PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Zac Gallen knows who didn’t vote for him for NL Cy Young and has the receipts

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

We have your updates from day two of Arizona Diamondbacks spring camp, including Zac Gallen keeping a list of all of the people who didn’t vote for him for NL Cy Young. We also have updates from Torey Lovullo on his players’ commitment to improving during the offseason and more.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: Make sure to get your hands on our new “Slim Valley Reaper” t-shirt! Go to https://phnxlocker.com/products/slim-valley-reaper now!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 BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/ NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. BONUS bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded.  See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballlterms.OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. 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: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBB15” 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.comRoman: 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.

Are we good to go? Are we live? Are we here? Sorry about that abrupt entrance. Welcome in to the PHNX D-BACs podcast. This is, of course, not the way we wanted to start out things, but we're very busy around here, right? So, you know, our apologies, but welcome in.

My name is Derek Monti. Of course, I'm your mayor, PHNX. This guy over here, he's the vice mayor. Also, your thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. To be fair, our music does need an improvement, Derek. I think at some point before this time. of the season. I don't know. It's a little basic. Like, I think there's some room for improvement there. So I don't mind going an episode without hearing it. Maybe if you're on the audio side,

we're going to go back and patch it in. Maybe. I don't know. I don't miss it too much, though. I don't know. Everybody's confused. Jesse, without the intro, they don't know that we're here and that we're doing the thing. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. America's top rated sports book app. Welcome in, guys. We had some fun going out and watching the Arizona Diamondbacks on day two. of their spring camp. Of course, we got to see some of the pitchers we haven't seen up to this point. There's a lot of guys around camp.

It's not just pitchers and catchers. Jordan Lawler was there today taking batting practice. But it was kind of interesting to see, especially some of the relief pitchers that the Diamondbacks acquired during the off season in person for the first time. Seeing Carlos Vargas pitch for the first time was pretty impressive. He had a fairly nice looking fastball. And Miguel Castro might be the tallest baseball player I've ever seen in my whole entire life. I don't know.

Yeah. So on Carlos Vargas, our friend Jack Summers had a radar app on his phone, which didn't work. I mean, I'm not going to say it didn't work, Derek, but we got one reading of 38 miles an hour and another of 157 miles an hour. So maybe if you take the average of the two, that's Carlos Vargas, is true velocity. But who's to say, Derek? Maybe he just, you know, put in some good work over the winter. And he added 50 miles an hour. Maybe that would be damn impressive. Who is to say? Yeah.

We very much so need to take a second to appreciate Jesse's shoes, by the way. He doesn't have very many shoes, but these are very good shoes that he has on. I get compliment on these shoes frequently and I wear them basically every day. Every single day. Yeah, they're kind of wearing out, but hey, I still get the confidence. He did a lot of walking around Salt River Fields today. So they might not last too much longer. But speaking of working on stuff during the office.

offseason. We did get a chance to talk to Tori Lobolo a bit about what things that guys are working on, what their offseason plan looks like. And I mean, as much as I'm doing a terrible job at butchering the explanation for this, let's take a listen to Jesse's question and how Tori Lavolo reacted to said question. When it comes to like offseason adjustments, Tori, how do you guys balance like maybe a player coming up with some ideas of things they want to add with maybe your input into that. Do you guys have some players where you, you ask to do certain things over the offseason and other players where maybe you just say, just keep it as it is, you know, just kind of keep working as on what you've been doing already?

Yeah. I know what you guys think when I say that's a really good question, but that is a really good question. It is a really good question. That's a really good question. That's a really good question. Way to go, think. Stop giving him. Yeah. I love, I love, I don't know what I love more. Are we not playing Tori's answer to this question? Oh, we're going to get to his answer, but we're first going to analyze your question and Tori saying how good of a question it really was. I don't know if it's the fact that he was so momentarily blown away.

That was hilarious to me. Like he couldn't even think of an answer in the moment because Jesse's question was so mind blowing to him. Or the general murmur from the peanut gallery of journalists who all had to tell you, good job. And especially Steve Gilbert for calling us finks. Thanks for that nickname, Steve. By the way, that stuck around the ballpark quite a bit. Zach Allen called us finkzers later in the day. But let's get an answer to Jesse's question in regards to what the Diamondbacks players were doing during the offseason

and how Tori Lovalos kind of committed them to making improvements in their game. Yeah. We have kind of modified and fine-tune the off-season process every year since I've gotten here. this past off season, I feel like we have gotten down to something that's going to be very positive and push us in the right direction about making improvements for every player. So I had them put it in writing what their intentions were this off season. I have that right now, and I'm going to set that up and follow through on it with my one-on-ones of coming up. So I saw, we heard it through their eyes, and then we fed into some of the things that we also wanted them to work on.

So it was very clearly defined when they stepped away from us this past off season. And it was an agreement. It wasn't like we were jamming down their throat. I'm going to see where that – I'm sure there's progress that's been made. But we're going to find out here really soon in these one-on-one. So two things. Probably mostly through their eyes. And they're smart.

They know what they need. And then it's us there to also make recommendations and give them what they need to improve those limitations. That seems like a big commitment. It seems very – because speaking of someone that worked in the corporate, world that seems very much like our annual reviews that we would get where we had to like write down for our boss things that we were going to improve on and our goals. I still can't believe that you worked in the corporate world. Oh, it was, it was. Derek Montia in a cubicle. It was great. What a concept. Yeah, but what were what what do you think? Because he said, uh, that this is actually kind of one of the

first times he's done this. And it seems like again, this is kind of the evolution of Tori Lovolo as a manager. Yeah. I mean, it seems like like Tori's kind of switched up a few things. We talked about bullpen rolls a little bit on our show yesterday. But yeah, this is something I'm definitely going to be digging more into. This was kind of the first of a long line of questions I planned to ask, not only Tori, but other coaches, players, of course, as well. But it's an interesting idea, right? Like players, for the vast majority of their lives, they're the ones who are in charge

of what pitches am I going to throw, right? What things am I going to work on those kinds of things? And then eventually, you know, you get into being a major league baseball, player and you have a lot of coaches bringing in their input. But as Tori talked about there, they also want to give players some agency. Like, hey, our players are smart. They know the kinds of things that would take their games to the next level. I wasn't expecting this, though.

There's a lot of accountability in this process. Tori Lavello, apparently, as you just heard, is having Diamondbacks players put in writing at the beginning of the offseason, what they are going to work on over the off season. And then, as you also heard him talk about, he is holding one-on-ones with players to see how they fall. followed through with that and how things went. The debacks don't want to be in a position where players are just kind of going rogue,

trying a whole bunch of different things on their own, experimenting with a bunch of different things without the team being a part of that process. So it makes a lot of sense to me, and I'm excited to hear more from players about, you know, how this is actually unfolded over the off season. And he confirmed it was an agreement, right? So it's not necessarily something that he is handing down to the player to improve

without their input, without them talking about the things that they need to improve. It sounds like it starts with them, basically. Yeah, it's things that they want to, they want to improve themselves. They know themselves. They know what, what they need to work on, where their weaknesses are. And really, Tori just wants to, I think, kind of hold their feet to the fire a bit, but maybe just kind of help out with that commitment.

Like, sometimes having someone follow up with you and make you, you know, kind of go back to what you said and see if you've actually done anything to get to, to achieve your goals, to get better. uh it's it it really seems like something that's smart uh and and something that's not very much like tory troy is very much a player's manager so this doesn't this really does seem uh like he is evolving to that point of of trying to get them again that that commitment level from them and not just be uh kind of you know everybody's everybody's best friend at times right yeah i mean i don't know if tory ever got to the point of trying to be everybody's best friend but but it's no secret

that he has been, as you said, a players manager, right? Like, he's the kind of guy who his relationship with players is always going to come first. And you could make a case that that has been to a fault at times, right, in his time as the Diamondbacks manager. Well, he's, and he said that, right? Like, that's something that he's admitted to. I think he has also totally admitted that. And we heard a little bit about that last year when the Diamondbacks decided to exercise

Tori Lavello's option for this season and bring him back as their manager. I remember talking with Josh Rojas at that point. And he talked about how Tori, you know, he still is that, that, you know, that guy who's kind of in your corner and wants what's best for you. It wants you to be comfortable in your role and all of those, all of those things that players managers do. But he also has kind of been getting on guys. It sounds like a little bit more than he has in the past.

And this sounds like like something that kind of falls in line with that, right? It's almost something you do if you get in trouble, right? Like put in writing. Yeah, right, right. what you're going to do and then we're going to follow up and see if you did it's an improvement plan and if you don't do this then there's going to be consequences right like i don't really think that's it but jack somers asked a follow-up question in regards to what jesse asked and he did say that like do the guys that follow through with this plan and do the things you know pay attention to the details and do the things that troy has asked of them do they basically have have a you know a leg up on the competition when it comes to a position or being part of the main roster. And Tori confirmed that. Tori confirmed that, you know, obviously doing all of the things that he asks of you to do

and the ways to improve, that that's a big thing about, you know, a commitment level that he wants again for this team. And also, you know, just showing that you want to improve and be better, you know, help your team win. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, you know, we're going to try to talk with some players and kind of see how this is unfolded. We know that Merrill Kelly, at least entering the offseason, was working on

adding a pitch potentially. So maybe we'll see if we can find out what pitch. We have some guesses as to what pitch that will be. Stay tuned, though. Maybe on tomorrow's show, we have more official confirmation. But there are players in that clubhouse who have gone through this process and made changes and, you know, are probably going through one-on-ones with Tori Lavello to kind of follow up and see

how those changes went. And hopefully it results in some guys taking steps forward this year. Speaking of starting pitchers like Merrill Kelly, Zach Gallen had some very interesting, fun comments today in the clubhouse in regards to the Sy Young vote from last year and who did and who did not vote for him. And honestly, it was one of the funnier things that we've heard because Zach Gallen basically said he knows who didn't vote for them.

And he has a list. Yeah, he said they're on a list somewhere. I believe they're on a list somewhere. They'll be on a list somewhere. Well, speaking of that list, I might have that list right here in front of me because we might may or may not know who did and didn't vote for Zach Gallen, Megan Montemorrow, J.P. Hornstra, Christina DeNicola. These names are unnecessarily aren't pronounced. I know. Kurt Hogg?

Yeah. Mike Puma. Susan Slesser. Really, Susan? Anyway, we have the list is basically what we're saying. But Zach Gallen sounds very petty and I love it. I'm very like one of the things that we know about Zach Gallin is that he properly knows how to use things like this as motivation. And honestly, I think with what he did last season, with what he accomplished, I feel like he knows it was special.

And I think he doesn't feel like he was really recognized for his scoreless inning streak. Yeah, I mean, 44 and a third is a pretty, it's a pretty big number. I mean, I don't know what more Zach Gallen could have done in the second half. Yeah, I was in the scrum today talking with Zach Gallen about his offseason and number of other things. He was asked by Nick Picor of the Arizona Republic, you know, what do you use his motivation coming into a season like this? And Nick asked specifically about his Cy Young finish last year, right? He finished fifth and Cy Young voting. We've talked about that.

I think we're not here to say that Zach Gallant should have won the Cy Young Award. I think Sandial Contra. I think we both said San Diego Contra should have won. You'd have to really be a homer to say that Zach Gallen should have won the Sa Young. But you couldn't make a case. He should have finished higher than he did. It does. It does feel like you're just splitting hairs at that point because what's the point?

You're just mad he'd finish fifth instead of third. Like where should he have been at? You know what I mean? But it's proper motivation for Zach Gallen. And that's all we care about. We want Zach Gallen to be pissed off. And we want Zach Gallen to be ready to go out there and kick some ass. And Tori Lovolo, I think, agrees when it.

comes to Zach Gallen's comments and the fact that that is something he is going to use to motivate himself in 2023. Yeah, for him for sure. I think he compartmentalize things. He can't compartmentalize things the right way and use it to his advantage. I've seen that before. You know, I know there was a particular matchup against a particular hitter that we saw a couple times last year that he wanted to show everybody who, he was inside of inside of that matchup. So I know he's a very prepared,

a very energized guy and you just give a little extra pushing something. And he can handle it. So he pays attention to that stuff is all great players do. Have you spoken with him directly about the adjustments? And yeah, by the way, shout out to Coggs for being here for the first time in the chat, or in the live episode. We're happy to have you here. And he says Gallanover-Fried, in my opinion.

And I don't know if I just. agree with him but yeah they were really close yeah they were really close uh but what do you think though over overall i mean is this just because that gallon's a very funny person and i think at times this was maybe a little funny competitive but this did not see this this seemed like real this seemed like he was you know again it's just bulletin board material but it's that kind of thing that can really motivate a player to to go out there and give it you know 100 at least 110 percent yeah hopefully hopefully we get the the audio that we can share with you at some point but i was in the scrum when Zach Gallen was talking about this. And I don't know, there was something in

his tone of voice when he said these words that it kind of, I don't know, it gave me the chills for a second there. I said it the best. I said this to you at the table. You didn't understand this reference. He said Zach Gallant is going to be Steve Buscemi and Billy Madison. Yes, he is. Maybe without the lipstick, but regardless, either way, it's going to be something fun to see. I'm super excited about that. He also called the sphinxers. We talked about that a little while ago. The finksters thing was something, of course. He called me. He called him Fink's.

He called him Fink's. He didn't call you Fink's. He didn't even call you Fink's. He asked if he could answer one of your, Fink's questions, right? That is correct. He labeled us the same way I labeled Pocoda as an entire like organism, right? Like, we're just one to Zach Gowan. However, he did say that we should go with maybe the name Sphinx, which is not a terrible idea.

I mean, yeah, he referenced the fact that the Diamondbacks mascot as a bobcat. So kind of fits. I guess it, I guess it kind of fits. I have a sphinx. So we already have a mascot of our own ready to go at any point. And yeah,

I just like the fact that Zach Allen at least knows who we are. That's fun. There you go. Do we have that audio now, Damon? Yeah, let's play that audio of Zach Allen being a maniac. Definitely. Absolutely. There's definitely some motivation there.

Ten people then put my name on a ballot. So we'll be on a list. somewhere. I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, I'll find any little slight I can to throw it up there. Whatever I got to do is a long season. You've got to find ways to motivate yourself.

We're going to put that bulletin board together for him. I think it's a pretty, yeah. It was quite a moment to be there for you don't, especially from baseball players. I feel like in particular in this sport, guys, they take the high road, right? They want to be professional. and so they back off from saying things like this, right? They back off from, you know, they're going to say something like, you know, that's just the way it went. You know, I didn't do what I needed to be where I wanted to be and I'm going to, you know,

put my best foot forward this season and try to make it right. Zach Gallen is ultra competitive and he's okay sharing that competitiveness with the media from time to time. And yeah, he knows he knows the 10 names that Derek listed just a moment ago. those are the people who somehow didn't have Zach Gallin in their top five. And again, I understand what you're saying earlier. It's silly to quibble over a guy, you know, finishing third or fourth as opposed to fifth. I think there is some silliness there. But on the other hand, I don't know how you don't have Zach Gallen in your top five in

in Cy Young voting. I think it was pretty clear cut that he at least should have been that high on everyone's ballots. And unfortunately, that wasn't the outcome. Well, you know, we do something around here when things don't go the way we think they should when people have poor performances. And of course, we are going to give to the voters that did not vote for Zach Gallen to win the Saigon, the OGs performance to forget, by the way. So shout out to OGs and all of our friends that owes OGs. Make sure to grab yourself a pack of OGs wherever you get your wonderful, wonderful edibles at any dispensary around the valley. It's official right now.

OG's new strawberries and cream. Happy Balance Gummies are live on the shelves. As always, you can find them at your local dispensary by checking out OGsbrands.com. Must be 21 or over to enjoy. And of course, OGs is the best way to get over a bad performance like this one. Though we want, we don't want Zadallon to get over this one. We want this to fester. Yeah, it's kind of funny.

We call this the OG's performance to forget when Zach, we were just talking about Zach Gallon is not going to be forgetting this. Yeah, you will never forget it. So, of course, make sure to try out that strawberries and cream happy balance gummy. live on the shelves. They are CBD to THC ratio rebranded as the happy balance. So make sure to try them out. And also download the Underdog Fantasy app if you haven't done so already and get ready for the baseball season. We are riding on pitch counts this year. The Pickams game over at Underdog Fantasy, you can go higher or lower. And basically the more legs you add, the more money you can win up to

$1,000. Literally, all you have to do on pitch counts, pick, they'll give you an amount. You pick higher, you pick lower. That's all you need to do. So you can also draft teams up up against five of your friends and the highest scoring fantasy team for that night can win some a cold hard cash draft six NBA players with no positional limits and whoever scores the most fantasy points wins of course it is a fun app and I will never stop talking about the money I won on there using pitch counts so it's easy to get started go to underdog fantasy.com or download the app sign up with promo code phnx an underdog will match your first deposit up to $100 can you do pitch counts in spring training I don't think you can no I don't believe you can

that that would be kind of that would be kind of like the higher or lower on 28 on 26.5 26.5 pitches. Another thing we do around here is we arbitrate stuff because arbitration is a terrible process. It's it's horrible and of course we decided that a can of Arizona iced tea is worth what its label says and that's 99 cents. So Jesse lost that arbitration. I don't think we He lost his arbitration case. That's a mischaracterization of how that way. And he's not the only one because Josh Rojas also lost his arbitration case against the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I just want to imagine for a second going through this process with your employer or maybe even your spouse.

I don't know. Whoever your boss is in your life. That would really be. It would be like some of those commercials where they go to the instant replay. You know, like, and then they go back and they review the argument or the conversation they had. decide who was right and who was wrong. But this would also be more about your value in a relationship and how you don't really deserve to be paid as much money. I mean, it's especially messed up in a relationship's context because we're talking dollar values here, Derek. I certainly hope that that's

not, you know, part of little quibbles you have with your wife from time to time. It's every quibble, Jesse. But I will say this. At one time, I learned the secret to a happy marriage is keeping separate bank account. So that's something that I impart upon all of you as far as wisdom from a 41-year-old man that's been happily married for more than half of my life. But Jesse, Corbyn Burns had some comments about this. Not about Josh Rojas, but about the arbitration process, about losing his arbitration to the brewers. Now, we haven't heard from Josh Rojas yet in regards to this, and we might not, right?

Like, we might not hear any kind of... I'm sure that at some point we will ask Josh Rojas about this situation. and, you know, if there's any hard feelings or anything, I imagine there won't be. I think Nick Bacora wrote a story about that earlier in the offseason, and he kind of just talked about it as being the business side of things, and, you know, it's not going to damage his relationship with the team or whatnot. But I don't know, once you're in that room and you go through that process and you lose,

that's a hard thing to bounce back from in some ways I could imagine. So we'll have to see how your response. Josh Rojas is a gamer. We've talked about that. I mean, I bet he was like staring down members of the front office while he was in there just to try to intimidate them. Might have even tried to pick a little fight in the hallway going into the hearing. I don't know.

But like, like Jesse said, I feel like he understands, like once he lost it, it's like, all right, whatever, then can possibly move on. However, it is interesting to hear Corbyn Burns' comments about losing his case. And especially the way it went down. First, he doesn't, he sounded a little petty about it taking place on Valentine's Day, which I think anybody in a relationship might feel the same way. but he also sounded like he definitely has some hurt feelings that are going to be I don't even know if it's hurt feelings but it's like the relationship it's just a

damage relationship yeah it's a damage relationship now going forward with the Milwaukee Brewers at the hearing flu in the night before um had the hearing all day Tuesday um spent Valentine's day on a plane um got home at you know 10 11 o'clock and and got to see my wife before she fell asleep so that was kind of how the Valentine's day went so that was that was fun but um Yeah, like I say, you kind of find out your true value. You think you work hard for seven years in the organization and five years with the big league team. And you get in there and basically they value you much different than what you thought you had contributed to the organization.

And it's just, you know, it's obviously it's tough to hear, it's tough to take. But, you know, they're trying to do what they can to win a hearing. But I think there was obviously other ways that they could have gone about it. And probably been a little more respectful with the way they went about it. But, you know, at the end of the day, here we are. You know, they obviously say that they won it. But when it came down to winning or losing the hearing, it was more than that for me. Corbyn, this is everyone's fear for a player.

All right. So Corbin Burns, by the way, in case you're not familiar with his time with Milwaukee, had the lowest ERA in all of baseball in 2021. And in 2022, he led the league in games started with 33. He also had the National League. lead for strikeouts with 243. That's a little more significant than leading the league in games started. But still, I mean, but what we're talking about here, Jesse, is value, right?

And how are you going to take a guy that led the league in games started and led, led all of baseball and games started, led the national league in strikeouts, and try to diminish his worth in a hearing like this? Yeah. Yeah, it is crazy. I mean, he won the Cy Young in 2021. So Corbyn Burns is one of the best starting pitchers in baseball. I see, I've seen a lot of evaluators looking into 2023, viewing Corbyn Burns as possibly the best

starting pitcher in the National League moving forward. You know, you certainly have Sandy Alcantra in that mix as well, who maybe offers a little more durability. But just the swing and miss stuff that Corbyn Burns has, the variety of pitches, the command he has, it's one of the most complete packages in baseball. And this is, this is disappointing, I think. I'm sure the Brewers fans are very distraught over the situation because at the, you end of the day, an arbitration hearing is not over a significant amount of money for these

franchises, right? I know for us, you know, a difference of a few hundred thousand dollars is life-changing, right? But these are pro athletes and the difference of a few hundred thousand dollars is actually not that significant, at least not for the organizations that are paying out this money. And so I think you have to weigh whether it's worth the cost, even if you do think, you know, that a player is worth not what they're asking for, that they're worth a little bit less, than that. Is it worth? Is saving that money worth the cost of fracturing your relationship with that player? And clearly, as Corbyn talked about there, the Brewers weren't respectful in this process. And I do understand it's hard to be respectful in an arbitration hearing. We've talked about the

ugliness of how, you know, teams have to basically come out and, and talk about why the player isn't worth what they're asking for, which is going to be an awkward situation. But what we've heard is that the brewers basically went after the fact that he didn't take them to the playoffs. Yeah. Which is not really a Corbin Burns problem. If you look at the Brewer's roster, Corbyn Burns isn't exactly the reason that they're not getting where they want to go. So that's an outrageous claim. They had a lead in their division at one point that they kind of squandered away.

And again, like you said, that's not exactly a Corbyn Burns issue, considering that the guys still had a pretty damn good ERA. In a 2.9.4 ERA, 243 strikeouts and 202 innings. Come on, man. Going back to Zach Gallen, not that many pitchers in the National League were better than Zach Gallen. Corbyn's one guy. His ERA wasn't as good, but, I mean, looking at the peripherals and whatnot, you could make a case that he's right there.

Like, imagine the Diamondbacks in an arbitration hearing with Zach Gallen, you know, devaluing him because the debacks didn't make the playoffs last year. And pinning it on him, like it was somehow his fault. As if he's the problem in, you know, having a breakout season. It's really unfortunate to see the Brewers do this. My biggest problem too with this is like you said, there's, it's, how much damage has been done to this relationship? Yeah. How broken is.

Is Corbin Burns going to be willing to consider coming back to the Brewers? He's an unrestricted free agent in two seasons. You're going to lose him at that point. And I feel like you just solidified that with, with this move. Now, you could say that teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and even unfortunately teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks, a lot of times might not have a chance in keeping a guy of. Corbyn Burns's caliber at all, right? And that's our fear with Zach Gallen is the Diamondbacks not being able to extend Gallen.

But it also means that there's things that you do to show a player how much they mean to you, how much the organization values them. And the arbitration process literally destroys that because the entire purpose of it is to go in there and try to devalue that player's worth to the organization. It's absurd. It's crazy. I'd be okay if we got rid of it. Would you?

No more arbitration hearings? Yeah, like, can we put in a survey like the rules thing and tell of that this is a pain point for us that we don't want to see anymore? The fans vote. The fans would like the sport more if there were no arbitration hearings. I will say there on the flip side, it would be there are some logistical nuances there like player agents. One of their biggest roles is representing their players in arbitration hearing.

So it would kind of make agents, wouldn't make them useless, but it would make their role significantly less valuable to play. So maybe there's some concerns on that side. But at the end of the day, it's just a weird, it's just a weird baseball quirk. And I think we're kind of all ready to be done with this. And I know that Brewer's fans in particular are ready to be done with this after what happened today. Imagine if they put Hank the dog through arbitration. Do you have to go devalue Hank's worth through the organization?

Bullshit. I refuse to do it. I would step away at that point. But you guys are here right now in the PHNX Sports YouTube or the Fink's YouTube channel, whatever you prefer to call it. We appreciate you guys for being here. Please subscribe to the channel. If you haven't done so already, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live or any of the wonderful shows on our network go live.

And also leave us a thumbs up for our self-esteem. If you're listening on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there as well. Leave us a review. We always appreciate the feedback. And we thank you for doing so. And of course, consider if you aren't already a member joining us over here at PHNX as a diehard member. Not only do you get a free piece of merch like a hat or a shirt every single year you're a member. and 20% off all future purchases.

You also get access to our members-only Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan, as well as members-only discounts with some of our partners, members-only merchandise, members-only events, and so much more. You also get this guy's full-count article, as well as articles that are locked for members-only from Craig Morgan, Gerald Borgay, Howard Ballzer, all of our wonderful writers around here.

So make sure to do that and join us over here, become a member. We appreciate you guys for doing so. And the biggest thing is I don't have one in my hand and I'm kind of upset about it, but grab yourself a Four Peaks Brewing Company beer. I would love like. Have you ever done a Four Peaks ad read without a Four Peaks in your hand? I could see them. They're right there, Jesse, and I just can't get to them.

But of course, you grab yourself a favorite beer while you're watching us. Of course, while you're watching baseball this spring and at all these sporting events happening in February and March. So make sure to follow Four Peaks Brew on social media to get all their latest Premier Craft Brewery. You can also check out their events calendar at 4Peaks.com slash events for all your beer week entertainment. And most importantly, I'm trying to get everybody in this office revved up about it. But if speed and adrenaline is more your, well, speed, the beer can derby is on February 25th at 4Peaks 8th Street Pub in Tempe. And I want to make a Fink's beer can derby car. So we're going to make that happen.

You can pick up your kits now. Kit pickups are open now. So if you want to show us, you got the fastest beer can in the vans. Sine up through 4Peaks.com backslash events must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Jesse, are we the, are we the Fink Stebax show now? I don't know. I think Zach Gallen make us the Fink Stebac show. I think Steve Gilbert did that.

Steve Gilbert, that's the voice you heard the background of the video when Jesse asked that great question. Toy Lavallo was blown away by. Steve has this qualm that doesn't make any sense. He's because, right, we're Ph. and X. Yeah. He makes the case. all right, well, I write for dbax.com, but I don't go around calling it d-B-A-C-S.com, right? Right.

Right. So it's d-bax.com. Right. But debax is like a word, right? It's a word. Not pH and X, not a word. Apparently, Steve Gilbert doesn't understand what an acronym is, but I digress. Yeah.

That's absolutely the truth. Jesse and Steve are quite close, actually. They're almost as close, you could say, as Jordan Lawler and Corbyn Carroll. Can we get this wholesome picture up? because this was going to look at this. Does this not warm your heart to see these two guys out there hanging out, broing out, just having a good time at the waste management open?

Steve didn't take me to the waste management. No, he did not. That's true. We're not quite on that level yet. But yeah, I mean, if you're a D-BACs fan, like,

I don't know if you can get much more enjoyment out of a single photo than seeing Jordan Lawler and Corbyn Carroll hanging out at the waste management and like that level of friendship, right? Like, we're going to be, like, me and this guy,

we're going to be teammates for a long time. and we're going to bring lots of wins to the valley. That's what I see when I see that guy, those right there together. By the way, we also have friends, you know, it's not just them. They're not just the only guys that have friends. We have friends. Our friends, the Amarillo Sod Poodles, by the way. The Amarillo Sod Poodles are our friend.

They put out a tweet today with a picture of Corbyn Carol from, there it is right there, looking very fast. See, doesn't he just look fast? Like, what is he even doing in that picture? Like, why is he even running that fast? He shouldn't be putting forth that much of an effort. when it's not his turn yet. It's pitchers and catchers turn.

But are we sure he's running? Like, what do you think he's doing there? It kind of looks like he's about to fall over. Yeah, like it looks like you tripped. Right. Yeah,

like I don't have that kind of stability when I run. If I'm, if you can find a free, you can find a freeze frame where I look like that. Yeah. Then the next frame is me just like falling flat on your face. But fortunately, Corby Carroll's a little more coordinated than I am.

You've looked like this when you've played ping pong before. So I've definitely seen you in this position. When I'm chasing around the ping pong ball is how you're talking about Derek. But the sod poodles, they asked, what's Corbyn running from? We'll Photoshop some of the best answers. Our friend Michael Rokickey had to go ahead and throw us under the bus by saying it was him running away from us. And the sod poodle said, big fans of the pod. So look it. There he is in the background. I said it looks like he's running towards us now. That looks like he's so excited to be on our show. Should we explain for the audio? Yeah. So the image is Jesse and I

photoshopped into Chase Field doing the show. And in the background is Corbyn Carroll. Maybe he's running like towards like maybe is he running towards the field yeah it kind of depends on your your perspective like i guess if he's kind of out by the the concourse and you could kind of see him you know running the opposite direction of where we are like maybe it looks like he's like oh before they see me i got to get out of here right like that's what they're going with with it kind of plays with your mind i could also look at it and see him like just darting directly at he's so excited he's running away from something and we're we're like the safe haven right he's running towards you know so so the sod puddle just need to do better

when it comes to their graphics department. I don't know what this is there. It's way too ambiguous. Wow. We do love them. We do. We absolutely love the sod poodles. And of course, we love the fact that this team is very excited.

I think that's the best thing about right now at camp. Someone had asked up in the chat, I believe, about when on this, if camp was open this weekend, where it would be and what time. I think it was Katie right there. Katie Kinneman asked where and when and what time is the DBAX. workout on Monday. Those workouts start at 9 a.m. They last roughly until like 11. They will be taking place on Monday and they are out at Salt River Fields. So once you get out there, there's a designated area for fans to hang out. The desert lot. Yeah, the desert lot. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to try to

say which road you enter on, but I don't remember the name of the road. I think. Yeah. Yeah, right. No, I know. I'm not trying to get out. Like if you're on the 101, get off of Via Da Ventura. And then, And then there's like there's a road you turn off of there off of the via VDentura and then And then you enter the ballpark and yeah, you'll find it. You'll find it. Not too hard to find. But yeah, definitely. It was a great opportunity.

Jesse and I commented a couple of times that there's not enough fans out there. So yeah, there's not as many as I remember there being. I know it's been a while since this has been a thing that the fans could access. So I guess people have maybe forgotten that this is an actual thing they can do. But, but yeah, if you're looking for autographs, like we said yesterday, quite a bit of opportunity there. And we actually have some more people asking about that in regards to this weekend. And those workouts are occurring. We talked about this yesterday on Saturday and Sunday. Same time. So you can go out there basically between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and those workouts will be happening then to.

It's just kind of unprecedented access to the players. And today we saw like for instance, everybody signing. Kattel was going around making sure that nobody got left out. So I mean, it really is a perfect time, especially for some of the position players, because to be honest, they're not involved in any of these workouts, but they are there working out. So they kind of have a little bit more freedom because these other guys are involved in groups and drills and they have to be at a certain place at a certain time. So that's just something to keep in mind. But once the full workouts open up on Monday, you should be able to see not only the players like all over the place at Salt Riverfields, which is a lot of the fun, but you'll be able to see all of the different kind of action

that we talked about. You know, some of the, some of the things besides just watching them do drills is the fun of watching them play like backlock games and stuff like that. But we saw another interesting thing today speaking of the workouts. We saw Nick Ahmed working out with the rest of the infielders. However, he wasn't throwing the ball back after he was fielding it like some of the other guys were. So it would appear that Ahmed is still maybe a little bit behind or maybe they're being a little cautious with him. as far as, you know, him returning from that injury,

but he doesn't seem to be maybe at 100% just yet. It did sound, though, like they do intend on him being the everyday guy once the season starts. Same thing with Carson Kelly that LaBello brought up today, that it sounds like Carson Kelly will get the majority of the reps behind the plate for this team versus Gabriel Moreno kind of maybe getting equal time with him. Yeah, I think Tori was more direct with that competition than he was at shortstop. I asked about the shortstop situation yesterday. And he kind of just said, you know, we're excited to have Nick back, you know, leader defensively.

We really missed him. But he also talked about how Nick being out allowed Geraldo Perdomo to come in and get a lot of playing time. So he didn't really say, I agree with you. I do think that Nick Ahmed will be the primary shortstop when it's all said and done. Of course, that is somewhat dependent on what happens in the Cactus League. I do think that Nick Ahmed is the front runner there. Toro Lavello hasn't quite come out and said that yet. whereas, as you said, he was pretty direct today that Carson Kelly is going to be the primary catcher,

at least at the beginning of the season. Maybe things could change after that. But going back to what you said about Nick, he's coming off of right shoulder surgery. He's removed quite a few months at this point, but a procedure like that is going to take a while. When I talked to him a couple of weeks ago, he said that he did have a setback earlier in the offseason when he was going to ramp things up. they decided to kind of pull things back and go a little bit slower. But Tori Lavello did say today that he should be a full go once games actually start and he should be able to, you know, throw from shortstop, which I guess you have to do in order

to play shortstop in baseball. You're going to have to make some throws every now and then. Can you imagine? Like he just like he just flips it. He just flips it to Cattel every time he fields a ball. Like, hey, can you throw this over to first base for me? I don't think he'll have to do that. All right.

Well, before we get out of here, we got to give our draft king's pick of the week. And guess what? The sons are back, baby. Today was Kevin Durant press conference or the introductory press conference. It was very exciting. Everybody seemed to be excited out there except for Kevin Durant because he doesn't get excited about much else. Besides free chicken sandwiches. Should we ceremonially, though, bet on McHale Bridges?

Like, wouldn't that just, all right, I'll just shut up. That just hurts my feelings. I'm not ready to go there. And I'm very sad about that. But I will say this. I'm ready to ride with the Phoenix Suns. I'm ready to ride with them on the under for the point total for tonight's game against the LA Clippers at 222. I'm riding with them on the spread at minus 1.

That you get good value there at minus 105 or the money line. It doesn't matter. They're going to win. I'm also going with Chris Paul with his assist. I did eight assists, but I think plus nine is still pretty good there on that one. So make sure if you haven't done so already to grab the Draft King's Sportsbook app, we're not going to talk about our Super Bowl bets because I'm still mad about Purple Gatorade. I still feel like it was an inside job. But I will say, go download the Drafking Sportsbook app now and use our code of Fink's, aka P-H-N-X. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in free bonus bets instantly.

Only at the drafting sports book with code P-HNX, minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And remember, we ride with the Phoenix Suns now, baby. Do you see though, McHale scored 45 points? I did. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. I, in all transparency, I bought a McAil Bridges jersey the other day. A Nets? No, they don't have the net. Just like they don't have the Durant jersey's readily available yet. They didn't have the McAil Bridges jersey in the nets. But I did buy the, you know, their city.

Yeah, they had it on clearance. I love a good deal. That kind of breaks my heart. I love a good deal. They put those on clearance afterwards. Oh, so sad. It's so painful. Yeah.

Do you think we get a, did we get a Kevin Durant throwing out the first pitch at Chase Field? Yeah, I don't know about that. Kevin Durant doesn't seem like he doesn't seem like to care about a lot of this stuff, right? Like Kevin Durant wants to get on the court and play basketball. That's what he wants to do. He wants to win. And I think he really is excited about being part of this team. But I think a lot of this other stuff. I think that's the kind of stuff that he's not really that into. I wouldn't be surprised to not see him. We're not going to get that Kevin Durant day. Who knows? I want Durantula day. Give me slim Reaper night at the ballpark. I have all in favor of that. Bobblehead. Yes. Maybe a bubblehead.

Oh, God, that'd be a great bobblehead. We have a great shirt, though. So make sure to check out the PHNX Locker or the Fink's Locker. Again, whatever you want to call it. Dot com. Steve is really polluted your mind. He has ruined me. And also, speaking of getting out to those games, you can get out to those games if Kevin

Durant does throw the first pitch out for an Arizona Diamondbacks game using our friends over at game time. Jesse has told you time and time again. It's the most aesthetically pleasing ticketing app, maybe just app in general. But it also allows us procrastinator. to rejoice in our procrastinating. You can save up to 60% on tickets when you buy them last minute. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description.

And of course, make sure to check out Game Time. We did the Super Bowl thing. They had tickets. They just weren't 60% off. But again, if you wait until the last minute on the GameTime app, you're going to score big. We appreciate you guys being here. Of course, thank you so much to all of you for stopping by. Donovan Spencer says, Mikhail never dropped 45 in Sun.

I know. I know. I don't, I don't even know what to think about that. Like, were we holding him back? Like, did he need to leave to finally achieve his final form? I don't know. But if there's one thing I know is guys like that, you continue to root for because they're a really, really good person and all the best to Mikhail. But I'm going to start. We got to stop. We got to stop.