PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - What is Diamondbacks’ rightful place in MLB power rankings to start 2024?

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Major League Baseball has released their first power rankings of 2024, and of course the Arizona Diamondbacks are ranked lower than anticipated. What more can the Snakes do to earn some respect around baseball? We also have our first big Mailbag episode of the New Year with some great questions from our PHNX Diamondbacks community, including moving Ketel Marte to DH and discussing Blake Walston’s ceiling.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/200Schedule 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. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. 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.

2024 welcome in to the first episode of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast right here in 2024 on pHNX my name is Derek Montia of course I have missed you all and I'm still your mayor of PHNX and stuff was just in shambles around this office without me here for the last 10 days this man did his best to hold it down without me I appreciate you sir he is your thunderstick and my vice mayor the one and only jesse freedman you're actually uh you lost your mayoral uh what 40 while you were away. I did? I forgot to tell you that when you came back.

Why? Well, you see, we had Sean back on the show the other day. Okay. And so I, given the power that I was wielding while you were away, I declared Sean to be the vice mayor, even though he's away. He lives in Boston, but I agreed to allow him to work remotely. And I took over your, your mayorship, Derek. So it's like, it's like vice president. You just do it in the case of me being sick or on PTO.

But then when I return, I, I, I, I, I took over. I regain. Like when the president goes in for surgery, the vice president becomes president for that hour, Jesse. But when I wake up from anesthesia, I'm the mayor again, bitch. So don't forget that. All right. Let's get stuff straight around here. Shane's trying to take my mayor old powers.

Jesse's stealing them. I don't like this. This isn't how we're starting 2024 off. But I am very excited to be back, be here with you guys. I had some lovely time off. This man definitely did a good job of holding it down. Did shows without anybody. Yeah.

Yeah, we were psychopath. That is wild. He was self-producing, I think, at one point. I don't even understand what the hell went on around here without me. But I also don't know what the hell happened to the respect for the Arizona Diamondbacks because, of course, you know, we don't get any respect. We need to put some respect on the snake's name, though. The very first MLB power rankings of 2024 have dropped.

And of course, the Diamondbacks aren't nearly as high as I believe they should be. I'm sure he's going to have a much more rational takeoff. on it, but I'm not happy. You're not happy? No, I'm not thrilled with it. No, the Arizona Diamondbacks made it to the World Series. They've done nothing but statistically and theoretically improved since then. And MLB has listed them as the ninth team ranked in baseball.

Not even worthy of a blurb, Jesse. We're just in there in the list part with the rest of the rest of the best of the top five teams got blurbs. Okay, Derek, they weren't going to write about all 30 teams. It's way to really be talking about power rankings anyway, frankly, because still like all of the free agents are out there, it feels like. That's true. But yeah, the Diamondbacks, according to MLB.com, their first run at Power Rankings in 2024.

They have the Diamondbacks at number nine. I will list off the teams that are in front of them. Atlanta Braves, number one, Dodgers 2, Texas Rangers 3, Baltimore Orioles 4, Phillies 5. And then we have the Astros at 6, the Rays at 7, and the New York Yankees at 8. My question to you, Derek, would be if you feel that it is a grave injustice that the Arizona Diamondbacks are at number nine, which of those eight teams do you feel the Diamondbacks should rightly leap over? Which?

Which the bottom half, Jesse, I would leap the Diamondbacks over the Yankees, the Rays, the Astros, and the Phillies right now. If I'm being quite honest, I'm sorry, is this not the team that won the National League pennant? Did they not go out there and improve this offseason? just don't see how you look at that list at those particular teams at what they did during the offseason and really say that they improve their teams more than the Diamondbacks did. Now, I'll give you the Braves and the Dodgers and whatever. Those guys are always going to be up there.

And the Dodgers obviously should be. There's no argument. I don't think the Diamondbacks should be higher than fifth. And I do believe that a lot of this is that the perception of their postseason run was that it was somewhat of a fluke in a way. Like they just got hot at the right time. they it which is which i think we can all appreciate it there's at least some truths to that right i mean the debacks 184 games and they were minus 15 in the regular season we talked about this number of times

their their postseason run was unprecedented given the regular season that they had uh but yes i do agree with you that you know this team is clearly trending up where there's a lot of young players on this diamondbacks team that you anticipate will improve in 2024 uh and yeah they they have gotten better in a way that a lot of other teams have not. When I look at this list. Can I just say something really fast? One other thing that really upsets me about that point is where they were at last year's power ranking, right?

They weren't like in the 20s or the 20. They were like in 15. So going to the World Series and improving your team with the free agents that they've proved and the trade they made, they've only gone up six spots in the power rankings from where they were with Madison Bumgardner as their number two starting pitcher. I was number three. Maybe number three. Well, it was interesting.

The other day I was looking at ESPN's pre-season power rankings for last year. I guess 2023 is last year now, which is very weird to think about that. But yeah, it wasn't at the same time that these power rankings were done. It was like right before the season started. And ESPN had the diamond backs at 21st. And they projected the debacks to win 78 games, which is fascinating to me. But yes, getting back to this conversation, I look at the New York Yankees and I see a team that it seems not that we're necessarily projecting the Diamondbacks to win 90, 95 games or something like that in 2024. I think it's pretty bold to put the Yankees over the Diamondbacks after the season that the Yankees had.

I know they have Juan Soto, which is certainly a big move. But I don't know if Juan Soto and Trent Grisham and Alex Verdugo really pushes them into a different tier, especially given the competitiveness of that AL East Division and the kind of competition they're going to be dealing with day in, day out. So I'm pretty on board with having the Diamondbacks elite fraud, the Yankees. I think that's reasonable. The Houston Astros and the Rays, I mean, that's tough for me, Derek. The Astros have been, you know, an elite team in this league for so long.

They were right at the doorstep of the World Series this year. It didn't quite make it there. So, yeah, I mean, I could get on board with the Diamondbacks and Astros being on similar. He lost, the Reyes lost their two best players. Right? I mean. The Reyes, yeah. I was thinking, I was thinking you said asterous for a second.

So yes, yes, we're talking about the raise. Yeah, the raise, that's fair. That's a very fair point with the raise. Tyler Glass now, obviously a really, really big part of their rotation, even though he hasn't been all that healthy recently. That's a, that's a pretty big development for the team of the day race. I don't wonder Franco being part of the penal league in Dominican Republic. Apparently, apparently he was arrested yesterday.

I'm just saying like, yeah, he's going, they lost a lot, you know, and obviously that's the thing is when I look at that list. And again, it's fine, right? The Diamondbacks can be disrespected. They can be the underdog. They can, you know, not get the credit they deserve all, you know, all that MLB wants to. But I personally think that the Diamondbacks have proven that they're better than this. And I mean, again, this is just a preseason ranking. No baseball game's been played.

We don't really know. They just have more to prove. Yeah, it's like, I don't. don't really want to disagree with you that like the debacks maybe do belong in front of some of these teams. I just think that people are always hesitant to read too much into one postseason run. You have to do it for multiple seasons. Yeah, they want to see the debacks come out in April and May and look like one of the best teams in the league. And then in that case, maybe maybe it really is right to put the debacks at like number five on this list right now. We just we just don't know it

yet. Well, I do know that the Diamondbacks, like I said, did improve through free agency, but we know there's a lot of free agents still out there on the market. The Barbicast was talking about this, about it's almost unprecedented a little bit. I mean, but not really. Like, there's been seasons where it's been a little slow, but this is one of the years where free agent signings are really down to start 2024 by comparison, especially to last year. There is so much free agency action still to come, not to mention trades that really haven't been, they haven't been lot of trades so far. But we did have one really weird trade that was made between the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox. Yeah, I mean, every trade that Alex Anthopoulos makes at this point is really weird.

They're all, they're all bizarre. And it's like you got to wait for the rest of the trade to play out. Like, okay, now who are you trading that guy that you traded for? Right. Right. Clearly, the Braves acquired Chris sale not to have him as a member of the rotation, but to flip him to someone else and some other trade. It's you with cars, basically. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, so Chris Sayle goes to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Von Grissom going back to the Boston Red Sox. Chris Sayle, of course, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball, not all that long ago, but it has been a number of years before he was really healthy and able to perform at the highest level in 2023. I believe he made a start against the Diamondbacks at one point when the Boston Red Sox were in town at one point during the season. I don't have the numbers in front of me. I remember I'm looking pretty good in that game. But yeah, Chris Sale is a big name. I mean, this guy was one of the best, one of my favorite pitchers to watch. Kind of growing up, just, I mean, his stuff was unlike really anyone else in baseball, it seemed, during his prime.

He's not that guy anymore. He had a 4-30 ERA, I believe, in 2023 with the Boston Red Sox over 20 starts. So, you know, that's a decent amount of volume at least, like 20 starts. or at least pitching more than half of the half of the season at that point. I don't think anyone's expecting Chris Sale to come into Atlanta and make 30 starts or throw 175 innings or anything. But the Braves now, I mean, their rotation is very formidable. You have Spencer Strider, you have Max Fried, who theoretically should be healthy. You have Sale. You have Charlie Morton and you have Bryce Elder who came on strong, really, in

2023. Wasn't as good in the second half as in the first half. But it is really a formidable rotation that the Braves have. It's not just that lineup that gets so much attention. The Braves can pitch to. And there's a reason that they were number one on this list, not the Los Angeles Dodgers, which kind of almost surprised me that MLB.com even was willing to put another team above the Dodgers who obviously have had a pretty remarkable offseason.

I think that's fair. When you take into consideration what you just said about the Diamondbacks, not really doing it, we don't know what this incarnation of the Dodgers is. going to be, right? We don't know what this particular team is going to look like or how successful they're going to be because they are changing quite a few things. And, you know, again, the difference here is that the Braves aren't. The Braves are just adding some pieces to an already formidable lineup, a formidable starting rotation. Chris Sale, by the way, on May 27th,

pitched against the Diamondbacks, went five innings, gave up four hits, one earned run, struck out three, walked one. So he had himself a pretty good outing against the D-backs. And again, it's more about the Braves. Like, where he's, factors into their starting rotation is like what their fifth starter maybe the fourth starter? Yeah, I don't know how they're going to order it. It's wild. It's wild how good they are. And of course, it is a bit of a reflection of them needing to keep up with the Dodgers, right? But I do agree with the assessment that the Braves on paper are better teams still than the Dodgers at this point until they, you know, do more. It just, it's like, man, the NL just keeps getting tougher and tougher. And the

fact that these teams didn't win last year, sent them on this crazy spree to improve teams that won 100 plus games. So it's like, look at what we've done. We, we, we, we, we, we poke the beast. I mean, yeah, it feels like I think I already perceived the National League as being the Braves and the Dodgers and then a sizable gap and then everyone else. And it just feels like that's even more true in 2024. The Braves haven't, I mean, I don't want to. overstate how much they've actually improved this offseason because they found a way to make like 14 trades and you have to like squint to see if they've really gotten better. But I do think that this adds some helpful depth to their rotation. Von Grissom was just kind of an extra player for them.

They're so stacked from a position player standpoint. They didn't really have room for him. So yeah, now you've got the Braves being just a real juggernaut of a team, perhaps even more so than before and the Dodgers obviously with the offseason that they've had. So yeah, the Nationally got a little bit a little bit more top heavy over the weekend. I love these comments. Elizabeth says D-backs broke the NL and I love it. It's all in reaction to the Diamondbacks, right? They lost to a bunch of 23-year-olds and got big mad.

L.O.L says Michael. Yeah, I mean, honestly, there is something to be said about the fact that, you know, like Jesse brought this up with the playoffs where there's no real. way to expand the playoffs without hurting these teams that won 100 plus games out of 162. But it does kind of suck that, you know, that a team can get hot here in the playoffs and then all of a sudden do what it did. And these teams like need to get deeper. And some of the Braves moves are just assessing maybe some of the ways that they fell short

during their postseason run and how they can get better to ensure once they get back there, knowing they will be back there at the end of this season. season that they can make it deeper and further. This Diamondbacks team, though, is like, it's the talk of baseball. I can't tell you how many people still have that, like, we have that, you know, kind of perception of this team because we love this team and we watch them and we rooted for them. But fans of other teams also feel the same way that Elizabeth says here, where it does feel

like the debacks broke the National League and now people need to go out and spend ungodly amounts of money to try to beat a bunch of 23 years. year olds but it's all about team chemistry we're connected they're not there's no uh changing that we did have some other signings the red sox got lucas gilito for two years 38.5 million yeah something like that this was inevitable because uh me and sean did a pre-record on friday for our saturday show last week which by the way we will have a Saturday show again this week so a little fun plug there Sean will be back though yeah no Sean's not he's not allowed back uh no it was It was a lot of fun having Sean on.

We went back through the top 10 moments of the deback season. If you didn't miss that show, check it out. That was a lot of fun. But, you know, at the start of the episode, we were talking a little Red Sox. Obviously, Sean been a Red Sox fan sort of for a while. And now he lives in Boston. And we're talking about how the Red Sox, the Red Sox haven't done like a darn thing the whole off season.

And of course, the moment we stopped recording this show, the Red Sox made this trade with the Braves and sign Lucas Gialito. Tyler O'Neill doesn't move you? Well, we did talk about Tyler O'Neill and the blockbuster move that that was. But, yeah, that didn't get, that didn't exactly grab headlines. I think the Gialito thing happened during the show. So if you go back and listen to it, we probably touched on that briefly. But, yeah, two years, around $38 million for Gialito, a high dollar value to a guy who posted an ERA that I believe started with a seven after the crazy waiver claim process started last year.

And he bounced between a couple of. different teams. And yeah, he really struggled down the stretch. He's a guy you can count on from an inning standpoint. But I think there's some serious question at this point as to the quality of those innings and kind of what you're getting. He's, you know, back-to-back seasons with an ERA and the high fours. But there's still some upside there. And you can see, I mean, the price for really any kind of starting pitching upside is, is pretty extreme. I think he's making $18 million in the first year of this deal, which is more than Eduardo Rodriguez will make with the diamondbacks. He's only making 14 in the first year, according to some of the reporting we've seen.

He's just had such an up and down career. Yes. He had a great first season with Chicago White Sox posting a 2.38 ERA. Next season gave up the most earned runs in all of baseball the following season. Then the next season after that lowers his ERA down to 3.41. Yeah. Leads the league in complete games and shutouts. So, I mean, you know, you just don't know what you're going to get out of him.

He went on to post a sub 3.5 ERA for the next two seasons, 3.53 in 2021. And then, like 2022 and 2023 weren't great seasons for him. I think obviously it's kind of like bringing someone over here, you know, to the Diamondbacks. There is some belief that if the talent is there, the coaching is in place here for them to potentially get him back to that ERA. But that seemed like a lot of money for a guy that you're still like gambling on him. If you're the debacks, Erod makes 10 times as much sense in my mind as Gioledo. You just didn't, you just don't have the margin in Arizona to be able to, you know, kind of hope for the best or, you know, see how well you can get Lucas Gialito back to the pitcher that he was. It's funny to think that a few months ago, Gialito was kind of at the top of our list of guys that D.PAC should look to trade for at the deadline.

It sure was. You look at Gialito's numbers with the White Sox last year. He had a 379 ERA in 21 stars. things just fell apart for him the moment he went to the angels he had six starts there with an era around seven and then he fell to the guardians six starts there and era again around seven uh so yeah there's not a whole lot of assurance with what the red sox are getting here but i mean it's it's it's it's remarkable the price for starting pitching right the fact that a guy like this with you know the the recent numbers that he's put up getting this much money it is it is really

crazy. Speaking of another guy that might have gotten paid too much money, the Red signed Frankie Montas to a one year $16 million deal, which again, based on his numbers over the last few seasons, seems like an incredible amount of money to pay him. It also feels like a bet of a reclamation project for the Reds that like, do they know something we don't hear about Frankie? Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, the Reds strike me as a team that really needs pitching that they can count on. And so in my mind, it's a little hard for me to, for me to, for me to understand for them. But yeah, I mean, he's a guy who has put up decent numbers recently.

He missed almost all of 2023 with injury. But you go back to 2022. He had a 405 ERA and 27 starts, a 337 the year prior with Oakland. So he's been a pretty good pitcher in this league. But again, I mean, the Reds are going to pay Frankie Montas more than the Diamond Dax are paying in VARTA. Obviously, the debacks with ERAD, they're paying a lot more in years than they are in AAV. But still.

Yeah, that comparison is still pretty crazy. Connor hit the nail on the head. He said every new contract that's given out makes the deals. Hazen has made this offseason look like steals. And he's absolutely right. Yeah, there's some truth to that for sure. The Gino trade, the Eduardo Rodriguez, you know, signing all of these things are looking much better comparatively. And maybe that's part of maybe getting those deals done early was a good thing for this team.

Maybe, you know, kind of sealing the deal before some of these other contracts were given out. Like, can you, like, we've talked about Corbyn Carroll and what the difference would have been in extending him from the beginning of the season versus the end. Imagine if Eduardo Rodriguez sees Frankie Montas get $16 million a year. Like that's a hard sell for him to get less than that after that point. But there's a lot of free agency action, like we said, still to come. A lot of big names left on the board. Blake Snell still out there. Jordan Montgomery, who I like very much, but I don't think is even a possibility now with the Diamondbacks financial situation.

A lot of guys that probably aren't, but who knows? on what the Diamondbacks could do. Maybe they'll defer somebody's contract off for 10 years until they have to pay it. Six out of the 10 MLB trade rumors, top 10 free agents. Six of those 10 guys are still out there. It's Chapman, Snell, Montgomery, Bellinger, Josh Hader, Shody Minaga. All of those guys have yet to find homes, which is crazy. Yeah, I mean, this has been, we do see a lot of fluctuation, as you said earlier, with how

early guys sign in free agency. But this year is about, you know, as extreme as it gets in terms of guys just waiting and kind of playing out the market. And like I said, I think, and this is just my opinion about it, but I feel like it's the opinion of a lot of people is that it was waiting for Show Hey Otani's deal to get done. Yeah. And now you mix that with the fact that it got done like right before the holidays and everybody kind of not really goes on break, but there is kind of a pause for like a week.

Mike Hazen doesn't sleep, I don't believe. But yeah, no, of course, you know, I'm sure things are going to pick up here now. But there are there are a lot of teams out there with a lot of. lot of money to spend and and you kind of had to wait to see who was going to win the show hey sweepstakes in order to see yeah money left it was show hey then it was yamamoto that he kind of held up to starting pitching market i feel like like snell has to be next because he's you know the current si young you know award winner so uh anyway scott boris holds a concerning number of cards right now he can kind of make this market go as long as he wants and and i hope he just has just the whole

and powdered blue suits ready to wear for all those press conferences. Oh, you know he does. He's about to have to be it. Anyway, we thank you guys, of course, for being here on the PHN Export's YouTube channel. I missed you guys so much. It's great to be back. If you're listening to us right now or you are here, we thank you for being here. If you are subscribed to the channel, we thank you.

If you haven't, make sure to do so, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our wonderful shows go live. Leave us a like, as Gabby says, with Gabby's incredible purple hair. I saw that while I was out. And I know you guys are going to endlessly break me into getting my hair purple. We'll figure out a bet for that. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we appreciate you guys as well. Make sure to subscribe there. Leave us a five-star review. We always appreciate that. We're very excited to bring you guys some new content this year, by the way.

Me and this guy are going to be bringing you some die-hard only exclusive content in the Discord, which includes some episodes literally with us where we're going to have you guys maybe popping in on video chat with us and joining us. We have a lot of fun things planned for this year. So, all anyone wants is to just be able to go on like a video chat with Derek. That's all, that's all the part of the, part of the diehard chat is or discord thing is going to be, I'm just going to FaceTime you randomly. You have to answer and we're just going to talk. We're just going to look at each other. I don't know. Is that an actual selling point of the dire beverage? Maybe. Maybe that's one of the downsides. You'll get me calling you at six of the

morning. That's usually my real good time. They'll always have an obscure time. That's when I, you know, text Jesse and stuff. But anyway, Great time of the year, by the way, to upgrade your home. If you are doing some improvements, a big part of that that makes your house look better than you can imagine, is installing some new flooring. And with our friends at Empire Today, you can shop at home convenience, the right product for your needs, quick and professional installation and a price match guarantee so you don't have to go shop around. They also service their own warranties so you don't have to hunt down three or four different parties.

And the best thing about Empire Today is they keep shopping for floor. simple. They got a curated product selection and they will allow you to shop at home so you don't have to go into a store or a showroom in order to see all that they have to offer. Their virtual floor designer is a great way to see new floors in your home. You can just snap a picture and see what the floors look like in your space. So make sure to check them out. Right now if you schedule a free in-home estimate today, all listeners can receive a $350 discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions do apply. See empire today.com slash phnx for details. And of course, that is Empire. You got to do the other part? Today. There we go. That's perfect. I took the, I had the honor of peeling the tape off, the new floor.

Oh, yeah. I saw that. It's gorgeous. Me and Saul got to do that earlier. And there aren't a whole lot of like satisfying housekeeping jobs around the office. But that one was near the top of the list. How nice is that flooring look by the. Oh, it's so good.

It's so good. So much better than the one Saul and what Jacob installed? Like, those guys don't know what they're doing. Jacob has no idea what he's doing. Meanwhile, that brick on the back wall still holding up strong. So I'm pretty excited about that. You're taking credit for that? I'm taking credit for that.

Yeah, it looks beautiful back there. I cocked to that whole wall, Jesse. I cocked the entire wall. And I will never miss out on an opportunity to say something like that live on the air. But die hard tap dancing. I think that's the suggestion that Jack Summers is making. And that sounds like something you absolutely have to do. Need to tap dance on that floor, guys.

Did you take tap dancing lessons? No. No, I did not. See, that seems like something. I feel like you would have taken piano lessons and tap dancing lessons. I did take piano lessons. I did not. The world renowned tap dancing.

Just out of nowhere, busting it out. I have no dancing capability in any sense. Do you even know? I do not tap dance now. We're going to find out. We're going to figure it out. Of course, another thing that looks great in front of that wall is our display of circle K snacks, which we get Circle K snacks in our office. We don't have to drive to one. I'm not bragging.

I'm just stating facts here is what I am stating. But you can go get some delicious Circle K snacks right now at a Circle K near you. They're so close to you. They're right around the corner. And if you sign up for their Inner Circle membership program, you will get 25 cents off per gallon of gas for your first five Phillips right now. And who doesn't need to save some money around this type of the year? I'll give you a pro tip, by the way. You can also level up with their easy pay option, which will then get you another 10 cents off per gallon every day, 35 cents off for your first five Philips right there. Done deal.

The Inner Circle, it's free. You can join it today by downloading the CircleK app. Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But they do have, of course, their buy five, get a six to one free on a selection of Circle K products, roller items, coffee, pizza, so much more. So don't miss out on joining the Inner Circle and stop by a Circle K near you. today. Well, I know it's not Monday, right? We went through this last week. Yeah, but holidays fall

on Monday sometimes and we have to adapt. So that means, though, it doesn't change anything. It's the first show of the week, right? Every year is a new year on this podcast. Every month is Hispanic Heritage Month. Every year's a new year, Jesse. Every year is a new year on this podcast. Every month, Hispanic Heritage Month. Every week, Shark Week. every day, Earth Day. But of course, today, on a very special Tuesday episode, we're going to the mailbag. Can we go to the mail? Something interesting in my mailbox.

I mean, can you refute that every year is a new year? I can't. Yeah, I haven't come up with a counterpoint yet. What do we got in the mailbag, Damon? Let's get to some letters. First tweet comes from Chris at the history fan on Twitter. And he asks, with the lack of action on a DH, could a 20? 24 trade be in the works to finalize the debacks.

Jesse? Yeah, this is interesting. I do think it is possible that the diamond backs in their designated hitter search, we've obviously talked a lot about free agents on this show. But there are some trade options floating around there as well. At least I think there could be. I don't know exactly the nature of the market on some of these guys. We haven't really gotten any reporting on anything like that.

But yeah, we talked to what Elo Jimenez on this show a little bit is, is one potential trade option there. Someone who's a contract situation with the White Sox probably makes it so that he wouldn't be all that expensive in a trade in terms of like trade capital that you'd be giving up. Harold Ramirez from the Tampa Bay Race, a guy that a lot of people may not have even heard of, which should be very understandable. He put up some pretty good numbers last year with the race. He had 313, 3.50, 3, 460, a guy who doesn't, you know, he's not really giving you

any defensive value, he could kind of slot into that DH position for the diamond backs and make some sense. So again, I don't know exactly the market there, but I could, I can maybe see something happen. It makes me a little nervous to make a trade with the raise. I don't know why, but they are one team that I feel like always get, they always come out on top of their trades, right? Even if they do let go of some star player, that person ends up getting paid, you know, a bazillion dollars that the, you know, franchise would have never paid him anyway. So they just, they part ways at the right time. Usually we scream and yell about them parting ways with guys when they do,

and yet it somehow seems to work out. So the race is a team I'm a scared to do a trade deal with because I feel like they're going to end up fleecing us for some reason. You feel better about the white socks? Oh, I absolutely feel better about the white socks. The white socks are a fucking dumpster fighter right now. And honestly, I think that's the perfect time to pick the bones and take advantage, right? They've got some new leadership now.

We've got a friend over there in Barfield. Chris Gets is running the show for the White Sox. It's a pretty different group than what's been there recently. That's very true. A great group, actually. The White Sox have a lot, I think, of positive things coming in their future. If they can, you know, utilize the strengths and the talents of those guys to make that team better. But they're there.

They're there. Yeah. Anyway, what else we got, Damon? And this kind of goes with that question as well with Chris's question. Michael asks, this won't be a popular question, but I'll ask it. looking at this is defensive numbers. Are we sure the deback's best D-H option isn't Cotel Marte? And Michael might not be wrong.

And we have Damon doing like touchdown poses over there beyond the computer. We talked about this the entirety of last season. They did. That it could conserve him from a hitting standpoint and really, I think, help him at the plate and keeping him healthy. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really fair point. Kattel did take a significant step forward defensively this past season.

He was not excellent by any means at second baseman at second base, but he was perfectly fine. He had two defensive runs saved, zero outs above average. He's basically a net zero defensively. He's not really going to help you, but he's not going to hurt you either. That was a pretty big difference from the year prior where Kattel was at minus six defensive run saved and minus three outs above average in 2022. So he was better defensively in 2020. And as of now, I think you still try to leverage that as long as you can.

Like, as long as Ketel is a serviceable second basement, you're going to get the most value out of him as a player. Sure. If you do that, to Damon's point, though, there are obviously some durability questions there. And, you know, maybe if you get him off his feet, not like every day, but maybe even just more often, if that's an opportunity that you have, that might not be a bad thing, especially as he continues to age. Imagine how fast he would run down to first when he walks. Yeah, oh, 100%. He's already running like, what, 25, 30 miles an hour?

It's crazy. Yeah. I will say this, though. I think maybe part of Michael's question that he's not saying there and I could just be putting words in his mouth was if they do that, then do they pursue a second baseman then in free agency or through a trade instead of trying to use somebody in-house like Jace Peterson? Right.

Yeah. And that's where it gets complicated for me is if you move Cattel to DH, then all right, you doing at second base now and i mean i guess i guess like against righties you could you could start perdomo at short and jace peterson at second and then against lefties it's luller at short and perdomo at second i it's hard to make it work it's not it wouldn't be an ideal situation right now with the players that they have on the roster i think you'd just be trying to plug another hole and i'm not sure that that hole is really easier to plug than than the dh spot so something to consider are moving forward. I do think there there is a world in which Catell has to move to D.H

or it is clearly in his best interest to do so in the not too distant future. His contract goes out through 2027. There's, you know, there's four more guaranteed years on this deal. But for now, I would expect you'd want to keep Catell a second for at least one more season and then make that change whenever you have to. I completely, I completely agree with you on that one. All right, What else we got? Travis Moore at Moore for me. I like that on Twitter. Asked,

how do you think the D-backs view Blake Walston's ceiling? They projected him in the round five draft, protected him in the Rule 5 draft, but every write-up I read says he projects as a four to five starter at best. Feels as though the expectations of him continue to drop since he's been drafted. Will he contribute this season?

I think that's, this is possibly an effect of the Diamondbacks, AA and AAA, you know, teams, potentially. It's hard for starting pitchers within this organization at times to shine when the last two levels of their minor league stint is at ballparks that are extremely hitter friendly. It just very sure. A lot of times it's not necessarily about the statistics, but the peripherals that Jesse talks about.

It's about some of the other metrics and not necessarily about their performance. But, I mean, right now, I think the diner. Diamondbacks have the, it's a good opportunity for someone like him because the diamondbacks are completely holding an open competition when it comes to the final starting rotation spot. He could make that impact in spring training. He could possibly do something to win himself that job. So I think, you know, again, four or five, you know, starting pitcher in the rotation isn't the worst, I guess, ceiling for someone like Blake Walston. I know he was highly thought of at times, but I don't think he has. worked out. I just think that there is a lot of potential to once again get him to the major league club and have him start receiving that coaching from Brent Strom and from Tori Lavello.

Yeah, I mean, you look at a 452 ERA in Reno and it's like, dang, I mean, considering the ballpark environment that you just touched on, that's pretty darn good. Like a 452 ERA is pretty good. But then you look at the peripheral numbers, which you also mentioned, and he barely had more strikeouts than walks. It was a 15.6% strikeout rate in AAA, which is very, very, very, very, you low and a 14% walk rate, which is very high. And you just don't really project players who don't get a lot of swing and miss in AAA and are walking a bunch of guys in AAA, regardless of what their ERA is, it's hard to project those players to be impact major leaguers without, you know, kind of working out some

of those issues and trying to get better. I think it's probably quite a bit of a, it would be quite a stretch for him to, to be on the opening day roster as a starter. Correct. Wouldn't totally rule it out. but Tommy Henry, Ryan Nelson, Slate Sikoni. There's a lot of guys ahead of him on that depth chart. But yeah, I mean, his case is interesting.

The debacks drafted him back in 2019, 26th overall. He's six, I mean, six, five, listed at 65 175 back when they took him. There's so much projectability there. He was apparently touching like mid upper 90s in his early, his like first taste of professional baseball. And that velocity just hasn't followed him through the years. I looked through his, his VLO logs for the 2023 season in Reno, his four seamer average anywhere from 89 to 93 in those games. And his season average was right around 91, which is just not what the Diamondbacks were

hoping for when they drafted this guy, right? If you draft a guy who was 6-5 who has that kind of projectability, you're like, yeah, we can get this guy up into the mid-90s. And that's just never come. And it's really limited the ceiling that Blake Walston has. Somebody in the chat told me I was looking very good today And that's the nicest comment I think I've ever received in the history of the show Jesse Is that right?

That shirt you're wearing is pretty neat It's a pretty sick one, right? All right. We got a lot of local love for the Diamondbacks in town now. So of course that helps everything when it comes to this team and the interest in the team. But yeah, I definitely appreciate nice comments because it's the internet is a terrible place And most people think I suck. So thank you for that.

Do we have any more? questions there in the first mailbag here. Oh, our buddy Tim, Tim Ankenman, I think I'm saying that right. He says, my New Year's resolution is to read more. Do you have any good book suggestions? I think Jesse gave me baseball statistics for dummies like last year for Christmas, right? It was not for dummies, okay. That might have been what it really was, but it wasn't titled that, okay. Fine. Okay, so I'll give you my favorite book, by the way, which, by the way, Jesse, the book I'm, the book I'm talking about was by Vince, wait, was it, Castrovince? It's Castravince. Anthony Castravins. And it's a great, it's a great book.

It actually talks about quite a bit about why statistics that we are used to don't really have that same value as the newer statistics. I know I give Jesse a lot of grief on this show, but there was great explanations in there why things like ERA and stuff are kind of. outdated statistics that shouldn't matter as much as FIP. But that's, it was a fun read. I enjoyed it. So thank you for getting me a book. I'm going to go with Killers of the Flower Moon.

That was a very good book I read this year. I didn't read very many books. This year? Last year. Yeah, 2020 23. Last year. So fast. I already got two books in.

I also read a lot of comic books. So based on James Gunn taking over the DC universe, I tried to fill myself in on a lot of good, graphic novels. Graphic novels are great, by the way. Make sure not to miss out on those. And by the way, go to your public library. I don't know why I need to say this, but there's so much good at your public library. And even if you don't like regular books, comic books, biographies, there's so much great stuff there. I haven't been to a public library. And there's computers. You can go on and increase your YouTube

numbers if you happen to have a show that you live, you know, air live. Is that what you do at the library? Yeah, I just go on to all of them. I go up and down the rows. We're up almost 1,400%. Yeah, you just play our videos on repeat. And that's how that happened, Jesse. You got any books? You know, I wish I was 10 times the reader that I am. I find it on the day to day. It's not like you have time.

Doing this job. And I read so many articles and whatnot. I don't read as much long form material as I wish I did. A book I'm really excited to dig into hopefully soon early on this year, hopefully before the season starts is Future Value, which is another nerdy baseball book. I know it's shocking that that's my recommendation. It's the battle for baseball soul and how teams will find the next superstar.

That's like sort of the subheadline. It's written by Eric Longin Hagen and Kylie McDaniel, her two fantastic baseball analysts. And it's basically about kind of along the lines of what you were saying earlier. Like what are those underlying metrics that teams are really looking at on the day to day to decide which players they're moving on from, which players they're continuing with? It really goes so unbelievably deep. And I've heard great things about this book and it kind of digging into this. I'm sure, you know, I might know a few things, but I certainly still have a lot to learn.

And that's a book that I'm looking forward to getting it. Read any book by Jeff Passon, by the way. Just. Yeah. Any, any book, any book by Jeff Passon. He wrote the, he wrote the little blurb that's on the at the top of the book to like help itself. He didn't write the actual book. Yeah.

If Jeff Passon endorses it, read it. That's another thing. Yeah. If you write it, if you, whatever. I still, I forget who wrote

that Diamond Books history book that I really hated, but it really had some great. There's a Diamondbacks history. Oh, I hated it so much, but I will say that it had a lot of great information in it. So,

yeah, go again. The only thing I read is Jesse Friedman's articles on PHNX.com. It's really all you need. That's all you need to do. Yeah, it's really anything else is just.

Go check those out right now over at go phtnx.com. While you're there, get yourself a diehard membership. What are you doing? Start 20-24 off on the right. foot. Pitchers and catchers are reporting in like, I don't know, a few days. It feels like. I know it's like a month and, you know, two weeks, but it'll be here before we know it. Spring training will be here before you know it. So make sure to join us. Don't miss out on anything this guy has to offer

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I know, it took a while, right? It took a while, right? It took a while. All the TOTRE merch got sent somewhere else to some other country because no one wants that. But I will say BetMGM does make everything more fun. It makes more sports more fun. And of course, right now you can get down on possibly receiving up to $1,500 back in bonus bets if your bet loses with BetMGM. All you got to do is download the app or visit BetMGM.com.

Sign up and deposit at least $10 into your BetMGM sportsbook account and use our code of PHNX. Place your first wager and receive up to $1,500 back in bonus bets if the bet loses. Sign up today and use that bonus code of PHNX. Once you place your first bet MGM sportsbook wager, again, through the sportsbook mold. application of at least $10. If that bet loses, your bonus bets will be available once your initial wager is settled. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Jersey,

Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope and Y. 467-6-6-6-9-1-1-1-1-2-1-2-3, New York. Call 1-8-3-5-0-1-1-1-1-2-3, Massachusetts. Call 1-8-8-8-1-0-0-2-3, Massachusetts. 21 plus to wager. Please gamble responsibly. Call 1-800 next step, Arizona. 1,800-2701-1-1-7 for confidential help, Michigan. 1-8001-0-3-1-1-4 Puerto Rico in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit at MGM.gum.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., New York or Ontario. I did that by myself last week. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't here for that. There's some talk. There's some love in the chat for Lord of the Rings books.

I read all of those books several times when I was... Really? Yeah, I used to work a really boring job at a paging and cellular company, so I had a lot of time on my hands. Read them multiple times, actually. Nicholas has a hot take. This is for Tim, since Tim's here. He says, The Witcher books are better. Lord of the Rings Walk so the Witcher can run. I do enjoy that video game, so maybe I'll have to check out the Witcher books.

One thing you guys can check out, of course, is game time if you need tickets for all of those Diamondbacks games you're going to attend next year. You know, you never know when you're going to go, when you're going to want to go. when a milestone is going to potentially happen. So sometimes you can't miss out on those experiences live. You can get yourself last minute tickets for sporting events, concerts, and so much more over at GameTime. It's the fastest-growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. Download the tickets immediately.

It's a very aesthetically pleasing app. We love GameTime. And, of course, if you have FOMO and you don't want to miss out, do not miss out on downloading GameTime. You can snag the tickets without the stress. With GameTime, download the app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Again, create an account and redeem code P.HNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed.

All right, we got some more mailbag Tuesday questions. You got to make sure I say that right. Mailbag Tuesday. What have we got, Damon? Next question comes from Hanley, and he says, Mr. Mayor, congrats on the PHNX championship. Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate you. He wants to know who is your fantasy football MVP, and would you say your team was a connected team? God damn right. It was a connected team. I have a lot of people to thank right here and I'm ready to do it. Of course, I want to give a shout out to Josh Allen, who was my MVP all season long. The man did it with his arms or his legs when his arms weren't working. And I appreciate the fact that I only had to have one week in week 13, I believe, when I had to bench him due to his by week. It was a beautiful run. And I appreciate, even though the bills weren't very good, that he remained outstanding for me. Big shout out to big brother, Brandon Ayuk, ASU, Forks Up, gave me the champion.

with his performance for the San Francisco 49ers. Honorable mention that piece of shit, Austin Echler, who I drafted with my overall number one pick when I could have got Tyree Kill and just slaughtered this fucking entire office when it came to this fantasy football league. But most importantly, I want to thank Anthony Totry, who's here right now because we had an incredible battle

where I beat him by less than half of a point. Less than half of a point. Can you imagine? He wants to shake your hand. I know. I know. I know. How we're respectful.

Can you imagine the disappointment? Can you imagine the hurt in this man's heart? Yeah. And yet here he is. Hey. Uh, you know. Shaking my hand. Next year.

Next year. Next year. Hey, we're on a next year. Hey, next year. Every year is our year next year. Right? Yeah, that's the thing around here. Go delves.

Um, yeah. Whatever. Get out of here. Loser. Uh, anyway, uh, I won. And that's my speech. I don't think I have anything else. I did a lot of maneuvering throughout the year.

So, but I think the big thing that got me over, over the hump. The one thing that won me the championship, I went through and individually gave each one of my players a nickname this season. And that, I think, was the biggest thing is I just showed that I cared more than everybody in this office. I also made an incredible logo, which was Johnny doing the beer chug, you guys remember, from way back in the day when we first started. But I made them into like a little stone cold Steve Austin. I put him on SmackDown.

It's fantastic. I'll show you guys someday, posted on Twitter or something. Mine and Jesse's teams didn't deserve nicknames. Yeah, no. That's the problem. I want to. Let's talk about Damon. team for a minute because Damon's team scored. We both passed on Tyree Kill and Damon lost.

Correct. And Damon lost anyway. He also scored more points than anybody hands down. And it was just one heartbreaking disappointment after the next for him all season long. But you know what he didn't do? He didn't end up in last place. That goes to our GM, Saul Bookman, who at one point in our fantasy football chat egregiously texted us all that there was a zero, I mean zero percent chance of him finishing last. And not only did he finish last, but he's finished last in a spectacular fashion. There is a toilet bowl division in our, in our, I know a lot of fantasy football leagues have this. I've never actually seen one played out where the loser with the least amount of points is the one that advances. And Saul even lost that. He came in dead last. Yeah, well, you get a buy because you can't,

you're, you're like, you're, you can't play for as good a final position as everyone else. So you like, don't even get to play in the first round of the toilet. I know because I was the other person. He was. He didn't do that. He didn't come in last place. No, I won both games. I won both toilet bowl games.

In fact, I believe you would have beat me in the finals with your point total. I probably would have. Johnny Venerable who was in the toilet bowl final versus Saul Bookman put up the most points that week that any team I think did all season long. It was wild. It was crazy. But yeah, no, I just wanted to, I think I covered everything. I think so.

Suck it. Suck it, Cardinals' crew. All right, what else we got? Next one comes from Brett Lee Johnson. Brett asked if the debacks get priced out of the backup catcher market and have to look internally. Does Adrian Del Castillo having a shot at the roll over Jose Herrera? Not sure his defense, but his numbers at the plate look solid between AA and AAA. I believe they kind of made it sound like they were going to be holding a kind of a competition there for the backup catcher.

Yeah, I think it probably will be a competition. I don't know. I don't know if they were really ever planning to bring in someone who was like, who was really good enough to be, oh, that's your clear cut backup catcher, you know, over everyone else. It's kind of always seemed like there was potential for a competition to happen here involving Jose Herrera. And yeah, I do think Adrian Delcassio probably factors into that. I don't anticipate that he will be the one who ultimately lands that role. That would be a pretty big step for him. But he did reach AAA in, in 2023.

And I think he's reached a point defensively where he's at least a viable catcher in the big leagues. And his offense is good. It is, you know, it is probably, I don't think it'd be all that crazy to expect that he could be a better hitter on opening day than Jose Herrera if they were both in there at the same time. The defense I've never seen in person, of course, heard that it is possible. It has reached a point of being, you know, good enough to play in the majors. But we don't, you know, we're not going to really know what that looks like until we see it. So, yeah, I still think the debacks will make some sort of outside addition here. But, yeah, I don't know if I was ever expecting it to be like a Gary Sanchez type or anyone like that.

We'll see. All right. Yeah, what he said. I repeat everything he said. All right. What have we got, Dan. Brian Bobbitt asks Which Diamondback do you think was the one

Up until 4 a.m. partying on New Year's Day And which one was in bed by 9 p.m.? Oh, this is a dangerous question Because I feel like I'm just telling whichever player That they went to bed at 9 p.m. to just get fucked, nerd. Is that what I'm telling them? Like, you don't have a social life?

I don't feel like that. I want to say Corby and Carroll because I feel like Corbyn Carroll, the most important thing to Corbyn Carroll, is getting a good night's rest and getting better at baseball the next day. However, on New Year's Eve?

Yeah, I still think. I still think, you're waiting up until midnight for that kiss, I think, I think. I'm just saying, that's a gift of a day to stay at all the midnight. I feel like the younger guys who are not married,

like don't have families at this point. Be more, I mean, they're going to stay up, right? Yes. Until midnight. Yeah. But like guys who have.

who have kids and maybe have had kids for a while. Like, I think about Paul Seawald. Paul Seawald, maybe. Paul Seawald fell asleep on the couch. Yeah, like that would, that wouldn't totally shock. Paul Seawald was in charge of lighting off the Walmart fireworks outside and he fell asleep on the couch. Christian Walker doesn't give a shit at all.

Oh, yeah. No, no. You're right. You're right. Christian Walker maybe sat around a fire, wrote some horses and went to bed at whatever damn time he wanted to. He does that every night. Yeah.

Tommy Fam stayed up until 4 a.m. right Tommy fan might still be awake from New Year's Eve right now as we speak he did you see posted a screenshot of his his fantasy football victory there you go you and Tommy you and Tommy let's go Tommy we did it rumor is a Derek slap tootry too yeah well I mean it was over a trade but I felt like he deserved it Lordus definitely well see Lordus Lordus is kind of that family man that you're talking about

Every time we see Lourdes outside, it's like kind of like Edward R. Rodriguez, it seemed like his family very important, wants to spend time with those little ones that he has. Sure, sure. I don't know. But Lourdes, I mean, Gabby, Gabby for sure. Gabby, Alec Thomas. He stayed up. Gabby stayed up. Yeah, these guys were all up until four a year, I am together, right? Jerry? Yeah. Like they were together. I think Jerry might have gone. Dre. Dre Jameson, Jake McCarthy. These guys, they were all at something together. I feel that for sure. But yeah, no, that's that's a great question, by the. the way thank you for that one uh you got anybody else dad you covered everybody all right that's it i think i'm done speculating on who stayed up late and who what's better what a new year all right what else we got last question comes from our pal gabriel at bold as bronze uh and he says if you had to cast the twenty twenty three debacks movie who would you choose i got the playoff starters gallon kyle

Mooney. Yeah, that's a good one. Gall, Gal and Kyle Mooney. Harry's very similar. Chris Elliott. Merrill Kelly is Chris Elliott. So yeah, there's no one else that you cast in that particular role. Have you ever seen them in the same place? I have never, no, no. And honestly, I mean, I've seen him wear, I've seen him, I've seen him, I've seen him wear a beanie and do do the wuggy scratch on his beard. And yeah, that man knows exactly what he looks like. I didn't recognize Chris Elliott's name, and so I looked it up real quick, and I know who he is. That is. It's the only person.

Some pictures of him do look like, like they are the same person level of similar. Yeah, it's hard. Brandon Fott, that's a good one. I'm not familiar with that actor, but then I looked him up. And yeah, I mean, that's a good one. It's Australia. Yeah, yeah. There's a fine line between Brandon Fott's Southern accent and the Oswald.

Australian accent. I would suspect that Jacob Allardy would have. It's the cheeks. You got to get the cheeks. Sure. Jacob All right. He's played many roles where he's American. Okay. So he can speak like an American. Does he know how to pronounce Louisville correctly?

Louisville. Is that in his arsenal? He has to. You've got to go spend some time in Kentucky before you can play that role. I've been watching too much Percy Jackson lately. So like with like Gallant, I was like, what about Lynn Manuel Miranda? just because I would like to see Zach Gown sing a musical on the mound. That would be incredible.

Whatever movie brings out in the song. The D-Bachs postseason, the musical. Oh, my God. Now we're talking. I won't be there no matter what. Yeah, right. There's also a kid that plays Percy Jackson, and I think he's going to grow up to look exactly like Zach Gallen. So maybe in a few years, Walker's Colville will be Zach Allen in that movie.

But there's no one else we're casting as Merrill Kelly. That's a done deal. There could probably be other guys. I don't know. It's hard. I mean, you're not going to get any advice for me. You're not going to get any advice for me. Don't look at me.

I might as well not look at you at all. But we did cast the 2001 movie and I felt like I did the pretty good job of that back in the day. So we'll make sure to check that out. But we thank you guys, of course, for the questions. And we thank you guys for being here for making it through to 2024. This is not a, this has not been a easy year. But for us, Diamondbacks fans, we had a lot of fun there at the end. And so really thankful to have you guys here.

Really thankful to be back myself. John, we're getting requests from you guys here for the movie. Elizabeth says, Corbin Carroll is Charles Melton. Christian Walker is Jared Kiso. And Tori is Ray Romano. Now I want to see Ray Romano. Like, yeah, that's at least the sound alike there. There's some similar sounding there.

But yeah, let's keep figuring it out. Who's going to play us? I know Robert Danny Jr. for me, Jesse. Yeah, that tracks. It does. I mean, it's got to put out a little weight. Zach Ephron, for sure for me. Yeah.

Well, yeah. With the mustache, by the way. It's got to have the mustache. The very polarizing mustache. Yeah. Well, okay. I know there's got to be a million people to cash. There's one.

I think he was in like one of the first Star Wars movies that they made, like the big Star Wars movies that they made after the. Is it? Is it and Christensen? I don't know actors names Derek. But someone who was in a Star Wars movie, people think, look like and that's about all I have to say on that might be like the least descriptive thing I've ever heard it's jar jar jar bin one of the hours movies one of the 12

somebody movies somebody there's like 15 shows I don't know somebody in there somebody in somebody knows somebody who is listening and watching right now yeah they know exactly talking about because it's happened like multiple times I've gotten multiple like oh you look like Gabriel's dad says Tom Holland for Jesse let's go there we go I get that a lot too You got to take that one. You got to take it? Yeah, take it and run. Well, we are going to run now, but we appreciate you guys for stopping by.

We thank you, as always, for your time. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with the K. This absolute maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer behind the Mac is the one and only, Damon. He is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs.

Bark, bark. Of course, you can follow our show at P-HNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at P-HNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you guys. We thank you so much for your time. And you can't wait to see you tomorrow. In the meantime, we'll see you then.

Remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you stay up until 4 a.m. on New Year's Day.