PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Houston Astros defeat the Philadelphia Phillies to be crowned your 2022 World Series Champions

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

The Houston Astros are your 2022 World Series Champs, Dusty Baker finally gets his ring, and Jeremy Pena is one of the best stories in baseball. All this plus your Mailbag Monday questions and a recap from the Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby and Fall Stars Game.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: We are teaming up with Four Peaks to host all US and Mexico World Cup matches at their 8th Street Pub. Enjoy beer specials, giveaways, guest appearances, and more while watching on their 22’ jumbo screen. Click here to register for free: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/phnx-2022-world-cup-watch-parties-1329339Enter 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 “PHNXSPORTS” 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 in. We are overjoyed to be live right now with no technical issues at all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXD-Backs podcast. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of this ship. Captain, mayor? Do ships have mayors? I'm going to find out.

This is the... In your book, everything has a mayor. I'm pretty sure. And you are it. I'm Derek Montia, mayor of the ship. This guy is the co-cats. Captain, this is Jesse Friedman, aka the Thunderstay. We had some fun at the home run,

we did. Oh, yes, we did. We had a lot of fun. It would have been a little bit better if you actually put in a little bit more effort and come away with the home run. It was due to a lack of skill. There's a difference. The effort was there.

The skill was not. But of course, welcome in. We thank you guys for joining us. This show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King's Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. And I'm sure some people won some money on the huge. Houston Astros, your 2022 World Series champions. It's not like we didn't know it wasn't going to happen.

I think at one point way earlier in the season, we might have said the Astros had a good chance of doing this. But it's still an impressive feat, nonetheless. The Philadelphia Phillies deserve all the kudos in the world for their postseason and their run that they had. But let's be honest, this is all about the Astros. The Astros finally get a chance. There's a lot of weird talk about this World Series,

but the first thing I think that is great is obviously Dusty Baker gets his ring. Absolutely. Yeah, Dusty Baker is just a baseball legend. And he's been in the World Series a couple times in the past. He was in the World Series last year and came away empty, but not this time. And if there's, you know, I think some people were maybe a little bit hesitant to join in the celebration with the Astros. It's no secret. A lot of people were not rooting for the Astros in the series.

but just seeing Dusty Baker smile and jump up and down and whatnot during some of those celebrations was pretty cool. And no matter what you think of the Houston Astros as a whole, I don't think you can be mad at Dusty Baker. I mean, you can't take any of that out on him. He's just genuinely a great human being from what I know and a legend in baseball. You're absolutely right. And to be honest, it's what made the Houston Astros hiring him as managers such a savvy move. Yeah. It's like this was an organization that had a tremendous.

amount of character issues, you could say, or like reputational issues. Yeah, a reputation issue. To bring in somebody like Dusty Baker who is kind of beloved in baseball was a pretty smart move to kind of get the perception towards the organization turned around. Yeah, it really was. There was no question at the time. I mean, when they were in the midst of trying to figure out who they were going to hire, there's no question in my mind that that was probably the biggest consideration is like,

Like, who is going to elevate the reputation of this franchise because we've dug ourselves a pretty significant hole with the whole trash can bang scandal. So nobody better than Dusty Baker. And I'm happy for him to be able to have this victory here. My favorite fun fact about this entire situation is the fact that Dusty Baker's managerial debut was on April 6, 1993 versus the St. Louis Cardinals. and the very first batter that he had to manage against in a regular season Major League Baseball game, Geronimo Pena, Jeremy Pena's dad. Really? Yes, sir.

Really? Yep. Wow. And he went two for two in that game with two walks. So he was a bit of a menace. He was a bit of a menace. Just like Jeremy. Just like Jeremy.

And like you can't ask for not only a better story when it comes to Dusty Baker and his managerial record. The man's almost won 4,000 baseball games. and did not have a World Series to kind of cap off such an amazing managerial career. But you have the story of Jeremy Pena, who is your World Series MVP, and one of the best stories in baseball, let's be honest. Yeah. For a number of reasons, right? Let me give you Pena's November.

This is just his November. November 1st, he became the first rookie shortstop to win a gold glove. November 3rd, he became the first rookie shortstop to Homer in a World Series game. And on November 5th, he became the first rookie shortstop to Homer in a World Series game. And on November 5th, he became the first rookie position player in history to win World Series MVP. It's a fine. How is your November been? That's a fine week.

Not as good as that. Not as good as that. But yeah, I mean, we've talked about it probably more than we've talked about any Astros player. But Pena replacing Carlos Correa with big shoes to fill, big a hole to fill. And honestly, he did it in such a way that it's hard to believe, right? It's like people in Houston don't even have to utter the name Carlos Correa anymore. And there is no ghosts of the past haunting them when it comes to who filled in at that position. Yeah.

And I mean, Carlos Correa is going to be probably a big fish in the free agent market this winter. We'll have to see what happens there. But the Astros, I don't think they have any remorse of letting him walk last year. Not a little bit. No, I mean, and it's just a testament to how good the Astros are at developing young talent and just bringing in new guys, you know? I mean, not many teams can replace a all-star caliber shortstop as seamlessly as the Houston Astros did. I mean, there aren't that many Jeremy Pena's out there.

The fact that they had him just sort of, you know, waiting in the wings ready to go is really impressive. So the Astros are a very homegrown team. I mean, say what you will about them as a franchise and all of the negative things that have come out about that franchise over the last few years. the Astros came by this World Series honestly. Like, I believe more than half of their roster, I want to say 14 of the 26 players on their World Series roster were homegrown talent, like guys that came from within the organization. And that's really impressive.

It's something that Philadelphia Phillies cannot say. Philadelphia Phillies, as lovable as they are for so many people, that was not their story. And so even if the Astros were the overdog, I'm going to keep using that word. He did it again. I did it again. even if they are the overdog in this situation,

like the way that they got to this point is not really like a big brother mentality. Like it really is we're going to build from within, you know, we're going to build something sustainable. And that's why they've represented the American League in the World Series so many times in the last few years because it's sustainable. And they can do this year after year after year.

It's funny you say that because obviously we want to give a tip of the cap to the Philadelphia Phillies and everything they did. Yes. And let's be honest. as a team that plays in a very difficult division that is going to be very hard to win in the foreseeable future. It does give the Diamondbacks,

it should give Diamondbacks fans a bit of hope about what you can do should you just get that final wildcard position. However, like you said, the Diamondbacks actually are much closer, believe it or not, to be more like the Houston Astros right now than they are to being the Philadelphia Phillies

because of the acquisition of free agents versus the Diamondbacks right now trying to slowly do it the correct way and build from within their organization. You mean like in the manner of like how the team is being built. That's what I mean. Not, yeah, I'm not talking about success. Yeah, I don't know if they're closer to 106 wins than they are 87 wins. No, no, without a doubt. Point taken.

But yeah, no, you're right. And I'm not trying to say that. I'm saying because the Philadelphia Phillies feel like more of the inspiration for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But to be honest, we should be inspired more by the Astros because I feel like that's the direction that the franchise is going. or at least that's what they're hoping for. A few teams can have the success that the Astros had. And the Astros merely had to have like three really terrible seasons in a row for them to acquire enough pieces to build this franchise up for years

and have it be sustained, have it be held up by the pillars that are your young players that came up and became superstars in Major League Baseball, right? Right, right. But, you know, Jacob actually sent us a really great thing about the Diamondbacks. And just in regards to that, we got a tweet from Arizona Diamondback stats and info that said, within the last six months, have the D-backs quietly become the Valley's second most promising franchise? You have more promising than the Cardinals. That's what they're going with.

Franchise players, Gallen Walker, Marte, Merrill Kelly, up and coming, Carol McCarthy, Thomas, etc. 22 win improvement from the previous season. Star player does not play Call of Duty. And that's a big factor in here. The new Call of Dune was released. Cardinals are 0 and 2 since then, of course. I mean, even didn't DeAndre Aiton have like a video game thing at one point? We all have video game things. There's nothing wrong with video games.

But when it gets in the way of your preparation for Sunday, maybe there's a problem there. I do know, I do have to say, Corbyn Carroll and Alec Thomas, I was told on the record they're both big Fortnite fans. And they play quite a bit of Fortnite together. There's something about Fortnite that does not. It doesn't corrupt the soul. And no, it just doesn't threaten me the way Call of Duty is. Look, I'm a survivor of call of duty addiction. Let me tell you.

And my life was going down. It's a downward spiral. It was not good. I was, you know, essentially staying up until 2 a.m. every night, killing zombies and competing at the highest level. And it wasn't good for me as a person during the daylight hours, you know, getting up at 6 a.m. 4 hours later after putting in a night's work on call of duty, that shit's not good for you.

But, yes, I do like this. And I do think, to be honest, there are a lot of similarities, once again, between what the Diamondbacks kind of are starting to get on a role and those bubble suns that all of a sudden kind of went from being very bad to very good kind of pretty quickly, right? But the key there was that they defined their core, they knew who their young players were, that they were going to make that team of the future. And they could add the pieces like Jay Crowder and Chris Paul when they knew the team was to that point. I think obviously the Diamondbacks might not be there yet in 2023, but 2024 could be that season where we see them add

those exact little pieces that kind of get them over the hump. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if them being the team, like what Michael said in the comments, I don't know if them being the team with the brightest future in Arizona says as much about them as it does all the other Arizona sports teams right now.

Although, I mean, Leah, the coyotes have like a, like, I mean, they can't get worse, right?

No, they've hit rock bottom. Yeah, like the diamond backs do. I think the coyotes are a couple years behind the D-Backs. Yeah. Okay. But do you think that the players that they brought into

organization now are like key components to the future? The ones they drafted, there's a couple on the roster now and then they drafted a couple this year, but this upcoming draft is the draft. For them. It's like, it's one of the deepest drafts in the NHL for the last few years. You know what that means, baby? Tank season for the coyotes all season long. And you know what that means?

They're going to do well and pick up 15. Yeah, no shit the bet even when it comes to losing. One other thing before we move on, but there is a lot of talk about how this World Series somehow cements the Houston Astros legacy and helps them overcome that sign stealing scandal. Like you said, they have had a substantial amount of success in the American League over the last, what, 10 years, close to 10 years, right? They've been very good for a conservative, not quite 10 years, but getting close. But like eight years, seven years, right?

Yeah. Does this help them overcome that? It's the million dollar question. more people that are thinking that, you know, these guys are cheating in some other way? I think that so, and unfortunately I don't remember who put this out there, but I thought it was a really good point that somebody, not me, made on Twitter. They said something on the lines of the fact that Major League Baseball didn't revoke the Astros title in 2017 has sort of made it impossible to like forgive them or move on, right? Like if Major League Baseball

had gone out and somehow made some sort of more significant move other than finding them and taking away draft picks, then maybe the baseball community at large could be like, okay, justice has been served here. We can move on. But that didn't happen. That's the craziest thing I've ever fucking heard in my life that people want them to, what, just vacate the 2017 title? Like, this is pro wrestling?

What the hell? Yeah, no, you're right. Like, I don't think that's a realistic ass. Like it's understandable why Major League Baseball didn't take those steps. But at the same time, you can understand like there's just this like injustice that just like keeps rearing its head. And I don't think people are going to forget about it. And it's it's not going to change. Right.

So on the flip side, does them continuing to have success make it worse? Like does that kind of piss people off? I don't think it makes it worse. No, okay. No, I don't think it makes it worse. I think it shows that and whether people are willing to address. Admitted or not that the 2017 Astros were a don't good baseball team. And the 22 Astros are a don't good baseball team too, right?

Yeah. But it's just it's the stupid pot shots that people can take, right? And then like continued success just lets people continue to be angry and fester about. Like if you were bad for a little bit of time, at least we could get over it. But then you got back. The next time the Astros are bad. I mean, people will really have a lot of fun with that. I'm sure. But I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

Leah can attest to this because on the coyote show, they just had dumb. asked questions about some locker rooms because they thought they were playing at Mullet Arena, but instead they were playing, where were they they were in D.C. And everyone was done. And they were like, look at this trash locker room. It was junior varsity locker room.

And it's like, yeah, that's the Capitol's visiting locker. That's what that is, right? Just think a little bit deeper for one's a hand. Yeah, exactly. They just want to get the jokes in. That's all, you know, and of course the Astros are going to be the butt of those jokes. And we enjoy those jokes.

Some of our favorite Halloween costumes involve those jokes. So it's not going to go away. And I think the Astros have gotten to a point where I don't know. Like there's not enough of them left on the team for most of them to still take it personally. Right. There's only like four or maybe five guys from the team from 2017 still on the team. But I mean, you can't really talk shit because of how good those guys continue to be. Like Jose Altuve and Alex Breggman.

Alex Breggman is arguably the best third baseman in postseason history now. and it's hard to... Wow, that is a claim. It is. It's a claim, but I'm telling you, if you look back statistically, he actually is one of the best third basemen in postseason history.

Jose Altuve, I mean, he had three hits in game seven, I think, but he had a miserable postseason, honestly, while that the Astros were able to win this thing. Well, and I mean, again, that just goes to show he's one of those guys that he can make a difference if he gets on base. He struggled, but when he did, it was effective, right? When he got on base, he was able to make

things happen. He was able to cause chaos on the base paths. It's what we're hoping to see from our young Diamondbacks team once we can get to a point. Jazz McCormick also played really well. Oh God, that catch. Throughout the entire postseason and the catch. I know he's, I believe he's a Philadelphia native. No, he's never allowed back in that.

That's been revoked. When you talk about the World Series style being revoked, Chaz McCormick no longer a native. He has no ties to Philadelphia whatsoever. His origin story is like he just came out of the shadows. But of course, but course, make sure to check out our website over at go phnx.com. If you haven't done so already, we

appreciate you doing so. Grab yourself a membership. You can get an annual membership and you'll get yourself a free t-shirt from the phnx locker.com, whatever t-shirt you wish. Also, if you get the month-month membership, you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of your membership status, you will get members-only access to our Discord. Members-only discounts over at the ph-NX Locker.com, as well as members-only invites to some of our events. We had a blast this weekend. Shout out to everybody that came out not only to the is on a fall league home run derby, but to the Phoenix Sun's takeover event. We had, we, Jesse and I were all over the place this weekend, and we had a great time hanging out

with you guys. So make sure. It was a miserable basketball game. Oh, I wasn't actually in the arena anymore by the time that that shot hit. But that's true. Yeah, I kind of wish I had made the same choice. I left. I knew something bad. Instead, I saw Jeremy Grant take steps. Jeremy Grant becoming the next coming of Jordan in that game, right? Jeremy Grant had to be double-teamed in the first half, by the way. But yeah, yeah, don't even, let's like, even talk about that travel. That travel. It was a travel.

In a pretty significant way. But anyway. If you're here right now, the PHNX sports YouTube channel, we thank you guys for being here, of course. Make sure to subscribe. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of the shows go live and leave us a little thumbs up just for my own personal benefit.

It's my own self-esteem. I need that for me. But of course, we talked about every thing we do on this show. We were all over the place. And of course, you know that every week on this show is Shark Week. That's why we're so active every day on the show is Earth Day. And, of course, every Monday, we go to the mailbag. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox.

And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go wild. All right, Leah, what we got? Is there something interesting in your mailbox? There is something interesting in my mailbox. Let's go. All I ever get is bills. Oh, yeah. And like just.

Wait, this is stupid. Yeah, political, political ads. This isn't a mailback question, but. Have you forgiven your wife for not letting you get the Booker jersey? No, I have not. I still firmly believe that had she done that, they would have won. I don't know how that would have shifted the force in the universe. It is Jen's fault.

Put that on a T-shirt. It's Jen's fault. I need it around the house. Trust me. But, of course, I forgive her. She's my favorite person in the world, and I have no choice but to forgive her. I sleep next to her night. What else we got, Leah?

This is a two-parter from our friend Brett Lee Johnson, Brett underscore Johnson 44 on Twitter. He asks, give us a hot take prediction for this offseason. You will think that will shake up the baseball world. Give us your lock off-season move that you can almost guarantee will happen. That's a lot of stuff. All right. So number two, I predict that Edwin Diaz will resign with the New York Mets. Yeah, that's boring.

I mean, that seems like, I would agree with you. Like, that's a boring thing, but I also feel like there's... Well, it's especially boring considering that Edwin Diaz already has re-signed with the new... Oh, God damn it, Jesse. Get out. I don't feel like you might. Go get Sean, tell him to come in here. I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, that was actually a no-brainer, though, I feel like, don't you think? I mean, it felt like... The Mets were very unlikely to let. Yeah. They love him. The fans love him. With the Mets owner. They're just not going to let great players walk, really.

I just, I mean, the way, how motivated that franchise is to win right now. Right. No, no surprise there. Well, and, and I mean, honestly, there's something about his legacy, his, like, he's, his bigger than life personality seems to have developed in New York. He has a brand. Yeah. Yeah, Steve Cohen is not, not messing around.

Not messing around. Not messing around. He's absolutely spot on there. I will give you a hot take. I will give you the hot take right now. You're going to tell us where Aaron Johnson. is going? San Francisco Giants.

Oh, oh. Yeah. I don't think people are going to like you for saying that. I don't fucking like me for saying that. Are you kidding me? I say things all the time that make me not like me for saying stuff. But I don't want it to happen. I don't really think it's going to happen.

But you said like an outlandish kind of crazy prediction. And honestly. So that's not your guarantee. That's the one that's the one that's a little out there. I would almost guarantee he's going to resign with the Yankees. But I feel like that's just such a San Francisco. Giants move at this point where you think, where you think they're about to regress into a bit of an area where they might not be as good, where it might take them a little time.

They don't want to say the R word, you know, the rebuild word, but San Francisco doesn't really rebuild. They haven't really rebuilt over the last fucking 15 years it feels like, right? So it really is a matter of staying competitive. And I feel like going after the biggest free agent in baseball and adding to that offense that that struggled quite a bit at times for the Giants last year. I agree with you that like I think that's it's like it shouldn't be a reasonable thing for them to do, but it probably is.

I know there was a report out there at some point that said that the the Giants will not be outbid for Aaron Judge. I don't know how much of that is just posturing in advance of negotiations. But looking at the Giants roster, like what makes you think that if you bring an Aaron Judge, that's a good baseball team, you know? Like if you pair. Tyro Estrada and Mike Yostremski with Aaron Judge Like suddenly you have this majestic trio

Carlos Rodan has also opted out So at least as if right now they don't have him under contract for next year I could see it I mean the Giants have a lot of money to spend And they haven't really gone after big fish and free agency For a little while it feels like so I do I love I love Mike Yistramski I mean I do I do love It's the greatest name in baseball potentially right?

Yeah well it's the longest last last last name in baseball at least. It's the hardest for people who aren't baseball fans to pronounce, yet all baseball fans look at it go, yeah, you're Shremski. What's the problem? No, I do think that Mike Yistremski is a great guy. Once upon a time I was interviewing Stephen Vogt, and Mike Yistremski popped in the chat, and Stephen Boe was going crazy because he loves Mike Yistramski.

So anyway, I don't want to throw any shade of Mike Yistremski. Sean's right. I guess I already did. But I mean, yeah, like the Giants don't have like this. young core of players that you're building around. So it seems like sort of on timing for them. But yeah, it wouldn't totally shock me at the same time. They just have the money and the San Francisco Aaron judges sound pretty good.

Yeah. That's what I will say. I hate the idea, by the way. I just want to put that back out there. Yeah. And another idea that you'll probably hate is that I think the Dodgers are going to acquire some other superstar guy this winter. Carlos Correa?

Possibly. Could he be the replacement for a trade turn? Yeah. I think it's, I think it's trade turners out. and knowing the Dodgers, they're not the type of organization to lose a superstar without replacing him. So it's just a matter of who it is in some ways.

Carlos Correa might be, he might be at the top of that list. I think so. And I also think my guarantee is that Carlos Correa won't resign with the twins. That's my, like, guarantee. The twins have come out and said, like, they're confident, like, they're going after him.

Why would you only take a one-year deal, though? Well, he wouldn't. sign a one-year deal with the twins. He did, though, is my point. Right. Well, he did last year. Right. He did last year in order to kind of like the market just wasn't what he wanted it to be. And so now he's opting out. Right. But yeah, the twins aren't getting him on another one-year deal. That's, that's for sure. No, that's what I'm, that's my point. And I think that maybe the one-year deal was so that, like you said, he could opt out and opt for a free agency during a time where it was going to be a bit more lucrative for him. And there was going to be a chance for him to make that big payday. I think this is that chance. though his numbers weren't great with Minnesota, right? Graia?

Yeah, he was good, but you're right. He wasn't like elite or anything necessarily. That's the thing for me that makes it so hard for baseball. Then you could bring in some guy that. I take it back. He was elite. Was he elite? Yeah.

What was his war? Baseball reference has him at 5.4. Yeah, he's a pretty good. All right. I mean, he had an 834 OPS, which doesn't like jump off the page. But I mean, for a short stop, that's, you know, 22 Homer, 64 RVI. I've played 136 games, so relatively healthy most of the year. He'll do okay for himself and free agency.

You know, who feels like the most... We'll get to it. I'll get to it. We have plenty of Diamondbacks free agency questions to get to. Leah, what else do we got? We know baseball has tons of unwritten rules. What's a PHNX unwritten rule at the office? Oh, my God.

Huh. I'm going to start off with, don't hide fucking burritos in the liquid death water box. That's my first unwritten rule. No hiding burritos that should be in the refrigerator in a box in your office. Is that what Mac did? Oh, yeah, she's flipping me off right now. That's pretty good, right?

Yeah, this rule actually only applies to Michaela. The rest of us... I want everybody to follow this rule, not just Mac. Well, I'm just saying the rest of us have enough respect for each other that we wouldn't need that rule to be in place. Mac is the only one who needs that kind of supervision. I don't understand, quite frankly, how there isn't a writing your name on a burrito policy around this joint.

And that's enough for you to protect your burrito. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Maybe Mac has just lived in a world so long that's feral and unruled that she doesn't know how to act in society anymore. I have no idea. But another unwritten rule, according to Saul, is just leaving your stuff anywhere. See, but that's not really unwritten.

That's like that's like written on all of our foreheads at this point. The only written rule actually, it's it's etched on a wood, plaque in the middle of the lobby? I don't get it. I have left the office and returned solely to like wash a glass or something. So, FaceTime to me because I left a tape on his desk. He phacetime to me to come back to the office because I left tape. Wait, I want to address Michael's comment about flip flops because I will say the women of

this office have shamed all of the men into not wearing flip flops to work. What is the problem with flip flops? This is the lack of care for the men's feet. Do you not want to see that? You need to see your toes. But then we have to look at your toes, right? But I also think that wearing, well, first of all, I get pedicures. But I also think that wearing flip flops with pants is just simply not a good look.

What is wrong with people that do that? I don't understand that. That is not something. Do you agree? Like, fliplops with shorts and like a beachy set, like whatever. I'm not against flip flops as a concept. I just don't wear them with jeans. What are you doing?

Or so. Bo and Espo. Sorry. We're socks. I mean, sorry. If it's cold enough for you to need socks with your flip flops, wear shoes.

Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Any more unwritten rules around here? Um, I don't know. Um, yeah, just like general cleanliness is certainly, certainly a big thing around here.

Um, yeah, that's about all I. That's about all. That's all. Madden. Wait, uh,

don't, don't be a part of the fantasy league and not expect a punishment. That's the biggest. That's a big one. That's a big one. Because apparently the punishments are cruel and awful and it doesn't matter how much. And Cherston refuses to do them. It's not going to do it.

So I might end up spending 24 hours in a Waffle House just to make sure somebody fucking does it. All right. What else we got, Leah? Oh, wait. That was our, all right, let's do an ad read. You guys want to do an ad read? Let's do an ad read. Of course, our friends at OGs are our favorite ones to read ads about because we have agreed to a new deal with our friends at OGs.

P-H-M-X times OGs equals fun, is what I'm saying. But the terms of the agreement weren't released, but at the time of the agreement, but sources close to the two sides said we're all immensely excited and looking forward to creating what? Oh, hey, hi, everybody. Of course, creating more great content between the brands. And our friends at Mountain Vikes are here, too. Shout out to Mountain Mike. That guy takes his job way too seriously.

He's not actually Mountain Mike, but he feels like he needs to uphold the image of being Mountain Mike. He's almost like a mascot, but he's a real person that doesn't dress in a suit. It's kind of wild. Anyway, check out our friends Mountain Mike, of course. Check out our friends at OGs. OGs is a flavoring life. They're flavoring your life. They're flavoring your dreams.

They're flavoring everything. We can't thank them enough for being a sponsor. As always, you can find them at your local dispensary. You must be 21 years or older to enjoy. And also, our friends at Draft Kings. I had a big weekend over at the Draft King Sportsbook app. I lost, but then I got myself a free bet back. These are all things you can do.

They were having free bets on same game parleyes if you should lose. So I got that. And then I won. I might have bet against the Cardinals. I might have bet on the money line for Seattle and some other things in the same game parlay. And won myself $100 with my free bet. But you can do that too. Over at the Draft King Sportsbook app, if you're a new customer, you can bet $5 on any NBA

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We got more mailbag questions. I have one more. Wait, Isaiah Chavez says the OG sleeping gummies are good to eat before bedtime. He's not wrong. He is not wrong. They are the best thing to eat before bedtime. So another unwritten rule that I just came up with is that if Espo is playing Madden, I feel like you got to leave the guy alone because he gets pretty emotionally

invested when he's playing Madden and he's not very good at it. I mean I think that's sort of the problem like Espo just doesn't really do well in those environments I don't think. Max was beating him 56 to nothing I believe one game. We've seen some pretty concerning scores watching Espo play Madden so best to just leave it. I'd never play again if I was 56 to nothing

to another actual live human being I'd never play again I'd set down the controller maybe even not touch an Xbox controller for the rest of my life if you did play again you just put the level on rookie and then play against the city instead. That's a personal attack on me and I don't appreciate it Leah, let's go to the mailbag. Corbyn Carroll's account, God bless you, sir, says,

give five different versions of this. We're not going to do that, but we will give you one. Blank percent of the blank is covered by blank. The rest is covered by DBAX outfielders. I'm going to say 25% of the PHNX office is covered by OGs. The rest is covered by the Dax Outfielders. Maybe like, I don't know, this one is completely, completely out of the blue. Maybe like 96% of like open space in Phoenix Metro is now covered by

like retail stores, right? Sure. Like everywhere in this city, like if you're in like an area where people live, we don't allow open space really. Yeah. We put supermarkets there. Those days are over. Like if you have an open gravel lot like there has to be a prize needs to go there. Yeah, we need like an Albertsons or raising canes or like someone's going to have an aneurysm or something. Starbucks in the parking lot. That's the way it needs to go. Yes. Yes.

At least at least one Starbucks per square mile, something like that. I'm going to say 80% of the Phoenix freeways are covered with traffic. Oh, come on. Oh, come on. Arizona traffic is not as bad as people say it is. Michael McDermott gave us the actual answer, which is the nerdiest thing anybody about Michael. We know 23rd.

of the world is covered by water. That's the joke. Is it really two-thirds though? Yeah. Isn't it like a little more than that? I don't know. 80% of your, 70% of your body is water. The rest is covered by the Arizona Diamondbacks outfield. 97% of statistics are made up. The rest are covered by devax? No, that doesn't. Michael says the 101 still sucks. Yes, it does, sir. Yes, it does.

It depends on the time. You know, it's predictable. It always sucks, Jesse. People don't like to go down or around corners. It's scary to them. So if the freeway goes like this or this, everybody's got to slow down. Michael Bendurton says 71% according to Google searching. Yeah, just a touch over two-thirds. That's all right. All right. What else we got, Leah?

Who should we go after in free agency? Is the bullpen coach part of the reason why our bullpen has been so horrid? That second question was kind of more of the reason why I really like this one. No. No. I don't think this has anything to do with the bullpen coach. What are your thoughts there, Jesse? Yeah, I mean, Mike Feders has been doing that for quite a while.

Mike Feders was the guy that before they brought in Brent Strom, we were like maybe they should consider moving him to pitching coach. But obviously they went with a much more experienced guy that we were actually much more excited about. But Fedders, I don't think Feders is the problem, to be honest. No, at least from what I know, he seems to be a guy that players really enjoy working with. I mean, the reality is that as much as you want to put blame on like the coach. So like the coach that's affiliated with that group, right? Like if you're hitting sucks, then like go after the hitting coach or like if the bullpen sucks,

go out of the bullpen coach. I don't know if there's, I don't know if Mike Feders is really the problem here. In fact, I'm pretty convinced of the opposite. I think the problem is that the pitchers in the Diamondbacks bullpen are just not great, right? Like they just haven't, they just haven't had a lot of success developing relievers internally or on the free agent market. And it doesn't matter how good of a bullpen coach. you have if the talent that you have in the bullpen is just not up to a major league level,

which unfortunately is where the diamond backs have been the last few years. So I mean, it's it's one of those things where like a lot of times you do see coaches, you know, fired because whatever they're in charge of, there's not a lot of success happening. But the debacks have been very loyal to Mike Feders. And I think there's probably a pretty good reason for that. He seems to really be well liked in the organization. I don't have anything to add to that Because I just don't know how much like it's weird because I understand the idea of the concept there right

And it even goes further than just what you were saying Yes, they're not very good right But the diamond it's not like the diamondbacks didn't do things to go out there and bolster their bullpen They brought in the guy that had the most saves in baseball last year That's true sure it might not be as flashy as like a young player or something like that. But from their assessment, you know, Mark Melanson was effective and didn't cost nearly as much money as some of the other options that they might have been, might have pursued, right? Really, when it came down to Mark Malanson, it was a shorter term contract and not paying him nearly as much.

For Malanson, it's more about him being at the tail end of his career and, you know, just trying to stay relevant and try to help a baseball team win games. I still think Mark Malanson is going to, as wild as this is about to come out of my mouth, I still think he's going to prove to be, like, effective. I think that, like, next year, we're going to see potentially a different alliance and maybe not in the closer role, but maybe that's what he needed.

Maybe he needs to move out of the closer role and just be a relief bullpen guy. You're right. They don't have, like, talk to your talent, and we've seen, especially in the playoffs, how different bullpens are for other teams versus our particular team. It's frustrating, and I don't really know what the answer is.

But like Jesse said, we also don't have many people that can throw more than 97 mile per hour in the bullpen. They don't have many people can throw more than like 93 miles an hour, honestly. Meanwhile, there's guys throwing 106 casually in the bullpen or in the strike zone, right? And I am a bit worried about what the Diamondbacks are going to do at free agency. I think it's going to end up being a bit underwhelming. I think people are going to be a bit disappointed with their lack of movement. But it's also better than going out and signing somebody like, Justin Verlander who's 40 years old.

That's a total Diamondbacks move. Like, hey, we're going to bring in one of the best pitchers in the game who really is kind of over the hill and past his prime at this point. Right. So it's like, those are the kind of moves. I don't really want to see the Diamondbacks make with the, you know, youth that they have coming up. We've had a chance not only in the Arizona Fall League to see some of their young players,

but this season, as the season wrapped up, we got a chance to see a lot of their young guys. I believe their future really is going to come from Reno. I believe their future is going to come from Amarillo. Sodboodles, shout out to those guys. But I don't think that, I think that's what we're going to see in free agency. Bold prediction. Chris Melton says bold prediction.

The fan base will be mad at free agency. Correct. Correct. No matter what the result is. That's not even a bullish prediction. That's pretty factual. I mean, last year, though, what's funny is that I don't think people were actually that mad of free agency.

Like Ian Kennedy and Mark Millianson seemed like a pretty... It was addressing the needs. As a matter of fact, we have two closers, not one? Yeah, right? Who would have thought 40 losses later here we would be? All right, what else we got, Liam? What has more fight the D-Backs bullpen? Oh, man.

During the home run derby. All right, well, Jesse and I went out to the Arizona Fall League home-run derby, and Jesse and I... Don's bread was there with us. Don's bread was with us. We had a bunch of our friends from the PHMX crew out there. So it's so good to see all of you guys. And of course, Jesse was taking video of me trying to catch a fly ball in the outfield,

which we're going to have on our YouTube channel later today as a part of our Fall Guys segment. But yes, the little kids at the fall league game had more fight in them than the bullpen. There's no doubt about it. It's not even up for debate. These kids were running full speed from left field to right field and then back, depending on which way the batter hit. and even though they were completely outclassed by the grown-ass six-foot-tall men who had no problem shoving them down to the ground to catch a fly ball,

but they didn't stop trying. And that's what's important. Never stop trying. Never give up, Jesse. As John Cena would say, hustle, loyalty, respect. Don't ever give up, kids, and make sure that even when you don't get a fly ball, you make an grown adult look bad by trampling you. Chris says that piranha school of children was vicious.

It really was. Piranha school. They were fast. They moved together in a school. Yeah. It was incredible. It reminded me of, well,

I don't know if this is a great, a great comp, but like playing 500. You know, like where everyone, like in a giant pack of people, they're like all moving as a unit or wherever the projectile is going to land.

It was what made it so special. like obviously we see home run derbies happen in major league baseball as part of the all-star festivities but that's different because in major league stadiums they don't have like just a lawn in the outfield beyond the outfield fence right here it was literally just grass you had grown men just sprinting like they were left field or for the arizona diamondbacks with their glove up ready to like catch it on the fly on the run it was uh it was something normally in in the actual home run derby it's just way too dense packed and there's seats and their stairs and there's all this stuff in your way. Unless it's coming to you where you are at or within like two feet of your area.

Yeah, you're waiting for it to hopefully get to you and then aggressively chasing after. Yeah, you're not like running like putting 20,000 steps in to try to catch a home run. So it was so wildly entertaining though. It was it was really incredible. In all transparency, Jesse caught me on video almost catching a fly ball. and I didn't have the heart. It was like right there. Like you didn't, I don't think you even really had to bulldoze anyone for that one.

I did. I did. And it was just the fact that I talked to big game, but really didn't have it in me to run over small children. There was another time. I don't think you had to run over small children. I think you reach your glove high in the sky. Jesse, Jesse wanted me to run over all the kids. That's what he kept telling me. That was his advice. There was one kid who literally almost made me like double, end and flip over the top of him because I did not want to run over and knock over a small child. But

Gabriel and his brother had no problem doing it and they are an inspiration of me going forward. But yeah, I think we have more home run derby related questions, don't we Leah? How many kids did Derek push to the ground and catch a home run ball? See, this is what we're talking about. Zero. Not

enough is the answer to that question, right? I think it would have been fine if you just took a couple of them out. You know, like you'd want to be like the bully that's just bulldozing everyone over. Right. But like it's a couple of them. Right.

The grass is soft. There was a couple of them that preserved it, I would say. Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They were very cunning with the way that they were trying to, you know, steal it from each other and whatnot. So somebody had to put them in their place and you just weren't up for it.

I was just, I really wasn't. Oh, well. Really when that killer instinct kicked in, I did not have it. I'm just telling you guys that now. But again, shout out to our friends at Mountain Mikes for not only offering what welcoming us, but offering everybody 25% off for coming in. They had plenty of Four Peaks brews on a hand. And of course, we are teaming up with our friends at Four Peaks as well to host all U.S. and Mexico World Cup matches at their 8th Street pub.

So make sure to join us there. You can enjoy beer specials, giveaways, guest appearances, and all sorts of other fun. Click the link in the show notes to register for free. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy the Four Peaks Brewing Company beer and enjoy responsibly. Also, a shout out to our friends at Moore Furniture for not only making our office, incredibly, incredibly beautiful, but for continuing to remember what I did to my office chair during the baseball season. So I don't hold it against you. I'm in the wrong here. Just like the grown men that knocked over small children were in the wrong. I'm in the wrong here. But

make sure to spruce up your home during more furniture's fall sale at morefurniture.com. Plus, you'll receive a $100 gift card for every $1,000 you spend. Brett Johnson says Zach Hample knocking over children would win in that fight. Yes, Zach Hample was the name. I couldn't. remember the other day, but absolutely that is the individual who I would see just, like, I'm surprised we didn't see him out there, just wrecking kids, just, you know, because it was lawless. There was every man for himself out there.

There were no ushers. There was nobody to save you. It was like utter chaos too, because the guys throwing to the hitters were definitely not observing the rule that I think was in place where you're supposed to wait for it to land before you throw the next pitch. Right. And so there would be one home run, like on its way. And there would be another one also on its way, like at the exact same time.

There would be people fighting for a ball and another ball would be incoming. Yeah, another ball would already be on its way. So it was utter chaos. And Davidson de Los Santos, shout out to our prospect from the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had an absolutely outstanding round. He was mashing the ball after a while. Most of his were moonshots. Yeah, 417.

Like his average launch angle was probably like 50 degrees or something. Like the man was hitting it like straight up into the sky and it just kept on going. It was like there was, there's the berm in the outfield at Sloan Park. And there's like, uh, structure and then like upper deck kind of scene. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where the ball was hitting. It was hitting off the wall off of the upper deck seating and bouncing back into play.

It was crazy. It was it. I think it was impressive and it very, uh, I don't know. It's, it's a home run derby. So you can't like think too much about it. Right. But he struggled this year with the long ball in fall league play. So it was really good to see him not only come out, but have such a good showing.

Uh, Matt Mervis, who. from the Chicago Cubs. Didn't have that strong of a showing, but ended up being the MVP of the Fall Stars game, which you were present for. Yeah, the Fall Stars game was great. I mean, that's sort of like the grand finale of the Fall League in some ways. I know there's still another week.

We still have the semifinal in the championship happening next weekend. But, yeah, it was just so much fun. Justin Martinez appeared in that game for the Diamondbacks through a scoreless inning. He did walk a guy, but he had two strikeouts. He was pumping 98, 99 miles an hour like we've seen it from him throughout the fall league. He's throwing a splitter now, which is interesting.

It's not just the slider and the fastball. He's added a splitter to that. And there was much discussion about what it was. Yeah, everyone on Twitter is convinced it's a changeup, but it's not a change up. It's a split. The man himself confirmed it was a splitter. Yes. But yeah, I mean, Justin Martinez's show, by the way, a friend of the show.

You guys should all follow Justin Martinez on Twitter because he has like 40 followers or something like that because I'm not sure people really have found out that that's his actual Twitter account. Well, who's going to know now that Twitter, now you've got to pay $8 a month for a blue checkmark. They're never going to know. It's only going to get worse. He calls himself the flame, and I feel like I want to say that, like, Kenny Powers. I feel like it should be in Spanish, La Flama. You know, La Flama Blanca or something like that.

Like the flame is good, but it should be, I think it's cooler in Spanish. That's just my opinion. That's fair. He was one of the 12 best performers from the Sunday's Fall Stars game as well. It's such an arbitrary list. We're going to make a list of 12. The 12 best performers in one baseball game. The fall star is interesting to me because the fall league itself in a way is kind of an all-star game of prospects, right?

It's an all-star league of prospects. It's this weird, you know, combination, guys all over the place. And so for, you know, for the fall star's game to be the best of those guys, it's an honor to be selected. Jordan Lawler was selected, but obviously didn't play injury. Yeah, right. And it's just, again, it's just fun to see these guys coming out. And, you know, of course, having, you know, kind of a big day like that in front of the crowd and everything like that. Yeah.

What am I partially correct by? I don't know. What am I? Michael McDurran says I'm partially. I'm 100% correct. Brett Johnson says laugh out loud. Great question relating to that. If you made a Twitter blue parody of NAD backs player in history, who would it be?

Randy Johnson. Next question. Why wouldn't it be Randy Johnson? And every tweet would be about birds. Bird facts. Bird facts. Bird pictures. The difference between a duck and a goose?

Oh, a duck and a goose, yeah. Shout out to Rock, by the way, our collectibles guru, who actually got a tops now card of the goose from the Padre's Dodgers series. So that was a lot of fun. The most valuable tops now card of any Padre affiliated creature in the postseason. I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, Brett Johnson says birds and rush.

Yep, nothing but birds and rush all the time on that account. That's exactly what I do. Well, we thank you guys so much for joining us. Hope you guys had fun at the Arizona Fall League. Those of you that came out, make sure to stay. So I got a few more. We got a few more. And then we got the championship game next weekend.

So we will be covering that as well. And then we have no more baseball. Then we're just, then what do we do? Yep. Then it's just nothing but, you know, Twitter bashing. And what else? Me watching movies. Just Jesse watching movies.

Yes. Baseball related movies, though. So let's make sure. To be fair, we could film. months of shows with me catching up on movies I haven't seen. He hasn't seen. It could be great. But we thank you guys, of course, for joining us.

We thank you for joining us all baseball season long. And now it's officially the off season. So we don't know what to do with our hands. It's always really weird. Like the first few days when I mean, I guess we still have another week of the fall week. So maybe this week will still be sort of okayish. And then next week we're just going to.

We're not looking forward to it. It's going to be really weird. And then we have to like see our families and stuff around like Thanksgiving. stuff and then it just gets awful. Of course, you can follow us until then. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a C. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks,

but 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 behalf of Leah, Jesse and myself, we always appreciate your time. And remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it's kind of more fun when you win a World Series.