Who Gets the FINAL SPOT in the D-backs Rotation When Everyone’s Healthy?

0:00Did Michael Soroka just make the Diamondback's decision much more difficult with his outing against the White Sox? We're going to be talking about who is in the rotation once Merrill Kelly comes back and who is out. We're doing that right now. Don't you go anywhere? Well, ski and welcome into another edition of the PHNXD Back's podcast. It's Friday, it's March Madness, and nobody cares that this baseball podcast is happening. Noah's given up on even giving me an extended runway with the theme song, and Damon's not even here today, because you know, it's March Madness. This is March. But anyway, thrilled to have you guys here. Welcome into another edition of the PHNXD Back's podcast. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. Got my guy, Noah, on the ones in twos today, skippityly D there, back there, Noah, to you, sir. And of course, we got some stuff to talk about

1:04here. We are less than a week away from opening day, and it's good to have my guy, Killa Rex, here saying that he cares. I love that you're here. Hello to you, Deborah. Hello to everybody else. We got ourselves some interesting things here happening with the Diamondbacks, including Michael Soroka, having himself a really nice outing yesterday against the Chicago White Sox. I did get a very funny text message from my friend Jared, who is currently in Japan. He arrived in Tokyo this morning, and he was getting in a cab at the airport, apparently, you know, to go to his hotel. The driver asked him where he was from. My friend responds by saying Arizona to which the driver said Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson. And I tell you, I love that. I love that so much. It's pretty great. But Diamondbacks yesterday, of course, without Randy Johnson, they lost to the White Sox by a score of four to two. And the good news department, Gabriel Moreno made his first

2:06start at designated hitter since he was a scratch late last Friday with inflammation in his right elbow. He went over one, but with three walks in a strikeout. So not a terrible day, especially should still showing off that Gabby Moreno knows the strike zone better than most people know the strike zone. We got Payment Smith came in. This is for Michael Rokiki. I know he's thrilled about that. He played first base. So he has overcome his, I believe it was left for arm tightness for Payment Smith there. So, and he accounted for most of the offense yesterday. He went one for four with an RBI and a run scored on a day where the Diamondbacks did not score very many runs. Also notable here was Jonathan Loasiga. He threw a fastball 99.6 miles per hour. So he has a name that is vying for one of those spots in the bullpen. And again, that competition is looks like it's going to come down to the wire. We continue to hear roster moves that the Diamondbacks are making. And obviously that adds, you know, every time we see some names removed

3:10there, the way we saw Dre Jamison being optioned to Tripley Reno, we kind of have a, you know, a better idea of who is looking like they're going to be the names that the Diamondbacks look to, at least to start the season in the bullpen. There is most likely going to be a lot of change throughout the year. But one area that I am still very concerned about is branding Garcia and what the Diamondbacks are going to do about a left handed option in their pen. Garcia once again had another not great outing. In relief of Saroka, he struggled yet again. He struggled to fill up the strike zone. He struggled to get anything in the zone and land strikes. He only landed nine of his 22 pitches for strikes. He walked two batters, allowed a base hit and exited with two outs with the bases loaded. And his line does not look good at all. And it's another outing where Brandon Garcia, who is a name that the Diamondbacks kind of were counting on and looking to be

4:11a left handed option for them in their pen, is looking more and more like he might not be the Diamondbacks option that they go to this season. So it's unfortunate because he has looked quite brilliant at times during spring training as well. But he goes two thirds of an innings pitch. She give up the one hit three runs. None of them earned. But he did walk to and his ERA now is up to 13.5 this spring training. Killer X is suggesting that he's injured. And I mean, I still think there's something lingering from that outing where they said it was due to illness. So you might not be wrong about that. I also don't think that when it comes to one of their young arms that the Diamondbacks would be taking any chances with putting it out there. When he was injured, there is something that does seem wrong. And as we get closer and closer to opening day here, it appears more and more like Brandon Garcia might not be might might not be on the Major League roster when the regular season begins. That's unfortunate because there are other they're only other option right now is Philip

5:14Abner. And even though Philip Abner was, you know, very good for this team at times last year, his stuff just still isn't, you know, Brandon Garcia's stuff. It's just still, you know, he's not storing a fastball 92 miles an hour. It's just much different. So again, it's one of those situations where you feel like you would you would love to see some more options there. And obviously the Diamondbacks have those options returning from injury not too long from now. But, you know, what are you going to do between now and then? What are you going to do against the Dodgers? What are you going to do in some of these other instances? So again, a lot of questions there. Abner in the Chats is paving still trash at defense at first base, though. I mean, I'll say that I feel like paving has been working really hard on that. But there, there is a stark difference between him and Carlos Santana. I think Santana, due to his experience and everything that he has done in Major League Baseball. I mean, the Diamondbacks brought him over because of his defense. And when you see him

6:17there at first base, he is. It's rather effortless for him, you know, for sure. So I do think that we're going to see obviously a platoon over there at first base. But, you know, we are going to see probably a lot more Carlos Santana than we're going to see Pave and Smith. But again, Pave and most likely is going to be an option for the Diamondbacks at DH. Lordis might be an option for the D-backs at DH here early on. But I also would predict that he is not going to be available, at least on opening day. So Diamondbacks are going to have some guys get some opportunities and one of those guys obviously is going to be Michael Soroka, who is going to be in the starting rotation to start the year after we got the news from Merrill himself that he most likely for all intensive purposes is going to start the year on the injured list. So Michael Soroka making his first start since returning from WBC play yesterday with team Canada, his third spring start overall looked outstanding. He looked outstanding yesterday. Michael Soroka looked like a guy who was competing

7:23for a job and he also looked like a guy who was very much a return to form of what he was years and years ago. Now, I know Rex wants me to tell you guys that this is spring training. So none of it matters and it's not real baseball. So there's that. It's also the Chicago White Sox. So take it for what it's worth, right? But as far as impressing Soroka did that yesterday and it's hard not to look at what he did and now kind of start thinking about what the Diamondbacks are going to do here with their starting rotation once they do get a healthy Merrill Kelly back. Each strike out yesterday for Soroka 13 whiffs his fastball velocity reached 95.9 miles per hour and again he actually on his what was it his third to last pitch of the night hit 95.8. He ended up going five innings giving up one hit zero earned runs one walk and eight strikeouts. He only allowed two

8:25battered balls hit north of 95 miles per hour and both were ground outs. Again, this is a very you know, so it's it's one outing. However, considering what the Diamondbacks paid Soroka and considering what you know what what the expectations are, this is a fairly outstanding outing for a guy who again is kind of just like quickly figured to be the Diamondbacks odd man out once Kelly returns from this IELston and I would argue maybe not so fast. I would also say that like I don't think any of this is guaranteed. I do think that like Soroka is definitely in a difficult position as far as what he needs to do in order to earn himself a spot in the rotation in a very short amount of time and we're going to go over that here shortly. We're going to talk about the Diamondbacks pitching rotation and what what what exactly would need to happen for him to find his way in. We're also going to talk about the not a bit majorly baseball by the way overall kind of getting

9:30I don't know if you want to call it in the bed. I like I like to say in the bed but kind of getting this new deal with polymarket in the predictive markets which seems a bit unethical. We're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk here about an amazing auction going on right now with some world baseball classic relics by the way. So I'm excited to talk about that but just in regards to spring training again the Diamondbacks lost that game four to two nothing super exciting about it but Jorge Barossa is a guy who you know a lot of fans have kind of written off I think a bit and a lot of fans would see in the outfield as potentially a failure by this team like if there's a starting lineup on opening day that comes out the features Jorge Barossa on it there are going to be a lot of fans that grown about that decision being made and what I will say is Barossa so far has been playing his ass off this spring I mean he's been solid defensively in the outfield he went two for three yesterday with a walk and a run scored

10:33he went two for three the day before with a home run and two RBI and the win over the cubs and he's currently hitting 324 with a 1.066 OPS. Again the Diamondbacks have are starting to have lots of options with the addition of Jordan Lawler in the outfield with the Corbin Carroll returning from injury and hitting his first inger already with Lorda Scuriel being on the horizon and you know kind of the pieces that they have in place so it once again feels like this team is is doing or the competition on this team is bringing out the best in a lot of guys and I mean that's what the intention of this is but again I think that baseball is one of those sports that it's it's kind of amazing when a guy struggles and then you see him figure out a way to put it together in a way that Barossa has or the way that Lawler has and you know again even even if they come back down to earth what we are seeing is

11:34at least both of those guys have much more success at the plate than we were seeing last year and let's see Robert's asking does he have options left or is he still is he out of Reno options Barossa I think Barossa might have options left but that's something I can look up real fast and I will do that also again there's the options thing is going to play heavily potentially into the decision for the starting rotation right so there there's a good chance that you know the decisions might come down not necessarily to who the best man is if guys are kind of pulling up even but more of what makes sense for the organization as far as keeping guys and putting guys somewhere for them to stay stretched out and stay available pitching wise or again start every day like the Diamondbacks want these young exciting players to do they don't want a wall Schmidt or one of these other guys writing the bench and only getting playing time every every so often they want these guys playing and developing and getting better every day so that they can soon become the

12:36future of this team but yeah I mean as far as that goes there's going to be a lot of a lot of the options things and younger guys are going to play into these decisions that are made by this team but I will again I'll take a look at that for you I did want to let everybody know once again that it's very hot Phoenix Arizona I don't know if you guys can see this there's a beat of sweat running down my face I foolishly am in a long sleeve shirt but that's because you have no idea what temperature it's going to be in this office no am I right like I even feel like it was colder in the viewing area than it is my office and then in here it's a sauna yeah I don't know what I don't know what to wear in this office anymore it's like it's room by room so there's that the studios hold hold the heat well yeah the studios hold the heat very well you're right about that we also have this archaic light that's shining down upon me that is probably older than most of the people in this office and it generates a tremendous amount of heat but what's generating

13:39more heat than anything is the god damn sun outside which is bearing down on us and making spring feel like summer it's caused today's game to move from 110 to 610 and yeah there's that you also have Jay is that gallon on the mound today against the miz for the brewer so that's going to be an exciting fun game and I do believe that katal marty is going to be back in the lineup I haven't seen the lineup yet due to the move we'll we'll see that in a little bit so hopefully we'll have some updates on that but again I did what's that what do you got killer acts says to roll your sleeves up I say one step further take the shirt off just pop the shirt up look the last time a producer encouraged me to take my shirt off I did but I was very drunk on champagne when that happened so I think we'll hold off on popping the shirt off for now but maybe you guys will see me pop the shirt off at our opening day watch party which we are going to do less than a week from today and I'm so excited for it Thursday next week for big opening day out in Los Angeles we are going to be

14:43out of cry baby make sure to join us for that we're going to have a blast out there we're going to watch the diamondbacks take on the Dodgers together as a family we're going to have a little pre-game pre-show going on pre-game pre-show going on there you also have some fun we're going to have some food some drinks available for purchase huge TVs to watch the game doors open at 5 p.m. game starts at 5.30 make sure to join us cry baby is at 818 north first at first street I'm most of the avenue and that can be very confusing in this part of town 818 north first street in downtown Phoenix right across the street from the Churchill so make sure to join us for that we're going to have a great time we're also going to take a quick break on the other side of this break we're going to talk about the diamondback starting rotation and exactly who is in who is out and what is going to happen when Merrill Kelly returns from injury we're going to do that in two minutes don't you go anywhere you're watching the pH next time a back show well there's no better feeling than getting to leave work early especially during march madness or maybe even calling out but I'll

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16:47over time limits minimum odds in terms and conditions to apply in app only void were prohibited and of course everyone needs a checking account so make sure to get a checking account that gives back to you get yourself a checking account with built-in benefits like the my style checking account from mountain america credit union where you can enjoy all sorts of deals and discounts and even some telehealth access for those of you that don't want to go into the doctor like me as well so you can enjoy with the my style checking account restaurant deals mobile phone protection telehealth access identity protection and so much more they can get you discounts on loan rates they can get you discounts and offers on travel and events and so much more so again don't just get a checking account that takes your money away get a checking account that gives back to you make my style for your lifestyle at mountain america credit union visit macu.com slash my style to apply insured by ncu a membership required based on eligibility some benefits require no cost registration activation terms conditions and exclusions do apply well i got that update for you by

17:51the way i believe it was robber who was asking about or a brosa or a brosa actually does not have any minor league options left which is surprising and interesting when you think about how he is going to factor into this team and what his role exactly is going to be meanwhile starting pitching there's some interesting things when it comes to that including the options that Brandon fought and Ryan Nelson both have i bring that up because obviously what we have here with the diamond backs is a positive situation you want to look at this positively the diamond backs have too much starting pitching which is something that is fairly unbelievable considering where we thought this team was going to be at the end of last year right we knew we didn't have marrow Kelly we we were hoping that the fix was in and we were going to get him back we knew that gallon wasn't returning and we did not know where the diamond backs were going to find the money in order to not only have this be a full five man starting rotation without calling anybody up from the minor league

18:51system but also what they were going to do about their other positional needs that they had but when it comes to the starting rotation again they did an excellent job of bringing back their you know two two guys that have been studs for them over the past few years in marrow Kelly and Zach gallon and they also bring back Michael or bring over Michael Sorroca on a very cheap deal now this is only really comes up because it feels like it's a foregone conclusion that now if marrow Kelly is going to go on the aisle once he returns that the odd man out is going to be Sorroca but I would argue that perhaps that's not the case and I would say that you know there there might have to be a lot of things that happen here in a very short amount of time in order for Sorroca to end up in the starting rotation but what he will have is opportunities to pitch in the regular season as well the rest of the pitchers what you have right now is obviously Zach gallon coming in as the opening day starter and pretty much a lock in the rotation but outside of that you can argue

19:56that nobody is particularly safe Eduardo Rodriguez based on what the diamond backs are paying him and how important they are to this team how important he is to this team is definitely probably a lock as well even though most people would want to write erot off as a guy that maybe the diamond back should put in the bullpen or you know just simply move on from because of how frustrated everybody has been with Rodriguez's time with the debacks the other day I kind of broke down though how much of his time has been you know impacted by injury and how good he has looked at times when he was at a hundred percent health which in the two years he's been here is a very small percentage of his active time as a member of the roster now he's coming off of one of his most impressive outings in the last two years in the world baseball classic championship game and you know it's hard not to feel very positive about his you know his potential for twenty twenty six and where he's

20:57going to factor in however erot is also a twenty million dollar man as far as starting rotation goes so there's there's there's not a high likelihood that he would end up being the odd man out be in the bullpen due to how much he's getting paid I would argue though that the diamond backs don't have a problem doing that they've done that in the past when it came to you know Jordan Walker and his you know struggles so I say Jordan Walker excuse me he would I shall not be named okay so but anyway Jordan Montgomery but the diamond backs overall here is they they have three guys that you know are are essentially pitching and performing for two positions Michael Soroka five innings eight strikeouts looked really good unfortunately for Soroka he's gonna almost have to pitch like that I feel the rest of his outings in order for the diamond backs to make that decision to leave him in in the starting rotation but that's just me speculating they may have a different

22:00plan and part of that plan might involve there two younger pictures who still do have options left now Ryan Nelson of course has not been perfect this spring he was a guy that we were trying to kind of make an argument on the behalf of that he deserved to at least be considered for the opening day start especially if that gallon wasn't going to be stretched out by that by by opening day but Ryan Nelson has struggled this spring a little bit himself and hasn't looked perfect he has taken a step forward however it feels like Nelly is always kind of that odd man out it feels like to this organization Nelson always is the guy that they they are willing to you know move around putting the minor leagues put into the pen it does feel like whoever the diamond backs don't have in the starting rotation is most likely not going to go into the bullpen any longer especially with the gap kind of right now between guys who are ready and guys that they need for majorly depth versus who the next man up would be after that considering Christian Managats shut down

23:01the next guy up you know as we've discussed we were discussing with Alex Dagostino yesterday could be Bryce Jarvis making essentially like a bullpen kind of start or it could be Gilbert Diaz but the options aren't great once you get past the first six guys so it really does feel like Soroka Nelson fought whoever like essentially wouldn't be in the starting rotation would be a candidate to be sent down to Reno just to stay stretched out as the next man up once an injury or once that's needed right but again the diamond backs feel and have viewed Ryan Nelson now as a starter a long-term starter and no longer have viewed him as that guy that they're switching in between being a longer lever and and a starter but I still don't think that he's completely safe due to the fact that Ryan Nelson has two minor league options left still and that's what I feel like this decision may come down to if all of these guys are performing

24:04okay but not really standing out above you know each other right and if Michael Soroka obviously continues to pitch as well as he did here yesterday's game then he could easily find himself in the rotation with one of these two young guys out because Brandon fought again also has the two options minor league options left as well he still seems somewhat volatile you still don't know what you're necessarily going to get on any given inning from Brandon fought but still has high upside still has looked really good for this team he's looked good this spring and he's you know developing his secondary pitches very well so feels like his arsenals getting bigger and again he's young he's controllable and he could be again that guy that is at least for a while put out I don't really see this necessarily as being a demotion but it's hard not to look at that when you are not on the major league roster or even if you're put to the bullpen and you're not in the starting

25:06rotation right but again it doesn't feel like Eduardo Rodriguez is going to be that guy and if he is then the diamondback still not only have to deal with this season but another season of ERAW that they're paying him 20 million dollars so do you really want to do something to impact his confidence where essentially now he's your highest paid reliever or just not very much used to you at all and you're just waiting to run the clock out on yet another starting pitcher's contract the way that you did with Madison Bumgarner I mean I'm doubtful of that and I'm still very encouraged by how ERAW pitched in in the WBC right but Michael soroka again it's his contract his you know kind of being the the last man in if you want to call it that even though that gallon technically was there's there's a lot of things about it that instantly seemed to point to him as being the candidate for you know for the diamondbacks to move right but again Michael soroka doesn't have my early option so you're going to have to put him into the bullpen or you're going to have to DFAM or

26:10cut him from the team and again financially that's not that big of a hit not nearly as big as like an ERAW or other guys on this team he also isn't necessarily a huge part of your future plan so again all signs point to that being an easier decision than one of the other more difficult decisions his team may need to make but that's where it comes down to soroka like soroka needs to be the guy that makes the decision difficult and if he does and the diamondbacks have you know again four guys that are all pitching extremely well in their starting rotation you know that that they have to decide which ones or five guys and then Merrill Kelly comes back this is a very good problem to have and a very good difficult decision to have to make considering where this team was at with their starting pitching and their bullpen last year it would be a godsend for this to be the scenario for everybody to be so good that they have a

27:10tough decision on exactly what they're going to do and who they're going to do it too and what they're going to you know how they're going to balance it I'm sure they have a plan already somewhat in place and that's the reason why I believe that it feels very likely like soroka is probably they're figuring out something that they're going to do with him once Kelly comes back but I honestly hope he makes it very hard on them I hope he makes it hard and again I think Merrill Kelly overall is still dealing with that back injury but I don't think he's going to be gone for very long so the opportunity to make that impression and to make that decision difficult is going to come down to maybe two starts three starts at the most and you know at least at the at the very least soroka returning from team canada and the wbc has already made a very very positive impression with the way that he pitched yesterday in the white sucks game that's all he can do it's it's something that you will hear from baseball players and I'm sure that be his exact answer there's

28:12nothing he can do besides go out there during these spring training games and pitches ask off the way he did yesterday in order to try to secure his position in starting rotation so but again we we should be very thankful we should be incredibly thankful for the diamond back for having this problem instead of us panicking about who the fifth man in the starting rotation is going to be right now with Merrill Kelly down and no other option besides erod soroka brand and fought and Ryan Nelson so glad glad that's that gallon is here but again the the I guess the difficult part the difficult role here or the difficult task is is on soroka who basically for the time being looks like a temporary piece and not a core piece and it's up to him to change that definition of himself right he's already shifted from the bullpen to the rotation so it's not you know it's not at the end of the world but again team flexibility here is is going to be a big part of this and

29:14again the diamond backs most likely are going to need another starter before the end of this season fingers crossed we don't let's hope that's another good problem that they have but again there's a good chance that you know the the diamond backs here are probably going to need whoever they move out of the rotation again that's why it could come down to one of the young guys that has minor league options left but they do have other stupid ideas they could do they could go with a six man rotation when Kelly comes back probably not going to but I mean they could piggyback starts a little bit or give guys extra you know rest early in the season as they're getting ramped up I just I don't even know if that's a good idea any longer I don't know if the diamond backs know if that's a good idea any longer so it feels like the locks here for the rotation once again are gallon Kelly probably e-rod and probably Ryan Nelson and then it seems like Brandon Fought would be favored a little bit there over soroka for that final spot but overall again we just we we need the depth and hopefully

30:21the diamond backs will will make whatever decision helps this team win baseball games the beginning of their season is very difficult and you know having bullpen starts or Bryce Jarvis come in and give them like three innings would have really put them in a bad position early with over usage of their bullpen which already isn't great and it doesn't you know doesn't look like it's a solid once again but hopefully this starting pitching can get things together by the way one thing I've noted is that Andrew Hoffman has been coming in fairly late for the diamond backs quite a bit so that's interesting because I know it's spring training and I know it's really not high leverage innings but it's just been interesting to see Hoffman kind of be a late ending guy for Torielabolo so far and I'm interested to see if that continues once the regular season starts he has a guy that I've kind of had on the bubble of the of the bullpen and the diamond backs make some sort of crazy decision and not have a left-hander in their pen at all then I feel like

31:24it's leaning in the in the in the direction of it being a lock that we see our our guys super bad Andrew Hoffman in the bullpen let's see Candace says I would use one of my third wishes on having no pitcher injuries ever oh god please give me a monkey paw or you know a genie in a bottle I need something to make sure it would just be nice to see the diamond backs again have a season where injuries don't make a huge impact but I mean what team ever goes through that like injuries are just such a big part of the game when you talk about 162 game season and guys sliding into each other cleats out all the time it's it's it's it's it's a recipe for disasters really what it is but my prediction here honestly is that again it's crazy as it is I feel like Brandon Fought might be the guy that gets optioned to to Reno or or put in the bullpen that's just my feeling

32:29but it feels like Michael Sriroka probably bullpen move or if they decide to keep whoever stretched out that it might be Nelly or or Brandon Fought that get option to Reno so we'll see how that goes and of course we'll have more a little bit better idea once this weekend comes and goes next week we've talked about it but we have no show on Wednesday we'll bring you another episode of Mailbag Monday on Tuesday or a Monday we'll have a little season preview on Tuesday and then we will be having our opening day watch party with our pregame and post game show on Thursday we'll also be bringing you post game shows for that entire series so Thursday Friday Saturday we will be here giving you post game shows for the debacks versus the Dodgers and man I can't wait can't wait to talk about real regular season baseball it's exciting but have the has MLB already messed things up with their new ad partnership they just they can't seem to ever get these things right and I don't know why they're so bad at this but we're going to talk about MLB getting into the predictive markets market and why I think this is another terrible idea don't you

33:34go anywhere you're watching the pH and next time in back show well circle K is Derek's third stop it's Noah's third stop and it should be your third stop because it is America's third stop it's a million degrees outside here in the valley so make sure to stop by circle K get yourself something cold to drink stay hydrated folks you got to and of course you can save money on that by joining the inner circle for free right now then you just have to go ahead and type in your phone number and you'll save on all sorts of stuff including getting those 79 cent polar pops in those 99 cent frosters you can also save on gas by buying three 20 ounce Coca-Cola products where if you do that you'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your next fill up so it's easy to join you should do it right now join the inner circle for free by downloading the circle K app today terms and conditions do apply at participating locations visit circle K dot com for details and branded bills is one of the best hat companies you can find branded bills is taking over the hat game and you of course can get them at their website branded bills dot com they're a local company from right here in Mesa Arizona but you can find their hats everywhere they got

34:38ASU and U of A hats as part of their campus collection and if you go to an ASU campus store you'll see almost nothing but branded bills hats that's how much they're taken over the game they also have hats for the Phoenix Suns as well as this great state we live in some hats featuring Arizona but if you want to have your company and your brand stand apart from the crowd look no further than branded bills their dedicated team will help you start your order and get you the exact custom apparel you need it doesn't matter what kind of hats you're looking for they got you covered snapbacks fitted hats trucker hats meanies they got it they got t-shirts they got bags they have accessories everything and of course they got you covered with performance and with style so head on over to branded bills dot com and use that code of BBPH and X for 15% off your first order um well let's see we got killer X we we are agreeing entirely too much today killer X says it's all about greed Derek greed there's a lot of greed going on right now I feel like we are almost back in the 80s where like greed is good right not really it's not and nor has it ever

35:42been really in sports what's really weird is we are getting to a point where major sports leagues like MLB are entering partnerships in uncharted territories that it almost feels like they have no business partnering with right we've seen this in the past and I almost feel like you know all sport leagues are kind of guilty of this considering it comes down to advertising dollars and who has money to advertise with these sports which can be very expensive but like this is this is another case of major league baseball probably doing the wrong thing they are entering the prediction market space with a pair of deals that commissioner rob manfred said are aimed at combating threats to the sports integrity which is hilarious okay so for those of you that might not understand a prediction market is an exchange based you know website application platform bless you Noah bless you sweet

36:47sweet baby where participants can buy and sell options tied to the outcome of future events right so it's basically sports betting but on everything you can bet on elections you can bet on if Noah was going to sneeze during the show you could get an over under on sneezes for Noah during the show not really an over under because they try with these prediction sites and market you know spate they try to make it not be gambling they try to make it not be sports gambling and that's what kind of the problem is the problem is is that you know there are states like Arizona that have approved sports gambling gambling there are other states that approve sports gambling but with different rules like what I was telling you guys when I was in Washington DC and I had to be within a certain number of feet of a sports venue in order for me to use my sports gambling app so there's I mean there's there's

37:53there's like rules and such tie do it there's things voted in there states that do allow it legally and don't and what's weird is the prediction market space seems to kind of circumvent that it's prediction market so it's not sports gambling so it doesn't have to abide by the same rules and that's why it's really weird that major league baseball on Thursday named polymarket as the leagues official prediction market exchange it just doesn't feel like something that baseball should be doing right and Rob Manfred in the past has made some weird decisions when it comes to these kind of partnerships and such he they announced that there there's an information sharing agreement with the commodity futures trading commission which is the federal body that oversees the prediction markets and polymarket now gains the right to use MLB marks and logos on its platform as well as official data from sport radar to help resolve markets while the

38:56league gets more visibility and input on the rules governing the billions of dollars that is expected to be traded on baseball this season what I feel like this does though is legitimizes a prediction market like polymarket like this is and I mean again prediction markets have kind of exploded in popularity because of the fact that they kind of just are like a yes or no proposition situation right where it's like is this thing going to happen yes or no and you can see percentages of people that bet yes percentages of people that bet no and that impacts just like sports gambling how much you know you're going to essentially make by taking a stake in one side or the other and that's what that's what states have a problem with with this states argue that this prediction market is just sports betting and again this is no different than them prohibiting sports gambling in their state for other apps and for other things but this like circumvent the rules majorly

39:58baseball has a weird history of like kind of just jumping into things too early the prediction market thing really did explode over the last year but it's just kind of uncharted territory in the same way that like cryptocurrency is still a weird and new and uncharted territory remember when cryptocurrency was sponsoring everything in fact majorly baseball had a deal with a cryptocurrency company called fdx where they put their goddamn logo on umpires uniforms which I had a huge problem with ethically umpires are supposed to be the officials of the game and I think that with all of the space that you have in baseball whether it's jerseys outfield walls the field itself commercial breaks anywhere else that you want to put it uh the the you know commentators reading ads live during the show or during the game excuse me I used to do in the show when I do ad reads um all of that right and you still felt the need to put this company's logo in an again

41:06and an uncharted market that really you were just getting into like partnership deals with for the very first time and league history and what happened with that ftx ended up being a huge Ponzi scheme it was a huge debacle ftx investors sued the cryptocurrency exchange sued ftx and they also sued major league baseball um there uh they they sued ftx's celebrity promoters for allegedly helping facilitate the eleven billion dollar fraud scheme and those celebrity exchanges or promoters included being major league baseball formula one racing and the Mercedes Benz um group ag's racing team and it's there's also just stupid stuff historically usually it's club based right like uh back in 2001 there was a company called web van that had its logo on all the cup holders at San Francisco Giants uh Pacific Bell Park at the time uh the company went bankrupt I think before

42:10they even like day before the season like even started and they just leave left the branded cups behind just kind of reinforcing what a huge failure that was we had nron remember when nron was was was the naming partner to the Houston Astros field oh my god uh which only lasted two seasons before the company went bankrupt by the way uh and then we also had that the nationals speaking of Washington DC the nationals um had this a sponsor called the terror club uh they paid for sponsorship deal uh turns out they were a ghost advertiser uh it was a stable coin that crashed once again uh racing billions of dollars in market value and uh again all sorts of lawsuits and things going on with this stuff so it just is ridiculous that major league baseball continues to make these same mistakes when it comes to jumping in the partnerships and really again I hate how much killer X and I agreed today especially when it came to him talking about me magging the ASU

43:12frat leader but what I will say is I completely agree with him when it comes it all comes down agreed there's no ethical decisions being made here by rob manfred and his particular staff his group running baseball instead it's just about who can pay them the most money without a thought of how major league baseball partnering with these companies legitimizes them when they themselves don't know if it's a legitimate company right by come in here and say introduce everybody to a friend of mine and like hey I'm bringing my friend in here and easier to hang out uh and that man starts stealing from everybody in the office guess what I'm kind of responsible for vouching for him and in this case that's kind of what major league baseball is doing they vouch for these companies they help legitimize them and they help further in some cases the the Ponzi schemes that are going on here now prediction markets don't seem like they're going away but they also still seem like a

44:12very new thing for baseball to be getting involved with and again I don't love it I wouldn't be surprised to see this ending up being a huge debacle for them it's going to continue to be a problem states are going to be very opposed to not only these prediction markets making you know kind of sports gaming sports gambling circumventing the rules but they're also not going to be thrilled about baseball like helping once again further the cause by making it the official prediction market a major league baseball right uh I'm sure no is not going to jump on and tell you tell you or do it but you know he he made the best comment to me earlier where he said it's like a bunch of guys just sit around with cigars in the room being like yeah money money money money money how profit margins lines money you know and like that's that's kind of what this feels like right so um it's it's kind of crazy and uh I guess I'm not surprised considering you know sports is a multi-billion dollar uh you

45:14know thing company conglot I don't even know what you call it machine it's a multi-billion dollar machine and it's not going to stop to consider the ethics on it on somebody that they're partnering with even for a second it seems like and uh I don't know we'll see if that's one comes back to bite them I bet I would predict yes I would predict yes on poly market that's what I would go put my money on yes this is going to be a huge problem for baseball but we're going to take a quick break and we're going to do the most important thing that we did on this show all day long besides to distract you from March Madness basketball we're going to take a look at items that belong in a museum that you can buy right now for the low low cost of $280 perhaps don't you go anywhere you are watching the PhD next time it back show look I have uh said it before and I I will say it again I hope none of you need the husband and wife law team at all in your life due to a serious injury or accident but should you experience that you want to make sure you do your research and

46:18you want to contact Mark and Alexis Breyer first they are the husband and wife law team and of course after a serious injury you want to hire an attorney that's focused on your best outcome and not what the law firm is going to make that's the husband and wife law team they bring hundreds of years of experience combined trial experience to you as their customer and they have multiple certified specialists in personal injury and wrongful death in Arizona the certified the state bar has certified less than 1% of all lawyers in as specialists in injury and wrongful death litigation that is the reason why you can trust the husband and wife law team plus they actually go to trial for their clients they are trial lawyers if a case needs to go to trial they are ready they know their way around a courtroom and what needs to be done to prevail in front of a jury and of course nobody can guarantee the outcome of your case but the husband and wife law team can guarantee you as their client a few promises and that is that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any time for any reason you'll receive as much in your pocket as they do

47:18receive for their fee even if they have to reduce their attorney fee to do so and you may speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss so if you've had a serious injury contact the husband and wife law team first at 60278388 for one or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them pH and next sent you and pure edibles was founded right here in Arizona we love our friends over at pure edibles they have a wide variety of delicious candies in a wide variety of flavors and of course whatever you're looking for whether it's gummies which they do have or a variety of other types of candies hard candy soft candies choose they have stuff they have carmels they have their version of starbursts that they call kicks they have a wonderful variety of candies for you to pick from and of course the effects for each candy is clearly listed on each tin so you know exactly what you're getting getting into when you take a look at any of pure edibles products they also have their collaboration with mother group mother road brewing company where they combine their wonderful products with the finest IPA and all the land tower station IPA to bring you the tower station

48:21all in one THC which of course this is a delightful twist on that IPA with the citrusy notes and the pide hops and everything you can get in that beer but now in a wonderful THC device so do not miss out on this collaboration or any of pure edibles products go find yourself some pure edibles products from one of over 130 dispensaries across Arizona killer ex asking the real questions he says do we have eyes on otani right now especially when it comes to what he's doing with the predictive market app or his involvement with the predictive app I I mean I'm not I think we should keep it on him you're not wrong can this is also saying that all of our finances went all out of whack because they took the pennies away I don't know how but that's the real problem here through everything out of whack you might not be wrong about that but we have a way to get things back on track by the way Damon is out there ensuring right now that otani is not on the polymarket app but Damon is also missing out on the news that we have to offer you which is major league baseball is taking

49:25an opportunity to take some very very historic items items you could argue belong in a museum instead and they are auctioning off auction them off for charity and and for all sorts of amazing causes and that is when I'm talking about them time out some world baseball classic relics we we took a look at this website so for those of you that interested are interested the website is at mlb.com slash world baseball classic auctions and we have some real gems here know if we could take a look here right now you can get you can bid on for the low low cost what is that $290 we got ourselves a game used catelle marté Dominican Republic batting helmet for $290 I mean it's practically free and again the reason why I'm sad Damon's not here is because they also have her all do a Predomo's batting helmet also or even cheaper the low low cost of $280 chat I don't know what

50:32I don't know what we're doing here but maybe we could put together a little collection here and surprise Damon when he returns with her all do Predomo's batting helmet the wildest part is if we bought this for Damon I think he would wear it on every single show for the entire 2026 season without a doubt we would just become part it would just become part of his his thing he'd probably mount like the headset inside of it and then not let anybody else use it and that's just some of that's like some of the amazing treasures here those are the things that we we are suspicious the Damon might be bidding on but we have some more more importantly we got my guy Nolan Arnato from team portorico we got his we got his game use locker tag we also have his jersey I kind of need this it's currently the bid on this one low little higher it's $1,510 might be a little bit out of my price range speaking of jerseys out of my price range speaking out of everyone's price

51:34range there's a show hayotani jersey game used currently the bid is at $200,000 years enough money to buy a decently sized house in the Phoenix metropolitan area but instead you can invest it in a jersey that when you turn around to resell it years later someone's probably going to question it's legitimacy so good luck getting your money back on this guy $200,000 dollars Noah I think I mean that's easy the jump change yeah I can scrounge that up right now now it's see I would I would do it as a joke but then Damon would just burn it you know that'll I mean I don't even I haven't told you guys this but like I don't live anywhere so all the money I make here just goes into an account I don't have to I don't spend money on anything what does that mean are you homeless that's not how I would put it okay I don't live anywhere

52:39yeah I don't like that I don't like that we need to talk about this after this show's over because that's concerning to me especially with the heat going on outside I got to make sure you're taking care of but getting a good 10 there the these these items are all great uh the uh otani jersey I would argue is not great that's something that nobody needs to spend that much money on but we have like some real honestly like some real historical items here that like I feel like we actually should put a bit on to preserve and have at the phnx HQ one of those being the Dominican Republic home run jacket can you believe can you believe that this thing is up for auction how is this up for auction and how have we not already once again purchase this for Damon already could you imagine him walking in here every single day in this with the with the prodomo helmet on that would just be his look from now on going forward he'd be insufferable and also the coolest looking

53:42human being that we know he'd also have to start speaking a little bit oh yeah no yeah he would need slang yeah you would need to start calling people primo and stuff like that like no more of this ola crap like he's gonna need to know like he's gonna have to speak like like like lasa for sure but uh this this one also like I don't know this one all this is for Damon of course who again is not here today but we love him very much but with this one is for the office this one is for mankind this one's for humanity the espresso machine from team italy's dugout available for sale this thing will literally give you superhuman strength you take you if I promised that you're gonna get a shot of one of these you're gonna go hit a home run right now that's how impressive this is not to mention the fact that this was paired with a very sweet tweet from Vinnie Pasquantino who said just so

54:42everyone knows the proceeds from this will be going to sarc south autism research and resource center they provide service for children's teens and adults with autism this was a group decision because the center has helped some people that are a part of our team thank you for the support so again these are some wonderful items to bid on and if you definitely have the financial ability to do so I would just implore you to check out the website because all of the all of the proceeds from this are going to some incredible charities like Vinnie highlighted here so again anything that we can do to not only preserve some of these historical items but also help out some good causes I think that's fairly amazing but I don't know I need that Dominican Republic jacket I Damon Damon needs that Dominican Republic jacket but you guys need to be let go thank all of you so much for joining us I know that you had plenty to watch when it came to sports today in fact there's probably four basketball games going on right now as we speak so again I thank you

55:46for sharing some of your time with us as I told you time and time again it's a precious commodity make sure you be careful on who you share it with but again thank you guys so much for being here next week is our big week let's we'll let basketball have this week but we're back next week we got big mailbag Monday season preview on Tuesday no show on Wednesday and then we're with you Thursday Friday and Saturday for the regular season the home opener next week and all of that so make sure to join us make sure to join us at our watch party out there at Crybaby we're going to be having a great time be doing a live pregame show out there having some food having some drinks and watching the Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers on opening day so make sure come by hang out with us until then you can follow us on social media I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K Noah does not want you to follow him and in fact if you're following him he would like you to unfollow him right now our show is at phnx underscore dbacks but as always all roads lead to at phnx underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook it's all I got for you guys today um but again

56:53I I can't wait for real baseball be happening next week and I can't wait for this heat to go away it's ruining spring training the very least we're going to be out there watching these games we should be able to sit under some decent weather to do so am I right go away heat we don't want you here you're not welcome yet you can come back in june but for now we need our like low 90 high 80 temps back here in the valley so until until until that happens maybe next week we'll see you guys hope you all have a wonderful weekend behave yourself Candice and remember kids baseball is fun but it is so much more fun when you have the money to go on to this auction and buy all of the Dominican Republic items