PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - What impact can a healthy Jake McCarthy have on Diamondbacks in 2024?

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Jake McCarthy missed the Diamondbacks magical playoff run due to injury, but prior to that he struggled to find consistency at a major league level in 2023. We take a look at his projections for 2024 and if the D-backs should consider him to be part of their core moving forward. We are also discussing Arizona’s international signees and the misery in Philadelphia the Diamondbacks contributed over the last year.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Michelob ULTRA: It’s only worth it if you enjoy it. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. https://www.michelobultra.com/Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. A big ski to you all. Of course, I'm your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. And I'm very excited to have this guy back. No, it's not Jacob, despite the fact that we joked about how much they look alike and how you might not detect it's actually him or not. I don't think me and Jacob actually really look alike. It's depending on who you're talking to and what particular demographic. but it's the one I only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman.

Glad to have you back, sir. Yes. I'm glad you got to spend your time in the Pacific Northwest, indoors, hiding from the snow, and sick. That seems like a really fun time. It was a great weekend, Derek. Yeah, my vacation time was so restful and amazing. Yeah, I'm back.

I'm excited to be back. Your vacation is almost as good as the last, I guess, 11 months have been for Philadelphia sports fans, but we will get to that, of course. soon enough right now. We're very thankful to have you guys joining us. And of course, we did talk yesterday about the International Signing Day. The Diamondbacks end up signing quite a number of players on that list, 23 international signes on day one of the international signing period. And we did have a correction to a player's name who apparently nobody could agree on how it actually was spelled.

But it's, it's, it's Radney, by the way, you guys. It's not. Rodney it's Radney outfielder Adrian Radney the number 10 prospect on the MLB pipeline number three on fan graphs and again we discussed how I would blow through a 1.8 million dollar signing bonus at 16 years old almost immediately but Jesse I know you weren't here but what are your thoughts on on the downback signing of this player that's drawing comparisons to the likes of some very good players yeah yeah I think I saw Julio Rodriguez on one of the scouting reports. Yeah, I mean, the guy's 16 years old, so maybe we should tap the brakes on any on any tops to major league players at this point. But that is also part of the excitement with,

you know, acquiring players who are so young is that there's a lot of time for them to develop and a lot of time for their future projection to change, right? Like, you know, not everyone that the Diamondbacks picked up yesterday has a future projection attached to a guy like Julio Rodriguez. is, but there's a lot of time for these guys to develop and kind of prove what they can do over time. So, yeah, it seems like by all accounts, Radney is at the top of the list in terms of in terms of who the debacks got. And it seems like a lot of different outlets are pretty high on him and what he could be for the diamondbacks in the future. They also got another outfielder that we didn't talk about much, but that was Belfi Rivera,

who was number 24 on the MLB pipeline, number 19 on fan graphs, number 17 on baseball America. he's their next highest ranked prospect that we got in the international signing, 17 years old, another outfielder himself, plus speed, and has a chance to actually stay in centerfield or in center field, which they're saying maybe Radney might, he might end up, you know, not having that center field speed. But regardless, some very great, great potential from both of these guys. Yeah, it's hard to really say much with confidence at this point. Again, these guys are so young.

I mentioned Radney being 16, Rivera, 17. But, yeah, six feet, 165 pounds for Rivera. It does sound like from the reports that he has a chance to stay in center field, which is something that the diamond backs in their system don't necessarily have a ton of right now, at least in terms of guys who could be like everyday players who play in center field. Obviously, center field is covered for the time being, especially as far as left-handed hitters is concerned. Correct.

But, but, yeah, of those right now. I think it's going to be a while before, before Belfier-R-Vera finds his way into the majors. But, yeah, it sounds like there's, there's some potential here, not just for him to hit a little bit, but to have some power as well.

I think MLB pipeline had him at a 55 on both the, the hit and power grades. So, yeah, I mean, if you can get a guy who can stay in center field and be, you know, a guy who can hit for average and hit for a little bit of power, there's obviously a ton of value there. So, yeah, I think Rivera is exciting.

I think Radney seems to be the cream of the crop for the diamond backs. I noticed on fan graphs, they had him all the way up at number three on their list. Yeah. They viewed him as kind of like an Eloy Jimenez type, a guy who had big time power, corner outfield type. But it sounds like with Radney, he has kind of come into some more athleticism. They like the way that he's been moving in the outfield. And it sounds like he has a chance to maybe even stay in center.

field as well, hence the Julio Rodriguez comps that we mentioned earlier. We joked about how young these guys are to be signing a deal with a professional sports organization, 16, 17 years old. But, yeah, I mean, honestly, in other sports, there's, there's college, there's still college for a lot of young players involved. But this is like, I mean, there are scouts, scouting kids in high school in every sport. So this is that uncommon. It just feels like especially in some of the like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela where diamondbacks have like those academies.

They're establishing relationships with guys at a young age because they're coming in as kids to learn how to play the game of baseball. And it allows them to both help grow the game, but also scout who they could, you know, who from international signings from all parts of the world, who could potentially come in and help this team at a major league level. And I don't know. I just yesterday was such a cool day. There were so many great pictures posted of like, I think, who was it? I think the Cubs or one of the other teams signed like 20 plus players just from the Dominican Republic alone. They were all there together in like a big like group pictures. So it's just interesting though.

It is interesting. I know it's not that interesting to you though. And the reason why I say that is because you were already being scouted for this gig at like 12 years old, right? when you were a kidcaster and the Diamondbacks were looking into you and seeing if you might be able to be the next Greg Schulte. Yeah, I don't know if that's exactly how I would frame that. But yes, I did have my one day of glory back in September of 2011 where I was on the air and impersonated Greg Schulte.

No, no contract, though. Yeah, no contract. I came in there expecting a contract, but I left disappointed because that didn't happen. It was sort of a one-day contract, I guess. in a way, but egregiously, they did not pay 12-year-old me for that one day of work. So I'm still going to contact my lawyer and see what we can do about that after the fact. A lot of short stops that were taken yesterday across MLB from the International Signing Day. Like when you looked at the list, it seemed like the majority of the top players taken were short stops.

Diamondbacks got themselves a couple of short stops as well. They got Alfredo Benzin and Eric Dela Cruz. Benzin was number 71 on baseball America's list. Eric Dela Cruz, number 86. A little hard to get, especially the further down the list, you get any kind of information on these guys. It's really hard to find information about these guys. And it's almost like that's probably how it should be.

I mean, they're 16-year-olds in Dominican Republic. It'd be weird if we knew that much about them in some ways. I got his dog's name. I got everything right here, Jesse. We know everything about him. Baseball America, their list goes a little bit farther than some of the outlets. So yeah, they have Alfredo Benzzin at number 71. And then at 86, they have Eric Dela Cruz.

You mentioned both of those guys also from the Dominican Republic. Their reports on both these guys also very brief on Benz and they say once a smaller frame, well-coordinated shortstop who made a lot of contact from both sides of the plate. He has since grown to an athletic wiry six foot two with physical upside for more power to come and plus arm for the left side of an infield. So like that's an exciting profile. If you have a guy playing on the left side of the infield, especially at shortstop, if, you know, it winds up being able to stick there. And you've got plus power, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's good, right? That's something that's, that's pretty hard to come by in this game. But yeah, it'll be, it'll be interesting to see how these guys kind of develop over time.

And it feels like, you know, every year around this time of the year, we talk about these guys. And then they kind of fall off your radar a little bit. They're still so young that, you know, you're not going to see Alfredo Benzin playing in double A next year or anything. No, you were not. A lot of these guys will stay in the Dominican and continue to develop over there. We might not see them stateside for another year or two. But yeah, just it's kind of like buying lottery tickets, right? In some ways.

All of these guys have a chance to develop into, you know, a future star at some point in this league. But when you're investing $2 million in a 16-year-old who's already 6 foot 3 and 180 pounds and has plus power plus speed, that's that's something Eradne. that, you know, you feel like there's more there than just the luck factor. But it's baseball. Baseball is one of those games that you can have all the tools. You could be an incredible athlete, and it still might not work out for you at a major league level.

We've seen that so much, so often. Then there's guys that find a tremendous amount of success who statistically, or at least the down on paper, have no business being as good as they are. So baseball is just funny like that. Bleacher Report did publish an article yesterday centered around one realistic option to plug

every MLB team's biggest roster hole and they claim that the Diamondback's biggest hole in their roster right now their biggest positional need was starting pitcher. Is that the case, Jesse? Do you think starting pitcher is the biggest positional need for the Diamondbacks at this point?

No. No, I do not. But it's not an outrageous suggestion. You're going to say DH or you're going to say like a backup catcher. Like there's these other roles aren't going to be as significant in an in, in this context as saying a starting pitcher. And to be honest,

it's not like the Diamondbacks need a starting pitcher, but there, I mean, from from an outside view in, yeah, there's still a fifth spot in the rotation that right now they don't know who is going to have that role who's going to win that spot. They do have some,

you know, obviously very good candidates for that, but bringing in a guy like they suggested, Mike Clevenger feels like, you know, again, a little bit more of a solid time-tested option. Just, I don't know if it's the right one. I don't know if he would be a good fit with this team. Yeah, I mean, not that long ago, Mike Clevenger was one of the up-and-coming pitchers in this game. I mean, you look at Clevenger's numbers during his years with Cleveland.

He was really, really good there for a time. Not really that guy anymore. If we look at his numbers for 2023, 131 in the 30. this past year, a 3770 RA, one, two, three whip, strikeout rate at 20%. That's below average, walk rate at 7.3%. That is below average, which is a good thing in that, in that case. 2.2 wins above replacement over at Fangraphs, which is pretty solid. So yeah, he had a solid year. He's not, he's not an ace. He's not a number two starter at this point. You know, would he, on paper, slot in pretty nicely in that number five spot for the debacks? Absolutely. But as we've talked about,

before on this show the diamondbacks have a greater need right now which is designated hitter and they need to add some thump into this lineup we talked about that with dan zimborski on the show last week i think that should be prime priority number one for them not to say that it would be a bad thing if they did that and also uh we're able to do this but i'm not sure that that's the uh a realistic outcome at this point well and and again i don't hate this option but i have to ask if you know again someone like Clevenger would be a good fit. He might be for this team. I just know, I know the bad stuff about him, which is part of being an athlete is where

the bad is carried around more than the good and you get a reputation. Gabriel also said, wasn't there some alleged domestic violence stuff with him? There was, which again, is a great reason to not want to be a part. There was that. I'm part of the organization. Yeah, that was, I think, about a year ago that that came out last March. And then they're also, I mean, I don't even know if this is worth mentioning, but Mike Clevenger did make some comments at a certain Diamondbacks broadcaster. It's going to be awkward.

Walking in 2020. Yeah, it's going to be awkward in the in some of the meetings and some of the things. Yeah. Yeah. Bob Brenley was kind of joking about how slow of a worker Mike Clevenger is. And Mike Clevenger sort of got back at him after the game, made some kind of passive aggressive comments at Bob Brenley. And yeah, we put all those things together. And frankly, I don't know if Mike Clevenger is the type of person that the diamondbacks would want to acquire.

Yeah. They tend to stay away from guys who have any kind of domestic violence, even if it was just allegations in this case. And having, yeah, having beef with the color commentator, I don't want to say that's like a deal breaker or anything. But it doesn't feel like a move that the diamondbacks would make for a number of different reasons. I love Bob Brindley. say that Bob Brenley does get things that he says kind of blown out of proportion a lot. Yeah. I don't think he ever means them with like the malice or anything that they get turned into.

However, you know, at times when you compare, you know, stuff like Marcus Stroman wearing a du rag to Tom Seaver and stuff, you're going to. How many players have beef with Bob Brenley? There's a point. Like the whole league. What's funny. What's funnier about it is the thought that like they go back and, would listen to what a color commentator would say, right? Tori LeVolo has said that he does not watch this show.

And I can understand. I'm not a fan of one of the hosts, but I will say that Tori's reason for not watching it is is because this kind of stuff would drive him crazy in second guessing himself when it came to the decisions he has to make as a manager during the season. I feel like as a player, you would equally ignore things that were said throughout the season,

especially on a broadcast and then things like that. But it seems like it seems like, it seems like it doesn't you know it does become a thing uh and at least might be right at least says he does stick his foot in the mouth a lot and and that's the case few but speaking as someone that sticks my foot in my mouth quite a bit we don't know we're doing it we're just you know we're we're just we're just trying to do this job and sometimes that's what happens to us but uh brenly i i i've always loved bob brenly and of course you know i i do know how that stuff can be kind of taken uh taken a bit differently.

But also, like you said, I don't think that that's a primary reason not to bring him in as much as it's, you know, other things with his character, obviously, that situation we discussed there a little while ago. As well, I'm again, I think that there's a very careful balance with this Arizona Diamondbacks team, right?

You talked about these young players and they're not going to impact the team for a while, but when you're talking about trading for someone or bringing someone in as a free agent to this clubhouse, there has to be a way that they fit in. You know, it's like sometimes they do have a bad reputation, yet when they come here, they do nothing but fit in. Like Tommy Fam, right?

Tommy Fam has had a weird reputation his entire career, yet when he came here, his teammates didn't have enough nice things to say about him. And from what we saw with our own eyes, he was not only very supportive, but he became somewhat of a motivating leader in that clubhouse. And that's like what you kind of have to find at times. Not everybody's going to fit that, but you do want somebody that at least is going to mesh well with what you already have going on, which is a lot of success from 2023.

One more thing on Clevenger. I'm remembering that he is among that controversial group of players that cleared waivers in late August and could potentially have been picked up by a number of different major league teams. The Diamondbacks included. Mike Clevenger was not claimed during that process, although we wondered if he might be. He was just sort of out there for any team that wanted to claim him for the stretch run. His contract was seemingly prohibitive to that. He was on a one-year, $12 million deal with the White Sox, but it was an $8 million salary for 2023 and then a $4 million buyout for 2024.

So you would have had to take that as the team that claim. Yeah, with a mutual option for $12 million. So, yeah, you would have been on the hook for his rest of your salary, which was only like a million dollars at that point. but if you weren't going to bring him back, then you also would have had to take on a $4 million buyout. And at that point, you're paying more than $5 million for like one month of Mike Clevenger.

So, yeah, he wound up not being, not being claimed when all was said and done. But it wasn't that long ago that we were talking about should the Diamondbacks acquire Mike Clevenger for the last month of the season and into the playoffs. But yeah,

it didn't happen. And no team, no team wound up wanting to make that addition at that point. Which again, like the financially, it probably didn't make sense for a lot of teams. But you have to wonder about how much those character issues impact a team wanting to sign him. I mean, this man had a 3.77 ERA last year. He had a 30.9% ground ball rate in 2023, which is very low. Very, very low, right?

Lots of fly balls. That's something that, again, that might be impacting it. But I felt like he was still a solid starting option for, you know, in comparison. To a lot of pitchers around the league. I mean, 3.77 ERA puts them right there in the mix with some of the best in baseball. So I don't know. I don't know the answer here because, again,

it's kind of weird. It gets into that same type of territory, not nearly, I guess, as bad as Trevor Bauer. But again, like a guy that still has something left in the tank potentially that could help you win.

But do you want all of that other baggage to come with him? Not to mention, again, I don't know him as a character, but whatever. Benjamin Huntley says, I was told this would be a podcast, this podcast would be about Jake McCarthy?

It is. We have other things to talk about. We're getting there, Benjamin. Look, I mean, God. See, Jesse thought Jake McCarthy wouldn't be enticing enough, but look at Jesse, you were wrong. Here they are.

They're here in spades to watch it. The people want three segments of Jake McCarthy. They want wall-to-wall, Jake McCarthy. I get it. I want it to. But we do appreciate you guys being here in the PHAN exports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet,

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in. Look to Desert Financial for checking and savings account, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options and more. I will probably slip up on more than one occasion and still call them desert schools because that's how long I've been banking with them. They got me started on my home ownership journey. They can get you started on yours as well. I'm old. And Jesse's getting old too, by the way. We had that discussion before today's. Because Adreale Radney was born in 2007, Derek, and that is not okay. It's not okay with him. And now he knows how I feel about kids born in 1998. But anyway, when you... He is an old soul. Well, we know that. We know that. We don't. know that, but now he's actually feeling physically old.

He was like 13. Now the numbers are starting to line up and that bothers him more than anything. Make sure you check out Desert Financial. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Well, the people want to Jake McCarthy and the people, what do you want? What are you doing here? I got you.

What's here? Hey, so, you know, for those of you don't know, Mr. Derek Montia, you know, You don't say it enough, but I hear you are our winner from our... He says it plenty of that. I want to make sure that we commemorate that with a nice football champ pennance. Oh, look at that. Look at that. And I get a football?

Let's go. I'm the champ, baby. That's like the office football. This is. That's the thing we like throw at people and we're mad at them. Somebody people have taken bites out of this during like nervous situations and games. This is great, though. This is going up somewhere in my house.

Because he feels like I didn't get honored enough because I'm still waiting for my trophy to arrive. Brother, you have a trophy in my office. I made my own trophy. That's the sad part. I look at it every day. I know. And I put my team logo, which is Johnny drinking a beer mashed up with Stone Cold Steve Austin on an episode of Smackdown. So that's a lot of fun to look at every day.

But we have some more fun things to look at. It's what you guys came here for. It's what Benjamin is here for. It's to talk about Jake McCarthy. Obviously, Jake McCarthy missed one of the best parts of the season. It's really unfortunate. Jake McCarthy had to sustain an injury, sustained an injury. It was an oblique injury at the end of the season that caused him from missing,

it caused him to miss the whole playoff run. And so yesterday, Jacob Faj, he said that he felt like Jake McCarthy was going to have his breakout season in 2024. So we got to thinking, what impact will Jake McCarthy have on the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2020? or will he end up being potentially a trade piece that this Diamondbacks team sees that they can get some value out of? It's going to be interesting to see, but I do think that McCarthy was a big part of the team's success last year. We talked about, you know, obviously creating chaos along with Corby and Carrol and everything he was able to do on the base path. But let's take a look at his stats for 2023 because he had himself a pretty good season.

I mean, actually, yeah, 644. himself a pretty bad see. Yeah, I don't know about that leading. I was looking at 2022's numbers in front of me right now. That's completely my bad. But 2023 was definitely a down year for him. He experienced multiple injuries throughout the year.

I don't think that the oblique was the only one. It felt like things kind of kept him. It felt like he kind of kept losing time, playing time, and it felt like he was also not available to the team. In the minors for two months is really. I mean, that's really where he missed time. And that's not just a 2023 thing for as good as Jake McCarthy was in 2022. He still got sent down twice and then recalled in 2022 as well.

You can break his 2022 season into three different stints. And you can break his 2023 season into three different stints as well. That's true. So it's been a rough couple of years for Jake McCarthy. He really seemed motivated coming into the 2023 season to not only make the team, which he was in really good position to do after the way he ended the year. prior, but to stay on the roster the whole way through. That was one of his stated goals at the beginning of the year.

And that didn't happen. He was back in Reno, I think before the end of April. So, yeah, it's been a rough. He's had to deal with the up and down more than anyone else in this organization over the last couple of years. And unfortunately for him, yeah, his 2023 season, as you see here, was not, was not fantastic. 0.1 wins above replacement. He's basically a replacement level player.

still 26 bases. He remains incredibly fast. But offensively, he just didn't, he just didn't impact the baseball in, in 2023. And that's something that we talked about with Tori Lavello at the winter meetings. About a month ago now, Lavello was asked about Jake McCarthy and kind of what he wants to see from Jake going into 2024. And Tori was like, we want to see Jake rake, right? We want to see Jake get back to really impacting the baseball.

The bat to ball skill with Jake McCarthy is good. He does have the ability to put the ball in play at a pretty exceptional level. But the diamondbacks don't want him to just do that. They want him to hit home runs to hit the ball in the gap a little bit more, not just be this kind of slap singles hitter moving forward. So that's what the diamondbacks want to see more of in 2024. And we'll see if Jake is able to deliver that. When you talk about those stints that Jake had,

especially at the end of 2022, he was just remarkably good at the end of the season. I mean, there was a point where he raised his batting average from 254 all the way up to 305. And again, it was just a stretch. But like you said, when he came back up from the minors at that point, he looked like a completely different player. And it's kind of felt at times like that's what we're going to get out of him. But he also, like I said, he had like weird little nagging injuries. He also had the two months in the minor leagues. And I just don't know how or if the Diamondbacks are going to see him as a part of their core for the long-term future.

Or if maybe if he has another one of those stretches, if they see the value raise enough that they might try to trade him at that point or, you know, a flip Jake McCarthy in some way. I still feel like his potential is high, but he might not reach that potential, to be honest. I mean, it's just when you look at what he does at a minor league level, once again, it's kind of like the tail of some of these other guys that couldn't really find success in a major league level. It's just such a wide gap between his production, you know, at times in minors versus when he comes to club. Yeah, hitting in Reno has never been, he's not been an issue the last couple years. Jake has put up really impressive numbers there. He's been awesome.

Last year he was incredible in Reno. And then again, it kind of, because of the success he had at the tail end of 2022, you kind of thinking. you kind of think like, all right, he's back on track. We're going to see him come back up and have another one of those stretches. Last year, you didn't really have that. Jake has been, I wrote a story actually in the off season between his incredible 2022 season and his 2023 season, basically looking at was this breakout for real? And Jake's, if you look at the scouting reports, Jake McCarthy has not really been projected

to be the kind of player he was in 2022. I mean, the debacks had him hitting third for like 25 games down the stretch in 2020. He was like the best hitter on the team. He had 302, 361, 434 from July 11th through the end of the season. He was hitting really well. But I don't know if everyone was really buying in at that point because the scouting reports had never really projected him to be that kind of player. And I looked at some of the underlying data as far as the batted ball metrics.

And it didn't really back up what Jake was. doing at the plate. If you looked at his baseball savant page from that 2022 season to the 2023 season he just had, they don't look that different. Jake McCarthy wasn't really hitting the ball that hard in 2022 and he wasn't hitting the ball hard in 2023 either. So yeah, my conclusion entering 2023 was that he still had a lot to prove and he didn't really prove that this past season, right? I think there are some numbers that would indicate that he kind of overperformed a little bit in 2022. And in 2020, we kind of saw him maybe underperformed a little bit,

but I think his numbers in 2023 were more indicative of the kind of hitter that he's been since coming up to the majors, which is not a terrible player. I mean, he's giving you so much value on the bases. He's one of the best base runners in all of baseball. And he can hold his own in center field. He's solid in the corners.

There's a lot of value here. It's just, it's kind of always been more of a fourth outfielder profile. And that's kind of the player that we've seen. over the last year. And you kind of look at his numbers over the course of his career now. They're kind of like fourth outfielder numbers, right? Yeah.

And there's nothing wrong with that. He's a, I think he's a good fourth outfielder. But getting back to where he was in 2022, he's going to have to find a way to impact the ball in a way that we've, we've never really seen at the major league level. He, uh, in three seasons in majors has hit 261 batting average with a 711 OPS. but as in AAA and this is based on Elise's comment that he might be another 4A player. I mean, it's incredible.

He's slashing 369, 457, 596 with a 1.053 OPS. And that was in 2022 and his 45 games in 2023, 360, 416, 594 with a 10.01 OPS. I mean, it's, it feels like, you know, that it feels like he's on the. verge of breaking through and having some of that success at a at a triple a level translate over to the miners and uh if his projections are hold up i i i don't hate uh what baseball reference or fan graphs have for his projections for 2024 let's take a look at what he's projected to hit uh next season yeah these are these are zips and they're pretty good i mean zips has jake kind of bouncing back a 264 average is 730 ops 9 homers 56 rbi i think this is based on like 500 plate

So this is, this is Jake getting a really a lot of playing time. 29 stolen bases. I mean, he probably couldn't even get that much playing time, realistically. No, I don't, I don't know how Jake would, barring a major injury, I don't know how Jake would find his way to 500 plate appearances, his things stand now. Yeah. I mean, I guess if he hits 300 and, you know, I mean, I guess there's a world where that happens. Yeah, yeah. You bring these AAA numbers to the majors and we'll talk for sure.

29 stolen bases, I will say. Me and Damon were talking about this before the show started. 29 still on bases, I think, is very light. Like, Jake stole 26 last year when he really wasn't getting on base and he only played 99 games. If he hits 264 with like a 330 on base percentage over the course of a full season, he's going to steal way more than 29 bases. Oh, yeah.

I wrote last off season that I thought Jake could steal 60 under the new rules. If he had found a way to maintain like the 360 on base percentage that he was doing at the end of the 2022 season, of course, that didn't happen. But if he finds a way to get on base that frequently and play for an entire season, I mean, he's like 98th percentile in sprint speed and very rarely has been caught trying to steal bases. So, you know, 50 stolen bases is out there for him if he's able to find a way to get everyday playing time and really have things come together offensively. Benjamin Hunley has a great point in the chat. He said the problem in 2023 is Jake better's hair. Everyone knows that. That's true.

It's a fair point. It's a fair point. I mean, can't just go cutting those locks and expect to have the same success. But like you said, the batted ball metrics, the data all seem to be the same, right? It's just that there was something special going his way at the end of that 2022 season. It's just, baseball is just so weird like that. It's so weird to see the success a guy had and then not really have much change for him besides the results, right? Like sitting the ball and the same, his averages are the same.

He's about the same on his baseball savant page. Yet, you know, the results weren't there for him the same way they were for that, you know, special, what, two-month run there from July to September at the end of the season in 2020. It's just I still feel like Jake McCarthy could have been a big factor in the playoffs. Yes, 100%. Things just were completely different. Obviously, we know how things went. Not sure, like, okay, Jake McCarthy might not have been the guy that that gets them to win the World Series. But you just never know how his contributions could have added to this offense, especially at times when they really struggled to, like, get something going on the base path or create that chaos that they'd become known for throughout the season.

Yeah, I think Jake really could have been an asset. that at least in certain key moments in the playoffs. I want to say it was Jace Peterson who took his roster spot. It was a very last minute change, something that happened right before the start of the Wild Card series. Yeah, Jake suffers this oblique strain in batting practice. And unfortunately, that ended his season. He wasn't able to be part of the Diamondbacks postseason run at all.

And yeah, we know Jace Peterson didn't really give the Diamondbacks much in the postseason. there's obviously the very heartwarming story of Tommy fan, you know, wanting to get Jace Peterson and a bat in the World Series. And that was a cool moment. But Jake McCarthy, I think you might not have wanted his bat in the lineup a ton throughout the playoffs, but you certainly could have used him on the bases in a way

that I'm not sure the Diamondbacks would have trusted anyone else on their postseason roster. Elise asks, would he have gotten a hit with one of the 100,000 runners left in scoring position in Game 5 in the World Series? Maybe, yeah. Who knows? I think the one thing that I'm really rooting for beyond, you know, him coming back from this injury and being able to contribute to this team is the fact that Greg Daniels, the creator of the office, is bringing the office back.

And as you know, Jesse, Jake McCarthy is from Scranton, PA. So if we can somehow find a way for Greg Daniels to incorporate Jake McCarthy into the reboot of the office, sky's the limit. It really doesn't matter what he does on the field. If I'm being honest, it has to be considered as success. That's what I say. But you guys know that what I say doesn't really matter. Toro Loz was asked about Jake McCarthy at the winter meetings.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I touched on this briefly earlier. But it was kind of a, Tori gave a much longer answer than what I mentioned earlier. I think it really comes down to when Jake is in hitter-friendly counts. Is he able to capitalize? Like when you're in a 3-1 count as a hitter and you're Jake McCarthy and you've got some power in there. I mean, he certainly has the frame for it. If you look at Jake McCarthy in person, you don't see a guy who's like, oh, he probably hits 270, but they're all singles, right?

Like, Jake McCarthy is a pretty well-built guy who has some power in there that he just hasn't really tapped into professionally on a consistent basis. So is he able in those 3-1 counts and those hitter-leveraged counts? is he able to actually come through and show some of that power? That's really the key for him to going from this fourth outfielder, which as I said before, I think he's a valuable fourth outfielder. I don't think there's much reason to put him in AAA. He deserves a spot on the major league roster.

But in order to get to that next level that a lot of people want to see him reach, you've got to do damage in those counts. You can't just be a line drive single to the opposite field every time. You know, you've got to find a way to hit the gaps, to hit home runs in those situations. And if you combine that with everything else, he gives you that, that becomes a really valuable, a really valuable player at that point. If you're in the front office for this team and Jake comes out of the gate hot, knowing what he has kind of shown throughout his career where he does have these like almost segmented years where like he's hot and then he, you know, it's almost worse than being streaky because he goes, he goes for being so good to, to so bad that that they send him down. and you know you're talking about a guy who has been extremely good.

In times you could even say he was the best hitter for, you know, brief stints on this team. So if he comes out of the gate hot, do you consider trading him? Was that something that you would try to maybe just capitalize on the value he has now forecasting that maybe he doesn't go on to still be this player throughout the whole season? Yeah. Or do you consider him to, you know,

just be a part of this team? now and be maybe thought of as part of that core with Corbyn Carroll, maybe Gabrielle Moreno and Alec Thomas. Like what are your thoughts? There is room on this team for Jake McCarthy or Dominic Fletcher or I guess I'd throw Jorge Barrosa and that mix as well. I don't think there's room for all of them. The diamond backs still have more outfielders than they know what to do with.

And I'm not sure any of those guys are really going to benefit from spending much more time in AAA, including Barrosa. Barossa of the three, I think you could reasonably send him down. And, you know, I think there's still some things to work on. But Dominic Fletcher, even though some of the underlying numbers weren't good, he's done pretty well for himself in AAA and certainly defensively is very good, possibly the best out of those three. So, yeah, I think the diamondbacks have, they have depth there.

They have the ability to make a move out of that depth. And that's something we've touched on earlier, that the diamondbacks, there's some potential to make a trade here with with Pavens Smith, with Emmanuel Rivera, with Jace Peterson, with Jake McCarthy. There's a lot of guys kind of on the fringe of this roster that they just don't have room for that other teams might be interested in. I don't know if now is the right time to trade Jake McCarthy because his value is not exactly at its highest.

That's why I was saying. If he comes out, he's a hot April. I don't know if you can make a trade like in May or something. it probably has to wait until like close to the trade deadline for something to come together. But absolutely, if he has a strong first half, then maybe that's the time where you, where you capitalize and try to make a move in some regard there. They still have, they still have too many, too many options in that area than they're able to use. Another name that we brought up yesterday that's similar to that is kind of like Blaze Alexander,

right, where it's getting to a point where it feels like he needs to be on the major league roster. He's a little stuck. Or they need to do something with him, right? And the Diamondbacks benefited from this exact thing. when it came to Gabriel Moreno and how many catchers the Toronto Blue Jays had. And even though they still have some great catchers in Toronto, it doesn't make it hurt any less that Moreno is here having the success he's having. And it could be a similar situation for us where it maybe makes the team better.

And it might be a player like Barrosa that probably wasn't going to see playing time. But if you trade them and you watch them go out and go out and have success elsewhere, it stings. It's hard. It hurts. It hurts us as fans. It hurts the front office even more. Yeah, and I think that's a very valid point.

If you do trade a McCarthy or a Dominic Fletcher or a Blaze Alexander, there is some risk that these guys kind of figured out in other organizations. And that's the downside of having depth, right? Of like being in a good place organizationally where you have, you know, you have more good players than you actually have room to play is you might have to unload some of those guys elsewhere for the debacks. Of course, it would just be a matter of trying to capitalize on the return. turn and you know trying to to add elsewhere where you where you do have need the diamondbacks

are going to be competitive and go for the playoffs go for that world series again they're going to need that depth i mean you said it no team makes it through yeah baseball season with five starting pitchers it just doesn't happen right try it's like try 12 try 12 exactly uh this team definitely could use it and sometimes that depth uh that's it's good if you do experience those injuries but if that never comes, it's almost like a double-edged sword, right? Like, yay, you didn't have your players get injured, but you also have some great ones sitting around with very little opportunity for them to get playing time

or to, you know, get better, which is essentially what these young guys need to do by getting that major league experience. But I'll tell you, you can get down, of course, on the MLB season for next year already over at the Bet MGM Sportsbook app by placing some future bets. Of course, you can also get yourself some free bonus bets thanks to Super Bowl 58 and our friends at BetMGM Sportsbook.

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And now listen to our baby boy, Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Jersey, New Jersey, New York, 8778, Hope & Wye, or text Hope and Y, 467-369, New York. Call 1-8-2-7-50-50-Massachusetts. 21-100-Responsepally.

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What the hell happened there? I'm out of practice. You have Jacob yesterday messing it up like we were on streamyard. We did our best. I think honestly, Derek, I'm going to be honest. I think you messed up yesterday's. I thought Jacob did it great. What?

Me? Yeah, I don't mess anything up ever Watch the tape I'll watch the tape But I'm not gonna see it I'm pretty sure Jacob was the one that was in the right on that one How I just I think that the chemistry was off But he started the Ontario right when it came back on screen it

It was a good Ontario from From he started it before you is that what happened? He did You can't do it Derek was late I believe I'm the lead though He has to follow my lead that's the way this works Okay this is Derek show Thanks yeah Derek show

It's featuring Jacob Franklin. Try to make that very clear. Jesse's my guest every single week. You guys know that, right? That's the way this show works. And I didn't, that's not my fault. That's not my fault. I didn't make that division in this show.

We were once a connected show. We were once a fucking dangerous show. But we're not anymore. You know why? Because the man behind the Mac over there, the people's producer, left me out of the boys trip to Heelah River Resorts and Casino. And I will never forget that as long as I live.

I don't think that. can be ever repaired because a boy's trip to Heela River Resorts and Casinos is one of the best things that could possibly happen in one's life. And I was un-in-goast, I was not invited to that. But it's fine. That's fine because I can go have my own immersive experience with Healer Rivers without these guys. And, of course, nobody does it better than Heel River Resorts and Casinos. They have an unprecedented level of entertainment and excitement. They have an incredible state-of-the-art gaming floor that has over 800 slot machines. 15 blackjack tables, live gaming tables, and more, not to mention Arizona's largest casino

sports books. So head over to Heela River Resorts and Casinos and let them show you what the next level is all about. It's great for a night out or a staycation when you need to get away from your co-host and your producer who don't invite you to the boys trips. But you do you at Healer Resorts and Casinos. Visit play atheila.com for more details. Damon, are you driving this weekend or am I? We'll figure that out, logistic. We'll figure the logistics out. I was just going to say that it was actually like a behind the scenes like it was the you know the guest jesse friedman the guy behind the mac damon like we don't the main character can go on his own trips by himself yeah that's

fair yeah you're the main guy you can it's gonna be it's gonna be your show and you know take your own trip you know take your own vacation they're gaslighting me and i'm not going to stand for it because the the division the not invited me on the boys trip that happened first so anything after that is a consequence of their actions and not mine. But we do appreciate you guys being here right now. We appreciate you being diehardt. If you are diehard, if you're not, join us over at go phnx.com. Grab yourself a diehard membership.

You will get a free t-shirt from the phnx lockerer. com, whatever wonderful shirt you're choosing. This man has phoenix on underneath his jacket in there. You can pick whatever shirt you want. Make sure to check out Jesse's newsletter, our Discord lounge, where we will have die-hard only content coming all the time, including our new game. Show that you guys are gonna be on called squeeze play so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that as well as Jesse's of diehard only content we're gonna be doing AMAs there's gonna be a city City Council meeting with the mayor all sorts of great reasons right there alone to sign up

But you're you're you're hosting a game show dare I'm gonna have a game shirt Yeah I'm gonna help so game show and our first contestant is gonna be Chris I think yeah Chris is gonna be our first contestant But oh so it's just it's one contestant at a time no I'm thinking, no, it's actually going to be three people pitted against each other to give the best answers similar to after midnight. So we'll see. Maybe we'll let the rest of the diehard members be the judges on who got the best answer. These die hard, these die hard subscriptions are going to sell themselves. They really do. They really do. It's an entire network. Everyone wants game show host Derek, right? I'll wear a tie. I mean, I'm not going to wear a shirt and suit to go along with it,

but I will wear a tie. We'll figure that out. But I'm, I'm always happy. to not only help somebody feel like a winner, but to help two other people feel like losers, Jesse. And that's why I think I would be a great game show host. I do enjoy making people feel like losers. So now I'm going to address the people of the city of Philadelphia. Hi, guys. You guys haven't had a rough go.

And the Arizona Diamondbacks were a big part of that. But I get it. I know we are Arizona sports fans. So we have been going through pain and misery. our entire lives practically. But I did want to cover that the Diamondbacks did help contribute to the most heartbreaking year in Philadelphia sports. And it gives me life, Jesse. It really does give me life.

The 76ers, just to remind you, blew a three two series lead to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. That would have been like in May or June. Correct. Then fast forward to this past September, October time, actually October, when the Phillies blew a three-two, series lead to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Championship series. Philly sports fans are passionate, man. When I was there covering that series, it's insane. It's another level.

You chose a very good word and passionate. I respect the passion that Phillies fans bring to the ballpark on a daily basis, especially in the postseason. But there was a kind of an uncomfortable feeling in that ballpark in game six and seven when the series came back to Philly. There was just like this nervous tension in the air, I guess is how I would describe it, where, yeah, Philly's fans, in games one and two,

I mean, it was loud throughout, but it was louder in games one and two because the Phillies came out and they were hitting homers and they were doing crazy things. They were dominating the Diamondbacks. The place was going berserk. But I mean, in that game seven, you know, winner take all,

going to the World Series. There was, Phillies fans were uncomfortable going into that game. They've been there. They've seen it before. They've had it happen to their teams. We would be in the exact same position.

We've seen it happen to us. We know it can happen. We've seen it with the sons. We've seen it with our teams that we thought were going to be dominant and we're going to go on to win the series. And then somebody just completely smacks you in the face. All of a sudden, I know nowhere,

even when you have a series lead, right? But yeah, I mean, I can kind of understand that. I felt like that pressure was the pressure the Diamondbacks put on everybody in the postseason because everybody else was expected to win. And the Diamondbacks were just the team that eked their way in. So the Diamondbacks didn't have that pressure to win because if they lost, they would be losing to the Brewers, which won their division. They would be losing to the Dodgers, which obviously are the Dodgers. You know, they would be losing to these teams that everybody would like say logically that makes sense that they lost to. Right.

But so that made it easy for the Diamondbacks not to really have the pressure on them. Sure, maybe in some moments, like you said, after games one and two in Philadelphia, you do feel that pressure a bit. You do feel a little differently about coming out and giving all those home runs hit against you. But it still felt like the Diamondbacks never really had much to worry about. No matter what, they were going to kind of be applauded and cheered for how far they had made it, especially making out of the Wildcard round, right? So it was a win from that point going forward.

Meanwhile, the Eagles, they were 10 and 1. And Jesse, I was watching this game where the Eagles had a very bad first half after being 10 and 1. And they went into the locker room at halftime. And their fans booed them. And I mean booed them hard. They booed them like the betrayal was real. And being a Cardinals fan, I found that to be hilarious. Your team is 10 and 1.

The game isn't even over yet. They're just going into the locker room to, you know, try to figure things out and, you know, get themselves back together. And instead, they're getting booed by their home fans after they walk off the field. Now, I respect that because Philadelphia fans are just a different breed, really, when it comes to it, right? I do respect it. Again, that word passionate. It's very safe, and I appreciate it. I like it.

But I will say that there's something to be said about, like, demanding that much of your. team that at 10 and 1 you're booing them. Yet I want to say, yeah, it was the Niners game piece of Yoshi. I think that was what it was. You're right. Yeah, it was the Niners game. But what I do want to say is, were they, were they overreacting? Or did they just know?

They knew. They knew watching that team against the Niners that their 10 and one team was a fraud. And they wanted them to know that they knew. They weren't saying boo. They were saying frauds is what they were saying maybe. I don't know. I'm putting that out there. But I don't know.

Philadelphia fans, I got to give them credit. They know their sports. They know their shit. And they are miserable right now. Understandably so. Yeah. I think Mad Dog, you know, a lot of shade being thrown at Mad Dog Russo throughout the Diamondbacks postseason run.

And rightfully so. He deserved it. But he absolutely deserved it. But at the same time, he was far from the only media personality who thought the diamondbacks had no chance in that series. even talking with other reporters on the field and whatnot being there covering these games there was not a soul in the press box who was who is picking the diamond backs to it to win to win that series as far as I'm aware that's totally the truth that's that's the honest to God truth I will say that lots of times as a matter of fact that tweet that you unearthed from

April last year where you asked like what was going to be a satisfying ending to this season and ESPO tweeted world series is a way And if Espo had been more specific and said World Series champions or win, maybe we would be, we would have confetti in a jar that some of us could keep. If you're going to ask for the sun, moon, and stars, you have to be specific about exactly what it is that you're asking for. So now he learned, though. Espo learned and he'll be better. He'll be better next year. Yeah, he'll come spring training prepared and ready to give us the right answer this time.

But of course, we thank you guys for being here. We know you guys always know the right answer. Of course, you can make sure to follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. This absolute maniac next to me is at Jesse and Friedman. The people's producer is Damon. We'll mend this relationship somehow. But you can follow him on Twitter.

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And we will see you tomorrow. In the meantime, have fun. Remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you're 16 years old and you're 6 foot 3185 pounds.