PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will the Toronto Blue Jays regret trading Gabriel Moreno to the Arizona Diamondbacks?

Episode Date: December 27, 2022

MLB trades for top prospects like Gabriel Moreno don’t happen often. The Arizona Diamondbacks know the pain of trading away a young player only to see them flourish elsewhere. While we have no way to actually look into the future, we have a feeling this one that will haunt Toronto for a very long time. At least…we hope it will.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 PHNX: Join us at the Inaugural PHNX Tee Party, presented by Four Peaks Brewing Co., at Dobson Ranch Golf Course!We are renting out the entire driving range! Come hang with Big Drive Energy, the PHNX crew and fellow Diehards for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Our PHNX Suns crew will be hosting a watch party for the Suns vs. Timberwolves. Check out https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-tee-party-at-dobson-ranch-tickets-481918139127 to reserve your spot right now! And for our Diehards, check Discord for your special link where you’ll save 20% on this awesome event!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! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.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: Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXSPORTS15” 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.comLiquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen 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, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And I'm joined by my vice mayor and fellow Gabriel Moreno fan, the one and only thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Derek, is this Carlos Correa thing? Like, is this going to happen? Is Carlos Correa just going to linger for months? Is that what's happening here? Is it groundshog day, Jesse?

I don't understand what we are. talking about here. Of course, we have so much more trade talk, trade discussion to get to. We're going to take a deep dive looking at Gabriel Moreno's numbers. But first, as Jesse said, we have some Carlos Correa talk to discuss. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app, America's top rated sportsbook app. Jesse, what the hell is going on? What the hell is going on with Carlos Correa and the Mets? Things are not looking good for this deal to go down now? What does that happen? I, I, yeah, I think I, I read it one source put it at 55% that Carlos Correa will still will still be in New York Met.

At this point, I'm convinced they're just kind of making up numbers. I don't know how you could possibly have like that precise of a probability. And a half percent probability. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know the validity of this. But yeah, it sounds like the Mets and the and Carlos Correa and along with Scott Boris, of course, are in negotiations.

and it seems that there is, there is more staying power to these negotiations. I think there's more to these negotiations than what was happening between the Giants and Carlos Creas camp prior, which seemed like it just didn't really go anywhere. And the Giants were just kind of doing their homework on the medicals and weren't really reporting back anything to Scott Boris.

And eventually he was like, all right, you know, we gave you a reasonable amount of time. Now we have to move on to other teams. But it is interesting that other teams, have started to get involved with this, as you would expect. Apparently, we've had three teams, or at least multiple teams, reported as we don't know who those teams are, but we know that other teams have checked in on Carlos Correa. And given, you know, what's happened with the Mets and what happened with the Giants,

that's not particularly surprising. John Haman reported Monday evening that Kray is not open to the idea of restructuring his reported agreement with the Mets, which sounds like that's something that the Mets might want to do based on this medical information being provided to them. I just, I have to, like, what the hell is going on? This is like, this is sincerely buying like a used car after your friend passed up on it because he got the Carfax report on it. Yeah. And found out that it's been in several accidents that they weren't disclosing to you. Like, that's what this feels like. And then you went ahead and bought it anyway, knowing that information? Like, the Mets were in on Correa,

knowing that the Giants were out based on the medical concerns. And now they seem to all of a sudden have the same medical concerns. The wildest part is the three teams, that there are three teams reportedly still in on Correa, should this deal fall apart for the Mets. And what are those teams thinking? Like what the hell is even happening here? This just doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

And honestly, Correa's medical concerns seem to be something significant now. not just the minor thing that the giants were kind of blowing out of proportion. Right. I mean, and Steve Cohen, remember Steve Cohen after this agreement was reached, went on record saying we needed one more thing and this is it. This was important.

This puts us over the top. Those are the exact words of Steve Cohen. Those are famous last words. Those are. I mean, maybe infamous last words. We'll see how things turn out. But you know that if an owner comes out and speaks like that about a deal,

and then the deal potentially, you know, I'm not saying it's going to fall through. It seems like most likely this will still go down. But the fact that it's hit as much of a roadblock as it has shows you how serious these medical concerns are. Like the Mets were all in on this. Steve Cohen is on the record talking about how great of a move this is going to be for them. And even that team is looking at these medical records and saying, oh man, like maybe we didn't

really understand what we were getting into. Maybe the San Francisco Giants were onto something here. And we've also heard that Carlos Craya didn't want to restructure, you know, the terms of this deal, the number of years, the amount of money, which I mean, no surprise is there. Of course, he's not going to want to. But it looks like he's probably going to have to. Or maybe it's, you know, maybe they keep the same numbers, but there's just some sort of caveat about if something happens to his leg, then, you know, maybe they would, the guarantee part of

the guarantee would go away or maybe they have some other provision in there, but something is probably going to have to change for this contract in order, uh, in order for this deal to get done. I just, this is, this is crazy to me because obviously part of this is a team that had no problem spending literally going out there. And like you said, like his, his infamous, what could be infamous last words, that sounds like somebody, you know, just grabbing whatever is. is left on the shelf. You know, we've made the Black Friday comparisons and kind of joked about that,

but that's almost what it feels like. I've been in that position myself where you went out, you were probably at a store for a particular item. They most likely didn't have very many, and you probably didn't get there in time. So now, instead of just taking the L and getting it in your car and leaving, you're going to buy something else. And it's not just going to be an item someone wants. It's going to be some sort of forced situation where you're buying a gift for someone that they didn't even want, but you're getting it because it's a good deal. And you're not leaving, but taking that loss, right? The Mets seemed to be out there active and trying to fulfill a certain wish list of a number of all-stars.

And Carlos Correa was that last one on the list, or at least there was that last spot. They saw an opportunity here with the Giants rethinking their deal that they made with him, and they swooped in and stole him away. But again, ah, man, like this. This and this whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. And I'm sincerely concerned about Correa's future in this game, considering this stuff coming up. Like, I don't know.

But obviously there's something pretty significant there. And I'm still just not, I still can't believe that there are three teams still on it. That's the other part. It's wild. Yeah, this is not something that we normally see, right? like 99.999% of the time when you see such and such a team is in agreement with such and such a free agent, pending a physical.

You don't even think twice about it. The physical is usually a formality. But yeah, in this case, it's a surgery that Carlos Correa had. I believe it's a fractured fibula that he suffered way back in 2014 when he was in the minor leagues. This goes back almost a decade. As far as we know, Carlos Correa has not really had any issues with this since then. So we don't know exactly what's going on here, but it seems like there are some details surrounding that surgery that have brought up some concerns about, you know, what is Carlos Correa going to

look like in five years, you know, in 10 years, how is this deal going to age? And to I Amelari's comment that he just left, he said, didn't Correa get a physical when he signed with the twins? I'm curious what changed between now and then. Yes, absolutely. Carlos Correa got a physical when he signed with the twins just a year ago, but there's a big difference between signing a three-year deal with an opt-out after the first year versus, you know, the kind of 13-year deal. 11-year deal.

You're going to scrutinize the details of that physical way more when you're signing a deal as long as this one, and that's the key difference. I can't help but think, too, this puts you at odds with maybe some of these moves that the bigger teams are trying to make where they're spreading the money out throughout a number of years to try to avoid as much luxury tax as possible. As we talk with the, as we talk about the past the Mets, the Mets don't give a damn about that, at least not right now in the short term. But there will come a day where they, where they do care about that.

And let's not even, do we even need to talk about Bobby Bonilla day? Like, come on. Like, this is, this is something that teams don't want to be a part of. I still couldn't, I couldn't believe to find out that Bernard Gilke was making a million dollars plus a year from the Diamondbacks just up until a few years ago, just living the fat life off of that million dollar paycheck he gets once a year. So we want to try to avoid deferring payments and paying these long-term contracts, but especially if you're going to do it with a guy that has an uncertain future as far as

health concerns go, right? I don't know, though. Like you said, it's really weird that this injury from 2014 is now coming up as a main reason, something that has not been a consistently nagging injury or anything that has been coming back up. It's just something that apparently seems to have like a, I don't know, some sort of like time frame on it almost like, oh, it's almost, it's almost guaranteed to re-break, you know, at some point in the next 10 years. And that right there is enough for these teams to not want to commit to this long-term deal. But they're not the only team in New York still trying to make a deal happen.

The New York Yankees continue to pursue Brian Reynolds from the Pirates in a trade. This feels a bit like the trade between the debacks and the Blue Jays due to it making some sense for both teams. Right? Yeah. And that might be the reason why they're connected. I know that there has been talk about the Yankees contacting the pirates. The Pirates also signed Dick Mountain, aka Rich Hill, to a one-year deal, which is, again, very exciting to see someone older than me still in baseball.

that makes me feel better. I think it's incredible that Rich Hill is going to make $8 million in his age 43 season. Let's go. That's absolutely close. That's the American dream right there. Let's fucking go, Rich Hill. But going back to the Yankees, for the first time and a long time, it really does feel like they have to make a move to keep up with the competition. The Yankees for once seem like the team that isn't spending outrageous amounts of money

and trying to go after every big name free agent. but this move for a left fielder definitely feels like something that's a necessity to help them keep up with all the other teams in the American League. I think it is. I think it is. It just doesn't make sense if you're the Yankees to, you know, bring back Aaron Judge, go get Carlos Erdog. And then just not really have like a great everyday left fielder. Obviously, they lost Andrew Benintendi to the Chicago White Sox who brought him in for five years in 75 million. honestly, that seems like maybe a reasonable deal that maybe the Yankees should have done.

But yeah, they have a hole there. There's no question. They don't have an option there, at least not that is of the caliber of the player that they have at most other positions on the diamond. And if you're going all in, like the Yankees certainly are, it just doesn't make sense to let that happen. So I expect the Yankees will do something in left field. MLB trade rumors just published a story where they looked at all of the Yankees.

his left field options. I was amused that the Diamondbacks were still mentioned in that article as a possible trade partner. You know, yeah, of course, everyone's noticing the same thing. Everyone is noticing that the Diamondbacks traded Dalton Vars show and got an outfielder

back. And technically they still have an outfield surplus. I don't think that's how the team views the situation internally. But I hope not. I hope that's not how they view it internally. That's for sure. Yeah, and I don't think they do.

We didn't ask Mike Hazen about that directly. over the weekend during that press conference. But I would be very, very surprised if that's something that the Diamondbacks were seriously considering at this point. So yeah, I think Brian Reynolds makes a lot of sense. It still would be surprising to see Brian Reynolds stay on the pirates despite what the team said. You know, they came out after he requested a trade and said, you know, we're not going to

trade Brian Reynolds. We are excited to have him, you know, come back next year and have a great season as a Pittsburgh pirate. but they had to say that all along. That didn't really mean much. It still feels like the pirates are probably wasting an opportunity if they hold on to Brian Reynolds even beyond this offseason. Well, Jesse, we don't do this often,

but in light of what is going on with Carlos Correa, we are going to go ahead and give Carlos Correa's physical the OG's performance to forget. Can you do that? Like is a physical a it's not really a performance Derek it's just sort of like this is this is a nightmare situation and it is something that all teams involved would like to forget especially if the deal doesn't go down with the Mets and some other team steps up here and is once again a new suitor a new challenger if you will that comes along and tries to take the crown and the crown being Carlos Correa and his faulty fibia I don't know but anyway you like fibula but anyway you guys Of course, make sure to check out our friends at OGs.

They're all about flavoring life and making performances like this, easier to forget. But make sure to check them out your local dispensary. They have a wide variety of doses and strains for you to choose from, not to mention the fact that they have an excellent sleep edition gummy. Right here, Jesse. I got it right here. It's on me at all times. So whenever I need a quick nap, I got the OG's sleep formula ready to go.

But of course, anyone this offseason that has to deal with Carlos Correa and his situation, getting their hopes up, they could use some ojis at this point. But find them at your local dispensary. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. If you guys are here right now in the pH and exports YouTube channel, make sure to sign up. Subscribe. Do all that. If you haven't done so already, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live.

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It finally feels like it's time to pay off with this Gabriel Moreno trade. The one thing that gets me the most excited, Jesse, is it's like Voltron coming together, which is probably yet another reference that you're not going to get, but it's five robots, five robots come together, make a big robot. That's what the Dima Beck's core feels like is coming together between Corbyn Carroll, Brandon Fott, Alec Thomas, and now the acquisition of Gabriel Moreno. Not to mention the fact that often the distance in their own mechanical lions is Jordan Lawler and Drew Jones.

It's a very exciting time that this team is so young that it's going to be under team control for a number of years. And honestly, it finally feels like their core is. kind of figured out, you know, that we're past that giant stone of marble and we've got it whittled down to kind of looking like a person, like a statue a little bit. It's not refined. It's not there yet. But you can see what it's going to look like in the near future. You can. Yeah, it's become kind of a fun thought experiment for me. I've spent a lot of time the last few days just like on my notes app on my computer just like messing around with different

lineups that the diamond bags could possibly put together it's kind of a fun little game to play right now that you have both garell and gabby moreno coming in the the puzzle starts to fit together kind of like what you're what you're describing if you think about you know jake mccarthy maybe he's your left fielder you've got carroll and right field you've got alec thomas and center third base probably going to be josh rojas nick omit at shortstop second base you've got catel marty christian walker at first gabriel merino behind the plate it's like okay like yeah you you can win some games with that lineup we're getting to the point where and i don't think we've been at this point for a while where you can you can kind of play around with different

lineups and different ways of of arranging the players that the diamond backs have uh into an everyday roster and kind of thinking about what their depth chart might look like and it's it's kind of fun to think about all the different options they have and the fact that on paper, it's actually starting to look pretty good. Yeah. And not just that, but Gabbyo Mareo didn't have a lot of games last year at a major league level. He only played 25.

Right. If you want to take that small amount of offense, that small sample size away, the man slash 319, 356, 377, which is a great, but with a 733 OPS, that 319 batting average. That's really important. The Diamondbacks haven't really had somebody that hit anywhere close to that. I know for a period of time, Emmanuel Rivera was a 300 hitter while he first joined this club. I know we've talked about in the past, Catelle Marte, just consistently hitting 320 in his career and being capable of that. If we can have a bounce back season from Cotel and have somebody else like Gabriel Moreno in the lineup, there could be a lot of, a lot of,

of a lot of runs scored between those two guys, even if he's not doing it with the boomstick, the way that Dalton Varsho did last season. Exactly. Yeah, I think that's kind of part of the calculus of this trade, is the Diamondbacks and Mike has acknowledged this. Like, yeah, the Diamondbacks gave up some power in this move. But also, they got Gabriel Moreno, who as you said, hit 319 last year, really small sample size.

But if you look at his minor league numbers, career 315 hitter in the minor. So you feel like that might have some staying. power. And then you look at Lordus Gurriel Jr., who is a 291 hitter last year, a 285 hitter for his career. The Diamondbacks is a team in 2022, ranked 26th in batting average. They hit 230 as a team. And I know batting average is not the end-all be-all, and I will certainly be the first one to say that. But it's also like kind of difficult in some ways to put together a solid lineup when you have a lot of guys who just aren't really hitting for average. And that's, as you said, some of the debacks, they haven't had many hitters who hit for average for a while,

really. Catelle has had some nice seasons offensively, but outside of him, it's been mostly, you know, 240, 250 and below. And I think there's something to be said for having a couple of guys, at least for 2023, who reasonably could hit around 300 for this team. What's wild is I don't want to, you know, bash Varsho. I don't want to turn this into that. I do want us to get over losing Varsho a little bit, right? And one of the things you said right there, the team, as a team hit 2.30, which happened to be Varsho's batting average last season, right? So as much as he was, you know, a valuable member, especially defensively of this team, he did lack in quite a few ways offensively. He had some great power, but he just couldn't put it together consistently. That's something you could say about the entire team, though. That's something you could say about their entire season.

Varsha was definitely one of the better ones all in all. But you're right. Like batting average wasn't a strength for him. And it is a strength for the two players coming in. And there's something to be said for kind of getting something that you really didn't already have in, you know, the hit tool that those two guys have. At all levels, Gabrielle Moreno is hitting 313, 375, 470 with an 845 OPS. And that's, that's consistent. That's consistent.

That's one thing that we need is consistency. I saw a lot of talk about, mostly from like Blue Jays fans, I think some Diamondbacks fans, but Blue Jays fans had some, some thoughts. Some called him a future Hall of Famer and said that they were potentially losing that.

And then some were more realistic and said, hey, can we not call a kid that just played 25 games at a major league level, a future Hall of Famer, right? who knows what the future holds, who knows what the future holds for any of these three guys, to be honest. We talked about Varsho potentially having, you know, a career year last year. Who knows if that's true? Maybe he's just starting to peak. Maybe he has just begun. He really could be. I mean, 2020 was Dalton Varsho's first full season in the big leagues. We have to remember that. I mean, he only played about 90 games in 2021.

And he just kind of got a cup of coffee in the major leagues the year before that. So, Donald Varshow, this really was. kind of his first official fall season in the big league. So there's certainly some untapped potential there as well. Heath Klein in the comment says Varsho has drafted 68th overall in 2017, hoping he could be an offensive catcher. What's wrong with trading him for a guaranteed offensive catcher? There's nothing wrong with that. And I believe that's the point I was trying to make yesterday when it came to this trait. As great as Varsho has been. And again, you don't, it doesn't really matter. It's irrelevant to say, oh, wow, this guy changed from

this position of this position and he's great there, but we should get rid of him. I'm just saying with the surplus of outfielders they had, it made sense to trade Dalton, considering that he was supposed to be what you just described. Their offensive catcher of the future, he was supposed to be able to be behind the plate and share time with Carson Kelly. That didn't happen. And for whatever reason, they obviously, they felt like Gabriel, oh, you son of a bitch. Gabriel says the D-BACs Hall of Fame inductees in 24 is looking good.

Moreno, Jones, Lawler, Carolyn Gallon, all of them, all of them. 20-45. What did I say? Well, whatever. I don't say 2025 because that's when we're going to win the World Series. But back to reality. I just, I really like this move. And in the end, even honestly, even if Dalton Barsoe goes on a tear in Toronto, if Gabriel

Moreno can be that. If he can be the catcher, it seems to be. a bigger need for this team rather than having a star studded outfield of like five or six guys at this point. I was listening to another, another Blue Jays podcast last night, which has become something of a pastime of mine ever since the trade happened, just, you know,

kind of getting to see what some Blue Jays people think of this. Just buying on them. It's enjoyable. But I've, I've definitely heard a growing sentiment within the Blue Jays fan base that you don't know what Gabriel Moreno is going to be, right? Like you look at the prospect rankings, you look at this stuff. You have no guarantees of what Gabriel Moreno is going to be, whereas you do sort of,

not a guarantee, but you have a pretty good idea of what Dalton Varsho offers at the big league level. And I think that's fair. I think that's a fair point to make that you don't know what Gabriel Moreno is going to be. But also, a lot of the prospects that we make that comment about are guys that are still in single A, right? Or guys who just made it to double A.

or there's a difference. There's a difference between a guy in double A or even AAA and a guy who's already seen the majors and has already had success and did not in any way look overwhelmed by Major League pitching. Gabriel Moreno had eight strikeouts in 73 played appearances. That's a strikeout rate of about 11%, which is basically half of the league average. So it's hard for me to look at that and say like, okay, Moreno, but it's still a small sample size.

we still need to see more. But in his first taste of the big leagues, he didn't look overwhelmed. He looked like he belonged. And that's why I think you can have more confidence in Gabriel Moreno than most prospects that we talk about in that way. Just covering his numbers from last season, which were very good.

In AAA, he hit 315, 386, 420. The prior year in AA, he hit 373, 441, 651, with a 1.092 OPS. Oh, and by the way, in a, in a, in a, I don't know what league this is, but it wasn't very many at bats. He hit 750. So like, let's just realize that this guy. That was, uh, that looks like a, I think that was a probably a rehab assignment. He played two rookie league games.

He went three for four. But yeah, seven 50. Let's go. Shut up. Jesse. Shut up. I thought you were a numbers guy. The 373 though.

The 373. I'm, I'm talking positively here. All right. The 373 is genuinely insane. And that was a year when a lot of people were realizing like, okay, this kid could be really good. You have to remember, Gabriel Moreno signed for $25,000 as an amateur out of Venezuela. He was not a big name international signing whatsoever at the time. And so it's kind of taken time for people to realize like, oh, man, this kid's really good. And that year, once you had AA and you're putting up numbers like that, it becomes very, very hard to ignore.

And unfortunately, I believe he broke his thumb, certainly thereafter, had surgery. So that was sort of a shortened year for him. You see those crazy numbers in AA was over 32 games. It was a pretty small sample. But, yeah, you can see what he was able to do at that level. That's also the last time that we've seen Gabriel Moreno hit for serious power. You mentioned his numbers in AAA this past season, a slugging percentage of 420, which is decent. But it's still relative to a 315 batting average.

It's still below average power. But I think, you know, if the guy's hitting 300, you're probably okay. You're probably okay with that. But I guess the point I'm making is if you look at his minor league numbers from years prior, there are signs here that Gabriel Moreno is not necessarily, you know, your slap hitter who's going to slug under 400. he's put up some big power numbers in the past. There's just sort of been a change of approach the last couple of years that has kind of lent itself to him being a little bit more hitterish,

a little bit less swinging for the fences, at least over the last couple of years. Well, some projections for Gabredo Moreno next year kind of come back down to Earth versus that small sample size that he had in 22. But the numbers are still pretty good. We're talking about a batting average of 276, OBP of 335 with a 418 slug and a 753 OPS.

So I mean, honestly, even though those numbers take a dip, it still makes them one of the best hitters on the debacks. Yeah, absolutely. Our friend Jack Summers did kind of a deep dive into some of the numbers and found that I think he was taking the average of Zips and Steamer, which are the two publicly available, projections systems that are out right now. If you take the average of those two things,

you find that Gabriel Moreno grades out as the second most valuable position player that the Diamondbacks have. I think Catelle Marte, the projection system, still really like because of how much success he's out in the past. Catell grades out as the most valuable position player the debacks have. Gabriel Moreno is right behind. For some reason, Steamer seems to like him a lot more than Zips does. But, you know, I mean, kids 22 years old.

So those numbers will probably come up over time. he gets more reps in the big leagues. I'm just very excited for it, Jesse. I'm very excited for it. I'm even excited, you know, for the addition of Lordus Guriel. I think that, of course, I've talked about he seems like a delightful personality. So there's that. But I really do think he can have, add something special to this team.

He also is on the final year of a contract. So this is a guy that's hopefully going to be playing his heart out in an effort to try to land a new deal either with the Diamondbacks or with another club. Maybe he ends up becoming a trade deadline candidate for this club if his deal is up after the end of the season, right? But what I'm not ready yet, Jesse, is I'm not ready for Lordus Guriel to be taking number 12 from Dalton Bar Show. Which is exactly what he did.

Is it not too early for this? This is too early. I don't like this, Jesse. I don't look at this. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it one big. It's weird.

I mean, granted, this isn't something I've never, I've never really paid very close attention to this sort of thing. But it's pretty odd when you get traded for a guy and you take that guy's number. The body isn't even cold yet. It's weird. In another man's shoes? What's happening here? I don't like this one bit. I don't like it.

Another thing I don't like is a gift that I'm giving to the Toronto Blue Jays fans that are here. today. I am bestowing upon you one of my most treasured memes. And I want you guys to not only take care of Dalton Varshow, but I want to make sure that you take care of Dalton Varshow and all of his tools. So I went ahead. I put a little hat on our Dalton Varshow meme and put that up. That's, uh, that hurts, Jesse. I don't like, I don't want to look at that at all. But there you go. You're getting this man and all of those tools. he will go two for four and then he'll replace all the plumbing in your house that's the kind of guy that you're getting right there what a guy going going back real quick to the jersey number thing it does make a little bit of sense here i wouldn't i wouldn't start claiming that lordis gareel was like he wanted number 12 just to like i don't know like i don't know like don't know i want no i want his number give me his number you know garyel garyl wore he wore 13 with the Toronto Blue Jays his entire time there. Number 13, of course, already taken on the Arizona Diamondbacks and Nick Ahmed. So he goes to number 12. It kind of makes sense. We have some other Jersey updates. Ryan Nelson switches from 52 to 19, while Kyle Nelson switches from number 50 to 24. Drey Jamison switches from 58 to number 27, once Zach Davies left. And this is the one. This is the one that infuriates me, Jesse.

This one I'll never forgive. Jake McCarthy is switching his number from 30 to 31 so that Scott McGuff, brand new relief pitcher can have number 30. And we didn't do this for Seth Beer? We didn't do this for Seth Beer?

What are we even fucking doing anymore, Jesse? My God. Yeah, I mean, numbers are just weird, right? And you do see this a lot where guys will like they'll come up and they'll just kind of take a number you know just like you know whatever whatever you give me whatever take it and then and then once you've been in the league for for a few months then the next year like okay now now i'm you know i'm a veteran around here i get to pick my own number uh i don't really have a rationale for any of these

i did check into uh kyle nelson's number switch and i was told that uh 24 is a number that he likes. That's all that's all I have to share on that. I really know the full story there. But, uh, but, but yeah, I like 24 too. It's my birthday. I like that. We'll get some more clarity on on where all these, uh, where all these came from because I'm sure, I'm sure they all have their reasons. Well, you stay tuned to go phnx.com so that Jesse can provide you with the riveting reasons behind all of these number changes. If you haven't done so already, sign up for a diehards membership. diehard's membership will not only get you a piece of our amazing merchandise every single year from the p hnx locker.com, it will get you discounts at that same website, as well as discounts on our events,

individual and exclusive invites to Discord or diehard events only. Obviously, we have our diehard Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan and all sorts of other benefits, including the diehard's only newsletter, where Jesse is giving you the full count. and of course providing you with the best information on the Arizona Diamondbacks, along with the wonderful writing of Craig Morgan, Gerald Borgay, Howard Balser, and more. So make sure to sign up for a diehard membership. Diehard membership right now will get you a discount at our inaugural PHNXT party,

which is taking place on January 13th. There's no reason for the holiday parties to stop. We're heading full head into this wonderful event at the Dobson Ranch golf course. Obviously, diehards get a discount there on the entry fee, and that entry fee will include unlimited range balls, a set of rental clubs if you don't have your own, as well as one free hour of range time and golf balls at Dobson Ranch to be used at a later date. We're going to be having a blast with the PHNX Suns crew watching the Suns versus the Timberwolves on giant jumbo screens. There'll be mini games, including me beating you in Cornhole, Saul maybe beating you in pickleball. And of course, the main event is Jesse Whooping That Ass and Ping-Pong. contest entries include the longest drive.

That is the primary. That's the primary focus of this event. It's just for Jesse to challenge diehard golf. Why, whatever, whatever. That's what you say. That's not what we're for. Your primary focus is golf. Yeah, yeah.

Speak for yourself, Jacob. Yeah, no, but the golf is incredible. I've talked about it a whole bunch. I don't even understand how this driving range works. It's like, which is magic to me. But somehow they track your ball. There's all sorts of wonderful game. It's just like Top Golf without the nets around you.

This time, instead of you hitting a net, the computer will tell you your jackass and that there's sending somebody to come check on you. That's what the computer will do here. No, it's great. But of course, we're going to be having a blast. So join us at the inaugural PHNXT party presented by our friends at Four Peaks. We are renting out that entire driving range. So it's going to be a good time.

Die-Hards and non-di-hards alike can join us and join in on the fun. Four Peaks will be there providing beer samples and swag. Check the link in the description. reserve your spot right now. And of course, if you are a diehard, check the Discord for your special link that will save you 20% off on this awesome event. If you're not going to join us, make sure to join us in spirit remotely from wherever you're at. Go grab some Four Peaks Brewing Company beer, wherever you get your beers and enjoy that. Must be 21 or over to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Jesse, I am not happy because things aren't getting fixed. I don't, I'm not a person. I can't

stand for stuff to not work around my house. Like, especially considering I spend so much time here by myself, I have to fix stuff. I can't let stuff just go unfixed, but the Diamondbacks are not like me. Derek Hall said in an interview with Steve Gilbert that apparently the retractable roof at the vault, aka the vault's door, that's why we want to call it the vault. We need a vault door to work that the roof will not be fixed in time for the 2023 season. He said in the article, We were in the interview, we have a long maintenance plan for the entire building. We cannot address the roof concerns for another year due to offseason events such as concerts, the bowl game, and the world baseball schedule.

However, we can still decide before fans enter the gates whether the roof should be opened or closed. So the experience should be the same. We're also looking for ways to enhance the overall experience by locations and destinations within Chasefield to modernize the 25-year-old ballpark. We want to bring it up to speed in the next few years when it comes to premium offerings and state, of the art technology and amenities. So what I take away from this is less about that part where he said the offseason events. And I think it's more about maybe a full on renovation in some way of Chase Field.

Maybe something that's going to require them to do a lot of work all at once versus just having, you know what I mean, part of the work done and then having to do it at a later time with, with, you know, finishing things up. So I don't know for sure, but it does seem like a miss because if you look at the schedule, it doesn't really look like there's a whole lot preventing them from getting that roof fixed between today's bowl game and their next event there, which seems to be the world baseball classic in the middle of March. I think we have to do like maybe a little bit more verifying to be able to like be totally

sure on that. But yeah, because as far as. I'm sure there are other events that aren't major events, right? Like not, we're just looking at the big ticketed events, you know, like, aside from that, Morgan Waller is going to perform there in July and then pink next October. But that's pretty much just all on their event schedule. There might be a lot of other things going on there.

I do know that they hold events on the field for like Little League teams and schools and all sorts of other stuff during the off season. So that very well could be. it, but I don't know, man. I mean, this seems like a big miss. And for a stadium that kind of needs that roof to be able to open

during the games. They can't, I mean, I've been there on days where they left the roof open all day. And even with it being nice outside, it was still really, really hot on field. And I mean, this is like in March and April early on. So, you know,

it just seems to be a terrible missed opportunity. in taking care of this issue as quickly as possible. I mean, let's face it, right? Like, Chasefield doesn't have that much going for it at the end of the day, right? In terms of things that make it unique or cool. And I know there are people who really like the ballpark, which I understand. I mean, there's certainly been some cool things that have happened there and the retractable roof and whatnot.

But, yeah, like Chasefield doesn't have that many unique factors. kind of old, right? You're going on 25 years at this point. And it hasn't really seen any major renovation since it was first, since it was first put into place way back in 1998, right? So yeah, I think this is a big, a big missed opportunity for the debacks. And granted, like you said, maybe there are some reasons we just don't have all the information here. Maybe there are some events that are really keeping them from being able to put these, to be able to take care of the roof as it needs to be taken care of, but it is really unfortunate. I mean, being at the ballpark basically every day, there are certain days, there were certain days where you felt like, oh, they might

actually be able to open the roof today. But because they didn't have the ability to open or close it while there were people in the stands, they were very, very cautious. And they would not open the roof unless they knew for sure that it wasn't going to rain and that it was going to be cool enough outside, you know, for it to be comfortable for fans. And, Those things just aren't really going to happen in Phoenix outside of April and maybe certain days in May. After that, you're probably looking at Chase Field, you know, being the airplane hangar that's closed all the time from that point forward, which is really unfortunate. I know the team during the season, they talked about how they were trying to maybe fix the roof while the team was on the road, but that there were supply chain issues, keeping them from getting the parts that they needed. But it's confusing, right?

because that makes it seem like maybe the repairs wouldn't take that long if they were talking about doing it on the road. It doesn't seem like you need like months of the building being empty. But yeah, we don't we don't have all the information, but it is unfortunate that Diamondbacks fans are going to have to put up with a in general closed chase field pretty much the entire season once again. Yeah. And honestly, some of the night games, they could open it like after a couple of innings. but the problem is is that if they have to leave it open all day before the fans arrive, which usually is around like 5 o'clock for a 640 start, it's just going to preheat the stadium far too much for it to be comfortable,

even if it cools off a little bit once the sun goes down. So I do think this is cool, though, because they are using real grass on the field today for the bowl game. and apparently after the game is over, they're going to donate that grass to a park in Glendale. So that's kind of cool. It's also kind of interesting to know that Chase Field can have real grass added to it that easily for a sporting event, considering that this is something that actually just recently had to be added after whenever their last concert was there.

So it didn't take very much time for them to put this grass down. It's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is all like thinking about the long-term future of the debacks. I know there was the whole Henderson Nevada thing that happened a couple of years ago, some speculation about the team potentially moving away from Arizona. I wouldn't think of those as being likely scenarios at this point, but it does appear, and I use the word appear intentionally, because it's hard to say for sure exactly what's happening,

but it appears that the diamondbacks are kind of not wanting to put in a dollar more than they have to, right? It feels like it's kind of a bare minimum sort of an approach, which is what you would do if you felt that Chase Field wasn't a long-term home. And I think we can confidently say the D-backs don't necessarily view Chase Field as a long-term home at this point. We've talked about this, but let's be honest. The Diamondbacks want to probably move near Salt River Fields.

That would be probably their. peak destination for where they could put a baseball stadium. It would be over there close to that entertainment district that's already ready made, that they're never going to get where they're at now because the Phoenix Convention Center isn't going anywhere. It's never going anywhere. I don't ever foresee that building going anywhere. But if it does, I still don't see like an entertainment district being put up across the street.

They do have like, so there was some legislation pass that allowed the diamond backs officially to create a theme park district around the stadium that they could charge some sort of an extra tax for and make some money off of it. Derek Hall has said that he doesn't like the idea of kind of taxing fans, you know, over and above what they would normally be paying for things. Why can't it be like Tempe? Right? Where the facility is going in out there for the coyotes would potentially have just the tax revenue from that facility going to pay for it, right? So it's not like it's not like it's an additional tax. It's just the tax revenue from sales made at that facility would go towards paying for it. That seems like one of the most ideal situations for adding something like this, right? Not adding extra tax, but just, you know, using the tax from the facility to go to pay for the facility.

It's going to renovate and make Phoenix, you know, it's going to make downtown Phoenix even that much more of a hub for people to go. It's going to make it that much more of a, of a, attractive destination. I mean, let's be honest, people right now talk about downtown Phoenix. There's not a lot of people that are like me that love going down there because of how spread apart it is and at times how difficult it is to like have to walk in between, you know, one place to another. Nothing is really close knit where you can just kind of walk down one street. Roosevelt's getting to be a little bit like that where you can kind of park your car and walk down Roosevelt. There's a bunch of great like breweries and stuff right there. But those areas and

downtown Phoenix are are kind of few and far between. It seems like, and especially with the construction and shit going on down there, it makes it even that much less desirable to be down there. And we all know the construction in downtown Phoenix is never going to end. It's just, it's until the end of time. That's what it's scheduled for until the end of time. But anyway, I don't know. I agree with your sentiment.

I think that that is, could be very much why we're not seeing renovations done to this ballpark yet. Or my other thought is, again, if you're going to renovate your kitchen and you're going to change the countertops and you're going to change the cabinets and you're going to do all of this work, you might as well fucking do it all at once. There's no point to change out the leaky faucet now when you have a plan in a couple of weeks just to go in on a full, you know, full construction plan. So yeah. If you're going to like redo the roof at Chase Field, you know, maybe you shouldn't like put a whole bunch of money into fixing the existing one. And that is where you're coming from. Or if you're going to have construction going on that's going to involve multiple things up, you know, in the top of the building, might as well do it all at once, right?

Like, yeah, they're in desperate need to update the lights to keep up with other stadiums. I want fucking cool LED lights that can do a light show and shit, Jesse. I want that. I need that. If there's anything that's going to benefit from a goddamn stadium that's an airplane hanger, it's having a cool light show going on inside for God's sake. I think there. restricted on fireworks too because of like the airport being right there so yeah maybe maybe a light

show is is like a good healthy alternative since when are they restricted on fireworks is that something new i had heard that years ago that like because the diamondbacks have never they've done fireworks in the post season but the diamondbacks at least to my knowledge have not usually done fireworks for like every home run during a regular oh no no no no but that is something that is something that a lot of other games do. And to my knowledge, the reason of that has to do with the airport. But I do not have official sources confirming that. So that might be dated information.

But I think that was a factor at one point. That would make sense why they kind of relegate it to just being after games on Friday. Right. That's when they do fireworks. It's like a specific time. Obviously, they have the fireworks show. Yeah. I think they can maybe do it if it's like a scheduled.

Scheduled event. Yeah. So that's, the harbor knows that it's going on and stuff like that. Something like that. I want random fireworks. Maybe inside the airplane hanger, Jesse. Let's figure it out.

If WWE can do it, so can MLB. God damn it. All right. Well, I was on the, the bet show earlier. So make sure to check that out for all of my props, bets, all my stuff.

Not very confident in the suns. DeAndre 8 and I had him under the 10 rebounds for tonight. I don't know, Jesse. I don't know what's going on with this team. I did that stupid mayor video. I asked the Diamondbacks to do something. They did something, but I also said the Cardinals were going to slack off and the suns were going to choke.

And those things are happening too. So I'm starting to think that maybe this is my fault. But of course, if it is, hopefully we can at least make some money off of my picks earlier. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Use our code of PHNX if you haven't signed up yet. For new customers, if you place a $5 pregame money line bet on any NBA team to win their game, you will get $150 in free bets if they do. That's promo code PHNX.

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Kyle says, use your powers for good. You are now AZ Sports Nostradam. I don't like that. That's not. I'm not taking that. Charles Woodall Pike says if the Rattlers can have fireworks, why can't we? That's a great point, Jesse. If the Rattlers can have indoor fireworks, let's do it.

Let's go. I'm for it. We're going to get Derek Hall in here in a few in a week or two. So I promise you, once we get them in here, we're going to get him on board with indoor fireworks and other things. But in the meantime, make sure to follow us all on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman.

our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for being here, for being in the chat, for being fans of whatever team you're a fan of. We are low-key Toronto Blue Jays podcast now, so if you're a fan of that team,

just stick around. We'll talk about your players every single show, I promise you. Tomorrow deep dive into George Springer. Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about that. Let's see if you guys like or hate that contract because it doesn't look like a good one at this point.

But anyway, come back tomorrow. We would love to have you. In the meantime, we thank you guys again so much for being here. On behalf of Father-overlord Jacob, Jesse, and myself, we always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you pass the physical.