PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Welcome to Baseball Nirvana

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

On this episode, Derek and Jesse talk about the final game of the Division Series, how Opening Day for the Arizona Fall League keeps year-round baseball going in AZ, and the mental health crisis with minor league players and their living conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. And of course, this show is brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX and simply for betting $1 on any NFL game. You will get $100 in free bets as long as one of those. two teams scores a single point, which we've covered this many times. Hasn't happened in a long time.

The lions and giants were involved. Just don't bet on those teams. Find better teams to bet on. Of course, I'm joined by my friend, my co-host. It's Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Derek, we got our merch. Look at this. Merck.

Look at this. Jesse, I got the shirt. I got the shirt. You know how excited I am. Today is the greatest day in the history of this podcast. I have the shirt. You got your PhNX shirt. And we're joined by a special guest who's looming in the background of this podcast as we speak. It's God, gentlemen. No, it's actually, it's me. It's Espo. I had to stop by, first off, for those of you watching our video, I'm not in the shot. I'm just a voice with nobody. But on the podcast, it sounds great. I had to stop by, Derek. I don't want this occasionally known as the mayor of P.HN. It shouldn't be occasionally.

I'm here as the vice president of content to dub you officially the mayor of P. Oh my God. Oh my God. It's happened, Jesse. It's official. It's happened. I don't care what anybody else says. No election needed.

You can't have fraud in this case because I'm just making you making a executive decision. You are the mayor. You hear that? You hear that? Brittany Boyer. You hear that everybody else on this network questioning my authority? It is official. I need a sash.

Uh, my producer over here, Jacob, he's bowing down to me. Oh, Jesse, the power is going to my head immediately. Do you hear all this? I hate to let you know, there is no power with this. It's just a type. Okay. Well, I'll take it. I will take it nonetheless. Thank you so much for this illustrious honor. Can I be vice mayor? Is that like in the cards? Yeah. You can be the vice to the mayor. All right. I like your ambition. Done. Done. You are my vice mayor. Gentlemen, I let you get to Diamondbacks talk. I just needed to bestow that honor. on Derek. I appreciate you so much. And I appreciate the Phoenix Suns. Thank you for holding it down for us for the time being. Your mayorship, I will bid you a do. Thank you. Thank you. See, Jesse, this is what I'm talking about. This is the type I got the shirt today. I got a big day for you, Derek. I'm not going to lie. This is a big game for you. This is a huge day. It's the final game of the first round of the playoffs. So you know I'm excited about that. I know you're excited about that. We have a huge game going on pretty much as we speak. People are having to choose whether to

watch us live or to watch this game. And let's be honest, the one of you watching right now, you made the right choice. So thank you. Thank you for being here. But absolutely, Jesse. This has been an incredible series and just some wild shenanigans coming down right now, especially with the Dodgers announcing earlier today that they were shifting their starting pitcher in this game. They're throwing everything they have at the San Francisco Giants. I mean, they understand the importance of this game. I don't know if you saw Derek, Vin Scully, the man himself tweeted out earlier today,

that he believes this is the biggest game in the history of the Dodgers Giants rivalry. I mean, that is high praise for a baseball game, especially here as we're only in the NLDS. And the Dodgers are here for it. I mean, they're throwing everything they can possibly think of at the Giants. They're going with Corey Canable as an opener. My guess is we'll see Julio Urius here pretty soon.

Sure. They'll probably just going to stick with the bullpen for, you know, maybe an inning or two. We'll see if the Giants really adjust their lineup a whole lot to account for that. But this is going to be a pretty fun game, Derek. I'm excited to see what happens tonight. I couldn't agree with you more. And I mean, it is, right? Because you had said on an earlier podcast that this is the first time that these two teams have met in the playoffs at all, right?

I believe so. Yeah, which is, I mean, it's absolutely crazy to think that that's possible. But then being in the same division, it is, uh, It's something that's actually really hard for that to happen. So here we are. And this is about as exciting as it can get. I mean, an elimination game we had yesterday to kind of build up to this moment, right? There wasn't a single game of baseball yesterday, at least not in the playoffs.

I guess there was the launch of the Arizona Fall League. Absolutely. We'll get to a little bit later. But, but yeah, no, it was, this is a huge, huge night here for baseball. And I'm excited to see what happens here today. No, I agree completely. And we do have a we have a little spying on our exes to do today, Jesse. I know it's a quick one, but it's just we're going to spy on our exes during the playoffs a little bit. And this this time around we're looking at Dominic Leon, who currently has not been pitching well for the Giants in the postseason, pitching, putting up very Diamondbacks-esque numbers from when he was here, you know, about five, six years ago. However, he has been absolutely lights out for this team during the regular season. system or during the regular season posted a 1.51 ERA in the regular season over 57 games, currently sporting a 16.2 ERA in his two postseason games. So not such a hot postseason for him,

but he was pretty incredible during the regular season for the Giants. He really was. And yeah, I mean, I don't know if we can really, you know, fault him for having a bad ERA in the postseason when he's pitched an inning in two thirds. I mean, Shut up. These are the, you like to attack my small sample sizes. I know. I don't like it. Eric is the guy who uses batting average over three games and says it's like a meaningful

stats. Hey, facts are facts. Numbers are numbers. The numbers don't lie, Jesse. The numbers don't lie. They just might be a little skewed. Who knows? But yeah, no, I mean, definitely.

He's been good. I mean, he's been an incredible pitcher this year for the Giants. And I mean, these are the moments that we're really going to remember at the end of the day. So it is fair. I mean, every, you know, one. of the biggest questions that you face when you're evaluating, you know, whether a guy's going to make it to the Hall of Fame or just like how, how highly you think of someone in the grand scheme of their career, you have to look at their performance in the postseason.

And obviously Dominic Leon is not in the Hall of Fame conversation currently. But the same logic applies where, I mean, these are the moments that count in small sample size or not, you know, I mean, this is what we're going to remember when it's all said and done. Well, it's like Max Scherzer, right? Max Scherzer had a terrific outing and he still gets the loss in his postseason game. You can do everything you need to, but it really comes down to this series has been very close, right? So no team at this point wants to make that mistake. And the Dodgers obviously with this opener situation that they're going with,

they're trying to do everything they can to get every advantage that they can. They are. I mean, this is about as crazy as it gets. A lot of people were very shocked to hear that today. And I mean, let's face it, Dave Roberts is kind of a Dave Roberts thing to do, right? Like he's the manager who pulls guys pretty early, doesn't stick with anyone too long. He likes to, you know, he likes to do things like this. This is not something Tori Lavello would do.

Could you imagine, Derek, if the Diamondbacks were in a playoff game and last minute, Tori Lavello swapped out his starter and said they were going to start a relief pitcher instead. That is the most, the most anti- No. No. No, well, no, not only, I don't even know if that's anti-Tori Lavello. I think people would think that he reached the peak of his madness, right? Because this is a man that used almost 162 lineups over 162 games.

It wouldn't be surprising to see him throw something like that at the wall, especially during this season and just see if it sticks. In fact, I mean, who knows really what was happening with some of the guys that they did promote to a starter role? if those outings would have just been one outing in more of an opener situation had they not proved to actually be a little bit reliable as a starting pitcher, especially Castiano's. Yeah, yeah, no, that's fair.

I don't know, though. Tori Lavello is kind of a loyalist, Derek. I mean, if he tells someone, like, he doesn't switch things last minute. Like, he's the guy who tells players that they're going to have a day off like three weeks from now. Yes. And follows through with it,

whether they're hitting 800 and their, last four games are not right. Correct. Correct. They could be on a 12 home runs over the last six games with a thousand batting average and he'd still sit them because it was in the plan, right? So I get that completely. But, you know, I think that this, the reason why the Dodgers are doing this is, in a way, they feel like this is the final obstacle. I know that they still have an ALCS and a world series, but realistically the giants are probably going to be the best team that they face and the only team that's that's as hot as they are right now left in the playoffs. So I just don't know.

I understand. I don't know if it's going to work. I understand where he's coming from, though, trying to use some sort of trickery to get an advantage. And who knows, maybe this is a game plan he had drawn up. Maybe this was in the secret book that he doesn't show anybody. But we'll see if it pays off.

And I mean, the game's probably already, yeah, it's already, first pitch already happened. So we'll see how this goes. Can't wait for this series. I don't want to do this podcast right now. I want to run out there and watch it. And that's not encouraging to you guys that are watching this. So I appreciate you who have the choice of being here, sticking around with us through this. And we'll get to that game soon enough.

I want to remind everybody, go get on the Draft King Sportsbook app, download it, use our code of PHNX, and simply for making your first bet of a dollar on end. any NFL game, you will get $100 in free bets instantly, as long as either team scores a point, a single point. I would say you take that $100, you run with it, right? You go throw down a couple of single game parlayes, $25 a pop, get those plus 300 odds, start making, you know, just start stacking, start stacking the cash. And you can do that with the Draft King Sportsbook app.

Remember, it is a safe and reliable app. Best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your money at your convenience. and I have become an absolute same game parlay guy. It doesn't matter if it's this game tonight, which I do have a same game parlay on. Really? Dodgers really boned me, right? Draft Kings had a boost if you did a three-leg,

same game parlay on tonight's MLB game. So I did that. I chose the Dodgers to win. I went with the under on the run scored at seven and a half. And I took Julio Udius at throwing, getting five strikeouts. So I was pretty upset this morning when the Dodgers decided about 20 minutes after I made that bet to go ahead and do what they did to me. I don't know how I feel about you picking the Dodgers in a playoff game.

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Ferrin said that there's no such thing as momentum going from one game to a next. It's really as good as your starting pitcher. So I went based on that. And then what did they do, Jesse? They screwed me. They screwed me.

I went fully on the fact that it was Julio Oudius pitching. and they screwed me. But you know, maybe you jinx them, Derek. Maybe maybe that's why we're doing. Maybe he will come out and dominate when he finally comes into this game because you and I both know he is coming into this game and he's not pitching just one or two innings.

So you can do that same thing. I love getting in there in the middle of the game, dropping a in-game bet as well. If you can kind of feel the way you think a game is going, a lot of different options. Get the Drafking Sportsbook app. You can see all your options there. Use RCO to PHNX.

And again, for betting at $1 on your first. NFL game, you will get $100 in free bets as long as either team scores a point. 21 and over only, Arizona only, gambling problem, dial 1,800 next step, new customers only, eligibility restrictions apply, see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And yes, Jesse, we have a lot of great content that we always talk about coming up to go phnx.com, but you have a recent post about your love and our love and what should be everybody's love here in Arizona of our year-round baseball situation. I've referred to it as baseball Nirvana.

But it really is, you know, that this is the time of the year that even if the Diamondbacks aren't in it like they aren't, there's so many options for, you know, baseball fans. There is the Arizona Fall League that just started yesterday. We had Slade Sassoni making his debut. It was great. But you can read so much more about Jesse's thoughts on that, which we're going to talk about a little bit here about AFL's opening day.

But you can be a member for either an annual membership, which will get you one of these sweet ass shirts. Go get these sweet shirts. I finally got mine so I can stop talking about it. But it doesn't mean I don't want more. Now it's like the other shirts. You know, the button up ones you see me wear all the time. Yeah, I'm going to get a collection of these going.

And you can get those on the PHNX Locker.com. Sign up for the annual membership. You'll pick out any shirt you want, except the Coyotes one. I'm not supposed to talk about that, but it's awesome. And it's all sold out. But you can get this awesome shirt that I am sporting and that Jesse, Jesse and I are going to coordinate and wear as twins whenever we're together. You can get a number of other shirts as well as some fantastic options.

I believe the offer this week is 50% off another shirt if you buy a cardinal shirt. Okay. Okay. So you get a cardinal shirt and you get another shirt for another cardinal shirt for 50% off. So there's always great deals like that. And if you become a member, you get those kind of. of sweet perks. Not to mention the fact we're doing different deals every single week.

You can join the members only Discord, which I refuse to pronounce correctly, and get in with us, talk baseball, talk sports with everybody, get away from that one guy on Twitter that won't stop bothering you, has an egg for a profile picture, and really just has to troll everything you say. We all have one. We all have one. If someone has an egg, it's like, what, like, you don't, you're not even like a viable Twitter account.

Like you're probably a bot. And even if you're not, you basically are a bot. You could, there could be a picture of an animal, a stop sign, anything besides the egg. Come on. We need everybody to give a little bit more effort, even our trolls on Twitter. But again, get away from them on the members only Discord and become a member. Either get that annual membership option where you get the free t-shirt or try us month to month. You'll get your 50 cents for your first month, which is nothing.

You lost that in your car today. or if you go with the month-to-month option, it'll get us for like five bucks a month. Come on, that's a tall caramel macchiato. I think with tax it's more than, it's less than a tall caramel macchiato. Jesse and his beautiful mustache is worth at least a tall caramel macchiato a month.

So we appreciate the support and come be a member of our family with us. We're going to be out, at least I am. I know Jesse isn't here present in Arizona, but we're going to be out at Arizona Fall League. And it's a great time to check out the future baseball. I think it's just a beautiful game where, you know, prospects are really trying to show their best. So you have that competitive edge. I think it's a little different than spring

training, wouldn't you say, Jesse, as far as like guys kind of trying to show off what they can do and elevate themselves and in their career with this experience. It's really important for them. I mean, a lot of guys that teams send to the Arizona Fall League sort of have an assignment when they're there, right? For a lot of. lot of guys it's you know maybe they were injured during the season and the Arizona fall league serves as an opportunity for them to get those reps that they missed out on during the year and you know that they come here you know like I said like with with an assignment there are certain things that they are working on as they try to you know as they try to close out their

seasons on a high note and we are so spoiled Derek I guess I should say you're so spoiled because I'm not in Arizona at the moment but it is it is an incredible experience you literally pay $9, you literally pay $9 to get into an Arizona Falle League game, you can literally sit wherever you want, which still blows my mind. I mean, you can literally sit behind home play and you can watch guys play who are going to be all stars in this league like two or three years from now. Like even the few times I've been to Arizona Fall League games, I've done interviews with players, I've watched guys play,

who are now stars in this game. And I saw them play in front of like a hundred people at Salt River Fields. And a lot of people call it the best kept secret in baseball. I think it's time we get the word out because this is an incredible opportunity that is right here in your backyard if you live in Phoenix. No, you're absolutely right. And I think at times I compare it to going to see a show or a concert in front of, you know, a very small audience, but having it be a band where you were like, I saw Rolling Stones in this, you know dive bar in l a la in front of like 50 people right i actually have one of those stories i know what a huge griselda fan you are i know how big of a rap music fan you are uh last night i

got to go to a conway the machine show for those familiar with this rap group or this you know series of rappers uh and uh you know it was just treated to like that kind of situation where the these guys are performing in other cities and like big arenas the same way you you know, really, really big names are. Yet here in Phoenix, we got to see him at the Crescent Ballroom standing like five feet away from him with like 100 people that were just really dedicated fans, or maybe a couple of hundred,

but a very small group of people. So it kind of feels like that, especially when you start doing the Fall League regularly, and then you start getting those feelings. Like you said, you start seeing those guys go on to big things in their careers. And you just, you have that nostalgia of being like,

yeah, I remember that guy way back when. He was super nice to me. He signed a ball for my kid and whatever, you know. It's the same thing as spring training, which is what we go right into after, you know, fall league, right? We have fall league. We get a break for Christmas, celebrate the holidays,

and then, you know, spring training's right around the corner. Baseball never stops here. Interestingly enough, I found out that we almost lost the Cactus League at one point to Florida where all spring training would have been in Florida. There was a big push to do that. And I just don't. I can't imagine life without spring training here in Arizona. You know what I mean?

It's it's something that is pretty wild. And of course, the weather is always beautiful here during spring training, but it's just as beautiful during fall league. This is a great time to get outside, to be at the ballpark and watch these guys. AFL opening day featured one of the debacks top pitching pitching prospects,

Slade Sassoni, went two innings with one hit, zero earn runs. He walked four and struck. out one. So great outing outside of the four walks. Yeah, outside of the four walks, which is kind of a lot in, you know, two and a third. Two innings. Yeah, sure. I think he threw more balls than strikes. But I mean, that's, that's, I mean, Slade, he's got a chance to be a really, really good player for the Diamondbacks here coming up soon. And yeah, I mean, he wasn't his sharpest in his first AFL and his first

AFL outing. But I mean, he's still, you know, probably going to be a big part of this Diamondbacks team sooner than later and the opportunity to go out and see him play i mean it's just it's an incredible opportunity i think it was like 75 degrees yesterday oh it was so beautiful it was so beautiful it's ridiculous yeah yeah it was great uh and yeah no i mean again that's the purpose of it right i i like the fact if you want a positive take away that he walked for and didn't give up a run and only gave up the one hit right so he still he got men on base but he was able to not get frazzled by it and to not allow anything further to score because that's still that's you know that's five base runners total so that's not that's not easy to get out of but he still did it successfully and i'm still really

looking forward to him and a lot of the other pitchers they have coming up my question to you though is do you think this abundance of baseball here affects its popularity does the fact that we have baseball all the time kind of make people just i don't know like i think of it again is like you have a nice park by your house that you've always thought about going and having a picnic at or something, but it's right there and you just keep putting it off that you're going to go do it, right? It's almost like baseball feels that way. Like baseball's always here, so it's not as special and you can go see it whenever you want. So it's like, oh, we'll go to a fall league. Those games are kind of fun. And then they come and go and you're like, oh, well, spring training's right around the corner and you have to work during the days and you can't really make it out and, you know, excuse after excuse. But it almost feels at times like, the abundance is, is, affects its popularity, at least here in Arizona. Locals definitely take it for granted. I think there's no question about that. I mean, if this is just sort of happening in your backyard all the time, like you said,

you know, here in Washington, for example, I live about 10 minutes away from a golf course where the U.S. Open was held a few years ago. And it is one of the most gorgeous places you'll ever set foot in your life. It is literally sitting right on Puget Sound. there's like sweeping views with the Olympic mountains of the background. It's like 10 minutes away from my house, Derek. I'm spoiled in my own way out here. But I don't really go there very much because it's just kind of right there.

And the first few times that I went out there, it was this big spectacular experience. I'm taking all these pictures. And now it's just like kind of normal, right? And the same thing I think has happened in Arizona where we have access to baseball, unlike any other state in the country, right? Spring training, the Arizona Fall League, there's really like a two or three month break for the holidays. And other than that, it's basically wall-to-wall baseball for the entire year.

But I got to say, I mean, there are a lot of people that don't take baseball in Arizona for granted. And those are the people who travel a long way every fall and spring to come out here or to come out there to Phoenix and to take it all in. It is a huge, huge tourist attraction for the valley. Just people coming in, especially spring training, the Cactus League, that's one secret that's not out or that is out. Everyone absolutely adores the Cactus League. All of the stadiums are so close to each other.

It's just so accessible. You can go see one team in the morning. You can go see another team, you know, an hour or two later. And it's an incredible experience. And, you know, I think we're probably taking it for granted. a little bit, the people who are local. But there's a reason that so many people flock to Arizona just for that experience every year. Yeah, I always call it the trap because that's when you come in and our weather is at the most

beautiful and you're seeing baseball and, you know, everything just makes you as a visitor say, I want to stay here. I want to live here. And then May comes around and you regret that decision for the rest of your life. But I want to tell you a decision that you're not going to regret is. going to manscape.com and using our code of PHNX to get yourself 20% off plus free shipping on any on the performance package. That's what we want you to get. Get the performance package for your package includes the lawnmower 4.0. I've talked to Jesse about it. It makes him very

uncomfortable every single time. So I'm going to continue talking to him about it and not just on this podcast. I text him about it. I send him emails. I just want to make sure that he got his swag box and that he's utilizing all the tools properly. He doesn't want to hear about nose hair or ear hair, but you guys out there, 40 plus like me, you know what I'm talking about. Get that weed whacker trimmer. Get yourself all lined up. I got very complimented this weekend in Las Vegas Vegas because I was, I was looking very sharp, had the beard going, had everything trimmed up, Jesse. You use your imagination on what that means. But I did take my, you know, I did take my kit with my travel kit with me.

And of course, stayed groomed and looking nice. Vax and waxed, Jesse. You know what I mean? You guys can to go to manscape.com, get that package for 20% off using our code of PHNX. And you'll also get free shipping. And that's not the only thing. We want you to go to draftkings.com and use our code of PHNX over there. I've been suggesting using the code PHNX anywhere you want, see where it works.

But I know for a fact it'll work on. the draft king's sports book app and you can get a hundred dollars in free bets for making a one dollar bet on any NFL game as long as either team scores a single point in that game and that code again the magic skeleton key on the internet is phnx uh jesse who are you liking uh in this game who is your draft king's pick of the week for tonight's game that you and i do not know what is going on yet in Yeah, well, I mean, given that I have no idea what's happening so far, I think the Giants are going to win, Derek. And I'm pretty bold in saying that. And I'm scared that I just jinx them.

But the fact that you bet on the Dodgers, I mean, I feel like that gets us pretty far. Yeah, I mean, already, I know, no matter what people are going to hate this conversation, let me tell you that. Absolutely. They can definitely, the Giants are one and a half. run favorite. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. Okay. You know, I'm interested to

see, but we'll see what happens. Again, I don't know how that to change with the starting pitcher might have affected that as well. The odds do change throughout based on information that comes out. So that's something you always want to keep paying attention to when you're doing draft kings. And

you know, try not to pick the guy that was going to start but didn't start to throw five or more strikeouts like I did. But I wanted to talk about another thing. I know I always like to end on it such a bummer every time, but we had a recent- You picked a good one today. I did. Well, because of what's going on with the AFL and how happy we are that it's around, it's important to keep in mind that these minor league players are not living this glamorous life that we think they are. There was an ESPN article that came out on a mental health crisis that's occurring right now with minor league

players and just the general treatment of minor league players a lot of minor league players do not make a lot of money and i think a lot of people are not only aware of that but they understand why you know they understand that not a lot of people go to minor league games but these are what we're talking about when we're looking at minor league salaries a single a player makes 10,500 dollars in five months of work which really averages out to $525 per week during the season, right? So much like a lot, I mean, these are seasonal part-time jobs, if you will, that these guys have to dedicate their full time to if they want to make it in this sport. AA, 12,600, not that big of a bump, not even that big of a month bump from single A to

AAA. Like, I mean, obviously it's a big bump and the consideration of percentage, right? But still not a lot of extra money going as a AAA ball player. And the bigger factor here is that this contributes to a lot of difficulties for these guys, right? We have young players that are required to work second jobs in order to make ends meet. In the case of this article, it talked about an Angels minor league player, Kieran Lovegrove, who shared his story. on attempting to commit suicide because of it. Basically, as a young high school player, he had a signing bonus of $400,000 that he kind of blew through,

which is understandable because you're high school student and you don't aren't exactly the most responsible person with money, but you go into this job, right? This job that you think is going to bring you riches and fame and everything at the end of the day while playing a sport that you love. And it's such a difficult road in between, that point of being drafted or being, you know, claimed to a minor league team and that road to getting to the majors. I mean, it's not easy.

Like we were talking about before you and I spoke about this, but like Fernando Tatis, there was this information came out about a company that he basically took a loan out on and signed a contract to provide a percentage of future earnings so that they would give him money that he could live on as a minor league player. And it creates this interesting conundrum about would Tatees have gotten to the point that he was at living like a normal minor league player or did that loan get him the advantages he needed to become the player he is today. Right. He talked about using that money on food, on training, on better lodging. He also talked about how like some of his other minor league teammates were just eating really poorly because that's all they could afford fast food and stuff.

So it just goes to show how different this walk is for these young guys. Not to mention, these stories are becoming more and more prominent, right? So it doesn't make it like a glamorous life to a young player who might be deciding on what sport to play. You know, we were talking with our co-workers from PHNX. And, you know, you can kind of imagine why Kyler Murray, who is starting right now for a 5-0 NFL football team as its quarterback, and super famous and known worldwide now as this, as this amazing athlete player probably would be toiling away right now as a double A or AAA guy right now as a minor league

or if he would have chose baseball instead of, instead of football, you know, pretty easy choice. It's a pretty easy choice for him to make. It's hard to blame him for that. Right. I mean,

and it is one of those things that when we talk about building this game, when we talk about so many things, you're really not going to necessarily get this, you know, the interest from guys that are the top athletes, especially if they play multiple sports, you know, hearing stuff like this. But it's, it's just sad. It's sad because, you know,

you understand the minor league system and it's kind of like these AFL games. You go out. It doesn't cost very much to go to them. There's not that many people that go. And they try to do whatever they can to put on a really exciting, entertaining experience that in some cases is better than what you might get. at a major league ballpark. It's a really hard situation.

I mean, on one hand, you have owners where in theory it, in theory where they're coming from sort of makes sense, right? I mean, minor league baseball is not very lucrative, right? Not that many people go to games. Sure. You know, everyone working a minor league baseball game, you know, PR people, you know, on field staff, everyone there is is getting paid dirt. And they do it for, you know, the love of the game and the opportunity to continue to

grow their career. So there's going to be some element of that, right? But it, but it's clearly gotten to an extreme, right, where, where guys just can't really afford to actually live a reasonable lifestyle while they're taking that risk. And, and that's a huge problem. It's, I think a huge part of this calculation is some guys get those big bonuses when they sign, you know, like 400 grand or whatever it was for that one player. Tatis probably got. got a pretty nice number as well when he signed. But not everyone is like that. I mean, those guys, you know, occasionally maybe they blow the money too early or whatnot.

But some guys don't even get that money at all to begin with. They're signing for, you know, a few thousand dollars sort of a situation. And that's not really going to get you very far at all. So you just want to avoid a scenario where the only players who can afford to chase their dream are the ones who have enough money in the bank to support themselves along the way. And that's just a tragedy for, you know, a game that is continuing to try to grow interest among younger audiences. And it's just a lot more attractive to, you know, play other sports rather than take an enormous risk with baseball where you know you're going to have to trudge through like five levels of minor league baseball making nothing before you ever actually get anywhere. I can't help but think how many special players got lost in the process before they got a chance to really show.

what they could do, right? They talk about the mental health with this. And I think everybody can relate to finances affecting your mental health, right? It just even if it does nothing more than, you know, keeps you stressed out and provides sleepless nights, it's enough to throw you off of your game when your job is to be an athlete, you know, where you need to be at your physical peak every day going out there, doing everything you can to get better every single day, but also bringing it 100% every time you're out there on the field, right?

I know it's cliche to say that, but you definitely aren't doing that if you're worrying about getting out of practice to go, you know, pick up your shift at your second job and you're worried about making enough money this month to pay your rent, you know? And again, like you said, everybody's situation's different. There's plenty of minor leaguers that are well taken care of because where they were drafted, signing bonuses, things like that. It's just a shame that the future of this, of this sport is treated so poorly before they get to that point.

I guess it's kind of like, I mean, it reminds me like an old school thing of, you know, like a hazing or almost going through something to make sure that you love it enough to commit to it. You know, so I don't know. I think you really do have to love it a lot for, for you to get there. And it also explains at times why,

why they're going after high school kids because they can still live at home with their parents so don't have to worry about money just yet. They don't have families to support. Yeah. No, I mean, that's a valid point. I think it's hard. I mean, on some level, there is some element to it where you want guys to, you don't necessarily want guys to have like this super lavish comfortable life while they're, you know,

in single A, right? you want them to push themselves to be motivated. But there's just a middle ground here that I think Major League Baseball is missing. And props to some teams that have spoken up on this and have taken a stand on this issue. And I know I read in this article that the Astros are providing like fully furnished housing for a lot of their minor league guys. They don't have to pay for at all. Things like that just go an enormously long way toward really just easing the burden. You know, it's one thing to make a guy's life super lavish.

But it's another thing to just ease a burden and let them really focus on what they're there to do. And as a team, I mean, isn't that just kind of common sense? Like you want. It seems so short-sighted to not take care of them, right? It's like, it's an investment in your team's future, right? Yeah, I mean. You want them to value, like they, you want your players to know that you value them, right? And that's something that will pay dividends for,

years and years in your organization. It's like Ken Kendrick, who would appreciate this analogy, as a baseball collector, getting some rare cards, and then leaving them outside in the Arizona Summer Sun, right? That's a stupid thing to do.

That doesn't make any sense. You're investing money in this thing. Why would you leave it out here by itself not being taken care of to have the elements slowly destroy it and make it no longer a worthwhile investment? It seems to be the same thing with a minor league player. Why would you just leave your minor league players out there, you know,

fending for themselves when you know you agreed not to pay them very much money and then be surprised when so many of them don't pan out. When we talk about how many draft picks don't make it to the major leagues or how many guys that were projected to be great weren't. Well, you don't know how much of this journey affected these guys. And this isn't the only player we've heard of attempting to commit suicide and then not having it happen or having some sort of divine intervention preventing them from dying. But it's something that I don't want to ever hear about with somebody playing a game. It's a game. And I think at the end of the day, so many of these guys see this game as their way out, right? Like we all do. We find a career. We find something we love

and we hope that we can make enough money doing that thing that we will be able to do it successfully forever for the rest of our lives and be happy. And, And it's got to be a hard, you know, it's got to be a hard pill to swallow to get there, to be drafted by a team, to do all the things right. And then, you know, be making $525 a week and scratching your head about how you're going to, you know, keep your lights on, which, which credit card bill you're going to pay or whatever, you know. So again, I'm just, I just love ending the show on a high note.

So yeah, you really do, Derek. You really knocked it out of the park today. Well, let's, let's turn things around. and I just want to remind everybody, I'm wearing this sweet, sweet D-Back shirt right now. I no longer have to call myself occasionally known as I am just the mayor. The undeniable, you can't even argue it with it anymore. It's undisputed, the undisputed mayor of PHNX. So it's a great day.

Baseball's on. Go watch it. Enjoy yourself. Have a fun time. I don't care if you're a Diamondbacks fan. I know you hate both of these teams and I get it. let's uh let's let's let's watch one of them get knocked out and hey maybe uh maybe the braves pull off something special and knock the other one out the next round go go giants though right i mean

like let's be real here we want go dodgers i had money on the dodgers so no go job go dodgers that that made me sick so saying that but anyway um go blue so i can win some money uh you guys can't too remember phnx on draft kings uh also go to phnx uh you can go to phnx uh you can Go to our website, sign up for membership. It's go PHNX.com. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at PHNX Sports. Subscribe, hit the reminder, get notified of all the great Arizona sports content that's coming your way from this website. Let me tell you, I love our other shows and I love my coworkers.

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