PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - What a wild Wild Card Round it was to kick off the MLB playoffs

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

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Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I'm your mayor of PHNX. This guy is the Thunderstick. He's also the vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Did you eat some good cheese steaks over the weekend? Oh, my God. The cheese steaks were so good, Jesse.

As good as advertised, let me tell you. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. I was in the Northeast area this past weekend. I was watching a lot of the postseason MLB games on, you know, hotel bars and whatnot. And I had a lot of fun watching it. What a wild, wildcard weekend we had, Jesse. I was going to pick your thoughts.

What was the biggest thing that stood out to you? Anything surprising? I know the Mariners had the big comeback. So that was kind of incredible. The Mariners did have an incredible comeback. there were a lot of great things that happened over the weekend. I mean, I guess great sort of depends on who you're talking to. Yeah.

But, you know, for us as outsiders in this situation, there was a lot of entertaining baseball over the weekend. And it was a lot of fun just, yeah, sitting on my couch at home and just watching baseball game after baseball game after baseball game. It was really incredible. There was a pretty wild game that went to 15 innings. which was incredibly memorable, the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays.

That was one of the most incredible games that I've ever seen. Right, the longest scoreless game in MLB. In MLB postseason history. And it was interesting that, you know, in the playoffs, they don't start with the Ghost Runner on second base.

Right. I know some. What the fuck is that about? Well, I think the heart of the Ghost Runner rule is that you, during the regular season, it's 162 games. We just want these games to end.

You know, we don't want guys to burn out because they just played a six-hour baseball game, you know? Sure. So during the regular season, it makes sense. But during the postseason, you don't really have like, oh, we need this game to end. You know, we really just want this game to be played as fairly as possible. And for the best team to come out the winner in the end. And that was the Cleveland Guardians as Oscar Gonzalez hit a very, very memorable walkoff home run in that game. I don't know how I feel about that because on one hand.

the rule in the playoffs? I think that's it. It's a little weird. I can't imagine any other sport really doing that. Like I understand like an NFL game can end in a tie or a hockey game can end in a tie during the regular season. But then during the postseason, there has to be a winner, right? So like I get that.

And this is maybe the closest, that's probably the closest comparison to that, right? Because other games can, like baseball can't end in a tie. Yeah. That's one wonderful thing about baseball is it can never end in a tie. And the reason why, like, football games and hockey games end in ties is because similar to the ghost runner rule, they don't want these games going on potentially forever, right? And you can still play a viable regular season with a few ties in there and still be able to distinguish, like, the better teams from the not so good teams, right? Like, it's okay if there's a few ties in your record at the end of the year. And this isn't as big as like adding a fourth strike during the playoffs or something, right?

It's not like it's that big of a deal. But I just think also it's kind of silly because to me it what it feels like to me is like the ghost runner rule is garbage and we don't want it when the games actually count. But then the rest of the time it does feel like like sort of admitting that it is not an ideal rule. Yeah, not the best way. Yeah. Like we do this, but it's not really the best thing for the sport. We just do it because we don't want these games to go forever. But yeah, I mean, it was it was funny.

I think people who advocate for the Ghost Runner were maybe looking at this game that went 15 innings. And they were like, hey, this is why we have this rule. It's to avoid five-hour games like this. But it was a very entertaining baseball game. And it just made the walkoff Homer that much more. You know, it was one of the best moments in, you know, Cleveland Guardians. It's so good. It's so good.

So it was really incredible. And it's much better when set to the Moneyball music, if you guys have seen it. The video that was, it's really, it's really much, much better that way. By the way, I talked to some Cleveland fans when I was at the airport and I just once again got confirmation how much they love the Guardian's name and the logos and everything. Interesting. What's interesting about that is the Indians have been around for a long time. There's a lot of fans.

It's an historically important team. I guess not success wise, but still historically important. But still controversial. The name has been controversial, especially their logos. We're very controversial at times. So I just I've never seen like this smooth of a transition from you know like a team that's been around this long from one name to another right like sure it was really well done and I think the key that I got back from them and from some other articles I read was that they just did it they did it about something that only people from Cleveland would really know about like this bridge with these guardian statues and using kind of a similar imagery for the logo and stuff sure it was all very well done sure shout out to Cleveland for making it the youngest team in the postseason advances uh Seattle obviously another very exciting team one that was a wild one in a wild game the I don't want to talk about it I know I'm so sorry I was I was sitting with a

Toronto Blue Jays fan and I hugged him after the game like we actually embraced and I was like I'm so sorry the eight to one comeback win by the mariners is the biggest road comeback win in playoff history uh it also involved I think it wasn't just coming back and winning But there was an absolutely horrific scene in the eighth inning with a collision between Bichette and George Springer. George Springer. Yeah, who was carted off the field. He was carted off the field. Like, it was just awful.

And I just, I gasped when I saw it. Like, again, I was watching it on a hotel bar TV and with no sound. And I just couldn't believe what I saw awful, like to add that literal injury to the comeback. But as just insult to injury. Insult to injury. We're adding injury to the insults. I don't know. Yeah.

Makes sense. But Jesse and I have both agreed that now we are one 100% adopting the Seattle Mariners as our team. Yeah. If you follow us on Twitter, which you absolutely should at P.H and X underscore Dback. Why aren't you already? It's a Mariners stand account at this point. So whether you like it or not, that's just sort of what we are.

We're 90s kids now. I'm going to introduce Jesse to all the 90s stuff he missed. We're going to get Ken Griffey jerseys and I don't know, someone else. But the other thing that's pretty exciting that I saw our friend Melissa or no, Elizabeth in the comments, was excited about. The Mets are no longer in baseball. Seeing the Mets get eliminated in person was incredible. 10-10, no notes. Mets Twitter wanted Joe Musgrove to be immediately removed from the game and ostracized forever for allegedly having.

some sort of sketchy substance on his ear that they kept seeing him go to. I thought it looked like sweat to me personally. It was very glisteny. It was very shiny. It was glistened. I don't know if you've ever had your ears sweat. It's weird. My ears don't sweat often.

But I've had times where my ears sweat. It's one of the grossest things ever. I don't even know why. Probably due to humidity. I'm not used to it. I don't do well in human climates. But I will say that must. Like the weird thing is it was eventually checked by the umpire, right?

And there was nothing on there. And like there is no sticky substance in the human history that would come off that quickly. So that a right. Because people were, uh, apparently and I mean, there is video evidence of this. I guess not just apparently Joe Musgrove sort of like rubbed it off his shoulder like rubbed his ear on his shoulder. Did one of these jobs. Yeah. Yeah.

Which and people noticed that that happened right before he was checked. And so there was some speculation from the Mets fan base that, you know, he probably did have something on his ear and he just got it off, you know, right in time. But, yeah, like that's not really how sticky substances work. You can't rub them off on your shirt and have them come off instantly. You need like that orange spray to really get off or some rubbing alcohol. There has to be some sort of chemical reaction going on there in order to, in order for that to happen. The other thing is if you watch the John Boy breakdown of this, which was very well done, as always. They point out that if you watch pretty much the entire game,

they walk through the entire game and Joe Musgrove's mannerisms throughout the game, he never once goes to his ear in order to, you know, as he's rubbing up the baseball. Like in the moments where it would have made sense for him to touch his ear, you know, as he's rubbing up the baseball or whatnot. Like we saw earlier with the allegations that one of the pitchers had like stuff in his hair. Yeah.

He kept going to the back of his head the entire game, right? But that was more of the reason. reason why that was an issue was because of the constant going to that area that made them suspicious. Right. This, I think, came from like some Twitter detectives that were watching the game and doing like screenshots. It came from the fact. And Buck Showalter did allude to this in his post-game press conference. Joe Musgrove's spin rates were pretty high yesterday.

He was dealing. He was dealing. He was excellent in that game. And so, you know, generally speaking, there's, and I think there's a lot of truth to this, that, you know, if you have some sort of sticky stuff on your hands that helps you grip the baseball better, that would naturally lead to having higher spin rates. And his spin rates were pretty significantly higher than his season averages. More than 100 RPM.

I think there were a couple pitches that were about 200 RPM on average higher than his season average for the year. So I understand the Mets wanting to check and make sure on this. His velocity was up as well. And I think that's what from my standpoint makes it less. suspicious because if your velocity is higher, which happens, right, in like big moments and big adrenaline, you know, games like this one, if your velocities higher, your spin rate is also higher just naturally. Those things go hand in hand. So the fact that his spin rate was higher was

probably just because he was boosted by adrenaline and was throwing harder anyway. So I don't think there was really anything to this. And after the game, Buck Show alter was just like, yeah, I get a lot of information in the dugout and I'm always going to do what's best for the New York Mets. And in that moment, that's what I thought was best. I don't even, I don't even think that it's the worst thing, right? Because they're supposed to be checking. But if you think that an umpire is missing potentially the area where he could be hiding something, you know, then that's, you know, a valid reason to request checking a specific

area. But you also look like, uh, like you're just kind of grasping at straws for a pitcher dominating you. Yeah. And that's what Joe Musgrove said after the game is like, yeah, they were desperate, you know, they're trying to get me out of the game. And I don't blame him for, you know, doing everything that they possibly could. Maybe even getting into his head and making him a little self-conscious and then that maybe he doesn't pitch as well. Just anything you could do. It did not. It did not. It's an elimination game, right, though. So you want to try to make sure that you're at least doing everything you can. His spin rates actually went higher after it was checked. So he's going to spite them now. That's what he did. and gave him maybe a little extra boost out there. They pissed him off.

They absolutely did. Three matchups in the division series are now between rivals, division rivals. Let's take a look at that. We got the Mariners Astros. We have the Padres, Dodgers, and we have the Phillies Braves, with Guardians and Yankees being the only matchup between non-division rivals. But this is very exciting, Jesse. I'm excited for this.

I'm also terrified because I feel like. Like the teams I want to see advance are not going to be the teams to advance, right? And I don't mean that. You think it's going to be Astros, Yankees, Braves, Dodgers? It's just going to be the four by teams. Right. I almost feel. But, I mean, what we saw in this first round was very surprising.

You brought up the Cardinals being eliminated and how kind of bonkers that was, right? Yeah. I blame myself for being in Philadelphia holding things down while the Phillies and Eagles were elsewhere beating up on teams named the Cardinals. That's on me, you guys. I apologize. They were like Derek's got that city on lock. We made him mayor.

So we don't have to worry about things going wrong in the city of brotherly love. But it's definitely a fun postseason so far. And I think it's only going to heat up here in the division round. So that's going to be exciting. Of course, make sure to stay tuned to this guy right here on go phtnx.com. He is not only bringing you all of the information about the Diamondbacks, but also about the fall league, giving you six reasons to go out and check. out the fall league. Jesse got to go out to some games this weekend on Friday. How was it?

It was so lovely. It was magical, wasn't it? Yeah. Well, it was really cool outside that day, too. It was overclassed in like 82 degrees and it was wonderful. I love how 82 is cool. Oh, 82 is beautiful. No, I know it is, but like anywhere else in the country, 82 is not cool. 82 is a warm summer's day elsewhere. Yeah. There was like a gorgeous rainbow as well as I was leaving the ballpark. But aside from the weather, I guess the baseball was pretty good too. You care about the weather. Go out and check out some Arizona Faulty games. It's absolute blast. I don't know if today's the day.

It seems pretty hot out today. I have no idea. See, I go back east and now I'm just wearing hoodies all the time. It's like I'm broken. This one's pretty sweet, you have to admit. But anyway, make sure to check out our website at go phtonx.com. If you haven't done so already, get yourself an annual membership. You'll get a free t-shirt like this good boy, coyote behind me.

Cody, he's such a good boy. They just restocked the purple ones. They got the purple ones back in stock. And the other circle logo. The Mosaic Coyote. I have that one. I love that shirt. So whatever shirt you want over at the PHNX Locker.com is yours with the annual membership.

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press box at the Salt River at Salt River Fields right now. Freeland, 3Len-178-7. Greetings from the Salt River Greetings to you, sir. Keep us updated. He said, gave us a DeLos Santos update there for a moment. Davis and Delos Santos did start out. Josh Hutz says the Mosaic Coyote is one of the best

designs in the locker. I couldn't agree more. I like all the coyotes. I'm so jealous of the coyote shirts. Yeah. I'm not just saying that because Leah's in here. I just mean it. I'm just jealous and petty, but I also own all of them,

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Plus, here's the thing. Right now, you will receive a $100 gift card for every $1,000 you spend. So they're hooking you up over at more, just like all of our sponsors are. All of our sponsors are hooking you up, making sure your life is better, and we love them for it. So thank you guys for being here, and thank you to all of our partners for helping us keep this thing going. And of course, we want to give a shout out to Shark Week, because every week on the show, Shark Week, you give a shout out to Earth Day because every day here's Earth Day. And of course, you guys know what we do on Monday. Let's go the mailbag. I'll have no box. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my

mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go. Wow, wow, my mailbox. I am sick of listening to that guy's voice. Let me tell you. You got a little too much over the weekend. Oh, man, I'd go to three different concerts with him this weekend. But, no, I joke. Thank you to Megaran.

By the way, I want to sincerely thank him for not only that song, but for letting me join him on his little part of his tour this weekend. I realized how hard it is to be a touring artist, Jesse. These guys, you know, you all kind of dream of being like, I'd love to be a rapper. I'd love to be like a musician. No, you don't. Oh, man, these guys are putting in 12-hour days.

It's not the easy life. You think you're seeing it on Instagram. Let me tell you. But of course, it's Monday. We want to know your guys. It's your question. So, Leah, what's our first question from the mailbag? Our man, Gabriel, says,

can Loller move to third when he's up next year? That way, Perdomo still has time to grow as a major leaguer and become a superstar. He clearly is or will be. There's a lot of fucking confidence in that question. First of all, no, I don't want Loller move. to third. I want Lawler to stay right where he's at in shortstop. If anything, I would rather sacrifice Geraldo Perdomo to moving to third and trying to play that position more than I would want to do anything to impact Lawler's trajectory to his progress as a major leaguer. Loller, to me, is one of the most important parts of the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise right now.

So I would not jeopardize anything to put Loller in a different position than where he naturally plays the best. I think he could play third base Like defensively probably has the skills to do it It seems like his his arm Holds up well enough where he could probably He could probably play third base I don't think Perdomo moving to third Whatever makes sense because he's just not going to have the bat

To play there Yeah At third base you know you need the bat to kind of play up a little bit Yeah there is a lot of confidence In that question about Geraldo Perdomo's future Which I respect right I mean he's the risk king For a reason

He was incredibly clutch for the diamondbacks in a lot of big spots, but you look at the numbers overall, and I think it's a little bit hard to convince yourself. At least it's hard for me to convince myself that Geraldo Perdomo is the shortstop of the future, you know, or is necessarily going to be a difference maker at the big league level. Not to say he couldn't do it, but I know we saw some good signs from Perdomo throughout the year.

His approach at the plate is generally pretty solid. He doesn't strike out very much. But those things aside, like if you just look at the numbers that he posted last year, there haven't been that many players in the big leagues who managed to put together really nice careers who started the way that Perdomo has started. Like his numbers this last, this season were quite bad. He had an OPS plus around 60, I want to say. So he was a well below average offensive player. And it's not to say he couldn't turn things around, but there aren't that many guys who started that level, you know, and find their way in. to a nice big league career.

So we'll have to see. But I think Jordan Lawler is probably your shortstop of the future, although I do think defensively he could manage the change at third base if that was needed at some point. Brian Abdallah in the comments brings up that Nick will be back next year, of course. Yeah. We also have that Michael McDermott said looking at Lawler so far in the fall league, the arm is a bit disappointing. And yeah, I mean, I guess I could definitely see that, especially when, I mean, at this point,

I don't know if he's going full speed, but you'd like to make sure that like the fundamentals are there. Yeah. There were some loopy throws when I was at the fall league over the weekend from Lawler. So I definitely see where Michael's coming from on that. I think the athleticism is in there. I think he would have the ability to play third if he needed to. But if you can play shortstop, I mean, that's a more valuable defensive position anyway. Jesse and I are going to admit something to you and just give you heads up right now.

When you go out to an Arizona fall league, you're going to. to see garbage baseball. You're gonna probably see some of the worst baseball you've ever seen played in your life. And I'm not describing one individual. I'm just saying if you think the sixth and seventh inning of a spring training game is bad, buckle up because that shit starts an inning one in a ball league game. Wow, you're just coming. You're just.

Are you not? Are you not sometimes? Well, here's the thing. I know what you mean. I know what you mean. I guess. I feel like watching a high school game, though. I guess by comparison, the idea here is that major leaguers, big leaguers,

make this game look so much easier than it actually is. So when you watch this game, there are some routine plays that you would expect people to make that they absolutely do not. Fly balls and the sun getting lost. I mean, it's not like if you go to a Folly game, like guys are clinking fly ball, like pop-ups left and right. They absolutely are. They absolutely are. These guys are in like double. They'll be big leaguers in like a year or two.

I hope they're not clinking fly balls at this point. All right, Leah. What's our next question? This one's interesting. From Brett Lee Johnson, he says with the Braves signing Strider to that extension, what do you think would be a realistic deal to get Gallen to serve long term while addressing the bullpen issues, whether it be through a trade or free agent market? I'm not worried about the bullpen issues when it comes to Zach Gallen.

I'm more worried about signing Zach Gallen. I think Zach Gallen is an absolute priority for the Diamondbacks to sign long term. I don't know how they get it done. Yeah. But I think it's an absolute priority for them to do so. What the Braves have done to lock up not only Spencer Strider, but their core. Everyone. Everyone is one of the most incredible things in baseball history.

Yeah. I mean, you would have to go back to the good old days of baseball. like pre-1970 and stitch. Not even, is that the good old days? I probably say not, but you get what I'm saying. Like,

you'd have to go back a long time when baseball wasn't nearly as financially lucrative as it is now to find a time where a team was able to keep a, you know, a squad full of solid players like the Braves had,

have together for as long as these guys are going to be together. It's an absolute dream of ours that the Arizona Diamondbacks can do something like this with their young players that are coming up right now. It really just is a question

of how do they do it. I think the idea there is by seeing financially, the road ahead is going to be much more expensive than doing it now. So whatever you can really sign Zach Gallen to now is going to be a deal in the future. I don't think you have to kind of worry about Zach Gallen's future. And if he's worth like top starting pitching money, he's absolutely worth it. And you need to try to lock him in before the real seriously competitive offers

until stuff starts getting like crazy. And people start throwing amounts of money at him that he can't turn down. The Diamondbacks need to get a deal done. It's an imperative for this franchise. I think Spencer Strider, like that deal is more analogous to what the team could do with, say, Corby Carroll or Jordan Lawler when he comes up. Spencer Strider, this is his rookie year, right? He's only been in the big leagues for a few months now. Zach Gallen has been in the big leagues for several years at this point.

Breaking MLB records and setting all sorts. You know what I mean? Yeah, and he's going to finish top five in Cy Young voting this year. So you don't see, especially Scott Boris candidates or Scott Boris clients, I should say, as we've talked about in the past, you don't see many Scott Boris clients, you know, halfway through their rookie deal signed big extensions. There's a reason for that. Yeah, it's not something that.

And it's not to say that Scott Boris has never done extensions. If you go through his history as an agent, he has had some clients who have done that. But I'm not sure we've ever seen one quite like what would have to happen if, you know, a deal like that came down with Zach Gallen. He's just so, so good at this point. And I'm guessing that they probably view free agency as the best route there. So I think for the debacks, it's more about can you lock up Corbyn Carroll, you know, can you lock up Jordan Lawler when he comes up here? You know, maybe Dalton Varsho or Jake McCarthy or guys that you feel the same way about at some point. Alec Thomas is another name that comes to my.

Those are the deals that I think are maybe at the forefront of their minds right now. It's not to say a Zach Gallen deal couldn't be done, but I would be, I'd be pretty surprised. And I think at this point, you're already looking at, you know, probably $30 million a year for any year that you wanted to extend him with. So, you know, they already have him for three more seasons. Are you interested in extending Zach Gallen for $30 million a year beyond that? That's sort of the question that you're looking at now. And would Zach Gallen and Scott Boris even accept that if the Diamondbacks wanted to go that route?

I don't know. And you also have the potential for the Diamondbacks to have success in that time and Zach Gowan to be a big part of that success, which is only going to further raise his stock. I'll ask you this, and basing this on nothing, I'm not actually expecting you to know any kind of, this is pure speculation. Okay. Do you think the Diamondbacks are pessimistic about resigning Zat Gowan? Do you think internally that they? have their doubts that it's going to happen as much as we have our guys. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. I do. I think

that it's it's something that I'm sure they would be interested in, but I don't even know if those conversations make it very far at this point. So yeah, not impossible, but Zach Allen has played his way into being a, like I said, a 30 plus million dollar per year player at this point. And you still have them under control for three years. So it's not. Not like if you don't do this, you know, he's going to be a free agent at the end of next season or anything. But I understand why people are asking about that over and over again. You don't want to see him go anywhere else. Yeah, Zach Gallen is like one of the crown jewels right now, the Diamondbacks.

They don't have many of those, right? And we've talked about how good Merrill Kelly has been for this team. And Merrill Kelly still doesn't, as good as he is, as good as his record and his numbers might indicate afterwards. He still just doesn't have that same dominance, that same stuff we've seen out of Zach Gallen. So that's why time and back signed Merrill Kelly to a two year 18 million dollar extension. I know less than a year ago with a team option for seven million dollars for 2025. You're not getting Zach Gallen for that. That's for sure.

No, not at all. Leah, what else we got? If we had a minor league team in Arizona, what city would you put them in? What would the team name be? What would their colors be? And what are you picking as a mascot? Sidewinder is cheating. I know that. Wow.

That's that is a question. Good. That's a good question. That's a lot in there, Josh. You're giving us a lot to work with. Jesse, I'll let you start off. Actually, you know what? Can I take it? Can I take it? Go for it. Yes, go for it, please. Most people might not know this, but this is something that came into my realm recently. Arizona is the home of one of the oldest, not one of, actually, the oldest active ballpark in the United States of America. It was built five years before Wrigley Field. It's called Warren Ballpark and it's located in Bisbee, Arizona.

Nice. Now, that is where I want to put a minor league team. Bisbee is like kind of a Western sort of town, right? Yes. Not that many people live there, I don't think. I feel like calling them the Bisbee Frisbee's is the right move. A little animated like cartoon mascot looks a little bit like Mario's. hat. I don't know if you're familiar with the Mario Odyssey game, right? But yes, the Warren

Ballpark actually looks like something that is out of like a league of their own. It's that, it's the old school like the people like the stands are pretty much behind, you know, the home plate and they're covered and it's wooden stands. It's incredible, right? So this is definitely something that would not only honor baseball, but I think would be very cool to just see baseball games played in a park like that. It would be awesome. The Bisbee, Frisbee. That's it. That's outstanding. All right.

What do you got? So I would put a Diamondbacks minor league team in Flagstaff. Okay. Because flagstaff, decent-sized town, right? Could maybe support a baseball team. And also Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet elevation, which I believe would be the highest elevation of any minor league in the country. Home runs.

You want to talk about Reno being a hitter-friendly ballpark? Just wait until you see the ball flying flagstaff. I don't know if I have a great team name. like the Flagstaff Evergreens, I guess. Oh, that's good. I like that. I like trees. I like tree names.

Yeah. I'm cool. I'm cool with that. I don't know. I don't know. I like that. Flagstaff evergreens. We wouldn't put it in Tucson.

No. Tucson doesn't deserve it. No, Tucson. No, Leia says no Tucson slander in the chat. Come on. We'll do Tucson slander on the show. No.

We call it Northern Ogalas here. No. I have the power to mute your mics. No. Elizabeth said Tombstone Sheriffs. like that. I like that very much. Nice, nice. But here's a thing,

Jesse. I've been watching a Disney Plus show called Shehulk that many of you love and more of you probably hate. And I have never heard of. Shehawk is a great show. But if there's a place that I'm going to put a baseball team in this town and I know that I want it packed

and I want money, I want the money to be there, it's Scottsdale. So what better mascot to have for a Scottsdale minor league team than the Scottsdale Madison's. We're talking about with two ends and a Y and not where you think it goes. That spelling hurts me.

Yeah, that's good, right? The Scottsdale Madison's. I mean, that's perfect, right? Like that's,

if you want, come on, if you want a mascot that's like, that, that says the town, there you go. Would they just play at Scottsdale Stadium then? Yeah,

they play at Scottsdale Stadium. There would be a big Madison mascot. She would look like that, but it wouldn't be an actual. woman. It would be like a foam character and a suit. Okay. Dressed in looking like that. All right. Yeah. I can get behind it.

Yeah, Ben says Scottsdale is you more than Tucson. No, sir. No, it is not. Go to go to a San Francisco Giants minor league team. Minor league game. Minor league game team. Myr league game. See what you if you change your mind about that. I was actually jealous

of Giants minor league games because of the crowd attendance and how everybody there is something. Somehow a Giants fan. That's such a strong percentage. It's impressive. There were Cardinals, like a lot of Cardinals fans at the Falle game I went to over the weekend, which I guess makes sense.

Tyler O'Neill played in that game on his way back from injury. I guess he's an option maybe for them in the postseason. But it was just like so, like Cardinals fans just show up everywhere. Like if there's a Cardinals player anywhere, I swear there are going to be fans. Bouter Blue jersey somewhere. They're going to be. They're going to be around. Josh Hens says the Scottsdale Open shirt

Derricks, let's go! I'm down with it. Let's go. All right, what else you've got? If you had to trade hair with another PHNX employee, who you pick in? Oh my God. I'm taking Lindsay Smith.

That's who I'm going with. Interesting. Lindsay has incredible hair. And the worst part about it is you wouldn't know that because she hides it underneath that wool cap all the time. You know, you would think that there's like there's something going on

there. It's not. It's just more beautiful hair. It doesn't make any sense. And yeah, that's who I trade with. I'm going to take Jesse's form. I want him trading with Sean to pause for obvious reasons. That's who I think. I would love Sean. I think Shane said that. That would be fascinating. That would be fascinating.

But yes. Oh, David, you and David. Yes. Yes, Josh. I don't think I could pull off what David has. Oh, my God. I don't know. We're going to, we're going to Photoshop that and figure it out later.

I also don't know if you could pull off Lindsay's hair. That seems like a bit of an odd fit. I could take Tootry's hair. I think Tootry. Tootry, you know. We're going in a similar direction. I just have less of my hair. And it's not, it's less every day.

I think Johnny Venerable. Johnny Venerable's hair is a little bit underrated in my mind. Yeah. Yeah. All right. There's your answers. We give you answers. This is what we're here for.

You can ask anything you want on this show. That's what Mondays are all about. But of course, you should probably be on some OGs, and that would probably make this segment even funnier if you were taking some OGs. If you haven't tried OGs, make sure to stop by your local dispensary. Try out our friends from OGs. They are absolutely flavoring life. They have a wide variety of doses and flavors for you to enjoy.

But the big option right now is the Sleep Edition gummy. It's flavored as an aqua berry, which as we know is Aquaman berries. It's farmed by Aquaman. It's delicious. And more importantly, it'll help you get the best night's sleep you ever had. It'll help you not only fall asleep, but stay asleep with their 2 to 1, THC to CBN ratio. CBN is a compound, obviously, that definitely hurts or helps with sleeping. I'm being distracted by Ben talking about how good my facial hair is.

And I can't even think right now, Ben. Appreciate you. But we highly recommend you check out OGs online at OGsbrands.com or on Instagram at OGs Brands. It is absolutely the best way to enjoy maybe an Arizona Falle League game, maybe the postseason at home with your friends. Check out our friends at OGs. Must be 21 years or older to purchase and enjoy responsibly. And speaking of enjoying responsibly, make sure to act responsibly when you go to Four Peaks Brewing Company and get in on their spooky season tour, their haunted brewery tour that you can get down on at the Four Peaks Brewing Company that made Saul run like a small child around from monsters and all sorts of. of scary things.

You can do that over at Four Peaks Brewing Company. Make sure to check that out Monday through Wednesday, 7 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. Two tours per night. And of course, we have some pretty fun things. We're cooking up with our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company as well. So make sure to stay tuned for that. Until then, grab yourself some Four Peaks from your local grocery store, whatever variety you enjoy.

Hopnot IPA is one of my favorites as well as the Wow Joy Bus, whatever you guys get. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy that responsibly as well. Leah, do we have more mailbag questions? Let's go. Brian Bobbitt on Twitter asks, what prospect outside of the D-BACS organization are you excited to see in the fall league? I think Jesse and I agree

because we've had a chance to see this guy play a bit for the Salt River Rafters, but Zach Veen for the Colorado Rockies is incredibly fun to watch. And I think this guy is going to be a huge star in Major League Baseball. I saw Jordan Walker, the Cardinals Outfielder prospect,

hit a very long, no doubt, home run when I was out at Salt River Fields the other day. He's, I mean, he's honestly probably the biggest name in the Arizona Fall League. He is the highest ranked prospect. And after seeing him in person, you can kind of see what all the hype is about. So, yeah, I've enjoyed seeing Jordan Walker play, and the Cardinals might have something there. He looks pretty good. He looks pretty darn good. And he was also mobbed with fans afterwards wanting his autograph, and he was great about.

signing for pretty much everyone who asked for it. So that's another reason to come out to the fall league. It really is. Guys really do sign autographs pretty much. You can show up and it's close to a guarantee that whoever you want, if they're playing in the game, they're probably going to be willing to do that for you. And there's still a lot of enthusiasm on their part.

Not to say that there isn't amongst major leaguers. Like sometimes I'm still even kind of floored by how excited guys like Christian Walker and such get to sign autographs at the Diamondbacks games. Jesse's absolutely right. It's not just it's not just the ease. It's the variety, right? You're going to see one team and there's six, seven, eight different, you know, teams worth of prospects being represented on that one team. So it's a great opportunity to see lots of guys, to get lots of autographs. A lot of those guys in a few years getting their autograph is going to be significantly more difficult than it is right now. So get in, get in early while you can at the Arizona Fall League. All right. What's what we got next? Spencer Spice, our friend at Spencer underscore Ogarra says, if fought, Walston, and Chaconi are all prepared to debut before next October, would you try to match them up against San Diego as a starter,

or just let them taste the bullpen before trying out the starting rules as injuries occur or 24th spring training? They're definitely debuting against San Diego. Everybody's debuting against San Diego. That's the way that. When I first read this question, I genuinely didn't get it. I was like, what do the Padres have to do with anything? But now it makes so much more sense.

Right. No, those Padres, man, that's easy pickings for a new pitcher for some reason. I don't know. I think that a big part of it is, you know, which one of, how are guys going to work out? How are they going to work these young guys into whatever role they're obviously going to be in? Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen, you know, that's pretty much two starting rotation spots, along with Madison Bumgarner, for being honest. Three that aren't. They didn't commit to it.

Tori Lavello said he wants Mad Bum to be in the rotation, but the competition is fierce. Oh. Oh. But of course he kind of has to say that. He's not going to come out and say like, yes, Mad Bum can go goof off the whole off season. He has a guaranteed spot, right? He's going to go ride horses and rope cabs. But here's the thing.

At least two of the starting rotation spots are taken up. And with the way that some of the young guys have pitched, I mean, it almost feels like other spots are kind of leaning already in their direction, right? Drey Jamison and Ryan Nelson, if they're healthy next year. Sort of hard to see how they wouldn't wind up with one of those spots. So it does feel like the Diamondbacks are going to have to figure something out with some of these young guys that are coming up. Brandon Fott, their minor league pitcher of the year probably has a pretty good opportunity and chance of staying as a starter. But other guys who knows, who knows about Ryan Nelson, Dre Jemison, right?

I mean, everybody's future is kind of uncertain at this point, especially considering how new they are to the major league roster or some of them haven't. you get and what the diamond backs really want to try to formulate as a game plan to help this team be successful right yeah i think slate sikoni and blake waltston two of the names mentioned there probably would be at the toward the end of the year right i mean those guys um you know in double a this year so they're probably going to get a look in triple a to start next year they still have a little bit of a ways to go uh brandon fought on the other hand has done pretty much everything you could possibly have asked for in AAA. So he could be an option to start on opening day. Well, maybe not on opening day, but an opening, he could be a in the starting rotation

as of opening day. Are you trying to say? Brandon Fott, opening day's starter for the Diamondbacks of 2020. You heard it here first. That would be wild. But yeah, with him and Dre Jameson and Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson, you know, you've got four names there plus mad bum Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly. I mean that's seven starters right there. You kind of feel like the opening five will come out of that group of seven with Walston and

Cicconi maybe being candidates later in the year. All right. What else we got? Leah. Daniel asked, is Wawa as good as everyone says? Let's go. All right, Jesse. I don't know. Let me take over on this Yeah, I have no idea. All right. It's hard to explain Wawa. I think I think the way I'm going to start off is like the expectations, the legend of some place like Buckees in Texas or like Wawa in like the East kind of grows. It's bigger than, you know, it's hard to live up to the fame to the reputation that they have. Wawa is like a quick trip, but times a thousand, right? Quick trip has food. It's not very good. Wawa is delicious. Wawa has a wide variety of foods. And more importantly, you can walk into a Wawa at three o'clock in the morning. And there will be 20 people there waiting

for food. It'll be a wide melting pot variety of people drunk, drug addicts, people who have to be at work at 4 a.m., college kids, people that just don't sleep well, and everybody will be talking about the birds, which I, as the Eagles apparently, and

everybody will kind of be both surly and nice at the same time. But you will get yourself an Oreo milkshake. You will get a turkey gobbler sandwich, Jesse, which is like a Thanksgiving sandwich on all the fixing on it on a hokey.

They love their hoagies out there. You'll get French fries, macaroni and cheese and a cassidia. And that all will cost you $16.75 cents. So that's why Wawa is so good. I can't explain it. I don't know why we ate there so much. Megaran

any opportunity he had to take me to Wawa to eat. We went. It was like, oh, there's this nice sit-down restaurant. He's like but Wawa. I guess that's the problem is, is that it was too much of go to it too many times. It's too convenient. There's always people like three o'clock in the morning. There's three people there to cook your food.

What is going on? It's amazing. I don't know how they do it. But yes, I will say it's the greatest fast food like restaurant, gas station fast food combo I've ever been to in my life. And the pretzels are incredible too. And I don't know how that's even possible. Should we be concerned that when I Google Wawa, I get an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer that says, Philly Kids ransacking Wawa was, quote, a scene from the

apocalypse. Yeah. Well, like I said, it's 3 o'clock in the morning and there's 20 people in there. You expect everybody to behave themselves. Come on, Jesse. It's Philadelphia. What else we got, Leah? All right. Don Spread says, here's the situation. Your life is on the line. You're able to choose an AZD back

to fight for your life against a UFC fighter. They win, you survive, they lose, you die. But I'm guessing you lose is also appropriate there. Who would you choose? Jesse, I want to let you go first.

Okay. We've answered questions like sort of similar to this in the past. Never this exact situation. Right. This is very, this is very dire.

Yeah. Yeah, this one is, the stakes are a little bit higher with this one than what we normally get. I'm going to have to agree with Michael McDermott in the comments.

Stone Garrett is, I mean, we call him Stone Cold Garrett for a reason. We really do. And he is a very large man. A very large, well-built man. Yeah.

So I think I have to go with Stone Garrett on this one. I'm going to take an interesting direction here. Is it Joshua Ross? I feel like you think I'm going to say Joshua Ross or Madison. Absolutely. We answer one of those two guys for 90% of these types of questions. I'm not saying either of those individuals, Jesse, because there's one person who I can think of, and that is Tori Lovelo. Nice.

Here's the reason why. That sounds like a horrible decision. Tori Lovalo is a fighter. And Tori LeVolo would do anything for me. Okay. Right. That's what I'm saying. Tori LaVallo loves me. Have you seen the picture of me and Tori Laval? Have you seen how much much joy I brought to that man, he would do anything for me. And if he knew that my life was on the line, much like any of his players, Tori would fight to the death for me. You know? And here's the thing. Yes, yes. He says a UFC fighter, but it doesn't say a UFC sanctioned fight. So Tori's the kind of guy that, you know, understands that if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, he's going to thumb this guy to the eye.

He's going to fish hook him. He's going to do all the things that aren't allowed in a UFC fight. And he is going to make sure that I stay in pristine condition, untouched and alive. That's what Tori LaBello is going to do for me. He needs you around so that you can talk to each other during, like, five minutes before the game. No, he just cares so much. The man cares so much. He would never let me die because he lost a fight, right?

Like he would just be motivated beyond belief to make sure that my alive ability stayed at a high rate. Right. You're aliveability? My alive ability. Is that our last question? That's our last question. Well, we thank you guys, of course, for your questions. You guys are awesome.

You always make it fun. And we can't do it without you. Of course, if you're a new user to draft king sportsbook, go download the draft king sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX and get down on the NFL action. bet $5 on any NFL team to win. And if they do, you will get $200 in free bets instantly. Not only do they have that offer for new customers, but everyone can get down on the stepped-up same-game parlayes, which allows you to add more legs to double, triple your amount that you

could win. You can win up to 100% of your winnings, of your original winnings. So with payouts bigger than ever, why bet on football anywhere else? Drafking Sportsbook is a place to be. He's going to be mad at me talking football. But I'll tell you this weekend. Playoff baseball happening right now. This weekend was a good weekend of football, unless you're a Cardinals fan.

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And get down on the action on the Draft King Sportsbook. That's PHNNX over at the Drapking Sportsbook. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And of course, with this offseason, you know, baseball, this is it. This is our first week without Diamondbacks baseball. So we don't know what to do with ourselves. There are no playoff games today, which is very off-putting.

Heartbroken, right? I guess it's because they did three in a row for the wild card round, but only the Mets and the Padres actually wound up using all three games. So a lot of teams are just getting to off days. A little bit of rest here. But here's the thing. In the meantime, you can go check out any of the other sports, concerts, show, whatever you want. use our friends at game time to do so you'll get up to 60% off of your tickets and you save by buying them last minute and like i've told you guys tomorrow is not promised we have no idea what's what's coming for us tomorrow right like you can't go planning what would you do that i'm just saying tomorrow's not promised jessie you got to make sure uh you got you got to know what's going to happen and the best way to do that is to just wait to buy your tickets procrastinate on that shit and buy your tickets last minute at game time you'll get up to 60% off uh and of course the best way to support us is by buying you your tickets through the link in the description below.

And thank you guys again so much for being here. I have a special shout out to the misses. Jen Montia, the first lady of PHNX. The first lady. There we go. As Jesse called her earlier. I just wanted to tell her, I love you so much. We've been together for 21 years.

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. And I almost spent it in a different city, Jesse. I think I would have been in the dog house. That would be pretty messed up. Yeah. I was so happy to see her and spend this morning with her, and we were going to go get some amazing food tonight, but I just wanted to give her a shout out.

I love you, and I would not be here doing this show without the misses. Her support has been the reason why I've been able to do any of the sports stuff. So make sure you guys, you know, love your spouse. Make sure you appreciate the support that you get from that person because so many of us need it in life and it's such a big motivator. And that's why Jesse has me. So I love Jesse and I can support him and give him that. spouse's support.

Let's get out of here as soon as possible, please. We thank you guys for being here. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Kman with a K. This guy is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Appreciate you guys being here on behalf of Jesse, Leah and myself. We always appreciate your questions on Mailbag Monday and your time joining us. We thank you guys so much. And remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have sticky substance on your ear and you cheat against the opposing team.