PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The World Series heads to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Halloween, which is terrifying for the Astros

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

The World Series is all tied up and is about to get spookier on Halloween for the Astros and the Phillies in the City of Brotherly Love. Meanwhile, Framber Valdez isn’t feeling the love after accusations about his grip in game two have surfaced.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.

Justifiably in a position I'd rather not be in, but the cream will rise to the top. Oh, yeah, welcome on in to the PHNX D-BACs podcast. My name is the macho man, Derek Montia. This guy over here is beer, and we are here, of course, to bring you the finest D-BACs Halloween coverage in the world, brother. Oh, yeah, dig it. I can't keep this voice up very long, Jesse, but of course, we welcome you. standing right behind me, isn't he's back there. I knew it. Hi. Happy Halloween, everybody. Welcome

on it. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Yes, this is Leah's beer app, but for today, Jesse is beer. Jesse, and Leah is here, of course. Leah is also beer. Leah's going to be beer later, but thank you so much for coming in. Of course, there she is. I am beer. She is beer. Thank you guys for being here. Happy Halloween to you all. 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 on how. I know you want me to ask, so I'll ask, what, who are you? What do you mean? Who am I?

I'm the Tower of Power, too sweet to be sour. Funky like a monkey. Let's go. Space is the place, brother, dig it. Oh, yeah. I'm the macho man, Randy Savage, Jesse. And you once again disappoint me in ways that I can't even verbalize on this show. I've been trying to ask him for like an hour now.

He refuses to answer the question. He just keeps doing the voice. And I'm like, Derek, that doesn't actually help me. I was listening to Poppin circumstance. And he was like, did you graduate? Are you, he didn't get it. Poppin circumstance is also stuck in my head now. For the rest of the day, that's the point.

Yeah. Dig it. We are here to talk about the World Series, a world series that is now tied, Jesse Friedman. Of course, my prediction is now dead in the water. But I still don't know about the Phillies and how likely they are to keep coming back from these big deficits. One thing we did talk about in the chat texting each other was that, no lead really does feel safe when it comes to the Phillies.

And you have to credit them for their ability to have these multiple big comebacks in the playoffs like they've had. It really doesn't feel like to us as people watching it that they're ever out of it. And I'm sure to them it doesn't feel like they're ever actually out of it. Yeah, I mean, the Phillies have been doing this the whole postseason, right? They're the team that just like won't go away. Yeah. They've had a number of these storylines going way back to when they were facing the St. Louis Cardinals

in the wildcard round. They had an incredible comeback in the ninth inning of one of those games. So, yeah, the Phillies have been doing this, the entire postseason pretty much. And I know that a lot of people, I think in that in that first game of the World Series, once the Astros went up 5-0, it was like, okay, this is sort of a reality check for like where these two teams are actually at. And then sure enough, we talked about Justin Verlander and how he's really struggled in the World Series in his career. He was cruising for three or four innings of that game. And then, sure enough, the wheels just came off for him. And Justin Verlinder wound up giving it five runs in that game.

And the Phillies ultimately win it in extra innings, courtesy of J.T. Real Muto and a very, very clutch home run from him in the tent. It's been impressive to watch this team. And again, I've kind of joked about their payroll and such. But really, at the end of the day, these guys are extremely good. And if anything, they've been underachievers up to this point. Hamped by injuries at times and just where this team couldn't all be on the field together. at the same time. But, you know, they've, they've shown that they are, in fact, the All-Star team that we thought they were when Philly started putting these pieces together.

Yeah. Acquiring Real Muto, requiring Bryce Harper, all these guys that they brought in. It looked like they were going to be a team similar to what we see in the N.O. West, just out in the east. And it hasn't worked out for them prior to this. But now they look, they look like they're pretty solid. And this looks like it's going to be an exciting World Series. Let's be honest. I mean, Houston once again dominated in game two, but there was no big comeback, even though, again, it even felt like late, like things were kind of falling into lines for a possible Phillies comeback. Well, because the Astros stop scoring runs. Again, they score their runs early. And so anytime you do that, you're kind of keeping the door open for a team like the Phillies to come back.

But they only had two runs in them on Saturday. So not enough there. Not without controversy, though. Of course. Framber Valdez, terrible name. Controversy in the Houston Astros. Imagine that. Imagine that. Imagine once you become a cheater that you like are branded that for the rest of your time.

But for Ambervaldez, grip has come into question by a lot of people. There was a video, a couple of videos that circulated a bit just showing him kind of like wiping stuff in his hand and in his glove, wiping of his forehead and then touching him stuff. It's kind of ridiculous. Like I'm not defending the man because I have no idea if he was using anything, you know, a sticky, substance or not, right? But it's just when the umpire checks you after every single half inning that you come off the mound. I mean,

I don't know how you pull something. I don't know how you pull this, this sophisticated cheating. There was a video circulating of the umpire checking his right hand, not his left. Oh. I don't, yeah, I think, I think that's what it was because Valdez is left handed, of course. So maybe the umpire was like checking the wrong hand or something. But there's, I mean, that's just a conspiracy theory at this point, unless you want to believe that the umpires are like full on, you know, here to defend the Astros throughout the series.

I don't think anything like that is happening. It's just, it used to be so much more blatant and it still was let go, right? Like, you would see stuff on guys' hand. You would see them smearing maybe something across their face that constituted that there was something also on their hand or whatever, right? Like, this is just, I don't know. I mean, I get it. Again, it's Houston.

So you're always just going to throw random accusations at them. But again, attack the stuff. man's first name, not his grip. It makes me think of Caleb Smith, really is what it makes me think of, because someone in our asked us about our scariest debacks moments, and I almost put this in there, when Caleb Smith was accused of having sticky substance on his glove and was subsequently suspended, I thought he was going to kill that empire. I really did. I thought he was at least going to fight that man. And the one thing about it that made me feel for Caleb was, that that's how I feel like I would react if I was accused of cheating when I wasn't doing it.

Sure. You know what I mean? Like sometimes you see these guys that they get popped for a sticky substance and they take it way too calmly. They just go off to the dugout or whatever. And it's like, yeah, that's a man that got caught, right? Me, no way. I'm not going out without a fight. I'm going to let you know that you were wrong about it.

Then, now, later, it's forever. I'm going to always let you know that I was not cheating. So I don't know. but Houston evens the series up and now things go back to Philadelphia which is going to be a raucous crowd tonight on Halloween. Yeah.

Good luck. Yeah. Good luck. You ain't getting the city of brotherly love tonight. Let me tell you that right now. Because Houston's crowd was suspiciously, oh, Newman's here. Newman is here.

Everybody here, Newman here. Cheers to him's dog. And he's dressed up like a shark. It's because it's shark week. It's shark week. We know that. We tell you guys that all the time here. But of course,

The Astros crowd has been talked about being very, very subdued, very quiet crowd during the World Series. Apparently, not exactly the amount of energy that they were expecting out of a home crowd in the World Series. And I guess that's going to be quite the change between the first two games and tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever happens tonight, it's going to be ugly. I mean, especially just given that it's Halloween. And so people are just going to be hyped up.

of all the more wearing their costumes and whatnot. It's going to be a blunt bath in Philadelphia tonight. Could you imagine me in the stands dressed like this? I'd be a madman. You would literally be a lunatic. Absolutely. And yet I don't think you're going, you would be nearly as mad as Philly's fans will be tonight. I know.

I'm a nice guy. I've seen several articles circulating like kind of trying to sort of defend the Astros in some ways, like at least making the case that they don't deserve what's coming to them tonight and over the next few days in Philly. like kind of a take it easy sort of a mindset, which I understand, like, the guys who perpetuated the cheating that happened in Houston a few years ago, by and large, are no longer in the organization. The mastermind was Carlos Beltron, right?

Sure. It's like Breggman and Altuve left, basically. Yeah, and Altuvae, I've read, didn't even, like, he rejected using what they were doing. He basically said he didn't want any extra help from the trash can bang or whatever. And then there's the whole controversy about whether, he was wearing like a buzzing device or something. Yeah, I don't. Shit got deep.

Yeah. The conspiracies got deep, right? But whether they deserve it or not, they're absolutely going to get it. It doesn't matter if they deserve it or not. They're going to get it. The Phillies fans haven't really had a chance to do this, at least not as much as other teams, right? Like the Yankees fans have had more than their fair share of home games with the Astros in town. And they've already kind of had their opportunity to get those emotions out.

You may not like it, but you will accept it. Oh, yeah. I dig it. Jesse still doesn't know who I am, by the way. I mean, you told me, but it doesn't really help me. He doesn't even know what Slim Jims are. That's a whole other thing. But another man who you shouldn't question his name, like Frambervaldez,

whose name you should question, is Pat Hoberg. Can we give it up? Put some respect on his name. Put some respect on Pat Hoburg's name. First of all, when the World Series crew was announced, there was this quiet approval from everybody in the baseball community because for once they had got, it seemed like they got it right. They got the guys with the highest accuracy rate in the World Series to call the World Series, as it should be, right? It's, I imagine, I don't know the way pay is structured for umpires, but I imagine that there is a considerable bonus for being on the umpire crew.

And I don't think it should have anything to do with seniority. I think it absolutely should have to do with your performance and how your performance has been over the course. of the season. And in this case, this man, Pat Hoberg, had what they call a perfect game for an umpire in game two of the World Series. A perfect game in the World Series. The man called every ball and strike 100% accurately. It's incredible. Give it up. Yeah. Like that's not that like I don't I don't think anybody expects that actually out of an umpire. Like we all know that their job is difficult. I mean on one hand you want to say like oh he's just doing his job right like oh he just didn't like screw anything up.

But that's not how umpiring works. Like it is a very, very difficult job. And there's a reason that umpire scorecards, that Twitter account that everyone is obsessed with now, especially Derek. I love it. I love it so much.

There's a reason that they haven't had a, this is the first perfect scorecard that they've had since 2015. You can see it on your screen here. 100%, Derek. Look at that. Look at that. It's amazing. And I mean, again,

we said, you don't really expect that out of an umpire because their job is difficult and they don't have a little box that we have up on the screen, which by the way, have you noticed the World Series box is very light and very... I am not. It doesn't... I don't know what... I think this might be on Fox, but it doesn't have like the little individual zones. It's just one big, you know, strike zone, right?

So it doesn't have like some of the other ones. And it's very, like, transparent on screen. So it's like they're almost... They're trying to hide it a little bit. I mean, I think they just don't want it to be as big of a controversial thing when you're sitting there watching it on screen. And like, again, the way that, you know, one thing or another is, you know, is accurate. You know, it's hard to say.

And sometimes on screen you're not seeing the way it breaks and comes over the plate. You know, sometimes that top shot reveals that the umpire is correct. But again, shout out to hope. We don't want to praise umpires on this show ever. That's not our thing. But credit where credit is due. Buck showalter apparently had some very kind things to say about Pat Hoberg earlier this year in a game. This is a tweet from Jason Benetti, who's like a broadcaster for Fox.

I thought this was fascinating. He said before our Mets Marlins game on Peacock in June, one of the first things that Buck Showalter said to our crew with genuine eagerness was that he was so excited to watch the plate umpire work. He'd heard so much about his accuracy. That umpire was Pat Hooper. Way back in June. Give it up for bad over.

Should have seen this coming. Also, yes, I have seen that article, Michael. He said, did you guys see the New York Times? Is this a ball or strike article? Michael says he got all but one. Oh, they have like a quiz? No. Yeah, it's incredible.

It like simulates pitches coming in. Like you have like an umpire's perspective. It simulates a pitch coming in and you have to decide whether it's a ball or a strike. And it's honestly kind of addicting. That's awesome. I got to check that out. Michael in the comments. said Bob Brenley is going to come for you if you keep praising umpires too much.

Listen, I will send the fine folks to Chicago after Bob Brenley for what he said about the Chicago hot dog. So he doesn't want to play those games with me. I have friends from Chicago. Anyway, if you haven't done so already, make sure to sign up for a membership over at go phtnx.com.

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And he's dressed up as a shark. And I want to get him in here. So bad. Because as you guys know, on this show, every week is Shark Week. every day is Earth Day, but I'm afraid he's going to bark at me in this get-up. So I'm going to leave him out there. He doesn't look like he's, he looks like he's still acclimating himself. But of course, you know that stuff.

And of course, you know, every Monday, whether it's Halloween or not, we go to the mailbag. Let's go. All right. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go wow, wow. All right. First question, Leah, what do we got?

out in the mailbag today. From friend of the show, Daryl Johnson and Quizmaster extraordinaire, he asks, given our current talent and coming glut of young pitchers, how likely do you think it is that Tori converts a few of them to the bullpen? This is a great question. And something that we've talked about quite a bit when it comes to where we might see, or how we might see the bullpen improve next season. So, Jesse, I'll throw it up to you.

What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, this is something that Mike Hazen was asked in some of the, um, some of the ballpark sort of version of this essentially. He was asked during the final media availability at the end of the season. And it's a really good, it's a really good question. The Diamondbacks in the past under Mike Hayes and have kind of had a reputation of being hesitant to move guys from being starters to relievers. There's a pretty good case to be made that a guy like Luke Weaver could have really had some value for the Diamondbacks if he'd been moved into a bullpen role earlier in his career. I know you didn't necessarily pan out in that role this past season. But I think there's always a

spend some potential there. But it's something the debacks haven't really wanted to do in the past. They've tried to ride it out with some of these young starters as much as they possibly could. And in some cases, it worked and in some cases not so much, right? So I do think it's something the debacks will consider moving forward. It doesn't sound like Mike Hazen is about to, you know, take all of these young starters and throw them in the bullpen. I don't think you're going to, I think they want them to be starters.

That's still the ultimate goal. But I do think there's maybe an increased openness moving forward that Mike Hazen might be more willing to entertain some of those moves, especially given that with all the young starters the debacks have, they might run out of room, right? They're just not going to have the space for all of these guys in their rotation. And that might be the best way to get them those opportunities. Does it constitute a failure? I mean, at times does it feel like that when a guy that's a starting pitcher now has to be a relief pitcher? I almost feel like that might be part of it because everybody has this potential to be a starting. pitcher, which is great. But like you said, there is something to be said about the value of being

a dominant reliever that can come in for two to three innings, especially that amount of time for this team because they've had, you know, they've struggled to find someone that can just come in and give them one inning of work where it's a pretty, pretty, you know, stress-free and whatnot, right? So, yeah. But I think that might impact it or that might be part of the thinking sometimes, even from both sides, like from the career side for a player as well as from the organization, that it's almost like a bit of a demotion to make a starting pitcher a reliever.

But when the Diamondbacks right now are in such critical need of it, these guys can help the team win. And really at the end of the day, that's what it should be about. Pitchers need to have a different attitude about this. I'm going to say that right now. I'm going to do it because I'm in my macho man to get up and I can do it.

Guilt free myself here. Pitchers are totally going to take you seriously right now. Look, are you getting paid any more or less to be a starting reliever or a starter or a reliever? Maybe in the future. Yeah, in the future. But not now. Not now. So you're being asked to do less work?

Like in the arbitration process, though. Okay. In the arbitration process, you're definitely going to make less. Can you imagine if you have a solid ERA and you're one of the best relievers in the league, how much more valuable you would be than being a fourth man in the rotation that has a plus five ERA? If the choice is between being like a starter who can't really stick in the majors in that role and being a reliever who can actually stick in the major leagues, then yeah, then from that stand. He's on board. Oh, my gosh.

All right. What else we got later? Next question comes from our man, Brett. Brett had another, he got a couple of mailbag questions in the day. So another mailbag question on top of the ones from last week since they're going to be fast approaching. What do you think the debacks do at the winter meetings? Be aggressive with trades and see a lot of moves. Stay away from trades, but maybe have half decently large signings.

Bullpen hopefully. One or two. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Half of a decently large sign. Yeah, yeah, one or two. Sorry, I can't really see in these sunglasses. Sit tight and basically do nothing other than small one-year veteran minor league signings. That one's rough, Brett, because unfortunately I feel like number three is what I'm leaning towards.

I don't feel like we're going to see them make any drastic. moves right now, but that's kind of where I feel like they're at. I think personally that they are confident with their young guys and the talent they have in staff. I think that's why we saw them be kind of conservative on their moves last season, and I think they'll still trend in that direction this year. Yeah. They might do something kind of crazy, but I don't, I don't see it being something where they're going to spend a tremendous amount of money long term. If anything, it might be something crazy on like a short-term deal where they pay somebody a considerable amount to come in for a year or two at the most yeah yeah i mean i i don't know if i necessarily see that is particularly

possible either i don't know if there's really that much room in the payroll for for this year there's plenty room in the payroll jessie you know that i mean yeah they're basically we talked about it the other day they're basically already committed to the same amount of money as they were last year so it's just a question of how much money are you willing to add to that um i think the truth sort of lies in the middle here on this. I don't think the D-Wax are going to come back next year and just bring back the same group. One of the reasons I think that is that, frankly, Zach Gallen has three years left and the Diamondbacks will probably try to pursue some sort of extension. I think we've all talked about our doubts of that coming to fruition in the long term.

And if you are in that spot, if you knowingly have Zat Gowan for three more years, you're not going to try to just, you know, come back next year and bring back the same team and expect to make the playoffs. Like, you're probably going to have some motivation to make some moves. So I do think the Diamondbacks will make some moves this off season. They're the needs that we've talked about. They're going to do some things in the bullpen. You can count on that. They're probably going to try to find a right-handed bat if they can. I don't think they're going to be too aggressive. They're going to look for a starting pitcher. Those are probably the main things that we're looking at. And I think they'll probably fill most of those things.

Whether that, you know, whether it's splashy, whether it's anything too exciting or probably not. But there needs that I do think the diamond backs will find a way to fill. Well said. All right. Leo else we got. Gabriel, that troublemaker on Twitter at Bold as Bronze asks, what's a weird hidden talent that you possess?

Boy, you might be asking the wrong two guys for that. I don't know. My only talent is watching and talking about baseball. I'm not really good at anything else. Really? You don't play an instrument or anything like that? No, no, I'm kidding, Derek. I have many hidden talents.

He has many hidden talents. Did you hear that the confidence? Let's go. Yeah, yeah. So I play the piano. I play the piano. Yeah. I played for, I started when I was like nine or ten, something like that.

So, you know, I played some Mozart and Chopin and Beethoven in my day. Nice. I also could beat anyone. in ping pong. I feel fairly confident about that. Saul, I've seen videos of Saul playing and I have so, I have some doubts about Saul. Oh my God, anybody. Just about anybody. I bet I could be pretty much everybody in this office. So, which is why I'm advocating for us to get a ping pong table in the office. But apparently I'm told the foosball table takes priority for some reason. We had a whole conversation about this. We were, we were thinking we were leading in the direction of the Miami Dolphins, right?

where they asked Miami Dolphins head coach about taking the ping pong table out of the locker room. And the coach said it was a way for the veterans to get everybody focused on game day and such. And when they asked Tyreek Hill, he said, no, we're just having to customize it was bent and we're having a brand new customized one made is what it is. That's Jesse over here. He's like, no, we need to break this foosball table so that we can get our customized. Who likes Fusball? I adore Fusball.

Really? I love Fusball. I just think Fosball, like, you play Fuseball when you're like between 10 and 12 years old. And then it just kind of loses its, it loses its luster after that. The insane words coming out of your mouth during this question. Maybe I was just not very good at it between the ages of 10 and 12, and that's why I lost patience for the game. Maybe that's really what happened.

What about you? Do you have any other, any other talents you'd like to tell us about there? I don't know if this counts, but technically I am still to this day, the youngest disjockey in 99.9KZ history. Really? Yes. Okay. I've told this story, I'm sure before, but I was spinning records for two hours in a nightclub at eight years old in 1989.

And then they awarded me the youngest DJ award. They actually gave me an award? They gave me a pin to wear that was engraved. They've been planning this shit for weeks, Jesse. This was not like an impromptu thing that they just did this night. They had like a certificate made up for me. It's because I had been poking my head in the DJ booth for. For like a year.

You know what I mean? I had to. My initials are DJ. That's what my parents called me. It was like it was fate. It was going to be that way. Other than that, I can flick a bottle cap very far with my fingers going like that. Really?

Fairly accurate. That's what me and my friends used to. That and coins. Shoot them at each other. But that's, is that, does Al, do we have any more for section one of question? Does Leah, does Leah have any hidden talents? Yeah, what are your hidden talents? I can like roll my tongue.

You know how people. Some people can roll their tongues and others can. So I can do that. I can make a clover with my tongue. I can like fold my tongue in half on itself. Those are just like weird things that you can do. And I'm not going to show anyone because it grosses people out. Oh, Sean is currently doing it.

Oh, gross. Yeah, I can do that too. Yeah. That's weird. Yeah. You all have weird talents. We were talking about like actual talents. Do you play an instrument or anything?

Can you do a kickflip on a skateboard? No. No? Okay. I got nothing. I was just wondering. All right. Well, you can find your hidden talents with our friends from OGs.

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4 Peaks variety of beers and enjoy responsibly. If you can't make it down to the Four Peaks A Street Pub, make sure to pick up some four peaks at your, wherever you get your beers. Wherever you get your beers. Of course, we got some more mailbag Monday questions. It's that time. Leah, what else we got? Again, this one's from Brett.

A follow-up, Brett says, but do you have any predictions on who might end up being a breakout prospect for the debacks this next season? Or maybe a prospect you see getting a spring invite that balls out and gets some hype built a them. I mean, I feel like Brandon Fott's the easy one there, so I think we could maybe go in a direction that's not Brandon Fott. What do you think? Yeah, if you're looking for hype in spring training, Brandon Fod is going to, I mean, it's definitely the main name to watch. Christopher

Torrin was the, just won an award as one of the Diamondbacks organizational players of the year for their minor league system. He's a shortstop who played in rookie ball who's 17 years old, but really impressed a lot of people. Josh Barfield said this. He said he has good control of the strike zone for such a young age. You can really play shortstop too. I would not be surprised if he's able to touch a few different minor league levels next year. So if you're looking for a guy who he started to show up on some prospect lists already,

it's really hard to really be that high on those lists when you're 17 years old and you were like just signed out of Venezuela, not that long ago. Especially when it's anybody in the organization like it's been. Even guys like Stone Garrett, who's on the main roster, are part of the organizational All-Star. So it's definitely difficult to get on there, but it means a lot when you're a young talent like that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think he's a guy that if you're looking for someone next year who could really make some advancements and kind of raise their stock through the course of the season, I think Torin is a good name to watch. Also, Blaze Alexander is a short stop.

Yeah, Blaise. People have maybe forgotten about. He's kind of been in the farm system for a while. He had a pretty good year in AA. I saw AAA at the end of the year. So he's an option for the debacks at some point next year. I know they have Nick Ahmed and Geraldo Perdomo lined up, but he's getting close to the majors and has a cannon of an arm.

He's a shortstop through and through should be able to stick there. The bat is really the question with him. And if he's able to show some good signs offensively in spring training, then probably still would start the year in Reno, but could get a call up at some point during the year. There's an incredible amount of pressure, I think, on some of these guys that are currently in positions that the Diamondbacks have, someone like Jordan Lawler there, you know, or like outfielders within the organization, right? Yeah. There's pressure on them to perform because as it stands, it's going to be hard for them to break onto the main roster with the youth and the, I guess, the skill level of the guys who are currently there.

But it's not impossible, right? It's something that these guys can all kind of know and maybe get that chip on their shoulder a little bit, that they have to work that extra hard to try to compete with their teammates and get to that point that they want to get. A guy I feel that way about is Dominic Fletcher, who we've talked about quite a bit, who's just extraordinary guy. But again, we just talk about where do these guys, where are these guys going to fit in? I mean, he's with the Reno Aces now. And he seems fairly ready, right? Like with a lot of.

Both he and Dominic Canzon's own should get. get some time in spring training to, you know, show what they can do. They don't necessarily have an inside track to winning a spot. Right. It's going to be difficult. But the thing about it is they both do have the skill to do it. I mean, he slashed 312, 378, 864, 64, uh, in 2020. And he's really just come on both defensively and offensively as, as one of the best players in the organization. Uh, I think he was an 864 OPS, right? 864 OPS. Yeah, I'm sorry. He didn't slug. He didn't slug. He didn't slug. That would be, Yeah, I don't know why they haven't brought up this way.

He'd better make the opening day roster. Minor league website you, but anyway. What else we got, Leah? If you had to rank scariest D-backs moments, one through five, how would it go? I feel like Archie's line drive to the face is number one. That's our friend Michael Rokickey. I am going to take a little.

I'm going to say yes to you on that. I think the Archie Bradley comebacker is one of these scariest moments I've ever possibly seen in my life because I was present for it. And just everything that happened after that, how quickly he came back and his positive attitude about it, the whole thing was surreal. It really was incredible. So I don't know. I mean, it's hard to think of something scarier than that when you literally thought a guy was going to,

you know, possibly be altered for the rest of his life based on what you saw happening. in front of you. Which was strange because, like, as you said, he came back after not too long, right? It didn't wind up being that significant. But in terms of his career trajectory, he wasn't really the same guy in some ways. Like, he was a dominant starting pitcher and, you know, he didn't show it for long. You know, he beat Clayton Kershaw in his first big league start and this happens. And from that point forward, he just didn't really look the same.

I don't know if it kind of rocked his confidence out there on the same. the mound. I can't even imagine, like, psychologically, what a moment like that would, would do to you. He was a great reliever for the debacks for a few years. So, you know, it's not like his entire career turned around necessarily, but he wasn't an effective starter from that point forward. And granted, he didn't necessarily have a lot of opportunity to show that he could be either. But, but, yeah, it was just a sad moment for Archie. I remember, I mean, he was such a fan favorite. Everyone was getting behind him as the ace of the future and all these things. This was pre-beard, too.

It was. It was. This was when he was just our young stud pitcher that everybody couldn't wait to come up. I mean, the Diamondbacks just had a tremendous amount of bad luck when it came to that around that period of time because that was around when Brandon Webb's career unexpectedly ended. And, you know, we thought Archie was going to be that next guy like that for this organization. Yeah. My number two scariest debacks moment is actually trading away Paul Goldschmidt. I guess that counts.

Like knowing they were going to do it. That was frightening. But then you were like, maybe they won't. And then they did. And I was like, oh. The nightmare came true. It was a nightmare. Number three for me, Derek Jeter's walkoff home run on Halloween in game four off of

Young Kim and the D-backs that caused him to become Mr. November somehow. Even though the diamondbacks won the world series like a few days later. Halloween. Come on. I get it. It sent it into November, but the Diamondbacks weren't up three to nothing, right? They were up three or two, one. That was game four. So yeah, it would have been two one. Yeah. Come on. Come on. Come on. Stop with all of that. Also, Derek Jeter vastly overrated. We know that. Everybody knows that. We don't even need to talk about that. Another scary moment. That was an actual scary moment. It was David Peralta getting hit in the head by a 97 mile per hour fastball by Jose Fernandez. I was also there for that. And the sound. that it made was one of the most disgusting sounds I've ever like actually heard. I like I want to ask what you mean by that but it's it's just it's like I don't know. Have you ever heard someone fall and like hit their like head on concrete and you could like hear it hit or like a body part on. Oh no. It's just it's it's it's you know someone got hurt immediately.

But this was like that times a thousand. It was incredibly awful. And Peralta ended up again being okay. but it was the, you know, the speed of the fastball and everything like that. Yeah, 97 is no joke. You got anyone? I got one more. My last one is watching the D-Backs parade,

Baxter's decapitated head around in the locker room last season. All Lord of the Fly style. That was pretty horrifying to watch. Setting the curse in motion. I didn't want to go on the clubhouse anymore after that. You know what I mean? Like we were out because of COVID and I was like, I'm good with that. We'll stay out.

I don't want to go in there with these lunatics. So you don't have the bird in there. You don't have Randy Johnson hitting the bird. It's an awesome moment. It's not a scary moment. It was a scary for the bird? It was scary for the bird. The bird doesn't know.

The bird existed and then it didn't exist. That's how the bird, that's what the bird's lifespan was in that moment. I just, I mean, that's a life and death thing, Derek. Like all the injuries you just mentioned, you know, unfortunate, but all those guys bounced back. You know, they recovered. That bird didn't recover, Derek. This is a bull take. That bird.

That bird. That bird. It was never, never seen again after that moment. You know, after you pointed out the bird's dead carcass falling to the ground that I didn't really see in that video before. Somebody had to go up there and scoop up the carcets. You frame by framed it, like the Zapruder film. And I didn't appreciate that because now that lives in my brain. So you're right.

That is a scary moment. We'll put it on the board. It should be on the board somewhere. What else you got? On a more serious note, Stephen Susan Jr. This was 2019 in one of those Godforsaken exhibition games. to Chase Field, which somehow... Where he tore every...

Yeah, where he... This was the report. He tore his ACL. He tore his LCL. He tore his LCL. He had a partial PCL tear. And he had a posterior lateral capsule tear in his left knee. Yeah.

Poor guy. His leg just fell off. Basically. Yeah. It was just the two bones sticking together was all that was left. I just can't imagine being like the surgeon. Like, oh man, we got a lot of work to do here. Doc, tell me how it is.

Well, everything's torn. You know all the ligaments? Yeah, all the ligaments. Yeah, maybe I should tell you what's not torn rather than what is. Yikes. There was also a really scary moment in 2017. Robbie Ray, there was a hard hit ball right back. They just hit him in the head when he was pitching.

That was a really scary moment. He had a concussion. He went through the concussion protocols. He wound up not pitching for about a month. What was remarkable, though, is that when he did come back about a month later, he was like as good as he ever was. Robbie Ray in the month following that went 5 and 0 with a 1.39 ERA

and 55 strikeouts in 32 in a third innings. That's when he became Robert Raymond the third. That is, I believe, when that happened. He stepped his game up and he no longer deserved to be called Robbie anymore. Yeah, something like that. I mean, that was his best year with the VACs, right? 2017. He was incredible.

Apparently, when Robbie's out for revenge is when he's at his best, it seems like. Right? I mean, he goes to the Toronto Blue Jays and he's kind of like, you know, trying to prove himself. Then he gets a big contract and then he's, eh, not so much. Anyway, uh, yeah, that's our scariest moments. Leah, what else we got? Uh, if you could pick each other's Halloween costumes, what would you choose? Let's go.

We've already established Jesse would make the greatest Iqabod crane. I tried to find an Ikebod crane after today, but I narrowed my sense. It was like pirate. I told him pirate hats. I should have just gotten a pirate hat. I should have just gotten a pirate hat. A woman's wig we could tie back in like a suit, a piquet coat. We would be fine.

I have to admit I was kind of hoping that you would dress up as the pinata from last year because I really felt I deserved a second chance. No, but that's the thing is you don't get second chances like that in life for someone to hand you a baseball bat and say hit me. And candy will come out. With no specification on how hard it hit me. That was completely up to you and you gently tap me. And that's on you. I would say for you, ironically enough, that a baseball bat would be a great costume.

Interesting. I feel like you would be a fun, like, silly inanimate object that you're just walking around in. Or maybe Gumby, I don't know. I'm picturing a couple of different things. I think I make it good inanimate objects. Yeah, like, you know, like where your face is just poking through it and the rest of it. It doesn't matter. It could be a pencil.

It could be whatever. It's going to be hilarious because it's you. I think it should be, you could do something like that. And I think it should be a Roosevelt shirt maybe. Yeah, yeah. Sort of, I think we talked about something similar like a month or two ago. I was talking about how for Halloween you could like try to personify one of the throwback Diamondbacks uniforms, you know, and make it so that like it just takes up. Oh, that was such a great idea.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think that like you could definitely do that. But I think for you maybe you should do with a Roosevelt shirt. Okay. Oh, like I would just be. Yeah, you would just be a giant Roosevelt shirt. Yeah.

Top to bottom. Yeah, top to bottom. Head to toe. Yeah. All right. I'm with it. I'll talk to my guy, Scotty, over there. We'll see if we could get something made big enough.

They got some extra material laying around. Elizabeth says next year we should come as Bert and Ernie, and that's it. Our costume's been decided. There we go. We won't come as anything else but Bert and Ernie. I'm putting it in my book. That's what we're doing.

Do we have any more Metal Bag Monday questions, Leah? Non-de-backs related, but any suggestions for some Halloween movies. Wow. This is great. I love this. All I know is the Toy Story Halloween. thing was lame. Remember that?

They had like a spooky something or other version of Toy Story a few years ago. That's the only like strictly Halloween movie I've ever watched and I was very disappointed. What are you talking about? You brought up the great pumpkin Charlie Brown. Oh, that's true. That's true. There's one you could watch. There's one I could watch.

I don't, I don't know what I don't know what to do with this guy sometimes. I really don't. I'm going to give you a couple that I've watched lately. but one of my favorite scary movies of all time is Cabin in the Woods and it's not even really scary as much as it's just incredibly hilarious and awesome at the end and worth every bit of watching that movie up to that point. I will also say that I very much have enjoyed

the stuff on Disney Plus lately. I know it's kind of, I don't know, cheesy, campy, some of it. Hocus Pocus 2 was way better than it had any business being and I don't know why. I was expecting it just to be awful, I think. Maybe that's it. Like, I have this thing where if I go into a movie with high expectations, there's no way it can live up to it.

Yeah. And if I go in... It's all about the expectation. It really is, right? Like, that's why I try to avoid, for the most part, spoilers and even long trailers and stuff. Like, there's a three-minute trailer for the movie. I'm like, that sounds like you're going to tell me the entire plot in that.

Why would I see that, right? Elizabeth says everyone sleeps on the Garfield, the Halloween special. As long as it has the first. the friends from the farm you know what I'm talking about when Garfield the cartoon they had the guys from the farm Wade the duck and all those guys he doesn't I can see this is

this is why I talk to you guys about this stuff because I don't even need to turn to him and ask him anything about this I will say also Werewolf by Night was fantastic I really enjoyed that I'm a huge Marvel fan so there was a lot of fun things in that movie but

yeah like going back to Hocus Pocus too that's just it's a solid Halloween movie and I don't know this stuff gets you in the movie I like the fact that you can go on there. Hulu had a whole playlist of Halloween movies. And I started watching trailers. And I realized I wasn't, I wasn't ready for that. Like, I don't want to, I wasn't ready for like losing sleep.

So it's a fine balance of how far am I going to go. I'm not watching Terrifier, Terifier 2 or any of these things, right? It's just not going to happen. It's like me going to six flags. My days of riding the big roller coasters, those are over. And me watching the scariest movies is not. It's not great, but I will, let me see here. Any movie with clowns in it is a great Halloween movie,

but Killer Clowns from Outer Space from 1988 is one of the most ridiculous horror movies that I love that I've ever seen. And I know a lot of people have seen the killer clown stuff around, but I bet a lot of you haven't actually seen that piece of shit movie. So make sure to watch it. It's hilarious. It's great. And the clowns do kill a lot of people. So, spoiler.

Is that all we got? All right. Well, Elizabeth also gives us Wallace and Rommet curse of the wear rabbit. Truly incredible. Never seen it. Going to have to go watch it. That's one. I know you haven't seen it.

We'll go. I'll make him go watch it too. Speaking of which this week, you owe us a movie review. You owe us a new review. All right. We're doing it tomorrow. So make sure to join us. We hope you guys have an incredibly wonderful Halloween.

But of course, before you do that, make sure to download the draft king's Hortsbook app if you haven't done so already. You got Monday night football. I know it's Halloween, but come on. Let's get down on the Monday night football. And also the NBA action. Make some money on the NBA, bet on the Sons, bet against the coyotes. Remember, that's the way that it works. But new customers right now can make any $5 bet on NBA money line bet and get $200 in freed bets if your team wins. You can also boost your winnings up to 100% with Draft Kings stepped up same game parlayes, which I did on the Tennessee Titans game yesterday. I knew it was two like rookie quarterbacks going up against each other.

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Win that money line bet on the NBA. Get yourself $200 in free bets instantly. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for detail. Also, big shout out. to our friends at More Furniture. If you're looking to make your house less spooky this spooky season, go down to More Furniture. Or go to their website, MoreFurniture.com, and get down on their fall sale.

For every $100 you spend, or $1,000 you spend, you'll receive $100 back in credit. So again, make sure to make those purchases, make your house look beautiful, get ready for all these wonderful sports that we're all going to be watching from home. Let's be honest. Sports are fun to go watch in person, but it's more fun to watch at home with more furniture when you've got your house all hooked up. Jesse, I got some trick-or-treating to do. Okay. I mean, I don't just dress like this just for this show. I have a whole day of events.

I'm just getting started, but... What time is an appropriate time to start trick-or-treating? It depends on the age of the child. Okay. I feel like if you have older children that you should wait a little bit later, because typically, when it's still kind of light out, the young ones want to get out, you know, the little guys, two-year-olds, three-year-olds. Those are the ones I like to be home for. And then by, you know, seven o'clock at night when the teenagers are coming around, my wife's on

Candy Duty at that point. I'm out of there. But I don't know. It's weird because the world's kind of changing. I know that a lot of people don't even like do traditional door to door trick or treating, which I totally understand. They do in my neighborhood. Oh, they do in my neighborhood too.

Let me tell you. It's weird because like I'm on the edge of the neighborhood and I don't get a lot of kids because they kind of stop before they get to my part. Like I've even realized it in walking the neighborhood. neighborhood and coming to my house. I'm like, oh yeah, I wouldn't walk. Like, there's like seven houses with their lights off in a row. I'm like, this is where I would stop too before I get to the good stuff. But here's the trick. I guess actually, this is the treat. Oh. I give out full-size candy bars. Oh. So if you're lucky enough to know where I live, which I'm not telling any of you,

there is a bounty if you make it through those seven houses with lights off. You get to my place. Because I might even give you two with how few of kids I'm coming through. But you, do you, uh, do you decorate? Oh, I decorate, Jesse. Really? Okay. I go crazy. I have blowups on my roof. I have the hitchhiking ghosts from Disneyland out front. It's a whole thing. I love Halloween. It's a wonderful time of year. I've always loved

it, and I think it's just fun. It's one of those things for me, like I've said before. The more that you put into it, the more excited you get about it, and the more like you just kind of go with it and have fun, the more you're here doing a show dressed as the macho man, Randy Savage, and beer. He's beer. We thank you guys for joining us.

You really can't tell that this is weird unless you like. There it is. Unless I hold the handle. Now I'm double fisting it. That's how it goes. But happy Halloween to you all. We thank you guys for joining us. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at Go. I don't even know where I'm at anymore. You're at. At cap underscore K-man with a K. My blue checkmark is going to get taken away any day now. Thanks, Elon. This guy over here is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs.

But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, wherever you find us. Make sure to find us. Follow us. Do all that stuff. In the meantime, on behalf of Jesse, myself, Leah, on behalf of beer and macho man, Randy Savage, we thank you guys so much for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you say,

ooh, yeah, while playing it.