no, I am not. I am not taking that risk. Yeah.

That will give me extreme anxiety. I get it. Apparently, Diamond Sports Group has been, I think we've kind of all seen this situation coming for a while. But the new thing that came out today, as you said earlier, is that, yes, the Arizona Diamondbacks are apparently the only team that we are aware of per some of the sources in the Sports Business Journal article that has already lost revenue as a result of this situation. Now, the reason why, apparently, according to this article from Sports Business Journal,

is that the Diamondbacks have what is said to be a deal considered extremely favorable to the team. meaning the Diamondbacks are getting much more money for the sports, for the rights than they should. Yeah. But again, it's a contractual basis that was agreed upon so you can say what it is. There are other teams that are also considered to be potentially in danger of this. One of them is in our division. It's the San Diego Padres. There's also two teams from Ohio in the Cleveland Guardians and the Cincinnati Reds who are also considered to be on deals that are equally favorable to

the team, meaning that the teams are getting a lot of money by comparison to perhaps the revenue that the rights are generating for Diamond Sports Group. Yeah, I don't know exactly the amount of money that the Diamondbacks have been bringing in annually from their TV deal, but I believe it's somewhere in the $75 to $100 million range, something like that. The previous deal that the Diamondbacks had brought them about $30 million in TV revenue annually. So the new deal that the Diamondback signed at the end of 2015 literally tripled, roughly tripled their TV revenue. So to be honest, reading this report, it's kind of like,

yeah, yeah, like I think it might have been overvalued just a little bit. Like, the kind of tracks based on just how enormous of an increase there was when the Diamondback signed that new deal a few years back. I used to have to do collections on mortgage payments, speaking of which, it's why I'm so familiar with that 15-day grace period. But, The one thing I had to constantly remind people when it came to the value of their house was that values of things are imaginary and temporary. They're not real. They're not real unless you're selling it in that moment, unless you're getting that amount of money from someone for it at that time. The problem with like the housing market, for instance, is it fluctuates.

And at times, you could feel like you got a bad deal because your house dropped from $200,000 down to $120,000. But unless you were planning on... Yeah, could look finding a house for $2,000. thousand dollars i forget we bought our houses a completely different like timelines don't remind don't remind me your interest rate or i don't want to know any of it dare but anyway uh i digress basically what happened the one thing i would tell people is none of this the value doesn't matter unless you're selling your house and we did have people at times that wanted to let their house go to foreclosure simply because they felt like the value had dropped so much that they didn't want to keep it anymore

And again, value is an imaginary amount in the moment. And it can go down. It can go up. It can go all over the place. It can fluctuate. And that counts for houses, cars, any kind of market. And it counts for when it comes to these sporting rights. Because the trajectory of regional sporting rights looks like it was just going to keep going up forever as far as the value on it is concerned.

But at the end of the day, the one factor that they couldn't really account for was that people were eventually going to want to switch over to like a more streaming service, something where they didn't. have to get a conventional television package or something in order to have that channel. And they wanted to be able to watch it on the go or on their computer or now in today's day and age on their TV on an app. And unfortunately, they couldn't really keep up with that demand. It's been a problem across baseball too. It's not just with Valley Sports Arizona or the Diamond Sports Group. It factors into, you know, obviously the subscriptions and blackouts and all sorts of other stuff.

But baseball just needs an overhaul. And I really think right now, baseball is trying to do everything it can to get all of the rights back under their control so that they can put together some sort of viewing package, you know, for everybody that works better than what we've seen. I just don't know how long that's going to take. I don't know how much money that's going to cost teams,

like the Diamondbacks, like the Padres, like the guardians, that are receiving so much income from this contract that they had with Diamond Sports Group. And more importantly, we really don't know what happens if Diamond Sports Group doesn't make this payment next Thursday, right? For all intents and purposes,

if they do not make the payment, we expect to see Major League Baseball try to take the television and digital rights back from Valley Sports, Arizona. Right. So that would be a gradual process involving all sorts of legal battles. And this is basically just the start of the process of bankruptcy, basically. But it doesn't just happen overnight.

It's probably going to take several months. And it sounds like in the meantime, as weird as it is, Valley Sports Arizona is going to continue to operate pretty much as normal. And they're going to broadcast all of these games until eventually someday they're not. It's fucking wild. And we don't know exactly when that's going to be. But it looks pretty inevitable at this point. Yeah.

No, I mean, and it's not just the fact that the MLB, you know, won't, we'll have a legal battle, obviously, on their hands that will draw out. But there is infrastructure that needs to put in place. Major League Baseball is taking those steps to create that, that department, the LDM, LD or whatever, local LMD. But they are also, they still have like a lot of things. Like there's just stuff that you don't even think of, right? Like they would need to generate ad revenue for their own subscription service in a way.

And I know that they have a team in place for, their current like MLB network and things like that, but we'd need to be expanded dramatically in order to go into these local regional areas where a lot of the ad revenues generated by local businesses, not just giant national, you know, conglomerates. But it's, again, it's definitely something that is interesting because it seems like for the most part, when people ask what's going to happen with the Diamondbacks games in 2023,

they're still going to be on Valley Sports Arizona. At least at the beginning of the year. All of this stuff's going to be happening behind the scenes. The one caveat is if Diamond Sports Group, if Valley Sports Arizona fails to broadcast a single Diamondbacks game, then that's when the deal immediately gets impacted. And MLB is within legal rights to immediately take back the rights from the team, which is something interesting to see.

I don't think Valley Sports will allow that to happen because obviously they will get more in the end. if they do this, the long drawn-out process rather than just completely abandoning their contract and allowing MLB to step in in that way. Yeah, I mean, this is not good for the Diamondbacks, to put it simply. We suspected in the past when we've talked about this previously that the Diamondbacks backs might lose some money in the interim through this process because Diamond Sports Group isn't going to be able to pay what they're supposed to pay.

Major League Baseball is going to step in. And we already heard from Rob Manfred about a month or so ago at this point that Major League Baseball would not be able to replace that revenue, at least not in the short term. But now what this article tells us is that what the Diamondbacks have been making, what they have been pulling in on the TV side, is not sustainable, essentially. And so this went from being a situation where you were looking at a temporary revenue loss to now looking at what is like, likely going to be a long-term revenue loss for the Diamondbacks that continues year after year after year into the future. And frankly, we haven't necessarily seen the impacts of the increased TV revenue that the Diamondbacks have brought in. If you look back at, you know, between 2015 and 2016 and the years immediately following that, I think the Zach Granke deal was

maybe partially powered by that new TV deal. I think there were maybe a few things here and there. Yeah, that's a good point. But with COVID and everything that, you know, every major league team has dealt with in the last few years, we've seen the debacks pull back on payroll. You're not necessarily seeing the imprint of that money anymore. And it, I mean, it's tough looking into the future. It's like, yeah, the debacks already are not necessarily increasing their payroll a whole bunch from where it was before that TV deal. And now even that money that they brought in doesn't look like it's going to be continuing into the future.

So we don't know that for sure, right? At this point, you know, these are just kind of people in the industry saying what they think about the diamond back steel. But it doesn't really inspire confidence for the future. It doesn't. And it's going to be interesting to see how impacts their spending going forward. Obviously, right now, this is a reason why they're actually in such a good position with these young players. Because for the most part, they're not going to have any huge contracts that they have to take care of anytime soon. and the ones that do expire, most likely, they'll allow to expire.

They'll allow guys to go elsewhere. But, I mean, I just, I don't know. That's the reason why there's a lot of concern with us over Zach Gallen signing a contract extension. Because, again, the financial future is so uncertain that I just don't know if they're going to end up having the money to invest in that. But that's a, we got really sad and dark there. And I don't want to be in that place because it's Friday. And I'm drinking Friday beers. We thank you guys for being here.

Give away a pizza, too. We're going to give away a pizza. Yeah, yeah, let's do that. Let's change things around. So we thank you guys for being here so much. Of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when we go live or any of the wonderful shows on the network

go live. Also, leave us a thumbs up. It's my favorite thing in the whole wide world. If you're watching or if you're not watching, you can't watch us on an audio podcasting app. I hate to break it to you. But if you're listening to us on an audio podcasting app of your choice, make sure to subscribe to us there if you haven't done so already leave us a review we always appreciate the feedback we thank you so much of course for being here uh of course if you guys are a diehard member already we thank you for being a die hard member but if you're not make sure to sign up for a diehard membership it's not only the best membership that you can sign up for for sports in the valley but it comes with all sorts of wonderful stuff uh free hat or shirt from the p hnx locker dot com every single year you're a member 20% off all future purchases if i seem to strike you're

reacted there for a second. It was flipping me off on both sides of the camera there for a little bit. It's how she says goodbye. I adore her so much. I miss her already. I wish her so goodbye. Anyway, back to the diehard membership.

You get 20% off all future purchases. It's p. 10x locker.com. You get discounts with our members. You get diehard only merch. You get diehard only events. You get, oh, yeah,

she's back. You get so much stuff for being a diehard member. You also get this guy's newsletter, the full count. Not the full count. He'll get so much. mad at me for saying that it's just jesse friedman's full count uh and you get that over at p hn go p hnx com along with all the other wonderful newsletters from gerald uh craig you know that guy craig morgan

howard ballzard and so much more so sign up for a member today you also get part to be a part of our diehard only discord lounge uh which chris melton by the way earlier said that dramatic dramatic i can't even say it now dramatically dramatically dramatically is the word did i did that word That word came out of my mouth apparently. I don't believe that as a word, but it's your... You called, you said, you said overdog, and I still don't believe that that's a real word. It's in the dictionary. Yeah, you say that, but I don't believe you.

I haven't seen it myself, but anyway, we thank you guys for being here. We thank Chris for pointing out my nonsense words. And if you're here right now in the chat, drop us a pizza emoji, and we will enter you into a drawing for a free 20-inch pepperoni pizza from our friends at Mountain Mike. Shout out to Mountain Mike himself, the one and only. He says he's not, I've covered this. He says he's not, he's not Mountain Mike. That's just such bullshit. That's exactly what Mountain Mike would say.

That's exactly what Mountain Mike would say. Did you let me look at that guy? I mean, come on. Like, yeah, he puts on a polo shirt, but I bet he's got a flat flannel in the car. Anyway, Mountain Mike. Shout out to our friend Mike Smith, of course. We got this wonderful 20 inch pizza to give away. Ryan, you already won one.

Get out of your scram. But if you haven't won one, leave a pizza emoji in the comments. And I will enter you into our wheel of. names and I will pick one winner before the end of the episode. Chris, you are in my dear. And of course, we thank you guys. We love you guys. Thank you guys for being here. One thing was I got a lot of, I guess I can't say a lot of flack. It was two tweets. I don't think you got no. I don't like negative, I don't like negative comments at all. You guys know that about me, but didn't get as much flack as the Diamondbacks got from John Miller.

No, no, no, I didn't. And we all know about John Miller's comments on the Giants, broadcast, of course. He called the Arizona Diamondbacks Bush League team. He had all sorts of negative, terrible things to say. I retorted with what I thought was a fairly reasonable rant myself. I honestly think, and I think my suspicions were confirmed, right? Because I thought, in general, it sounded like what he was complaining about was that a person did not physically walk up to him and hand him a packet of paper.

And then Jesse being a more reasonable person was like, there's no way. They must not have, maybe they didn't put it out on that table that we always walk past because why would someone complain like a maniac on air in the way that John Miller did about not getting the information about the team if he could have walked over to a little table and picked up the information? Well, it turns out, based on a statement from Jackie Brown to the Arizona Republic, they, we might, what we thought might have been the case. She said it is unfortunate that he took this perspective.

A member of our PR staff, in fact, was on site and on hand for any questions. And we provided the press box with our stadia, standard collateral, as we always do. Several of us, including Derek and myself, meaning Derek Hall, had conversations with our peers and the top executives at the Giants, all of whom apologized profusely. I am proud of my team. We have put this behind us and look forward to continuing to exhibit professionalism, service, and integrity in our roles. And that comes from Jacqueline Brown. I abbreviated name because we call her Jackie. But here's the name.

I don't think she goes by. No, no, that's it. I'm pretty sure she does. But I'm going to say this about the Arizona Diamondbacks PR staff is they are absolutely top notch. There are some incredible people over there. We absolutely love working with them. and that's, I think, the reason why we might have even gotten a bit defensive about this. John Miller apologized in a half-hearted way himself, kind of saying he was joking.

He was trying to kind of make a joke about it on air. But as you may have heard in his own words, it didn't sound much like a joke. Did he actually apologize? He did kind of apologize. I'm not really aware of any John Miller apology. It wasn't a good apology. but he did apologize. And I will look it up for you, so I have the exact quote.

But he didn't really apologize in a significant way. He didn't apologize. She probably should have after this. Yeah, I mean, as far, like, I don't know logistically exactly what happened here. But yeah, we suspected that maybe the Diamondbacks had some sort of a mix up. Yep. You know, we didn't know at the time if they had sent a PR person there or not. It was a split squad game.

It was a split squad day. A lot of the people were over at Salt River Fields. No Tori as manager. That's why he was saying he didn't know who the manager was and stuff. And this is what John Miller said in his apology on Sunday. If you want to call it that, he said they had their main game at Salt River Fields, but the B team or the split squad team was here. We were a little irritated that we didn't get any information about who was the manager,

who the coaches were and whatnot. Anyway, I feel badly that it's become this story that's going throughout the internet. You're welcome. I was just trying to have a little fun and also expressed being a little irritated. At the same time, I'm very sorry that it became such a big deal. It's just a spring training Cactus League game. Exactly. We could probably do these games if we never mentioned any names on the other team.

Hopefully it will die off. If anybody asks, you say, oh yeah, he apologized right on the air about it. That was his quote. Wow. That's so, what a weird way to finish it. My goodness. John Miller is a 71-year-old man. So sometimes he doesn't really feel like putting on the same pomp in circumstance.

Some people do when they want to apologize or say something, right? Whatever. There's lots of stuff you could say. John Miller's very respected. I know that according to the angry tweets I was sent about him being a Hall of Fame broadcaster and all of that. I'm just saying this. If you're a Hall of Famer and you're a professional, you don't do this at any time, right?

Not when you're being recorded. Not when that mic is hot. That's kind of a rule. I say dumb shit on this show. but I think I'm allowed to. Jesse, meanwhile, not allowed to say any dumb shit. He has to watch every word he says. That's the difference between the two of us.

And really, it's the difference when you talk about a broadcaster like this, in my opinion. He can have all the feelings he wants and he can make jokes if he wants to. But he also decided to attack a group of people who do an absolutely outstanding job when it comes to communications and providing information to opposing teams and broadcasting teams and all of that. So to be fair, based on his what he said there, it does sound like maybe the debacks, like they provided some collateral or whatever in the press box. It does sound like there was some information missing. Like they probably should have made it clear who the coach was that day. Maybe.

Like I think there are some things that they should have done. And we said that. Like even when I was going. Yeah, that's not the point. That's not the point. I said that earlier. Like even if the diamond backs had completely dropped the ball on this, that's fine. I'm not saying that the giants weren't completely within their rights to contact the diamond back.

and say, what the hell happened, right? Like, we can't do a broadcast if you don't provide us with information. But not only does that not seem to be the case, it also seems to be like kind of an over-exaggeration about the lack of information that was provided, right? Yeah. I'm sorry, but- The Bush League devax?

Like, really? Fuck on, right? You're going to take on the entire organization? Here's the thing. It's like, when I get to the press box, nobody holds my hand and takes me over to where the information is. Nobody, like, in fact, at times, people within any organization would kind of look at you and be like, what, what are you, what are you asking me if you were like, hey, where can I find

the sheet for the thing? Like, there's a table with all of the information. It's never different. It's always the same. There's always somewhere in the press box that you can locate, uh, the, the, the packets, piles of information. And, and like I was saying, the last time we brought this up, uh, it's, it's in every press box we go into. So I, I just, I don't know what, what happened here. Uh, and I really felt like it was attack both on the Diamondbacks PR, staff as well as the diving backs team themselves for sending a split squad team to play the giants which i don't know if john has experienced this in his 71 years of life but that happens quite a bit during spring training that they send a split squad team so again the idea to call them bushelie

when they ended up whooping your team's ass nine to five i don't know it's the whole other thing but i will say so i i i don't have much experience like listening to john Miller, I've certainly heard his voice attached to a few Giants highlights over the years. But if I'm not mistaken, John Miller was the play-by-play voice on MLB 2K6, which was actually a game. I don't think I ever owned any other MLB2K game except for that one. Maybe John Miller came back for the years following. I don't know if he did, though. But I remember playing MLB2K6, and it was Joe Morgan and John Miller.

They were the duo. Yeah, he did, he did a lot of the 2K games. He did a lot of them. I remember that as well. Okay. Okay. And again, I, like, it's so weird because I know he's revered and I know he's probably a great guy. Like, it's such a weird thing, but.

Can you imagine if they put something like that into a video game? Like, what if your video game play by play announcers just went rogue every once in a while? Like, they just recorded a few things that are just utterly outrageous. You know what? And if you play the game for long enough, then you'll actually find that. It's like what you said. Because after you play it that first time, you don't listen to any of that shit anymore. You're just skipping through cutscenes and you're not listening to commentary.

I mean, for most sports video games, it gets pretty old, right? Like you've kind of, for the first month or two, maybe of playing a sports video game, things feel fresh and original as far as the broadcast goes. And then eventually you're like, yeah, I've heard him, I've heard him go on this rant like eight times. Yep. More than eight times at this point. Oh, who are they going to have on baby, you know, whatever the repeat comments were. but baseball games are better than that now jesse i don't know you can also get yourself a video

game called power wash simulator don't even get me started on how great of a video game that shit is we could record some electric play-by-play with audio for the power wash simulator game jessie still doesn't believe that's a real game that we would do an outstanding job calling those power wash i agree i agree oh he's getting down on that on that trellis looking at getting that off those edges on that trail is a lot of people were very judgmental of you yesterday they really were they really were just seeing these people around his office to ask me what i'm playing a bunch of old folks none of them have seen power wow it's one of the hottest games in the market right now are you kidding me get out of here with that nonsense for for the people who are not aware yes derrick

i was i was playing a game at the office for several hours yesterday before our show was here for several He was here for several hours, and he spent a not insignificant amount of that time. I was cleaning someone's backyard. He was, yes, he was virtually power washing somebody's backyard. They had a fire, Jesse. Someone had to clean it. Someone had to clean it. Someone had to clean it.

Is that how that mask got there? It was schmutz. It was so. I don't know what it was, but regardless, I got paid pretty goddamn well to clean it all. Yeah, and you're in your fake money. Spend it wisely, Derek. All right. I'm going to pick a pizza.

Look, if you haven't dropped. the pizza emoji in the chat do so now or wait until next Friday to win a pizza but I am going to go ahead and pick a winner right now live on the show the wheel is spinning and our winner is Gabriel, Gabriel wins a free 20 inch pepperoni pizza from our friends at Mountain Mike's. Big shout out to you Gabriel. We will send you that coupon. Gabriel deserves that, right? He absolutely deserves it. He deserves everything in the world. He's a great person.

And more importantly, he was out at the Arizona Fall League, Fall Stars game. Like, you have to be a special level of baseball fan to attend the Fall Stars game. Shout out to all of you that were out there. He was at the Home Run Derby. That's right. The Home Run.

Was he at the Fall Stars game? I was thinking Home Run. Oh, you were thinking Home Run. Whatever. Maybe Gabriel was at the Fall Stars game. He probably was. He probably was. Anyway, big shout out to all of you guys.

And of course, if you haven't done so already, download the Drafking Sportsbook app to have even more fun with sports. You can bet right now on the World Baseball Classic. There's so much, there's so much to bet on. This guy over here, Damon, he's a maniac when it comes to bet. He's up at 3 o'clock in the morning taking the over on Team Japan because it got up to like plus 300 or something. It's like cash. Well, yeah, it's free. It was free money.

It was free money. And you can win free money too on the Draft King Sportsbook betting on the World Baseball Classic. adding all sorts of future bets to the MLB future bets and so much more. Get down on the Draft King Sportsbook app. Now, download the app and use our code of PHNX. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly, only at the Drafking Sportsbook with code PHNX.

Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And of course, we know the best way. Gabriel, see he knocked down a kid at the home run derby. He deserves a pizza just for that. He deserves a pizza just for knocking down a kid. Those kids were maniacs.

Let me tell you. And I appreciate the fact that he was there to do that. A great way to go to Arizona Fall League games and all sorts of other games, including spring training games is gametime.com. You can get tickets for $4, $6, $10, all sorts of, all sorts of cheap tickets. I'm not guaranteeing that the weekend tickets are going to be that cheap, nor am I guaranteeing you're going to find a cheap ticket for Team USA versus Team Mexico at Chase Field. but I'm saying you should probably get up in the morning and check out gametime.co to see what you might find on there because you might be surprised as to what you can find.

You can get tickets for not only sporting events, but games, concerts, shows, all sorts of other stuff. Save up to 60% on tickets when you buy your tickets last minute. And the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in our show description. I believe we had a comment earlier from Nicholas who said that he locked down some WBC. tickets on game time? He did. He did say that. Yeah, it was earlier back up.

Row three upper deck behind home plate for USA Mexico. Just snagged WBC tickets for the USA Mexico team from game time. Row three. That is a great ticket, by the way. Like I don't mean to knock close seats, but it's kind of like what I told my friends with

football games especially. Football games are terrible to watch close because you just get to see the action like right in front of you and that's it. Right. But if you sit in like the section in the 300 section, you get a great view of the game. And sometimes you can get those tickets for like 25 bucks.

So being row three, too, that's good stuff. Like if you're at the Chasefield upper deck and you're the top, not going to lie, you're a little far away. You're going to need an oxygen tank. Maybe, maybe some medication for the height.

It's a little unnerving to walk up that high. Row three, that's a great, especially for a game that's sold out. Yeah. Being in row three of the upper deck, like right behind home play. You're going to get a pretty epic view of a packed full chase field on Sunday nights. Absolutely.

That's pretty cool. And it's going to be something else. So make sure to send us lots of pictures. Jesse will be in the house. So make sure to tweet him. I will be at home drinking beers and watching it from the safety and from the comfort of my own home. But we will be back here on Monday with all of your Diamondbacks updates as well as more on the World Baseball Classic. So keep it locked right here to PH&X.

In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This guy is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Bex, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much. We hope you have a wonderful, wonderful weekend.

Appreciate you guys being here on behalf of Damon, Jesse, myself. Love you. Thank for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you make your rights payments.