PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Wild Boor

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are joined by William Boor from MLB Pipeline to discuss his work with the Top 30 Prospects List for the D-backs and the Padres. 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 another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name, of course, is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And I'm joined by my vice mayor, my co-host, and the Thunderstick, Jesse Freeman. Derek, I'm excited. We have the man behind the Diamondbacks MLB Pipeline Top 30 lists with us today. So this is a big day for us. It's a big day for us, absolutely. And we will get to that very shortly.

but of course we want to let everyone know that this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX and new customers can get down on the college basketball action with by betting just $5 on any team to win. And you will get $200 in free bets if they do with our code of PHNX. It's that simple. If they win, you win over at the Draft King's Sportsbook. And yes, we are joined by a very special guest today. Our friend from the MLB pipeline, kind of in charge of.

doing these prospects list. The one and only man behind the curtain, it's William Boar. William, what's happening? How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. Thank you guys for having me. I'm excited to be here. Excited to have you. Excited to have you because we've kind of dug into the prospects, I think, more this season more than we ever have, not only due to the direction the Diamondbacks are going, but also just due to the fact that that's kind of all we could go see at their minor league mini camp there for a while. So we got to see some of these.

guys, or at least I do it, more than I've had a chance to see them in the past. So it's, it's exciting. I feel like in looking at your guide, it's in previous seasons, it was more kind of a blind thing for me where, you know, a top prospects list like this would be the thing that kind of drew someone to my attention. Now what's interesting is to kind of have, have, you know, more information on some of these guys and then see that your new list that came out last week. And honestly the first thing I said was like yep that's it that's uh that they kind of nailed it but we we're excited to talk about that because this process is uh kind of interesting and and foreign to most people and especially even to us so uh we're we'd love to get some more information

about how this happens and like what i mean what goes and i know this is a lot to kind of put under one question but for you like What goes into this process and what's your role and I guess how many other cooks are there in the kitchen with these lists that you do? I think it's crazy because I perhaps I'm too close to it that it's just part of the job and part of my grind. Every radio show or podcast that I've been on since these lists came out, that is the first question. I'm like, I had no idea of people were so interested in the process. but yeah it's so hard to determine it right like you're you're on one hand you're predicting the future but on the other hand you're taking deep analytics and a lot of information on these guys and

their progress and what they've done in the past and kind of trying to put together what kind of player they're going to be for these organizations it just it seems like a very difficult task to to jessey and myself even though we love baseball it's just so hard to know who is is going to be kind of the next big things for these teams. Yeah. So my process for the Diamondbacks specifically is in late December, early January, I put together a list of about 40, 50 names. And it's in a rough order, but it's mainly in tiers.

It's mainly like these 1015, these 1015, these 1015. And then at that point, I've got my 40-ish names. I'm calling people I know with the Diamondbacks. calling scouts I know agents, maybe players who played against someone if I have a good relationship with someone. I'm calling everyone I can getting all the info I can and then I'm starting to order stuff. Once I get it into a rough order of like now we're cutting down probably to like 35, I start running that order by people, whether it's a lot of those same people, whether it's officials with the Diamondbacks, whether it's scouts, whether it's some

my colleagues who are working on other lists and I'm just like hey what do you think about this is this this guy too high this guy too low who needs to move something like that and then then from there I walk in my order so I think then I start writing the scouting reports and then as you're writing those blurbs you realize you're like oh actually as I kind of combine on my notes and start writing this I like this guy more than I thought instead of 15 he's now 11. You start writing something and you realize, oh, a lot of people were kind of down on this curveball. Maybe let's drop this pitcher to three spots. So the order itself is always tinkering right up until pretty much right up until you release it.

And then that's kind of how that's compiled. As far as you mentioned how many other cooks in the kitchen, we have me, Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis and Sam Dykstra at Pipeline. We each manage a couple different teams. I've got the Diamondbacks and the Padres. Jim and Jonathan have like 10 each. Sam does like eight. What we do is we combine.

We each do our own lists, our own top 30. We combine and do everything and work on the top 100 as a collaborative effort. And that comes out first. In the Diamondbacks case, that put in my first four pitchers, or first four players. So that order was set. But as far as the list itself, like I run it by them because they know different scouts

and they know different people. So I'm like, hey, I think I've got the dime Vex list set. Can you run it through your people and stuff like that? But otherwise, the DVX list is just me. The A's list is just Jonathan, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah. That's so interesting. It really is because, again, I would think that they're not, it's not to say that your judgment, because of all the work that you do, obviously, is it's the reason why you guys are in charge of doing this kind of stuff. But, you know, like, I feel like everybody is a critic in a way, right? So I feel like there would be a lot more input coming from outside perspectives.

But it's good to know it's more of the input that you want versus input kind of being forced upon you. Yeah, yeah. And that's why we try and get as many people as we can because if I only talk to the Diamondbacks farm director or something, then, then, you know, A, everyone's good or B, maybe they want to hide someone because they want to leave them off the 40 man or something. So, like, keep his name out. But, like, you could do certain stuff, but that's why we try and get, we try and talk to farm directors from multiple teams. We try and talk to scouts from multiple teams and just everyone we can to kind of counterbalance some of that stuff. Because some of these, some of these players are in the

fall league or maybe in the draft process i've personally seen so i've got that some of them you've got people who have only played in the dsl and i've never been to the dominican like i sure yeah some of them you're really trusting the scouting report some it's like that scouting report matches what i saw in fall league so let's go i'm i'm curious william how does someone like get in to doing the top 30 list I mean, this seems like basically an impossible job. I mean, let's face it here. I mean, Derek mentioned it earlier. You're essentially predicting the future.

And I can speak as someone who loves baseball and has for a number of years. These lists mean a lot. Like when we're thinking about when we're thinking and I think so many fans referenced these lists as well, these lists are a big part of how fans understand where their team is at going into the future. Right. And so I'm curious. How did you get into this in the first place? Do you have a background in scouting or how exactly is one qualified to try to predict the future and rank all these names like you do?

I kind of stumbled into it, to be honest. I was working for MLB.com as just a general assignment reporter. And I'm talking like 2014, 2015. And at the end of the year, at the end of October or at the end of September, whenever it was, they said, hey, we know you're in Arizona. You're kind of a general, what, general reporter. Do you want to come cover the fall league for us? At that time, I'm 22, 23, whatever. I frankly didn't know what the fall league was, but I was like, sure, more baseball.

And, you know, it's my job. Let's go do it. Cover the fall league and do all that. And then the next year, I start seeing some of those players compete for rookie of the year awards and, like, play, you know, in the majors. And I was like, whoa, that's really cool. I already know who this guy is because I saw him six months ago. And none of you guys did. Yeah, right.

So then, like, that was cool. And then I started doing, I started covering the following on a year basis. I started doing more stuff with pipeline. And then eventually I shifted full over to pipeline. and then a couple years of doing pipeline coverage of just features and features in generic pipeline coverage last year finally my boss was like hey do you want to do a couple of lists like you've done enough pipeline stuff at this point you've met enough industry sources and everything like that so do you want a couple lists and took over the

list last year and then now I did list last year and this year that's awesome and I need to get your thoughts on, especially since you're, you know, focused on the Diamondbacks and you're here. And that, by the way, that, that seems like a perfect thing for someone in Arizona to do, right? Because we talk about Arizona being like this baseball utopia, this baseball Nirvana, we have it all year round. We have Cactus League. We have the Fall League. You just, you can get so much baseball, but especially if you're interested in the future of the game, you get to see so much of it here, like you said, before a lot of people do. Yeah, exactly. It's the fall league, which obviously higher level. You've got the complex league for the lower level guys right out of the draft. You know, extended spring training if you want. Like there's so much, even though there's no AAA or double A or traditional like minor league team here, there are a lot of levels of baseball throughout the year where you can really get, you can really get glimpses of a lot of people at various stages of their career and various stages. Yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. So I got to get your thoughts on the, on the, on the

Deabax farm system, both overall and who kind of, well, we know who stands out to you, but, you know, maybe who you might have, might have been a bit surprised by as a standout or who someone kind of emerged recently as far as you're concerned. Yeah. So a state of the Diamondbacks farm system, it's definitely improving. We are doing our farm system rankings, ranking all farm systems one to 30 this coming week on pipeline and we're releasing them in reverse order. And I'm not going to give it too much away, but I will say Diamondbacks fans don't necessarily have to refresh our website on Tuesday and Wednesday. All right.

All right. I like the sound of that. Yeah. So, yeah, you wait a little bit. So the farm system is a good shape. What I think is interesting about this farm system is when I was doing it, they were a lot of 2022 ETAs. I think I have 14.

So that's a sign that A, you've got a lot of little high level guys. And part of that is because of, frankly, we're in the major league roster's at. But I think that's exciting. It means the rebuild is honest, you know, we're getting closer to the next level and the next stages and some of those people.

I think there were a lot of interesting names on this list. I think Brandon Fatt is someone that really really stood out when I was getting reports on people. I got him at number 10. He was a fifth round draft pick and people like, yeah, he probably should have gone higher in the draft. A diamond back.

So we really got a steal on that one. So he was someone that was definitely intriguing. I think the most interesting name on this list and the hardest one to rank was Christian Robinson. We kind of know the story there. He hasn't played in two years. His skills when he played really good. there was a reason he was number two on our top 30 list.

So he was a tricky one where it's like, what do you do with the rust factor? He wasn't hurt. So, you know, that's a good sign, but he hasn't played. And he's someone that if he does play to those tools, then all of a sudden,

then he shouldn't be, I think, I'm 12 or 13. If he plays the way he was before, he shouldn't be 12 or 13. He should be much higher. It's just a matter of seeing if he does that. So if he does that,

that's all of a sudden. Yeah. So if he plays a way of him, those tools all of a sudden we've got maybe someone who is a top 100 talent and add another top 100 name to this farm system, boom. Like that could be a huge jump. I agree. We've talked about him a bit and we've been kind of a bit lost on him. We didn't know when everything was going to be, get figured out. Then we saw reports that it was, but then we didn't know how that was going to impact him, you know, showing up to camp, being in the minor league system.

I have seen him quite a bit out at Swalt Riverfield. it's a very good sign to see him out there that much. And like you said, he looks, he looks great. He looks like he's in great physical condition. So that's a good sign if, you know, all the, all the other things are there and where he was at a few years ago before all of this, you know, kind of complicated issues arose, then, you know, he really could be a big, big factor for this team, not only in the minor leagues, but very soon in the majors as well.

Yeah. I was going to say, when we re-rank in the mid-season, if he's, you know, he's, played the way it is and he's now the number two prospect I wouldn't be shocked if the rest has been too much and he's now dropped to 28 I don't think I would necessarily be shocked it would be disappointing but it like you know two years off is a lot of time I think the cool thing for him is that he's still only 21 years old the fact that he was such on such a fast track and was moving through the system so young has kind of now helped like not that anyone can afford

to lose two years or the losing two years is great, but it's like, okay, you were young and now you're the right age. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Baseball's so weird like that. And that's kind of the biggest problem sometimes is like younger guys kind of have to wait till they're of a certain age, of a certain ripeness for them to really be a major league player, unlike other sports, where, you know, some kid could be, you know, 20 years old and be a phenom

and be playing at the pro level versus, you know, baseball. Jesse, go ahead. yeah i'm curious william do you so i don't know how you're how much you're allowed to to pull back the curtain here for us but i'm i'm curious you know you mentioned some guys you're writing the report and then you realize oh i actually you know want to move this guy up a few spots i like him more than you know maybe i i realized at the outset are you able to give us any any of those names of any guys who the more you learned about them you were like wow this guy really is you know deserves to be uh pretty high up on this

list. Let me scroll through this list and try and see if, oh, okay, well, we have him at four, so it's not like he was super low, but Blake Walston is someone who initially wasn't on our top 100, and then we started getting feedback. So me doing the Diamondbacks list and then everyone else doing their top 100 feedback, I think he's now 98 or 99 on the top 100. But he was someone who was in, I think my initial 125, he was like 115, 120, somewhere in there. So he was someone that moved up into the top 100. And by default, he went from probably six-ish to four on the devax list. Brandon Fat is another one who I moved up when I started getting reports on him and how he was looking.

And then toward the back end, Levi, I was one who jumped up a couple of slots too. I started getting reports on him that he was in better shape this year and that his curve, both his curveball and his slider had a more break than they'd shown in the past and that they were breaking, that they were separating more. Because previously he had two breaking balls, but they kind of ran together as one pitch. Once he started getting these reports that they were splitting, I bumped him a couple of slots. This seems like a difficult task to me.

It feels like you literally predicting the future. And I know you're like on one hand, no one's expecting you to relatively do that. I feel like you're providing the information and giving us, you know, that that aren't familiar with a lot of these guys, the best roadmap, the best information that we can give. But is it ever a bit daunting or have you kind of already put that past you as far as trying to actually like predict anything about anybody's future or where these guys are going to be within these organizations? both you have to know that as soon as you release the list that 90% of your reports are wrong based on the Twitter sphere and you know everyone could do it better sure when they say that everyone's too low and you're like well you do need 30 names you really yeah someone's got to yeah right like okay so who moves down then like that all these people are too low or all these people

are too high and it's like well who should replace them there's never an answer I'm okay um but yeah it is daunting. I think I think what's tough is the way the minors work. I mean, there's someone who is just spent three years at the University of Miami and then there's a 16-year-old in Dominican and now I have to compare them. And that's not, that's the nature that's still this. That's not fair to either of them. Yeah. They're totally different stages of their baseball career, their life, their maturity, like, just everything's different. friend. You have to be like, you know, well, this one's slightly better than, so like, part of that's daunting is just looking at looking at stuff like that. And then like on that note, like looking at

stats, like how do you compare AAA stats versus someone's high school stats versus Dominican stats versus pitching in the SEC? Like part of this, you got to try and kind of be like, okay, what's the best way to do this? This kid's been pitching against or batting against high school pitchers, as well, as this one's been like in an actual like league and you know yeah no and i mean and like you said i think the biggest thing the biggest misconception is some people feel like it's like a ranking of how close they are to being in in the league or something of the sort and that's not the case because sometimes like you know with with the diamondbacks some of their top prospects aren't close uh but others are very

close right like that's that's how the diamondbacks you know system is right now they have some really good guys, but they're kind of all over the place as far as their development goes. Yeah, there's always, there is always a little bit of comfort in ranking guys that are in like double and AAA. Yeah. Because obviously the higher they are, the less variance. You're like, if this guy spent all last year in AAA, maybe he won't be as good as I think, but at least he'll probably make the major.

So I don't look like totally out of the field. Sure. Well, at least he got there. That was something. Versus sometimes when you're ranking at least 16 years. old. I'm like, I need him to still go to single A, double A, AAA, and get the majors before I'm right on my report. Yeah, no, that makes all the sense in the world. And how hard is it to factor in Reno?

It, like, I feel like Reno always makes these guys look good offensively. And that I feel for you, like, is kind of a misleading AAA city for these guys to be coming through. Yeah, I think that's where you trust, A, you've got to lean on. the reports that you have and other scouts and then b you kind of look at what they did in the lower levels or different levels if some guy through his career is it 15 homers 15 homers 15 homers 35 yeah like you're okay you're a 15 I know what he's it um yeah yeah so I think I think that's where you factor in kind of the other stuff and you figure it out maybe you look at the home road splits and be like what are you what are you doing at the other places last thing

Last thing for me here, William, you mentioned you also do the Padres list. And I know you love, you know, you specialize in future, predicting the future and ranking all things. So how does the Diamondbacks farm system compare to the Padres in your mind moving forward? The Diamondbacks one's better right now. The Padres one, the Padres used to have the best farm system in baseball. Some guys graduated. Yeah. They pulled off some big trades, which thinned their system, which, I mean, that's the

point of it. You got to improve your major league team somehow. So there's this dipped. Their list is really intriguing. I think I've got 14 or 15 international signs on it. And I think like, I think like 12 or 13 people on their list have an ETA of 20, 25. So there's a lot of high ceiling, low floor on that list. So we're going to kind of have to see.

what falls in the middle, what sticks, what doesn't. Their list has a lot of interesting pieces, but it doesn't have a lot of pieces in like AAA, where you know they're going to be in the majors. Well, that's good to hear. We'll beat them in some way. That's all I can say. William, we thank you so much for joining us, man.

And we look forward to having you back. Maybe we can talk about the re-ranking and how this season progresses, especially with these diamondbacks committing to some of these young guys, it's going to be interesting to see which one. make the team and how soon that happens. Yeah, definitely. Always happy to join you guys and had a good time being here tonight. Excellent, man.

Thank you so much. We appreciate you. We promise not to scrutinize your work very much. Not too much. We'll make it reasonable. There you go. All right, man. I'll talk to you later.

Thank you so much. Oh, right. Well, that's always fun. That's fantastic. And, like, he's a great guy to sit next to in the press box and I'm very happy to get some insight on that. I find that to be really interesting. And honestly, I mean, we take a fair share, our fair share amount of criticism just for doing

this show. I can only imagine the criticism of that, considering that so many people like you said take it so seriously. It impacts careers. Some teams probably weigh pretty heavily on it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he literally, he literally mentioned in there, right?

Like some got, sometimes the, you know, the team farm director doesn't want the you know so and so on the top 30 list because they don't want to put them on the 40 man they don't want to be you know be claimed in the rule five draft or whatever or what whatnot so there's a there's a lot hanging on on these lists and at times derrick in the past i've i've contemplated trying to make my own you know maybe i should start putting out a top 30 or top 25 list year after year and i'm just scared like i just think the moment that you put your put yourself out there trying to like he said i mean none of these are apples to apples comparisons right i mean christian robinson came over it's such a crazy thing to

think about but it's something i really did yeah about like literally trying to compare guys in the dominican league that you've never even actually seen you might not even be able to see footage of you're just listing the scouts and you're just getting feedback from stuff versus some guy that's almost ready to play at a major league level and you're supposed to to like factor in how good this 16 year old is going to be one day based on projections and and feedback from coaches and scouts like it's crazy it is it is absolutely impossible and i think one of the i'm pretty sure we we did this a few months back you remember the show when we looked at the diamondbacks top 10 prospects from like 2014 or something and and of course inevitably i mean it

looks ridiculous in hindsight. And, you know, I mean, what William is doing is an impossible job. As we've said, he's literally trying to predict the future. And we salute him for it. We salute him for it. There's loads of entertainment value. I've spent a distressing amount of time over the last decade or so, just, you know, staring at the Diamondbacks top 30 list, clicking through all of these different reports

that people like William have written. And they're informative, you know, even if they're not, you know you're not going to get everyone right there's going to be some guys who are better than you expect and there's going to be some guys who fall off that's the nature of the sport but there's a lot of valuable information to be had with lists like these well jesse is going to uh that means jesse's going to uh that means you'll get that over at go p hnx.com so if you're not a member yet go sign up to become a member and just sit there and wait for jesse i'm just going to i'm just going to take william's list and just you know swap two guys yeah move like 30 guys you guys you're like yeah you guys guys around and then change the words yep exactly thanks again William uh but again uh you'll get that that that uh well what should we say uh that that bill that william slash jesse article over at go p hnx.com sign up to become a member if you're not a member already get that annual membership uh and you will get a free t-shirt over at the phnx locker dot com annual membership will cost you $60 if you're not interested in the annual membership

and get through month-to-month options, and you will get your first month for just 50 cents. So no matter what way you go, we just want you to join us over here for the best sports coverage in the valley, in-depth features, film breakdown, exclusive videos, special discounts, and the most engaging discussion.

We want you to become part of the PHNX family, and do so becoming a member over at go-PHNX.com now. Jesse, so we talked about it yesterday. We're going to talk about it more tomorrow. We're going to really get in-depth, with it, but Ketel Marte's extension is official official. And we have some more details on it. Of course, like you said, it adds three years to the two years of options that,

club options that were left on his contract, thus making those guaranteed and no longer club option years. And the entire five years now is guaranteed, right? No, with no more options as far as team or player. So, yeah. So it's, it guarantees the two club options. options. It guarantees 2025 through 2027. And then now we have some more specifics on a club option for 2028, which is a club option for 13 million with a buyout for 3 million. So this deal could,

yeah, this deal has the potential to Keith Cattell here actually through his age 34 season, right before he turns 35 in 2028. So this is, but I mean, it's only 13 million dollars. So you feel, you know, this isn't like your betting line. I was like, this is a great contract for the D-backs, to be honest, like in all way, shape, or form. And to be honest, $3 million buyout, if he's worth way more money than $13 million at that point, it might as well be worth for him to potentially buy out that $3 million if the diamond. Well, that's a buyout that Diamondbacks would have to pay if they decide not to bring him back.

Oh, if they decided not to, oh. Yeah, so he would just make $3 million. That's a great deal for the. Diamondbacks, to be honest, because he, you know, hopefully he is that good and he's still that good at that point. So far, it looks like it. This guy needs to be the face of this team, right? I mean, Catelle-Marte by far needs to be the guy that now, especially being here for five, six years, potentially, the diamondbacks need to, I want all the Ctele-Marté stuff. And I mean, it's not to say like he hasn't already been a superstar or looked like a superstar for this team, but let's get some.

marketing behind him. Like, I know, yeah, yeah, again, I think the Diamondbacks at times don't realize how, like, are Hispanic population and how many Diamondbacks fans are Hispanic, like, even if Citell-Marté isn't that comfortable doing English, I would have him out there speaking Spanish and doing commercials and doing everything. Like, Tate would, should by far be in the same level of Fernando Tatees and all these other guys that are kind of superstars. Youngstores. Youngst, superstars for their individual teams. But the Diamondbacks weren't done just there with Catell. And that's kind of fun, right?

The Debacks acquired infielder, Sergio Alcantara from the Cubs for Cash Considerations. And they answered our question from yesterday, Jesse, which is, what are we going to do with Josh Van Meter? And that's designate him for assignment because that's what the Diamondbacks have. They DFA'd Josh Van Meter. That one hurts a little bit just because he felt like he was growing, ever since that trade brought him here. He felt like he was growing a bigger role with this team, more and more part of, like, the debacks kind of family.

They had him doing, what was it, the gritty over on the Twitter account the other day, and now he's DFA. That's, that's even like, that's just, that's just rubbing salt in an open wound. But Sergio Alcantara, is there any surprise there with Van Meter or any concern that the Diamondbacks are acquiring, like, Cubs cast off after, downseason for that franchise? Well, it's interesting. So Sergio Alcantara, a lot of people probably forgot, and I frankly didn't necessarily

recognize the name at first glance either. But the Diamondbacks actually sent Sergio Alcantara to the Detroit Tigers in the J.D. Martinez trade back in 2017. So Alcantara was actually in this organization not that long ago. And as you mentioned, he played for the Cubs last year. the offensive numbers aren't going to certainly aren't going to jump off the page he's he's a pretty pretty light in terms of the offense but he's a great shortstop and that was clearly the motivator in this deal the diamond backs um basically basically derrick josh van meter just didn't really have a

clear role on this team he plays primarily second base that's really where you want him potentially a corner outfield spot but the diamondbacks have so much depth at both of those positions already that it just it was going to be hard to find playing time for Josh Van Meter. And Sergio Alcantara, on the other hand, you know, don't get me wrong. Sergio Alcantara is not going to come over here and at 30 home runs. I mean, he's not, you know, he's not, he's not an everyday starting shortstop, you know, future of the franchise type of a guy most likely. But he's a very competent defensive shortstop.

If you look at the defensive metrics, they're very positive across the board for his defensive shortstop. And I think what this might mean, Derek, unfortunately, is it might mean the Diamondbacks are a little concerned about Nick Ahmed's shoulder and that whole situation. Because I don't know if you feel the need to go get another major league ready shortstop when you already have Geraldo Pernomo and you already have Nick Ahmed. I mean, they were kind of covered at that position. But if Nick Ahmed suddenly is hurt, then you don't really have a clear back-up shortstop option. Josh Van Meter wasn't going to do that. Josh Rojas can play shortstop, but he's not great there.

And so the Diamondbacks are emphasizing defense this year. And so Sergio Alcantara is a great defender, and I think that's why he's here now. Well, the Diamondbacks don't have much time until the regular season is here, and they have to have their guys ready. As far as things lining up, this show is on Tuesday. They have one, what, nine days essentially until opening day. I think eight more games in that time span. So it's going to be interesting to see how things shape up in regards to the lineup.

There was a lot of talk to Nick Ahmed today about his shoulder. Didn't really give any clear answers or anything that's concerning. But at the same time, too. It's a little weird, though. It's a little weird. It's like it seems like an injury that doesn't have a clear. cause but isn't really resolving, which is not necessarily great news either. So, well, like, I have an injury right now.

I'm sporting for my birthday weekend, Jesse. And that was that my friends took me to a strip club and a stripper. She hit me with some guy's cowboy belt buckle and my back is killing me. So I know the cause of that injury. I know why it's there. And I know, what I don't know is how long I'm going to be on the shelf for. That's what I don't know. I don't know how long this injury, this debilitating back injury.

that I've sustained is going to be. I know a lot of that just kind of blew your mind. That might have been a lot for you to take in all at once, and I'm sorry about that. It's just, it's a thing that happened. It's a thing that happened this weekend. But again, Nick Ahmed's injury, probably not from a stripper hitting him with a belt buckle,

but we can't roll that out because we don't know how it happened. So it's speculation at this point still. I think, yeah, it'll be interesting to see where the diamondbacks go from as far as Nick is concerned. I don't know if he's just sort of in limbo right now. Like he's just not someone they can really play in spring training. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him over this next week or so. But yeah, one other detail about Josh Van Meter that is important to understand is that he's

out of minor league options. So I think if the Diamondbacks could just send him to AAA, this would be a much easier situation. As you said before, he's a valuable player. I still think Josh Van Meter has some potential in this league. It's just the Diamondbacks just don't have a spot for him right now. And, you know, he's the type of guy who hopefully should get some playing time and get some opportunity wherever he winds up.

So it's possible that he clears waivers and the Diamondbacks are able to retain him moving forward. It's possible they trade him. They have seven days to do one of those things, either trade him or put him on waivers. So we'll just have to see what happens. And fantastic job, no selling my story for my birthday weekend, Jesse. You just ignored all of that, all of that and just went on about your business. I'm proud of you.

Appreciate it. By the way, you guys can do whatever you want over it at the, don't listen to Jesse. You do what you want over at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app right now. New customers can use our code of PHNX. Get down on the college basketball action now that things are wrapping up and we're almost to the big finale. you can bet $5 on any team to win and get $200 in free bets if they do. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

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do. If they win, you win with promo code PHNX this week at Draft King's Sportsbook. 21 and over only, Arizona only gambling problem, dial 100 next step. New customers only minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And Jesse, one more little tidbit that we haven't covered yet. It happened over the weekend, or actually happened last night, I believe. Albert Pujols is going back to the St. Louis Cardinals. and that's kind of a really such a lovely, such a happy ending for it is, right? I mean, not to mention the fact that you couldn't call his

time away, at least with the Dodgers, the Angels, that's a whole other thing, but his time with the Dodgers was somewhat of a fun story as well, a fun chapter. He was productive for that team, so it wasn't like he was just there being. He was sort of productive. Sort of productive. There's the memorable moments there. It was productive when they played the Diamondbacks, that's for sure.

He was productive. Albert Poole also at this point, I think you probably only want him batting against lefties. And I don't think the Cardinals ever would have done this if the DH didn't come to the National League. But given that the H is here. You're also, we could also assume here a bit because it's a one-year deal that his retirement is eminent at the end of the season. So I don't know if the DH would have played a factor as much as like maybe just bringing him back again to do the tip of the cap and all that. who knows like they're still paying him real money and he still needs to actually contribute to the team so i'm not acting like this is just like a mayoral kind of thing i'm familiar with those but what's more exciting about this is this means melina pooholson

waynewright could all retire together as cardinals that's kind of fun that would be that would be pretty cool yeah right and i mean again just kind of a happy story cardinals that the fan base the organization that city they just love baseball so much so it's it's it's it's it's a a fun wrap-up for somebody who's had as historic of a career as someone like Big Al. But I have to wonder, Jesse, will we ever get this with Paul Goldschmidt? Will he ever come back to us? Will we ever just a half season, a season, anything we can get just to have him here for one last for one last media session where he tells everybody he's just going out there and trying to

hit the ball hard? Just one more time. That's tough. Yeah, I mean, Paul Goldsmith was obviously big here. I mean, he was really the face of this franchise for a number of years. I don't know if he is quite to the, I don't know if Paul Goldsmith himself feels the kind of connection to Arizona that Albert Pujols does to St. Louis.

I agree. I agree with that. He just loved that franchise. And not to say that Paul Goldsmith didn't, but I don't think Paul Gouldman. It's just different. the same yeah i mean the the diamond backs traded paul goldsmith before his contract was over and and you know i mean the reason for making that deal was they didn't really want to pay him to bring him back and i mean i guess you could say the same for for the cardinals and that you know they let him get away

to the angels but but the angels sign up for pools to an absolutely absurd contract you really can't blame the Cardinals for just making a wise decision there. So I would be kind of surprised if we see Goldie back in Arizona, but that would be a fun story for DeVax fans as well. You're always crushing my hope. You're always crushing my spirit. Yeah. Well, you know, it's trying to be realistic here, Derek.

I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be. I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic is what I'm trying to be, Jesse. That's what I'm trying to be. I don't feel like I think the same out of you. I don't feel like that. I think the, I mean, the Diamondbacks are one out of 30 teams there. So to bet on a player returning to one particular team to finish their career, your odds of that are never going to be particularly high.

So, but anyway, I'm going to stop talking. You're just like everything you're saying, it's like when the girl just kept not switching up her grip and just hit me with the belt buckle over again, it's making me sad. But you guys can tell Jesse not to make me sad. He barely wished me happy birthday. But you can get him on Twitter at Jesse N. Friedman. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K.

But of course, our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, and it is the premier leader in spring training coverage for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Aside from that, though, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us if you haven't done so already. Leave us a five-star review. Also go to YouTube and subscribe to the PHNX Sports channel over there

and sign up for notification. so that way you don't miss any of the content, not only from us, but from all of the staff over here at PHNX. We have an amazing staff. We're growing every day, and I'm excited for everything everybody's doing. We thank you guys again so much for checking out the show. We look forward to seeing you out at spring training, and on behalf of Jesse and myself, we thank you so much for listening. Remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't actually get hit with the buckle part of the belt.