PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Playoffs are set. Let's Dance!

Episode Date: October 9, 2021

On this episode, Jesse and Derek discuss the worst D-backs roster moves in franchise history as well as some positive takeaways from the 2021 season. They also dive into the excitement of the MLB playoffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX Debax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. But I might be abandoning my position this weekend forever. So we'll see. Of course, you guys, this show is brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top rated sportsbook app. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use our code of PHNX when you sign up. If you do, you will get $100 in free bets.

if you make a $1 bet on any NFL game and if they score a single point in that NFL game, which is a pretty good bet. It's a pretty good bet in case you were wondering, the last zero-zero-zero tie in NFL history was 1943. None of us probably were alive for that, so I would say this might just be a no-brainer. I, of course, am joined not only by you, our viewers and part-time listeners, but I am joined, as always, by my friend and co-host.

It's Dunderstick. Jesse Friedman. The playoffs are here, Derek. Things are getting good. Yes. Yes. Well, we talked yesterday, Jesse, about the expanded playoffs and what could be. And of course, being Arizona Diamondbacks fans and an Arizona Diamondbacks podcast,

we are always going to talk about what could have been. And later, we're going to talk about some of the worst what could have been in Diamondbacks history. But first, let's talk about the playoffs. The table is set. We are ready for MLB playoff baseball. and I feel like we have some pretty good matchups when we talk about the actual playoffs. We're down to eight teams remaining four in the AL, four in the NL. We have the Astros versus the White Sox, and we have the Red Sox versus the Rays for the AAL,

and the Braves versus the Brewers with the Dodgers facing off against the Giants. Which, again, what an incredible matchup for us National League West fans to see these two teams that have essentially been battling all season long for first place in the National League West to now be able to settle the score once and for all and have a have a series between the two of them to determine who moves on for a potential spot in the World Series. It's sort of I feel like we're kind of starting the playoffs with what could be the best series of the whole thing. I agree.

Dodgers Giants. I mean, that is that is obviously an incredible rivalry. and I don't believe it's ever happened before, which is what's so bizarre. Really? Really? I like historically. That has never. I mean, you think about it. It's, I mean, it's not super easy for two teams in the same division to wind up meeting up in the playoffs.

It's certainly possible and was possible prior to the second wild card spot becoming a thing. But it's never happened before. And so this is going to be a treat watching these two teams go at it. one team won 107 games, the other team won 106 games. Dave Roberts said it said it the other day in his press conference that this is what baseball wants. And for once in his life, I think Dave Roberts is right. Well, good knock at Dave Roberts.

First of all, sick burn. Second of all, yeah, you're right. I think it is what baseball fans want. It's what everybody wants. Essentially, right, at the end of the day, even fans, even people who aren't fans of those particular teams, they still want to see that big marquee matchup, right? And, you know, we talk about on, we talked about on the betting show a few days ago about how the, the NFL just kind of wastes that Thursday game that they have, right? Because historically, the Thursday night game for the

NFL hasn't been very good. And it's this marquee night. Usually, as far as I'm concerned, it's the first game of the week, right? It's a, you know, the week ends on with Monday night football. and then we go on to the next week and it starts with Thursday night. And it's kind of always been this garbage throwaway game, even though it's a really good spot. It really should be a marquee matchup for the league and an opportunity. Is the game still, is it still on Amazon Prime? Oh, no.

Wasn't that a thing for a while? That was totally a thing. I mean, I think they even had it. I could be wrong. I thought they had it on YouTube, but you might be referencing, it might have been the Amazon Prime thing that you're referencing, right? Yeah, I mean, they've just tried different things.

and none of it's been a big hit with that game outside of like tonight's game, which is, or I'm sorry, last night's game, which was a Seattle Seahawks versus the Rams, which seemed like one of the biggest games of the entire first five weeks so far. So it's it was a big, you know, it's a big opportunity. And I think really what it comes down to is we want on a big stage to see big teams perform against each other. But if you're giving us the Jaguars versus the Bengals, nobody's going to tune into that, even if it's the only game on, which might be more of their thought process.

Like, let's force everybody to watch this because of, you know, because we know nobody wants to watch it. The matchups that we're getting this off season are kind of incredible, right? We had the Red Sox versus the Yankees in a one-game playoff. Now we have- That was pretty cool. Now we have Red Sox versus the Rays and Dodgers versus the Giants. And that's no knock to the Astros, White Sox, Braves, or Brewers. It's just those two games, those two series, the Red Sox and the Rays and the Dodgers and Giants seem like I don't want to miss a minute of any of those games. Yeah, I mean, this is fun, right?

I mean, this is something that is sort of what we live for in baseball, right? This is October baseball. The time has come. Sadly, our Diamondbacks are not here with us, but I don't think we're necessarily very shocked at that. One thing I did think was pretty funny is, last night, or I guess I should say Wednesday night, depending on when when people are listening to this, Wednesday night when the Dodgers and the Cardinals played and Chris Taylor hit the walkoff home run, the Dodgers won the game.

I tweeted out from our PHNX DBAX DBAX account. All right, DBAX fans who you got in the NLDS. And our fans are, I mean, they know what's up, Derek. I think they are spot on with the odds right now. They say the Giants, 87% of them take the Giants. in the NU.S compared to 13.5% for the Dodgers. So for all you listening out there, you get it. I am proud that our audience is so well informed.

Hell yeah. And that's not at all pettiness or bitterness or any of the BLA-ness that's ingrained in all of us. It has nothing to do with it, nothing at all. It simply has, you know, honestly, I think Diamondbacks fans at the end of the day can see themselves in what's happened with the job. Giants, right? We probably aren't going to be the team that's picked to win the National

League West at least any time in the foreseeable future. And we might not be in that position for a very long time. The fact that this team, this Giants team that won or was predicted to win, you know, 84 games, 82 games, did the unthinkable with the roster they had. They came together. They played great baseball all season long. consistently and they won more games than they ever have in team history. You're talking about a prestigious team that's won several World Series and has been good now for the last, it feels like the last 20 years. Like they take a year off here or there when they're, you know, not good, but with all the

credit we give the Dodgers for being a consistently good team, the Giants deserve an equal amount of credit by far. They have, you know, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, got to a point where it was a joke that the Giants won the World Series every even year, right? Like every even year was the Giants year. They got over it. They got over it. This is a big move for them. This is a big move, an odd year, right? But it really does come down to it being the matchups that we want to see, right? And we, we didn't want to really see the Dodgers get knocked out in a one game against the Cardinals, even though

that would have just been delicious. We wanted to see them face off against the Giants in this first round and if that happened, we knew it was going to be an exciting matchup. At this point, covering the Diamondbacks and all of baseball, you almost have to root for what's good for baseball, right? And in this case, I think these big matchups, these rival matchups of, you know, division rivals facing off in the, in the divisional series are huge and they're very good, very, very good for baseball. Let's not forget. I mean, I know we talked about this with Benjamin Christensen in the other day.

On the flip side, some of those small market matchups can be pretty great too. I mean, we just watch the Sons and the Bucks play one of the best NBA finals that has ever happened in my personal opinion. So,

yeah, I don't want to get too starry-eyed over the Dodgers Giants thing. I mean, I think the Braves and Brewers is an intriguing matchup. The Brewers are a sneaky pick to maybe come out of the National League.

The Dodgers and Giants might beat up on each other so much that we'll see what they have left over once they get once whichever team wins gets on to the next round. Yeah. But the Brewers, I mean, they're sneaky, man. I mean, Corbyn Burns has had an unbelievably good season. A lot of people are picking him to win the Scy Young Award. The Braves without Ronald Acuna have a severe, I mean, obviously such a big part of their

organization. So I think that's going to be tough for them to overcome. But, I mean, they've done it. I mean, they've won 88 games this season. they're certainly a formidable team. The Rays are sort of in the American League, the model for what we dream of the Diamondbacks becoming someday. And they just continue to dominate despite spending basically less money on their team

than anyone else in baseball. It's remarkable what the Rays do year after year. And seeing them against the Red Sox, you know, J.D. Martinez, hopefully able to get healthy again. Hopefully we see him at some point. The Red Sox are a fun team. team up and down. Chris Sale is back. There's a lot of fun storylines going on in the playoffs that I'm looking forward to seeing

what happens here. I think I answered this question the other day, but I'm not sure if we got your answer on it. And I guess the question to formulate it in a little bit clear of a fashion is, would you take, would you rather take the Tampa Bay raise, I guess years of being competitive and good, even though they still haven't reached the pinnacle? over the Diamondbacks quick success. What would you as a fan

prefer? Are you talking about like 2001, like their quick success? Yeah, let's just, I mean, literally, let's just talk about what these two teams have done. Would you take flip-flopping the Diamondbacks history with the raise and have, because, you know, I've talked about that stupid

goddamn book I hate so much, Jesse. I'd scream at Bob Page in his face. if I could about it. But it's got some great information in it. And that's what I always end this talking about how much I hate it. I will say, though, that, you know, there was a plan at one point for the Diamondbacks to try to set their course very similar to what the raise have done, right? Trying to be competitive, trying to find young, exciting players that aren't going to break the bank that you can develop and you can either draft or trade into your system and try to

build this team slowly from within, but get to a point where you might, like, I don't know, it's like a garden, right? Like some people get really impatient with their garden and then they look over and they see their neighbor's garden and they want their garden to look like their neighbor's garden. But that garden took time. He was patient. He cared. He waters it every day. He puts work into it. It's not instantly fulfilling. It's one of those things that with time will be fulfilling. It's with time that garden will be beautiful. But you have to put the work in. I almost felt like the Diamondbacks were that jerk that just has a bunch of money that goes and like, like hires someone to put a bunch of pretty flowers and stuff in their garden.

But then they refuse to water it and take care of it and add extra topsoil and mulch and fertilizer to it year after year to keep it looking beautiful and to maintain it, right? The Tampa Bay Rays still might not have had their garden bloom yet, but they've been doing the kind of stuff that we as their neighbors, because we are always going to be joined at the hip as expansion teams are kind of looking over that fence now going, well, they took their time with their guard. It looks really pretty, right?

And that's what I think. I mean, Jerry Colangelo knew what he was doing. And, you know, he knew this city very well sports wise. But it still begs the question, were they just too impatient with making sure that they grew this team really fast and were a winner so that they would submit? meant people as fans of this team. It doesn't really feel like they've really cemented a lot of fans to this team by having

that early quick success. You know, I feel like people now just pine for the old days and they want this purple and teal back, just like I do all the time. And, you know, they want the team to spend a much money on high price free agents that hasn't worked out for other teams,

you know, hasn't worked out for this team. You know, you can throw all the money you want at a problem. but it's not how much you spend, it's how you spend it, right? And we're going to talk about the worst, the absolute worst roster moves in DBAX history. And trust me, we are going to talk about spending some money. But I want to tell you about spending some money.

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And Jesse, again, just a reminder, we have some great content. You just posted an article about some positive takeaways from the Arizona Diamondback season. I wanted to talk about that a little bit. we know what, I always end things on a negative note. You tell me I'm negative all the time. So we're going to get the negativity out of the way. But first, again, you can read Jesse's articles. You can read our piece on the coaches that were let go, as well as my upcoming report card on the Arizona Diamondbacks,

all on go-PhNX.com. You can sign up for a membership, either an annual membership, which will get you a free t-shirt on the P-HNX Locker, on ph-nx locker.com. Or you can get yourself a month-to-month membership. And you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. A little trial offer for you to see if you like what we have going on. If you are a fan of Arizona sports, I promise you, you will not leave.

You will stick around. You'll become part of our family. You'll listen. You'll join the Discord, which I forgot to talk about last night. But the Discord, of course, that I always have to pronounce this way just to make my friend Joshua Schlagg furious. But the Discord that we talk about sports with all of our other PHNX family members. get away out from the BS on social media and all the trolls. Or again, you know, come be the troll of our discord if that's what you want to do with your life,

whatever you want to do. Or don't. Or don't. But join the family with an annual membership or a month-to-month membership now. We cannot appreciate enough. Jesse and I, not only do we love doing this with each other, but we love doing this for you guys. We love being a part of this community. And I think doing this five times a week seems like a daunting task.

at times, yet now it has become my favorite time of the day. It's when I get to sit here with Jesse, who I keep pointing to this side, but really you're on this side of me. So let's do that. And, you know, we can't see you anyway right now. Right. Oh, yeah, that's right. It doesn't matter which side I point to because you guys can't see it.

This is an audio-only podcast, and even I forget that. But Jesse, I want to talk about some of the worst transactions, worst roster moves in DVAC's history. It was a topic that we had this week when I was a guest on the Phoenix Sports show of the PHNX show over on our main account. We just talked worst roster moves in Arizona sports history. So I was tasked with coming up with the worst roster moves in DBACs history. For me, three clearly stood out as the worst roster moves in DBACs history.

Number one, of course, as I discussed, was Yasmani Tomas. By far, the worst move. There's so many things you could say about other moves this team has made. And I will tip my cap to all of them. I mean, we could do a top 10 list of the worst moves this team has made. Yasmani Tomas will still sit at number one for me, simply because it's still just such a crazy gamble to pay an unproven player as much money as they did, $68.5 million plus fees for acquiring a Cuban player.

So there was additional money that wasn't paid to Yasmani, but that the Diamondbacks had to pay, pay in order to acquire. him and Yon Lopez, right? So this team basically followed a fad at the time in baseball of signing unproven, unsigned Cuban talent hot on the heels of Yassil Puig and all of his success. And they really threw a ton of money at a guy that they had no business throwing money out of or at. Obviously, it's debatable because I know everybody's number two.

is probably the Shelby Miller trade or that's probably even people's number one, right, is the Shelby Miller trade. Jesse, I thought that that was one of the worst trades in history until I heard you eloquently on this podcast, lay it down for me, and honestly put it in a way that made a lot of sense based on Dansby Swanson's current production that we can see.

And to be honest, nobody should really be blown away. way by, right? Because he's not doing anything that's like, oh my God, I can't believe we don't have this guy as a player on our team and should. The story of the Shelby Miller trade is, is a whole lot more about Shelby Miller in my mind than it is about Danesby Swanson. Because if Shelby Miller had just been the same guy that he was in Atlanta, the diamondbacks probably would have not regretted that trade in the slightest. I mean, the diamondbacks were really good in 2017. Shelby Miller was still on the roster at that point. If he had made that

team even better, I mean, that's a, that's a good move. I mean, Dan Svyswanson is a good major league baseball player, right? He at 27 home runs this year. He is by no means a slouch of a shortstop to have in their lineup every day. But he's also not a superstar. And he may not really ever be an all star either. He's, he's sort of a top 15 sort of shortstop at this point and not a whole lot more than that. So obviously the optics of the deal were bad. And I think there's still something to be said for, you know, even if this had worked out for the diamond backs, there's still something to be said for like getting the full value of your players at the time that you trade them. And even if this had worked out, I think the diamond backs probably could have and should have gotten more if they're trading

the number one overall pick in the draft, you know, shortly after they, shortly after they acquired him. But yeah, my point on this deal is just that if Shelby Miller had actually pitched just similarly, even if he had regressed slightly, if he was just a solid major league starter for three seasons, we wouldn't be looking at that trade as an absolute disaster. Danesby Swanson would be, you know, we would miss him, but we'd also recognize that Shelby Miller was a really good piece during an important stretch of Diamondbacks baseball. And Eder and Ciarte sort of fell off a year or two after the deal. there really aren't any other pieces in that trade that have wound up being, you know, significant assets for the Atlanta Braves. You know what I compare this to is I compare this to the knee-jerk reaction we have when I honestly say it all the time and other people do about how many players really have left this team to go on to be great. Yeah, that's the other myth that I've debunked. I'm all about debunking myths here, Derek.

Well, because it just becomes this weird, it becomes a weird part of. of the team's history, but no one really does take the time like you did to just stop and question it, right? Like, yeah, okay, all these Diamondbacks pitchers leave here to go be great. Okay. Who? Name them, right? Yeah.

I think, I think what I've seen is I've seen them leave and be better for a short period of time. We saw Taiwan Walker and Robbie Ray recently, which that probably sticks out more and it makes makes it seem like there's been more. Wade Miley was good for a little bit when he left and he was with the Reds, but Wade Miley still had his ups and downs, and he was still probably about as good or as serviceable as a pitcher as he was when he was here. But he just, he looked really good for a minute with the Reds.

Just like Taiwan Walker looked really good for a minute with the Mets. The difference here is really Robbie Ray, who they probably gave the most leeway to or the most time to try to develop him into being a great pitcher, you know, he's the one that left and now for one season at least did it consistently. Still, that's just one season. The Diamondbacks have given plenty of guys, big contracts just because they were good for one season. And that still doesn't mean that Robbie Ray is going to completely turn it around and now be consistently one of the best pitchers in baseball every season. That still remains to be seen. The first year he left,

he still wasn't that good. It's really just been this year with the Toronto Blue Jays that he has really looked like he is a completely different pitcher than when he was here. But who knows? It's just one season, right? Jake Lamb was good for one season. Don't forget that, folks.

But I wanted to get your thoughts on who you think, outside of those two, who the third worst roster move in DeBack's history would be. Would you agree that those are your top two? Um, Tomas and the Shelby Miller deal. Yeah. I don't know. Um, I mean, the Shelby Miller trade looks really bad because Shelby Miller was not a serviceable major league starter.

Um, and I, I don't know if that's as much that it was, as I said before, as much that it was a bad trade as much as just Shelby Miller for whatever reason, just couldn't really pitch when he got here. Um, there are a couple other moves that come to mind. Uh, the diamond backs once traded a man named Max Scherzer far, far too early. in his career. And that still, that still is painful. I mean, I mean,

he is a first ballot hall of famer. I mean, he is one of the best pitchers on the planet. That is the level that we're at with Max Scherzer. And a lot of people probably don't remember the return for that deal. The Diamondbacks got Ian Kennedy in that trade for Max Scher, which for a year, that actually looked like,

it actually looked like a good trade. Max Scherzer was, was solid in Detroit, but he wasn't an ace yet. Ian Kennedy was an ace. He became an ace for sure. Yeah. Yeah, he had a sub three ERA,

won 211 games in 2011. It looked like a smart move. And then a couple years later, Ian Kennedy was relegated to the bullpen and Max Scherzer continues to be a Hall of Fame level talent to this day. Obviously, the Diamondbacks wouldn't have been able to pay Max Scherzer when the time had come. We would have lost him probably at the peak of his career

and probably would have been just equally as mad. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we would have had him up until when he left. Yeah, we would have had him up until when he left Detroit. And frankly, he had some great seasons in Detroit. That's when he started coming into his own. But when you think of the dominant Max Scherzer, you're thinking of him as a Washington national.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, which he wouldn't have been here anyway. The other move I want to bring up, Derek, which might come as sort of a shock because it's very under the radar. But the Diamondbacks made an enormous, enormous mistake in my view, when Dave Stewart was here as the general manager. Shocking, shocking that this happened under his regime. But the Diamondbacks went out and they signed a guy named Yohan Lopez to an international contract.

Yeah. And it was two years. I think it was, I want to say it was 16 million altogether that they put on his contract, which initially doesn't seem like a huge deal, right? He wasn't a great pitcher, but, you know, it's pretty small numbers. So what? The problem is in doing that, the way that the international signing rules work, the Diamondbacks were unable to sign an international player for two seasons after that above, I think it was $300,000.

That was the most they could spend on any one player over that two-year span. And the international market is very, very important for a team like the Diamondbacks that's not going to spend a lot of money. That's where they got Christian Robinson. That's where they got Jazz Chisholm. those are guys that the diamondbacks have actually really hit on at least we hope so right hopefully christian robinson's able to figure things out and get back over here that's a whole other conversation and hopefully jess chish chisholm isn't too good to make us regret trading yeah right right

that is well that is well but that's a really important market for the diamond backs to be engaged in and they counted themselves out effectively for two years just because they signed joan lopez there was this whole scandal i think dave stewart wife was his agent it was it was it was was an enormous mess, but that was just irresponsible. And I wanted to talk about that because I thought when you were going to bring it up, you were going to say one of the worst roster moves ever was just Dave Stewart in general. And I mean, there's an argument to be made there too. I'm glad you alluded to that, though, because that was something that I was getting bits and pieces of at the time. But Dave Stewart's wife wasn't just an agent for Yohn Lopez. Apparently, she was an agent for several

Diamondbacks players who were in their, who were in their minor league system, who got called up questionably early at times while Dave Stewart was in charge of this team, right? So you had a lot of ulterior motives and ulterior interest involved when Dave Stewart was here. And I just can't help but think when I think of, because Yasmani was under Dave, Dave Stewart, right? You know, Young Lopez, they were both the same kind of situation where, yeah, you're right. They were looking heavily at the, at the international market. But it wasn't just those restrictive rules, like I said earlier. They also had to pay money for

acquiring those players, right? Like some sort of rights that they had to pay on top of the salary that they agreed to with the player themselves. So they lost, they invested a ton of money in both of those guys and it's an absolute loss. Now, Yes, Mani Tomas

is in the nationals system. He's hitting 185 with their AAA Rochester team. Really? I didn't even know that. Yon Lopez is with the Atlanta Braves. right now. So he might, I don't know if he's in their minor league system

or if he's on their actual playoff roster. But he was a guy that, of all, I mean, there was a lot of hype around him. At one time, certain Diamondbacks players were saying that he was the future closer of this team and that he just had

an intangible quality that a lot of relief pitchers and closers didn't have. He had that mean streak. You know what I mean? He was like, he got out there and he was like, he was a scare. very pitcher, you know, he's a big dude, strong, muscular. I mean, but, you know, you, you, you, you, you talk about that. And you also, it makes me think he also had domestic, uh, domestic dispute, arrest or at least an issue with that. There were a lot of problems around Yon Lopez. And there was just a lot of problems around a lot of the roster decisions made under the Dave, uh, Stewart regime. And it was, it was tough to watch. I respect the hell out of Dave Stewart as, as a player, you know, and so to see someone like that come in,

and do such a poor job. It's kind of like the way that Tony LaRusa, when he was a part of this organization, really, you know, disappointed me. He's a legend to me, man. I mean, as a kid growing up, it's Tony, it's TLR, right? It's like this dude was supposed to be like one of the most brilliant minds in baseball, you know?

All right. I have one more. I have one more for you, Dave. Oh, can I give you one more? Yes, please. All right. So, so you, the more we talk about Dave Stewart, the more that's coming to my mind.

Do you remember when the Diamondbacks traded away, they essentially dumped Bronson and Royo's contract on the Atlanta. And as part of it, they traded away Tuki Toussaint, who is one of their best pitching prospects at the time. I don't know if Tuki Tucson is going to win a Cy Young at some point in this career. But, but I mean, that is just, that is just something that no major league team would do, right? Like no one does that. You do not dump contracts.

You don't get to a point where you're so desperate to dump a contract. you're willing to trade away a top prospect in order to do it. It's just not the way a team needs to run. Yeah. Not to mention the Bronson, a Royal signing was supposed to be some second coming of Christ for our, like, you know,

our, our starting rotation. And it didn't, didn't even seem like that at the time. Like, it's like, he hardly pitched. He hardly pitched for them.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Oh, man, it's been frustrating. And I know how it is to be frustrated, but I'll tell you this much. Don't let your partner be frustrated with you.

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I love this. I love all the gizmos and the gadgets on the lawnmower 4.0, but more than anything, I appreciate the fact that I'm not leaving with Knicks, cuts, scrape, snags, tugs, all of that stuff when it comes to my delicate strike zone. Jesse, I got to protect my balls and my strikes. So this package also comes with a weed whacker. I keep warning Jesse how old he's going to get one day. He doesn't believe me. He thinks he's going to be young forever. but one day nose hair, ear hair, they're just going to start spraying out of his face.

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You got all sorts of liquid formulations, the crop preserver, ball deodorant, crop reviver, ball toner. Again, me and Jesse have to have all sorts of questions, conversations about what you would need ball toner for. But Jesse, I'm going to Las Vegas this weekend. There's a good chance you may never see me again. I'm going to a reggae festival, a two-day reggae festival in Las Vegas. might change me as a person both morally and physically.

So we'll see what happens. But you know what I am going to do? I'm going to be taken. I'm going to be taking my lawnmour 4.0 with me in my handy little travel bag that they sent me just to make sure that I'm taking care of my field, whether it's in a road game or a home game. You know what I'm saying?

And also, please, please go to draftkings.com or draft king. I keep saying draftkings.com. That is not at all where you want to go. Go get the draft king's sportsbook app. wherever you download apps for your phone. I have my iPhone somewhere. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty panicky right now that I can't see it. But you get on your phone, download the Draft King Sportsbook app.

Use our code of PHNX and simply for betting $1 on any NFL game. You will get $100 in free bets as long as that particular NFL game. The teams score one point, one point. So again, that's probably going to happen because the last zero-zero tie was in 1943. So jump on the Drafking Sportsbook app, the official sports betting partner of the NFL, and use our code. Jesse, before we go, before we wrap this week up, let's end it on a high note. Let's end with some positivity. You have a brand new article up on go phtnx.com, which people can sign up for, get that year membership or the month-to-month membership.

And you talk about some positive takeaways from this deback season. So without giving away your article, giving it away for free, can you tell us, can you give us some positivity, some things that we should be happy about now that the season is over. The biggest ones, yeah, I talked about five different things, the Diamondbacks that are positive takeaways from a season that offered very few of them in the scheme of things. But I was able to dig deep enough to find five of them. And the one I want to talk about here on the show is the Diamondbacks had a really good

season in the minor leagues, which is something that we often, we often don't really see all of the work that goes into that. You've probably heard the Diamondbacks have a top, you know, one of the best farm systems in baseball. That's something I think a lot of Diamondbacks fans are aware of. But more than more than that, what you have to do if you have a top farm system is you have to develop and you have to get players from one level to the next. You have to keep them moving.

We've seen time and time again. The Diamondbacks have top prospects that just didn't really advance in the organization or when they did, they just weren't really ready for it. And from that standpoint, I think the Diamondbacks had one of the best seasons that they've ever had. We saw guys taking enormous strides in their minor league careers throughout the season. And even a guy like Luis Frius. I mean, Louise Frius was the opening day starter for the Hillsborough Hops, which is a single A baseball team. He went all the way from starting being a starter for the Hillsborough hops.

He then advanced to Amarillo. he then advanced to Reno and before the end of the season we saw him here in the major leagues. That's four different levels of play. That's a quick progression. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it's impressive. And he has major league stuff. He's just not, like we said, when we saw him in some of those performances and relief,

he still just can't, he still can't corral it in. You know, he's still having problems locating that tribe zone. His command was all over the place. But man, when you see his stuff, it's electric. And it just comes out of his hand like nobody else on the team right now. And the list goes on of other guys. I mean, Alec Thomas is the name we've talked about a lot on here. Following a weird 2020 where he was at the alt site, there was no minor league season.

He was incredible this year in AA and AAA and AAA should be ready to go next year. And there's more and more and more, especially on the pitching prospect side. The Diamondbacks have had so many guys who are at AA. Some of them are in AAA. Derek, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. and and it is exciting. I mean, a lot of these guys really have potential. And this year, they really took big strides forward

and it might not be too long before we see them here in the big leagues. What's the most important thing the debacks have to do at this point just to make sure that they don't ruin this? Huh, that they don't ruin this. Is it just be patient? Is that really the key here at this point with this team being as good as it could be potentially? Is it just about them being patient?

I think one of the things that Mike Hazen said in his presser the other day that really stuck out to me is he mentioned the team was going to be more willing to go with guys in bullpen roles early on in their careers. This is something the organization has been pretty hesitant to do. If a guy comes up through the minors as a starting pitcher, the diamondbacks usually try to keep them in that role once they crack the major league roster. And for a lot of guys, it just hasn't really worked. they just haven't really been able to sustain a job as a starter just yet. And I think that's in a lot of ways, not for everyone, but I think for a lot of guys, that's a good thing.

I think for Luis Frius, it's great, right? I mean, he still has potential as a starter, but we see his stuff. And I mean, he could be a pretty darn good bullpen arm immediately. And I think for a lot of guys, it's good to just build up that confidence in a role that they can, that they can really handle. And then down the road, you know,

if you want to revisit being a starting pitcher in this, league you've got some experience and you've got your feet under you a little bit more. I'll tell you this much. You have an exciting opportunity to see some of these guys. If you're here in Arizona, this fall with the Arizona Fall League, Slate Sazoni, Kegan Curtis, Mitchell Stumpo, Shumpay Yokasawa are all right-handed pitchers. Some fun names in there, huh? Yeah, there really is. I like Slate Zazone. That's good. But Cooper Hummel is going to be on the Salt River Rafters as well. Buddy Kennedy and Dominion.

can zone. So a lot of players from the Arizona Diamondback system that are, you know, especially those pitchers, right? So Sony, Curtis, these are names that you've heard quite a bit if you've paid attention to their top 10 prospects. So this is going to be the first chance, I think, to, not the first chance, but a great chance for you to see them. I mean, without, we didn't have minor leagues. We didn't have Fall League last year. So it's going to be great. If you're a fan of MLB baseball and you're fan of the young players, which it's really great. And I can't say enough about how exciting it is to come out and check out the Arizona Fall League.

But it's going to be back in action starting on October 13th. And there's six teams all comprised of players from Major League Baseball's, you know, essentially finishing. It's the finishing school for their game's top prospects. So again, if you're here, if you live here in Arizona, which I like to call baseball Nirvana, you absolutely have a great chance this fall. once all these playoffs are done to keep watching baseball here locally. So do that because 17 of MLB's top 100 prospects are slated to be a part of the fall league.

So you're going to get to see some great, great players out there. It's wild, man. You can get so close. Like not that many people go to Fall League games. It's still like the best secret in Arizona at some point. I mean, we've had running gags with players, some friends of mine. Like we're like throwing guys a ball with questions on it and having them answer the question. and throw it back.

It's like spring training. You just can't get that same experience, I think, during the season or during the postseason. If you're a pro wrestling fan, if I've somehow influenced you to come listen to this podcast, it's kind of like the difference from going to a big WWE arena show versus going to like my favorite, like a small luchador show in a strip mall, right?

I'm going to meet every wrestler at the strip mall, luchador show. I'm going to get pictures with them. They're going to sign stuff. I'm going to buy t-shirts directly from them that they personally paid money to print up. You're not going to get that same experience going to a WWE show. And it's what I equate the minor leagues and the fall league two versus going to the big baseball games. But also spring training is so great.

It's also great. And we get to experience it all between next regular season. Well, you do. I do. Jesse's going to be in Seattle, being sad and cold all winter long. But I'm going to be here with the beautiful weather, being happy. you guys can follow us on social media if you want to keep up with what we're doing please check out jesse's article on those takeaways from the devac season and you could get those on go p hnx.com again a couple of different membership options for you and if you find one that tailors you better than the other we strongly suggest you go with it and we thank you for supporting us again you can get me on twitter at cap underscore caveman with a k Jesse is at jesse and freeman but of course, all roads lead to P-HNX under course sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You can also subscribe to us on all of your favorite podcasting apps. Again, give me suggestions. Still looking for suggestions on what I need to download. But please sign up, leave us a five-star review. And if you're interested in watching the live shows on YouTube and you're in Arizona sports fan, we're cranking out content all day, all week long. so please subscribe to our YouTube channel, hit the little bell thing, it'll notify you, I guess.

I don't really know. I'm not familiar with technology. I don't even know how I produce this podcast by myself. It's a miracle every single week, every single episode, that Jesse and I get this thing done, that I'm running the show. So we can't thank you guys enough

for being part of this family, the PHNX family with us, and mostly being part of this baseball family. We're small. There's not a lot of us, so we need to stick together. But thank you guys again. And remember kids,

Baseball is fun, but it's also really, really fun when you bet on it.