PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - What We Learned From Brandon Pfaadt’s First Start in D-backs Win Over the A’s

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Brandon Pfaadt took the mound for the Diamondbacks for the first time this spring. We break down his outing and what a big season from “Big Game Brandon” could mean for Arizona in 2026. We also recap the D-backs’ win over the Athletics, including another impressive performance from Tommy Troy as he continues to turn heads in Cactus League play. More importantly, the World Baseball Classic has officially begun. We dive into the results from the first games of the tournament and attempt to fill out what is obviously the only correct WBC bracket… probably. Plus, we take a closer look at the messy insurance situation surrounding the tournament and why there are so many things wrong with the system. 0:00 Skee(MFing)Yee!!!  6:15 Brandon Pfaadt's first spring start  11:50 Australia gets WBC's first win  20:40 PHNX Diehard shoutout  22:25 World Baseball Classic bracketology  32:20 Pool A = group of death?  43:05 Japan's cupcake run  49:50 WBC insurance scandal JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120 ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. 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! 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brandon Fott made his first start for the debacks yesterday and looked pretty good. What if this team gets 30 starts from Big Game Branded? We're talking about it right now. And welcome in to another edition of PHNX Deepak podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of PHNX and occasionally Amarillo, Texas, Derek Montia, also mayor of everywhere. And again, don't go throw in that mayor nickname around all with. Millie, like it's just something that you can call someone. I need to remind you of that.

I am joined, of course, by my guy, Damon Dogg, on the ones and twos, aka Damon Farrell, Damon Bark, Bark to you on this fine Thursday morning. Salute, Derek. How's your basketball team doing? My basketball team is maybe the best that it's ever been in my entire life. Yeah, you have a lot of exciting times ahead. As do we, as people that not only get to watch us Arizona Diamondbacks team in 2026, but also the World Baseball Classic, which we are going to be talking about here.

Shortly, we are going to do our best attempt to put together our winning bracket for that tournament. Derek, I'm excited for the World Baseball Classic. I really am. I was telling my roommate yesterday, I was like, I actually just can't wait for some high stakes baseball like this early in the season. It just puts you in the baseball mood right away. I remember like how 2023 felt where we had those big games and then all of a sudden, or straight into the season and the debacks are hot off the jump. And it was just like a fever dream of like 10 months of just awesome baseball.

I need it back in my life. You're right. You're right. I needed it so bad that now that World Baseball Classic play has started, Damon, which as you know, I've been getting some good REM sleep, thanks to my new mattress, found myself up at 2.45 a.m. randomly as one does when they are 44 years old and have lower back problems.

and what I saw on social media, because you know I can't stay away from Twitter when I'm awake at 2.45 a.m. is that in 15 minutes, South Korea versus Chechia was about to start. And I was supposed to not watch that. I wasn't supposed to stay up for a game that starts at 3 a.m. I love this. This reminds me of KBO baseball all over again.

And in fact, maybe, just maybe that's part of the problem here, Damon, overall, is that we have, of course, world baseball classic, starting and kind of running over spring training, which is fine because nobody cares about spring training games. And that's fine too. We're okay with all of that. We're not going to shy away from the truth on this program. We know that you guys don't care. We know you stopped caring. Like you still want to know that Tommy Troy went three for four in yesterday's win over the athletics, but you don't care that they won over the athletics. You don't care that the score was three to one. Admit it. That's fine. But Tommy Troy did go three for four in yesterday's win. Also, Jacob Amaya,

he's been quietly doing some impressive things. He was two for three with a home run and he scored all of the debacks RBI. He had all three RBI for the Dbacks. Luke and Baker, another big fellow that we are coming. We are learning to love. Big fella is right. Oh, man, he is. If he's nothing, he's a big fella.

I mean, he might be the big show. We might have to start calling him the big show, Luke and Baker. But he's one for two with a double that he smoked 105.7 mile per hour exit Velo on his double in that game. again, two runs scored and a walk for Baker, so that looks great. Another thing on the very, very bright side of things, Brandon Garcia returned to the Diamondbacks bullpen yesterday. If you don't remember, he left the game, his last outing after hitting a batter and looking like he couldn't find the strike zone.

He left with a trainer, which was very concerning and made all of us collectively hold our breath. But luckily, as the Diamondbacks revealed, it was just due to illness. And Brandon Garcia went out there and looked great in his watching. inning of work he struck out too didn't allow a hit didn't walk anyone and again looks outstanding but tommy troy Tommy troy looks great man after going three for four yesterday he is currently hitting 524 with a 1.238 ops and he has hit safely in seven of his nine spring training games we talk about a lot of guys on this team and again I think when it comes down to it it's going to be disappointing when we see certain names sent back down to their you know minor league teams we're already

seeing that today. Gilbert Diaz was sent back down to or reassigned the AAA Reno Aces or optioned, excuse me, to the Reno Aces. Dylan Ray also optioned to the Reno Aces. Those were guys, I believe, that were on their 40-man roster that are no longer on their 40-man roster. But Tommy Troy, again, just looks really good. That 1.238 OPS outstanding. He has four doubles, two RBI and spring play. The Diamondbacks have won five straight games and six of their last because I guess that exhibition game doesn't count against Team Mexico. Derek, you did the thing. I did the thing.

You did the thing. The Diamondbacks currently have a 302 batting average, which is second in Major League Baseball behind only the San Francisco Giants who have a 318 team batting average. Their LPS of 876 is third behind the Rockies and the Giants. So Diamondbacks doing some good things offensively here already in spring. But Brandon fought. he made his first start. He went two and a third scoreless innings. He allowed one hit in his

spring debut. And again, just outstanding to see Brandon fought back out on the mound pitching. There was some concerns about, you know, a side injury that had kind of come up. Fingers crossed that we didn't lose Brandon fought because, again, now we would start to get down to panic territory. But luckily, he just, they had to slow play him a little bit. But he, you know, Brandon looked great yesterday. He said, I think he was, I think just being aggressive was what led to his outing yesterday. That was his goal. He said they were pretty fastball heavy, but they came out swinging. We wanted to work on the curveball in the third inning, didn't land the three two pitch, which I wish I could have had that one back, but it felt good. Stuff was moving great. We were being aggressive. He threw his sinker and his change up primarily in yesterday's game.

He got three whiffs in it. And D-Back's pitchers overall, the entire pitching staff yesterday did not allow an extra base hit to the athletic. So good performance overall, but you can't help but wonder Brandon Fott, right? Brandon Fott is is to that point now where you almost feel like you need to see that breakout season from him this year, something that he truly really hasn't had. It's similar, I guess, to what we talked about with Jordan Lawler, but Jordan Lawler is far younger into his career. Brandon Fought, we have seen how great he can be.

We've seen Brandon Fought be, you know, one of the best pitchers on the staff at times. However, just does not have that consistency that this team is looking for from, you know, a starter and from him, quite frankly. I mean, again, there was a lot of expectations for Fought. And so far, you know, you probably won't find somebody that's harder on him than himself. So it's kind of thing that's something there that he needs. to shed as well for the 2026 season. But across all the projection systems, they like Brandon Fott for 2026.

They really do see him as a candidate to have a rebound season. We're talking about steamer, Zips, fantasy pros, all of that stuff. It looks like Brandon Fott, obviously, if he stays healthy, projected to go about 30 starts and 170 innings pitched. Mediocre record around 500. ERA improved, but still probably not outstanding. They have his ERA somewhere in the range of 4.12 to 4.50. Steamer has them at 4.31 with a 1.27 whip.

Zips has them at 4.12 with a 1.19 whip. But overall, all better than it's 5.25 ERA from 2026. And even that was kind of a bad luck. His underlying metrics once again suggested that Brandon fought was better than that 5.2.5. be a URA, but Brandon overall, if he can be a guy that comes back and can contribute in a way that makes him look like a solid number three starter for this team, number four starter, the Diamondbacks can really go places again. Talk to you briefly there about their spring training, you know, offensive numbers, which

don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but still are looking very good, still at the top of the league. you don't feel like offense is going to be the problem for this team in 2026. And it doesn't appear that that is going to be the case based on the way guys are playing so far. It still feels like everything is going to hang on their pitching. And that's nothing new. That's probably something you could say about every baseball team. If you have great pitching, you're going to win a lot of baseball games.

But what the Diamondbacks realistically need is Brandon fought and Eduardo Rodriguez to pitch how we know they can. not how these numbers at the end of the season essentially end up, right? And again, I know I'm probably beating this to death, but Erod had himself an amazing stretch last year against some of the best teams in baseball. That stretch right there is what I'm talking about. It's those stretches and past seasons that lead you to believe that he can be much better than what we've seen.

I mean, everybody thinks that, but at least makes you feel like that's still there. From Erod, he said he has felt great. Brandon fought. Again, says he feels much better than he did and kind of over that side issue that he had. But, you know, again, those two guys, there's so many questions about what those two guys are going to be in 2026. There's also questions about how Soroka is going to factor in here to the starting rotation. Also questions about when Merrill Kelly will make his debut. He is scheduled to throw a bullpen today per Tori Lovalo. Tori said that it'll probably be somewhere in the 15 pitch range, and he said this is encouraging news.

He had a chance to speak to him directly that he said he feels good enough to get back up on the mound and begin that progression. So Merrill Kelly resuming baseball activities, not just throwing, but actually getting in and tossing a bullpen. He's still trending towards being ready to pitch at the back end of the rotation, most likely against the Detroit Tigers on March 31st or April 1st. That is not official from the team. is me just doing math and using dates and a calendar to figure that portion out. But again, the Diamondbacks very much need Merrill Kelly to come back here. And again, he is going to be a welcome sight at the back end of that rotation. But forget that.

Forget spring training. Nobody cares about that. World Baseball Classic is here. And now we are ready for actual World Baseball Classic games to start. And we already had a pretty shocking upset in the world of World Baseball Classic in the world of World Baseball Classic. Australia defeated Chinese Taipei by a score of three to nothing. The three hit shutout, putting together by Alex Wells, Jack O'Loflin, and John Kennedy,

and top prospect Travis Bazana added a home run to give Australia insurance later on. His name is all over the place. If you go to the World Baseball Classic, you probably, if you took a shot every time they tweeted about Travis Bazzana, you would be drunk before you scroll. two or three times. But this is first game of the entire tournament. Again, kind of a shocking win there for Australia. He grabs an early advantage there in Pool C,

which also includes Japan, South Korea, and Chechia. Is that right? Am I saying that right? It's Chechia. That's the name because they were in the second game against South Korea. They lost by a score of 11 to 4. Korea's offense exploded for 11 runs, powered by multiple home runs. I'm going to say a lot of names wrong here. Let's just get that out of the way here.

Boe Young Moon hit a grand slam that helped blow the game open early. And then Astros minor leaguer, Shea Whitcomb also had a huge game with two home runs himself. So Korea immediately looks like a serious contender in a, honestly, a pretty stacked pool sea there as far as being in the same pool as Japan. So now we got Australia and South Korea at 1 and 0. Chinese Taipei or Taiwan is Damon demands and I call them 0-1 and Chechia 0-1. By the

way, is Chechia, is that the one where like a nuclear operator is one of their pitchers? I think so, yeah, that was what Connor, our sales guy, Connor was... Sorry, Chequia, thank you, Martin. Yes. So, yeah, they have like a bunch of dudes with day jobs. Like, there's like dental

hygienists and, you know, Amazon drivers. But not more important than a nuclear monitor. I felt like I feel like he... Oh, and there's a dude name Ryan Johnson as well on the Chechnine. His name I won't have any problems pronouncing for sure, but... Chequia.

It's Chequia. Yeah, I'm sorry. But again... Chechnya is a Russian. That's Russia. Yeah, that's different. All right. I'm bad at all of this.

I'm going to tell you. You got that in my head. I wasn't doing that and then you started doing it. Now I'm doing it. Yeah, it's bad. Only the top two teams advance to the quarter finals. So early wins are huge. here obviously and there's not a lot of games so well in australia one right yeah that's what's

what you're saying so i wanted to shout out uh my guy who i've been deeming with derrick uh fan of the of the of the program here debacks fan uh and just overall goat uh brad brad billet who has been uh he's a fan of ph next dbacks he is an ozzy man uh and he is mess been messaging me about different world baseball classic updates because derrick i would like to announce that my second team is also not the united states it's australia i am team dominican republic and team australia those are my two teams no i'm sorry it's just who i am individual oh yeah i got big jake franklin texting me yesterday how about make a wish kershaw hitting 87 on the gun and giving up a no doubt bomb bomb if clayton kershaw wasn't on that team could we get you to root for them yes

Of course. I've made that very clear. The sole reason I'm rooting against USA is because of Clayton Kershaw. Last World Baseball Classic, Otani wasn't even on the Dodgers. And I was rooting for the Team USA over Japan. Like, no question about it. But when you start making my team, my country, a charity case for your loser. Retired players.

Then I'm out. I'm out on that. So Team Dominican, team Australia. That's what we're all about. And the Aussies, we got ourselves a dub. Game one. Jason's trying to put the two together in the chat. He says, team Australia Republic, or is it team Dominicaalia?

We'll workshop that. We'll workshop that. We might need a little bit more time. Colia? I don't know. Well, we got some big matchups coming out today, including Japan versus Chinese Taipei, Mexico versus Christian Robinson and the Great Britain team. We got the Dominican Republic.

It's going to wipe the floor with Nicaragua. and USA versus Brazil. This is Team USA's first. Real WBC game as well. So big matchups, fun stuff, World Baseball Classic. It's going to deliver, man. It's going to be exciting.

And we're so pumped. We're going to do our best to figure out which teams are going to advance from each of these pools. And then we're going to try to determine the winner of the whole damn thing. Damon, let's do that on the other side of this break, shall we?

Yeah, let's do it. We're going to do that. Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the PhD. you next time and back show. Most of us are lucky enough to never have been involved in a serious accident, so we don't know what to do. But of course, you got to know if you are involved in a serious accident or have a serious injury. You have to do your research. And the lawyer you hire does matter. Let's face it, you want to hire an attorney that's focused on your best outcome,

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And everyone needs a checking account, so make sure you get yourself a checking account that gives back to you. That is exactly what Mountain America Credit Union is providing with their MyStyle checking account, which has perks just for your lifestyle. You can enjoy restaurant deals, mobile phone protection, telehealth access, and identity protection all through your My Style checking account. You can also get loan rate discounts, offers on travel and events, and so much more. new offers are being added all the time and they can save you money and provide you with some fun

things to do. And again, get a checking account that gives back to you and doesn't just take your money to pay for things. That's the MyStyle. Checking account is make my style for your lifestyle at Mountain America Credit Union. Visit macu.com slash my style to apply. Insured by NCUA membership is required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no cost registration activation, terms, conditions, and exclusions do apply. Well, Damon gave his shout out to somebody here that he was communicating with that's turned him into an Australian fan now. I want to get my show out. Ozzy, Ozzie, ooi, oh, I do that automatically.

I didn't even mean to jump in on that. But, hey. Let's be honest, we can root for Australia together. Wasn't there? I'm forgetting his name right now, and I'm really sorry for that. But we met another Australian fan of the program when he brought his beautiful family out to the ballpark. Oh, absolutely.

What was it two seasons ago? He was awesome. Yeah, he was awesome. So we do have some Australian listeners here. that like the Diamondbacks for some reason. And so we love our Australian fans. One time at the Royal Rumble that was taking place at Chase Field, there was this very tall Australian man that proceeded to help lift me up

so I could see wrestlers come in the entrance. He was a darling human being. Oh, this is this was like when you were like, you were younger at this point. Yeah, I was a younger individual. Totally. I was like 39. And this is this. this giant of a man was the kindest human being.

And then I kid you not, before the end of the show, I saw this great man being taken out by police for some reason that I still don't know. But again, not every story has a happy ending. Do want to give a shout out, though, to our diehards. You guys are amazing. And as always, we thank you guys so much for supporting us. And I mean that when I say this whole thing here, PHNX would not be happening without the support of our diehards, without the support of our supporters club members.

So again, thank you guys so much. And we wanted to spotlight one of our diehards, one of our wonderful Diamondbacks diehards, our guy here, Dean Browell. What a great name. Bro, well. It might be Browell. I might be butchering it by saying it bro well. I bet it is Browell. It probably is brow.

But I think Browell is also just so cool. So Dean, thank you so much for being a diehard. He bro's well. Dean is from Richmond, Virginia. And his favorite team is the Arizona Diamondbacks. favorite athlete, Gabriel Moreno, and he has been a diehard for three years. So again, Dean, we thank you so much. Dean said, thanks for being great. Thank you for being great, Dean. We appreciate it. He said he became a diehard because he was looking for a community and fan source,

even though he doesn't live in the area. And we are so happy to provide that. I will say that, again, I know that speaking as a Diamondbacks fan right here in Phoenix at times, it was hard to find a group of fans. So we are happy to be helping this community grow, and we are thrilled that you are part of it. So thank you so much, Dean, for that. We appreciate you guys. We appreciate all of you so much.

You guys, again, are the reason why we do this and the reason we're able to do this. So again, thank you all. But Damon, I feel like it's time for us to really start committing to these teams. You've already done that. There's no doubt about that. I don't think anybody would argue with that, but I think it's time for us to maybe start figuring out who exactly is in the quarterfinals and who is going to advance to win the whole damn thing.

So let's take a look at the World Baseball Classic bracket. Right now, a little convoluted, maybe not as easy to figure these things out, right? Because two teams from each pool advance. And as you can see here on your screen, we have the four pools. We have Pool A that features Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama, and Columbia. We have Pool B, which features the United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain, and Brazil. We have Pool C that features Japan, Australia, Korea, Czechia, and Chinese Taipei. And then last, we have Pool D featuring Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Israel, and Nicaragua.

All right, so. I mean, it's electric, the spots that they picked for these games. I won't lie about that. You mean the locations themselves? Yeah, Pool B being in Houston, Texas. Pool A being in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That is going to be amazing. Electric.

Tokyo, Japan, for Pool C, seems unfair. And Miami, Florida there. What's weird about Pool C, I mean, and I guess maybe it's not weird. It's on purpose. But all the Asian countries plus Australia are in there. So that almost feels a little bit unfair to those countries to, like, not randomize it and to just be like group them all together and be like, whoever comes out of the Asian side of the bracket. Yeah. But it's like you're almost eliminating teams that maybe have a better chance of getting there.

Like, what if South Korea was in, you know, the pool B? Who's what's stopping them from beaten Mexico and getting past? Yeah, you're absolutely right. But now they're in a really difficult, they're probably going to get out of pool. see anyways, but like maybe Australia is one of those teams. But it just feels a little bit like maybe it should be more randomized than that, but I'm sure they're trying to reduce like the travel costs and everything. Well, and I think overall here, you know, you're right. There is definitely a little bit of unfairness to it when it comes to the locations and everything like that. But,

I mean, you could say the same thing about divisions and such in baseball, right? Like some, like the Diamondbacks would be in such a better place if we played in any division besides the NL West. for sure you know so it's like some of these pools kind of do make it a little difficult for some teams to to make it out i think that pool a is fairly up for grabs probably the most competitive division that i don't know if you have a clear cut two teams that stand out i mean let's yeah true let's kind of do this and i think we should do the easiest obvious ones here and no disrespect to the other three teams but i don't see anybody beating venezuela or the dominican Republican pool D. Is that fair to say? Yes, I think it is unless, unless the plumbers on the Netherlands team can get together. I was supposed to say. Drew Jones has something to say about it. We need the- You're calling Drew Jones a plumber? I want to let's get this on the record. I said pitching staff. I said pitching staff. True. Their pitching is not very good. They do have a decent little lineup though. Yeah. The Netherlands team. They do. And I mean,

honestly, you could probably say that about a few teams that are a bit surprising. I think Great Britain is better than they've ever been. But true, again, do you see those teams kind of doing enough to outplay the other teams in their pool, including Venezuela and the Dominican Republic? Like the Australian win, that's a big kind of shocker there, but it's not over Japan or Korea. So it's not enough to believe, make me believe at least at this point, that Australia is going to make it out of that pool into the quarterfinals. I see that still. being Japan and Korea. Man, these Netherlands pitchers

are bombs, Derek. I know. I'm telling you, a bunch of metal workers. They are so bad. One guy's a lawyer. All they have is is Kenley Jansen. Yeah. That's the one guy that I recognize here on this list and it's like, okay, well, if they have a lead maybe,

but even then, but they do have Ozzy Albies, Zander Bogart's, Dedi Grigorous. Is ProFar allowed to play? Or is that ProFar's brother? That's not. Drixon, that's whatever his brother's name. They have Jonathan Scoop's brother as well, Charlon Scoop. And then they have Drew Jones. I mean, it's kind of a fun team.

Jeremy, Dramey Profar. Yeah, I agree with you. I do agree with you. I don't think that anyone is beating Venezuela or the Dominican Republic out of Pool D. And then, so if we're mapping this out, Pool D would then go to game three of the quarterfinals, the winner. So do you want to just say that the Dominican Republic is going to win? Yeah, the Dominican Republic team is just a monster. I can't imagine that team not taking that pool and being the winner of it.

And then Venezuela is still very good. And I think, again, Venezuela has a lot of country pride to play for right now as well. Plus, again, a very good roster. Japan and Korea just seem very likely out of pool C. Do you want to actually commit yourself to believing enough to say that Australia is going to keep Korea out of the quarterfinals? Damon? Are you willing to commit to that?

I am currently my brain power is being used in a different direction right now. He's updating the bracket and I'm here asking him questions. Yeah, I'm not entirely listening. But so do we want to put Venezuela as the runner up in group D then? Correct. Yeah, Venezuela will be the runner up in group D. So again, when it comes to the quarterfinals, it's a bit complicated. but yes, Damon's putting together the bracket correctly.

I have the format in my head and I have it next to me. So I'm kind of just basing it off of that. That works for me. So again, what we have here in Pool C, again, Japan, Australian, Korea are probably going to be in a fight here for those two positions. But again, can't imagine that Samurai Japan does not come out of Pool C. So really it's up to the Australian team pulling off a fairly big upset. and making it in over Korea. That's what we have so far, Derek.

That's what I've been working on over here. That's what you are taking up 75% to 80% of his brain power, which is fair. So what I was asking you was, are you ready to commit enough to Australia to have them making it into the quarterfinals over Korea? After Korea got that big W against Taiwan, I will call them. Sure. I think.

It's a Czechia, actually. Oh, wait, I thought. Australia beat. Chinese-trial, Taiwan. Taiwan, I gotcha. Yeah, man. I mean, that's a big win for Australia.

It feels like that's momentous. Let's do. I feel like Korea has the pitching advantage. Yeah. They have to, right? They do. They absolutely have the pitching advantage. But Australia, once again, has also has lawyers.

Australian pride. And guys that do air conditioning work on the team that are, you know, Do they actually? Do they have Liam Hendricks? No, he didn't suit up. No, he did not. What a joke? I mean, again, the...

Travis Bazzana? Yeah, Travis Bazaana has killed it. He hit a home run in that one. And again, like I said, if you, if you go to the World Baseball Classic account and take a shot every time you see a tweet featuring his name, you're going to be wasted. So what do we want to do here? Do we want to go Australia or Korea? Let's go Australia. All right.

This is who you, this is a guru back. This is who you are behind. So we'll throw Australia in there. As the runner up? Yeah, as the runner up. And we'll have Japan winning that division. Okay. So it looks like my teams will then be playing each other, unfortunately.

Good. Let's get this over with. Wow. The winner of that, the winner of that quarterfinal game will then be the team that Damon can go buy a jersey of, whether it's a Pardomo or a Bazana jersey.

So there's that. Meanwhile, pool B, United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain, and Brazil. Brazil, not a chance. Italy, get out of here, great Britain. You showed up at least. We appreciate that. But nobody's beating Rowdy-Tiles and Team Mexico,

and nobody's definitely beating the United States when it comes to making it into the quarterfinals. So I feel like that one's fairly obvious. Maybe I'm being unkind to some of those other teams, but I just can't imagine it. Team Mexico looked really good out there against the Diamondbacks. We had a chance to see them in that exhibition game. And then you also have the United States putting up, you know, going 15 to 1 over the giants

and making them look like some fairly pathetic pedestrians there. So anyway, what do you, what do you think in here? So anybody. This is in the group pool B. We're now talking about group B, United States. Winner probably right. And then Mexico, I would say. Yeah, it's got to be, right?

Yeah, that's it. That's it as far as I'm concerned. And again, I know a lot of these are easy. We went with Australia there as a little bit of an underdog, but Korea obviously making it in seems like that's just as likely, but not probably enough there for them to. Oh, I think you mix those up. I think Australia would be playing Dominican, right,

and Japan would be playing Venezuela. Isn't that what I have? Oh, yeah, they're across from each other. They're across from their opponent. Got it, got it, got it. I see that now. Got it. All right.

And then the teams on the right are the home teams and the teams on the left are the away teams as well. Understood. So then we'll do Mexico. Yeah, we'll do Mexico. But pool A, by far, the hardest pool to determine, I feel like. Yeah. I mean, it's just the teams are, it's the most wide open for sure, it feels like, right? Yes.

It definitely feels like the most wide open. It feels like the one where any of the. these teams honestly could be really good and any of them could kind of find, you know, their rhythm together. It's hard, right? Like, it's a very short amount of time of you essentially becoming a team together before these games actually start playing, you know, few days at the most. But it's hard not to think, even though they have a lot of, I guess, a lot of problems overall with the insurance situation that we, unfortunately, are going to talk about later on the show. Team Puerto Rico still feels like a pretty decent bet there overall.

Team Puerto Rico feels like they have enough star power on that team for them to come together and, you know, win get themselves into the quarterfinals, right? I agree with you. Interesting, some interesting people on this Cuban team, Derek? Cuba, Cuba, they have Yohan Lopez. Yep. And then. and Yon Munkato and Yeriel Rodriguez. Yeah, they have Alexi Ramirez, brother. Yeah. I'm sorry, did you hear me say what I just said right now?

Alexi Ramirez. He stopped playing Major League Baseball and Derek. Can you guess the year that he stopped playing Major League Baseball? Go ahead and guess, Derek. 2018? 2016! This guy hasn't played in the pinnacle of the sports. since 2016.

And he's in the World Baseball Classic. This is why the World Baseball Classic is awesome. Yeah. It's because you get these like these players, guys that play for like the Great Britain team where you're like, wait, what is he doing out there? He's, I thought Adrian Beltrae retired 25 years ago.

And they're like, well, he has some obscure connection to, you know, the UK. And so he can play for them and he's 45, but he's still the best third baseman they got. And you're like, this is ridiculous. Yeah. Is it Lexi Ramirez? is going to just be a third base coach for them? Like, what's going on?

He's going to be both. He's going to be a third base man and a third base coach for that team. Cesar, I was not in elementary school, but here's, get this, I was in high school. I was in high school. That was my senior year of high school was when Alexei Ramirez played ball. All right, now you're making me feel old. It's been 10 years. I know, I know.

Puerto Rico, they got Nolan Arnato, they got Edwin Diaz, they got Seth Lugo, right? You also have Canada. with Josh Naylor, Tyler O'Neill, and Jameson, and then Columbia. And Michael Soroka. And Michael Soroka. You're right. Excuse me for leaving him off there.

And then you got Columbia with Jose Cantana, Michael Oroyo, and one Nabil Krizmat. That's Columbia. That's Columbia. There's your X factor. There's your winner right there. That's your division winner. Columbia. No, I'm joking.

I do think Puerto Rico is going to make it out of that. I would put Puerto Rico probably as the winner of that pool. Okay. But what do you think here as far as Cuba, Canada, and Columbia is concerned? I – No offense, Panama. Let me take a peek at this Colombian roster real quick just to kind of get a better idea of what we're working with here. John Romero, who's a Kentana.

I mean, Julio Tehran, which when was last time Julio Tehran pitched in an MLB game? Now we're looking that up because this is insane. Julio Tehran hasn't pitched in a major league baseball game since 2019, Derek. He's on the Colombian team. Hmm. This Colombian team is really not bad. I know. They're pretty,

I mean, they got a lot of like peripheral dudes, but like that's the type of team that can, I think, kind of play above its head. Like when you get like a Gio Urchella and he's just a monster in the world baseball classic and you're like, what?

Wait, that's not a thing that happens in regular baseball. But when these guys play for their countries, they get a lot better. I'm leaning Canada, but I do think this Colombian team is sneaky. I think they're real sneaky. Canada did get beat by the Toronto Blue Jays in exhibition play. Just want to throw that out there. I don't know how that impacts your feelings on that.

It doesn't really impact my feelings too much. I don't really care about spring training. But yeah, no, I mean, we already, let's do this, because I'm a wrestling guy. And sometimes you have to book this for the best. like fan you know situation we want we want big matchups right we want hatred we want bitter all

and there's no bigger like there's no bigger rivalry right now than Canada versus USA right after what happened in the Winter Olympics with hockey so I'm throwing Canada in there and they are going to face off there against team USA in the quarterfinals I love it right that's going to put some butts and seats that's going to sell some tickets

that's going to get TV watch I mean you would assume so you would think so you would think so you would think so but sometimes you don't know these audiences can be fickle damon that's why every once in while you got to you got to throw like a big show out there a k a luke and baker the second time i've mentioned the big show the big show on this show what he's what luke and baker is what the people tune in for that's what the people hem and jelly bean him and jelly bean is what people are here for but i think we've done a pretty good job here of setting up the quarterfinals overall we got Puerto Rico in there on the winners bracket side along with team USA, the Dominican Republic in Japan.

On the second place side, I guess you could say over here, we got ourselves Canada, Mexico, Australian and Australia and Venezuela. So love that. I think that looks good for essentially an elite eight here in our tournament bracket. So, Damon, why don't we do this? Why don't we take a quick break? And on the other side of this break, we will do some more bracketology here and figure out who exactly is going to win the whole damn thing.

Let's do that here. We'll be back here in a few minutes. Of course, you guys, you know what you're watching. You're watching me. You're watching Damon. You're watching the pH next Diamondback show. Someone asked me the other day how many hats I actually own. And I have entirely too many to count.

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little convoluted, I guess you could say from here, because the seating in the next round would depend on where, essentially, what their records are, right? But we do know that according to this information, the teams that advance, or team Japan and team USA cannot play each other in the semi-finals. Well, I think that basically they can, I think, but it was kind of set up so that they don't, I think is more the differentiator. They tried to set it up where there's not really a chance that it happens. I also think that they've kind of talked about this poorly because there's two games of these quarterfinals that take place on the 13th and two that take place on the 14th.

So you would, it makes, I think it makes all the sense in the world that the teams that play on the 13th play each other and the teams that play on the 14th play each other in the semi-final matchup. Okay. Because those games are also a day apart, so they want to have equal rest, I believe. So I think that the pool B winner versus the pool A runner up. So that would be USA Canada will take on the pool D winner versus the pool C runner up. So we have Dominican Republic versus Australia.

So I think we can plug those teams in as playing each other in the semi-finals. USA versus Dominican Republic. Right. I don't think either of those teams are going to lose. And I feel like when it comes to all of the winners and forgive me. for not having more pride in my own personal island, the same way Damon has pride in his little island. I think the only upset here in the quarterfinals

is going to be Team Mexico over Puerto Rico. Wow. Is that really that big of an upset then? No, no, no, no. I don't think in the grand scheme of things as far as those two rosters are concerned. I just mean that, you know, you have the second place teams on the left

versus the teams that ended up winning their divisions or their pools on the right, right? So I think Team Mexico goes on to take that, game against Puerto Rico and then I think Japan is in there. Now the big question, Damon, is can the Dominican Republic pull off the win over Team USA? I got to be honest, Derek. I'm sitting here and as we're outlaying this and I'm kind of getting an idea of what the bracket is headed towards, I can't believe baseball did it again. I cannot believe baseball did it again. Yeah. Is there any player who has been propped up by a sport since Michael Jordan as much as this show Hey,

Otani creep that they have over in Los Angeles. They are literally giving Japan a free run to the final. Venezuela, Mexico. Why can't the Dominican team get a shot at Japan? I want a shot at Japan in the semi-final. I know you do. Well, would you think it was be crazy if I were to say I think they'll get a shot at Japan in the final final? What? I think Dominican Republic. Beets USA. Okay, let's do it.

The only advantage that Team USA truly has their, I don't want to say that. That's probably not right. But I feel like their biggest advantage is pitching. And I still question, you know, when their biggest pitchers are going to be available in these games. Like, obviously, you got to have a Paul Skeen's or Terrick Scoobble pitching in that semi-final game, right? But didn't we discuss that if teams? Team USA made it to the finals.

It wouldn't be either of those guys pitching for them in the final. Yeah, it would be Nolan McLean in the final. And no disrespect to him or his good name, but not exactly the guy I would want in there for the championship overall. And then what, Derek? You know what happens next.

You're going to make me say it. You already pointed out that this whole thing props up show Aotani. It does. It does. The team Japan's going to win it all again. The entire tournament was started just so Otani can add to his resume.

I'm convinced at this point. I feel like the Dominican Republic has to be the team of destiny. I really feel like they are. It's just, it's like the vibes, everything about them, you know. Japan truly is the juggernaut, the end boss, everything that, you know. God, I hate them. We are going to rep the DR so hard in this game, Damon. Harder than we've ever repped any team or country.

Like literally like it means more, it means more of me than this. the deback season maybe. Perhaps. Well, there it is. There's your winning World Baseball Classic tournament bracket. If you needed any help, hope that helps.

Hope that lises it out for you. I feel like it was too easy. We just went with the good teams here overall, but we made some tough choices. We did Australia over Korea. We did the thing. I'm okay. I'm okay with this.

All right. Well, you know what I'm not okay with? I circled Japan. That's our final bracket. There you go. That's what we got. And it makes me sick. It should.

It should make you... Dude, is that really where we're headed? Probably. Probably. But let's hope we're wrong. It's fun to do this. This is where you head yourself emotionally. You fill out your bracket like this.

And then if you're wrong, you get to enjoy the Dominican Republic winning another World Baseball Classic title. Or perhaps Team USA getting the job done. We'll see. But, you know, it's not Japan that's ruining the World Baseball Classic, Damon. It's insurance. Insurance is ruining the baseball class. And we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break because everybody loves to talk about insurance.

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on your next project right now. Damon's out here messaging with our Australian friends. And Damon, you got yourself an interesting reply back when it came to him talking about Do you want me to grab this on the show? Oh, yeah. We want to see this picture because this might be the best sign that the Diamondbacks are going to have a good year. But we'll get to that before we get out of here, Damon. I'll give you a little time for that.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to talk about something that Damon loves to talk about, and that's insurance. Don't even get him started right now. Damon, you go do that thing. Damon has these easy. He's literally going to smash the keyboard right now. I was showing Derek some memes earlier. What was that for Mission Impossible? Yeah.

Yeah. There's some stuff out there. Insurance in general is a joke, as we all know, if we've ever had to deal with it. But the insurance for the World Baseball Classic is possibly the biggest joke you've ever seen. And I mean, you could argue maybe even slightly unfair. Might be bending the rules a little bit just in favor of Team USA overall. That's because after the injuries, last year, or last World Baseball Classic, not last year, but the last time we did this, to

Edwin Diaz and to Jose Altuve, there has been some concerns here from the insurance provider, and the list of reasons why a player could potentially not be insured is very lengthy. Now, this is a weird situation. This obviously was a part of the World Baseball Classic, a part that got owners to allow their players to participate. Like we've said, it's understandable, even though it's a little bit villainous for a organization, for a franchise, to keep their star players out of participating in a tournament like this

in which they get nothing in return for those players participating in the tournament. So MLB implemented this insurance, which allows teams to insure their players and should those players get injured participating in the WBC, their salaries would be covered by Major League Baseball. But it actually wouldn't be covered by Major League Baseball. It would be covered by an insurance provider. Much like most of us have insurance through our jobs,

it would be a similar thing where MLB is paying to this insurance provider and then should something terrible happen to one of these players, then they would be covered. Their salary at least would be covered in the franchise themselves. Wouldn't have to put up with it. So if Otani gets injured in the World Baseball, Classic, for instance, and Otani, by the way, not cleared to pitch by insurance, just cleared to hit. So there's one way that this is impacting his availability for Team Japan, is that Otani is only

cleared to hit in this World Baseball Classic. This insurance provider company called National Financial Partners is the official insurance broker for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Basically, it evaluates players based on salary, age, injury, history, and maybe what team they play for to provide coverage that protects teams guaranteeing up to two years of salary for position players and four years for pitchers should a pitcher or injure themselves in a way where they their career is done due to an injury that they sustained during the world baseball classic they would have to pay for four years of salary for that player right uh but if a player has had a recent surgery for instance that is one of many reasons that they can deny insurance

In fact, I found nine of them that are broader categories that are reasons why or eight that they can't, that they could deny insurance. And that's the bigger problem here. Recent surgery, for instance, has impacted them allowing certain guys to get injury. Meanwhile, other guys that have played for Team USA, for instance, like an Alex Bregman, they've had recent surgeries. And those recent surgeries have not impacted their ability to be insured and play in the WBC. It's the reason why a lot of this is coming into question and why teams like Team Puerto Rico, are truly screaming foul about their guys not being covered while other guys are, right? Number two is just a broad chronic injury classification that says insurance company can

categorize players as high risk if they have repeated injury issues. A player may be labeled chronic if they meet criteria like multiple surgeries during their career, 60 plus days on the injury list in previous season, which some guys again on the team USA have experienced missing the end of the previous season with injury, late season IL placement after August 31st, or multiple reoccurring injuries. That covers every single person in this office. Every single person in this office has chronic injury classification, Damon mostly. Also, just having an extremely large MLB contract could disqualify you from participating, which is weird because wouldn't that mean Shohei wouldn't be allowed to play. But insurance is

actually covering the contract value, not just the player. As we found out, for instance, like FIFA covers, has a similar insurance for players to take place or take part in the World Cup. But it only guarantees them a certain amount of the salary, not the full amount. I think, what was it? 7.8 million euros, something like that, Damon. But meanwhile, the MLB has the entire contract covered. Right? So if a player has a massive deal, the potential payout is huge.

Lindor has over $200 million remaining on his contract, making him a high financial risk to ensure. Not to mention he just have the recent he made injury. But another reason they can choose not to insure you is age restrictions. For the 2026 WBC cycle, insure implemented a rule denying coverage for players 37 years or older. Why is Clayton Kershaw out there? Well, he's not insured.

That's why, but still. Miguel Rojas reportedly couldn't. can get coverage because of this age threshold. So there's one guy that was not allowed. Also, recent injury history, which is different than the chronic injury history and recent surgery. So if you have a recent injury, players coming off injuries, even if they're healthy for spring training, could be rejected.

Jose Al-Tube had a recent procedure and a history of WBC injury concern, so he was not approved. And past WC injuries also can impact this as well. position specific risk. Number six, the sixth reason why insurance can deny you. Pitchers are often harder to insure because of higher injury rates, a past history of UCL or elbow injury, and a risk of arm fatigue before the MLB season.

And that's why Shohei Otani was approved to hit but not pitch. Another reason, which is why I wouldn't be approved besides the 37-year-old thing, disciplinary issues. Guys know I'm a problem. when comes to following directions and following rules. Occasionally players may be unable to participate because of international competition suspensions, Javier Baez, being suspended due to the testing violation for marijuana in this day and age in 2026.

MLB teams refusing to accept risk, even if insurance is denied, a player could still play if the MLB team decides to allow it. Carlos Santana, due to his age. not being covered by insurance, the Diamondbacks still let him participate as part of the Dominican Republic team. Most teams refuse. You know?

In this case, they are at the risk of essentially losing his salary if he gets injured. But to the Diamondbacks, it meant more to allow their player to participate in what will obviously be, well, probably not obviously be, because like you just said earlier,

players can apparently participate in the WBC until they're 60 years old. But Carlos says, Montana, this could be at the end of the line for him participating in the World Baseball Classic. Do you want to be the team that denies him that glory by, you know, keeping him out simply because, you know, he wasn't able to get insured? So insurance became so strict, you know, strict because of Edwin Diaz and Osay-L-Tube. Those incidents dramatically increased insurance caution and the cost overall.

And insurance companies like this one that covers the WBC, evaluate everything. So this is why they deny coverage and this is why guys weren't able to participate. It sucks. And not only does it suck, but it also feels like some of these guys that were insured that are part of Team USA got special exemptions to be insured, not exemptions from their team allowing them to participate uninsured. No, exemptions that had them covered where other countries and other teams don't have that same, I guess, grace, that same, you know, that same courtesy extended to them. So it does feel a little bit here like, you know, in a situation where you have a United States-based company that's providing insurance for this tournament that they are being a bit biased on behalf of Team USA.

We don't need that. Like, we don't really need that. Let's just make this fair and even across the board. And let's remember that this is just for the game. of baseball. Like, yeah, there's a winner. Yeah, there's a trophy. Yeah, a country gets bragging rights for the next few years, just like you do in the Olympics. However, you know, this is one of those things that's meant to bring us all together more and not make players and countries and certain ethnicities feel like they're being treated differently due to

this insurance situation. And that part sucks. But anyway, I just want to go watch. World Baseball Classic now. This insurance stuff kind of brought me down. I didn't mean to bring you down, but there are still plenty of amazing players participating in this tournament, and we get to watch 12 Diamondbacks be a part of it. So let's all go do that. We will be back here at 12 p.m. tomorrow with another show discussing the outcome of these World Baseball Classic games and maybe taking a look back at our bracket, wondering if we already made a mistake or two. So let's do that tomorrow at noon. Until then, you'll follow me on social media at Kapp underscore Caveman. with a K. You can follow Damon at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end, and we're all

Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you sharing it with us. Wait up, Derek. We got to show the snake, brother. Oh, I forgot. The diamond python. So our friend, what is our friend's name again, David? Our friend Brad, coming through with a picture of what he called a diamond. A diamond Python. A diamond python in his front yard. Let's never forget that Australia is a place that is just filled with danger at all times. They have these koalas called drop bears there. They'll just drop out of the trees and kill you, Damon. It's insane. But yes, no, this has to be a great sign. This has to be the best

possible sign. You would think. You would think. I don't know how it might not be, but shout out to Australia as a whole for being a very dangerous place. Damon, let's get out of here. We appreciate you guys again for your time. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, behave yourself, Michael Dixon, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when everybody gets insured.