PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Mets are still making moves and everyone is blaming Jacob deGrom

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Never challenge a man that has more money than Santa. Jacob deGrom fired some shots in his introductory press conference with the Rangers, and Steve Cohen may have taken it personally. We are also remaking our favorite Christmas movies with D-backs players. 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. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. I mean, I know we're not there yet, but it's right around the corner. This is the P. HNX D-D-Backs podcast. My name is the mayor of Christmas Town, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This guy's my lead elf. It's the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Derek, we've officially entered the phase where I get nervous about the fact that I've yet to buy any Christmas presents. But still very resolute that I will not start my shopping until Christmas. Let me ask you this. Please. Do you celebrate? I feel like based on what I know about you that like your family is very celebratory. I feel like this would be a lot of pressure on you during this time of the year.

I come from a family of procrastinators. And so naturally none of us judge each other for this sort of behavior because we're all in on it together. So it doesn't, you know, it's just the norm in my household. Fair enough. I dig it. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the draft. King Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. And we are here today to place a little blame on Jacob de Grom basically for egging on Steve Cohen.

Now, of course, we know that Jacob de Grom is a very good pitcher. We know that the New York Mets were going to replace him like they did with a very big name. But Jacob de Grom had his introductory press conference with the Rangers the other day. And he said during the press conference, Jesse, and I quote, I want to win and the Rangers have a vision and Steve Cohen took it personally is what happens. So that's what we're seeing out there. No, not Jacob de Grom of course.

Obviously going to the Rangers was a big move for him as far as financially, the deal that he got. And honestly, I mean, just maybe a nice change of scenery after all the injuries and everything he's been through. However, Mets fans still very much with all that they received this year are still a little mad about losing. Jacob de Grom. Like, they're still not okay with it.

A lot of them say... You think Mets fans are really, like... I saw a bunch of Mets fans basically saying, like, they couldn't imagine being okay with this like two years ago when Jacob de Grom was like the centerpiece of their franchise, essentially. But you're saying that they, like, they couldn't have imagined being okay with it then,

but maybe they are okay with it now. Yeah, of course. I mean, when you get, when you get, you know, absolutely bombarded with gifts. Justin Verlander and... Carlos Correa and Jose Cantana and Kodai Senga and the list goes on and on right right right We keep going. Yeah, we could we could keep going

Yeah, I mean I still am fascinated by the Mets decision to do this You know, it was sort of like the one of the first big signings that happened in the off season was Jacob de Grom left the Mets right? Steve Cohen like let let the big fish walk right And ironically you know it seems like they weren't comfortable bringing back a 35 year old and so they went out and signed a 40-year-old to replace him. Naturally, I don't know what else. I don't know what other solution you had had in mind. But it's interesting to hear DeGrom say, you know, the Rangers have a vision to win.

I can maybe see where he's coming from. Their farm system is one of the better ones in the league. And I think they have some good young pitching. Kumar Rocker, of course, is now part of that over there. But they have a long way to go. They have a lot longer to go than the New York Mets do right now. Both teams are the ones spending that money, right? So it's not like he left for some sort of poverty franchise that isn't throwing its weight around the same way that the Mets are.

Well, nobody's throwing their weight around the same way that the Mets are. The Mets are spending in a way like, I guess you could say, it has a sense of desperation to it, right? Yeah, I could see it. And again, that's not necessarily what their plan seems like, right? Signing Carlos Correa long term, but then also signing Justin Burlander to just a two-year deal while Max Scherzer is around. shows really they're committed to winning now and they also want to win going forward. They're not just happy with a World Series that could happen in the next two seasons. They really want to establish themselves as a dominant force in the NL East going forward, right?

Right. It'll be interesting to see if the Braves like punch back in any way. Like do the Braves feel the need to like go out and make some big move now that Carlos Correa is a met? I don't necessarily think so. Like the Braves are pretty darn good as is. Right. But. Are there big moves to be made, though?

I mean, are there big names left on the board as far as that can really? There's some great left-handed hitting center fielders out on the market. I know that. We can interest you in that for sure. Definitely. There's also Brian Reynolds. It's not just the D-X guy. Which apparently is connected to the New York Yankees who are very interested in Brian Reynolds.

Brian Reynolds, of course, is very interested in leaving the pirates to go to the Yankees. So it all depends on. That's probably a pretty decent outcome for Brian. Yeah, right. If you request to trade from the Pittsburgh Pirates, you land with the Yankees, that's probably exactly what you were trying to do. Well, I mean, that's the one thing that you can have all the money in the world that the Mets have, but there are still franchises like the Yankees and the Dodgers that people just deep down inside want to go play for.

So it makes it that much easier for those franchises to acquire those players, right? Right. You might even give those teams a little bit of a discount versus going to Milwaukee. You know what I mean? And again, Milwaukee's a fine city. Yeah, what are you taking shots in Milwaukee for? Listeners or viewers that might live there, but I'm just saying. In defense of the Mets, though, I find it hilarious that they finally have an owner that's willing to spend after years and years and years of dealing with the Wilpons, not wanting to spend at all.

Yeah. And now, and now people want to change the rules of baseball, right? Yeah. Like, I'd be furious as a Mets fan. I mean, I just think it like, just when baseball season starts, and especially for those Yankees Mets games that we're going to get, which will happen, right? Those games are just going to be wild. And they always are, right?

I mean, there's always been beef between Yankees fans and Mets fans. But Mets fans kind of have it in their heads that like, we're not the little brother here anymore, right? Like, we're actually maybe better than you at this point. And I think there's a decent case we made that on paper, the Mets maybe are better than where the Yankees stand at this point. But you know the Yankees fans are going to hold all of their titles and all of the history.

and everything that's happened in that franchise, they're going to hold that over. How many World Series do you have? Exactly, exactly. And Mets fans are going to have to deal with that until some of the spending translates to actually winning not only games. They did that this last year, but winning a World Series going deep into the postseason. Well, and that's the thing is winning the games, that's fine and all. But we've seen the Dodgers do that, right? What they need to win is a championship.

And that's really the only thing that's going to validate all of that. this spending at this point. Very true. You could win as many NL East penance as you want or titles or anything else. You could come out of the National League every single year, but if you're not winning that World Series, it still doesn't validate the ridiculous amount of spending that they have done specifically this off season. And I don't even know if they're like the clear favorites.

Like the Braves are right there. The Phillies were just in the World Series. Like I think the Mets on paper are maybe the best team, but it's not by a very big margin. Well, and we're going to get in the Draft King's sports book odds as far as how things shifted with the Mets making the moves that they made. But the Mets payroll was just $125 million just three years ago, which is basically what they're going to pay in luxury tax next season. Essentially, yeah. What they're going to pay in luxury tax fees next season. In fact, the Arizona Diamondbacks, I don't know if you guys are fans or not, but they are one of 10 Major League Baseball teams that currently have a payroll projected to be less than the Mets 111,

million dollars in luxury tax fees in 2003, I'm sure you can guess the rest. I'm not going to put them out there but you know who it is. It's the usual suspects. Yes, the pirates. Yes, the Tampa Bay race. Yes, everybody. You know, what I find fascinating is the list, not to knock all of these

teams, but it's a bunch of non-playoff teams and then the Guardians. Yeah. The Guardians, man, they just find a way. Like, that roster is just stacked with talent and guys that, like, people still haven't heard of. Like nobody knows that Andres Jimenez was like a five war player last year. Yeah, right.

It's wild what the roster, what the guardians have built and the fact that a lot of people still don't really know that much about them. But going back to Jacob de Grom, we want to give a shout out to him for being a good dude. He took out a full post ad in the New York Post today thanking the Mets and their fans. It looked a little like this. Much like people say, I'm not reading all that either congrats or I'm sorry. I bet it happened. I don't think our audience members can even. No, we're not.

That's there. Anyway, you can see what it looks like. But anyway, it's nice. It's really nice. And obviously, especially when you're a player leaving a franchise that coveted you the way that the Mets coveted Jacob de Grom, it's a nice sendoff. You know, especially considering it was his choice to leave, so it's just nice to leave on a high note. Going back to what you said, yeah, that New York Mets, a Yankee series is going to be incredible. But can you imagine when the Mets play?

the Giants? That will be something. That will be something. The Giants have done a lot of swinging and missing as of late. They have. They have. Not just this off season, but it's almost a thing for them. No, they were like when Bryce Harper was a free agent.

The Giants were like, hey, we've got all this money. You know, we can bring you here. And of course, he signs with Philadelphia instead. And it's become kind of a thing. Like they tried to get Aaron Judge. He wound up signing with the Yankees. They try to get, you know, Carlos Correa. They basically have Carlos Correa.

This situation's a little different. I mean, it seems like Carlos Correa was fine playing with the Giants. But when push came to shove with some of the disagreements from a medical standpoint, there were probably still some negotiations there that could have been had. And I think there is something to be said for the fact that Correa probably chose the Mets in some ways in that situation and said, hey, if you're going to, if you're going to look at my medicals this way or, you know, if you're going to try to pay me less, I'm going to maybe even take less than your eye. offering and go play for the Mets and not have to pay as much in like state income tax, right? Like that's also a factor for a team in California.

So the Giants need to work on their pitch to like some of the big name free agents because obviously they're not doing a good job. And they're trying to get Otani next off season. Good luck. Their track record is not is not great. So. And I will say this. They at least tried.

They were in it, you know, but they didn't, they didn't end up being able to pull the trigger. I also say as the very curious person, I can't help but wonder and think about a tweet I saw, which said somewhere in Oracle Park, there's a Carlos Correa jersey that will never see the light of day. Right? The introductory press conference was that day. They were going to put a jersey on it. There was a Carlos Correa jersey. And there's one man who has a 2002 San Francisco Giants World Series T-shirt who wants that jersey. So there's some fun things happening on Twitter. But of course, the one thing that we can respect is at least that the San Francisco Giants were in on the action, right? Win or lose, you want to see your team in on the action. And that's something that at least the little tidbits of rumors about the Diamondbacks being in on some of these guys, or at least Zander Bogarts and the Trayers-Refi kept going to go on. Like most people had fun with it, right?

We definitely did. We're still not sure if we helped those rumors. They weren't actually going to sign Zander Bogarts, but don't tell me you didn't have fun with that rumor for like 24 hours at least, right? Right, it was fun. But you know what we're going to do is, Jesse, it's time for us to throw a little shade

at every other owner in Major League Baseball. Let's go. Derek's just over here rocking out. What the hell? You guys can spend as much money as Steve Cohen. Why aren't you? Jesse, I don't understand it. It's not that hard.

You just go out there and you, just spend the money, right? It's like Christmas. You're thinking too much about the gifts, right? You don't need to worry about the gifts. Just go give people money. That's all people want. You have a bad baseball team? It's not hard to fix it. Throw fucking money at it. Jesse? I mean, it's sort of like at like Target or Walmart this time of year when all of the best things have probably been picked off the shelves at this point. Steve Cohen was the guy who went in there and picked all the good stuff off the shelves. And now all of the other owners of baseball are stuck in the clearance aisle trying to figure out something for their grandma and they're in trouble yeah they're looking

at that gift card tree thing at the middle of walmart you know the one the one for people that have given up on giving good gifts right again cash is a better gift than that but he's right steve cohen has all the toys his all the hot uh holiday items and this is your fault for procrastinating you could have beat him to the punch look at the giants they tried to i'm not even throwing shade at the giants even though they have had miserable luck at landing their targets you probably should throw some the Giants. Well, Giants, you guys suck at acquiring guys. So just let me tell you that.

And I am so thankful that you suck at that because 13 years of Carlos Correa in this fucking division, we already have to deal with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman until I probably die. So why do we have to also deal with Carlos Correa? I'm actually glad you suck. But back to everybody else in MLB, you guys all suck too. There's teams that haven't even spent money on a single free agent.

What? Were you just too good last year? Milwaukee? And Miami? Get over yourselves and spend some goddamn money. That was good. Did you get it? Did you get it out?

You good? I do. I feel better, actually. So, yeah. Nicholas is making fun of my sunglasses in the comments. This is mostly directed at the diamond bags, but any of you owners would take it however you want. But yeah, that's throwing shade. So thank you guys for letting me vent.

I appreciate that. Do I still have to wear these? You have to run for the rest of the show. Yeah. And now I need some OGs, of course. And I'm sure there's a I'm sure the San Francisco Giants front office could use some OGs, right? Just something to make themselves feel better about this terrible offseason and the fact that they didn't get any of the big names that they were going out. There are no more Carlos Cray's.

There are no more Carlos Cray's sold out at every store. You could fucking call everyone. Maybe you can get a Carlos Corae on eBay, but you're going to pay five times the amount that you could have at a fucking store. So what is that? Like a billion dollars for Carlos Craya? Is that like the like the trade market in that? Yeah, basically. If you tried to trade four or something.

Yeah, if you tried to trade eight out of your nine starting players on the field, is what I'm saying. But of course, if you are an MLB owner and you need to get over your lack of moves this off season, try some OGs. They have a wide variety of flavors, doses, and strains for you to choose from. Obviously, you're going to need a big dose, probably a sleep gummy for you to be able to sleep at night thinking about all the players you missed out on. So go to your local dispensary, check out our friends at OGs. And they are all about flavoring life. So if your life is dull right now because of your lack of movement, moves, make sure to enjoy some wonderful OGs.

And again, get them at your local dispensary. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy. We thank you guys for being right here right now in the podcast or in YouTube. Thanks for being here in the podcast. Thanks for being here in the podcast. Thanks for Jesse for being here in the podcast. But he wants to leave me alone. But of course, you guys, thank you guys for being here.

We always appreciate you being here in the comments. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, make sure to do so. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. leave us a thumbs up just so Jesse can feel good about his pink glasses. If you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, subscribe to us there. If you haven't done so already, and leave us a review.

We appreciate you for doing so. We do want to wish everyone a very happy Hanukkah, very Merry Christmas, very happy holidays, whatever holiday you spend. Jesse, I know we talked about it, but here, let me take those from you. You're letting me take those off now because I can't look at you. You can't take me seriously. But do you have any family traditions during this time of the year that's kind of of maybe unique or special or anything you guys do?

No. No? Really? Well, all right. That's the show, everybody. That's the answer you were looking for, right? No, we have a few things, but they're all sort of inconsistent. We used to watch a select group of Christmas movies, pretty like same ones pretty much, pretty much every year.

Miracle on 34th Street, along with the Charlie Brown Christmas, which of course I've said is my favorite Christmas movie. I know we're going to talk about some other. Christmas movies a little bit later, which I still have not seen. One of them I have now seen, and I despise. But we'll get into that more later. We do love to look at Christmas lights. And I will say that the street that my parents live on out in Chandler is on Google Maps as like a Christmas light watching destination. Whether or not it is worthy of that designation, I will leave to the people. But for some reason, there are tour buses that go down to my parents. street every single night.

Oh my God. And I'm always just wondering like, you guys have to be pretty disappointed. Yeah, when you get to that house and see it. Like it's cool, but it's not that cool. Well, there's the nightmare before Christmas house. A lot of my friends have been taking pictures with, I have no idea where it's at. Where? Yeah.

It's like all like lit up like black lights, you know, kind of lights and has a bunch of the characters out there. Very cool thing. So I love looking at Christmas lights myself. I also have one of those like illumination places that opened up down my street from So yeah, traffic is a nightmare in my part of town all the time at night. It never stops. One of our traditions, I think I might have talked about before, but we celebrate in Puerto Rico

Three Kings Day. So we kind of brought that over here. And so, like, I never got like a stocking when I was a kid because essentially all the kind of stocking-ish stuff would come on Three Kings Day where we would leave a little shoebox out front with grass for the camels for the three wise men. And their candles eat the grass. And then they leave us little presents in the little box. So that was something that like when I was a kid, again, I think I've talked about this before.

But when I was a kid, that by far was the strangest thing we did. Like nobody knew what I was talking about when I would bring us. Were there like actual camels? Did you get to ride the camels? Jesse, no. Jesse, no. What an odd tradition. I don't understand.

How do I break this two of you guys? The three wise men aren't really real. Your parents are the three wisemen. We dump. We 86 the grass. like the camels eat it. We put the presents in the... I don't...

One day, one day you're going to grow up and we're going to be able to actually have an adult conversation. But until then, I do want to say that I love watching Christmas movies much like you and your family. And it's always a big part of the year. I love all of them.

And of course, what we decided to do was remake some of our favorite Christmas movies, at least my favorite Christmas movies. There are no... None of my favorite Christmas movies are represented here. Hey, you know, I don't know. I hope to tell you, maybe get better Photoshop skills.

But of course, here are some of our favorite Christmas movies starring some of our favorite baseball players. So, of course, here we got the remake of the classic film Home Alone, starring the Arizona Diamondbacks Outfield. That's Corbyn Carroll there as Kevin McAllister. And, of course, the two robbers trying to steal centerfield from him are Dalton Bar Show and Jake McCarthy. Ah, okay. Yeah, his little baseball analogy going on here. He's in left field right now, but he wants to be in center field. and then he's going to set up some paint cans that swing out when these two jokers try to cross over into his territory.

All right, this is a hardcore tangent, but it's a baseball-related tangent, so I feel like it's worthwhile. In a situation, all right, we're taking a hard left turn here. Let's go. In a situation where Alec Thomas is on the bench and the minors, whatever it is. He's not playing this particular day, all right? Who's playing center field? Jake McCarthy. Wow.

Jake McCarthy. Interesting. Right now, Jake McCarthy. Interesting. Tomorrow, Jake McCarthy. Not Dalton Varsho, not Corbyn Carroll. Well, you're asking tomorrow. You're asking right now.

I don't know because it depends on where I see them go. I know Jake McCarthy can play center field very well. I know Dalton Varsho can play center field very well. I would argue that Dalton Varsho plays quite a bit better of a center field than Jake McCarthy. But maybe you want Bar Show in right field, I guess. And then you want McCarthy in center. And then the D-BACs played Corbyn Carroll and left field a whole bunch last year. For now.

Yeah. Anyway. And then those guys are going to get swapped, Carol. Yeah. It still struck me as odd that you put Corbyn Carroll and left field when he's at least regard, like the best regarded defender that the Diamondbacks really have in the outfield. He's supposedly better than Alex Thomas, which is hard to believe. He has to do it first, though.

Yeah. Do it first. Which is fair. I think they kind of protected him from playing centered field last year. He played left field by and large, but we'll see what they do moving forward. Alex said, yeah, Y, T.F. because I'm not cursing on this show. I probably already did, right?

Several times. Would McCarthy play center field? Why the fuck would Markarthy? Because he does play center field. That's where he plays right now. I think I'm sort of with Alex on that. I didn't think there was a wrong answer. No.

But at least according to the defensive metrics, Jake McCarthy's a super athlete. So I would never say he can't play center field or anything. Where does he play right now? Where do those guys play right now, Jesse? I mean, like, Jake McCarthy did not play much center field last year. It was kind of like a last, like, I mean, if Dalton Varsho wasn't playing center and Alec Thomas wasn't playing center, they actually had McCarthy D-Hing a decent amount of the time when they had like three other outfielders that were ready to go. But anyway, I digress.

We can continue now with you. Thomas is a gold glover in center field. Yeah. Yeah. So this is a hypothetical where Alec Thomas is, you know, I mean, there's some questions about the bat, right? We need the bat to kind of pick up a little bit for him to return to like a starting everyday role, which I think there's a good. chance it happens but it's just sort of a thought experiment like who's your who's your next center fielder in line after alec thomas according to my god damn graphic it was corbin carroll that's how

i started this off and then you threw me off with this whole thought experiment about where they play i said that he was in center field and they were trying to steal it from him jesse all right all right god can we go on i knew he was going to make me mad during this let's go what else we got leo oh there we go A Christmas vacation. Jesse's favorite movie. This time starring Tori Lavello. As obviously the beleaguered Clark Griswold, who is trying his best

to have a very Merry Christmas, but things aren't going his way. Do you think Tori Lavello drives his family out to get a Christmas tree? And it's like singing Christmas carols and trying to like rope his kids and responding and they don't. Yes, that sounds exactly like him.

I also think Xander Bogartz was his swimming pool. Interesting. Miguel Castro is his jelly of the month club. This analogy is going way deeper than it was ever meant to ever meant to go. They're all going to be deep. We got Christmas story coming up next. Yeah, we got Christmas story with Zach Gallen. Okay, playing the role, playing the main role, right?

Because his Red Rider BB gun is a contract extension. Ah. And we don't want the Diamondbacks to shoot their eye out. I mean, the reference is lost on me, of course. Of course. I haven't seen this. But so you're saying like the plot line. Yeah.

In the movie, in the movie, there's a young man who actually wants, all he wants for Christmas is a Red Rider BB gun, which his mother doesn't want to provide him with because it's a dangerous toy. But he keeps fantasizing about himself having a Red Rider BB gun. So if you take this situation and put contract extension in there, it very much works because all he wants is a contract extension. but he's not going to get a contract extension. Do you think that's the case?

All that Gallon wants is a contract? I mean, if all that Gallen wanted it was a contract extension, he probably would have a contract extension at this point. Let's give it to. I mean, of course, I guess the numbers are also part of that. But Nicholas says who's cousin Eddie in this universe where... It's obviously Brent Strom. Okay, all right.

Glad we got that straight. It's got to be Brent Strong. I don't know. Fredstrom is not nearly that irritated. Maybe jump faster. None of them are irritating. It's just got to fit the role, Jesse. It's got to fit the role.

All right. What else we got, Leah? Oh, come on. That's perfect. Citellf? Come on. Cotelf? Let's go.

I have actually seen this one. The Photoshop work is on point. If you guys are listening on audio, you're really missing out right now. You shouldn't even be listening on audio, right? Just go back and watch this again. But yeah, Cotel. is by far my favorite Photoshop I've done. And by far, this is like the movie I want to watch of all of these the most.

This is the one that I can't wait to see just him as the elf looking for his father in New York because it's perfect. It's perfect. Okay. I have no baseball analogy there. I just want to see he can tell in the role that Will Ferrell played. That's it. The most, the best Christmas movie, though, Jesse, of course, is this one. And everybody knows that.

It's die hard. Oh, yes. Die Hard is by far the best Christmas movie. And of course, it's starring our very own action hero, Christian Walker. In this one, though, he's not killing terrorists. He's just killing baseballs and sending them over the right field wall. Ah, there you go. Oh, right field wall.

Opposite field. I like it. Okay. I like it. Why do people feel obligated to say taco after opo? Just because it rhymes. It's because it's a saying. It's a phrase.

It's a saying. It's a turn of phrase. I'm just irritated by, like the word. Taco has been hijacked because it just rhymes with so much stuff. And so people are like, Apo Taco. No, the Taco has nothing to do with the Taco.

What else has been hijacked with that it rhymes? Go. That's fair. I don't have anything else. Taco Cat is Taco and Taco backwards. So that's different. I've just heard Apo Taco so many times and it kind of makes me angry. But that's just me.

Anyway, Die Hard, the best Christmas movie. And of course, I don't care what you say, Michael. Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie. I don't care when it came out.

I don't care what it grossed. I care none of that. that. It takes place during Christmas, thus it's a Christmas movie. So, of course, and a diehard is the best Christmas movie, and a diehard membership is the best membership that you can get. Go get yourself a PhNX diehard membership right now at go phnx.com. Not only will you get to read his diehard only articles, but you will get a bevy of advantages, a bevy of discounts. You will get a free shirt or hat from the phnx locker.com. On top of that, you'll get 20% off any of your purchases over at the phnx locker.com. Access to our members-only Discord.

access to members-only content, and most importantly, those discounts translate over to our partners and our events, because coming up on January 13th is our inaugural PHNX Sports Tea Party with our friends, presented by our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company. Come down for a Sun's party and check out the entire driving range. We are renting out the entire driving range with our friends from Big Drive Energy, the PHNX Suns crew, and fellow diehards like yourself. We'll all be out there for a night of golf food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. The entry fee for diehards is $36.

You get a discount there for a foursome, it's $120. And that includes unlimited range balls, a set of rental clubs, joining us for that party, as well as one hour of free range time and golf balls at Dobson Ranch to be used at a later time. We'll have many games, including Jesse beating you and ping pong. We'll have all sorts of contest,

including long drive, putting challenges, high score and more. Lindsay will be hanging out around the heaters, and I'm sure she'll be drinking all the hot chocolate, so make sure to beat her out there for that. And, of course, there will be food and drink available for purchase, along with offerings from the PHNX Locker and our partners. There's also a free kids clinic provided for all kids tenant under. So make sure to join us for that.

Four Peaks will be out there providing beer samples and swag as well. So check the link in the description to reserve your spot now. And for our diehards, check the Discord for your special link where you'll save 20% off on this awesome event. Also, if you don't join us, Make sure to check out our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company. Wherever you get your beer, they're located all around the valley. And, of course, grab some beer, join us remotely and enjoy the wonderful variety that they have to offer.

Of course, 21 and over only for the Four Peaks Brewing Company beer and enjoy responsibly. Jesse, we have some Draft King's futures to go over. And, of course, I'm very excited about this because the Mets, the Mets kind of shifted things around. typically you're not getting the drafting sports book to move fairly quickly on this stuff, right? Because, of course, like we know, you know, you got to play the games first, right? Sure. Do you want to take any guess on the American League favorite right now? Ooh, the American League favorite right now.

I know it is either, I feel confident, it is either the Yankees or the Astros. You are correct that those are two, both of the top teams. So you're looking at a plus 275 value for the Astros, which are the favorite, and a plus 350 for the New York Yankees. I find it pretty incredible that the Astros are by far the favorite to repeat next year. I think that might be kind of a thing of them winning, right? Like we haven't played any baseball games yet. Yeah, they're sort of like the incumbent, like they have kind of an advantage in people's minds.

Right. But of course, National League favorites. Who are you going with? National Lake favorites. Probably the Mets. You don't say. Probably the Mets. Padres.

Believe it or not. It's the Dodgers. They have the Dodgers. And the Mets and Dodgers are tied with the exact same value of plus 350. Wait, so it's Dodgers number one? No, I mean, they're the exact same. It's basically a tie at number one between the Mets and the Dodgers. The exact same value right now.

So Mets and Dodgers and then Podres are after that? Yeah. Padres Braves are tied at plus 475 and then Phillies round out the top five with a plus 700 value, which is really kind of interesting to me. I don't feel like the Dodgers personally, I don't, I'm not the one that makes these odds, but I don't feel like the Dodgers have done enough to have better odds right now than the Padres in the National League. I think it's what you were just talking about with like in the American League, you know, the Astros have been there and done that. And, you know, there's just so much history there and it's just so much reliability sort of.

You know, you feel like the Astros and the Dodgers at this point are, you know, your trusty Toyota that just doesn't die, you know, like my rat four. You knew I was going to talk about it. I knew I was going to go there. Yeah, like you're going to bet on those teams if you don't have light, like unless the margin between them and other teams gets really big, right? Which I don't even, despite what the Mets have done, I don't think the gap between them and the team like the Dodgers is enormous or anything like that. Dodgers are still a really, really good team. So makes sense. A couple of funny things.

One, the St. Louis Cardinals is actually my pick. That's what I'm giving you. That's the Draft King's pick of the week. I am giving the St. Louis Cardinals come out of the National League at plus $1,200. I still believe. Wow. I still believe in the St. Louis Cardinals. I still think they're going to come out next year.

I do. It struck me how low they are. Yes. Like I would probably have the Cardinals above the Phillies, honestly, just because the Cardinals have a pretty clear path to a division title, whereas the Phillies do not. And I like their additions and what they already had versus the Phillies adding Trey Turner for a bunch of money.

The Cardinals have Wilson Contreras now, which is, I mean, obviously no longer having Yadde or Molina will hurt them as well. But I think that's a pretty significant offensive upgrade there. And they're just, I mean, they're just a really well-rounded team across the board. So yeah, I think the Cardinals are a little underrated. I don't know if I'm betting on them to come out of the National League. I am. You guys all know, Derek

has a great fantastic track record. That's right. Here's the funny thing. Astros and Yankees are still the favorites to win the World Series. And the Diamondbacks, even though they haven't done much, have gone backwards. They were a plus 4,000 to come out of the National League. Now they're

plus 5,000. And now they are plus 10,000 to win the World Series. They're plus, oh, yikes. 10,000. So they're plus 5,000 to come out of the National League plus 10,000. Yikes. Yeah. Yeah.

So if you're wondering what that means, the odds are very good. Well, it's the same thing, right? It's like the flip side to them, you know, favoring teams like the Astros and the Dodgers. So the Debacks are going to have to prove something before they're going to really start to move up on this list. I don't, again, I don't know if I would bet on the team backs to come out of the National League, even if they're a little underrated here. But, but yeah, it's going to take a while for people to buy in, despite what, of the projection numbers and whatnot have told us about this team being above 500 next year. They've got a lot to prove to actually make that happen.

Well, and it goes back to what I was saying about Corbyn Carroll. I mean, obviously Corbyn Carroll is the center fielder of the future, right? But a lot of things hang on what they're actually able to do next year, what they're able to do once they're on the field. Yeah. I still feel like internally this team believes in the players that they have far more than maybe we do, right? So it's like it's something that, again, not to dwell on the bullpen losses, but if you could take away half of those, this is a completely different team than what we saw

as far as the results were last year. But got to have a bullpen to be able to close out games. If you don't, that's just part of your team being bad. And the Diamondbacks were not great last year. I did see. I think someone asked in the comments earlier about the debacks signing a Japanese pitcher. I'm assuming they're referring to, yeah, Johnny Walker thought we were signing the Japanese picture.

I'm assuming you're talking about Shantara Fujimami, who we've talked about a little bit in the past. I think my speculation, and this is just speculation, is that the fact that the D-BACs got Scott McGuff, who has a very similar pitch arsenal, mainly a foreseen fastball splitter guy, to Shantara Fujinami might make Fujinami somewhat redundant. But I asked Mike Hazen about, like, you know, how concerned are you essentially about having a redundant pitch mix in your bullpen. And he did say ideally, you know, you would try to mix it up.

So my guess is that Fujimmy might not be a fit anymore after bringing in McGuff. But we'll see. Chris in the comments ask, how can we not dwell on the bullpen? Teach me your ways. Chris, I think about the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2020 bullpen at least once a day for five minutes every single day of my life. So I don't know how. He does. Yeah.

Sometimes I come in the office and Derek is just in the corner staring at the wall and I go over and ask him what he's thinking about. It's just still. Markmalancing. But of course, if you guys haven't done so already, download the Drap King Sportsbook app, sign up with our code of PHNX, place a $5 pregame money line bet on any NBA team to win their game.

Michael in the comments wants me to bet on the Sons again so I can do that. That's, of course, probably a better bet than betting on the Cardinals to come out of the National League. We'll see. We'll see what all said and done. But of course, if they win their game, you bet on the Suns, $5, any team, you'll get $150 in free bets if they do. That's code P.HNX only at the drafting sports book. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.

See show notes for details. Michael in the comment says they should offer the Mets Malanson for Escobar. I want to know free Eduardo Escobar. Where is he? Where is he going to play? He's not even on their depth chart right now. He had a decent year last year for them. He's not a good third baseball.

though. I liked it to the metrics yesterday and he's not a good third basement. I don't think he makes sense on the time. I don't care. Bring him back. Bring him back. Damn it. I mean, it would be, I guess, some helpful depth offensively, but yeah, I don't, I don't really, I don't really see a fit there. But you're right that Eduardo Escobar is probably on the move because the, the Mets certainly don't have a need for him anymore. Right. And the Mets are still making moves. So, of course, that wouldn't be a surprise at all. And they've gotten of themselves to a point where they really can improve their roster now by addressing other weaknesses they have. they don't really have a really deep bench, to be honest. Like, you know, I mean, there's a couple of other teams that are like that

where it's like outside of these big names that they have, you don't know the rest of their team. So it's going to be interesting to see who can add that depth and make themselves a more well-rounded, you know, monster like the Mets currently are. But of course, and we're going to be looking at this the whole time, we're going to be celebrating the holidays and we will be back tomorrow with our audio-only podcast. meantime, you can catch us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore K-Man with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 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 so much more fun when you end up

on the nice list for Santa.