PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will the Arizona Diamondbacks sign any more free agents as a gift for their 29th anniversary?

Starting point is 00:00:08 Welcome in to a Saturday edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of Saturday mornings. I am joined here by my vice mayor of cartoons and breakfast cereal. It's the one and only thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Happy Saturday. A big ski to you, Jesse. I've been eating a lot of cereal recently. I kind of go in waves where I don't eat.

Starting point is 00:00:32 I don't eat cereal for like months on end. And then all of a sudden I just find myself eating cereal. But although I rarely eat it for like breakfast in the morning. Oddly enough, I eat cereal at night. Yeah. Like as a dessert, it's a good dessert, especially like sugary. Well, they're all sugary. Like it's hard not to, even the healthy ones are sugary, right?

Starting point is 00:00:53 The healthy ones are like, it's like, you know, granola clusters, you know, dipped in honey covered in sugar is what they are. But they're delicious. And yeah, you're right. As I've gotten older, I do find myself gravitating more towards eating cereal at night. rather than the morning. I kind of need something that's a little less sugary in the morning to get me going. And so, you know, not just that. But I will say that I don't just wish a big ski to you.

Starting point is 00:01:23 I wish a big ski to the Arizona Diamondbacks because you could say today is their birthday. Jesse, happy birthday. Diamondbacks, happy birthday to our snakes. because on this day in 1995, Phoenix was awarded an expansion franchise to begin play for the 1998 season that there would be some debate over the names. There would be quite a few names that come up, including the Arizona Scorpions,

Starting point is 00:01:51 which was, from my understanding, the actual name that was voted and approved, and Jerry Colangelo vetoed that shit because Scorpions freaked him out. So we're the Diamondbacks because Jerry Colangelo hates Scorpions. Do you think that was a mistake? Do you think it'd be better if they were the scorpions? Ah, man. I think, okay, like I've always thought that the Diamondbacks,

Starting point is 00:02:16 especially considering that since day one, they wanted to shorten it and call them the D-backs, just left us open for insults that were low-hanging fruit. It was just too easy. I mean, I was in high school. I was a very immature child. I'm an immature man, but I was an immature high school student at the time. So, of course, all we could talk about was how we were getting the debags as a franchise, right?

Starting point is 00:02:43 That wasn't a great thing. Scorpions, I feel like, would have had a lot of cool imagery, you know? Like, I think there's a lot of, you know, feel the sting, you know, Arizona Scorpions, you know, that kind of thing. Feel the sting would maybe be a little bit. That would maybe hit a little bit too close to home for people who, who have actually been stung by Scorpions. There's some validity to what Jerry

Starting point is 00:03:08 Calangelo is saying there. I understand that. But I do think, like, on paper, Scorpions is a better name for a baseball team, in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot there. But we are the Diamondbacks, and we love our Diamondbacks. Of course, we still can't get away from those goddamn Rockies, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:03:24 The first Major League game was played on March 31st against the Colorado Rockies, just like this season. Once again, we are playing the Colorado Rockies to kick off the season. We're playing them in our spring breakout game. And quite frankly, I have had it with the Colorado Rockies. I've had it with Patrick Lyons too, but I've definitely had it with the Colorado Rockies.

Starting point is 00:03:47 Yeah, the Rockies in 1998, they were a more competent baseball team than the Rockies team that we see today. Looks like they won 77 games in that inaugural 1998 season for the Diamond. back. So, yeah, this time around, those are, those are games the Diamond Back should definitely wait. Well, again, there is a lot of interesting history to this team, especially those early days. I know I've described some of the things I've read. I know you touched on a recent article that you read kind of about the existence of this team. But yeah, it's, it's, it was very interesting thing. It didn't feel like the Diamondbacks, you know, needed to fight very much for this baseball team. There's a lot of drama when it comes to Tampa. Their stadium, right? Like their stadium was a big

Starting point is 00:04:43 negotiation tool for a lot of franchises in baseball, for them to get their own new stadiums or for them to possibly, you know, get public funding. They used the fact that there was a stadium built for a baseball team with no baseball team attached to it in Tampa for a long time to to have leverage in their negotiations. Eventually, Tampa was awarded a team. And it almost felt like, and I know this isn't an accurate assessment, but it almost felt like the Diamondbacks exist simply because they needed a second team in order to make the number 30, you know, for the Tampa Bay raise to exist.

Starting point is 00:05:21 Yeah, it's interesting to me that, I mean, we talk so much about Jerry Colangelo. in the valley and rightfully so. I mean, you know, driving force behind so much of the sons and ultimately the Diamondbacks, you know, so much of the sports that we get to enjoy on a daily basis in Arizona is very directly tied to him. But that's actually not where the Diamondback story began. If you go back and I'm reading an article over from the Society of American Baseball Research, Sabre.org, they talk a lot about Martin Stone. Martin Stone's name is all over this thing before you see anything about Jerry Colangelo.

Starting point is 00:05:59 Martin Stone was the owner of the Phoenix Firebirds, the San Francisco Giants, the San Francisco Giants AAA affiliate. And he was really the one who kind of initiated this process, was very much pushing for this all the way back to the late 1980s. So this process started a whole lot earlier than when Jerry Colangelo entered the picture. But it seems like there was a lot of momentum. that there already been fall league baseball in Arizona going back to 1992. The Cactus League had been, you know, long established since I think in the aftermath of World War II

Starting point is 00:06:35 is when we started to see teams migrate out to Arizona for spring training. Arizona State University had been a fairly well-established baseball program. And of course, Phoenix just growing as quickly as it was at the time and continues to be up until now. I think Arizona was pretty clearly a destination, a quality destination for a baseball team. And it was just kind of a matter of how it would happen. And ultimately it was very much because of Jerry Colangelo that things came together in 1995, March 9th, 1995 was the day, $130 million was the expansion fee. And the expansion fee today is estimated to be around $2.2 billion,

Starting point is 00:07:18 as we're talking about baseball going from 30 to 32, teams. So inflation, Derek, it is a real thing. It is. It is. And lawsuits are also a real thing in baseball, Jesse, because lawsuits are why several teams actually exist. And you could say in a way that a lawsuit is the reason why the Arizona Diamondbacks exist. A Tampa Bay based investor had negotiated a deal to buy the San Francisco Giants, our National League rival. and move them to that stadium I was talking about in 1992, and MLB owners basically vetoed it. And when the MLB owners vetoed it, that investor sued MLB for interference with this business deal.

Starting point is 00:08:11 And essentially, MLB awarded his ownership group a new expansion franchise, which became the Tampa Bay raise. And so, again, in order for the raise to exist, a new team was also needed to exist. So it's also technically the Tampa Bay raise birthday, Jesse, because they were awarded their expansion franchise on March 9th, 1995, which is why we are twins. People ask me all the time, why do I say that about the race? This is why we are twins. We were born on the same day from the same business daddy, essentially, right? we were born because of the same lawsuit. And God bless lawsuits.

Starting point is 00:08:52 It's why the Mariners also exist. That's a fun history as well. But I'm very much, I'm very glad. I am very glad. Think about that. Jesse, before you were born and when I was 11 years old, a lawsuit gave us our jobs eventually, right? Like, that's a wild timeline to follow down. You know, we wouldn't even know each other.

Starting point is 00:09:17 If it wasn't because of this law school. That's the way it works in society. Derek, all friendships can be traced back to a lawsuit. I mean, that's just how the world works. Absolutely. Well, of course, you guys are our friends. We thank you guys so much for being here and being part of the Ph.NX Sports family. If you're listening to us, of course, on your favorite audio podcasting app,

Starting point is 00:09:40 make sure you're subscribe there. Make sure you leave us a review. We always appreciate that. Also, I implore you to check out our diehard membership. We have all sorts of wonderful benefits. You can get those benefits over at go phtnx.com, including free t-shirt from the PHNX locker. You get access to Jesse's content.

Starting point is 00:09:57 You get access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan and so much more. So make sure to join us today over here at go phnx.com. Jesse, there was kind of, I don't know if I want to call this sad, but again, this is another thing that makes me feel old. This makes me age. Joey Votto was signed as a non-roster invitee to the Toronto Blue Jays, which I'm sure he'll make the roster, maybe,

Starting point is 00:10:28 but Joey Votto was one of the available free agents, actually one of the top available free agents on the market. And I mean, you could say there was quite a difference in maybe the top four versus the rest of the list, but there are still a lot of available. available free agents out there. And of course, you know, we blame Scott Boris for for so much of it. And thankfully so.

Starting point is 00:10:53 But, you know, the guys that are out there, I don't, I doubt that any of them have any potential connection to the Diamondbacks. But let's talk about the available free agents. And, you know, when do we expect to see these guys land with a team? Are they going to be out there when opening day comes around? gosh, I hope not. That's just bad for baseball. Yeah, I was just talking to Damon about this, right? With the NFL, like, this is why the NFL is king.

Starting point is 00:11:27 Because the NFL, despite their short schedule, they make everything kind of fast-paced and exciting. And they make everything into a big event. And they kind of do it at a time where everything can be, the focus can be on that thing, including their free agency, including their draft. And then when their season is here, when their preseason is here, like everything for the NFL is very well scheduled because the NFL does such a great job of making a big deal out of it and making the action kind of happen quickly. This is once again kind of reflection of baseball where like it just can happen and it can bleed over and people don't know when it ends because it doesn't really end. And I feel like I've just described a baseball game. Yeah, that's fair.

Starting point is 00:12:13 It's a fair comparison. I think that these guys will be signed by opening day. That is, I mean, I guess maybe not the March 20th opening day, not the Dodgers Padres' sole opening day. But I think we're going to see these guys sign before we really get into the thick of the baseball season. It would just feel, I mean, at that point, I guess Scott Boris would just be waiting for injuries to happen during the season and then, you know, try to capitalize on a situation.

Starting point is 00:12:43 like that. Jesse, I got a quote for you right here from Scott Boris from Monday's press conference with the introduction of Matt Chapman in San Francisco. Scott Boris was quoted as saying there's a pitching panic going on in baseball. We've got so many starting pitchers who are now compromised, maybe short term, some long term, and the calls for elite starters are starting to increase. With many clubs right now because of the pitching issue, the competitiveness of their season is at risk.

Starting point is 00:13:13 And this is exactly what he wanted. This is exactly why Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are still out there as free agents. It's because of this. And this is not a mistake. This is years and years of experience of knowing that baseball teams, as you get close to the beginning of the season, are going to experience injuries. They're going to experience losses.

Starting point is 00:13:39 They're going to experience guys coming in the camp that they paid a lot of money for, that they don't know when they're opening day, is going to be. We talked about Sunny Gray on Friday's episode, and Sunny Gray is a guy that we don't know if he's going to start the season or when his season is going to start. And that is one benefit to the Diamondbacks, you know, having gone after Eduardo Rodriguez instead, who will be ready on opening day, right? There is something about, you know, losing a guy that you just paid a lot of money for, not knowing when their season is going to start. It's not that big of a deal, but it is a bit frustrating. And sometimes teams that are worried about that impact on, on

Starting point is 00:14:13 their season, they might get desperate and they might pick up the phone and give Scott Borris and his clients exactly what they want. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'll believe it when I see it in some ways. I mean, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not totally sold that Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery when they sign are going to go to a team that clearly wanted them just because of injury. I don't know if I believe that. Like I think the, I think, Buster only the other day talked about the Angels as being a fairly likely landing spot for Blake Snell. The Angels are not really in a bind because of an injury situation. They're just in a bind because they're the angels.

Starting point is 00:14:57 And they're not a particularly good baseball team right now. So, you know, he's going to try to push that narrative. I don't know if I see the Boston Red Sox budging. You know, they're certainly one of the teams that has been hit with injuries here with Lucas Giolyto, potentially missing significant time. I don't know if the Red Sox who already were not really willing to spend a ton of money on this team, if they're suddenly going to be willing to spend a ton of money because one of their guys got hurt. For them, if anything, I think this is even all the more so.

Starting point is 00:15:27 Like, yeah, this team wasn't going to go anywhere anyway. Why would we, why would we have wanted to spend that much money on them in the first place? So not saying I agree with that line of thinking for them necessarily, but I kind of doubt that the Red Sox are picking up the phone and desperately trying to land Montgomery or Snell right now from what we've heard. But yeah, I think these guys are probably going to sign around, if not before, opening day. I just don't see a ton of benefit for Scott Boris and waiting any longer than that.

Starting point is 00:15:57 But yes, hopefully this happens because I'm sick and tired of having to have this conversation. Yeah, what are you more tired of talking about? Available free agents still being on the market or fanatics? Pants. Pants. I'm definitely more, I'm more tired of talking about pants, for sure. But it's close. It's close.

Starting point is 00:16:21 I also wish that Blake's Snell and Jordan Montgomery and all these other guys would sign. All right. So we know obviously that none of those guys are going to be, you know, connected to the Diamondbacks in any way. We know that if the Diamondbacks were even, were even to consider picking up any more free agents, you know, that they're, their spending would have to be minimal and, you know, it would be a question of where they would fit in. I mean, obviously they brought in Elvis Andrews, but that's like a different, you know, again, that's the kind of move that I expect. I didn't really even expect them to go after, you know, another infielder like that. I thought with the guys that they had, you know, kind of in-house that they would probably pick a backup from one of those guys.

Starting point is 00:17:06 I feel like Blaze has been doing an exceptional job. Tori the other day talked about Blaise Alexander, you know, moving from from essentially shortstop to second base and the third base and getting, you know, playing time all around the end field, which makes me feel like him still being, you know, in camp and, you know, talked about in that way, makes him one of those candidates, you know, probably a top candidate for that backup position. However, still feels like they're a bit unsatisfied, like that's the reason why that you would bring in another guy like this. but is there any chance that the Diamondbacks kick the tires on like a Mike Clevenger

Starting point is 00:17:43 or another pitcher in any way, even if it's just a relief pitcher, which there aren't a lot of those guys available, maybe like an Anthony Bass or Brad Hand or something? I think the Diamondbacks would have to suffer some sort of a significant injury somewhere at this point. Brad Boxburger is available, Jesse. Brad Boxberger is currently. available as a free agent, just saying.

Starting point is 00:18:08 Yeah, I mean, the quality of player out there has certainly been diminished. And granted, there are still some pretty decent players out there for it being March 9th. But yeah, the Diamondbacks don't, they don't really need another starting pitcher. I think they're pretty content going with one of Ryan Nelson or Tommy Henry or Slate Cicconi or, you know, one of these guys who've been talking about in the mix for that fifth starter spot. I think they have enough pitching depth behind. whomever they choose there. So I don't think they really have a need on the starting pitching side right now.

Starting point is 00:18:43 In the bullpen, I mean, you can never add too much, but I think we're at the point now where there aren't any really difference making relievers available. I think if you were to bring in a reliever, they would kind of just join the shuffle with a bunch of other guys. And I don't know if there's a clear benefit in doing that. So unless I guess on the position player side, if, yeah, if there was a lot of, a significant injury. I guess it could be a benefit to the debacks that there are still guys out there. I don't know if they have the money to go out and spend what it would take to do that,

Starting point is 00:19:18 but yeah, I don't think they're going to be adding anyone else unless something pops up. And even then, I'm not really convinced that they would. One name that is part of the Diamondbacks organization, I think everybody should keep an eye out for, is Logan Allen. He was brought up. in our media scrum the other day. I believe Tori said he is a guy that is a potentially, I believe he said potentially looking at for different roles, but so far, so good. I mean, he's had three appearances in spring.

Starting point is 00:19:55 He's gone out there. He's given them six innings. He's allowed three hits total. I mean, he's one run run. It's, he's been having so far a pretty decent spring. I don't know how good his chances actually are of making the team. But he's just a name that hasn't been brought up a lot. But recently I feel like his name is being brought up more.

Starting point is 00:20:17 And I've seen him play in some of these spring training games. And he looks outstanding. I think he got the save in yesterday's game. He has looked pretty good. Yeah, he finally gave up a run yesterday. I think it was a homer. But yeah, I mean, six innings, three hits, only one earned run, two walks, five strikeouts. that's a one a one five oeera he has looked good in spring training for sure and i don't know i don't know

Starting point is 00:20:43 if he's really in the mix for that fifth starter spot to be honest i think tory when you know when you ask tory if he has to say yeah like yes he's everybody's in the mix for it you know you're in the mix nick i'm pretty yeah i'm pretty sure if we asked him like you know is uh who who's like a rant i don't know is is andr shaparo like is he in the mix for that fifth starter spot could he like convert over and it's probably be like yeah yeah like i he's in camp you know we want to see what he can do uh no i obviously not that outrageous but i don't i don't think that logan alan really has much of a shot at that at that fifth star spot i don't happen inside or telling me that i i i just that's just kind of my sense of the situation i think ryan nelson or tomie henry

Starting point is 00:21:31 one of those guys is very likely to get this job yeah but uh yeah it doesn't mean that logan allen couldn't serve as valuable depth of the debacks or, you know, come up at some point during the season and become a valuable piece. He is being stretched out. So, you know, presumably he would work as a starter down and down in Reno if that's where he starts the season and could be an option for the team later in the year. I think there's, and I think that guys like Logan Allen are the reason why the Diamondbacks don't feel like they need to go out there and spend those money on those available free agents, especially some of the older guys, right? Like, they have guys right now that show a lot of promise. They have a lot of talent.

Starting point is 00:22:07 And at this point, when you get them mixed in there, again, with some of the major league coaching, you know, and some of that, just being in camp, being around that, you know, being around the major league pitching, like, you get a chance to make that impression. And you also get a chance to kind of evolve your game and continue to get better. I think that even though the Diamondbacks weren't ranked very high in their MLB.com or MLB Pipelines farm system, ranking that just dropped. I'm sure we'll talk about it next week. I feel like the Diamondbacks have a lot of guys that could be surprising,

Starting point is 00:22:42 mostly because they're not getting a lot of hype around them as prospects. And, you know, I feel like the Diamondbacks have done a good job in the last two seasons of turning those guys that don't have a lot of hype around them into some pretty good, you know, ballplayers. And then the ones that do have hype like Corby and Carroll, you know, far exceeded even our expectations for what we would see out of him in his rookie campaign and he did everything we you know our wildest imagination's kind of dreamt up that he could do yeah going going back to logan allen um he he was he was once a pretty well regarded prospect uh there there's another logan allen uh who also got his start with cleveland and is still over there um but uh yeah maybe not quite the the caliber prospect the other logan allen was but uh he was

Starting point is 00:23:30 still a pretty big piece. I think he was part of the, a big trade that the Padres and Guardians made that involved Fran Mill Reyes and a whole bunch of other guys. So yeah, I think there's, I think there's something to be said for Logan Allen and the prospect that he once was and the fact that if you, if you like go back and look at his numbers and the miners coming up, like he had some pretty darn good numbers and looking at his like double A AAA AAA season in 2018, he had a 254. ERA, good strikeout numbers, good walk numbers, in about 150 innings.

Starting point is 00:24:06 So it just hasn't quite come together for him in the majors yet. But, you know, he's 26 years old. He's getting up there a little bit. But certainly we've seen guys coming to this organization around that age and, you know, turn into pretty effective pitchers. Well, we will be continuing to monitor the Diamondback starting pitcher situation, their bullpen and everything like that. So make sure to keep it locked right here to P.HNX.

Starting point is 00:24:30 In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore K-Mand-a-K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show, of course, is at PHNX underscore D-Bax, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time today. We appreciate you for stopping by.

Starting point is 00:24:50 Hope you have a wonderful weekend and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's also more fun when you get a baseball team because of a lawsuit.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will the Arizona Diamondbacks sign any more free agents as a gift for their 29th anniversary?

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