PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - With Opening Day a week away, who will claim the final spot in the Diamondbacks’ starting rotation?

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

The fifth spot in the Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitching rotation is coming down to the wire. Both Ryne Nelson and Drey Jameson were both in action, and we have your updates on their outings. Meanwhile, Merrill Kelly and the rest of the WBC players are back and had rave reviews about their experiences. WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: www.fubotv.com/phnxBUY 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: Our next PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch is LIVE! Join us on Friday, March 24th for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Come hang with the PHNX crew, fellow Suns’ fans and Diehards as we watch KD, Booker, and the Suns battle in the final stretch of the season as they take on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Sacramento Kings.Checkout the PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch Eventbrite to reserve your spot today. And Diehards, check Discord for your exclusive discount link!Circle K: Text code “PHNX” to 31310 to win a $500 gas card! Limit one entry per person—limit of one entry per phone number. The offer is valid for Arizona residents only. Must be able to verify the place of residence. This contest is administered at the discretion of the Grand Canyon Division of Circle K Stores. Circle K Store Inc. is a part of Alimentation Couche-Tard. You must be 18 years of age or older to win. For questions about this contest or our stores, text ”CARE” to 31310.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxOGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXSPORTS_15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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 to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monta, occasionally known as a vulgar person. And this guy's making sure that on my last episode before turning 42, that I don't curse on this episode. I never said anything about that, Derek. But if you want to try to do that, then I'm fine down. Anyway, let's see what happens. I feel like I'm going to blow it right out of the gate. But of course, this guy is the vice mayor around these parts.

He's also known as Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Well, hey, maybe today was a little foreshadowing of what's going to happen a week from now. Diamondbacks handily beat the Los Angeles Dodgers this afternoon out at Salt River Fields. And we're only a week away from opening day, Derek. Correct. I mean, I guess maybe the Dodgers aren't going to put in their guy from single A who very much. struggled in this game today. He may or may not take on opening day.

Maybe they will. Maybe that guy is going to make the opening day roster. Who knows? Maybe, maybe this was just a preview. Don't call it. Don't call it a prediction. Call it a spoiler. But yes, the Arizona Diamondbacks handled the Dodgers today with a very potent offensive

first inning. Meanwhile, they get, they lose to the Cubs over at Sloan Park. They had a split squad situation today playing two games. And the big story, of course, is the battle for. the fifth rotation spot for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They have two guys currently basically in the competition. It's Drey Jameson and

Ryan Nelson and both guys started today. And if you want to see just a little preview of what those two outings look like, I think Damon, we have a little image that kind of exemplifies what these guys did today. Yeah, right there. Right there. Did you really

shop hats? Yeah, I threw little hats on them. Little hats. You should fill the audio only people. Yeah, so it's the Spider-Man meme of the two Spider-Man's pointing at each other. Spider-Men. Spider-Men. It's not Spider-Man's. With Diamondback's hats on.

And, of course, that is an example, a metaphor, if you will, for how these two young pitchers' outings went today. Because very similar, and it doesn't make Tori Lavolo's job any easier on this decision at all. No, it really doesn't. And it doesn't make our job any easier and trying to predict who the winner of that battle is going to be. Your job. Not my job. My job's to drink beers, pal. I have no idea.

Yeah, I purposefully, I was going to release my third iteration of my roster projection for the Diamondbacks. I was going to release that over H&X.com. Yeah. Yeah, that title is not official yet. But yeah, I was going to release that before the game today. And I was like, you know what? I should wait. I should see what happens.

Both Drey Jamison and Ryan Nelson are pitching today. Understand. It would, you know, I'd look a little silly if I pick someone. And then that guy blows up. something today. But yeah, we didn't really get any kind of clarity whatsoever. Drey Jameson, four and a third innings, four hits, four runs, four walks, seven strikeouts, Ryan Nelson over at Sloan Park, four and two thirds innings, four hits, three runs, two walks, three strikeouts. There's just not really a big enough difference. And at the end of the day,

we still really don't know. And I don't think the Diamondbacks know either, based on what Tori Lavello has said, it doesn't sound like the Diamondbacks really have a very clear direction on this, at least not with what they've told us. I mean, it goes beyond that, Jesse, because it's not just today's outings. It's the entire spring so far. Dre Jameson might have a slight edge because Ryan Nelson did have a couple of rough starts to start spring training.

But he's gotten back on track. And Jameson, I don't want to say he's falling off or regressed, but he's giving up, his outings haven't been so clean as they were. So they kind of met in the middle. Both have 14 innings pitch with Nelson having a third more. innings pitched. Jameson's given up 16 hits, 12 runs, 12 earned runs. Nelson, 20 hits, 12 runs, 12 earned runs. Jameson's walk seven. Nelson's walked eight. Jameson has 19 strikeouts. Nelson has 13

strikeouts. That's the only big difference. That's the big difference, right? And then the ERAs are very similar. 7.71 for Jameson, a little bit higher of ERA than Nelson, who has a 7.53 ERA. And pretty much the big difference there is that. extra a third of an inning pitch for Nelson. But yeah, I mean, these guys have both pitch five games. Jameson has had five starts, whereas Ryan Nelson had four starts and one right, like kind of a long outing

out of the pen. I'm not going to say it's more semantics than anything. It really was. Yeah, they both pitched in five games. They both pitched in five games. That's really the story there. Yeah, I think Jameson overall, my assessment, I think Jameson overall maybe looked a little bit better than Ryan Nelson. We were both at Salt River today. So we didn't we didn't see Ryan Nelson pitch in person today. So I can't speak much to his outing. Jameson 10, I believe he got 10 swings on his slider. Eight of them were

misses. So his slider has continued to be a really effective weapon. It's his best pitch. Yeah. And Ryan yeah, he said it was his best pitch today, which which makes sense. I mean, I think it is. And then Ryan Nelson, I think the question there is still what exactly is his go-to secondary pitch. He has a few of them. They kind of come and go, it seems like, but his four seamer is real and legit and probably one of the best four seamers in the organization, frankly. So, yeah, it's a tough decision. And I still lean, Dre Jameson a little bit.

He's kind of been the guy I've picked all along. But, I mean, we've got one more outing, Derek. I think they're both going to throw one more time next week. Correct. Tori said both pitchers. We'll have one more start. And that no decision has been made up to this point. Yeah.

Dre did have some thoughts after today's game, just once again, about what he can and can't control. And here's his thoughts on that. We got that? No, I mean, I'm going to go out there. I'm going to do what I can. And like I said, every time it's out of my control. It's in my control to go out there and compete and do the best that I can.

But decision-wise, it's out of my control. So it is frustrating with four walls. But at the end of the day, it's I think I controlled it a little bit. Yeah, I walked a guy. But then I then resulted in getting a ground ball double play and not letting an inning blow up. Now, I think a big thing here too is that Dre Jameson did have a rough first inning. And he was really, really mad about the walks. He did not like those four walks that he gave up today.

That kind of, I think that bothered him more than the earned runs that he gave up, right? But the one thing that, you know, Jameson did do was rebound from a tough first inning, whereas Ryan Nelson kind of had had a pretty solid outing going. I think through three, he'd only given up one hit and one run through three innings. But then things kind of fell off there a little bit at the end. So I don't know how that impacts the decision or if it impacts the decision at all. But once again, Tori Lavello did have a little bit more on how difficult this is. for the organization and how difficult it's been to send down the other guys that were part of this competition.

Probably. Yeah, probably. We want to take as much time as we can to evaluate them. It's a very tough decision, right? So two have been sent out. Those were not easy discussions for any of us. And we just want to be as thorough as we possibly can. So we'll ride it out as long as we can and make the best decision moving forward for this team. So we nothing's been decided You know as of our discussions this morning Nothing has been been figured out This guys will get one more to say right? Yes

And that was him confirming that they both do get one more start And yeah obviously this is the biggest The biggest competition right now on the team But it's not the only competition No it's not right A lot of you have asked us about Kyle Lewis versus Pavin Smith in which one of these guys end up on the roster.

We don't even know technically if it's between these two guys, but we kind of know. We kind of know, right? And Kyle Lewis is not making this easy, again, much like this decision between Jameson and Nelson. Both guys have had a pretty outstanding spring. But it, while, well, common sense. Smith has had a solid spring. Kyle Lewis is sitting 478. He's had an insane spring, right?

But I mean, my point that I was making is it feels like common sense-wise that Pavin Smith is the decision. But Kyle Lewis is just having such a good spring, especially at the dish. We saw him out in the outfield today. He didn't look. He wasn't going to blow your mind with his defense. And we knew that that was going to be the most likely case in the corners for him. But it's just hard to deny what he's doing at the plate right now. he's having an outstanding spring so far.

Yeah, Kyle Lewis, I mean, another home run in this game today. It was one for three with a walk. You look at the numbers overall for spring training, Lewis, as I said, 478, 571 on base percentage. He's slugging literally a thousand. Payman Smith holding his own, right, hitting 333 with an on-base percentage of 33, a slugging percentage of 444. So I think from a slash-line perspective, there's no comparison here, Leo Lewis deserves to make the roster over Pavin Smith.

The question that we've continued to come back to is who is the Diamondbacks backup first baseman if they give that spot to Kyle Lewis. And there are some reasonable options. Lordus Curiel Jr. played eight games at first base last year for the Toronto Blue Jays. Evan Longoria has somehow... It's a lot of experience he has there. Evan Longoria has somehow never played a game at first base in his career.

Really? Never. Not a single inning at first base. at first base in his career. I feel like his name is a name that we would bring up as a potential candidate. Yeah. Right? And I don't know.

I mean, the thought there is that third base is maybe a little bit harder to play defensively. Yeah. Yeah. If you can play third base, generally speaking, you should be able to play first base. It's just a matter of are the diamond backs? I mean, I haven't seen. Like, if they were planning on using Longoria in that spot, you'd expect the D-backs would have given Longoria at least a game or two at first.

space by now. Yeah. But I don't think we've seen that. Like Kyle Lewis is getting some time in the outfield this spring, even though there's a good chance that he might not see any time in the outfield in the regular season this year. We might not see Kyle Lewis do anything but DH potentially. Again, that limits Tori Lavello's ability to utilize someone like Kyle Lewis or Paveit Smith

multiple roles and have them be an asset outside of just, you know, what they're able to provide with a bat. their hand, right? But you were telling me, Payman Smith has not walked in spring training yet. Yeah, Pavan Smith has 27 plate appearances. He hasn't walked. That's wild because, again, we've talked about this a bit, but Pave and Smith is constantly being complimented on his plate discipline and his ability to know the strike zone. So no walks doesn't exactly back that up. Yeah, I mean, I guess some guys in spring training, maybe you're taking a little more of a free swinging approach. I don't necessarily know that that's what Pavin is.

has been doing. But yeah, I mean, the other side of this is Kyle Lewis bats right-handed, Payvin-Smith-Bats left-handed, I think on that front, that would probably push things in Lewis's favor.

The Diamondbacks still have a pretty left-handed, heavy lineup even after trading Dalton Varshow. So that could factor into it as well. But as we've talked about before, it still feels like there has to be some level where Kyle Lewis is just knocking the cover off the ball so much that it's, tough to look that guy in the eyes and say, you know what, we didn't quite see enough and we want

you to start here in AAA, even though, yeah, you won the rookie of the year award in the American League a few years ago. And sort of, at least from what we can tell, Kyle Lewis looks every bit the player that he was, at least offensively. It's hard to argue with what we've seen so far. And I think if you're a fan of this team, he's a guy to kind of dream on a little bit. I mean, And the reason the Diamondbacks made that trade where they sent Cooper Hummel over to Seattle was that Kyle Lewis has some untapped potential. He has a ceiling that he can reach that people, some people think he still has the opportunity to reach at this stage in his career.

And we're kind of seeing some flashes of that every now and then right now. I think there's more battles going on, right? And I don't know where this is all going to like end up because there's a lot of things right now that for this team that are going well that we don't quite understand. And there's a lot of things not going great for this team right now. So like Kyle Lewis is bad, I still I still don't quite understand how, you know, how he's having such an outstanding spring. But I mean, it's all hard contact too. Yeah, it's really hard contact. This guy is a former American League rookie of the year though.

And I think that's the thing is, is like, even if he might never be the defensive player he was. Yeah, that part's not going to come back. Yeah, but it doesn't seem like it's held him back at the dish at all. So, but when it does come to the other side of the ball, of course, besides Tray Jameson and Ryan Nelson, Tori LeVosla has some decisions to make about the bullpen. Yeah. And today, things were kind of all over the place. Some guys had some completely outstanding outings and continue to.

Jurees Familia. We were discussing how to pronounce his name before the show. Jurese Familiar. Two thirds of an innings pitch today. One hit. Zero runs. One walk, two strikeouts. Currently has a 1.35 ERA this spring.

Yeah. And I mean, he's been utilized quite a bit, too. It's not like he has been scarcely used. Yeah, I think Familia, I would just about take that to the bank at this point. I think Familia is probably going to make the team. That's wild. Not something we thought when the Diamondbacks picked him up for sure. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, Kenan ERA over 6 last year, he got released. I think it was by the Philadelphia Phillies. Red Sox picked him up for the rest of the year. And he still was basically the same guy in ERA over 6 as well in Boston. So he seems to have found something. Again, you don't really know for sure until the regular season rolls around and you're pitching in some higher leverage situations. But I think you can just about take it to the bank that Familia will be a part

of this bullpen. Cole Solcer is another guy that I think has a really, really good chance. He threw today against the Cubs an inning in a third. He did allow a run, two walks, one strikeout, not his best outing, but he has a 1.17 ERA, and has had a really solid spring training overall. So I would probably put Solcer in there as well. We've also got Luis Frius, who had a not great outing against the Cubs today. He did not get an out and allowed two hits.

and two walks, three runs. His ERA for spring is now up over six. And I don't know this for sure, Derek, but we've had some not great performance from Luis Frius in the past at the big league level. When he has come up, he just has not been good in really any shape or form. He's walked a bunch of guys.

He doesn't get that many swings and misses. It hasn't looked good. And he's had a decent spring up until today. My guess is that that outing might be enough to knock him out of this race and have him packing up heading to Reno to start the year. Especially this close to the season. I don't see there being time to make any kind of other impact.

But yeah, even if he has a good outing the next time out, I don't know if the full body of work is something you feel good enough about at this point. I'm ready for a coalser and a drearyous familiar in the bullpen. I'm ready for some new blood. I'm ready for the Diamondbacks to give other guys an opportunity. I say that because one of our big concerns obviously was that the bullpen had remained basically unchanged to a degree. And I mean now due to the injury to Malanson and some changes, some free agency, Andrew Chafin, which by the way, hearing that song today at Salt River Fields about the pickup truck once again. Oh, warmed to my heart.

I haven't heard that song in years. But great opportunity for the Diamondbacks to turn things around, at least with the bullpen from what we saw last year. Yeah, I mean, at this point, and I'll go ahead and spoil what I'm going to write tomorrow, this is who I think the D-Backs bullpen's going to be. We don't know for sure. Whoa. This is who I got. Spoiler alert.

You got Joe Mantiply, Andrew Chafin, Kyle Nelson. I think those are your three lefties. You got Kevin Ginkle, Miguel Castro, Scott McGuff, Juree's Familia, Cole Solcer. Those are your five righties. Those are your eight guys. I like that. And honestly, Familia is probably the only one that I didn't expect to see. see there. Sure. Or didn't think that there was a strong possibility that we could see there. Obviously

there's other guys there that I'm sure I thought would have been probably edged out if Melanson and Corbyn Martin were still in the mix for the bullpen. But things are different now. And the Diamondbacks luckily for once have enough players to lose some to injury and be able to back them up. And honestly, I think it sucks that it happens this way. Nobody wants to see someone get injured and then Yeah. You know, have them lose the opportunity that way. But if you want to talk about the opportunity being created for guys to step up and, and, you know, win a job and help this team win baseball games, this is it, you know,

versus what we saw last year over the last two years where it just felt like the Diamondbacks did not have anywhere close to the pieces to put a competitive team out there on the field, right? At the very least, I mean, to your point earlier, there's some turnover here. Yeah. Like, it's not like the Diamondbacks are coming back this season with the exact same guys who really struggled last year. You've got a few guys in common. You've got Mantiply. You've got Ginkle.

Some pretty solid guys that they could count on last year. Yeah, but those were like, those were all the best guys they had. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. And obviously Mark Millanson would have been there. The injury takes him out of the running. But, yeah, I don't want to make it sound like the Diamondbacks went out and got, you know, some Star Closer or something. But it's a different cast of characters. And, I mean, we'll have to see how that cast of characters does.

There's certainly no guarantees there. But it's not like the debacks are rolling out the same bullpen in 2023 as they had last year. And you also have the fact that someone like Miguel Castro, for instance, looks very, very good this spring. And he could develop into not only the closer based on this opportunity or this situation, but he could potentially be the closer of this team for the future, right? He's a young guy. It's possible. So for next year, club option.

No mutual option. Yeah. One of the two. Yeah, something like that. It's an option of some kind. There's an option there. There's options. But no updates from Tori Lavello and Carson Kelly yet.

Lavello said they don't expect to have a timetable for weeks. Jesse did talk to Carson. He was wearing a gigantic like what? His like splint thing. It's not a cast. I don't know. It's a splint of some sort. It was electronic.

It had a power button and a light on. And I didn't really know. what that was for. Carson also didn't know what that was for. I asked him if it does his dishes. He disappointedly said it does not do his dishes for him. So, yeah, high, high tech equipment. Is it like a weapon? So if someone tries to break his arm again? Maybe that's what it is. Yeah, maybe if somebody tries to like fist bump him or something, then it, I don't know, it like fires a pepper spray or something. Yeah, that's what it is. I need a bang flag. But yeah, we don't know for sure. The team is not given an official timetable.

But we talked about you can do some research on on this injury and get a sense of it. Six weeks before you're feeling good again, like not feeling discomfort any longer, which that's one thing that was really sad about the interview with Carson the other day was you could just tell how much pain he was in. And he's just said it was the most pain he's ever been in. Yeah. It's just it's just. And he's a tremendously nice guy.

So did not surprise me that he stood there in such pain giving you guys an interview, which is just wild. I mean, hopefully he's not in as much pain. I'm sure he's still in pain. It's what the little robot boxes for. Yeah, right, right. Just pain med injections right into the boat. I think it's going to be, we did ask him about some specific time frames, and he's somewhat sort of confirmed. Could be six to eight weeks. Could be eight to ten weeks.

Wow. I think anything between six and ten weeks is a pretty realistic idea, but the team hasn't given an official timetable yet and then we looked that up on the orthopedic website that said that it takes at least like three months for it to fully heal plus that plus you know so even even if he uh is back in that time frame there's still some still i'm sure there's still going to be some caution uh and and he probably won't get the reps that he would have uh once he returns anyway he'll probably ease him back into it yeah hopefully by that point gabriel moreno and the other catchers kind of have uh held the fort down for him and maybe

can even be producing at a level that makes it so that we're not missing Carson so much. It's going to be fascinating, man. If Gabby Moreno's hitting 315 or something in the middle of May and Carson Kelly comes back, is it like, all right, Carson Kelly, you're the guy. I've seen him do it before. I've seen them do it before. I don't know. I don't know if they could.

Yeah, I know you're right. When you trade Dalton Varsh, when you trade one of your best, if not your best position players for a guy and they start to produce at the big league level, it's going to be tough to be like, all right, you're a backup again. It's a fantastic point. I don't know. Make sure to check out Jesse's article when it drops on his roster predictions. It's the third edition of the roster predictions article.

It might be the last one. Might be the last one. We don't have a lot of time left before opening day. Maybe I mean squeeze one in on the night before. Yeah. Maybe next week right before opening day I'll drop. I'll drop one more. But we're getting pretty close.

We're getting to the point where it's like, yeah, we've kind of like the players in question have have done what they've, what they were going to do in, in these spring training games. And it's at the point where it's up to the diamondbacks to decide. Correct. One more scoreless inning or, you know,

at this point, I don't know if the numbers are going to mean much, except for maybe Jameson and Nelson. I still think that their last outings before opening day might be the determining factor for all we know and what decision the team makes. Don't miss any of the stuff this guy has going on by getting yourself a diehard membership over at go phtonx.com.

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We always appreciate your feedback. And if you're looking to end your night in the perfect way, grab yourself some Four Peaks beer, wherever you get your beers. Make sure to check out the wide variety they have to offer. I know there's not a lot of time in March left, but we got like a weekend, a half, a little bit more or less. So make sure to check out their spring training. training tours over at their 8th Street pub. They have a wonderful tour of their facility. We've talked about the ghosts.

We've talked about making the beer. Maybe you can ask them how they make the beer and steal their recipes. I don't know. I'm not saying that you should go out and try to sell Four Peaks beer once you've stolen their recipes, but just make it for yourself. I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there. Just ideas on how you can maximize going on the spring training tour out at the 8th Street pub.

But they're also going to be having a draft party for the Arizona Cardinals, new coach, new GM, and the Cardinals have the third pick in the draft. It's a big opportunity for the Arizona Cardinals and the best place to take in this pivotal moment. And the rest of the NFL draft on April 27th is at the Four Peaks 8th Street Pub. So put it on your calendar now, make plans. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy their beer

and enjoy responsibly. I think the Cardinals are tanking, right they? Tank season? Is that, yeah, yeah. We were sitting with the Cardinals guys the other day out at a restaurant, and they told us that the Cardinals have, I've won one game at State Farm Stadium in the last 18 months.

I did, my mind was blown by that, mostly because I've watched every single one of their games. I don't know how I didn't already know that, but one game in 18 months, you're not going to get that with the Arizona Diamondbacks. That's for sure. I mean, you better be there on April 27th for the NFL draft because that's the only fun thing that the Cardinals really have going on right now. That's their only win. The only double you they're going to get is at the draft. I mean, the Diamondbacks were in a similar situation, not that long ago. Look at us now.

Look at us now. We still suck. But anyway, we were talking about World Series contention yesterday, Derek. We were, and I refused to go down that road with you. But we do have a guy that has a bit more experience when it comes to championship games now in the Arizona Diamondbacks. And that is our very own Merrill, the mainstay. Merrill is back. and he commented today a bit on his experience with the World Baseball Classic.

He really seemed to enjoy himself. And Jesse actually asked him a bit about what he would, what message he would bring back to his teammates in regards to this and how does he want them to feel about maybe if they get the opportunity to do this in the future. Yeah, I think everybody in that clubhouse shares the same sentiment. I mean, if you're a baseball player at this level, and you really love what you do, I don't see a reason why you wouldn't be a part of that.

The games that I experienced, or some like any other games I've ever experienced in my life. I pitched in the Korean series in 2018. That was 30,000 people in Seoul, but, I mean, it doesn't even hold a candle to what these games were. And I think when you add in the mix of countries versus countries and best versus best,

there's a whole different animal, a whole different aspect of what it means, of what each pitch, each at bat, each inning really means to each and every guy. And I'm very grateful. I'm very fortunate that I was able to participate in it. I think there's a lot of guys out there that if some of the guys have talked about, I think there's a lot of guys out there if they would have committed to it,

then I probably wouldn't have gotten the opportunity. And I definitely recognize that and I don't take that for granted. But it was an experience that I've never been a part of and maybe never get to experience again. But I'm forever grateful and honored that I was able to experience. I like his, I like his appreciation for it. And he's right. I think he's right. I think it's a very accurate self-analysis, right?

He said he probably wouldn't have gotten this opportunity if other guys would have agreed, right? Including his own teammate, Zach Gallen that we know was approached about being on Team USA. Merrill Kelly probably wasn't, probably wasn't the first phone call they made. Right, right. And I mean, then it goes to that. Like how does your ego take that hit? How do you kind of bounce back from that, that knowing that they kind of wanted you, but didn't really want you, but whatever. But, you know, one thing you broke down was of all the starting pitchers, Merrill Kelly actually had the best numbers in 2020.

Yeah. So he wasn't exactly like, he wasn't exactly a throw in because they just needed a warm body. I mean, Merrill Kelly had a 3.370 RA and through 200 innings last year. I popped into the chat from our friends over at CHGO White Sox the other day. They were talking about the WBC. Of course, they were talking about how Lance Lynn was, of course, the best pitcher of the Team USA had. And I don't know about that.

I mean, if you look at 2022 numbers, I think Merrill Kelly was the better picture. You look, career as a whole, I maybe would understand where they're coming from. But, yeah, Merrill Kelly is, I mean, he's not a scrub. I mean, he very much, I think, belonged in that situation. Very much so. But, yeah, but he also, you know, if the de Groms and the Scherzer's and those guys were willing to participate, then it's a different story. Sure.

And that's probably not an opportunity would have gotten. That could be said for Adam Wainwright or any of the staff, to be honest, right? Maybe 10 years ago, Adam Wainwright would be. Yeah. Maybe 15 years ago. Yeah. That man, I don't know how he does it. He's an ageless wonder, ageless wonder, much like myself. 41 years old.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And here I am. It's like Derek Monta. Keep it up with you. Keep it up with you. Meryl, though, the one thing we talked about during the watch party was Merrill, like, it's almost like we made out his outing in the championship game to be a disaster, which by no stretch of the imagination. And am I saying it was a good outing?

But, yeah, Merrill Kelly has been known at times when he does have a bad first inning or second inning to bounce back and be able to lock it in, right? And he actually was asked about. being pulled from the championship game. And I thought he gave a very Merrill Kelly answer. It was very honest, but he expressed that he was not happy about being removed from that game. Yeah. Obviously not happy about it. I mean, you guys know me well enough now.

I don't like to come out of games, especially when it's a second inning in a one run, in a one-one to ball game. You know, I had confidence in myself that I could get a ground ball and get a double play and be out of that inning and still be one-to-one. You guys have seen me getting plenty of jams before and get out of them. So that was kind of my mentality. It was a little surprising when I saw Dero walking out to the mound. But I recognize that it's the nature of the beast in the tournament like that.

You've got to do what you think you've got to do to win that one game because there's obviously no tomorrow. But obviously I wasn't happy with it. I was, you know, I had confidence myself that I could get out of it and still go a productive three, four, five innings, whatever we needed. But like I said, it's kind of what you've. sign up for in that type of situation. He's got to do what he thinks he's got to do. Jesse Friedman, as manager

of Team USA, were you pulling Merrill Kelly out of the game at that point? Yes. Me too. I'm just going to be totally honest. It was a one and done situation, right? It was a do or die baseball game. Yeah, I mean, I think if the Diamondbacks were

in a game seven of the World Series situation and Merrill Kelly's on the mound, you know, and he's got, I think it was three walks at that point and inning in a third into the game. Yeah, I mean, you kind of have to consider, like you don't have any margin for air here. Team USA had a bunch of pitchers available,

not starting pitchers necessarily, but on the reliever side, they certainly had enough arms to make it through. And they did have a good bullpen. Yeah, they have a bullpen of a bunch of stars, basically. So, yeah, I understand where Merrill is coming from, and I think any major leaguer and any, any situation where they're being removed from the game,

they're never going to come out and be like, yeah, I'm glad they took me out. He's not going to, nobody's going to say that, right? Nobody's going to say that. So, yeah, I would, that's the decision that I would have made that.

And I mean, I don't know if everybody's going to say I was mad that I got pulled out. But I think that what he said is pretty relevant. Not on the record at least. Right, yeah. Well, he was saying,

like, you guys know me, you know that I, like, we know he's Merrill the mainstay, right? Like, we know that this guy is consistent.

it, but in a ball game like this that ended up ending three to two, the margin for error is so small that you can't, you can't mess with, you know, leaving a guy in that might not have his best stuff that night. And I understand that. But I also understand that not everybody is going to feel the same way that Jesse and I do about the pitch clock. Merrill Kelly, it's, you know what's funny about this is like the pitch clock is almost becoming one of those like hot button topics where you don't even need to be talking about the pitch clock. for the pitch clock to come up. And it did hear in Merrill Kelly's answer about his enjoyment of the WBC as a fan of baseball, but he immediately saw an opportunity to say

maybe we wouldn't have gotten a moment this special if the pitch clock was part of the WBC. Yeah, I think that's, you know, people, I think we're begging for that from the start of the tournament. When they knew that Trout and Otani were both signed up, I think everybody who's a baseball fan wanted that situation. just so happened to be in the ninth inning in a three two game. I don't think you could have probably written it up any better. One of the thoughts actually was going through my head while

that stuff was going on is how are we possibly going to put a pitch clock on a situation like this was honestly one of the thoughts going through my mind in that situation because it's the drama of that is you can't really replicate it and especially if you put a time on it and have it be over a lot quicker than it was. I think it's going to be an interesting pill to swallow for a lot of baseball fans. I think the anticipation of each pitch in that at bat was part of what made that at bat so special. So I'm interested to see how we handle that moving forward. But it was definitely for a baseball fan, I think for regardless of what country you're from,

what country you're rooting for. If you're a baseball fan, you're rooting for that moment. It's like he was just seeking an opportunity to take a dig at the pitch clock. Yeah. And he found it, right? Is he being overly dramatic there about that? And the reason why I say that is we have already come to love and and and basically pray to, pray to the pitch clock.

The pitch clock is our lord and savior. But people that aren't on on board with this, obviously, they kind of bring up the same stuff, right? And this is kind of, it's a great point. It's an absolutely outstanding point by Merrill. But I guess I'll ask you, do you think he's right? Do you think that this moment would have been less. Forget how it would have impacted the game or if the score would have been different or anything else.

Just this moment between Otani and Trout at the end of the game, would it have been impacted and less than joyful if a pitch clock was causing them to basically rush this moment a bit more than they were taking that they did in this game? I don't think it would have made a big difference. That's my first thought. I know that baseball, especially late in postseason games and big moments, I feel like it is kind of a thing to slow the pace down, maybe a little bit if you're the pitcher. Let that crowd kind of be a part of it and like the moment kind of. Just kind of sit there in the moment and, you know, not feel like you have to rush at all.

So I understand where Merrill's coming from for sure. But I don't think that the Otani Trouted Bat is any less epic if Otani throws his pitches just a little bit sooner. We actually had some fun during our watchalong, and I used my stopwatch as a pitch clock, just to test out at certain points in the game. Like, how close is the pitcher coming to actually doing what they would have to do under the pitch clock? It was a few seconds here and there. I mean, when I tried it, I don't remember who was on the mound, but when I tried it, they literally had a violation every single pitch. Every single pitch. I didn't do it at the end of the game because we were all locked in on Otani and Trout.

I wasn't, I wasn't really in the mood. He's not that much of a... Yeah, I wanted to just take that moment in with everyone else. But yeah, I don't think it would have a big impact. I still think that that moment could be every bit as epic, even with a pitch clock. And those of us who have seen it a lot know that it's not something that you notice. It's not like Otani gets the ball back and he's and he has to go right away. He has two seconds when he hits the mound to deliver the pitch.

It's not like that. It's just a little bit sooner than some guys, might normally go. And from a visual perspective, I don't think it really even occurs to you. Merrill even brought up that he doesn't feel like he's going to have any problems with the pitch clock because he already works relatively quickly. And we've heard that out of some of the other guys. We were curious to know because Merrill has been away from the pitch clock for quite a while now. And so it's like, oh man, he's going to come back and jump right into it. It's going to pitch one game before the season starts. How ready is Merrill actually going to be to play under these new rules?

You know what he almost sounds like in that clip is somebody that's not really familiar with it? Yeah. Because oftentimes we get approached by people that have concerns who will tell us that they haven't watched a game yet with the new rules. So they don't know how it impacts the actual game, but they'll bring their concerns about why it would be less enjoyable or what they don't want to see changed about the game they love. And I understand that. But that's kind of what Merrill sounds like here. It's what Tori sounded like a bit when we talked to Tori about the bitch clock, to be honest. Tori kind of has the attitude of like,

we have to do it. So there's no, like, I can't, I can't even have an opinion on it. Like, Tori acts like, what's the point of having an opinion when at the end of the day, we're going to be forced to do it anyway. So he's almost trying to take a positive approach

and get himself on board and make sure the team is on board, make sure everybody understands. We don't have a choice in this. This is happening. So we will accept it and we will abide by the rules that MLB is put in a place. But still, even then, his tone

is that of like he doesn't feel like dealing with this. I was about to curse with this stuff is what I was going to say. Caught myself. I had this segment too. Still no curse words. I'm proud. But anyway. This is a fascinating experiment.

It really is. It's hard for me. I'm dying inside. It's going to explode. But Alec Thomas, another participant in the World Baseball Classic. We caught up with him today. A very fun moment in the clubhouse,

which we will have for you. We'll get it out to you. out to you in some way. Yeah, for sure. It was basically her older Pardomo interviewing Alec Thomas about what words in Spanish he learned and what phrases he's like. Specifically curse words. It was my understanding. Yeah, for the most part. Perdomo was curious what Alex Thomas picked up. He wanted to know what dirty words he learned while he was gone. But Thomas did express that he feels like he might be a bit behind in his preparation for the season due to the World Baseball Classic. He sounds like he's pretty happy to be back at Salt River Fields getting locked in for the regular season.

I think it was pretty all over the place. The scheduling was a bit off and rushed a lot of the time. So definitely didn't get a chance to get in the work that I normally would, you know, in spring training. And I'm glad that now I get to actually focus in on, you know, my routine and stuff that I've been working on in the offseason. because when I was there, it was just like, all right, we're going to be here. We're going to take BP. That's it. No, barely any cage time.

No machine work or anything like that. So that was just pretty much just got there and play. So, and that's what we did. You know, I think I understand that, especially with how if you've ever seen, like, they have a board of their schedule for the Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training. It's a video board. and it's updated every day. And it's very detailed.

Like what field they have to be out, what group is where at what time, and it's down to like 15 minute, 30 minute increments. Like they know exactly where they have to be and their day is filled for them. I think when they go to World Baseball Classic team, it's probably lax.

It probably doesn't have that same, you know, feeling of spring training. And, you know, I mean, what we see on the field there of the guys kind of be joking around with each other and having a good time is probably a bit indicative of what their preparation process is like. Yeah, I mean, once the regular season starts for the debacks, their day to day is

going to look very different than it does right now. There are things that you do in spring training. There are drills that you run in spring training that once you're playing actual games every day, you kind of back off those things. So Alec has basically been in regular season mode, or really more so in like a postseason mode, you know, not necessarily playing games every day, a little bit of a lighter schedule while he's been with Team Mexico. So it'll be interesting to see if it appears to affect him at all once the season does start. Does Alex seem like he's maybe a step behind where he would have been in some ways? But my guess is it'll probably be fine at the end of the day.

And I think Alec is fundamentally sound. And we saw him playing center field. He played a pretty darn good center field for Team Mexico. And it was electric with him and. Randy out there and just everything that they had going on. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're the one thing about it is you do get used to a certain kind of like I don't

want to say like they tell you where to go and what to do at all times. But I feel like with the WBC you had to be a little bit more self-disciplined and maybe a little bit more. Well, they just didn't do. I mean, as he talked about there, it's like we're going to go hit BP and that's it. And then the game starts. Then we play baseball. So shout out to Brett Johnson for being late.

But I'm glad you're here. We're glad you're here. He said he had to get some wows, of course. Respect. And it's MLB the show release night. You're damn right it is. Ooh, I didn't know that. Yeah.

I have to wait five more days, unfortunately, because I have the Xbox game pass and it launches on March 28. So there's a gap of me just being sad without baseball. Poor choice on your part. It's all right. I got the other one to keep me satisfied until, then, but something that I don't have enough of to keep me satisfied until then is our friends from OGs and their wonderful edibles. So I will be picking some of those up on the way home and you should probably do the same.

The one thing that I've been talking to everybody in this office about is sleep. There is one thing that none of these people do enough around here and it's sleep, especially this guy. Every single day. Oh, I got two hours last night. Oh, I was able to piece together a four hour a night. Last night was good. Oh, man. It's like I could not operate in the same way that these guys do. And the reason why I get such a good sleep, O.G. Sleep Edition Gummys. They're live. They are active. And they are available at dispensaries all around the valley. You can find them at your local dispensary by checking out OGsbrands.com. Must be 21 or over to enjoy. And of course, it's all about the CBN. THC makes you happy. It makes you feel good. CBN puts you to sleep. And it helps you stay asleep. And more importantly, the one thing about the sleep edition gummies is, of course, they're delicious with the aqua berry flavor.

But once you get on track, it's, you're back, like, I felt like I got myself back on track, back on a track of being able to sleep a full eight hours per night without waking up in the middle of the night, without getting up to go check my phone or, you know, of course, check the numbers for this show. I obsess about the numbers for this show. That's why we ask you guys to watch it and follow it. You know what I mean? Like, but of course, with all that going on in my brain in the middle of the night, I most of the time can't get a good night's sleep. But now I swear to God for like the last six months, ever since we have had the sleep edition gummies in our lives, I've been getting a better night's sleep.

And you can too. And of course, make sure to check out all the, all the wonderful edibles that OGs has to offer. And of course, what else do you need to sleep once you got the sleep edition gummies? A bed. and you can get that from more furniture.com. You can get all sorts of bedroom furniture, living room furniture. Do you need maybe a couch bed so you can fall asleep out there and then take it to the bedroom later? Whatever you need.

I love falling asleep on my couch, by the way. Not a few times. Oh, man. I mean, most people, oh, it's falling asleep on the couch. It's a bad thing. Not to me. Not to this guy. I love falling asleep with the TV on.

Some baseball on the TV, fall on the sleep sideways on the couch. Let's go. One of my college roommates literally. I'll sleep on the couch every single night. See, that's annoying when you like, like when it's a roommate situation. Yeah, yeah, it was. You're like, I want to sit on the couch and watch TV now and now it's your bedroom. I mean, to be fair, you generally didn't show up until around two in the morning.

Okay, all right. We weren't exactly. Keep a similar hour. But I get it. I get it. Well, you can say big regardless of where your roommate is sleeping or where your significant others sleeping by buying the best furniture in the valley over at more furniture.

and maybe buy them a bed so that they don't sleep out on the couch anymore. I don't know. Before we go, we have one more weird, very weird thing that continues to develop when it comes to Diamond Sports Group, aka Balli Sports, Arizona, Bally's with a posthrophy S and Major League Baseball. According to a report, Bally's with an S, apostrophe S, not Bally Sports, has agreed to a deal with Major League Baseball to broadcast all once. 120 minor league team games for free on the Bally's,

Posh Bs, US casino app. It's very important to understand this because it's very confusing, right? Again, if you are new to this, Bally's has casinos. Bally's used to make pinball machines. Okay. So that company basically offered for a fee, the naming rights deal with Diamond Sports Group

or Diamond Sports Group could use the Bally name and the Bally B logo, that cursive logo, to basically name their regional sports networks for Diamond Sports Group as Bally Sports. So. Nothing to do with the actual streaming industry themselves. Nothing at all. Well, I mean. They just threw their name on Diamond Sports Group streaming service.

And their focus right now is hotels, casinos, and a casino gaming app where you can gamble online. Now, the casino app is where you will be able to watch 120. minor league teams baseball games this season. Kind of a bizarre place to watch. It is. It is. And not only...

You download the Bally's Casino app. Bally's Casino app. It's different because you probably already have the Bally Sports Arizona app or the Bally Sports app on your phone. That's not the same one. That's not the one you're going to find it on. So we're trying to let you know now. It took me, Espo and Jesse hours to figure this out,

even with an article that was very confusing that I don't think the person writing it even had it figured out. But while you will be able to gamble on MLB games, on the Bally's casino app and on other sports and other things, you will not be able to gamble on minor league games, which is not allowed, I don't believe anywhere allows minor league gambling. But the big question is, why would they do this? Why would Bally's casino app even get involved any more

in this fiasco in any way, shape or form? Well, I mean, I have a theory. I don't know if it's right. theory. I'm speculating here. You got to put the tinfoil hat on first. I need one of, I need one of Espo's tinfoil hats, but Diamond Sports Group has absolutely ruined the reputation of valleys and nobody, most people don't know the difference between the two entities. And that's why allowing your naming rights to go to some company that you have no idea

how they're going to perform or what's going to happen with them. Well, they probably thought they had an idea. They probably thought it was going to be a great move, right? Yeah, this is great. we get all the benefit of people thinking we're the ones behind their regional sports networks without having to do any of the work. It's a win-win or it could end up being a lose-lose, which it currently seems like for Bally's when you talk about Bally's in the context of the sports world. Bally still has a vested interest. Diamond Sports Group might go the go away.

I almost did it there. It might go away forever. We also might see Bally Sports, Arizona and all the regional ones go away forever. But the company Bally's is still. going to exist and their name and their reputation has absolutely been ruined through this process. So to maybe save face, maybe they're providing baseball in any way they can and they worked out a deal with MLB where it's going to help grow the game by us being able to actually watch minor league teams for free streaming whenever we want to on an app. That sounds like a win.

You know what I mean? But Balli still has to try to do everything they can to repair their reputation. because why would you go gamble with Bally's when you hate them for what they did to your regional sports rights? Or like if they don't broadcast Diamondbacks games anymore, they're going to be people that are mad at Bally's just as a whole and won't have anything to do with them any further. So perhaps this goodwill move kind of helps people to forgive. Maybe it helps them to maybe understand that Bally's is a separate entity. I don't know. I don't know.

This would be like me giving the naming rights for like a taco shop to my name. to that so they call it the Derek Monta taco shop but then they run it how much do you think they would pay to put to put to put your name on their taco shop oh I'm not even I'm not even prepared at this time to release that information because there might be what are your what are your rate there might be people watching right now that want to negotiate that deal and I'm not just going to give that away but the bigger point is is how my reputation could be ruined should that taco shop that I allowed to put my name on it just be terrible in every way right like They're just going to think Derek doesn't know how to make tacos.

And I will not stand for that because I know how to make tacos. What do you think? What do I think of you putting your name on the tacos? I was going to say, what do you think of my tacos? That's what I was going to get to. Well, I haven't tried your tacos. No, yeah. Yeah, you're going to have to.

So far, everything I've made for you guys is good and you know it. But ballies, what do you think about this situation and how bad it is? What is most interesting to me is just the fact that minor league baseball games are going to be free. That's like I think that's the big story here to be honest. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. And that that's kind of the thing here that I'm that I'm most interested in. I believe that MLB.

TV also has a thing this year that's new where you actually get access to all the minor league games through MLB. So if you if you pay the 150 bucks or whatever it is for MLB. Dot TV, then all the minor league games would come with it. Whereas in the past, those were like two separate things that you had to buy. I think you had to pay $30 extra a year for the premium package. package after you already had the MLB package. It wasn't like super, super expensive to add the minor league games in there. But it's just more money that you don't really need to pay, considering you have access to all

those baseball games for the major leagues anyway, right, at that point? Yeah. So, I mean, this is kind of odd in that, I mean, that was kind of a big benefit for MLB. TV this year was that not only are you going to get all of the big league games that you want, but you're going to get those minor league games thrown in. Now you have ballys coming in and offering all of the minor league. League games for free anyway. So I don't know how the MLB.TV folks feel, feel about that necessarily.

But in the grand scheme of things, all minor league games being freely available to baseball fans everywhere is very exciting. It's something that I got into, really, for the first time last year. It's enough baseball, really, to watch Diamondbacks games every single day, right, during the season if you're a fan of this team. It's a lot more work to watch, you know, three or four minor league. games that happen pretty much every day too. But it's a lot of fun.

And you know, you don't have to go in and watch every game necessarily. But if, you know, Brandon Fotz on the mound or you have a rehab assignment or something like that, there's a lot of good baseball to watch down in the minors. And I think it's great that that's going to be available for people. I know we're going to have a blast watching all the teams that we haven't had a chance to watch. Maybe we'll have watch parties just for the sod poodles. I'm watching every cat fries game.

Every cat fries game. I'm watching proudly with my burnt orange hat on and I'm going to watch that team and all of their fun innuendos. But Jesse, they're not the only one with fun innuendos because I have fun innuendos too. And as you guys know. You're talking about your dinosaur costume again? Well, look, the other day when we were doing our watch party, I was going to put on, as some of you saw, Roman the dinosaur, which we lovingly named my costume. It's me riding a patriotic Tyrannosaurus Rex wearing an Uncle Sam. Top Hat. It was very whimsical. I enjoyed it very much. And of course, what I was going to do was when the one team USA was down late

Damon and I had decided he was going to be a rally dinosaur. I was going to throw him on. We were going to we were going to pick team USA up and we even blamed the loss on the fact that that didn't happen. But why didn't happen? Jesse? It didn't happen because in the big moment Roman the dinosaur couldn't perform. Roman couldn't get up and to be honest, he was much he was much harder at times but when it came down to a pivotal moment of the night Roman just couldn't get the job done for me and that's why I need the real Roman

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That's RO.com slash PHNX. Yeah, that's not pleasant. It's really a shame that Roman the dinosaur didn't come through for Team USA on Tuesday. We're still around the office. We're fully blaming the dinosaur for. They're mad about it. They're mad about it. But see, that's the thing is you can never predict when you're going to go flat.

You can ever predict when you're not be able to get it up. And that's why we got Roman. But we also have game time. And game time will make sure that you don't miss out on any of the events that you want to go to. I know FOMO is big around this time of the year. There's lots of fun stuff to do. And who has money to buy all of these tickets? Who has time?

Who knows if they're going to have time to go to these events? So, of course, if you want to wait to the last minute and save money, you can do so with the GameTime app or at GameTime.com. Save up to 60% on tickets when you, buy your tickets last minute. And the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. So we thank you guys for doing so.

And we hope you guys get to go out and watch some spring training games. There are no time left. There is, this is through Sunday. This is an emergency. You want to see Salt River Fields, which is Jesse's favorite place to be. He loves Salt River Fields so much. It's lovely. Make sure to get those tickets.

Don't love the traffic. Don't love the traffic driving from Salt Riverfield to downtown. Not going to miss that drive in the afternoon. Not at all. The facility itself is gorgeous. And these days, these beautiful days that we have outside, we're going to miss. So make sure to enjoy it. Go outside right now.

Live life a little bit. Touch grass, if you will. But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. I'm only going to be 41 for like six more hours. This guy over here is forever going to be a young child. You can find him at Jesse N. Friedman. Damon is at Damon Dog.

That's DAWG. Our shows at P.HNX underscore D-Backs. but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for joining us on behalf of these guys and myself. We always appreciate your time and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you just learn to accept the pitch clock.