PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Carson Kelly be the Arizona Diamondbacks starting catcher in 2023?

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

As the Arizona Diamondbacks continue to add positional depth, are the roles for veterans like Carson Kelly going to change in 2023? Also, it may be harder to watch MLB games next season as MLB Network fails to reach a new deal with YouTube TV.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY),If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/ NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN OH/ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Free bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as free bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded.  See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballlterms. No Sweat: Valid 1 per customer. NBA same game parlay bets only. Min 3-leg. First bet after opting-in must lose. Paid as one Free Bet Token based on amount of initial losing bet. Max. wagering limits apply. Free Bets expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Ends at the start of the final NBA game each day when offered prior to 2/16/23 @ 10PM ET. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballterms  OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Last Wednesday’s are back! Join our PHNX crew at the 8th Street Pub on January 25th as all of our shows are live and in-person throughout the day. Enjoy $3 beer specials and come say hi to us. Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNX_SPORTS15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comChitown Cornhole: Check out Chitown Cornhole at http://chitowncornhole.com and make sure to follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chitowncustomcornholeboards/Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. Order by February 8th for guaranteed shipping in time for Valentine’s Day.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of this ship. Captain, mayor. I don't know. He's the vice mayor of the ship and first mate. Also a thunder stick. One only, Justin Friedman.

What are you wearing? This is in honor of Black History Month. I'm wearing a tremendous hoodie from my friend Big E. He has a cartoon series called Our Heroes Rock that's coming out. and a lot of the characters featured on here are important historical figures in black community. Like Lorraine Hansberry is the playwright that wrote Raisin in the Sun. I don't know what that is. Yeah, see, like, there tends to be important figures that a lot of people know,

but then there are stories that don't really get told well. So they have a cartoon coming out soon about that, and I'm proud to support it. That's the most substantive answer I've ever received when asking what you were aware. Yeah, well, I know you really wanted your normal nonsensical stuff, but this is, it's Black History Month, Jesse. Every month on this show's Black History Month, just like every week of Shark Week and every day is Earth Day. What does that mean? It means give people their flowers now. Don't wait until a special day or month to celebrate it. Give people their flowers when they deserve it at any and all times. Don't wait for someone's birthday to tell them you love them. Tell them, tell them you love them now. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King's Sportsbook app, America's top rated sportsbook app. And unfortunately, it might be getting a little harder to watch Major League Baseball games going forward into 2023, even though streaming services and things are kind of expanding sports and making it easier to watch them on the go or wherever you're at. Or if you're a cord cutter, you can still get your sports. But YouTube TV is dropping MLB Network from its basic plan because the two sides couldn't reach an agreement.

This seems, I don't know, a little silly because I don't feel like MLB Network really moves the needle that much. But they do have games that people could watch. And if you're a YouTube TV subscriber, I'm sure this isn't great news for you if you're a baseball fan. Yeah, I mean, I think in order to want MLB Network, you really do have to be kind of a diehard baseball fan. I don't know if it has, you know, incredible mass appeal. Similar with, you know, like NBA TV. I was going to say NFL Network. I mean, I don't know.

I know a lot of people like NFL, but I'm not, I don't know when the last time I tuned in the NFL network. You have to be a pretty crazy diehard in order to tune into those networks. So I don't think this is necessarily. a huge deal. Personally, I, of course, wanted to make sure that my streaming service had MLB Network, but I cover baseball for a living. It's a little bit more important for me than maybe it is for the average person. And I will also say that in the off-season MLB Network, you're not going to find a lot of

live programming. You're going to find a lot of, you know, playing Major League 10 times over in the off-season, right? Which I've now seen that movie and now utterly respect that, of course. But yeah, in the off season, there's not necessarily a whole lot of content there. During the season, it is a lot of fun to watch. Well, we've seen the different ways that baseball is trying to move into other, you know, kind of subscription services.

Apple TV had a few games that people were up in arms about last year. Very up in arms. Even though it was free, you didn't even have to be an Apple TV subscriber in order to watch those. This just comes out of time where things are getting, like, it feels like watching MLB is getting on thin ice, right? because we have this thing with the regional sports networks with the Diamond Sports Group pending bankruptcy, which is supposed to happen this month. It's like weird. It's like they have to miss a payment and then they go.

It's like we're waiting for them essentially to miss their next payment of money owed. But I mean, in this time isn't great. We think that obviously regional sports networks aren't going anywhere and we know that this will probably be resolved. But it kind of feels like ballet sports was doomed from the beginning. It's starting to feel like it just a little bit. There's some warning signs that we've seen now, now that information has come out about this television deal. First of all, the first warning sign was that Sinclair Broadcasting

purposefully created the Diamond Sports Group simply to purchase this deal from Disney, to purchase the Fox Sports Network Network channels, the regional sports network channels from Disney. That right there is a red flag, like when you needed to kind of make a new company under your umbrella so that you could stay arm's length away from the situation should it go bad. But I feel like to me the other red flag is Disney selling Fox Sports Network at all, right?

They acquired 21st Century Fox. They get the Fox Sports Networks as part of that package and then part of it is that they're going to sell that portion off. But Disney owns ESPN. Disney could have easily had ESPN, ESPN, Arizona, ESPN, Milwaukee, ESPN, wherever these Valley Sports Regional Network. are ESPN could have been the name of those networks and it could have just been a ESPN regional local and honestly Disney could have kind of revived ESPN as being a name that you think of when you want to watch sports. I don't really know outside of Monday night football or a couple of other instances where I really think about tuning into ESPN to actually watch a game. This could have

changed that right and I mean potentially right so why wouldn't Disney do that because they saw what a goddamn debt cluster fuck that Fox Sports Networks was in. They were in a debt and it wasn't working. And honestly, that was before unforeseen circumstances and variables came into play like the pandemic and, you know, Valley Sports. Yeah, that was a big factor for sure. Right. You know, the debt obviously is something that Sinclair took on, but more importantly now, Sinclair didn't have the money to purchase these Fox Sports Networks outright. So they financed a great portion. of the 10 billion plus that they purchased it for.

They financed $8.2 billion of it, right? So it just, this is the reason why they're kind of in the situation it is. And the wildest part is it really feels like they kind of knew that this was a potential, you know, huge risk taking on these regional sports networks like this. Yeah. I mean, as someone who just financed a significant amount of money in order to buy a house. Right. The amount of money I financed by a house feels like a ton of money to me.

It's suffocating. But it's kind of comforting to know that the Sinclair Broadcasting Group took out a loan of $8.2 billion. That's another level. It's another level of financing. And the payment that you mentioned earlier that they're missing in February is for $140 million. Oh, my God. So, yeah, I wonder if that would fly with my mortgage. Like, could I just miss a payment of $140 million?

$40 million. I could buy a nice house if I could miss the payment that big. My God. I mean, let's not forget the difference between one million seconds and one billion seconds is 12 days to 31 years. That's so much money that they took out. 8.4 billion. It's an insane amount of money.

One thing that is important to note, and a lot of what we'll talk about here is from a new article from Fangraphs, which is very well done, kind of lays out a lot of this information. Yeah. The author on this is Ben Clemens. He did a really outstanding job just kind of laying this all out there in a way that's maybe a little bit more understandable than some of the more businessy websites out there that are writing about this. But something that's important to understand is that apparently the business model behind Diamond Sports

Group and the Bally Sports Network of regional sports networks that carry so many games across America, the business model in theory works. The amount of money that teams are paying in order to have these games broadcast and the of money that they spend, right, the amount of money that the ballet sports, these ballet sports networks are spending, it actually works. The math works. The problem is that when this purchase was initially made a few years ago, as you talked about, they financed so much money of that, that upfront purchase price was $10.6 billion. There was a billion put up by investors. There was $1.4 billion put up by Sinclair itself. They financed the other $8.2. So,

that's a lot of financing and it's a lot of money in interest that they're that they're losing. And so the problem was not like, oh, the amount of money that we're getting from teams isn't enough to cover our expenses. The problem is we can't, we can't make these crazy interest payments on this absurd upfront cost that we paid. And so that's why there's still some hope for the future with this business model. That's it. It's absolutely not. It's more of the way that they structured it and the financial debt that they're in more than the fact that this isn't making money. They purchased this on the idea that this, you know, revenue was going to be on an upward trajectory over the next 20 years. Yeah. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and poor

performing ad revenue, they don't have the amount of money. A matter of fact, they've lost $1.5 billion so far, billion once again with a B. And like to just like what Jesse was saying about a house. The best way you can compare this is to buy a house that you can't really afford, right, or even come close to affording. You don't even have a good enough payment for a down payment on it. You maybe can put down 5% and then you're going to finance the rest. However, even then, the payments are too high for you to do your traditional 30-year mortgage that's interest and principal. Now, you're trying to get yourself into something that they had at one time for mortgages, like an interest-only mortgage where for 10 years, all you're paying as your monthly

payment is the interest and not a dime towards principal. And at the end of the 10 years, a balloon payment comes due. And now you owe your entire mortgage or you have to refinance it at that point. The idea of doing that, much like with what Sinclair did with this purchase, is that down the road, you're going to be in a better financial position than you are now. Down the road in 10 years, you're going to be able to afford that interest and principal payment once you have to kind of refinance it. But they don't. They can't. You know, the performance of the networks have, hasn't improved their financial position enough for it to look like they can get themselves out of the mess that they're in, essentially.

The metaphor from the Fangraph's article was perfect from Ben Clemens. He said, if you have a carwatch business that makes $1,000 of a profit each year and business declines by 50%, you're still making $500 in profit. But if you owe $530 in interest payments every year, thanks to some debt you took out on that business, now you're suddenly in the red $30 because your business is only making $500. So you just prayer that with everything that they've kind of put in. DSG's parent company Sinclair put in roughly $2.5 billion and got back $1 billion. So they took a $1.5 billion loss.

And like here's the other thing to me. And this is something that has kind of been fascinating to me since the beginning, the Bali name. Yeah. Right? Like Valley is a casino company basically. Now it is, but it originally started like in my childhood of. being a company that made pinball machines. They made like very, very popular pinball machines in the 70s and 80s.

I believe they eventually became midway games that makes stuff like rampage and Mortal Kombat and stuff eventually. Like that kind of made it so wild. Right. But then now they now they are basically people perceive Valley now as being in the business of carrying like regional sports games. Right. When they don't it's literally just naming rights that they are paying they're paying

sinclair. They're paying to put their in. to put their name on. Right. Exactly. Which is wild because here's the thing. If you want something to be popular, you want to connect it with a brand that people see positively. And I'm not saying that gamblers or people that go to casinos or hotels or travel or whatever might not see the 18 hotels and casinos across the country that Bali has in a popular mindset.

But if you are over 35 years old, chances are at one point you had your fucking credit ruined by a company called Bally Total Fitness. You remember Balli Total Fitness. They had us come in for that free day of working out. And the next thing you know, you're in a fucking room with some guy named Bingham who wants to like basically get you to sign your life away on a two-year contract to coming and working out at a place that you know you have no intention on coming to work out every day. And of course, that's the part that blows my mind back is like that the Bali name is something that has a positive enough, like established, you know, name that you would want that.

to be connected to your sports company. Most people are just confused, honestly. I don't think the majority of sports fans understand what Bally actually is and that they're just paying for the rights to have their name on all these sports networks. What would be a better brand in your mind? A better. Like the idea, what's the ideal brand to put on? Going back earlier, I think if they were ESPN networks like that right there is something that, again, the. Okay, okay.

Fair enough. But what if. Like a corporation that wanted to slap its name on it? laugh its name on it. Yeah. Taco Bell Sports, Arizona. Yeah, I'm okay with that. I'm okay.

Uber Lyft, maybe one of those companies. I don't know. The Uber Sports Network, that sounds kind of cool right there. I don't know. That's a good question. I think that once you start getting into that, I will say Bali, because, like you said, the confusion, it makes it sound right, right?

Like, Valley Sports doesn't necessarily sound like it is the same as the Coca-Cola sports network that you know is obviously some sort of sponsor name being slapped on to, you know, the network. And I think it limits confusion on people, if it was a different sponsor, figuring out that it's a sports network, right? But it's still really weird to me because of, you know, basically getting paid by a company with, I mean, fairly negative connections, connotations for some people, at least for me, that you wouldn't really want it to have any connection to your regional sports networks. However, money talks in the end, right? So if you can find somebody that's going to pay you the most money to have their name as a part of your company,

I guess it makes sense to allow a company like that to do it more than, like I said, a company that maybe is more recognizable that would cause more confusion. Yeah, I don't know. Someone asks Does YouTube TV offer ballet sports? I guess Lee already responded to that. Yeah, they don't. I believe direct TV stream is the only streaming service right now that offers ballet sports as far as I'm aware. Ryan says PH&X network.

There we go. Yeah, Saul. We got to get Saul in here. We'll figure it out. We've got to have a billion dollars lying around this office somewhere. Easily. I mean, they employ me, Jesse, so obviously they got some money. Anyway, I don't know, but all of this means that I, I just,

just feel like it's getting harder and harder to watch a sport that I grew to love before I even had a team here locally due to the fact that certain teams were broadcast here in the valley all the time, even when we didn't want to watch them. I remember a point where I would turn on WGN and there was a Cubs game on and I was like, oh, God, come on. But I'm just saying the fact that they used to have baseball just so readily available made me love the game. And I mean, that's a big part of it. If you don't see it, then you don't fall in love with it, then you just kind of bypass it. And you don't, you know, I don't know. But baseball needs to get some shit together. Yeah.

I mean, I don't necessarily think that it's likely that, I mean, one thing that could come out of this is that all of the contracts that have been signed with all of the teams, right? The Valley Sports Network has, theoretically those contracts could be ended or they could be renegotiated. or they could be renegotiated after this bankruptcy restructuring that is pretty much inevitable goes through. We don't think those contracts will be ended. Obviously, if they were, that would be... What would the value be in Bali as a network if it doesn't have the regional sports network contracts as a part of it?

Exactly. It's like selling your car without the engine in it. Essentially, essentially. Essentially, yeah, you're not going to try to sell a group of regional sports networks if all the contracts with the teams have been voided. That doesn't make any sense. sense. But you could try to renegotiate with teams. Which would mean less money for the Arizona

Diamondbacks. There could also be delayed delays and payments to the Diamondbacks. I don't know how they receive the funds from Ballets in the situation or Valley, but that's a definite possibility. This bankruptcy could complicate the situation very much so for the Diamondbacks. And I don't think that that really makes it any easier for a team right now that seems to be struggling in other areas financially as well. like attendance and merchandise sales and things like that. Right, right.

It's not something that the Diamondbacks obviously could really afford to have happen, right? Their TV money is really, really important to them. So hopefully it doesn't come to that. But as far as what to expect in the next month or two, basically ballet sports, this entire network of the entire regional sports network will basically be turned over to the creditors who put up all of the money. Fidelity, prudential, companies like that that are the actual debtors or owners of the debt essentially.

And as much as we'd love to see, you know, what a regional sports network run by Fidelity would look like. I think a bunch of like financial gurus could, could, you know, put up a good show. Hey, they already advertise on all of the sports channels. That's true. That's true. So they might as well just take them over. But no, I mean, not good.

It seems like, though, and this is something that Ben said in the article, it seems like the teams that are most likely to be affected are the teams that just signed their contracts within the last few years. The debacks aren't one of them. They didn't sign it that long ago. They signed it back in 2015. But if you look at the amount of money per year that the teams that just signed those deals are making versus what the debacks were making from that deal in 2015, I don't think their deal from 2015 was way overvalued necessarily. The numbers we're seeing now are still a little bit higher than what the debacks got in their TV deal on an annual basis. So I think their deal is probably going to be safe when it's all said and done. I would be somewhat surprised at the end of the day

if the debacks lose a whole bunch of revenue because of this. But you never know. It's it is possible and it's something we're going to have to watch very closely in these next few months. Well, I'll tell you this much. If you don't have some place to watch the Super Bowl from. I have a place for you. And that is Octane Raceway and Mavericks. And honestly, you probably won't even watch the game there. I mean, you could watch the game at Mavericks. They have dozens of 4K TVs, 20-foot Jumbotron that they're going to be busting out for the big game. 5,000 square foot restaurant featuring a chef curated menu, craft beers and custom cocktails. All of that's going to be great. But there's just too much to do. There's too much fun to be had at Mavericks and

Octane Raceway for you to sit around and watch a football game. And yes, we're baseball guys. And yes, we might be throwing some shade right here at football as a sport. But come on, you know what's going to happen. You're going to lose interest halfway through. It's not your team. You're not a chiefs fan. You're not an Eagles fan.

By the way, I don't want to knock any of the hotels here in the Valley. But one of the two teams got the short end of the stick when it came to where they are staying here in the Valley. That's just in my opinion. But that's only because I know. You want to share? No, I want people to just look into it themselves and figure it out. But one of them is much closer to Octane Raceway than the other.

That's what I'm saying. But on Wednesdays, of course, every Wednesday is winning Wednesday, half-price arcade games all day. Saturday and Sunday, they have 50% off signature bowling before noon. So show up early, get your bowling on and then watch the big game. They also have Super Bowl packages with four quarters of food feast, all sorts of craziness. Different food brought to you each quarter. Who doesn't want that? Who doesn't want that?

Well, probably me because I can't eat that much food. Like, I would be done by the first quarter. And then, of course, that's when you go on and play video games and race each other. But enjoy the Super Bowl experience at Mavericks. Book in advance at mavericks.com slash the big game. And also while you're there, whether you're there, whether you're on the go, whether you're at home watching the big game, you can hop on Underdog Fantasy and play daily fantasy sports differently with your friends.

Get down on the big game with your friends on the Underdog Fantasy app. prove who's the overdog, as Jesse would say, and win some cold, hard cash. It's in the dictionary. I still don't believe it, but whatever. Draft NFL players from the big game, and that's it. So you can put up the most fantasy points, win some money. Of course, we're riding on pitch counts in 2023 for baseball, and we're going to make some money. That's all we're going to do.

We're going to write on pitch counts. We're going to make some money. And it's just easy to get started. Go to underdog fantasy.com or download the app. Sign up with promo code PHNX, and Underdog will match your first deposit. up to $100. So make sure to do that today. What if you and I did play by play?

What if we did play by play? That's what Ryan said, Jesse and the mayor with the play by play by play. I would be, I think we could do that? I have done commentary before, but it was for pro wrestling. Okay.

And I know you've done play by play work before in your past. Have you not? I have. I have for baseball. For the actual sport. Yeah. Right. So me, me on play by play?

You on color commentary? That's a winning combination. I really think we need to talk to Saul about this when he gets back. Well, we'll ask Stephen Bob out at the ballpark, see if, you know, they want to go on a vacation for a weekend or something. I was going to say, do you think they'd be threatened by us or do you think that they're just kind of like liquid laughing? I wish they would be threatened by us. I don't think they'd be very threatened by us. You know, it's easy sometimes to get threatened by the future coming up behind you on your tail there. And today's subject of our grading report cards might have that happening to him in 2023.

Because today we're grading Carson Kelly's 22 season, taking a look ahead at his projections for 2020. But Carson Kelly, obviously, he's been a big part of this team. I feel like he has been a leader on this team. He's kind of grown into a veteran, even though it doesn't feel like he's been around that long. Yeah. But he definitely has kind of a veteran role and a leadership role on this team, much like much like Nick Ahmed. Carson has been a big part of the progression for a lot of these young pitchers.

He's been involved in there and getting a lot of the young guys acclimated to the major league level from the minors. And we're going to take a look at some grades that we have for them. We're going to bounce around back and forth between our two report cards. Jesse's going to give you his grade first

for what do we have hitting first up? Sure. I'll just, I mean, they're on the screen. I'll just run through all of them real quick for the people on audio and then we can kind of go category by category. So hit I have C minus power D plus run I have C minus field I have B minus durability I have a C obviously missed some time in the early year and then dog in him I have a B I have a B. Those are my my grades for Carson D. All right and Leah let's take a look at my report card I have a B minus for hit I have a C for power B minus I have a D for run I have a B for field I have a D plus

for durability and I have a B for dog in him yeah I have a B minus I think that even though he is for hit for hit um and let's take a look at that what was yours again i have a c minus for hit i mean the man hit 211 last year there explain yourself my my i'm questioning more of his durability with his 211 rather than i'm questioning his ability to hit i know carson has much better than that and i know taking a look as you like to do it as baseball savant numbers that some of his numbers involving hitting are actually pretty damn good he's in the 72% percentile for WIF percentage, 76 percentile for chase rate, which are both very good. I mean, his other numbers are fairly average or below average.

So, I mean, that's the only reason. I feel like a lot of it is just the fact that the man didn't get consistent playing time last year. But he still showed that he has a great approach, I feel like, at the plate. He's still good there. He just didn't see the results statistically. Yeah, I agree. I agree that Carson, there are some things. about his game that are what made him actually a very good offensive player in 2019 and

2021, right? Carson Kelly has had a couple pretty darn good years offensively. And the reason he does that is because of what you just talked about. It's the fact that he doesn't swing and miss that much. He doesn't chase pitches out of the zone that much. His strikeout rate, even in 2022, where he had sort of a miserable offensive season, he still struck out less than the average major league player. Right. So it's interesting how you can have a guy who walks a decent amount doesn't strike out that often. And yet he just hits 2-11 and just didn't have much power. And I've tried to look closely at the numbers and figure out exactly what happened with

Carson Kelly last year and also what happened in 2020 when he had kind of a similar year. It's hard to say. It's just like he just didn't, he just didn't hit the ball that hard. Like when he was making contact, he just didn't hit the ball that hard. His average exit velocity was in the 25th percentile. and his hard hit percentage was in the 31st percentile, both well below average. And I think really when you look at it, his lack of home run, hit seven home runs, 35 RBI. Like it just wasn't what we have seen out of Carson in the past.

I think that the biggest thing with Carson has been the inconsistency. I think that the little spurts you see that he has where he's so good makes you truly believe that this guy went healthy and consistent. can be one of the better players on this team, especially when it comes to batting average and and things like that. Unfortunately, it seems like he just, he's had a lot of time off. He gets a lot of injuries, whether they are injuries consistent with being a catcher or in some cases even just freak injuries where, you know, everything's rolling well and he gets hit in the hand, I believe, at one point, right? Where you know, so it's like. Cost him, cost him a while there. Yeah, he has some bad luck, especially when he gets on a roll. Yeah. One thing that does stand out to me is

He was on a complete tear in July. He had 344, 403, 639 in July. That's the stretch that I'm talking about. So I do see what you're saying, where it's like if Carson Kelly stays healthy for a prolonged period of time, you kind of get the sense that he could be a pretty darn good hitter, and we have seen that in stretches in the past.

Baseball is just one of those frustrating sports like that, where you can't stop and go. And that's the reason why last lockout we were talking about, like, hey man, even when this ends, this is going to get very complicated because you can't just start a season out of nowhere, right? Guys have to work out. They have to get in a certain shape.

We knew that guys were doing that, but it's still. He was pretty slow out of the gate. Carson, March and April, he at 102, 154, 122. Yeah. And then in May, he get 125, 125, 125, 125. I don't think there's a lot of the bats there. But, yeah, he was really slow out of the gate. And of course, there's another thing, too, that is consistent across this team

is the fact that they had a brand new hitting coach last season. They had a new pitching coach. They had new coaches on this team. And I feel like it did take a little bit of time for Joe Mather and his philosophies to kind of settle in with some of these guys, especially guys that have been on the team for a while. I also think, though, that Carson Kelly, and that's why I gave him such a poor grade for his durability,

is he just seemed to kind of be like, you know, just injured for one. reason or another and did not get a lot of playing time last year, he only played in 104 games, which is still, you know what? It's still two thirds of the season, roughly. Yeah, I mean, he's never had more than 365 played appearances in a season, I think. Correct. That was 2019.

Which, yeah, that was 2019, probably his best year in the majors so far. So, yeah, I mean, there are some durability concerns. I don't know if that's necessarily as big of an issue at this point now that you have both him and Gabby Moreno in the fold. You're not going to ask Carson Kelly. I was going to say not a concern for the team, but might still be a concern for Carson Kelly. That's fair.

That's fair. That's a great point. I'm glad you brought that up. But yeah, like in terms of, I guess what I'm saying is you don't need, you're not counting on Carson Kelly to have 500 plate appearances. And if he's not healthy, then you have to do something crazy. Right. Like last year, the debacks were like, oh my gosh, we have to make Dalton Bar Show a catcher.

again because we don't have any other great options. They had, you know, they had Jose Herrera who played a lot during that, that Spain of time as well. And a lot of guys, a lot of the pitchers liked him, right, behind the plate, but he just didn't have much to offer offensively. The offense was pretty rough there. And we might still see some Jose Herrera in the big leagues at some point this year. But, but yeah, I mean, with both him and Moreno, hopefully that gives the debacks a chance to maybe keep both of them healthy and give both of them, you know, some time off.

I know a lot of people are excited to see Gabby Moreno play. I think all of us are excited to see Gabby Moreno play. He's going to be one of the most fun stories about this team to follow all year. He's not going to be the everyday guy, though, starting out the season. He's just not. And I think if you're expecting Moreno, the big trade piece coming back for Dalton Varsho, it's going to take a while. But I think after a few months, you could see the debacks transition to having him be pretty

much the everyday guy and Carson Kelly filling in every now and then. I think we both feel like on opening day, though, we're going to see Carson Kelly. I'd be pretty shocked if we did. Yeah. You know, and Zips, to be honest, really likes Carson Kelly for next season.

So I think that Zips projections has Carson Kelly having a bounce back season. Going back to our report cards, Leah, just to round things up, I think there were a couple of things we didn't address. Fielding, Jesse has a... Yeah. Well, let's let run.

run Carson Kelly. No one's going to ever accuse Carson Kelly of being fast. He did steal what I believe was his first professional base last year. Oh, and he was very excited about that. Yeah, that's what got me up to a C-minus. Like, oh my gosh, Carson Kelly stole a base. He can't possibly

ding him there. No, he's never going to be, never going to bring much value in that sphere of the game. But I thought he was decent on the base paths as far as, you know, taking extra bases and whatnot. He's had worse seasons on the basis, I guess. But yeah, the power I have a D plus, like I said earlier, he just didn't, he had his lowest isolated power since coming over to the Diamondbacks, so 2019 and on.

I believe this year his ISO was around 120, which is quite low. Iso for people who aren't familiar is the difference between your batting average and your slugging percentage. Basically, like, takes away how many hits you had and is just quantifying like how many of those hits were doubles or triples or whatnot. So that number was 120, which is pretty, pretty well below the league average. The durability we talked about, I have a C. As far as fielding goes, I thought Carson Kelly had kind of a typical Carson Kelly year. How do you feel about that part of his game?

I feel like he did too. I think he actually, I mean, if I'm being honest, especially looking at his strike rate, it was still pretty good. Like his framing is still good as a catcher. Yeah, slightly above average framer. Yeah. And I mean, these are things that it's kind of hard to look at. but I know that we saw him make some impressive plays

and I still feel like he's great behind the plate. I often wonder, you know, what, when I hear other catchers get praised, I wonder what it is that Carson, the difference is with Carson Kelly. I wonder, you know, what the connection there is. I know that he has a relationship with some guys and then other guys, it just doesn't seem to be as solid, you know.

You can definitely tell, I'm not saying he has a bad relationship with Madison, Bumgarner, but they often try to put somebody else back there with Mad Bum than Carson Kelly. And I've kind of wondered a bit about that. What else? What do we have on mine here for this? Yeah, I had a B.

So I had the same thing as you. I wasn't quite so kind on the running, nor do I feel like I needed to be. No, I, yeah. And the durability, obviously, I spoke about that. But we both had B for Doggin' him. We did. We agreed. We agreed on that.

That's right where, that's the most important stat, by the way. away his dog and him. And we definitely don't feel like Carson Kelly by any stretch of the imagination is done. And I only can, I think that the competition with Gabriel Moreno is only going to increase his effort, I think,

at the very least, right? It's, you got to know that the future starting catcher is nipping at your heels. And there's a good chance that he could bypass you very soon if you don't perform well. Yeah, Mike He's in,

you know, that was one of the first questions asked to, Mike, once the trade happened was, did you talk to Carson Kelly about this? Like, what's the plan? Our initial reaction to the trade was Carson Kelly's gone, right? Yeah, we thought he was going to trade Carson Kelly. They could probably get something for him, not a ton, but they could have gotten something

for him. They didn't, they decided not to go that route, right? They're coming back with Carson Kelly. There's an opportunity for Kelly to operate in sort of a mentorship role for Gabby Moreno, I think, just given how young Moreno is. And Carson Kelly is still relatively young in his own right, but he has a number of years of experience that Moreno doesn't have, at least in the big league.

So I think there's an opportunity there. And yeah, I think competition is always a good thing, right, at the end of the day. And so having Gabby Moreno come up, you don't feel like you have to pressure him into being the everyday guy from day one. You can kind of give him a nice runway into that role that I'm sure he will get in time.

And from Carson Kelly's side, it's like, yeah, this job isn't handed to you this year. Let's face it, the debacks have handed Carson Kelly, the catching job for a number of years now because he was the guy. He's just kind of been the guy who was there. He has a good year, one year, not so good year the next year, right? Good year in 2021, not so good year in 2022. This year he's going to have to earn more of that playing time.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. Was he given that opportunity because he was the centerpiece of the Goldschmidt trade? I think he was given that opportunity because he was a very, highly, I mean, just very highly thought of around the game. And he was great in 2019. I mean, Carson Kelly slugged almost 500 in his first year with the Diamondbacks. Over one stretch, he was hitting 320 plus. He was one of the better hitters in baseball for the first few months of that year.

And Luke Weaver was one of the better pitchers in baseball over the first few months from that year. Things were like, oh, man, you might have. Christian Walker and Paul Goldschmidt had about the same. to Walker and Goldsmith were almost neck and neck offensively. Yeah, but eventually you, when you trade a superstar, eventually you're probably going to regret it. And I think the diamond back is probably. That's absolutely a good point because it's not a matter of just being able to do it for one season.

It's a matter of you traded away somebody who you knew consistently was going to be able to do it for a very long time. Yeah. For a couple of guys that you were hoping you might be able to get enough production out of that it wouldn't make you miss that PG guy that we had over there at first base. We can't. She's not going to say his name. No, I'm trying not to. I said it earlier and I hate myself for setting it.

I don't even want to revisit that trade anymore ever again. But what I do want to do is go to more furniture. That's what I want to do. Don't revisit that trade anymore, but go to more furniture and get Jesse something other than a Chase Lounge for his house. I don't know if you have anybody in your life. That's kind of insufferable when it comes to a particular piece of furniture that they love. But this guy over here, you're driving me nuts.

It turns out Chase Langers are really hard to find. They're not easy to come across. Andy's figuring out it's harder to get them upstairs than he thought they were going to. He wants me to help with that. I'm not doing that. But you go to when I go to more furniture, they've got a lot of Chase Loungeers there. Not only do they have a white glove delivery, so you don't have to take it upstairs yourself. Let them do the work.

But size, they know what they're doing. Have you ever seen furniture delivery guys like do their thing? It's impressive. It's absolutely. Like, first of all, I can't believe the audacity, the unmitigated goal that I have of sitting there watching them thinking they're not going to get that through the door. Yes, yes. They knew before they even brought it up to the door that they could fit it through the door, Jesse. I give up so easily on those things.

Like the few pieces of old furniture that I have moved in to the new house. I'm just like, oh, no, that's not going to fit. Yeah. There's no way that's. Yeah, there's no way. That needs to go away now. I'm the first person to call it quits in those situations. When moving, have you ever just thrown furniture out of a second story window just because you knew you weren't going to actually take it?

So it was just like trash anyway. I helped a friend do that. Furniture, no. It was very cathartic. Let me tell you. If you ever get a chance to throw furniture out of a second story window. Our place is two stories. So we do like to, like if we have, you know, some boxes or something that we open up upstairs, then we'll just drop them down the staircase because gravity is a beautiful thing.

And it makes that so much easier. So there is a pulley system with a bucket where you can do it. I'll tell you, I threw my Christmas tree off the second story. Like, not a window, but our staircase at our apartment complex. It's outdoors. And it is February 1st, and the pine needles are still on the ground. You're never going away. You're going to find them in July.

But it is therapeutic to throw things off of balconies. It's so good. Rocks at trains. That's another thing that's therapeutic. Anyway, don't do that. Go to Murr Furniture, get yourself some furniture. Save big on the best furniture in the valley when you had to more for furniture.com and let this guy know what he needs to buy. Give him suggestions. What we suggest to

you is that you buy a PHNX diehard membership. That way you don't miss out on any of his wonderful diehard pieces like his recent article about was it the five unlikely home runs? Five most unlikely. Five most unlikely home runs in 2022. So make sure is it 2020? It was in history. Okay. Yeah. Well, I did. I did touch on some like, well, you can only go back so far because the stat cast era only goes back to 2015. So exit velos and launch angles, we don't have that for that many years. But I did look at, you know, like what was the hardest, the hardest hit Diamondbacks home run in the stat cast era and some of those things, which was kind of fun.

So check it out. So make sure to grab yourself that membership. Not only do you get those type of articles, you also get access to our members-only Discord Lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. You also get a free piece of merch from the PHNX Locker.com as well as, discounts over there, 20% off all your future purchases. So make sure to grab that today. Don't miss out and join us at our special events, which you can also get discounts on as well,

and discounts from our partners as a diehard member. We thank you guys for being one if you already are one. We thank you guys for being here in the chat. If you haven't already subscribed to the PHN Export to YouTube channel, do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a little thumbs up. We always love that.

Thumbs up are good. Jesse, it's his favorite thing. It is. It is my favorite. He also loves when you leave them five-star reviews on the audio podcasting side. So make sure to subscribe to us there as well. We always appreciate you guys for being here. And remember, baseball isn't boring according to the podcast that we're going to talk about next. But we already knew that.

You guys. According to us as well. According to us. But pitcher Rich Hill, still met about the three different sized balls reportedly used in 2022. He shared his strong opinions, very strong opinions on the Baseball's and Boring podcast. But I really, it's kind of crazy to hear the thing he's saying because in any other sport, I feel like this would be an absurd conversation. Now, other sports do have inflatable balls. So there probably is some sort of variation at times like a football or basketball.

Obviously, as Leah can attest to, a puck is always the same size. So there's never any change to that, right? The only change is they freeze the puck's before games. They do. Yes, they do. So they glide better? Yeah. So what happens during the course of the game?

They use multiple pucks. Yeah. When they melt, do they thaw out and then they put a new puck in? Yeah, I think so. Like, don't quote me on this, but I do, I do know for a fact that they freeze the pucks and they use multiple. Well, I mean, we know about the humidor or as I used to like to call him El Humidor that lived in left field. But the humidor that they had storing the baseballs in here in Arizona, one of my favorite moments ever was hearing. a one side of a Mike Hayeson conversation where I think the only thing he said was, well, the other

team doesn't seem to have a problem hitting the balls. And I just had a feeling that was related to the Humidor. But there is one amazing thing that Rich Hill said when it comes to this. And that was this quote where he said, make one consistent fucking baseball. I don't care. I don't care if it's a ping pong ball, which Jesse is very familiar with, a golf ball, a super ball or whatever. Just make it consistent. Keep it consistent for the entire year and let the players know. How about that? Hey, guys, we're going to change the ball this year. We are going to use a bit of a softer ball. We're going to use a harder ball. We're going to use a disco ball, which would be fucking awesome. Yeah, all I hear is Richel coming up with some fabulous ideas. Some great ideas on how they can change the size of the ball.

We're going to change it up and try to see what happens. Nothing what he said is wrong. He's absolutely right. There's absolutely no reason why there should even be something called. the Goldilocks ball. Like that's crazy to me that there's a ball that's like, just right, it's not too big, it's not too small, it's not too soft, it's not too hard.

Make the ball consistent. I, like, that's something that's like maddening and I completely understand MLB players' frustrations when it comes to this, especially considering, like he said, none of it was information passed along to them. So had they been trying different balls and had they relayed that to their players,

then this wouldn't have been something that you had pitchers screaming about in their lockers because they're the ones that fucking know. They're the ones that can feel the difference and the changes in these baseballs. Yeah. It's crazy that Major League Baseball continues to do this and somehow they just kind of get away with it. And it's not people don't speak about it, right?

The only reason that we know or at least think that there were three baseballs used this last year was an in-depth study done by, I believe it was William Bradford, who wrote a story on insider.com. He was working with some sort of scientist person, and they looked at a bunch of data and somehow determined that three balls were used. But Major League Baseball, as Rich Hill is talking about, isn't coming on and talking about any of this, right?

It's all hush, hush. Apparently, allegedly, these, you know, the baseballs that flew a little bit more were disproportionately used in one Yankee Stadium, which, of course, there's all sorts of controversy, that comes with that too. So at a certain... Considering that so many of them were fan

at Yankee Stadium where a player was trying to break a certain record. A certain player was trying to break a certain record. Yes. So, yeah, there's just a clear need for transparency.

And that's all Richel is asking for and that's very reasonable, right? Just tell us what you are doing with the baseball so that we can make adjustments so that we can be aware of what's happening. Nobody wins with what Major League baseball appears to have been doing

in these last few years. Well, more importantly, it's the controversy, the fact that there feels like there's a conspiracy going on here. A specific conspiracy to try to allow for an exciting event to happen that's going to bring attention to baseball. You know, obviously you understand they can't fess up to it in the middle of the season or whatever, but when you have irrefutable data that shows that they're using different size balls, it's hard to say, especially when they're taking samples from the stadiums and they are like, wow, a lot of the ones from Yankee Stadium seem to, be this one ball, right? But he's not wrong.

He's allowed to be upset about it. Which one of Rich Hill's ideas do you like the most? The disco ball by far. The disco ball by far. Yeah, if they could throw a ball. Like, I would love any kind of way where they had like some sort of, you know, golden ball or some ball that like, like, if you hit a home run with it, it was worth three runs instead of just one. Something fucking ridiculous like that. Give it to me.

I'm sure you're a fan of the ping pong ball, right? I don't think a ping pong ball would fly very far. I think I think you'd have to move the fences in maybe 150, 200 feet or so Sure But I mean, you know I'm a fan of all things ping ponged there

So I'll never say never on that Including losing to Danielle Apparently she made me say that by the way She texted me and said hey get Jesse on a Okay, all right She texts you that most days I'm pretty sure But Anyway it's going to be interesting to see

If they can rectify this or if they do something next season that maybe admits to this in some way. Maybe they do come out and say they're changing the ball to this 115 gram-sized ball, whatever the case may be. But just make a consistent baseball. I mean, that's the real thing here. Your ball is a ball that's manufactured. I still can't fucking believe this is even a thing

because I've talked about how at one point ESPN had this on SportsCenter, a crazy conspiracy theory where they were talking about how Rawlings was changing the leather and they were actively going to the farmers that they got the leather from to make, the leather different. And that was why in the late 90s we had this big home run race. Ha ha ha ha.

It's funny to think back upon that now. But still, it's something that they talked about back then as something that could change the game. And obviously, it is something that could change the game because, you know, even if it's, even if it's the lack of consistency,

it feels like it is a disadvantage to pitchers to not know which ball you're going to get thrown back to you by an umpire or by your catcher, you know, after an exchange. Yeah. Whivel ball. Ryan says, Let's go.

Do we want the whiffle ball? I still want multi ball, but that's just a Futurama. Do you want the Blitzball? Is that what it's called? Yeah, Blitzball. Yeah, I love the Blitzball. Yes.

They should, like, maybe as part of the all-star festivities, they should just play a game with the Blitzball. Yes. Because, like, seeing what... Just use it in the All-Star game itself. Just, yeah, there you go. It doesn't count for anything now, right? Might as well.

Yeah, it doesn't count. I mean, just, like, seeing what Garrett Cole does with an actual baseball, like, what could Garrett Cole does? Cole do with a blitzball. I'd love to find out. I would love to find out. If you guys want to play Blitzball, make sure to check out. John Boy is the one that does it the best, right?

John Boy with their football coverage. Check them out. But you can also just drink a bunch of Four Peaks Brewing Company beers and then whatever baseball you play after that is Blitzball technically. But make sure to check out their wonderful array of beers. You can get them wherever you get your beers locally. They are a local Valley company and we are all about supporting that kind of Action Boss. Check out their recreational juice dank IPA as well as their staycation, super juicy

IPA. The dank no longer available in Keggs at their 8th Street Pub, sadly. But you can watch the Super Bowl down there. The Super Bowl is right around the corner. Enjoy a nice four peaks beverage during the game or enjoy it at 4 peaks. Go down to their 8th Street pub and catch the game there as well. So many places for you to go, especially, you know, the one thing I hear from sports fans is like I tend to not have somebody that watches this thing, right? Like I'm a baseball fan but none of my friends are or I mean, Super Bowl, that's a little different. Everybody kind of gets into that. But never underestimate the power of going to someplace like Four Peaks or joining us from one of our watch parties somewhere and find some new friends because I feel like we've done an excellent job about that here in the community.

And I know some of you guys have become my friends. That's the truth. shout out to Chris, shout out to Mark, shout out to Charles Woodall Pike, all of you guys. I appreciate always finding new friends and of course people that love Arizona sports as much as I do. And guys, people that can get down on the Game Time app, by the way, and save some money. Fellow procrastinators like me, Jesse will tell you it's the most aesthetically pleasing app and he's not wrong. It's beautiful. And you can save up to 60% on tickets when you buy tickets the last minute.

The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. and make sure to get your tickets to all sorts of upcoming events. I dare you to hop on Super Bowl Sunday on the GameTime app and see if you can save 60%. Who knows? Maybe you can. I don't know. Okay, I need to bring something up because... Crazy your things have happened. So I'm a huge John Mayer fan, and he just announced a tour. He's coming here in April.

And the pre-sale is today, which I can... I don't have the code, but I could see in the background where it tells me, like, your code is wrong, but I can see the prices. And the prices are so expensive. So, like, I was planning to buy tickets this week, and I was like, eh, I'll just wait until the week of. And I'm literally going to buy them on game time that week. You're not wrong. And I mean, it's kind of like even that wrestling show that we went to at Mullet Arena, which absolutely was an incredible venue for a professional wrestling show. I had friends that picked up tickets for $10 the day of.

And I think their tickets weren't very expensive in the first place. They were like $25. But still, game time. It's going to save you some money. It's just basic economics, man. It really is. You got to get rid of those tickets. If you wait until if you buy early, then nobody knows how many tickets are going to be sold.

I have no idea. We don't know what's going on. But on the day of, then all of a sudden, a lot of people get desperate. They can't go. They put their tickets on. And I told you guys about that. Don't be one of those people that buys tickets for an event that then you find out six months later that you can't go to. I can't buy tickets to Pink at Chase Field just yet.

I have no idea what I'll be doing at that point. It's the truth. Tomorrow's not promised to anybody. Don't forget that. I don't mean to get morbid here before the end, but lived each day to his fullest. It's the same reason why we say, each week is Shark Week here,

and every day is Earth Day. So make sure to live your life to the fullest every single day. But until we do this thing again, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs,

but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I sure hope the apocalypse you're talking about waits until after pitchers and catchers report. Do you think we can count on that? No, we can't. We can't count. We can't count on.

What did I say? I said tomorrow is not promised, Jesse. It means what it means, okay? We can't just have the next two weeks promise. I don't know. I don't know. It makes planning for your financial future very difficult. So maybe this, see, maybe Sinclair Broadcasting was living life by the tomorrow is not promised.

You know, I don't know. That explains it. It all makes sense now. It really does. That's why they financed eight points. billion dollars. That's right. That's right. They just wanted to own it for a little while. But anyway, we thank you guys again on behalf of Leah, Jesse, myself. We always appreciate you joining us here in the live chat, watching the show afterwards, or downloading it,

listening to it as an audio podcast. We thank you guys so much and appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't finance $8.2 billion to broadcast games.