PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Which MLB Hall of Fame ballot newcomers deserve to be in the Hall?

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

We discuss former Arizona Diamondback Trevor Bauer making headlines again with a recent apology for his past transgressions and if any MLB team will be willing to take a chance on him. We also discuss the newest additions to MLB’s Hall of Fame ballot and correcting an egregious error when it comes to an item we left out of our 2023 Diamondbacks season time capsule.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to a chilly Saturday episode of the PHNX feedback podcast right here on PHMX sports. I'm your mayor of the city of Phoenix, occasionally known as Derek Montaia. This man is my vice mayor, and don't you forget it. It's the one and only Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman, here with you on a wonderful Saturday. Hope you guys are having a great day. Maybe a little bit after some, I don't know, are there still Saturday morning cartoons and cereals? Yeah, oh, of course. Am I just aging myself out of that?

I don't know. But, of course, we have some very unpleasant things to talk about to start off the show with, because why not? I mean, we're still waiting on some more transactions and things to happen with the Arizona Diamondbacks. But we do have an Arizona Diamondback, former Arizona Diamondback, I should say, and definitely separate us from him in regards to that. When it comes to Trevor Bauer, who has kind of been making some headlines recently based on him kind of making a plea in regards to his career. and apologizing for some of his past transgressions, some of his past behavior.

And this goes beyond just the allegations that he were basically accused of that separated him from the Los Angeles Dodgers and caused him to leave Major League Baseball and go play in Japan. But it's just an interesting case when it comes to Trevor Bauer. And Jesse and I were kind of discussing it because it's not, again, it's not pleasant. It's not something. He's not somebody that I think a lot of friends. franchises want to be tied to. I think his reputation just in general wasn't great, but then you

tie to him the allegations, the aforementioned allegations, which that's where things kind of get a little tricky. That's where people really don't want to have anything to do with Trevor Bauer. And that's, I'm sure, what is right now keeping him out of Major League Baseball. But I kind of predicted this a little bit. Jesse, I did say when he left to go to Japan, that this is ultimately the course that we were probably going to see him go, especially if the- You thought he was going to come back. I thought he was going to come back, and I still think he is. Which he's such.

And that's where we're at right now. But it's such an interesting situation because it does feel a little bit like it's a dangerous situation for Major League Baseball in regards to, you know, accusations potentially ruining someone's career. And then, you know, no criminal charges being filed, no actual, you know, condemnation. where at any point where you actually convicted of a crime or something of that sort, yet your reputation is still tarnished enough that you are not like you're not allowed back kind of in Major League Baseball. I will be the first person to say playing at Major League Baseball is a privilege.

And that's something that with sports, especially the professional sports leagues, that we take for granted and that some players take for granted entirely too much. Like at any point, this is still an organization. It's a company. And this company can fire you and part ways from you because of things that you've done and the way that you've acted. And in this case, Trevor Bauer at times is, you know, already with his past, you know, just kind of his past behavior, some of the comments he's made in the past. It's enough to make it understandable that teams would not want to have them as part of his organization. Right.

You factor in a potential, you know, like sexual assault that he was being accused of. and that's definitely something that even if it's cleared up is probably still too muddy of a situation. But I saw something where someone was comparing him kind of to Wander Franco. And I'm like, see, that's where the problem here lies because Wander Franco is actually being accused of, of a crime, and he is being currently going through the due process of potentially being convicted of a crime. While Trevor Bauer's allegations were terrible sounding and enough for most of us to kind of think he's just a terrible human being, it's still one of those situations where in the end there were lawsuits. He kind of won a countersuit. This whole thing kind of fizzled out and went away.

And here he is pitching in Japan still at a fairly elite level. And I feel like, you know, obviously his apology here is that next step of getting him back to major. League Baseball. Last season, we already saw people that were kind of in on the idea of Trevor Bauer returning to a team. And I said, of course, once the situation, if nothing really comes of it of criminal charges, this is probably what we're going to see. Like, people get desperate. They get to a point where they don't really care about allegations like that as much as maybe some people with higher morals or standards might care and might not want that person to be a part of their team. But we did see fans that were kind of leaning towards like even some

Diamondbacks fans leaning towards wanting Trevor Bauer to come back to baseball, to come back to Major League baseball. Yeah, I mean, if you're a casual baseball fan and your team really needs a good starting pitcher and you're like, oh, there's this guy out there on the market who's won a SIE Young Award

and is probably not going to sign for very much money, given everything that's happened over the last couple of years. He doesn't exactly have a ton of leverage in these contract negotiations. They're like, yeah, I'll pay that guy like a few million dollars to come and, you know, be my team's number four starter.

From a baseball perspective, you can see why, you know, some people, some fans are like, yeah, I mean, this is a sport at the end of the day. And if he's good at baseball, I want him on my team. But yeah, there's obviously a much larger storyline here with these sexual assault allegations that came out a couple of years ago from a woman in San Diego. As you said, there was Trevor Bauer wound up suing her for defamation. It appears that they sort of agreed. to no money was exchanged and those suits have now are now complete at this point from what we can from what we can tell um i think

there are other things that are still happening there were other people who came out and uh you know there were allegations that came out just after that original case more than one person yeah that i i think at least part of that is unsettled at this point so um but yes as of right now Trevor bower has not been convicted of any crimes or anything. And there's obviously a difference between allegations of things happening and those things being confirmed in a court of law to have happened. And yeah, I mean, those are two very different things. And Trevor Bauer has, I think he's apologetic.

The things that he's said publicly, he definitely seems to be. He's not coming out and saying that these allegations are true. He has been very adamant that the things that have been said about him are not true. He has maintained that the whole time, but he has acknowledged to some degree, I put myself in some bad situations. I made some poor life choices that did have, you know, that had a role in this. And so, yeah, me and Jacob talked about this a little bit last week when you were gone. There is something to be said for the integrity that you would hope a major league player would have,

the example that you would hope a major league player would set for people that are certainly going to look up to them. I think we can all agree that Trevor Bauer has fallen short of that standard in a pretty significant way. And I think he would acknowledge that, at least to some extent. But yeah, I mean, should Major League Baseball ban Trevor Bauer from the sport for forever, if these are allegations at this point and there's not an official criminal anything, at least at this juncture, it's hard to make that case. The Major League Baseball should do that.

It just seems like a problem for me. And I'm like, it's weird because I don't want to come off. defending Trevor Bauer, but on the other hand, I think that this could be problematic for a lot of players if they went through any kind of similar situation. Like you said, there is something to be said about Trevor Bauer putting himself in that position. Yeah, he clearly made some mistakes, even if these, even if the full gamut of allegations are untrue. And then his accusations on the flip side were kind of like that this whole situation was almost a setup by this person who was intending for, him to put him in this position. Whether or not that whole situation is true, we'll probably never know. We can't really sit here and try to pretend that we know who's right and who's wrong.

What we do know is that even in his little video that he made, like, affirming his innocence and showing what happened now that you can talk about it, he still kind of came off as a douche a little bit. He still came off not in the best light. It was a weird way to almost brag about the fact that you're innocent in a video and I didn't think that it came across in a way that was very at least personally for me Derek Montia I didn't find it to be like something that made me think highly of him even if what he was like I did not way from thinking highly of Trevor Bauer like from the perspective I did for a minute say wow that's crazy if that's true like to think about a professional athlete needing to watch out for romantic interests who could be there to set them up but we've

heard from people within baseball. We've talked to people within baseball. There are, there's a lot of, there's a lot of training. There's a lot of education that is passed down to players about the fact that they're going to be famous now and that they're going to have money and in some situations, how to handle that both with family and loved ones and relationships and things like that. So they do try to pass a lot of advice off until to young players that some of this stuff could potentially impact your career. And in this case, case, this is one of those situations where it heavily impacted Bauer's career. Now that we're to a point though where he is at least affirming his innocence and trying to apologize for his past actions,

I mean, it does feel like it's only a matter of time until some team gives him a shot only because there'll be a point where teams are desperate. They'll go beyond desperation to a point where they are willing to overlook maybe some of their moral standards and maybe some teams don't care about character as much as other teams do, right? I mean, that's the, that's, It's the truth. There are some guys, like, Trevor Bauer is not the only terrible person that plays the game of baseball. I assure you of that, right? But then there's guys that have a bad reputation.

Like a perfect example of that is Tommy Pham, who we find to be delightful. We love Tommy Fam. I mean that. Like, Tommy Pham is like a solid guy that I would actively defend based on my interactions with him and what I've seen from him since he's been a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. However, outside of that, I only know what. people have talked about. I only know what, what, you know, what his reputation was. And, you know, you have one fight with a teammate over fantasy football. The next thing you know, you're just a

terrible person, right? So, like, reputation can be damaged in a lot of ways when you're in such a public eye, even to the point where when Tommy Fam was stabbed in a parking lot, there were people that were still like, oh, well, what did he do? What did he do? What? To deserve getting stabbed? What are we talking about here, right? So it's like, sometimes people just can end up having a bad reputation that they don't deserve. Now, Trevor Bauer, I don't feel like he doesn't deserve it. And I don't think that he's saying that he has a reputation. He is trying to apologize for that reputation for his past actions. And it goes, like I said earlier, beyond just these allegations. He's trying to apologize for just a lot of the weird shit we've seen out of him in baseball.

He's always been such, like you could say, an unconventional guy, but he's just been a guy that's never gone along with the way that you're supposed to do things as a professional athlete. that ended up being part of this whole situation, which again is part of you potentially not, you know, listening to better judgment or maybe listening to some of that education that your team tried to give you in regards to that. But the Dodgers have had a lot to deal with, you know, in regards to things like this. He's not the only pitcher that they lost that was an incredibly talented player on their team,

that was contributing to their team, that then they had to figure out what to do once he was no longer part of the organization. So, and again, the reason why I think he's going to be back, he's still got gas in the tank. I mean, he's still playing at a pretty high level in Japan right now. And that part of it is interesting to me. He was good in Japan. He was 10 and 4 last year with a 276 ERA and a 1-15 whip. Those are good numbers.

Pretty good numbers. But also like Yoshinova Yamamoto, I mean, obviously the best pitcher in Japan over the last number of years, right? So not everyone has to compare favorably. to him, but he had a 1-21 ERA in the NPB last year. Less than half that of Trevor Bauer. You're trying to say 2.76 isn't that good just because Yamamoto had a 1.2.1? I'm trying to say that the NPB is not Major League Baseball. That's true.

We said that quite a bit lately. A 276 ERA in Japan does not equate to like the Trevor Bauer that we saw a few years ago who was really a monster in major baseball. I don't know if he's that guy. I bet he still has a mid-3-E-R-A in him. I bet he could still have a lot to, offer a lot of major league baseball teams if they're willing to overlook this. But I just want to say, and I'm not trying, again, like, both, you can call both of these

guys dirtbags, you can call them all you want, whatever you want. I'm just trying to say there's a difference between the situation with Roder Franco and Trevor Bauer and Trevor Bauer, again, this topology I think he's going through or putting out there is kind of well-timed in a way because I have heard people like starting to say like that kind of thing where they lump these guys together. And it's like, let's not lump guys that actually are been charged with a crime together that those that there were allegations and lawsuits and no, like, I don't know, man. Franko's situation isn't settled at this point.

Well, yeah, but I'm like I said, though, he has been charged with a crime, right? Like, he has been charged in the Dominican Republic with a crime. And it's a matter of now, you know, again, going through due process, right? So, like, but that is still even a far worse situation that I could understand. baseball never allowing that individual back into the fraternity of MLP ever again, right? It's pretty, yeah, those, it's pretty bad. It's all bad. It's all bad. Try to be better, everybody.

Just try to be better, I guess. This is the point we're trying to make. Don't have to come back and apologize and make up for your past transgressions all the time and defend yourself in lawsuits, you know, but Jesse's right, though. My mom used to tell me that because, like, at times when I was younger, I put myself, I was a good kid, but then I just couldn't help, but still. like, yeah, let's go play in an abandoned building like with my friends, right? Like it's like, how do you make such stupid decisions when you're still, you know, so smart?

Yeah, I mean. Sometimes we just put ourselves in really dumb situations and that's definitely what Trevor Bauer's seem to do. We've all made mistakes in our lives, right? And I would never want to come out and say that people who make mistakes like, you know, are beyond getting a second chance or they're just, you know, they should be shunned for the rest of their lives or I don't know the line right I don't believe in that philosophy almost regardless of what someone has done but at the same time there's a reality in major league baseball right now which

I said about I said a week ago on this show if you signed Trevor Bauer you become the team that signed Trevor Bauer yeah you're taking on a a lot of baggage as a franchise if you make that decision and yes I do think there is a spectrum of how tolerant teams are of players who have you know who have passed, who have made some mistakes in their past. I think that spectrum does exist to some extent. I don't know if any team is willing to take on the PR nightmare that is signing Trevor Bauer. And it's especially that first team too, right? Because potentially he could come over and sign like a short-term deal.

And then once he's back in baseball, other teams that he's with aren't going to get scrutinized nearly as much. Yeah, it's the first team that kind of allowed him back in, right? I agree. You know, but anyway. Well, we appreciate you guys being here to discuss horrible things like this with us in the PHNXports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when we go live on Saturdays like this.

And also make sure you leave us a like. We always appreciate those likes. Those are our attaboys, and we will take them happily. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you're subscribed over there. Leave us a five-star review. We always appreciate those very much. And this weekend, if you want to make sure to fill up your... tank and make sure you fill yourself up, stop by Circle K and make sure to join their

inner circle program for free if you haven't done so already by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions do apply, participating locations, visit CircleK.com for details. But if you do, you will save 25 cents off per gallon for your first five Phillips. You'll also save $0.3 off per gallon for every fillip after that. And if you stack that with their easy pay option, which you can sign up for, you'll get 35 cents off for those first five Phillips. That's a lot of savings when it comes to how. expensive gas can be right now. You also get buy five, get the 6-1 free on a selection of

Circle K products like pizza, coffee, and ice cold fountain drinks. So do not miss out on everything the Inner Circle has to offer. Join the Inner Circle today. Jesse, we have a lot of old players to talk about, but I was delighted that they have finally moved into a MLB Hall of Fame class of people that you've gotten to watch in your life. Yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. You're getting old. I actually have memories of Joe Mauer. and Adrian Beltray. Orbit touching Adrian Beltray's head. Those are good times.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. There are some new additions to the Hall of Fame ballot this year. And it's very interesting some of those additions because some of those are guys that, again, our very own Arizona Diamondbacks at one point, we're very interested in. It's funny when you bring up names like that and you think of that time period. Like, remember when we really, really, really wanted branded Phillips on this team? Yeah, it was a Hall of Famer. It was, yeah, that was in 2015. The Diamondbacks after, this was right after they had made some very big moves.

They had made the Shelby Miller trade, which will forever live in infamy in Diamondbacks history. They had signed Zach Grangey to a six-year deal worth more than $200 million. And if they were going to make this trade with the Cincinnati Reds to bring over Brandon Phillips, they needed Brandon Phillips to waive his no trade clause. He had full no trade protection at the time. And the Diamondbacks, having made those moves, were in presumably decent position to get Brandon Phillips to do that. Like, yeah, D-backs are going for it, right? I mean, they've got Zach Grinky.

They've got Shelby Miller. It was sort of a new- It was an exciting time to cover this team. Yeah, a new kind of era of Diamondbacks baseball entering that 2016 season. The trade didn't wind up happening. Brandon Phillips stayed with the Reds at the time. I believe it was Aaron Hill, rumored to be going back to the, to the, the Reds in that trade potentially didn't happen.

But yeah, there was a moment about 7,8 years ago. We were all trying to figure out how Brandon Phillips would fit in on the Diamondbacks. It was great. Here he is appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot. There's another guy, the Diamondbacks. We're actually interested in trading for that exact same season in 2015, and that was James Shields. This would have been a free agent signing.

It would have been free agent. When he hit free agency, this was entering the 2015 season. so this is before the Granky thing, before the Shelby Miller thing. Yeah, the Diamondbacks were one of the teams showing interests in James Shields. I think there was rumors about bidding being around $100 million, something like that. That being too much for the Diamondbacks when they, less than a year later, signed a pitcher for about double that, which is funny in retrospect. But yes, it is good that the Diamondbacks did not give James Shields the deal that the San Diego Padres did.

he was very productive in the 2015 season and then kind of fizzled out from that point forward it didn't wind up being a great contract. Are you sure though? Because what if then we traded for Fernando Tatis because the White Sox won't James Shields so bad? That's fair. Galaxy brain thinking.

Now I'm starting to think we should have signed James Shields and we would have Tatis. There's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of ifs in there. There's a lot of conditionals in that scenario. mind is blown, Damon. Well, let's talk about the rest of the new additions to the Hall of Fame ballot. Neither of those guys are likely to get in the Hall of Fame. I guess I'll just go out and say that.

Yeah, sure. Just ruin that for them. Yeah, we don't rain on the brain. It's not going to happen, but they both had really impressive major league careers. There's a lot of space in the middle there. Not a lot of ties, the rest on this list. But we have Victor Martinez, Jose Batista, Jose Reyes, all on the ballot for the first time Adrian Gonzalez a guy that we know extremely well and was a big villain in

our lives for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also sprayed me with champagne right in the face. Did he? Yeah, right after they clenched here and they went and jumped in the pool after he sprayed me with champagne in the face. Matt Holliday and then we get into some of the superstars, including, of course, Bartolo Cologne. You calling Bartolo Cologne a superstar? I am absolutely calling him. David Wright, Joe Mower, Chase Utley, and of course, leading the way with 93.8 career war, Adrian Beltray. Yeah, Adrian Belchray is going to be in the Hall of Fame. He is. I'll come out and say that.

Not exactly a bold prediction there. Going to be a first ballot hall of famer would be shocked if he wasn't. Chase Utley, I think, has a strong case here. I hate Chase Utley. I really hope he never gets in. I understand. Yes. He was a competitor out there

And scumbag Tied to some certain moments But yeah 64 and a half career war One of the best defensive Second Basement of all time Which I think goes unnoticed I'm voting nutley in

His peak was also really strong Like some of those really good Phillies teams I know Jimmy Rollins is also On the ballot right now Damon's dry heaving Over the thought of vote Chase Utley

Chase Utley In 2008 was a nine war player In 2005, he was a 7-3, 2006, 7.3, 2007, 7.8, 2008 was that nine-war year, and then 2009, he was an 8.2 war player. That's a pretty insane level, what is that, five years? That's a pretty insane level five-year peak. I think Chase Soutley absolutely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He would be on my ballot for sure if I had a vote, which I do not. Adrian Beltray led all of Major League Baseball in 2004 in home runs, doubles in 2010,

and Owen hits overall in 2013. The man was just an offensive machine. But yeah, like he had a lot of gold gloves too. That's something that people don't remember. Yeah, so much defensive value. Yeah. And the longevity is there with Beltray. 21 years.

21 years. His career OPS Plus was 116, which actually isn't all that great for like a third basement going to the Hall of Fame. But 477 homers, you know, he's surpassed the 3,000 hit club. This is his final, this is his final season playing baseball. You ready for this? He slashed pretty good. 273, 328 with a 434 slugging percentage, 763 OPS, and an OPS plus 99. But that is after 21 years of playing the game. Like, he is still a league average player at the end of his career as far as his production, right? Like almost 40 years old. He just aged so well. I mean, if you look at, like, the first half of Adrian Beltray's career, he was not on a Hall of Fame trajectory at all.

And then, and then we get into the second half of his career, especially into his 30s, his mid-30s. He was one of the best players in the sport every single year from his early 30s through his mid, even into his late 30s. He was still one of the best third baseman in baseball. Incredible. So, yeah, Adrian Beltray, a slam dunk hall of fame case. Okay, baseball writers, association. of America writer. I'm only first year, Derek.

I'm nine years away from having a Hall of Fame ballot. Who are you voting in if you were given a ballot? Which of these guys are you voting for? Which of these guys? Especially on their first year. Yeah, I can give you which of these guys. I don't actually think that I'm pretty sure that if I had a Hall of Fame vote this year,

I would not have the full 10 names. I think I'd be at eight or nine. I haven't nailed down exactly what the full ballot would look like. But I wouldn't be tasked with like, I wouldn't face the issue of having to put off certain guys that I thought were deserving, but because they're new candidates, I have to, like, give those votes to other guys and then wait for the newcomers. You wouldn't even use all of your votes is what you're saying.

Yeah, I don't think I would need all all 10 of the votes. So this year, out of the newcomers, Adrian Beltray, Chase Sutley, Joe Maurer. All of those guys would be on my ballot. David Wright, kind of right on the edge. Unfortunately, injuries were just a big factor toward the same. second half of his career. His OPS Plus is actually a lot better than Adrian Beltrace on a rate basis. David Wright was a much better hitter in his career, but he didn't have the longevity. He didn't play into his late 30s like Adrian Beltrade. Right. And that's the thing about players is like I'm not trying

to say that always having a lengthy career is part of it, but it is part of it because baseball is a game where you can be so good for a short amount of time and then just be awful the rest of the time. for Adrian Beltray to be putting up offensive numbers in his final year of his career after 21 seasons at age 39 and having some of those stats look like stuff that we would be like, yeah, I'll take that for Alec Thomas. Hell yeah, that'd be a hell of a season. Then you can't really, you know, you can't really say that the guy wasn't an incredible baseball player. Those, that's the difference. Baseball players that are those superstars, those Hall of Famers, they did it at an elite level for a number of years for a long extended period time. You have those unicorns every once in a while that are just special enough that even if they had a brief career, you still feel like they deserve that acknowledgement, especially guys that might have been, you know, might have passed away early.

You know, today I was seeing Jose Fernandez clip that kind of teared me up a little bit. Oh, yeah. I was just, man, that guy was just, he loved baseball so much. And it's just, you can only imagine, you know, so what his career would have been, you know. But anyway, it's an honor for these guys. and yeah, I think I agree with you on your Hall of Famers that I will go for as well. Can I talk about Joe Maurer? Please.

I would, yeah, absolutely. Joe, Joe Maurer is less obvious. I mean, Adrian Beltrae is super obvious. Anyone who doesn't have him on their ballot, I have questions. It's orbit. It's orbit from Houston Astros. Chase Sutley is a little bit more.

I don't think he'll wind up on every ballot. I certainly think the case for him is quite strong. Joe Maurer is a little bit closer to some people will vote for him some people will not so far I think the ballots that have been revealed publicly he's done quite well I don't know if he'll do quite that I don't know if he'll necessarily get in

in this first year on the ballot but the outlook for him is strong and one season doesn't get you in the Hall of Fame that's not how this is supposed to work but if ever one season could get someone in the Hall of Fame. Joe Maurer in 2009 hit 365.

Yeah, that'll do it. As a catcher, 28 home runs, 96 RBI. He won the MVP award in the American League. What was his OPS? Like 1.021 or something? His OPS was 1031, an OPS plus of 171. He was a valuable defensive catcher. I wouldn't say he was elite defensively in his years as a catcher, but he was solid behind the play.

He was not a liability on that. that end. The longevity thing is more of an issue for Joe Maur, but the fact that he was a catcher, I think gives him a bit of a pass in that sense. He did move to first base later in his career, and he was not as productive there. A lot of the value came from the fact that he was a catcher and hitting as he was. Once he moved to first base, the offense kind of ticked down, and he was sort of like James Loney-esque for about four or five years to finish his career. But I don't hold that against him. The fact that he was, you know, such an incredible elite hitter in this league as a

catcher for as long as he was. He still did that for a number of years. It wasn't just 2009. But that 2009 season, man, I just can't. A catcher with a 1031 OPS putting up, putting up those kind of numbers is really remarkable. It's wild. Well, of course, a great time to go see baseball.

It's coming up soon. We know baseball will be here before we know it. We know because we don't get. get enough time off. We've got to figure out all of our vacations in a very condensed time frame, especially when our team goes to the World Series. But those baseball games will be back soon and a great way to get tickets last minute is through our friends at GameTime, which is the place for last minute ticket deals.

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If you're worried about the scrutiny that, like, cheesecake factory is currently under, get yourself some tickets through game time and have a fun night. If you guys are here right now, we appreciate you being here in a PHNX sports YouTube channel. If you are diehard, we appreciate you even more. And if you're not a diehard, go grab your diehard membership right now. You can get it at go phtnx.com. You will get a wonderful t-shirt, whatever t-shirt you want from the PHNX Locker. com.

In our wonderful little welcome package, you also get Jesse's newsletter. You get all of our content. You get access to our Discord lounge, which is the place for Arizona sports fans to be. You also get access to our diehard only content, which we will be bringing you this year, which will include some die hard only episodes, some Q&A stuff, and including some stuff where we'll be featuring you guys on the show along with us. So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that. That seems dangerous.

It seems, yeah, with Brettly Johnson out there. Yeah, with Coggs. songs out there? Yeah, I don't know. We'll see about that. But join us today, become part of the family. And speaking of the family, you've got to give a shout out to Jake Fate 518 from YouTube, who pointed out an egregious mistake we made the other day with our time capsule. Now, luckily, we have not scheduled the lowering of the time capsule down into the hole. There's still time. We're going to put over the top of it. It's locked, but I have not eaten the key yet. I don't know why I'm going to eat the key. That needs to go to future.

generations. We're still in the process of securing Merrill Kelly's team USA jersey. Yeah, he doesn't want to give it up. He's been a little stingy or we're still working on that. He wants me to dye my hair purple again and it's just some negotiations still going on, but we'll get that figured out soon enough. But one item that we absolutely need to have in there framed, maybe even as the like, maybe even as like an image that is somehow peeking out of the window of the time capsule,

it's the very first thing that we want future generations to see when they under earth our time capsule from the 2023 season and it's this sign. Damon if you would please. Snakes alive. How did we forget this, Jesse? I don't know. We were in here racking our brains for like three hours trying to remember everything. Every item. Every physical item. I slept like two hours the entire like every night, the entire month of October. So I think my memory of everything is all messed up at this point. But yes, we absolutely need the Snakes Alive sign in our time capsule. The backstore with the Snakes Alive sign, Diamondbacks down to nothing in the NLCS. Their backs against the wall coming home to play at Chase Field trying to find their way into the World Series. And this guy

named Jeff Gazzardo, this hero, this hero named Jeff Gazzardo shows up to the Diamondbacks game with a very last minute sign that he made on his computer, which is literally just in all caps, snakes alive on two separate lines. I think this is Helvetica. Is that how we pronounce the name of that font? It's the most standard font on pages, if you have a Mac. He just types it out on his computer, prints it out. It's definitely not centered, like horizontally.

Yeah, I don't know. That sign is the perfect metaphor for the Arizona Diamondbacks. It kind of turned out to be. You take a look at that and you think there's not a lot there. There's not a lot to be concerned with. Did they even put in an effort? But little did you know how much effort that man made in making sure that he printed up that sign on his computer? Simple, sure.

That man is a connected man with his sign who decided to make sure that he had something of anything. Like he could have, maybe, maybe if he had more time, he could have put work into a bigger sign than maybe he did by hand. Maybe he could have put some color to do it. That was the fascinating thing, though. There was an article written by Sam Blum of the Athletic who did the Lord's work and went out and found Jeff Gassardo and was able to interview him and get the full backstory here.

It's an incredible story over at the Athletic, if you haven't read it already. But basically, Jeff's thinking was he didn't really like the more ornate signs that people bring to the ballpark. Because you don't even have to bring one to the ballpark. There is a sign making station if it will. That is also true. Right there right at the front entrance. He thought that those were too ornate, two elaborate, too distracting.

He wanted to bring a simple sign. And he did just that. And it showed up on the TBS broadcasts and it went viral on Twitter. John Boy made a shirt of it. John Boy made a shirt. The Diamondbacks printed out a bunch of them and put them on random seats in the ballpark for game four. Which then made people call us a podcast. property franchise, I think.

That may, that might have happened. And then it was on the video board before every single playoff game from that point forward. I don't remember exactly which game they started this. But soon after, they had snakes alive as like the very last thing that would show on the screen before games would start. And everyone in the stands would go crazy. And it became a rallying cry for the Diamondbacks as they, as they, they'd say. down their way into the world.

It wasn't a matter of time. It wasn't a matter of he didn't have the effort. He's not artistic enough. No, no. He didn't want that sign to be seen on TV. He didn't want shirts to be made of it. He just wanted the Diamondbacks players to look over, see him there by the net, and no, snakes alive.

We alive and we outside. That was an incredible miss on our part. I feel like. Yeah, I'm ashamed. I feel like all of our hard work during the postseason has just been. flush down the toilet due to the fact that we missed putting that in our time capsule. And we'd like to thank Jake Fate 518 again for pointing out our egregious error. And we want to thank you guys for being here right now on the PHNX-Forts YouTube channel

joining us on this Saturday episode. We'll be back, not tomorrow. We're going to take at least one day off. I guess the Cardinals play tomorrow or something. I don't know. Is that team still playing football games? But we'll be back on Monday with our Mailbag Monday episode. So make sure if you want to participate in that to send us some questions.

You can also follow us on Twitter. I am at K-Ur-Ur-N-Friedman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer is Damon. He is a Damon dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark.

I got it this time. I'm so proud of you. You can follow our show. We're back. Snakes a lot. Hell yeah, bro. You can follow our show at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore.

When I say that, and underscore D-D-Backs is our show. Underscore Sports is the other thing. You can follow both of them. That's probably a great idea. We appreciate you guys stopping by. Like I said, we will see you on Monday. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend. We thank you for your time.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when snakes alive.