PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Who is the biggest X-factor for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023?

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a trendy pick to break out in 2023, but only if players like Jake McCarthy, Corbin Carroll and Alek Thomas help spur them into playoff contention. We discuss who the biggest X-factor is, which player we are most concerned about, and what the ceiling and floor could be for this team. 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 special edition of the PHNX T-Vax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of Southwest Bias and PHNX. This guy is my very supportive vice mayor. He's Espo's over here flipping me on. He knows it's true. He knows it's true and he can't stand it. But this is once again, my vice mayor, the thunder sick, Jesse Friedman.

Derek, we've got one more weekend of spring training games. We've got exhibition games coming on Monday and Tuesday. We do. And then a week from tomorrow, we have opening day. So exciting. So exciting. And what we had today was a day off. And you know who hates that?

This guy. This guy hates these days off. He's going to be so sad when, uh, Spring training is over. I know it. Even though we're two blocks away from Jayfield. Two things. Let's hear it.

I'm going to miss Salt River Fields. So much. Because it is absolutely a gorgeous place to play a baseball game. And the weather has been incredible. Just to be there. Just an incredible facility. The other thing I'm going to miss is our spring training lower third logo that you see on the screen right now if you're joining us on YouTube.

You aren't wrong. That is fire. That is fire. Is that Eric's work? Is that Eric? I don't know. D-line. That might not be going away. We might not be going away with that.

So stay tuned as to what we got cooking up. Spring training anymore this time next week, Derek. Here's the thing. I believe it was Eric. It was Eric. And I appreciate everybody in the chat saying that I ran away with Southwest Bias today. It wasn't even close.

I destroyed Espo. He's still flipping me off. He's coming out of rooms. I didn't even know he was in. He's yelling about stuff. He doesn't want me to talk about my victory anymore. But I do want to thank you guys for being here. And a very, very important thing today for us is today is a pH and X community day.

And we are very excited to be partnering together with a very special organization like Ryan House. And we are very excited for today to be a day where all of our super chats during our broadcast are going to be donated to Ryan House. So if you guys could help us out in any way, we would love you so much for that. And we would love to put some money towards a very big. very, very good organization. For those that you that don't know, Ryan House provides care, palliative care and respite to Arizona children with life-threatening conditions and end-of-life care, which is very difficult, even as a parent for me to talk about that. Chokes me up a little bit. But a big shout out to Ryan House for everything they do, and we are very happy to be supporting

them today, not only here on this show, but on all the shows today. So we've already raised a tremendous amount of money and I think everybody that's that's participated in that for doing so. But Jesse, first we got to get, we got to get a little angry, I guess, or I guess address some comments that were made. We, these two right here, these guys, we spent a lot of time yesterday devoting our day to the World Baseball Classic and it did not disappoint. There was a lot of time devoted to the World Baseball Classic yesterday. We were live for four hours yesterday.

just yesterday. That was just yesterday. I mean, we have, we've kind of been a big, uh, bit watching this tournament quite a bit. Uh, and I don't think at any point did we have any complaints. Uh, I think that so far this tournament, uh, had absolutely delivered going into last night's championship game. And it was just absolutely an incredible ending, uh, for this tournament. And we got some super chats coming in. Mark Selera. Mark, let's go. Thank you so much. $20 super chat for Mark, uh, $10 super chat from Andrew you guys are the best thank you guys so much um directly to ryan house jo's directly ryan house yeah i promise i won't we're not eating lunch with this one you know for sure but yeah yeah yesterday super chats super chat super chat for our meals but today we're we're taking

a day off from that just just just for today oh my god joselle get out of here we thank you so much uh joselle's the best uh super chat from joselle for 4999 holy cow thank you guys uh this is this is already to an incredible start. Just once again, like last night's championship game was, it was a blast to watch. We had so much fun doing our live show during it or watch along. It was great. It actually like kind of flew by. It really did.

We were going into it. We were a little nervous. Like, wow, we're really going to be live for about four and a half consecutive hours. But it was just a lot of fun. Yeah. Really appreciate everyone who hopped in the chat and kept us entertain. Absolutely. Although we didn't really need anything to keep us entertained.

Because we had a pretty damn good baseball game to watch. We had a pretty darn good baseball game to watch, even if Mad Dog Russo wasn't quite as impressed by it as maybe he should have been. Mad Dog Russo has kind of stolen the spotlight a little bit today like he does at times with his takes. And he made some wild comments about Shohei Otani. And Mike Trout, just straight up disrespectful comments about Mike Trout. I'm sure you've seen this. I'm sure you've seen these comments. Elizabeth, shout out to Elizabeth for our super chat,

$20 from Elizabeth, for the ongoing Taylor Swift titles. Let's go, 193 and counting. Don't forget. Do we want to, I mean, we're not going to play his,

I'm sure you guys have seen it. We don't feel, we're allowed to play it, but you've probably violation for it, but you've seen it. Jesse, do you want to address the comments that were particularly egregious?

Sure. Yes, I would love to. So first of all, what did Mad Dog say? The topic of conversation was the at-bat. And if you know, if you watch the game, you know what at-bat I'm talking about, right? It is the at-bat that ended the game when Shohei Otani was on the mound for Japan facing his teammate, Mike Trout at the plate, with literally two outs in the ninth inning in a one-run game. You couldn't have really scripted it any better than that. That's the at-bat that we're talking about.

everyone has talked about, you know, just not everyone, most people have talked about how extraordinary that was and just what an incredible moment that was at the end of an extraordinary two weeks of World Baseball Classic, which we all, which we all have enjoyed so much. But Mad Dog was not as impressed by that at bat as a lot of journalists around the world were. So he basically said this today on ESPN, I believe this was on first take. said, we're going to make this out to be an epic at bat, really? He went on to compare it with the Kirk Gibson, Eckersley, at bat from way back in the day.

God, old people love that at bat. Yeah, some people are just, nothing will ever compare to that moment, which in its own way is fair. I mean, obviously, that was an extraordinary, extraordinary baseball moment. But later on, Mad Dogg said, why? Because they're teammates. And then he talks about how Trout does nothing but strike out. Trout struck out twice in the game.

Everybody talks to me about how Trout is DiMaggio. I mean, Trout strikes out 175 times a year, basically making it out to making the case that that had bad that happened at the end of the game was actually not anything super crazy. Like, Mike Trout strikes out a lot, you know, they're teammates, but like we see teammates face off, you know, in the World Baseball Classic. That's certainly a thing that we've seen at other times. what was so special about that mad dog just just didn't get it derrick yeah trout strikes out 175 times a year um i mean i guess we we can fact check that i think that's probably pretty

close to true mike trout doesn't strike out a little he does strike out quite a bit he is a guy he hasn't struck out 175 times he's only ever reached 175 strikeouts that was back in 2014 Yep. So that claim in itself. He's holding on to one time that it happened. Yeah, but it's fair. Trout does strike out a fair amount. And I understand where he's coming from that like, why would this be so special when it ended in a strikeout, which is something that happens kind of a lot.

But he's just so missing the point, Derek, because Shohei Otani is not just any teammate. Shohei Otani is a guy who literally hits in the same lineup that Mike Trout does, right? This is a different situation than what we see. see when you have other teammates facing off in the world baseball classic. It's unique in a way that you can't compare it to anything else. And that's why it's so cool. Yeah. Like stop trying to compare it to Gibson versus Eckersley, right?

Like, first of all, I just want to bring up, there was a great YouTube show called Heaven, Inc. And it was about Heaven being like an office. And there was a guy that worked in the Miracles department that was being downsized. And he was trying to save his job. so he was explaining to his boss how he was responsible for the Kurt Kirk Gibson home run and he was detailing the entire event about Gibson coming up on two bad knees and Eckersley being dominant and the whole thing and then the person who he was

having this meeting with proceeded to put on an Oakland A's hat and then fire him. It's a great scene but it's the only thing I think of when I think of the Gibson and Eckersley situation. I think that to be honest there's a lot of underestimating here. I think Damon or somebody else said it. that maybe he just came in to work today and decided to be contradictory or take this contradictory point of view because nobody that watched the world baseball classic didn't enjoy it and i don't know how in a million years if you enjoyed baseball at

all how you could watch the otani trout at bat with the game on the line two outs top of the ninth sure like the only thing that would have made it better is bottom of the ninth right where he could have walked it off yeah maybe with a guy on instead of it just tying the the game, but regardless, it was a huge moment. And it came like, how often do championship games come down to a final shot or a final at bat? Not very fucking often. Not in this case, not in this context where it's one game that they're playing against each other. There is no tomorrow. There's no series. Like everything about this, there's, it's like, no one should have to explain to you why it was a big moment. Nobody. And there's no reason why you should have any trouble seeing

that but I think this the screenshot of his co-hosts really says it best when it comes to delivering how we all feel about Mad Dog's comments do we got that Damon it's how is how all of us felt right it's Stephen A. Smith yeah yeah this is just there's also there was also kind of a hilarious progression with Stephen A. Smith yeah yeah yeah if you watch the video it's like raised eyebrows first and then it's kind of confusion and then it's kind of confusion and then It's utter confusion, and then it's this shot of him covering his face because he can't believe the words that are coming out of mad dog's mouth. I don't want to take anything away from like the Gibson Eckersley moment because it genuinely is one of the best, one of the best moments in Major League Baseball history. But even then, last I checked, Dennis Eckersley did not bat, right?

I mean, I guess he did sometimes. He had 196 career plate appearances and he hit 133 in his career, right? It was not that Kirk Gibson and Dennis Eckersley, you know, they were never in the lineup hitting third and fourth together, right? Yeah, for sure. This is a completely different situation. And I understand it ended in a strikeout. I think this moment could have been even bigger if, you know, Mike Trout had homered or something,

you know, something like that had happened. But this was still a crazy moment in its own right. Mike Trout swung and missed three times in this played appearance, which is not something that happens very often for a guy like Mike Trout. Cotify actually has the exact amount of times that this has happened. Per a tweet from Cotify, if you aren't impressed, you should be. Mike Trout has had three swinging strikes in only 24 of his 6,1174 career MLB plate appearances. Pretty good.

Yeah. I mean, Jesse was, he did the well, actually Jesse thing because that's what he does. That's what I do. Because he did say that, like, obviously three swinging strikes in an at bat isn't very common. Yeah, even if you strike out a lot, you're probably not going to do it by swinging and missing three times. You might foul off a pitch. You might, you know, you might take a strike or something. But even so, it's not something that happens often at all from Mike Trout in particular, right?

To get Mike Trout to swing and miss three times and one at bat is quite an accomplishment. And it was also, this wasn't just any old at bat for Shohei Otani. either, right? Yeah. We talked about his face, how Shohayotani normally looks so happy and wholesome. Oh, he got me so fired up. And his face in that, at bat, there's, we don't have it, but there's, there's a picture floating around social media as well.

Shoahe Otani put on a little game face when Mike Trout came to the plate that you don't see from him very often. He also just visibly, we talked about this yesterday, you could tell he was just putting like more effort into his pitches, like just his, his mechanics. like he was he was throwing harder than we've seen him really try to throw and it was it was bounced a 102 mile hour fastball like he was trying to blow mike trout away and and it wasn't with the fastball but eventually he did exactly that slider at the end though was a beautiful perfect pitch uh mark salara another 1989 for taylor swift's best best album i got that reference i got that

reference and I appreciate it. And my 11 year old daughter also would appreciate that. That's her favorite album. He says because T. Swift and Ryan House is the best and I completely agree. But we've talked about the Arizona Diamondbacks of their participation in the World Baseball Classic. It's been fun to see.

Obviously, Merrill Kelly's results left something to be desired. But they actually have had a pretty significant of history of having players participate in the World Baseball Classic hasn't been around that long, right? Dating back to what, 2006.

2006 was the first one. It's happened five times and there's no pattern whatsoever in the years that they've happened in, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, and then 2023. So I guess they were doing it every three years and then doing it every four years. Then we had COVID, which kind of messed up with that. Which will be back to three years. Now we're going back to 2026, right? Exactly.

Yeah, they've definitely had a history of having a lot of guys, a lot of names here. A lot of names here that I remember and make me smile, right? Fawn memories, right? Oh, man. Miguel Batista and Edgar Gonzalez were their first two participants, Miguel Batista for Team Dominican Republic and Edgar Gonzalez for Team Mexico. Miguel Batista, often a name that doesn't really get, I think, enough credit for his time here for the Arizona Diamondbacks. he was always a very, very good pitcher for them and play the significant role in that World Series season for sure.

Edgar Gonzalez, not quite as good of a career. No. Edgar Gonzalez finished with a 5.92 career ERA. He had some flashes of being a decent pitcher for the Diamondbacks, never quite able to get over the hump. But I think for any, I think baseball fans, more than like fans of any other sport, maybe, just love, like, reminiscing about the good old days. Just random guys. Yeah, there's some good old guy.

There's some good guys on this list. Like Edgar, Edgar Gonzalez and Miguel Vatista and like we're going to talk about Ray Fuentes and like these guys that, that are, yeah, like you probably haven't thought about them in a while and they weren't exactly spectacular players. But this is what baseball fans do, Derek.

So we love to reminisce about about the good old days and think about players who, you know, we're never necessarily stars or anything. But guys who bring back some good memories. from way back when. Yeah, yeah. And it's because at times we embraced and loved these guys. And I also think that it shows that there is, I don't know,

there's something about a history where it comes to that. I see in the comments that Andrew said, no answers to my pop quiz at the start of the stream. Andrew, hit us with your pop quiz questions. I did not, we didn't get those. So I don't know if they just didn't come across. I think if you put them in like before the stream starts, we might not see them on this side.

can't see them. So maybe that's what's happening there. Yeah. But I'll tell you, when I look at this list, there's a lot of guys, Willie Bloomquist, obviously, the coach of the ASU Sun Devils now. Heath Bell, David Hernandez, some big bullpen arms for this team at one point. And Paul Gulchman, obviously, still 2017 when he played for Team USA. I loved Martine Prado.

He was a guy that was kind of around in my early days of, covering this team. Like you loved him like as a person. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Like it's kind of weird because when I look at some of these names, I kind of think of like covering this team when I first started doing this. And Prado was always a really, really, really nice guy in the clubhouse.

And honestly, just a lot of fun. He was just always like, I don't know, there's something about those guys that always try to make baseball enjoyable. You don't see it. Like it really comes out during the world baseball classic. you know yeah there's nothing more more credible to me than edwardo eskbar just sitting in in the dugout playing a bongo drum right i don't know what the context right is he was just hanging out playing a ball like we just need more of that like baseball kind of needs that and i think that sometimes

baseball needs to get out of its own way when it comes to not like letting guys just be a little bit more loose have a little bit more fun in the dugout on the you know celebrating on the field like Like at times the major league baseball players in this tournament look like they didn't know if they could or couldn't celebrate because they like it's like is this okay? Because normally this wouldn't be okay, you know, like that kind of thing, right? So I don't know. There's just something that brings out the best in these guys. And I really hope that it encourages them to carry over a lot of this fun to to their teams, man. Does Miguel.

Does Miguel Batista really write poems? He does. Really? He used to back then. Really? Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah, he used to be a poet.

Yeah, I don't, I don't. We're going to have to find some Miguel Batista posts and read them on here. We got to read them. That's definitely got to happen. For sure. But we hope you guys, Mark sent another $10 in the gym. Mark, you are the man. Mark says, last donation to ask, hey, Jesse, want fruit snacks Friday?

Like, do I want fruit snacks on Friday? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Every Friday. The answer is always. of every day. There's never a time where you ask me if I want fruit snacks that the answer is going

to be no. Like I might not want them right now, but if you're giving to me, if you're giving them to me in a sealed package that I can take with me in my bag and eat at a later time. Oh yeah. Like you just, you fueled me up for the rest of the day. They, they save pretty well. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of things that if you like stuff it in your backpack for any day. Especially you're in Arizona. Yeah, you're going to regret it later on. But fruit snacks in my experience, they do pretty well. So yes, the answer to that question will always be yes, Mark, not only on Fridays, but on every day of the week.

Well, if you cannot rely on Mark bringing you fruit snacks, you can rely on the good folks at Circle K to take care of you on that. Stock up for March Madness at Circle K. They have iced coffees for just $1.89. Don't pay $6, $6.7 for your ice coffee. Go get it for $1.89. They also have 12 packs of beer for $9.99. Red Bull, 2 for 575 or $3 for $8, which is something.

I need to remember because I'm totally overpaying at times for my Red Bull consumption. And they also have an in-store sweepstakes right now. Hustle on Malcolm Stewart Rockstar Energy by two more. And you're entering in a chance to win some sort of vehicle that I can't pronounce. A Huscavarna? I'm giving it my best shot. FC 450. If you know what that is, you probably know that I'm butchering that name, but I'm giving it my best.

but make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff and be stocked up on all March Madness long, head to circlek.com slash store locator to find the CircleK near you if you don't already know where that is. But we know we know where the Circle K's are. They're not hard to find. And while you're there, grab yourself some Four Peaks beer or wherever you get your beer. They have a wonderful variety of beer. It's my favorite beer here in the Valley. And of course, they are local.

So we want to support local. Get out there. And if you get a chance to get to their A Street pub before the end of March, check out their spring training tours again see how they make the beers see how the ghosts help make the beers uh and so much i mean the ghosts do most of the work damn they're they they work the ghost hard over there is there like do they do they get paid like do they know oh that's a sweet that's a sweet setup they got going on over yeah yeah yeah i mean why why why pay for why pay for real human labor yeah no you're absolutely right all the ghost just ghost labor yeah

just 100% ghost labor but uh anyway there's uh there and they're sell you're and they're celebrating our Arizona Cardinals, which of course you want to do with a beer in your hand when it comes around to draft time. So they got the new coach, the new GM. The Cardinals have the third pick in the draft. It's a big opportunity for our guys over there at State Farm Stadium. So the best place to take in this pivotal moment and the rest of the NFL draft on April 27th is at Four Peaks, 8th Street Pub must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Shout out to Rob for the 499 super chat. He says, I'll send another $5 and you guys both agree. to never say the words, Mason Saunders on the podcast again. I don't know. What do you think, Derek? Can we commit to that? Impossible.

Impossible. I think I could, but I don't know if I trust you to live up to that. Now, Mark says, I'll bring more fruit snacks for the gold event. If you say the words, Mason Saunders on the podcast again,

and he countered your $4.99 with a $5 super chat. So it looks like we're saying Mason Saunders on the show going forward. Sorry, Rob. Anyway, Speaking of Mason Saunders, we know he's not going to be the biggest X factor on the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023, but we do hope

he has a bounce back season and can be a valuable piece to this pitching staff once again. But we did have a kind of discussion today and we started talking about who could end up being the biggest X factor for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I first want to qualify what an X factor is.

So that would have to be somebody with currently kind of not very high expectations. would say yeah something like that yeah i think of an x-factor as a player where like the difference between the floor and the ceiling is particularly high um and and also where yeah you're you're not necessarily expecting to get that much um you know if you're expecting a guy to be a five war player or something they're probably not going to be your your x factor um so uh you want to go first or i i do and i think it relates to the recent injury that we had i think i think i might have

already been feeling like Gabriel Moreno was going to be an X factor for this team. But now I almost feel like he kind of has to be in a way. There's a role. There's a there's there's an opportunity for him to step up into. And from what we've seen so far, I'm very excited about the kind of full time baseball player he could be behind the plate for this team. And more importantly, with a bat in his hand at the dish, right? That's a good point. Because it's like before if he's, you know, getting, you know, 40% of the starts, a catcher, 30% or whatever it was going to be. It's like the impact that he can have on the team is pretty limited, no matter how good he is.

But yeah, I mean, with Carson Kelly out for the first couple months of the season, it's like, yeah, you know, Gabby Moreno's got some runway here to really prove himself. And it also makes me wonder, is Carson Kelly still going to get 60% of the reps or whatever that number was going to be when he gets back? Or is Gabby Moreno going to have shown the Diamondbacks that he is all right? ready so good that you might want to stick with him as your as your main guy and then you know just get cars and kelly in there 30 or 40% of the time or whatever that looks like so uh there's a lot of a lot of interesting dynamics there now i am concerned if i'm being honest about his relationship

with the pitchers and how this how how his sudden involvement now at a at a higher rate is going to impact the pitching staff but sure i haven't heard very many concerns about his defense i will say that the one thing about Carson Kelly is he's like Christian Walker. He's very good back there and he does it quietly. He's pretty good. Like I wouldn't say Carl. Like Carson Kelly is not like the best framer. He's not like the best blocker.

He doesn't have the best arm. But he's like pretty decent and everything. And all of that stuff. Right. Like yeah. And so, but I will say like my point being is like you kind of, you kind of just get used to Carson Kelly being back there and doing the thing at times. Right.

Like Christian Walker at first base, right? Christian Walker is a much better first baseman than Carson Kelly is a catcher. You're not wrong, but there's not a lot of catchers in baseball. You know what I mean? There's a limited amount of great catchers. I'm not going to put Carson Kelly into that category. But I will say that once you lose someone like Kelly, you quickly notice his absence is, I guess my thought there. Yeah.

And you also notice that like Carson Kelly wasn't a great hitter last year and hasn't been a great hitter. but I don't want to take a shot at Jose Herrera, but the bat is a pretty light. And there's a difference between Carson Kelly's below average bat and Jose Herrera's below average bat. Very true. Which, you know, hopefully he's able to make some strides in that sense coming into this season. But spring training numbers have it look so good for Jose Herrera so far. And honestly, in the past, I mean, we know that the Diamondbacks have kind of knowingly sacrificed the fact that he's not as good offensively. to work with certain pitchers like Madison Bumgarner has said in the past that he liked working with Jose Herrera, right?

But hopefully that same kind of relationship can be formed now with Gabrielle Moreno, especially with the fact that they have no other choice, really. Not a great other choice. Another super chat from Elizabeth. What is good you guys? 4999. Elizabeth says $200 looks better. Yeah. Wow. We appreciate you, Elizabeth.

We also think $200 looks better. It's very true. It's very true. And we love you guys. Thank you guys so much for this. This has been incredible. We just got to get them all competing against each other. Yeah. That's the best way to do this. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Kianez Mas forte. Right now, Elizabeth is mass forte. What do you got, though? Who do you think is going to be an X factor for this team in 2020? I'm, I'm torn between two guys. But the one that I'm officially going to pick is Kattel Marte. Oh. Okay. Not. And it's a little on the edge because I know that Katel Marte. Marte's floor is relatively high, right? You're not, you're not looking at, even if Catelle, you know, is pretty much the same player that he was last year. That's a decent player, right? I mean, Cotel played 130-something games, was a slightly above average offensive player, not great on defense. He wasn't a great player, but he was a decent major leaguer, right? And I think a lot of people are already expecting him to bounce back offensively, at least a little bit. He's also

looked a little bit better defensively as well. So there are some expectations there. What I will say, though, is that Catell was a very, very, very good hitter in 2019 and 2021. So good. The kind of hitter that this Diamondbacks team has been lacking ever since Paul Goldschmidt left, right? Yeah. And Cattel was kind of that guy.

I mean, he kind of did fill those shoes in 2019 pretty dang well. And in 2021, there were all those injuries. but when he was on the field, he was a similar caliber of hitter. That's something that the Diamondbacks sorely need, a presence in the middle or at the top of the lineup, you know, 900 OPS, 950 OPS, something like that. That would be a total game changer for this team. And I think it would, I think it would substantially raise the ceiling

of where the Diamondbacks can go. If Kattel is a star, if he is, you know, a near MVP level player, as he showed himself to be, as he has shown himself to be at times the last few years, that would be enormous for this team more so than any other guy that I can really think of. Elizabeth is the MVP of the chat right now because she's trying to like get get this chat together. We're competing with the Sun's chat now. Oh, all right. Like hasn't even gone yet.

She's just confident that they're going to rake it in. And she's probably right about that. but you know what it's fine i uh we had a 400 something dollar we're uh super chat on the as u show today i believe yeah it's wild it's wild but uh you know what we're good we're doing well and you guys have been excellent so far so let's see if we can push it up if you're here in the chat make sure uh to to chip in if you can't uh it's for a great cause ryan house absolutely outstanding cause and we're all about uh doing everything we can to raise money for that and tell you what if you were planning on buying me drinks on Friday or a present, which I know Jesse was going to do.

Of course. Just put it towards Ryan House right now. Just do that. And then that way we can raise some more money. I guess in the opposite direction, Jesse, are there players you are potentially concerned about not living up to maybe the expectations that we've set for them? Maybe some guys that had a good season last year? Well, I'm torn on where to go with Zach Gallen because.

because we've talked a little bit about his Velo being down. Sure. I don't know if I would say I'm concerned. Like, Zach Gallen is going to be terrible this year or anything. Spring training's been pretty terrible, but you don't necessarily worry about that too much. I think that Christian Walker is a guy to keep an eye on. He's looked great in spring training. No, no concerns from what I've seen there.

But I will say that Christian Walker had a really good year last year, like a really, really good year. And I don't know if it's fair to expect him to be that guy again. He literally finished, I believe it was third in Wins Above Replacement among first baseman behind only Paul Goldschmidt and Freddie Freeman. Like, that's pretty darn good company. I mean, he was better than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He was better than Pete Alonzo, according to Wins Above Replacement. And I don't know if it's quite fair to expect him to do that again.

And he had more defensive run saved than anybody else. He had an absurd, just an absurd year defensively, at least according to what the metrics had to say. So I'm not expecting Christian Walker to, you know, take a huge step back. I wouldn't say I'm that concerned about him reverting back to his 2021 self, which was not a good year. He was a below average hitter. He was not really an everyday caliber player. I wouldn't say I'm concerned about that. But I do think maybe the expectation should be tempered a little bit.

Like, he might not be a four war player again this year. Like, we have to at least be aware that there might be some regression in order. there for Christian Walker. This might be recency bias, but I'm a little worried about Merrill Kelly. That's fair. I think Merrill Kelly was very, very good last year for this team at times. And I think over the last two years, he has been Merrill the mainstay. And maybe it's just the fact, like, this is still like spring training.

And this wouldn't panic me otherwise. But these were very big moments that we know Merrill very much wanted to be prepared and ready for. And he wanted the ball in these situations. He just didn't have a good, you know, he just didn't have a good world baseball classic tournament. He just didn't go his way, right? You hate to judge a guy on, on, you know, like three innings or whatever it was that he totaled in the WBC. Especially when in a normal game, in a normal game, we know that there's a good chance that Merrill could give up three runs, four runs, potentially early on. But then clamp down and go seven innings or something.

And not give up another run the rest of the game and give the team a chance to win. Right. We've seen that dozens of times out of, out of Merrill Kelly. So I don't know. I just think that there is a little bit of that concern for me. And I honestly, I am concerned about the starting pitching rotation. If Merrill Kelly remains their number two guy, it's not to take anything away from him. But if this team wants to be successful, I feel like, you know, Dre Jameson or somebody kind of need to slide up.

Maybe not, maybe not literally into that number two role behind him in the starting rotation. just like as far as production wise we saw that out of both dray jameson and ryan nelson last year that they had the ability to do that uh mark slayer gave another super chat for 20 dollars i think now i have to bring mark salara fruit snacks on friday i think that flopped after how much money he's donated uh because the sun's chat needs a bar to climb over you're right yeah you're right uh and you're my ooze uh and we're going to do the handshake on friday when i see you um last you had a really good uh top from an article that you were writing, which was, what is the best, worst case, best case,

and most likely scenario for the Diamondbacks? And were you just meaning as far as like their record? Yeah. Yeah, their record. And I guess, I mean, you could throw playoffs in there as well. What is what is the best possible outcome for them this year? What is the worst? And then what do you see as being the most likely, the most likely outcome?

Am I being pessimistic or realistic when I have a hard time with my. my best case scenario being that the Diamondbacks win the World Series. I'm just saying. I guess I've already answered by the fact that I'm laughing right now. But no, like, like, what? I mean, like, you're giving me an opportunity to think of the best case scenario. And that in my mind is not a possibility is what I'm saying. Okay.

You're saying it's not a possibility. Yeah. It's like it's not even like. So I'm asking, am I being pessimistic? If that is not even a possibility in my mind or is that more? Jesse being realistic and impacting me. In your defense, like I do think it's a little crazy to come out and say like realistically, you know, the Diamondbacks could win the World Series.

Like I think that's a little, that's a little out there for me. Right. But I will say that we've talked a little bit about the Phillies being a team that the Diamondbacks might have to catch in order to get in the postseason. And the Phillies, last I checked, were in the World Series last year, right? And we view them as a team that the Diamondbacks could possibly compete with this year. Not that you're favoring the D-backs over the Phillies necessarily. But there is a scenario that exists where the Diamondbacks wind up with a better record than the Phillies.

I don't think that's a totally outrageous claim. Like my best case scenario is the Diamondbacks win like 92 games. Okay. That's my best case scenario. The Diamondbacks get a playoff position. They win 92 games. and advance. I think the thing that this fan base would just love is just to advance.

Like, it doesn't have to be a deep playoff run. But I think in a best- Advancing past the wild card round. Advance past the wild card round. Get into a point where you're playing, you're one of, you know, the last eight teams left in baseball playing for a spot. Yeah, that'd be crazy. You know, just that kind of excitement that could then keep that ball rolling to the future.

And honestly, when you look at this long, lineup, you look at this team and you see how young and exciting they are, there's a lot to entice free agents or other guys that might want to play here to come be a part of this team, right? I know the Diamondbacks don't have the money to do that, but I don't know if they need the superstars as much as they'll just need some other quality baseball players to help enhance, you know, their weak points that they have as things kind of, you know, progress. Yeah, I mean, baseball does have this like anything can happen quality to it, which does make it so that for a team that has at least some chance of making the playoffs, you almost

have to say that winning the world series is at least like, like it could, I mean, it could happen, right? Like, you would say it's realistic. But it just doesn't, that's what I'm saying. Like, if you were to ask me, like, best case scenario, it, my mind doesn't even go right there, which is where it should go for most good teams. Most good teams, you should be able to see some sort of outcome where the result is that they win the championship. And I just don't see that for this team this year. I don't think that winning the NL West. I wouldn't call that a realistic best case scenario.

I think the best case scenario is you could get you could go deep in the playoffs once you're in the thing. You never know what could happen. But the best case scenario is the diamond backs get a wild card spot. I think I think we can say that pretty comfortably. I just don't. I mean, overcoming either the Dodgers or the Padres in the division. would be enormous.

Overcoming both of them just feels like a pie in the sky. Like that's just not realistic for me. Worst case scenario, talking Jake is right. And they win less than 73. 73 games. I don't like that. And I think honestly, anything from that point down is bad.

Like I don't like yeah, like yeah, you could say lose 100 games is probably the worst case scenario. Like to regress that poorly. I mean, based on that 2021 season, man, you kind of feel like, yeah, they could win 55. Like the whole team gets hurt. Everyone who you're expecting good things from stinks, right?

Corbyn Carroll turns out to be, you know, a slap hitting singles guy who doesn't really do anything else. But fucking, take it back. Take it back right now. Yeah, but you're not really, I don't really. The debacks have so much depth at this point that it would take an utterly catastrophic range of injuries and a catastrophic collection of injuries to happen. for this team to be under probably 70. I think that would be kind of like the baseline for me. Could they lose more games than they did last year?

I guess so. It's certainly not something that we're expecting, but with enough injuries and, you know, a few guys who don't perform like you're expecting them to, that 2021 season, I think, kind of sobered a lot of Diamondbacks fans into thinking like, oh, yeah, yeah. The floor can be pretty darned,

If enough things go wrong. There's a there's a comment get to $300. You're not welcome back on Southwest Bias from the boss. I was going to make a Bruce Springsteen joke, but then Mark Salera made it for me. I'll also say, I own Southwest bias currently. I am the founder and proprietor of Southwest Bias currently. And until you beat me, you're not, I'm not going anywhere. But he's right.

Let's get to $300 or else maybe I won't be welcome back on that show or any show. show anymore. Did producer Damon just dropped 499? He did. He did. Oh, all right. Let's go. And he dropped a sticker, which is apparently, as described here, Shiba Dog in a combat position. You can't see the sticker, but we get a description of the sticker, which is even better than seeing the actual sticker, if I'm being honest. Do you guys want to thank me for my service?

We do. We thank you so much for your service, Damon. Damon, we love you. Damon's the best. You guys, most likely scenario before we move on. Most likely for me is between 80 and 83 wins. That's what I wrote for this site that they asked me some questions and asked me this question. Most likely scenario, I think, is probably between 80 and 83. I can't argue with that. An improvement from last year, you know, some optimism going into 2024. I think that's what a lot of people are expecting.

It wouldn't shock me if it was 85, 86. That still wouldn't shock me. But if I'm like trying to narrow down like a, a range of three wins, 80 to 83 is what I'm going with. I'm going to go plus 500. I'm going to say that the Diamondbacks will be over 500 by the end of the season. And I feel like that is my, that's the best that I can hope for. That's the most likely.

Can you give me a three win? I need a three win window from you, Derek. Okay. Well, we'll go 85 to 82 wins. Okay. Right. That puts them right over 500. That puts them.

One game over 500 at least. Yeah. anywhere from two games to eight games over 500. All right. No, no it doesn't. I didn't give you that big of a range. 82 to 85.

No, but 80, if you win 85 games, that means you lose 77 games. 85 minus 77. There you go. All right. I was a math teacher,

Derek, remember? Anyway, we thank you guys for so much for your chat, all of your participation so far in the super chat. and all of your donations to Ryan House. You guys are the best. We thank you for being here.

If you haven't done so already, we know you guys all did it. But for those that might be new around these parts, make sure to subscribe to the PHNexports YouTube channel. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our wonderful shows go live. Leave us a thumbs up. It makes both of us so incredibly happy when you do that.

Also, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, shame on you for not taking part in the Ryan House donations. I don't know how you're probably listening to this in the future. So I don't know how to make you go back and. time and join the YouTube chat but uh if you know what independently don't donate to Ryan house it's an amazing cause uh and they do a lot of great work here in the valley so uh if you haven't done so already subscribe to us on your favorite audio podcasting app leave us a review we always love the feedback uh and grab yourself a phnx diehards membership you will get unlimited access to

everything that jesse friedman writes not just the stuff that's not behind the pain wall all of it you also get gerald you also get Craig you also get Howard you get all their wonderful stuff you get free pieces of merch from the PHNX Locker.com every year you're a member. You get 20% off all future purchases. You get members only invites to events, members only merchandise, members only discounts with our partners and so much more. Plus there is the Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. So join us today over at go phnx.com. Become a diehard now. And while you are deciding on doing that, we know you have some furniture upgrades that are needed around the home. We've discussed this guy at length. I have a

dog that right now is ruining one of my couches. And I know it's only a matter of time before I need to go to more furniture. Every single day I'm not there, she just keeps digging. She like has to dig on. She digs. Yeah, she has to like make herself a spot on the couch. But before she does that, she has to dig. And the digging slowly every day is just eroding.

It's eroding the quality of my couch. So with no time at all, I will need a new couch and I will go to more furniture to do that. And of course, I hope they have one that matches my other couch because I don't feel like buying a whole set but you know how that goes uh i'll also get their white glove delivery service you guys should too uh if you're looking for a new furniture and you don't want to worry about how rent borrowing a friend's truck getting someone to help you yeah it's a nightmare uh that's something that this guy is very much going to that one friend that you have who owns a truck do them a solid they hate you and just they they they do yeah your your relationship with that person

i already suspect is not great so so try to try to try to main to that relationship as best you can buy it at more furniture and leave that poor person alone. Yep, he's right. He's right. And go over today and say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture. com. Get that white glove delivery service and save a relationship with someone you like. We knew this was going to happen, Jesse.

Before we move on real quick, let's look at, we got our leaderboard here. We got our donation leaderboard here. PHNX, Sun Devils out on top. They had a big donation. Yeah, I just not saying that. uh you just say they're really good no do we have to no take it away is it taking away yeah he's big loved big loved big loves uh but it was a big donation that's really what got them there is what we're records were meant to be broken records were meant to be broken so i'm just i'm just saying uh we're doing all right you guys but yeah maybe we can squeeze past cardinals and and maybe you squeeze in the first place we are currently at 226 we're a hundred down from cardinals about we're a hundred down we need a hundred more to surpass the cardinals and then you know the side of the funds are coming up here. And if someone wanted to give us a nice $420 donation of $420.

We shoot to the top real quick. Yeah, we'd get up there. That would be really fast. We'd get really fast. But, you know, all the no donations today are great. We're so happy to be giving so much back to such a great, great cause. We did know, though, that Major League Baseball was potentially going to be making some tweaks to their rules.

Did we know? Did you think this is going to happen? I thought it was going to happen. I thought what we were going to see is a lot of, a lot of feedback, a lot of suggestions, you know, things like that. But, you know, we're already getting that before the season starts when it comes to major league baseball, making some tweaks to their new rules. Nothing that's going to impact, I think, even the rules too much, but just some clarifications.

We do know that one thing was a topic that Tori Lavolo brought up that we discussed on the show quite a bit, which was, you know, Carson Kelly making the final out when he was still out there. and then needing to get back as the catcher to the dugout, put on his full catcher gear, and then get back out causing a pitching violation. There was caused a pitcher and a batter violation is what it caused. So that was the infamous, I think it was Joe Mantiply,

was at one in one before they even threw a single pitch. That was pretty weird. Yeah, nothing huge here. I've had some people tell me during spring training, like, yeah, I think they're going to up it to 20 seconds with nobody on base. 25 seconds. I'm like nothing that drastic. There is literally no chance. There is a zero percent chance that happens.

You're not going to come out and enforce these rules like they have. And then with, you know, a week or two before the regular season, suddenly change everything. That would just be, that would just be an insane change to make. So. He's standing right there too. Like, I want to go fight him. But I can't like I finished hosting the show. And then just and then just stare us down.

Stare us down right on set. while he does it. Anyway. Yeah, anyway. Pitch violations were down from 2.03 per game in the first week to 1.03 per game this week. So we've already seen, you know, go down. But yeah, there's just, there's a lot of things that, I mean, small things that they need to change because obviously there is, there is the ability for teams to manipulate the rules. And they don't want that.

They don't want teams to find a hole in the new rules. They don't want to find a way for them to circumvent the new rules. So when they start doing that, they're going to add things that are changes or violations to the current rules, right? And that's something that Morgan Sword, great name still, not giving that one of them. You really can't say the name Morgan Sword without talking about how great of a name it is. It's almost like I feel like I need to clarify that he's not like a street fighter character or a dark stocker's character or some video game character, right?

But he's a real person. He works for MLB. He's very nice. And he was very informative. And he did say that they would continue to like monitor how teams manipulate these, these rules and would make sure that they could do everything they can to continue to keep things fair and understandable. Like, you know, now changing the ability to review the infield rule, right, when it comes to the ship ban. You got to have both of your feet on the infield dirt.

Previously, you could review a play. you could review the position of any fielder on any of the infielders. But now they've made a change where you can only review the position of the fielder who actually made the play. Who's actually of a fielder who actually was involved in the play. I don't really see that as like a huge problem that they had to fix. Like where teams going to come out and try to delay the game by just calling it like challenging like positions of random fielders just because I.

No, I think, okay. So I think what it is is that it didn't really impact the. outcome of the play, they get an out. Like, let's say the team batting gets an out and it didn't impact the play. But one of the coaches notices that one of their infielders had his heels on the grass or something and they didn't call it. And now they want to retroactively like review it because that guy had his heels in the grass, right?

At the end of the day, he wasn't the one that made the play to register the out, but they still are like, oh wait, but he was doing something he wasn't supposed to. Yeah, because it's like, yes, he brought like that fielder did break the rule, but it had no consequence whatsoever on the play. So we're not going to go back and review that. Yeah, we're not going to put the batter back at the plate. Right. Or we're not going to negate the out or whatever just happened just because of that.

So I do see where they're coming from there. The most amusing change that they've made. By the way, this is a clarification memo, quote unquote. So this isn't an actual rule change, but it is kind of telling everybody in Major League Baseball that there are some, there's some situations that we're addressing basically. that have come up in spring training, like the pitchcom system malfunctioning and things like that, just kind of with it being such a vital tool

that they want to prove its use in games. Like it hasn't been approved for the season yet, right? Is that right when it comes to the pitch clock? The pitch clock has been approved for the season, yes. Yeah, pitchcom. Yeah, pitchcom certainly approved for catchers to initiate the calls. to their pitchers. But yes, this is from a story from Jeff Passon of RadySPN.

He did say that within the next week, as soon as this week, sources said the league is expected to approve pitchcom for pitchers, which is something that we've seen a number of Diamondbacks pitchers using throughout spring training. Zach Davies, I know, has done it. Madison Bumgarner has been a very vocal supporter. Seems like he's done that pretty much every time out. Um, so yeah, that's something we, we expected to see. I think it's kind of necessary.

Yeah. So they're clarifying that it with the malfunctions with the pitchcom that the umpire can give some additional time as long as it's communicated to the umpire that there's something wrong with the pitchcom. So I feel like they're, you know, again, they're trying to make sure that that, uh, technology is, is working and useful and, and part of this system. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's a separate issue.

Yeah. If they have, if they have any kind of malfunctions with the system during the game, they have kind of a process for making sure that doesn't that doesn't delay the game. And a lot of this does seem like in case, in that case, in other scenarios that they want the umpires to know that they have more leniency to grant when it makes sense, it's common sense. It makes sense that this situation, you know, should allow you to, you know, withhold starting the pitch clock until, you know, like for instance with the catcher thing until the, the pitcher is on the infield grass approaching, uh, the mound instead of waiting, you know, or instead of doing it immediately at the two-minute mark after the inning like they normally would. Yeah. Yeah, there is definitely some leniency built in, built-in for umpires to kind of make some, make some decisions with their own,

their own discretion in certain situations. The change that I, that is, is definitely most amusing to me, Derek, is, uh, this is also, uh, from Jeff Passon's story. He wrote, new standards would be enforced for bat boys and bat girls, whose ability to quickly, retrieve equipment will help efforts to speed up the game according to the memo. The league will evaluate the performances of bat boys and bat girls and could have teams to replace them if their performance is considered substandard. You mean to tell me that you're going to evaluate the performances of bat boys and bat girls but not your umpires.

But Angel Hernandez still gets to be behind the play. Considerably more accountability for bad boys and bad girls than umpires. Yes, that is basically what this is saying. Cool. I kind of love that. Great. I kind of love that. I have noticed, like, it has felt in some of these spring training games, like bat boys and bat

girls have really had to be on their game. I don't know if you noticed that in any of these games. Like, there are some situations where they, like, they have to sprint. Like, they really have to sprint in order to make sure they get back to the dugout in time. Because there's a clock. Like, the pitcher needs to throw. They can't do that if the bat boy is still running around home.

or something like that. So you can understand where this is coming from. It does feel like something that's probably a good idea. I haven't noticed any subpar bat boys or bad girls to this point. I did notice one thing. It was when the Diamondbacks were taking on the Seattle Mariners. And there was a ball that rolled back to the backstop. And the bat boy was kind of by me where I was taking some pictures.

And he like made his move to like go out there. But you could see he was indecisive. He did not know if he had enough time. And he didn't like want to stop the game. Like, and he didn't know if he could just leave that ball out there. So he kind of like, like hesitated and then stopped and stayed in their little area.

And then my favorite part about it was the umpire kind of glanced over at him, glanced back at the ball, glanced back over at him. Like, are you going to do something about it? And then had to call time so that he could run out. there and grab the ball because they can't leave like a ball back there's I guess yeah you know just in case something happens yeah you wouldn't want the catcher running back right slipping on the ball right

even though you have like the entire coaching staff all right there sitting out on the field during spring training games which is just the best seat in the house you imagine though like could you imagine calling like this poor 10 year old into your office and being like sorry billy I got to let you go listen you're just not fast enough we have to have a difficult conversation we've been evaluating your performance. Kind of had a conversation with you about shaving down, you know, your bat pickup time there by like 20,

you know, about to about down to 20, 22 seconds max. Your average is 20 or 22 seconds. That'd be way too long. Your average is still up there at like 27. Yeah, no, I know. I don't even know how to evaluate these kids. But holy crap.

Good luck with that and you're a monster. That's all I have to say. I still think it's hilarious, though, like you said, That seems to be the point of most accountability here is the bat boys and bat girls. Right? Yeah.

Anyway, well, big shout out to everybody that donated to Ryan House. You guys are awesome. Thank you for your donations. Thank you for everything. If you are interested in fantasy football advice, don't ask me. I am not the person to ask. Jesse might be better to ask, but he's probably still. Fantasy football?

Did I say fantasy football? I think you said football. I don't want to ask me for fantasy baseball. I said, Damon, did I say baseball or football? You said football. I did say football. I'm going to go back and listen to that. I don't believe you guys.

I'm pretty sure you say football. I'm definitely a source on fantasy football, but not baseball. But we got your source. That's ironic. Over at Robb. Hey, I've told you fantasy baseball is a very difficult sport to be a part of. But if you want to get in on your league, you want to dominate your fantasy baseball season. Check out our friends over at RodeWire.

They have your cheat sheets, It's custom player rankings and so much more. Let their experts analyze. Any questions you guys have, all the wild baseball stats that you need. They got mock drafts. They got so much more. You don't have a lot of time. The baseball season is right around the corner.

And I'm sure those drafts are happening. So make sure to check out all the options they have, including their Ask the Expert function, premium fantasy draft kits, and so much more. They also don't just do baseball. They do fantasy football. And they also do fantasy golf, soccer, NASCAR, XFL, That's still football and more.

I just wanted to clarify for you. I know what the XFL is, Derek. Okay, come on now. I believe you. For a limited time, Rotowire is offering a free two-day trial door listeners. Just go to rotterwire.com slash PHNX to register absolutely no commitments. They are so confident that you like their product and want to invest in a subscription plan

that they don't even ask for a credit card up front. So take a peek behind the paywall. And when the trial is done, you can decide if a roto wire package is right for you. And also, if you're looking for a fun place, to spend your spring break. Make sure to check out Rock Octane Raceway and Mavericks. They have all sorts of fun daily specials during this time of the year. You can also book some fun there ahead of time, big groups.

They got you taken care of. They have the cart racing, virtual reality, laser tag, axe throwing, bowling, arcades, great food and drinks, and so much more. They got $4. Jameson, orange shots, special food menu, including all sorts of March delicacies, including Irish nachos, shamrock pizza, corn, beef, and cabbage, green lanes, Irish music, and so much more.

So spend your time here in March over at the Octane Raceway, beat your friends in cart racing, and then all sorts of video games. And if you have a friend like Sean DePaz, don't take him, because if he's going to beat you and stuff, it's not going to be a great time. So leave him at home, but take the friends that you can beat. That's why I hang out with Jesse. Winning Wednesdays, by the way, half-price arcade games all day long. I can't wait to watch you get beat on Friday and ping pong to just back up this theory.

But much like you said to me before Southwest bias today, don't disappoint me, Jesse. Don't let me down, you know. Got Mark, we got, I think Danielle's going to be there. So I need you to step up and ping pong this. Oh, Max is going down too. Oh, yeah, Max is on his list. Jesse's got a list just like, just like. Yeah, me and Zach Gallen.

Keep list like that. But yes, make sure to join us out at the PHNXT party this Friday. It is my birthday, and more importantly, we're going to have the Sun's Watch party out there with all sorts of fun to be had. Let's hit some golf balls, to have some food. Let's have a great time. So join us out at Dobson Ranch for the PHNXT party,

and you can get more information on that over at go phnx.com. We thank you guys so much for being here. Again, thank you so much for your donations. We thank you guys for always being here. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Keman with a K. This Maniac is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX.

I'm not forgetting Damon. He's at Damon Dog. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You better not forget him. Our own producer gave us a super chat today, Derek. Not just a super chat, a super sticker. A super sticker. Yeah, we couldn't see the sticker.

The description was better than the sticker. Elizabeth says I said football too. Damn it, Elizabeth. I trust you. I don't trust these two guys. But again, thank you guys so much. We really appreciate the donations today to Ryan House and keep it going. Sons, we got coyotes.

We got so much more tonight. So let's see if we can raise a tremendous amount of money for a very, very worthy cause. On behalf of Damon, Jesse and myself, I'm throwing Damon in there first. We thank you guys so much for your time tonight. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you do something great for a good cause.