PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Where Does MLB The Show Rank Entire Diamondbacks Roster For 2024?

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

MLB the Show 24 is here for players with early access! While we were ready to get angry about Gabi Moreno’s rating and the rest of the Diamondbacks, we were actually pleasantly surprised with the respect the Snakes are getting. We are also discussing our observations from spring training with less than two weeks left until Opening Day and the revenue generated by the Atlanta Braves’ multi-use facility known as The Battery.  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.

A ski and a happy Friday to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks broadcast, brought to you by our friends over at OGs Brands, the official sponsor of flavoring Fridays. Head on over to OGs.com to see their full lineup, including their two newest gummies, the OGs naturals and the big OGs, and find out where you can purchase. Of course, my name is Derek Montia. I am occasionally known as your mayor of this whole entire thing we got going here. I'm joined by my vice mayor and your thunder stick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And Jesse,

less than two weeks to go, spring training. We almost made it. We almost crossed the finish line. Yeah, two weeks from two weeks from yesterday, we're playing like actual baseball games. And actual baseball games sounds so delightful to me, there continues to be, you know, for all the excitement of having

baseball back, there continues to be, you know, some storyline. and spring training, but not not exactly a ton of a ton of excitement outside of the It's kind of the same ones we have right. It's the same ones like we know what competitions the Diamondbacks currently have. We know what they're trying to sort through and all of that. You know, so I mean it's it's like basically trying to update when there really aren't many updates, right? Like again, we talked about Tommy Henry struggling yesterday. That didn't knock Tommy Henry out of the starting, you know, rotation battle, right?

It definitely doesn't help him secure that role, but it's not like one bad outing is going to change it, even two in a row like Tommy has had. But I did want to ask you, with less than two weeks to go, how much, or what has been your favorite thing about spring training? I know this is kind of a general question, but you're out there a lot. The look on your face reads, I'm done with this.

But has there been anything that you've really enjoyed? I know how big of a baseball guy you are, and I know you love just literally being around a baseball diamond. Yeah, well, truth be told, as much as from a storyline standpoint, I've been ready for the regular season for, you know, probably a week or two at this point. I do love spring training baseball. I love just being outside. And, you know, we've talked a lot about how Chase Field is it has the airplane hangar vibe. And every year around this time, I find myself very much. not excited to make the transition from bright, sunny, lovely salt river fields to the airplane

hangar that is Chase Field. You and I just talk about the clouds. We sit there and stare at the clouds. We're like, Toy Story clouds today. Looks great. Weather's great. Feels great. Great to be out there.

I'll say one of my things that I've particularly loved, and we talked about it a little bit yesterday, was Tori Lavello's press conferences just in general. I feel like Tori is being himself more than he's ever been. I don't know if that's just the fact that he feels comfortable with us. I don't know if it's the fact that he's been doing this now for as long as he has as the manager of the Diamondbacks. But he really just is a great person to talk to. And I always find him to be fascinating. He always has something interesting to say.

And honestly, one of the things that I've really kind of enjoyed learning more about has been the whole 108 culture thing that the Diamondbacks have out there. or not, I guess not at Salt River Fields, but it's part of their makeup, kind of part of this standard that Tori is setting, Jesse, and I, I dove into it a little deeper. The 108 culture is actually like a spirituality thing, right? There's several religions that believe the number 108 is a sacred number that represents the universe, and also that it represents unity, Jesse, which is obviously something that's a big part. part of the Diamondbacks culture right now, right? It's also very interesting because Tori loves bringing in these philosophies, I think, from other, from other areas. You know, of course, we all know about the Belgian draft horses, right?

And so the 108 culture is very much like that. It's in certain religions, certain spiritualities, that it signifies the presence, sometimes of just the, the connection that we all have, right? But it's very interesting in a leap year, Jesse, because in a leap year, it is said that the 108 number is especially powerful because the 366 days in a leap year, if you multiply them by each other, three times six times six, equal 108.

So for some reason, leap years are more powerful for the 108 culture. And we're in a leap year, Jesse. you combine that with how far we got and everything going. It seems like everything's going the Diamondbacks way. I don't know. It might be too early to decide that they're going to win the World Series, but I'm already there. I'm already there.

I think you just convinced me that the Diamondbacks are about to win 108 games. Is that that we're going on here? You did it. You said the thing. We might believe that, but I don't know if other people are going to believe that. There's not a lot of time left, though, for the Diamondbacks to get ready for the regular season. Obviously, we know that there are a lot of questions still to answer.

But the Diamondbacks, much like our Phoenix Suns with the playoffs right around the corner, don't have a lot of time left to get ready here for opening day. Anthony Castro, Vince, by the way, from MLB.com, dropped an article where he listed one goal for every MLB team. And his goal for the Diamondbacks right now, Jesse, is to don't just be a cute 20-20, three story. Yeah. I mean, I think that's, I think that's pretty fitting. You know, this is something that the debacks themselves are certainly very, very aware of. They know that they kind of took the world by storm for a few weeks in October, but that that's not the easiest thing to repeat. And Mike Hazen has been very open about wanting to not be the last team into the playoffs, you know, on the second

to last day of the season. Like the Diamondbacks would like to have a little bit more runway this time around and yeah they you know they were a cute story and that doesn't mean that they can't be you know a great story again in 2024 but it's something they're going to have to go out and earn and prove it kind of gets me pumped though right like i know that the diamondbacks already have kind of a mentality of not letting what happened last year make them feel you know overly confident about what they can do this year but i like yeah that that's that's that's that's I think that's our feeling as fans. Like, don't let this just be an opportunity where we're going to talk about for the next five years.

Remember in 23 when we went to the World Series? Like, that's not what we want. And even if you can't get back to the World Series in 2024, it doesn't mean it's a complete failure. It's just a matter of like, have this be the beginning of the Diamondbacks franchise being competitive for a number of years. Have them be a playoff contender and someone who's going to be playing meaningful baseball games, a team that's going to be playing meaningful baseball games in October. And that's really what we want. I think that we can all concede that, you know,

the number of games they won last year probably isn't going to get you into the playoffs again this year. And they narrowly made it last year. So it's not like that's something, I guess, to pat yourself on the back too much about. But like, just remember all that you did, remember what you were, you know, capable of. And I know that's something Tori has been using his motivation. We talked about it yesterday with the payrolls and looking across the NOS and seeing all the competition that's out there that you essentially have to deal with this this season. But again, the fact that they were able to do what they did last year, I think is just big on getting the players to buy in that you can do that. We can do that again.

We just, you know, the regular season is what it is. And if you're just concerned with winning the division, then that's probably going to be a letdown. but if the bigger goal here is to make the postseason and then make some noise once you get there, this team is capable of that, you know, for the foreseeable future. I think about, and I guess this goes to the comment that Elise just made in the chat about looking back on the 2017 season so fondly and kind of living through that, right? Like how many years were we talking about the Archie Bradley Triple as, you know, the pinnacle of Diamondbacks baseball of the last decade?

And in 2023, that clock kind of reset, right? There were a lot of new memories made. There was, you know, the Gabby Moreno home run foul and then the actual homer. There was, uh, it's a little sounds like place. Nice. Of course, Derek has a bobblehead just sitting there. And they're all right here, Jesse. They're just easily accessible.

But yeah, in, in 2020, there were a lot of, a lot of new memories made. I mean, more than were made in 2017. sure when you go as far as the diamond backs did i mean there are you know probably 15 20 moments that are going to stick with fans for for a long time from that playoff run and but yeah as you said this is a team that they've had like five or six years between you know any consecutive years where they've really been relevant and that's something that they really want to change this time around what will it take for this diamondbacks team to become competitive on a year to year basis and And I think we all feel pretty good about this team's ability to do that.

But you have to go out and you have to go out and show it. And some of the young guys are going to have to take steps forward. And some of the veterans that they brought in, you know, those guys are going to be counted on and will need to perform. So it's hard. It's been a real challenge for this team for basically its entire existence. Yeah. And especially when you look across the way and see that the Dodgers have won what, like nine out of the last 10, you know, division titles. It just seems like an incredibly uphill battle, right?

It just seems like something that most of the teams in this division are going to struggle against, you know, the Dodgers. And we're going to talk about the Braves here at the end of the show. But I think the thing that's most frustrating is the way that teams like the Dodgers and the Braves have this financial security for themselves set up based on very savvy moves that they did that you cannot actually. be mad about because they were just good financial moves that yielded revenue that allowed them to be able to continue to invest in their teams and thus make their teams juggernauts that the rest of the division is going to have to deal with for a very long time, right? You know, we could get into all the ins and outs about how fair that is, but when the teams are just coming up with business plans that allow them to have that extra revenue to reinvest back

in the team, how can you really be mad about that, you know? But anyway, moving on. Diamondbacks, of course, did have some guys that were sent down to minor league camp yesterday. Jesse recently wrote a great article on GoPHNX.com about five Diamondbacks players that are kind of flying under the radar during spring training. A couple of those guys did get sent down, but I do think, like Jesse alluded to in his article, that we will see some of these guys come back just basically as depth pieces. And I think some of the guys really did make an impression that would allow.

them to be kind of there at the top of the list. I know one name I think of that you wrote about was Logan Allen. I was actually a little surprised to see Logan Allen sent down a minor league camp just based on how much positive things that have been said about him so far in camp. Yeah, I mean, Tori said about a week ago, he was asked, you know, is Logan Allen in the competition for that fifth rotation spot? And Tori said, yeah, you know, I think in some ways he's kind of obligated to say yes when he's asked those types of questions but yeah i you know and and when i wrote this story i was i was specifically focusing on players the diamond backs fans just you know are not likely to have to know much about or to have really paid much attention to this spring and

i really wasn't expecting many of them if if any to actually make the opening day roster corbin martin martin was the one guy on a list uh that i was like this guy is a chance to actually make the opening day roster. And even if he doesn't, he has, you know, a chance, I think, to really make an impact this season. The other guys that were in that story, you know, just, just interesting names to keep an eye on, guys who've had some prospect status, guys who have, in the case of Josh Green, once one of the better pitching prospects, starting pitching prospects in the Diamondbacks organization.

It's been a bit of a rough go for him over the last few years. He's now a reliever. But he had a pretty strong camp. I liked what I saw from him. He's 28 years old now. he's not much of a prospect, but I heard really good things about him when he was in AA last year. He wasn't quite as good. He wasn't nearly as good once he got to AAA, but I still think the door could be open for him to make an impact with this team.

Logan Allen is, as you mentioned, you know, it figures to be a depth option for the debacks. He's pretty well buried on the pitching depth chart right now, I think. But, you know, someone that the debacks could wind up needing if injuries arise or whatnot. Humberto Castiano is another guy that was in that story, someone who is coming off Tommy John's surgery and came into camp this year looking completely different from what D-Bax fans and Tori Lavello remembered. Yeah, he told the story of Tori having to introduce himself again to Humberto Castiano because he had lost 30 pounds and had no idea who he was talking to. He's another guy that, you know, numbers-wise was really good this spring. And, you know, it was only seven or eight innings. You're not going to read into it too much.

But I think Castiano is, you know, at least on the radar as a starting pitching depth option, maybe a long relief depth option for the debacks that, you know, I'm not expecting to see anytime soon in the majors, but someone to keep an eye on who could make an impact at some point. And you brought up Corbyn Martin, but Corbyn Martin is the one guy of those particular players flying under the radar. You wrote about that really does have the opportunity not only to make the team, but I feel like, you know, be that guy, be that piece that the Diamondbacks needed to kind of add to their bullpen. We've discussed the fact that the Diamondbacks didn't really add any pieces to their bullpen through free agency or trades this offseason and that that might have been a mistake. We know the bullpen was very good at the end of the season last year, but the bullpen struggled the rest of the season.

It definitely wasn't consistent. Paul Seawald, you know, Ryan Thompson, these are guys that brought some stability. Obviously, Kevin Ginkle was very good. but you just don't know if you're going to get that same performance out of guys like Saul Frank and Thompson, considering how good they were in the final months of the season and how unlikely it is to be able to maintain that level of success as a reliever here in 2024. However, I just think Corbyn Martin is that guy that could be, you know, the Kevin Ginkle, I guess you could say of the bullpen for 2024, where we're just very excited about him. Guy that's been in the organization finally gets his chance. If he can stay healthy, I think he is a guy that kind of can make up for the fact that the diamondbacks didn't add any pieces to the bullpen. Potentially, yeah, he's on the list to throw out in Maryvale today.

So he was good in his first outing against the Padres the other day. I really like what I saw there. We'll see how it looks in his second outing. It still seems doubtful as we discussed the other day that Martin will be ready for opening day. not impossible. Tori didn't rule it out completely, but it doesn't really seem like things are trending in that direction. We've only got, as you said, at the top of the show,

about a week and a half, I guess, of like Cactus League games at this point. And if you're going to have someone on your opening day roster, you know, you need to be comfortable using them more than just once every three days, which is the schedule that he is starting out on. The debacks have been really careful with him. You know, if you're going to put him on the roster,

you probably want to know that he can do a back-to-back, that at the very least he can pitch every other day if you needed him to over a stretch. So I wouldn't be surprised if he starts in the minors, but he has definitely has the stuff. I've been really impressed with the stuff I've seen in spring. It reminds me a lot of what he looked like last year when he was totally tracking to make the team. Someone else who was on that list for me was Ricky Carcher, a guy that I'm guessing D-BACS fans maybe not too familiar with someone they signed to a minor league deal in December. he has appeared in one major league game,

and it came last year with the Cincinnati Reds. He was called up from the miners and thrust into a save opportunity. And not just any save opportunity, Derek. The Reds were up five to four in the bottom of the 10th inning, which means that there's also a man starting on second base. So he was tasked with stranding that runner on second base, and he wound up being successful. It wasn't the previous outing.

All right, let's go. He did do it. It wasn't the prettiest outing. I went back and looked at his pitch. chart and he was throwing like basketballs and sliders all over the place command has been an issue for rickie carcher but he entered last year's the number 20 prospect in the reds organization according to fan graphs and just really struggled to throw strikes last season so if he's able to find a way to get his command back we saw him throwing on a backfield the other day he struck out a couple of

debacks hitters and his stuff is electric he throws up to 98 miles an hour incorporating a sinker it looks like he has a wipeout breaking ball as well, a change up. So if he if he figures out how to command the ball, he could he could become a factor in the bullpen at some point. But we're probably a little ways from that right now. Well, the debacks are down to 40 players remaining in camp. So we have we we have our 40 man right now at least or not 40 man roster, but 40 men you know, in camp. One thing I do want to just set everybody's expectation for or guess set the standard for? I don't know. We're not using the word expectation anymore. But this this team, I think, is going to be a different team than what we saw last year out of the gate. And when I say

that, I mean some of the decisions that they're making, including Corbyn Martin, how slow they're taking their time with him. I know Randall Gritchick is another guy that they're kind of taking their time with and they're being careful with. The beginning of the season does not feel extremely important. It's more about making sure that these guys are healthy and ready to go for the bulk of the season. So some of these guys that, you know, aren't starting a year on the roster will end up on the roster. Obviously, they're going to be used for depth. I don't know if the Diamondbacks have ever had this much depth coming into a season. I feel like that's a big storyline here when it comes to spring training is isn't who they're going to get to fill certain roles. It's which

guys they're going to choose to go with. And essentially what guys are they going to have to deal with being in Reno and possibly looking to them at any point during the season for them to come up and add some depth to the major league club. But it does feel like the Diamondbacks are in a better position than they've ever been as far as depth is concerned. Yeah, I totally agree, at least for a long time, at least in Tori Lavello and Mike Hazen's tenure. And where you really feel this is on the 40-man roster. You know that you're, you know, you've got some talent in your organization when you're struggling to find 40-man roster space for guys. And I think that is an issue the devs could have in a couple of weeks. If Tucker Barnhart makes this team, which I kind of expect him to, we don't know for sure,

but it seems like he's the frontrunner for that backup catcher job. He's a non-rosster invitee. So you'd have to create a 40-man roster spot in order to get him on there. Same story with Elvis Andrews. If the debacks want to put him on the opening day roster is the backup shortstop, he's a non-roster guy that'd have to create a spot for him. Kevin Newman, his case to make the team is maybe not quite as hot as it was at the beginning of camp, but he's another guy who's a non-raster invite to you has a chance to make this

team and they'd have to create a 40-man spot for him as well. So D-BACs are going to have to make some tough decisions. There's some tough decisions around the corner with the various competitions happening. Who's in the rotation? You know, if they want a long reliever, which I think they probably do, which of those starting rotation candidates, do they want to bump into that role like they did last year with Dre Jameson? And then, you know, the backup in, field jobs, figuring out what they want to do in the outfield, especially if Randall Grishik is not ready to go for opening day. There's a lot of, there's a lot of decisions looming for this team here in the next two weeks. Well, we appreciate you guys being here in the Ph.NX sports YouTube

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It's that easy. Jesse, it's time. It's MLB the show time. It is here for early adopters, people that. paid extra money for like the deluxe version or if you're an absolute lunatic and you have game pass you paid an extra $40 just to get the game a few days early. God bless you people and your disposable income. But there is a special award that MLB the show gives out. Yesterday, I got to see the box that the award came in. We saw Corby and Carol come in. It was a wonderful mail day

for Corbyn, but he had a treasure chest with him. It looked like a treasure chest. And inside It was a spectacular award. I think we have an image of him, like a proud Papa showing off his award. But Corby and Carol received his diamond club trophy from MLB the show yesterday. Look at that bad boy. It is absolutely gorgeous, Jesse. That there in the middle is a special one-of-one diamond club tops baseball card and a trophy commemorating this achievement.

Only the top 40 players across the entire MLB are part of the exclusive diamond club from MLB, the show. And this is the fourth year awarding these elite players with this special achievement. So, congrats to Corbin, man, on being one of the best players in baseball and suck it, Foolish Bailey, for your troll list that made us do a segment on you. But anyway, Corbyn Carroll, of course, a wonderful baseball player. Can I just ask, like, where do we think this trophy ranks for Corby Carroll? Like, of all of the trophies on, you know, the Corbyn Carroll mantle and his parents,

house or wherever these are being kept. This one can't rank very high. Like this is from a video game. That's crazy. This is from a VEO game, Derek. The man just won the NL Rookie of the Year Award. That's why it's second. That's why it's number two.

It's number two, Jesse. It has to be he, this, did you, were you not there when he was talking about how much he loves baseball cards? He has a special one of one tops diamond club card in this trophy. No other human being has this. that car, Jesse. If he ever, if he's ever broke, do you know how much money you could sell that for? My God. But anyway, no, I don't think he'll have to worry about being broke. I don't think that's a, that's a concern. That, that trophy has to be pretty special. The only reason why I say that is

because I think the younger you talk about a person being, the more a game like MLB, the show has been influential in their lives, right? Like, I remember MLB, the show debuting because I'm that crusty and old. But, you know, if you've just had it in your life your entire life and you've been a baseball player since you were a kid, that's, I mean, that to me is something that I think is pretty significant to you. You know, like, I don't know. I, I, I, give me a, give me a trophy from Nintendo of any kind and it'll be the most important award I've ever won in my entire life. I'm just saying. Yeah, but I think, I mean, no offense, but I think your level of accomplishment in life and Coral Carrels or maybe. fucking

maybe too slightly How dare you? It'd be the same for me, Derek. I mean, I cherish my, the three point competition trophy that I won when I was maybe 16 years old in high school. You should not. I still remember. It was honestly, that's kind of when I peaked, Derek.

I'm pretty sure. I beat this guy from this is when I peaked, Jesse. The PHNX comeback pot of the year award, that's when I peaked right there. That's, this is, the most important award to me. I love this. I love you. And him. I love him too. Speaking of that, Archie Bradley was in the clubhouse the other day. I know we talked about that, but it was still great to see him and his wonderful beard in the clubhouse. But Archie Bradley,

not an MLB of the show. Diamondbacks players are and MLB the show because it is actually out. The game is out now for you early adopters. They have released their full list of player rankings. I was prepared for a fight once again, like the other day when we had the top five player rankings, and yet, Jesse, somehow, I'm not really that mad. That's a sign of maturity for you, my friend. Although, yeah, I think it's also, these ratings are pretty fair for the most part.

I don't think, I think maybe a couple of debaX players we can talk about it should be a little higher than they are. But yeah, I mean, I guess going as far as the debacks did in the playoffs, a little more notoriety around some of these guys. They did justice by most of the roster. It's boosted. Yep. So when we talk about that, obviously, we know the top five that we already discussed.

Corbyn, Carol, and Zach Gallen, both are 91's. Cotel Marte in 89, which you could argue about and say Cotel is definitely a 90 player. Christian Walker in 88, which seemed honestly high, pleasantly surprised with that. And then rounding out the top five was Merrill Kelly with an 83. So where do the rest of the Diamondbacks players stack up? And this is, again, where I got very excited, very happy. I didn't have to drive down to MLB the show's headquarters and lighted on fire. Lordus Guriel Jr. was an 82.

He is an 82 in 2024. Eduardo Rodriguez is an 81. And the guy we were most concerned about, Gabriel Moreno, is an 80. And that's all we wanted. We said, give me Gabby as an 80, and I won't lose my mind. and he is. Yeah, he's also an A potential. That's another thing that is interesting to look at.

That's right. It makes a pretty big difference in the game with how good guys get over time. So Gabby is an A means he could be, you know, maybe he bumps into the 90 range at some point. We also have Paul Seawald as an 80. By the way, that's significant not to cut you off,

but like Christian Walker is an A potential at 88. I was surprised by that. at 989 and then you have Merrill Kelly as a B, Lordis Garell as a B and Erod as a B and Gabby being lower statistically or ranking wise and an 80 is is the A there. They also have Perdomo at 78 with an A ranking as well. I'm sure Damon is elated.

He's doing back clips right now. Let's fucking go! There he is. Yeah, baby. That's a good one. But yeah, like you said, Seawald tops out or I guess rounds out the 80s with an 80 himself. So thoughts on that? I mean, again, seems very fair.

Seems exactly where, honestly, I would have ranked them based on, you know, you start Corby and Carol and Zach Gowan out at 91 and where everybody else falls from there. I think Merrill still deserves to be hired than where he's at, but everybody else seems fair. Yeah, I'm trying to imagine right now, like, if Pardomo is a 78 and he's an A potential, does this mean that if you start an ML, a season with the Diamondbacks and M will be the show 24 and you play and you simulate a few years, does per is Pardomo like a 92? Like how high is the ceiling here?

If he's an A potential, it means he probably could break the 90s. And, you know, I'm maybe a little bit skeptical for Domo will, will reach that level of. Meanwhile, meanwhile, they're saying Cattel is in his sense. ceiling. They're like, Catelle is going no further than this. I guess it just because Bredomo is so young. I mean, being, I think it's 23 years old still, being that young, you know, they're going to, they're going to make your potential rating fairly high if you're already a good player and you are that young. I do think there is one

grave injustice on this list, Eric, from a Diamondbacks perspective, and that is that one Kevin Ginkle is a 76. Oh, come on. This is a man who had a very, very good regular season, especially in the second half, and then he went in the playoffs and just did not allow a single run for, I think it was 11 and 2 thirds inning. So Gingle's got to be at least in the 80 range for me. I honestly think his rating should probably be higher than Seawalt. I think that's pretty fair at this point. So I would have had Ginkle in maybe like the low mid 80s, something like that.

We got Gino Swaris at 78, Ginkle at 76, Gritchick at 74, Jock Peterson, there in the 70s. 74 Brandon Fott, 74, uh, that Jace Peterson, 73, Ryan Thompson, 72, Miguel Castro, 71, Joe Manthi, 71, Ryan Nelson, 71, uh, Alec Thomas 71, 71, um, I don't love that. It's probably the other one I don't love. Yeah. Considering Jordan Lawler is a 70, again, with a potential, uh, Jake McCarthy is a 70, and Kyle Nelson rounds out, uh, that top group with the 69. Nice. Yeah. Thoughts on Alton? Yeah, I think we'd maybe have him a little higher. I just think his defense is so good that he's probably deserving of being in the,

at least like closer to mid-70s just because of, because of the defense. I think Ryan Thompson, you could argue, is a little bit, is a little bit low at 72. He was huge for the debacks in the second half. I know his season stats weren't anything spectacular. It was like a 381 ERA because he did have a couple. of especially poor outings when he was still with Tampa.

So you could argue that he should be a little bit higher. You know, the fact that he is only one point higher than Miguel Castro. People probably don't feel too good about that. I was significantly better for the debacks when he joined the team. I don't like Alec Thomas being lower than Jace Peterson, Jesse. I just can't accept that. I can't accept that. I refuse to accept that.

Yeah, Jace Peterson being a 73 is a little surprising. I probably would have expected him to be lower. I guess with him, there's just there's just a long track record of being not a great player but a but a useful player given his defensive utility his defense ratings are probably pretty decent uh yeah he didn't hit much uh when he after joining the diamond backs to say the least so uh yeah that that i'm a little surprised that's not lower and in alec thomas should probably be a little higher you were right about the young players though because the guys with those lower ratings that have the potential the letter

grades. They have Brandon Faud as a B, Ryan Nelson as a B, and Alec Thomas as a B. They also have Jordan Lawler as an A and Jake McCarthy as a B. So these are guys, like you said, if you simulate a few years out, you might see these guys, their stats raised substantially. You might see that rating

raise. It's just, again, overall, I'm fairly satisfied with the way everything played out. I mean, they're never going to get everything right 100% of the time because as developers, I think it's too difficult with so many players in the league. to know everybody and justify every rating and have everything fall where it should.

But again, maybe I was always approaching this as a fan more in the past, or maybe it's just because the Diamondbacks never got the credit they deserve. It just feels like this has put better ratings than I feel like I've ever seen. And I know pretty much the Diamondbacks are always the team I play with when I fire up MLB, the show. So it feels good. I'm excited. I can't wait.

Not going to pay the $40 to get it early, but I can't wait for this. If I were doing a season with the Diamondbacks, I would probably just simulate out maybe a couple of seasons. And because it's a video game, we could probably easily resign. We could easily resign Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly, so that wouldn't be an issue.

And yeah, you know, just simulate out a few years. And you've got Jordan Lawler, you know, like maybe well into the mid upper 80s. You've got Geraldo Perdomo, you know, like vying for MVP votes. You've got Brandon Fott, you know,

blossoping into maybe like a mid upper 80 pitcher. Gabby Moreno potentially into the 90s, maybe Corbyn-Carrows in like the mid-upper 90s a few years from now. You could have a lot of fun with that. What did David say? This is the world that I want to live in. This is a society that I want to live in. It's an advanced society where the friendship metric takes over above all other baseball metrics.

Like Ernesto says, they definitely didn't take into account the projected friendship over-replacement player stats and they obviously didn't do that. Also, first podcast of the new year for our guy Wyatt Whitfield. How much stock should I put into the spring record we currently have? I'd like to say none. I'd like to say none, but I don't know. I mean, I'm not thrilled with the results and I don't think any Diamondbacks fan is and I think it's hard to put the results out of your mind. Let's just stay cautiously optimistic until we reach the actual regular season and until those games start getting played. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the ever important

spring training standings right now to see where the Diamondbacks are in relation to some of the other teams. And I don't know, the Colorado Rockies are 12 and 7 right now. So I think that says about all you need to know about how important spring training records are. We saw the Diamondbacks, what was it, 2016, when the Diamondbacks just came out and totally shoved in spring training. Yeah, the Diamondbacks in 2016 were 24 and 8 in spring training. And it was an actual storyline. I remember, like, local radio, they were talking about it and how the Diamondbacks

looked like this team of destiny. And they were really basing that off the how the team had played in spring training. And I don't want to say that it doesn't matter at all, like at all at all. But it, yeah, I mean, in 2016, the DeVax lit the world on fire in spring training. And then the season started and they were an utter disaster. So I basically read nothing into spring training results. I do read into individual player performances a little bit depending on the player in the situation. But, yeah, I would not be concerned in the slightest with the Diamondbacks record right now.

I thank you for bringing us all a little bit of, we'll get a little bit of peace when it comes to this entire situation because I know I'm even having a hard time keeping that in the perspective. However, you know, we do have Catell-Marte who's hitting 455 with a 1.1.150 OPS. So if those results will read into that. Yeah, we'll read into that a thousand percent, a thousand percent. Yeah, Cotel-Marte is going to win the batting title because of that. but, you know, Alec Thomas not really hitting in spring training, that's irrelevant and should just be brushed to the side.

So, you know, you can kind of pick and choose what you want from spring training a little bit. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Well, do whatever is good for your own mental health. But speaking of mental health, a great way to relax and enjoy yourself with our friends at OG's brands. If you have a wedding coming up that you need to enjoy and want to enjoy it a little more, do it with OG's brands. It's a great way to get yourself through a reception and right into the party. G's has launched two new products made with live rosin and Rick Simpson oil, by the way. The OG's natural and the big OGs. Been talking about it for a while. OG's natural is a vegan gummy, of course, made with live rosin. While the big OGs gummy is a mega version of Peggs, Raspberry, Orange RSO, it is a 100 milligram single serving that is perforated into 10 slices.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Jesse, I don't really want to talk any more about stadium news necessarily. However, I did find something to be very interesting. And we know that obviously the goal. with Chase Field is to be a better stadium, right? But we do know that the other goal with Chase Field was or is essentially to try to build some sort of multi-use facility around the ballpark. We've heard this a lot. It came up a lot when the coyotes were trying to get their arena out in Tempe, right?

A multi-use facility that has restaurants, has offices, has apartments, has all of these things, right? And it seems like some sort of, I don't know, like downtown Disney kind of situation, like one of those things where it's like a big shopping area and has a bunch of things all clustered together. And, you know, it makes sense from the perspective of making a night out at the ballpark a little bit more than just going to the game, you know, going out, going shopping, going, you know, out to dinner and catching a ball game. it's an important factor because recently this tweet dropped or this tweet dropped yesterday, I think, and it says that Atlanta's the battery, which is their multi-use facility, brought in $59 million for the Braves last year. Damon, do we have that tweet? I guess not.

Oh, there it is. Okay. So, and of course, what he says here in the tweet is, if you're wondering why every American sports team wants to build a mixed use development. around its venue, the battery earned the Atlanta Braves $59 million in revenue last year. It's now the team's third largest revenue generating category and growing 10% annually. And that's incredible. That is incredible.

It really is incredible because that means that it is the team's third largest revenue generating category behind attendance at games and broadcasting revenue, Jesse. And this facility is completely. owned by the Braves. This, this was a $400 million venture. It was entirely funded by the Braves and their development partners. There was no public funds used in any way. It was not subsidized. It was, there was no involvement. Now, Truest Park, which is the Braves ballpark, it's owned by Cobb County, the same way that Chase Field is owned by Maricopa County, right? This is what the Diamondbacks want, and this is why they wanted. Fifty nine million dollars in revenue that was generated.

by a facility that is completely owned by the team is bonkers. And that is the reason why the Atlanta Braves are going to continue to have money to spend more money than probably the rest of the teams in the NL East at times based on having business deals like this. Yeah, this is the model that the Diamondbacks want to follow. Ideally, Derek Hall referenced the battery specifically about a month ago when they did their whole press conference on the stadium situation. So this is what the devax would want.

And it's a matter of figuring out how to make it happen. It doesn't seem especially doable to me, at least not on the scale that we see in Atlanta because, you know, things are trending toward the Diamondback staying at Chase Field and just trying to renovate Chase Field. And there's not a ton of space around it that you could use for something like this. I think there is some space. And Truest Park, by the way, is not, is nowhere close. to downtown Atlanta.

Yes. Like Truist Park is very far away. It's, you know, there's, there's things that you could say that people have argued about what Truest Park being as far away and having this battery over there has done, right? Like, yes, it's great for the Atlanta Braves and yes, it's great for the businesses involved. But they have, there has been discourse about how it's taken away from local businesses that used to be, you know, around the ballpark and how some of those businesses have died based on the fact that this, you know, has been built.

And there's always going to be a negative impact, right? But in regards to what teams like the Braves are doing, like you say we want to follow that model. We want to follow the Braves model in every way, just about. We want to follow their model in the way that they extend their players and keep the young guys on, you know, as part of the franchise for what seems like the entirety of their careers. We want to follow it financially with the way they're doing it.

It just feels like the Braves are doing everything the right way. Now, they are leaving the blueprint out there for other teams, but not every team is financially able to make something like this happen. And in the case of the Diamondbacks, space is kind of a big problem, right? Because even if they get the money to do this or find, you know, development partners, there's not space anywhere around Chase Field and its current location and do anything like this. And I think that's always been the best argument in favor of building a new stadium somewhere else in the Phoenix Metro area is that you could create it in a space. does have room for you to build hotels and restaurants and, you know, business offices that, you know, businesses are renting out and whatnot. The debacks really want to find ways to create additional revenue streams.

And it's hard to do that when you're, you know, stuck down. I don't want to say stuck downtown, but when you're downtown in an area that's already fairly built up, I do think there's, there's maybe room. Like, I do think there's some room around Chase Field. There's not a ton going on south of the building. It's not a, not a great part of down. downtown, I guess in general. Maybe there's room for them to build up a little bit there. But yeah, this is what the debacks would love to do. I think Atlanta, I mean, they knocked it out

of the park. Everyone's talking about this. And $59 million is a big number. And that's what the debacks want. They've operated since the beginning. I guess since Ken Kendrick took over, they've operated as we're going to, whatever money comes in, that's what we're going to spend on the team. And the debacks, I don't think, are in the top half. of revenue generating in Major League Baseball right now. And because of that, that means that they're not going to be spending in the top half of the league in general.

And that translates to the on-the-field product. That translates to the team that we're watching on a day-to-day basis. So if they can find a way, they would love to. It's just a matter of trying to get through what appears to be a pretty complicated situation right now. I hate it. But I get it. It just feels like, giving a metaphor, yesterday you and I got Uber Eats delivered to Salt River

Fields and it felt like a miserable experience. It was an absolutely miserable experience. And I feel like the reason why was because I had ordered it just too early. Now, I was crafty. I was taking into consideration a lot of variables. And I thought if I order this right at first pitch, it'll give a chance for all the traffic to kind of clear out of all the late people getting to Salt River Field and getting in. I was just too early, Jesse.

Had I ordered this meal five minutes later, our poor Uber driver would have had no problem getting into Salt River Fields and delivering me the delicious chicken terriaki that we had ordered. Instead, by being early, I completely overcomplicated the situation, screwed both myself and the Uber driver, and resulted in us both, both the Uber driver and me having to walk a far distance to meet each other. I don't even want to get into any of it more than that. But metaphorically, it feels like the biggest problem at times with Chase Field is like it was just built too early, right? Like we just got a team just too early because even though Chase Field was a brand new stadium at the time, it felt like there were leaps and advances in things to do with stadium and ballparks and things like that. That just happened a few years later. And it really sucks at times that that's what it feels like like the Chase Field was just built too early. They tried to do cool stuff with it.

I mean, the retractable roof was revolutionary after. the time in the pool and everything like that. But in the grand scheme of things, uh, uh, there, there's, there could have been a lot more thought that went into it or at least had we

just been a little bit later, uh, maybe, maybe had, uh, some of that stuff. But anyway, Damon,

uh, you were at, you were at the battery over the, over the summer. What was, I'm curious what your experience was like. I was, man,

there was just like a lot of bars everywhere. It felt like there was like, uh, people that were just going, um, like to the battery area to just, just hang out during the game and watch the game. Like it wasn't just like people that were going down to the the ballpark, which would just never happen at like Chase Field area, I feel

like. So that's kind of like, you know what the goal is. And like it's, it was like if there was an away Braves game, that would be the place, the first place I would want to go watch it. Um, there's like bars with like three stories in it. Super cool spot. Yeah. I, I get excited whenever I run into somebody that tells me that they like went to like the guy fieti's place down there just to watch the game like oh i just wanted to be in the atmosphere that happened a lot more during the world series because people couldn't get tickets and they just wanted right to be there right but yeah you're right let's that's not like a regular occurrence you go don't go down to chase field because you want to be right next to the ballpark but hey let's just instead of getting tickets let's go get get a you know

some food over here at one of at this restaurant right across the way and and i mean honestly like if there was more stuff to do, I bet all of those restaurants would be more packed. That would be way more of a of a thing, right? And you're right, Jesse, there is space. It's not like there's no space. It's just a matter of sacrificing it and kind of doing as much as you can with the limited space that there is. It's not to say you can't do something though there. There's the stadium is very tall. You could have a very tall, I guess not too wide extension that adds on to there, maybe goes up to the corner of Jefferson and such. And, you know, I don't know. I, I, I, I, have no idea how they would even begin to make that happen. But it feels like that either needs

to happen or they need to move. And I don't think moving is really in the cards anytime soon. So we'll see. You know, the convention center, it was a good run. But yeah, we just don't, we just don't have space for you anymore because we don't. We've outgrown you. A full on village around the stadium. So I'll be there this weekend. So I'll go talk to the people at the Phoenix Convention Center. They have the Game on Expo. I got to go do the commissioner bit. We're wrestling at the game on Expo, Jesse. And I know I'm like, I can hear Max yelling at me, no free ads right now. But I'm just saying I will be at the Phoenix Convention Center. And maybe I'll talk to some people about, you know, what, what, what, what how much is that knocking the building down? Yeah, just get rid of you guys.

How much is it going to cost to make you go away? You know, I'll find that out. But of course, one way, one way the Diamondbacks could get there is by winning the lottery. And you can do that too. Maybe you can help out donate a little money to the Diamondbacks should you win the lottery. But Arizona Lottery right now has their new ticket and promotion called Arizona Adventures. There's three ways to play it. You can play using Arizona Adventure lottery tickets featuring three iconic landscapes. These tickets have prizes up to $50,000. You can enter tickets online for a chance to win $1 million in cash in Arizona travel prizes. And you can also check in at geolocated adventures across 10 destinations around the state from Flagstaff to Yuma. The Arizona Lottery says

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But Sombrows right now is offering PHNX listeners 20% off their orders for the entire month of March. It's a family-owned and operated restaurant was voted Arizona's most loved Mexican restaurant. You can throw a fiesta with our friends in some boroughs. Let them do the cooking for you tonight and get that 20% off. 20% off your order up to $100 when you use code PHNX. check out for the whole month of March, available in restaurant, drive-through, and when you order online, not available on third-party delivery. Sorry, Uber Eats. Visit somebarrows.com for more information. Well, that's all we got. But Jesse is actually going to be joined by one of our best

friends in the whole wide world, Patty Plantains, to do our Saturday episode. So make sure to join them on Saturday. They're going to be talking about the spring breakout games and kind of how everybody is loving to see these young prospects get the opportunity to shine. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon, he's at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G.

And we might be Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, bark. Bark, bark. That's not a convincing bark at all. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

We'll be back on Monday. And until then, we love you guys. Thank you so much for stopping by. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you adequately rate Gabby Moreno in your video games.