PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Two months in, the Arizona Diamondbacks have the second best record in the National League

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks have been an incredible surprise in MLB for the first two months of the season. Are they turning into a playoff contender? We also discuss the fiasco between the Padres and Bally Sports and a potential new home for the D-backs near Salt River Fields.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to the Keepin’ it 100 Golf Scramble, D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Go to omahasteaks.com and enter PHNXDbacks for $30 off! Minimum order may be required. See site for details.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

and welcome in to another edition of the PHMX feedbacks podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montita. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX, but after some tough negotiations yesterday, we don't know for how long I'm going to have that title. He's still your vice mayor and also your thunder stick. It's Jesse Friedman. I'm a little concerned for you, Derek. The mayoral moniker is very important to your identity.

It's who I am. It's all I am. I'm a little bit nervous to find out what it might be like when Derek Montia is not the mayor. I'll tell you, it's not my fault. I'm going to blame Jesse on this one. But anyway, we'll get to that soon enough. You'll still be the mayor of Las Vegas. I appreciate it.

You still have a tight hold on that over. I don't want to. I can't go back to that city. From your experience over the weekend. They're not taking that away from you anytime soon. Well, I will tell you that the one person that we all need to be concerned about is Zach Gallen and not concerned in a bad way. We should all be concerned with voting for this man for the Major League Baseball All-Star game. That is right.

Zach Gallen, of course, is very good. And the All-Star ballot voting is open now. So I don't know why. What are you doing? Go vote right now. Pull up another screen. Get some voting going on right now. I don't think people can vote for pitchers.

So it would be a little bit hard to vote for Zach Allen. Well, Corbyn Carroll's still out there. Corbyn Carol is out there. Lordus Gurriel Jr. should absolutely be an All-Star, too, by the way. Ketel Marte after his home run yesterday. He's in a pretty good spot at second base. Like I wrote about yesterday, you could make a case for six different Diamondbacks players being really right in the thick of the All-Star game conversation right now.

So, yeah, this is the time, Derek. This is the time. Like Jesse said, we can't vote for pitchers. So we have to rely on the selection for that. Was that the manager selection for pitchers? Yeah, managers and players do the rest of the stuff. I'm not sure exactly who is responsible for what. But they would be fools not to vote in Zach Gowan

His last 12 appearances at Chase Field have been Fairly incredible Jesse The man is nearly unbeatable at home Yeah yeah he's been all right Derek He's been all right in Zach Gallin's last 12 appearances at Chase Field He is 10 and 1 with a 0.68 ERA And a 0.68 whip and this is historic He is the first MLB pitcher to have 10 plus wins

with an ERA and WIP both under 0.7 over a span of 12 home appearances. It's a mouthful. Since Walter Johnson from June 12th to September 15th of 1917. You know you're in good company if you're being mentioned in the same sentence as the great Walter Johnson. Everybody. Legend. Legend he is. Yeah, that was more than 100 years ago, Derek. So that is pretty impressive what Gallin has done, not just overall this season's.

but specifically at home. Well, and when you talk about baseball, like, baseball has been around for a very long time, but for you to be, you know, doing things that someone hasn't done for over 100 years is fairly incredible. And Zach Gallen is a big reason why the Arizona Diamondbacks have the record they have. They are one game away from potentially going 10 games over 500, should they beat the Colorado Rockies today in their game.

But the Diamondbacks, because of that, have some pretty good playoff odds. And I know that that is still very far away, but we don't care. We don't give a damn about how far away it is. We're ready to get excited. And it's time to get excited because the Diamondbacks have some very high playoff odds on a couple of these websites. And not just, you know, not just debacks love.com or whatever. We got baseball reference.

That one was 100% of day one. 50%. But baseball reference giving them a 72.9%. chance of making the playoffs at this point. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely depends on the website you look at. Fan graphs is at 55.8%. They were still below 50% as of a week or two ago.

So that is continued to move in a positive direction for the debaques. Baseball perspective remains a legion of skeptics. I will burn your website to the ground. I swear to God. 25.6%, which is bold. I mean, a team that's nine games over 500. Uh, yeah. I mean, they think the diamondbacks have a, have a one and four chance of making the playoffs. And frankly, even baseball reference and fan graphs, Derek, don't necessarily think highly of the diamond backs the rest of the way.

Both of those websites project the diamond backs to be two games under 500. Uh, the rest of the way are roughly depending on how you round off the decimals. Both of those websites are looking at a finish of about 85 and 77 by the end of the year, which at this point would be something of a disappointment. I mean, the debacks are nine games over 500 right now. You finish the season, eight games over 500. And that would be the debacks going one under the rest of the way, which does feel underwhelming, given how well this team has played so far. And the Diamondbacks have been able to take care of business.

I mean, they've run into a couple of opponents that they maybe should have beat. The Marlins, for some reason, have their number. Even the Boston Red Sox have been really bad except for that series that they played against the Diamondbacks for some reason. So there's there's some games, obviously, that we've discussed, some series. Maybe they could have gotten a sweep up until this point. But it still doesn't matter, considering that the Diamondbacks are nine games over 500, and they've been able to do it through what I like to call any means necessary.

Like, I feel like this team finds some way to pick up the slack of other components of the team that aren't working and overcome, you know, the opposition and win baseball. football games. And they've been very good at that. They've been very good at finding a way to win. And yesterday's game, again, we talked about it, but it was one of the more complete games that we've seen out of the Arizona Diamondbacks. If they can start rolling and having more games like that, then I mean, I can't, I can't understand how you'd only give them a 25% chance of victory. But a lot of people in this country aren't familiar with this team. They're not familiar with the players on this team. Corbyn Carroll's name is finally getting some respect put on it around the league a bit.

But there's still a lot of people that don't recognize the Diamondbacks for what they've been able to do. Because really, when you look at it, these guys are very young. Even Zach Gallen is a name that hasn't had a chance to become a household name yet, even though we here in Arizona that have watched him for these last few years feel like he absolutely should be. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the great American tragedies right now, right? I mean, up there with all of the issues that our country has right up there is that people are overlooking. the Arizona Diamondbacks and specifically Zach Gallen. Correct.

No, the D-BACs really have, this month of May was going to be big for them. We talked about it for a number of weeks before it happened. The debacks have a really easy schedule in the month of May. And I remember, you know, back when the debacks were only two or three games over 500 entering this stretch, we were looking at the schedule and we were kind of like, the debacks might come out of this with a pretty darn good record. Like if this team is what we think they might be, they really should be about eight, nine,

10 games over 500 when this stretch is over. You could make a case that that stretch kind of ends. D-backs have played some good teams. The Red Sox were certainly a good team this past weekend. But the debacks get the Atlanta Braves over the weekend, who they are currently tied with for the second best record in the National League, the Braves and Diamondbacks. Who are also in danger of getting swept by the Oakland Aist.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Braves are going to try to fend that off today if they can. But, but yeah, I mean, this is, this was a key stretch for the Diamondbacks and kind of solidifying themselves as a contending team, as a legitimate playoff threat. And although they've certainly left some of these games on the table, they have done in this stretch what a good team would do. They have beat the teams that they are supposed to beat more often than not. And we're talking about a team that's nine games over 500 and in a really good

spot in the national league right now. 55 games into the season. The diamondbacks are currently in the number one slot for the National League wildcard with three teams tied behind them for for the next wildcard spots. So I guess I have to ask, Jesse, what teams here kind of worry? Are there some teams that right now are below the diamond backs that could all of a sudden rear up and perhaps take this spot or maybe a handful of teams that might end up costing the diamond backs a playoff spot?

Yeah, I mean, coming into the year, I was, I mean, I look like an idiot now, but I know I'm, I don't think I'm the only one. The New York Mets seem like a lock to make the playoffs in my mind entering the season. Maybe I wasn't fully taking into account just how many older players they have and the fact that their lineup does have guys like Starling Marte that maybe aren't quite what they used to be. I still think the Mets are a team that you have to worry about a little bit. I mean, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, I believe both of those guys are healthy now, pitching reasonably well. So that's a team that I think it's going to be hard to just ignore them this,

this entire season. It feels like that's a team that really could turn it on at any point. The San Francisco Giants have started to play a little bit better of late. They almost made it in my top 10 in power rankings. Not quite. We'll get to that in a second. But beyond that, Derek, I mean, Phillies were in the World Series last year.

Like you have to at least consider that they could turn things around. The San Diego Padres, I am certainly not out on them entirely, you know, turning things around and being good this season, even though it's been a disaster. And the St. Louis Cardinals somehow are 25 and 32. I still can't fully, I can't fully dismiss the Cardinals despite how slow they've started the year. So there are a number of teams behind the debacks who are still interesting. Three terrifying teams behind you with monster payrolls. that right now are absolutely not performing up to the level that they should be. Talking about the Mets, the Phillies and the Padres.

No, I went with because the Mets right now do have one of the wildcard spots. So I'm looking at teams right now that are out, which would be both Philadelphia, the San Diego Padres, and then also the St. Louis Cardinals, which, again, we kind of have had our jokes at the Cardinals, but the Cardinals are an incredibly good team and could go on a run at any point. It looks like it was happening. They went on a pretty crazy run there. And suddenly they're five and five.

in their last 10. So they have kind of hit a roadblock again recently. But the lineup is just so good. And Nolan Aeronado, I refuse to believe that Nolan Aeronado is going to have a 730 OPS or whatever it is right now, the rest of the way. Their pitching is still a mess. But, you know, maybe they decide to be aggressive at the trade deadline because even though they've been terrible, so is the rest of the central division.

I don't know if you're necessarily too concerned about the Milwaukee Brewers, if you're the St. Louis Cardinals right now. So, yeah, I mean, not just in the Central, but in the NL at large. Things are just absolutely wide open right now. I think we all kind of know the Dodgers are going to make the playoffs. The Braves are going to make the playoffs. Other than that, D-backs are in a really good spot, and there's a whole bunch of teams behind them that are just kind of trying to figure it out right now.

Mos Schubert, a good friend of mine in the comment, says the fans want to know if Derek will die his hair, blew up to D-backs finish more than 10 games behind the Dodgers in the division. Can we ban this man? Ban that I don't want Dr. Stan in this chat. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Don't really ban him. I love him too much to do that.

But Michael McDermott says National League is wide open this season. It absolutely is. That's what it feels like right now. And I mean, especially with the, I mean, the teams that are performing well, you know, are the Milwaukee Brewers in the Central, which have a 28 and 26 record, right? They would be about three and a half games behind the Diamondbacks in the NL. West. Could you imagine if the Diamondbacks were in the NL Central or the AL Central?

It would be so great. You could pop the champagne bottles right now, Derek. All the banners, put all the banners up. Hang them up. But speaking of banners, we have an important banner to hang up right now of our own, which is our MLB power rankings. Let's take a look at where everybody stacks up this week. No change there at the top with the Rays and the Rangers.

Those two teams continue to be incredibly good. Houston Astros, they have been on an absolute role, and they move up to the third spot. Orioles finally getting some love there. Yeah. Kind of passing up. Dodgers deserve to move down. The Dodgers, all teams in the National League have not been very good.

Let's be honest. But I'm ready, Jesse. I'm ready for those debacks to leapfrog the Braves. I'm excited for that. But the debacks stay put at eighth there. Then we got the Blue Jays and the Mariners who sneak their way into the top 10 for the first time this season. Yeah, the Mariners pitching staff continues. used to to intrigue me.

And they're plus 23, better run differential than a lot of teams, including actually the Diamondbacks. So I do think the Mariners very much have a shot in the American League. The Blue Jays, things continue to be pretty rough out there for them. They've lost six of their last 10. But they're 29 and 26. They're certainly still in the mix in the American League. And, you know, they've had their share of issues.

Alec Manoa has not at all been the pitcher that he was last year. I still think the Blue Jays are a pretty good team overall. For those wondering, you know, why didn't the D-Backs move up? They had a pretty decent week overall. I just, I can't put the D-Backs above the Yankees right now. The Yankees have a better record and have really been on a tear lately. That's fair. They've won four in a row.

Braves and Dodgers, even though the records are close, I just don't think you can, you can make a case for the D-Backs to leapfrog them at this stage in the season. Not until, in all honesty, not until the D-Backs play the Braves, which is happening this weekend. Yeah, I mean, if the debacks take two out of three or, you know, sweep the Braves or something crazy like that happens, then maybe we have that, maybe we have that conversation next week. I like it. Well, I mean, and honestly, the Diamondbacks being ranked the eighth best team in all of baseball, I never thought that would be something that would come out of this show as an agreed upon stance. That's much more something I thought would have. It would have been something that you would say, not me, right?

You would have blasted me for being an idiot, right? But it's true because this Diamondbacks team is just outperforming everybody's expectations so far. And again, we're cautiously optimistic about this team. But we're still not full in at times because we've seen, you know, we've seen how quickly things can fall apart a bit for this team. We've seen them lose to teams that honestly they shouldn't lose to. And when you start talking about, you know, we understand the baseball season's a long season, right? There's going to be a point where the Braves don't even think about these two losses that they just had to the A's,

or even if they get swept, they're going to go on to continue to be a very good baseball team. And, you know, sometimes you just have to chalk it up to the other team being better just for that series or for that weekend or whatever. A lot of factors that can play into that. But at the same time, it feels like the Diamondbacks really are about to become, you know, one of those very good teams in baseball. Or maybe they really already are. They just, they've been taking care of business. And we haven't seen them really play down to their opposition too much, except maybe, you could argue that Marlins, you know, the times they played the Marlins, we've just kind of

seen them, you know, not be great. But they're going to continue to shine. And of course, if you want to watch them, you need yourself a pair of Shady Ray's because that's how bright their future is. Get the gear built to last. Shady rays has premium polarized shades that everybody needs living here in Arizona. It's standard. It's like, you know, back east, you need a good coat. Here in Arizona, you have to have a good pair of sunglasses. And Shady Ray's is independent sunglasses company with a world-class product. They're just as good as expensive sunglasses, and they have a much better protection plan that you could even say is a little crazy.

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I didn't. No. No, I didn't. I had a phenomenal time. We had a number of people doing this golf thing that I still don't fully understand. I don't, I don't understand how they get the ball. It's not even that he doesn't understand. He doesn't want to understand.

He doesn't want to like your other sports, but we're going to force golf upon him. And we're going to force some amazing golf apparel on you because that's what pins and ACE is all about. Let me just say that the tournament was so much fun. If you thought about coming out to the last one and you didn't come out and when we have our next one, definitely you're going to want to come out because it was really good. The deal was great.

You got so much free stuff. It was a ton of fun. It was incredible. Like I saw the giveaway stuff through some of the pictures and I mean the partners. You got your money's worth. You got your money's worth for sure. You think could pins and aces like wearing their gear? Could that like fix my golf swing?

Perhaps. Because that would be a real miracle. I mean, that would be real, real superpower. Their polo shirts are, they're quite airy and nice, so they're like great for the Arizona's sun golfing in this heat out here. They also stretch a little bit. So when you're getting your swing on, when you really, when you really start perfecting that swing, Jesse, which we'll get you.

That was the problem at that one time at the driving. It was. Your shirt was getting the way. It was getting, it was absolutely impeding my golf swing. And it didn't have enough phoenixes on it. So you can, you can get an amazing polo from our. friends of pins and aces. They have polos, hats, golf bags, and even beer sleeves.

Over at their website at pins and aces.com, check out pins and aces.com and use code PhNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping. That's pins and aces.com. Yeah, big shout out to them. It was an absolute blast. And I, like I said, I might have chose poorly on my decision

what to do that weekend, but I'm still not recovered from it. You know what? Who also isn't recovered from their poor mistakes and actions, Jesse, is ballet sports. And the consequences are finally here for ballet sports. Major League Baseball has officially taken over Padres television broadcast rights after Ballet Sports missed their payment. And we know this story very well here in Arizona because the Diamondbacks are going

through a very similar fiasco with the Padres. But this change is happening. We've wondered that about the Diamondbacks, right? There was a date for a payment. They missed it. Then there was like another date like, oh, this is the final date. like, oh, this is the final date, and then they missed that one. Then it went before a judge, and along with several other teams,

basically the bankruptcy judge gave Valley Sports or Diamond Sports Group an opportunity to pay 50% payments to a few teams, including the debacks. But that did not happen with the Padres. This change is immediate, beginning with the Padres, broadcast tonight. Today, the game against Miami. And the team in the league hopes that it will be basically, accessible by everybody. Everybody will be able to watch it in some way. It could be the first of many transitions

since Bally Sports does hold the local TV rights to 14 clubs. So this could be the beginning of the end for Bally Sports as we know it. We knew already that this was going to come at some point because this just seemed like a foregone conclusion. But we were wondering

if the Diamondbacks and other teams would make it through this season before we would see Major League Baseball take over the rights of the games. And here we are. Yeah, it's happening. The thing that we suspected would happen for a long time. It is happening tonight. If you tune into the Padres Marlins game tonight, you will not see any Valley Sports, anything on the screen.

The broadcast is going to look a little bit different. According to a story from ESPN, apparently Major League Baseball is saying that the broadcast will look substantially better. 340 game today. We'll see what that looks like. like, but Major League Baseball does have more camera angles. There's a reason that the, you know, the replay review center in New York has access to more feeds than what they show on the broadcast. It's because they have, they have these, they have more additional camera feeds that the broadcast,

at least the Ballet Sports broadcasts have not been using. I suspect other, other, you know, broadcasting entities maybe haven't been using those either. Well, like Chase Field has this little robot cam from MLB. Yeah. It's the MLB Ballpark Cam. And it's how they like, I think when they do their interviews with the guys, that might be, I don't know, they might be a cameraman out there. But they do have these little like robot cameras in the stadiums.

And it's weird because I've never seen it really active or being used myself. So I assumed it was just when they do those pregame, like really early in the afternoon interviews with the players there at the ballpark. Yeah, it's interesting to see that they are, that this article is stating that fans will immediately notice an improvement. in both camera angles and picture quality, right? And I mean, we've seen like the Apple TV broadcast, for instance, look incredible sometimes. Some of their other stuff is a little odd but different. And we appreciate that.

Camera technology in this day and age is insane. Like, I think Ballet Sports, Arizona does a great job. And I think DBAC schemes look great. But there's also this element of the technology that is available. And like you just said, I think the Apple TV broadcast, they kind of lean into it a little bit more because, of course, it's Apple. They're going to try to really lean into technology and making it look as percene as they can. Absolutely.

There's some pretty crazy stuff that Major League Baseball could do with this if they want to. I don't suspect that it will look maybe quite on the level of like an Apple TV broadcast tonight. I mean, Apple TV really does some kind of wacky things during their broadcast at times. Very 4K. Like it's incredibly 4K. But we get a new scorebug, Derek. And that's the biggest. That's the biggest news.

Yes. On screen graphics. I want to see what the on screen graphics look like. Our graphic designer, Sean DePazzo is so excited about what the scorebug will look like. I suspect it will be sort of MLB Network S because Major League Baseball does already have an entity that broadcast games. So I suspect it will probably look like that. It's not going to blow us away. We're going to be, we're going to see it.

We're going to go, oh. Yeah. Yeah, that's what. Probably about what the MLB network looks like. probably about what you to suspect. But like their microphones are going to have the MLB logo instead of the Valley Sports logo, of course. So there's all sorts of little changes here. Does this, does this, do we get unedited Steve Berthume now?

Is that what's going to happen? Is she going to get crazy in the booth? By the way, before that comment went away, I wanted to say, Brian Abdallah said, so they have, so they have been selling a shitty views for a while now. I don't have an answer for you on that. I don't know why magically they have better camera angles and nicer pictures. But that's what's being claimed. So my answer there to you is yes, yes, they have.

I do notice that sports broadcasts, and I mean, this just doesn't go for Diamondbacks games. This goes for like, especially watching the NBA playoffs. They look really terrible on my TV. Like when there's a lot of action, it gets really pixelated and stuff. Other stuff I watch does not get that way, but it seems like live sporting events can tend to have an issue with that. However, I think it may be just the like the provider.

Like I have direct TV. Here we have, you know, Cox. I think that's getting in the way. because when I watch like the Apple TV broadcasts, there is no pixelation. There is not, it's beautiful. It's such a nice picture,

but it's like me going through the Apple TV app on my TV. So it's almost like as direct as I could get without, you know, without going through other providers and such. But this is really interesting and it's really interesting how it's going to impact the Arizona Diamondbacks. One thing that is good is like Jesse and I were kind of talking about this. Obviously,

Major League Baseball didn't just all of a sudden run around today going, oh my God, that happened. And then trying to get their shit together. They've been planning this for a while. We think. We think they've been planning this. Well, I mean, Rob BANfred said this when we did the winter meetings or not the winter meetings, but the MLB like manager availability thing.

Yeah, the availability thing before spring training. But they definitely had a contingency plan already in place that they seemed fairly confident about. We just didn't know. We didn't know if we believe them that much about that because a lot of the cameras and things in the ballpark, don't know who owns that. So how complicated is it going to be if ballet sports can't carry the games anymore to swap those cameras out or whatever they need to do? I don't know if that's being done. I imagine not. I imagine maybe those cameras are just property in Major League Baseball since they're in the ball. I don't know. I don't know who owns anything. I mean, I know Ballet Sports has like a trailer

out back at Chase Field. And I know a lot of the people there that work there are like Ballet Sports employees. So I'm just not sure how this impacts them. That kind of sucks if there's people. that have to be like laid off and such. I hope those people can all stay on as part of the production crew too because Jesse and I do know a lot of those people. And I mean, that's something that that's kind of an unforced, you know, unforeseen, I guess,

undiscussed part of this is that there's going to be a lot of people impacted. Should should this go down for the Diamondbacks. It does, it does sound like all of the broadcasters will stay the same. The story from ESPN says that San Diego's in-game on-air town is employed. by the team. So if you have team broadcasters, those people will not be affected for sure. The D-backs have their team, I believe is with Valley Sports, if I'm not mistaken. Do we know the answer to that? Well, I know the broadcast team is Diamondbacks employees. Okay. But I don't know about like Jody and I don't know about, you know, other other individuals.

Yeah, yeah. So we don't know exactly how this will shake out in Arizona. My guess is that it would look pretty much the same. And we, yeah, we certainly would love for everyone to stick around. I mean, the whole Valley Sports crew, everyone there is phenomenal. There's awesome people. They really are. Yeah. And I mean, I've worked with them now for most of them for like 12 years. So it's, they've been there for a while.

They've been there for a while. They came over from Fox Sports and all of that. So interesting to see, but that's it. Padre's games available to everybody now. You should be able to watch him. But that shouldn't stop you from taking a road trip to San Diego because it's an incredible ballpark and you should go watch baseball there. And of course, you should fill up at Circle K on the way.

Not only will you get to see my beautiful face, which apparently is just in strong rotation on the gas station pumps, which I was not expecting. I didn't think they were going to look at this mug. Do you pay them like extra or something to do that? All I'm saying is it just takes some compliments on Twitter. That's all it takes. Enjoy yourself a damn polar pop. You get your polar pop and you enjoy it. But anyway, grab a polar pop and all sorts of wonderful things.

You can check out your local Circle K for the best coffee. and snack selection and premium gas. Don't forget to fill up with gas. That's how you get to see Tiny Derek. But their polo pops do stay longer, a cold longer. They also have iced cold coffee, ice coffee for just $1.89. They have Red Bulls, three for $8, monsters, three for $6. And of course, this is the end of some of those.

I think people got gas cards. I'm not sure how long those were, but they had a special day where they had 40 cents off gas. They were also giving people extra like 10 cents off gas. gas cards. So make sure you check out all this great stuff over at CircleK. Right now you can text PHNX to 31310 to join their SMS subscriber club and you will get a buy one, get one free offer on 32 ounce polar pops. Head to CircleK.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. And while you're there, of course grab yourself some Four Peaks beer. Four Peaks is the official beer of PHNX and sports just aren't the same without a four peaks in hand. Not only can you get your

four peaks at Circle K can get them anywhere you get your beer or you can stop. by their 8th Street pub and have one fresh out of the tap. Four Peaks has also given you a chance to win D-BACs tickets with their four-seeks four-peaks promotion. That's hard. I mean, that's a lot for me to say and not mess up. But anyway, one lucky winner will get four seats to an upcoming Diamondbacks game. Tickets come with D-Bucks.

You can grab some food, ice-cold, wow wheat, or hop-not. You can also get, just watch baseball. Enjoy it. Join us. We'll be out there this weekend. So make sure to join us for that. And make sure you enter over at Four Peaks on Instagram. The link is in the bio.

Win yourself some tickets. Have a great time. Check out Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. Please drink responsibly. Can I say a couple more things about this whole situation before we move on? Yeah, absolutely. So someone in the comments mentioned, isn't there a big court hearing today between MLB and Valley?

And the answer is yes. There is a court hearing today in Houston in which a bankruptcy judge will preside over Diamond's claims that it should pay lesser rights fees to the Reds, Rangers, Diamondbacks, and Guardians. So I believe they've paid half of the rights fee at this point. So the debacks have been paid some money, but not what they're supposed to have been paid based on the contract. And basically what's happening is Diamond Sports Group is making the argument that because

there are fewer people who have cable. TV now than there were when the deal was originally negotiated. They feel that they have the right to renegotiate the deal in order to adjust for the current market conditions, essentially. So yeah, we should have results from this. It sounds like tomorrow night. So stay tuned for that. This situation, as far as the Diamondbacks are concerned, could, yeah, it could escalate pretty quickly in its own right. We don't really know exactly what a timeline would be for when the debacks would maybe do what the Padres are doing already. but it will have more news on that front pretty soon.

That to me, that argument to me does not seem to hold water. It doesn't sound right. The reason why I say that is because I do not work particularly in that field. Yes, I am in sports, but I don't work in like television or I don't work in broadcasting in that way. And I haven't. But I imagine that me just being simply a consumer, somebody that watches. television and watches streaming services and stuff. I know that we are trending towards streaming services being the way of the future.

So I can't understand how a major network trying to acquire regional sports rights wouldn't be able to forecast that same thing as well. Yeah. Right. If they were not factoring in that fewer people would probably have cable TV now than had it when they originally negotiated these deals, sort of feels like that's on them, right? apparently they they're kind of making the case that there was some verbiage and the contract that sort of gave them a provision for doing this later on there's all sorts of legal jargon here

that that i don't fully understand well and you have to have a television subscription in order to get right like can you just independently alacart pay for ballet app and and watch diamondbacks games on it yeah then that just seems like to me that they're not getting the amount of people subscribing to that kind of services they anticipated. That really seems like what's going on because if that's an option, which I've never had to check out because I've always had some provider

that allowed me to log in to whatever app ever since they've been doing it. It just seems like a lack of foresight. It seems like a lack of looking down the road at where technology is going. However, at one point, I had a teacher that told me that this internet thing was going to be a fad. And I'll never forget that.

shit as long as I live. So people can be wrong. But we want to speculate here really fast when it comes to other Arizona Diamondbacks news because we have no idea if this actually involves the Diamondbacks, but we would like to think that maybe it does. There is kind of a rumor out there circulating that the Arizona coyotes may have a new, a new suitor, a new location potentially for their arena, for their future home. There are 48 acres that are now available for development in the 101 corridor through the company that owns and operates the Arizona Boardwalk. Here is a map showing where that is located.

So that flat line at the bottom, that is Arizona Boardwalk. Arizona Boardwalk is home to such places as Odyssey Aquarium and the Butterfly Place. I don't know what it's called Butterfly Wonderland, I believe. And that is the location or that is the company that owns that spot. They have purchased all of those 48 acres of land that you see circled or, you know, highlighted right there. And rumors are circulating that this land that is very close to Salt River Fields is a potential landing spot for the Arizona Coyotes. However, I would like to, without any information, just speculate that could this also be a location for the Diamondbacks or could this possibly be a location for the Diamondbacks?

and not the Arizona Coyotes. That one would hit people, I think very, like people would be very upset if the Diamondbacks got a new facility while having one before the Coyotes found a new home. That would not sit well with a lot of sports fans here in the Valley. But is it possible, Jesse, that this site could end up as either a dual location for both teams or maybe just the Diamondbacks new home? I would think so. I don't think it's really crazy to speculate on this. We know that's where they wanted to go this whole time. We, yeah, we've definitely heard the idea of the D-BACs building on that land very close to Salt River Fields in the past is a location that's been floated in the past.

And yeah, I mean, whatever makes sense for the coyotes to look into probably make sense for the Diamondbacks to look into. I don't think it's really all that far-fetched to say that if something looks like a good fit for the coyotes, it's probably a good fit or at least worth exploring for the Diamondbacks. Sure. As someone who just happened to buy property. He can't wait for this. Two and a half miles of set sites. I would be absolutely delighted. He's totally on board with this already.

If this, I mean, could you imagine, Derek? Like, I just bought this place and I'm, like, within three miles of those Salt River fields.

And, like, it would really be. I mean, this would work out incredibly for me. It'd make me sick to my stomach because I'd hate you so much. I mean, it wouldn't be that much farther for you,

right? Oh, no, area. No, crash on Jesse's couch off late night D-backs. Yeah, there I go. That's right. Yeah, no, I'm with it. As a matter of fact, forget late night, I'm just crashing on Jesse's couch, period.

That's my new hangout spot, but get me a Chase Lounge with my name on it. There are some issues, though, right? Because we've talked about the reason why the Diamondbacks might not want to build over there by Salt River Fields. The biggest being that they can't actually own the land. And that's important because the big thing with the coyotes deal in

Tempe that fell apart was that the coyotes were able to pay with that, pay for that facility through the taxes generated on site at the property. Part of the repayment or part of purchase paying for it would be that essentially Tempe would forego the property taxes and the taxes that all the businesses on the site would receive would just go to paying for the facility. It would keep it, you know, it would basically keep taxpayers who don't want the facility from having to pay for it in any way, shape, or form. And it was a very reasonable way to pay back for the,

the facility, right? But that can't happen on tribal land. So the Arizona Diamondbacks would not be able to have a similar deal to pay for the facility. However, it being on tribal land does allow, I think, a bit more, I kind of like a negotiation there to occur about, you know, some of the future payment going, you know, going to going to the tribe, going to tribal land versus it going to the state. because I believe they don't have to pay the same taxes there on tribal land. So there is kind of a balance there that could potentially allow for those facilities to find a way to be built there. But another thing that's big right now is that they can't open a sports book. So there's a possibility that a partnership could maybe change that.

But as it stands right now, they couldn't have a sports book. And you couldn't because right now you can't like open your phone and use a sports book app when you're at Salt River Fields or on tribal. land so that also impacts, you know, just the gambling and aspects of being, being at a sporting event and wanting to gamble live while you're there in the building. Yeah, sports betting has become such a huge part of this, right? It's become such a huge part of the revenue model that teams have. And I think it will probably continue to move in that direction as years go on. So I, that's kind of my main hang up here.

I honestly think that in itself could could almost be big enough to just make it so the debacks really can't get serious about moving on a tribal land. Like you said, there is a possibility where they could come to some sort of an agreement with the tribe and, you know, find a way to work things out where both parties are benefited. But you're definitely going to be leaving revenue on the table compared to, you know, just building it on land elsewhere in Arizona. So. But that's not easy.

It's not like that's just an easy thing as the coyotes are figuring out very quickly. there's space there and it's and it's good i mean it's i think that's a desirable spot for for the debacks to be i know they would maybe like to be downtown but frankly outside of the location that they're already in there's not really like a giant plot of land downtown it's like oh yeah you could definitely move over there uh we've heard some discussion about there's some like you know abandoned warehouses and an area that they could clear land out but much more difficult and it's still going to be very congested uh compared to being out there we know they've wanted to and entertainment district.

We also know that the coyotes, a big part of the reason why the coyotes want to move from Glendale to somewhere in the East Valley is because that is where so many of their season ticket holders are. I'm not sure about the numbers for Arizona Diamondback season ticket holders, but Craig Morgan has told us endlessly about the percentage of season ticket holders that are based out of the East Valley. And basically what you did to those people,

making them have to drive kind of an hour in both directions in order for them to come out and see the team. that they want to see, right? So it feels like, you know, we know a lot of the wealth is in the East Valley, and it feels like a smart move to move it over there. But the bigger thing is that the Diamondbacks have kind of always wanted to have an entertainment district, and that's not something that's really going to happen where they're at now. It's something that could potentially happen here, and the land is expansive.

So, I mean, if you had a coyotes, you know, Diamondbacks dual, not the same facility, but facilities close to each other that are connected by, you know, an entertainment district, and you can have everything located over there by all of that great stuff that's already exists, like medieval times and the aquariums and all that stuff. It's a very smart move. I haven't given up on the dream of a one facility for both teams. Yeah. Yeah.

A baseball field that doubles as a hockey rink. I'm completely on board with it. Let's go. I'm completely on. Anyway, Jesse just needs something to do and he just wants a facility like that near his house so you can go do both things. But if you need to keep your kids busy, like I need to keep my kid busy, you can guys, you can take them down to Octane Raceway and Mavericks. They have a summer engineering camp this summer that takes place between May 30th and July 31st. It's partnered with engineering for kids.

It's ages 7 to 15. And of course, kids love, kids love having that kind of stuff to do. I know my daughter, I'm sending my daughter off to surf camp, Jesse, and I can't believe that that's actually a thing I'm sending her off to. Trust me, in the 90s, I would have killed to go to serve camp. But Octane Raceway and Mavericks also has free bowling for kids all summer. They have a kids bowl free program. Children 15 and under are eligible for two free games each day between May 30th and August 4th. So don't miss that.

Book some fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks. Cart racing, virtual reality, laser tag, axe throwing, bowling, arcade, great food and drinks, so much more. So much fun to be had. Tons of different events throughout the summer. check out octane raceway.com and mavericks.com to learn more. And of course, if you want to come watch the Arizona Diamondbacks with us, our next takeover event is sold out, but you can still get tickets through our friends at GameTime.

It is the best way to purchase tickets. Procrastinators, it is our time to shine with the GameTime app. It is the fastest growing ticket app in the country for a reason, and it is the place for last minute ticket deals. Snag the tickets without the stress with GameTime. Download the GameTime app now, a very aesthetically pleasing app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Big shout out to game time. We've been a fan for years. So, of course, that's the way to get your tickets for all Arizona Diamondbacks game. But we appreciate you guys stopping by. Of course, the Diamondbacks go for the series victory tonight against the Colorado Rockies.

And should they be able to do that? Bill, go for the sweep tomorrow. So tomorrow we will have a watch long. So join us for that afternoon game. We will be right here at PHNX Studios, watching the game, commenting, trying to destroy our bladders for another three hours. So make sure to join us for that.

I think I made it last time, didn't that? You absolutely did. You're a maniac. I don't understand how you did it. I don't understand how you did it. But of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Mand-W-A-K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG and a little at the end. But of course our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACS and all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you for stopping by this afternoon. We appreciate you guys being fans of the second best team in the National League.

And on behalf of these guys, we thank you for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is more fun when you take pee breaks during the games.