PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Zac Gallen struggles in his Cactus League debut in World Series rematch against Rangers

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Zac Gallen made his Cactus League debut and Christian Walker returned from injury against the Texas Rangers in Surprise. We discuss Gallen’s first outing, Torey Lovullo’s concern level on getting his two top starters ready in time for Opening Day, and more! MLB the Show meanwhile dropped their player ratings for 2024 and we ponder if the Diamondbacks top 5 players are overrated for once. We also take a look Spring Breakout game rosters for the Snakes.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Someburros: 20% off your order of up to $100 when you use code PHNX at checkout for the whole month of March at https://www.someburros.com/When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX feedback podcast right here. I'm PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This maniac next to me is occasionally known as your vice mayor. My thunder stick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And Jesse, we saw Zach Gallen make his Cactus League debut today. Of course, I want to overreact to it, but I'm not going to.

I'm going to try to stay calm. and let's talk about Zach Gallen making his debut today. It was all right. I mean, you know, the box score won't impress you necessarily. Two innings, two hits, two runs, two walks, two strikeouts. Lots of twos. Lots of twos. Interesting stateline for Zach Gallon.

What was also interesting is that Tori Lavello said before the game that Gallin would throw three innings, 45 pitches, and then Gallin went out and through two innings. We kind of figured that was because he had a longer first inning through 36 pitches total. But then Lavello corrected himself after the game and said the two innings is actually the plan all along. So I think Lavello just just misspoke there. But yeah, two innings from Gowan today. Was he great? No.

But does it matter? Also probably probably no. What matters is that we had to drive all the way out to surprise. That's what matters. I've spent over two hours in my car today, Derek. And I am not happy about it. Let me get started on surprise. Can we build a goddamn loop out to the ballpark?

Just some sort of connecting loop, the 404 or something, comes off of the 101, just hits over there on Parkside and comes back because I'm tired of this shit. 30 minutes for eight miles is an unacceptable amount of time for me. And that seems commonplace for some of you poor folks that actually live there in surprise. No knock to you guys. You guys are good people. You just live in a town that's entirely too slow for my taste. And I, again, you had to drive through Sun City. Again, the only city in America where children are actually banished from living in, that's a real thing.

That's not a Disney story. That is something that happens to exist in this town. You mean like certain neighborhoods in Sun City, right? Like, you can't, you can't just have a whole town where children aren't allowed, right? There's a town where you can't dance, Jesse. There's a town that you can't have children live in. And it is Sun City, Arizona. But Zach Allen didn't mind pitching in surprise at all.

In fact, I think he did kind of mind pitching surprise. Well, yeah, because not what's one of drive out there. But Zach Gowland actually thinks he's pitched in surprise way more than he has because this is what he had to say today about pitching in surprise. Which one was that? The very first one. I have them called. Okay. I don't know what you have them called.

It's probably Gowan on first start would be my guess. I feel like I think back for as long as I've been here I think I've made more starts at this field than I have at Salt River. I think it would be close if you looked at it. I feel like I pitch here all the time. Yeah, I felt about what I thought I was going to feel like. It's always first one always getting to different uniform is, you know, is what it is. But I think I got some good work in. I felt like kind of stuff I've been working on, you know, translated.

Obviously, it's not in full season, mid-season form. But, yeah, I felt pretty solid for the most part. I mean, I'm going to walk to Carter. It's pretty much the only bat that I was probably a little frustrating or anything else. I felt pretty solid about, you know, locate pictures and stuff like that. Groundhog Mama is asking us if we read Craig Morgan's article about complaining about the drive to sporting events in the Valley. Yes. Yes, I did.

And he was talking about us. But yeah, Gallen, of course, has not, in fact, started more games in surprise and he hasn't solved Riverfield. That would be crazy if that was a true statement, right? Yeah, it in fact is a little bit crazy. But, I mean, in his defense, this was his third start at Surprise Stadium in his major league career, which feels like kind of a lot. The Diamondbacks don't play a ton of games there in spring training. I guess it's usually one.

every spring training. And so, but yeah, I mean, he has pitched seven games at Salt River Fields in his Diamondbacks career. This was his third game at Surprise Stadium. So he has pitched significantly more games at Salt River Fields. But yes, I still understand where he's coming from. I think two of those Salt River Fields games were technically road games against the Colorado Rockies for whatever that's worth.

So yeah, maybe it's a little bit more imbalance than you would think. but yeah this is in fact blasphemy on the part of Zach Gowan he has he has not thrown that many games at the pride stadium well he has thrown more than we thought he has because even though this was his cactus league debut he has been throwing at salt river fields he has been working out so like he does feel like he's farther along than just making his first start essentially today yeah he's thrown he's thrown a lot of lives he's thrown a lot of lives on the backfield so he joked that there's secret games that we don't know about. Yes, yes, he did. I don't know if he was joking or not. I think he was joking. I think he was joking. Yeah, he talked about how, you know, in the past,

he's only thrown a couple of lives entering his first spring training game. This time, I think he's thrown five possibly more than that. So he has faced Diamondbacks hitters on backfields quite a few times. But it's different going in and actually facing another team. He also happened to be facing the Texas Rangers, which of course you might assume there would be a kind of narrative there. And I guess there kind of was. He wasn't particularly aware that he was pitching against the Rangers until very,

very close to what to start happened. But it's the first last team he pitched against last year and first team pitches against this year. And this is actually, I think we have video of him talking about that. No, I mean, it's spring training. Somebody joked that it's, you know, ironic. Last team you face is the first team you face in the spring training. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just ironic, really.

It's all another than that, you know. Have that crossed your blizzard or that? No, because honestly, until yesterday, I thought I was, I had the schedule all mixed up. I was, yeah, I'm throwing Peoria in Maryland. We don't even play. I was like, I guess it's a good point. I was like, it's Peoria, I think, next time.

So, yeah, I just thought I was facing the Padres until yesterday about 3 o'clock. Yeah, it didn't even really cross my mind. That's how it. Not a lot of time. left for Zach Allen to get ready. I don't feel like there was any sense of urgency on his part or Torrey's part when talking about it. But, you know, Zach did kind of talk about how like he doesn't really know when he's ready, which is understandable. Like he said that with injury in 2021, he had

kind of a weird start, you know, as to when he was ready for that season. Then they had the lockout. So in his career, he doesn't really know right now how many games it's going to take for him to feel ready. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Zach Gallen is a feel pitcher. That's something that we hear him talk about a lot trying to get feel for his pitches. And it does seem like that is something that can take a while. And it sort of comes and goes. And sometimes even when he pitches extremely well, he still will try to convince you that he doesn't,

that he didn't have good feel for his pitches. And, you know, last season, we did kind of see that manifest itself, I think, in the latter half of the year when, you know, he was, he kind of was trying to convince us through the first half of the season that he didn't have great feel for his pitches. And in the second half, it kind of looked like it. The results weren't quite as good. But in terms of just like from a workload standpoint, building up to the regular season, he is going to be kind of pushing against this March 28th deadline where he will presumably be the Diamondbacks opening day starter. he would make his next start, I believe it will be on the 12th. You just go five days from now. That one would be in Peoria against the San Diego Padres.

That's the one he was thinking of. And then he would probably start on, I guess, the 17th and then the 22nd. And then his next start after that would be opening day against the Rockies on the 28th. So he has three more spring training outings to get ready for the regular season. To be fair to Zach, I also do the same thing with East. Valley cities. Like I don't know where Mesa or Gilbert or Chandler is. They all are in the same place to me as far as I'm concerned. They're just grouped into the group I call far too far away from my house in South Anthem. Right. So I get it. Like Peoria, surprise. I don't know. What else is over there? Avondale, Maryvale, like all that might as well be the same as far as they're concerned on how far away they live. But Gallen did talk a little bit more about how he knows when he's, ready and what kind of how his arm kind of almost drops into a slot he said this is what he had to say i've been able to pinpoint because we've had the lockout and then i was hurt in 21 and then

last year just like there's a certain point in time when like my arm just is able to kind of drop into its slot per se and everything just feels really natural um but i haven't been able to really pinpoint when when that actually happens um it's kind of seemed like the COVID year and the lock got year when the spring training was a little bit, not longer, but just a little bit longer time that filled up. I felt pretty good about it. So that was kind of the thought of this year was like, let's start the throwing program a little bit earlier. And then that way we're not, you know, trying to play catch up. That's a weird, like, concept to me that you're going to kind of warm up. You're going to build yourself up throwing a ball. And then at some point, your arm is going to

drop into a slot and then you're going to be like there it is like trust me as an old guy once again I know what he's saying metaphorically because that's how like my left ankle is you know it's bad it's shitty it feels like it's sprained all the time and then every once in a while I'm like

oh hey there you just needed it I just needed it to drop into the slot yeah that makes a lot of sense yeah I mean I think it's I think it's hard for for Zach to put in like exact words the way that he finds feel for his pitches.

Sure. Because it's just a weird thing. I mean, when you are a pitcher who very much depends on this idea of feel, it's kind of an elusive concept for, you know, certainly for us as reporters. And also for Gowan himself, like there, you know, I also asked, what do you do to get feel for your pitches? And he basically just said more reps. You just keep having, you just keep throwing the same pitches over and over again.

And as you heard him described there, eventually it just clicks into place. he hasn't really figured out when that happens exactly. As he outlined there, you know, he's dealt with some interesting situations with the lockout and the COVID year and being hurt in 2021. He hasn't necessarily had a super normal buildup. Like, I guess he has this year, although he really doesn't because, you know, the off season was so short this time around. But he didn't stop throwing really during the off season. He took maybe like a week or two off after the World Series and kind of just been throwing ever since the middle of November. and that seems to have served himself well,

getting that kind of that early start and trying to get feel for his pitches and make sure that he is ready to go by opening day. Yeah. Well, Tori talked about understanding the situation with both Zach and Merrill and that there isn't a lot of wiggle room for them right now for there to be a setback in any way

with either Zach or Merrill and not have it impact them being ready for opening day. Yeah. And this is what Tori had to say about that. Yeah, that's what we're. We kind of sold out to that. I think there's a little bit of wiggle room if there were something to push us back, but they're on a schedule.

They've been on a schedule, and you've got to tighten it down a little bit towards the back end. If you're going to sell out to it the way we did, which we did for a very good reason, you've got to really stay tight on the backside, and that's what we're doing right now. But they're on board, and they're going to pitch on their day, and if there's rain or a situation, we'll still find the time to get them to throw. I think there might be a one-day space room for something were to happen. one day might give us a little creativity, but for the most part,

they got to stay on the schedule from here or not. I mean, it's not, obviously, it's not a catastrophic situation if they're not ready by opening day. We talked about the fact that they would like to give Merrill Kelly and Zach Gown some more time. So if it ended up being a situation where Eduardo Rodriguez, for instance,

had to start on opening day, that's not the worst scenario considering he... It's not really lined up to start an opening day. No, no, no, no. I know, I know. I know. I'm just saying, like, if, If something were to happen, it's not like this is a catastrophic situation for the Diamondbacks.

It's just a matter of maybe them needing just a little bit more time or pushing them back a little bit. It's not great, but they start the season against the Rockies. And we're just going to throw fucking shade at the Rockies now because we have to face the Rockies on opening day. And we have to face them in our spring breakout game too. I'm tired. We have to share a facility with them. We're connected at the hip with this Rockies team. but I do think there's some validity to what you're saying about throwing some

straight at the Rockies and the Diamondbacks play them on opening day. I hate it. If you're in a situation where like Zach Gallen's going to be the D-backs opening day starter no matter what as long as he's healthy, right? Even if he's not as built up. Yeah. He's going to start that day no matter what. But I think if you're the D-backs, you feel like you can get away with Zach Allen and

Merrill Kelly maybe only throwing like four or five innings against the Rockies. Yeah. And still having a pretty decent chance to win those games, right? You open with a four-game series against the Rockies. So presumably it's going to be Gallen, Kelly, Erod, fought starting all those games. All of those guys are kind of being slow played a little bit. And I think you theoretically should be okay, right? Because they're the Colorado Rockies.

I don't know. Elise is saying it's not like we'd have a bullpen game on opening day of murder Zachart ready. But that sounds like the kind of thing you say where all of a sudden we fast forward to opening day and it is a bullpen game. But I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to have a bullpen game on opening day. We're done with those. We're done with those. But yeah, all that to say, if Zach is only able to give you 85 pitches or whatever on opening day, that's okay. And if it's the same with Merrill on the second day of the season, that's okay too.

You can still find ways to win those games. And, you know, hopefully those guys are able to get stretched out early in the season. And the whole point of this is just to save bullets for when it really matters. And a lot of people already believe that spring training is way too long. And Zach Geylon and Merrill Kelly are just kind of taking advantage of that a little bit and, you know, not starting to ramp up until a little bit later. Yeah. And Elise is once again correct when she says, thank goodness, we aren't opening against the Dodgers again. That would be different.

Yeah, that would be different. Like if Zach Gown can only give you four innings on opening day against the Dodgers, you're having to really piece things together in the bullpen. Not great. Next thing you know, you have Paul Seawald starting off as an opener in a contract year. Not the only guy. Let's not do that. By the way, Paul Seawald, not the only guy in a contract year. Christian Walker returned from his hand injury today.

This is a contract year also for Christian Walker. And he felt good. He said that they were taking some precautions with some inflammation. But for the most part, he's kind of been ready and kind of been antsy about it. He never really took any time away. He was just still out there with the guys. Like he was just still out there with his group. He never really actually, he just didn't hit.

He just took that time off and let his hand heal. But Christian Walker, that's a guy that, again, we talk about at times that is kind of underappreciated. But he finally gets the credit he deserves from the fine folks at MLB the show, which we're going to talk about here in a little while. But again, Walker, this is a big year for Walker. It really is. I mean, from where his career was at one point to where he is now as far as desirability as a baseball player and the interest of teams and what he could potentially get in his next contract is huge for him personally. It might not be so good for the Diamondbacks,

but, you know, he talked about today this kind of being a situation that's kind of, I guess he was, he was a little too excited about this, but let's hear what he had to say. It is a fortunate, awesome thing, and not a lot of players get to experience it. That being said, like there's a lot of time and a lot of that bats on the table in between now and then. So my focus is the 20-24 season. Like, you know, we're here to win a World Series

regardless of what happens in the future or what happened in the past. You know, love my experience here. But, yeah, I'm here for the next, you know, seven to eight months and we're going to make it count. I don't like that part at the end. I don't like the, I'm here for the next seven to eight months and we're going to make that.

I don't like that. I don't like that. I knew you were going to freak out about this. The moment, the moment. I wanted to, like, explain what he was saying there in the beginning. I wanted to not freak out, but then we get to the end and I freak out every time. Because, yeah, he is right to be in the position where you are in a contract year.

You're playing extremely well. You're, you know, you're a player that a lot of teams are going to have an interest in. It is a great time to get to that point, you know? You're the bell of the ball a bit. And you get to have your agent field some offers. You get to decide on some stuff. Right now what he's saying is is all he can. cares about his diamond backs for the next seven,

eight months and everything else after that, that happens then. But, you know, for for himself, it's, it's all the benefit of the world for him to play as, as absolutely, at his best this season. Yeah, 100%.

And yeah, I don't think we talk enough about what it means for players to reach free agency, to just have the opportunity to be signed as a free agent and like, expect a major league contract. Not that many guys get to that point. There are a lot of players in this league, even if they have some success right as they enter the majors, who don't have the longevity in order to reach free agency

and still be desired as a major league player, right? You have to reach six years of service time. That's a long time. And Christian Walker, we talked about this several months ago. One of the greatest waiver claims that has ever been placed in MLB history, right? The Diamondbacks claim Christian Walker off waivers from, the Cincinnati Reds back in March of 2017 when Paul Goldsmith was still in the organization and still very much doing his thing and eventually the door opened for Christian Walker to get that opportunity

and my is he taking advantage of it he has come in and and turned himself into one of the best first basement in you're absolutely right and and I mean it's not to say that they're like he didn't make us forget about Paul Goldschmidt but how quickly we found ourselves saying wait a minute yeah You might not have Paul Goldschmidt anymore, but you kind of have Paul Goldschmidt, you know, still. You can't replace Paul Goldschmidt, but man, they got as close as you, like, reasonably could have expected it feels like. For as cheaply as they could, right? In a very savvy move that ended up bringing us our first baseman who, again, does not get nearly enough credit for his defense. That's something that, again, he does, because statistically he's the best defensive first base.

or at least up there all the time, but I don't think people realize how good he's been for the Diamondbacks in the time here. So, again, I mean, that's a very critical extension that the Diamondbacks need to start thinking about and most likely won't happen. Most likely Christian Walker at this point with it having gone this long, we'll test the free agency market. Hopefully it's a Lordis Guerriel situation where he does and we're able to just bring him back, right?

That would be the best case scenario for the Diamondback. for sure. Yeah, he was asked, Nick Pecora wrote a story over at the Arizona Republic about Walker and asked him, you know, have there been any extension talks or anything like that? And he basically said no, not that I'm aware of or something along those lines. And yeah, we talked a few months ago about what it would look like for the debacks to extend Christian Walker, what it might cost. And it kind of seemed like there was this disconnect between what like the computers would say Christian Walker's worth and what his actual performance so far has said. said he would be worth in a way that it'd be hard to come to an agreement on an extension.

But this season's really important for him. Like, for all the success that Christian Walker has had up to this point, he is a little bit on the older side to be reaching free agency. He's 32. He's almost 33. And people are going to want to see him go out and do it again and have another really good season in order for him to really get paid and be a hot commodity and free agency. If you were a free agent right now, Christian Walker would be making a lot of money.

But he's got to do it for another year. in order for teams to still view him that way a year from now. I'm going to give you the reason why this needs to happen, why he needs to stay in Arizona. This man can attest to it today. Finally showed him the Walker, Walker, Walker, Walker, single double, triple Walker video. And he loved it.

He loved it. The man loved it. I've been waiting almost a year to show him that video. And there was talk about how good it would sound coming out of the new sound system at Chase Field. And none of these things I'm telling you are Lies, folks. These were words out of Christian Walker's mouth.

So bring him back because I need that, like just one game, right? We're already talking about doing a remix. Coggs wants to do a, what, what is it? I don't know. What does Coggs want to do a cover? He wants to do a cover. He's asking my permission to do a cover. Absolutely not.

The answer is no, Coggs. You got to pay big money for that. I'll tell you that much. Before we do move on, we should talk about Slate Cicconi. He pitched behind Gallon today. didn't really have a great day. No. No.

Lovo seemed pretty pleased with him afterwards. Yeah, yeah. Two in a third inning, five hits, three runs, one walk, three strikeouts. They're a lot of work. Yeah, on paper, the box score numbers aren't going to impress you. But I asked Tori about him after the game. And Tori really did have some positive things to say. After Slade's last start in Goodyear, the criticism was that he got away from himself as a power guy

and was throwing his secondary pitches a little bit too much. Tori clearly just wanted him to kind of stop experimenting and just go out there and make pitches. And it seems like he did do that today. Tori talked about the finish on his fastball and him getting back to really kind of basing his arsenal off the heater and then, you know, building off of that. So I think in some ways it was a good outing for Sakoni maybe better than the numbers would suggest.

But yeah, it doesn't exactly, not exactly a great day for the, you know, Slate Sakoni for fifth starter spot campaign all and all. I know that the numbers aren't everything, but he did get knocked around a little bit with those five hits. Ryan's asking us to play the song. That's why Jacob's here watching us, because Jacob knows I want to play the song. He knows I'm not allowed to.

He's like, we're going to get DMC8 or whatever. So, no, it's not happening. But go to my Twitter account. You can listen to the song there all you want. Listen to it a hundred times in row. Learn all the words. We'll all sing it together when we're out by the pool. When we're having the pool party there on July 31st at Chase Field.

That's going to be a mandatory thing. You're going to need to know the words of the song. There won't be chance sheets. I'm letting you know ahead of time. It's very hard to concentrate right now. We're glad you guys are here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now because you might miss out on Max getting a tattoo done right after our show.

And you can't miss out on that. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss all of the insane things that happens in this office that I'm supposed to somehow. I'm supposed to mayor over the top of Saul's GMing, and there's a complicated chain of command there. I don't like to get involved with it. But there is a tattoo artist. Our guy Todd right now, I'm watching him.

He's getting ready. He's excited. It's going to tattoo Max. So do not miss that. That's a real thing that's happening. Drop us a like if you're here right now. And don't leave for them. We hang out with us until they start.

I'll let you know when it's time to go over there. But of course, right now, make sure you're subscribed on the audio podcasting side as well. Don't miss out on that stuff. We love our reviews, so make sure you leave us a review. Also, stop by Circle K, fill yourself up right now. I need some snacks because I'm not leaving this office. I'm going to wrap this show up and then I'm going to go be a spectator, maybe even a commentator on the Phoenix Rising show.

We'll see how that works out. But in the meantime, I might make a quick trip over to Circle K, get myself some snacks. It is America's third stop. And I do need some gas. So it is some of the cheapest gas I can find in this part of town. Of course, if you join the Inner Circle program for free right now by downloading the Circle K app today. You can save 25 cents off per gallon

on your first five Phillips. You also save three cents off per gallon every day after that. You can actually level up and get to a point, I think, where you get five cents off per gallon every fill up. So, I mean... Yeah, I think so.

They're hooking you up over there at Circle K. Terms and conditions apply. Participating, locations, visit CircleK.com for details. But when you get that app, all sorts of free snacks, all sorts of free drinks, coffee, ice cream, pizza, all sorts of great stuff in there. So make sure to join the Inner Circle today. also maybe after all this action we can maybe agree on taking a boy's trip to hila river resorts and casinos i don't know damon

what are your thoughts damon's very exhausted i think he's still anti me being part of that trip but it's all right i mean i'm gonna convince he's not the only one you son of a bitch well i'm going on my own staycation then by myself at hila river resorts because i don't need these guys i'm gonna go there and have a fun time i will meet complete strangers who i will become best friends with and will get mad at Matching tattoos. That's how crazy things get at Heel of River Resorts and Casino. Nobody does it better. They have, of course, the state-of-the-art gaming floor with over 800 slot machines. It is a resort. So if you go there for a great night of fun and drinking, you can get yourself a room, hang out there, make it a perfect night, perfect staycation. The dining ranges from upscale to approachable. And right now you can head over to Heel River Resorts and Casinos and let them show you what the next level is all about. You do you at Healer River Resorts and Casinos. Visit Play at Heal River Resorts and Casinos. Visit Play at Heal River Resorts and Casinos. For more details and do not miss some of the wonderful events that we have coming up like our NFL draft party, right? It's going to be out there at Heela River Resorts. Yeah.

Indeed. Indeed. Thank you. Thank you. It'll be a lot of fun. You've got to be 21 or older if you want to show up. Okay. But I believe it's $35.

Healer River Resorts and Casinos Wild Horse Pass. All right. It's going to be electric. There you go. It's going to be electric. Well, I was all set to be mad. I guess not mad. I guess I was happy with MLB the show yesterday.

And I was ready to be mad. ad today because today was the day that MLB's 24, MLB the show 24, uh, dropped their player ratings. And of course, it's, it instantly draws iron out of me because I know that the Arizona Diamondbacks players are not going to be valued nearly as high as I value them. And that upsets me. However, however, uh, I was pleasantly surprised this round around. Maybe it's because the Diamondbacks made the World Series. Maybe they're getting their credit. But they do have a cool little celebration video because 24 does have team celebrations. And their celebration video is them just in the pool, in the new white jerseys,

just completely see-through at that point. It's wet and it's already see-through material. That's not safe for work, folks. But what is safe for work is these ratings because, man, we got some ratings. And these are the Arizona Diamondbacks top five rated players. for those of you listening on the audio side Zach Gallen has a 91 overall Corbyn Carroll has a 91 overall

Cotel Marte has an 89 Christian Walker has an 88 and Merrill Kelly rounds out the top five with an 83 This is really good I found myself only getting mad about one thing which we will get to but let's start with the positive

I want to accentuate the positives here Zach Gallin Corbyn Carol 90 plus players absolutely great to Yeah, I think that's probably about what I would have said for both of those guys, like somewhere in the low 90 range. Christian Walker 88. We touched on this earlier. It feels like Christian Walker's agent, like, reached out to MLB the show and was like, this is a contract here.

Yeah, we need to up there's a few more points. Signed bat, sign jerseys, whatever. We'll get it for you. In no way do I think. I don't really think it's too high. It's just that MLB, the show doesn't generally give players who have tons of, defensive value the rating that they probably deserve it feels like it's it's more based off of like batting average and home runs and that kind of thing which christian walker is pretty pretty

decent at those things too i would have expected him to be more like low mid 80s though to see like merrill 83 84 he was in 84 last year and he thought it was totally fine i remember when they did his reveal christian walker yeah christian walker he thought that was great and so i'm sure he's very pleased with an 88 but um yeah i mean if anything I think Christian Walker probably maybe a little higher than I expected. Everybody else right where I expected them to be. The only issue I have is that this, I think these are the only player ratings we know up to this point for the Dynamback.

So we do not know at this point where Gabby Moreno. Can you find that information for me? I think Jesse's trying to research. I think there's a database that has more. But it doesn't match. That looks like last years. Yeah, it does look like last year. years yeah someone in the in the chat is telling us Kevin Ginkle is at 92 I don't

believe that at all that would really that would really be so should be big if true maybe he should burn the office I'd make up in 95 Ryan Thompson and 94 Paul Seawong just horses in the pen yeah yeah basically that's that's where I would give it to Gabrielle Marino no Gabby Moreno on the top five Gabby would be a lower than an 83 maybe he's right there like an 80 Maybe he's like a right better than 81. Yeah, I would. But I'm ready to, I'm ready to burn PlayStation's entire house down if he's in the 70s.

I think that's fair. I think you should probably pursue doing that. You free this weekend? You know I'm in for ours. I just wanted to make sure. Gabriel Moreno is, is very much deserving of being at least an 80 for sure. I don't know if it's, you know, if it's in 81 or an 85 or whatever it is. But probably north of 80, what he gives you.

defensively is obviously incredible trying to, you know, catching base dealers with Gabrielle Moreno, I'm sure is something that people will get a lot of, a lot of enjoyment out of. And offensively, I mean, your contact rating has to be pretty high for sure. And, you know, he's a career 290 hitter at this point. And from a power standpoint, we saw a lot more of that at the end of the year. So I guess a lot of it just depends on how much do the MLB, the show people read into the increased power numbers toward the end of the season. And if they're looking at the power on the whole in the regular season, it wasn't anything crazy.

But there's definitely a case for him to be more in like the mid-80 range than the low 80s. I do need to have a word with MLB, the show, and MLB in general, about them being really excited about adding quick-time events to video games. Quick-time events have been around in video games since the 1980s. I don't know if you guys remember Dragonslayer. But more importantly, it's not a new thing. And you shouldn't really be that excited about it because I think people are kind of over it. That was the only thing at MLB the show has done in the last like, I don't know, five years that made me think like, huh, that's not nearly as exciting. But that was me going off on my video game nerd tangent.

So excuse me for losing all of you guys. I am excited about this, though, because, I mean, why does it matter? I want the Diamondbacks to be very good in this game. I think that's a fair thing. I think that ever since I was a kid, when my team did well, I was so excited to go get the video game the next year. Because again, once again, showing my age and my video game nerdiness, there was a time where your ratings didn't update online automatically

because you were connected to the internet. Yeah, no. You used to just get a cartridge and whatever their ratings were on that game was what they were. So, like sometimes when your team was good, that was like, that was my year to make sure I bought that. Sure. The next year was the year I bought that version of the game. That's why for me, I feel like this is absolutely, you know, an exciting thing for MLB, the show 24.

I can't wait for, you know, not only the additions we talked about yesterday and all the things that they've already added to it, but for the Diamondbacks to be one of the best teams in the game. And I'm sure they won't be. I'm very curious. I'm sure they'll be up there. Like in the National League, I wouldn't be surprised if they're probably the fourth. Best team in the National League, which seems fair to me. Yeah, like maybe it goes Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, D-back, something, something like that.

I think it's pretty realistic. I think that Merrill Kelly is too low. I'm surprised that that wasn't something you're angry about. No, I mean, I again. It's because. Damon thinks he's too low. I think like 85, 86 would have been where I think he should have been at. Yeah, I mean, well, I think the stats last year proved that Merrill

Kelly was right up there with Zach Gallen. So if Zach Gallen's a 91, I don't know how you would make the case to me that Merrill Kelly is in 83, right? Yeah. But on the other hand, I think you and I just talked about this yesterday. Merrill Kelly does not get the recognition he deserves. He's not an underrated player by Diamondbacks fans, but he's an underrated player nationally. So that, again, I think the biggest thing here is there's no surprises.

If I was being honest, I think Corbyn Carroll is right where he needs to be. I put Zach Gallen even up a little bit more at like a 93. I would put Merrill Kelly higher at like an 87 or an 88, you know, and that's... A lot of people on Twitter thought Cattel needed to be higher. I think... 89? I think Cattell's... I think that's pretty fair.

If you're expecting Cotell to be in the 90s, like, not saying that's outrageous, but that's not... You know, he's a good... He's a good player. He's a very good player. You made the case that he could be a better player than Corbyn this year, and I've so far from what we've seen out of them this spring. Things are definitely tracking in that way because he's hitting the cover off the ball.

But yeah, I mean, Cattel's one of those guys, right? Like Cattel's had better seasons when it was less important for the team. And last year, you know, he had a great, great season. But I don't know how you don't watch him in the postseason and think that guy just made history

in a game that's been around for 2,000 years. Maybe we should make him a 90. Like, can we just bump him up that one point to a 90. Maybe he deserves that just for the hitting streak in the postseason. I think that there's some people missing here that should be probably right on the fringe, not too much further down. I'm interested to see where Eduardo Rodriguez lands, you know, because he's one of those guys

that, again, it's up for interpretation as far as how you see him as a pitcher and they could value him very highly or they could see him as kind of being a mediocre starting pitcher. Gabby, Lordis. Lordus. Lordus better have the purple hair in the game, and it better be out a lot. Like when he walks out to the field, I'm just telling you guys now over there, he doesn't actually wear his hat. He just kind of puts it on the back and lets the front hang out.

So that better be in the video game. That's more important to me than the rating, honestly. Yeah, apparently they've kind of revamped the faces. Like, I think that the faces are supposed to look better in 2024 than they have in the past. But yeah, I think Lordus, like maybe in the low 80s would make sense. E-Rod, I am also very curious where he winds up. Yeah.

A lot of times these ratings are more based on kind of the surface-level stats. And E-R-R-A were really good last year. I mean, I had a 330-E-R-A with the Tigers. So, you know, if he were like a 77 or 78 after coming off that, that would be a little weird. And also Jock, right? Like, is it going to be based on Jock last year? Is it going to value Jock? Yeah.

That one I kind of understand it being a little lower because his surface stats last year weren't anything. spectacular so yeah it'll be interesting to see they just give us this little this little uh appetizer the top five we'll see we'll see what the rest of them look like it's smart to do it's smart to do i don't think that they advertise is enough because a lot of people didn't really know it was going on today i think that i mean they're trying to make it into a big event but like just just type it up more i i don't feel like i really saw it much other than yesterday i saw them kind of talking about it And I mean, I think a little bit of a teaser there to kind of get us ready for the ratings to drop.

It would be cool. These video games, they're becoming more and more important. Like the players love them. You know, everybody that watches the sport kind of gets involved. So it's becoming a big deal. Pedro says I'm considering getting a PS5 just for this game. That's a great idea. It's also available on day one on the Xbox Game Pass.

I'm not receiving any money from Microsoft to tell you this, but I'm just a- No free ads, Derek. I'm a GamePass member. So, you know what, Max is busy right now getting tattooed. So right now you can't come in and yell at me. But yeah, and if you're trying to get it on the switch, don't. Just go get a better system. I'm just being honest.

Is that a thing? Do they have it on the switch now? They try to put games on the switch that have no business. Yeah, they absolutely do. Yes. Of course, I would love to be able to bet on ratings. We can do that. But what we can do is we can bet on all sorts of other future bets over at BetMGM.

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Puerto Rico. That's a bad time. Yeah, I know. It's all right. It's not me. You had to make sure your throat was ready to go for the singing. Of course, another great way to save some money is by doing it responsibly with Desert Financial Credit Union for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union,

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When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 today. Well, we talked a little bit about those spring breakout games and that is happening this weekend, Saturday, March 16th.

No, that's next weekend. Next weekend. So we have a little bit of time. They talked about it being this weekend. That's why I got confused. I think Tori might have been confused too. But anyway. Someone was confused.

Someone, I'm probably the one that was confused. But the spring breakout games are in fact happening next weekend. And it's an exciting time for some of these young players that really didn't get a chance to be seen very much here in spring training. Not all of the young guys that were here up at camp got a chance to play in those games. And a lot of them have already been sent back down to minor league camp. So again, these spring breakout games that are going to. to be occurring all across major league baseball just going to be a fun opportunity to go out and see some of those young prospects that we haven't had a chance to see out in the field much and

I mean it includes all of the Arizona's top prospects I think we have a screenshot of that of the roster for that and okay no no worries but yeah I mean Jesse excited for that I know you nerd out on yeah on the younger guys especially the ones that we don't get a chance to see very often it's just such a cool idea I think from major league baseball to to do this and the fact that the diamond backs are, you know, facing the Colorado Rockies and maybe not, maybe doesn't make the match up quite as cool as it could be, but. But the Rockies are a young, exciting team themselves, right? Like, I mean, their farm system maybe isn't quite what you'd hope it would be for a team in their state. But yes, I mean,

the Rockies, the Rockies do have. Well, just saying it's bleak to be a Rockies fan. It's pretty bleak. It's not a terrible farm. It's not a terrible farm system. It's just like, not like an elite farm system, I wouldn't say. But yeah, on the D-Back side, we get, you know, all the big names, Drew Jones, Jordan Lawler. There it is. Drew Jones, Jordan Lawler is here. Tommy Troy is here as well. Some of the guys, Gino Grooever.

Let's go. Girover is there. We talked about him a little bit yesterday. Eumen Lin, even though he was sent down to minor league camp. That doesn't make any difference in this situation. Some of these guys were never in major league camp to begin with. Christian Robinson is here. Someone we've seen quite a bit of in these Cactus League games.

Hansa Luis, Christopher Torin. a couple of middle infield prospects that have emerged. Ruben Santana is another guy, third baseman that we've seen emerge on prospect list, kind of a Davis and DeLos Santos-esque, lots of power there. So yeah, there's a lot of exciting names here. Kirstie Up, Christian Mena. We've only seen him throw one inning in the Cactus League so far.

So, yeah, I think it'll be a lot of fun. Tori, we asked Tori about this. And, like, he did say that there is some confusion, not just on the dates like by me, but by some of the younger players, right? Because some of them are still actually with the team. They're still competing for spots. And yet they're also on this spring breakout team.

Sure. Yeah, that's fair. Which makes it almost like that these are guys are the future, but not now. And yet some of them are even on the 40-man roster, right? Like Blake Walston's on the 40-man roster. Yeah, I mean, Tori is going to tell you that these guys have a, you know, are competing for roles on the team.

I don't know how much that I really believe that. Jordan Lawler. How much they believe it either, right? Jordan Lawler is on the list. I guess he has probably the best chance of anyone to make this team. And I think there's basically a 0% chance that he makes the team, given what we've heard about the Diamondbacks wanting to make sure that he gets playing time. And that opportunity just clearly doesn't exist in the majors.

Hori Barrosa is also on here. I guess there's maybe some universe where Hori Barrosa could wind up on the opening day roster. Yeah, I think these guys. are probably going to open the year in the minors. But a lot of them could have an impact before too long for sure. That's, it's going to be fun, though. Again, it's a great chance to go out there and see all of these guys on the field. And, you know, again, Drew Jones, that's going to be fun.

That's like, obviously, that's the big, I think I'll actually play. I hope so. I mean, that would be kind of sad if you do this spring breakout game. He's on the roster and he doesn't play. I need to see all these guys. There is, I mean, it is a big roster. Like, I mean, you have. That's what I mean.

You have, like, what, like six outfielders? You have seven outfielders. It'll have to be, you know, one group maybe for like four innings and then another group for the rest of the game or something. But, yeah, I just love the idea of having all of these guys in the game at once. Like in the Cactus League, you do see some exciting young prospects, but it's kind of just like one per game or, you know, for a few innings. It's more of a here and their thing. And they swap in and out. So you never know when they're going to come in.

Yeah. They're probably not out there sometimes as some of the other exciting prospects, you know, because. And the rosters are so, I mean, there's so many substitutions happening that it's hard to keep track of who's, it's like, oh my gosh, Christopher Torrin just came in the game. I didn't even notice that. Let's be honest. Me and this guy, we spent most of the game sitting in the clubhouse watching it on a TV because we're waiting to interview players. So like, we have no idea what's going on half the time because there's no volume on and then we're not out there. But again, that's why this for us is even exciting because it's a great opportunity for us to get a chance to see some of these guys play that we've talked about.

much and that are the future of this franchise that's the important thing to remember here is the next the you know the next you know christian walker is in this group the next Zach gallon is in this group hopefully they're that good like but i mean that's a pretty high expectations of these guys there was a guy that we just traded for at one point let's not forget that but uh it's it's a great great opportunity exciting also apple tv announced friday night baseball is back so that's very fun. I once again am your mayor of Phoenix thanks to Heidi Watney. So that's exciting.

We really hope that Heidi Watney is. Oh my God. Please for the love of God, give me an interview with Heidi Watney. I'll wear the mayor's sash. I'll just wear the sash. Thunderbolt's here. He said, is it Doom yet? Thunderbolt, not yet. You go back into the wherever. Go back into waiting and hiding. I don't know where you

hide until something terrible happens, but not yet. And he's attacking me telling me I look like a nerd. How dare you? I'm sitting nice to this man. It needs a pocket protector. Nice. Good, nice. Your glasses.

All right, so Apple TV announced Friday night baseball schedule for the first half of the 2024 season. Diamondbacks have three matchups, one in April, one in May, one in June, all very exciting. April 19th against the Giants, May 10th against Baltimore Orioles, and June 21st against Philadelphia Phillies. Those are some great games. They pick some absolute stunners to have on Friday night baseball. They really did. Yeah. I mean, I was looking through the Diamondbacks first half schedule and looking through all the Friday night games trying to figure out like, oh, did they miss anything.

The one game that stood out was April 26th against the Mariners, a road game in Seattle. I think that you can make a case that that would be a more fun game than at the Giants the week prior. Sure, but in their eyes, it's a division rival. It's the NL. West. Yeah, I guess. It's probably a spicier matchup than the Mariners. Yeah. I mean, although there's, I mean, there's so many players who are now on the Diamondback.

who were on the Mariners and vice versa. There would be some fun storylines there. Jesse, you know ball. Like, why are you? Not everybody knows ball. Not everybody's going to put all those connections together. You know that. You and I know that the Seattle Mariners is a more exciting matchup

because we play the Giants a billion times. And playing the Mariners is always going to be up. Fly is here asking us to turn the mics up, wants to hear Max scream from the other room. We can do that. Absolutely. I want to be over there with a mic right in his face. So don't worry.

I will make sure that everybody here is my Max Scream. I saw the placement of the tattoo, by the way. Anyway. I don't want to know what that means. No, but yeah, I mean, you're right, you're right, though. The Mariners would have been a definitely fun matchup. I don't care about the White Sox. I don't care.

Like, I honestly, like, because we see the Padres and the Giants and the Dodgers and all that so much, those aren't nearly as exciting as like the Baltimore Orioles. I think that's a really fun match. Yeah, the Orioles one is great. The Phillies won on the 21st. That's the first time the Diamondbacks see the Phillies in in 2024. So that's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be on the road in Philadelphia.

You know, I'm sure the Phillies fans will not be, they will not be giving the Diamondbacks a warm, a warm welcome back to Philadelphia. So, yeah, these are all fantastic games. The Apple TV broadcast last year was really interesting. They were throwing all sorts of like probability numbers in the corner of the screen that kind of made my brain hurt and I didn't really understand them. but a lot of the camera angles that they had and I think the quality of the broadcast was top notch

so I'm excited to see what these look like remember when you played fantasy football and like sometimes the probability would be in your favor but as the day progressed you would see it change and that happened a lot to you yeah yeah that's kind of what happens during the course of a game sometimes factors cause the probability percentage to slide one way or another it's within individual of bats too like they were doing it based on like in a one-o-count

what's your chance of getting a hit or I think they had the chance of scoring the runner from second or whatever. You know, leave it to Apple to get all numbers with everything. But, of course, I'm not opposed to that sort of thing. No, I'm not. I'm not either. I am not either. I love all of that stuff. Of course, we will be very excited to watch baseball.

Can't wait. All this stuff. Spring breakout Friday night baseball games. Three weeks from today, Derek. Three weeks from today. Three weeks. Opening day. Opening day. We're going to have all sorts of fun stuff happening around here too. Not just Max getting tattooed. We're going to have like an opening day watch party out here in the grotto area. We're going to be there at Chase Field. So make sure you keep it locked pregame, post game, right here to PHNX. Of course, you can in the meanwhile, get your shit together. Okay. And when I say that, I'm going to tell you this. Yeah, is that aggressive? Was it too aggressive?

That's a pretty aggressive way to start a to start at Haddree. say you get got you have some time before opening day so now has the time to get some stuff done it's a great time uh because once baseball starts of course our lives are over at that point and if you're a baseball fan with 162 games a season your life might be over as well at least productivity wise so make sure that you get all the stuff you need done make sure you get all those repairs done around your house of course now's a great time to go out there and get yourself some new flooring from our friends at empire today empire today you get shop at home can be The right product for your needs, quick and professional installation and a price match guarantee.

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See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. And I found out that Empire Today does, in fact, have carpeting that looks like it belongs in an arcade. So I think I might be calling them very soon to fit my office with the perfect flooring that I need. Of course, I do spend a lot of time at home. And when I'm not at home, I'm at the ballpark. This guy over here, he loves to take adventures. I mean, he literally was out by my house telling me how beautiful. What lake were you at?

I was right by your house, Derek. You should know this. What's the big, what's the big blue lake right by your house? I don't know. I don't really go anywhere. I go to Chase Field in this office and, you know, all around town or mostly just to ballparks here in town. Lake Pleasant. He was out of Lake Pleasant.

It's amazing, by the way. Amazing. Underrated. Was that your first time there? It was my first time. time there. Interesting. And in my head, it was like a very, I don't know, kind of industrial, very, very man-made-looking

lake. And it was very, very nice. It was very lovely. So you can discover new places just like this, like Jesse did, with the Arizona lottery and their new unique ticket promotion called Arizona Adventure. There are three ways to play and win big in this promotion. Of course, can play with Arizona Adventure Lottery tickets featuring three iconic landscapes. You can also check in at geolocated adventures at 10 destinations across the state

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among other important initiatives across the state. So visit AZadventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes. Well, that's all I got. There's talk about who is Max. Max is our ad man. Max is very important around here. And Max is the guy who is about to get tattooed right now. So make sure to join the Phoenix Rising crew over there.

I'm going to be doing that myself. I'm going to make Jesse do all the hard work while. I go watch Max get tattooed and drink beers. But of course, we thank you guys for stopping by. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-Man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. We are now then and always will be Damon's dogs.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, I know I'm making a bold claim. There was at least an undeniable period of time where we weren't Damon's dogs. It was brief. I wasn't going to address that when we're Ryan's dog. We're still Ryan's dogs. But we are Damon's dogs. Of course, he is our producer,

the people's producer and you can follow him at Damon Dogg that's D-A-W-G bark bark bark our show's at PHNX underscore D-Backs but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook we thank you guys so much for stopping by today we appreciate your time and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you don't have to drive out to surprise to see it