What We Learned From Brandon Pfaadt’s First Start in D-backs Win Over the A’s

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Brandon Fought made his first start for the D-backed yesterday

and looked pretty good.

What if this team gets 30 starts from big game branded?

We're talking about it right now.

.

Skiii.

And welcome into another edition of the PHNX-DBAC podcast.

Laaaaaaa from Sui.

Okay.

Presented by our friends at Circle K.

It is I, your mayor of PHNX,

and occasionally, Amarillo, Texas,

Derek Montia, also mayor of every, everywhere.

And again, don't go throwing that mayor nickname around all willy-nilly.

Like, it's just something that you can call someone I need to remind you of that.

I am joined.

Of course, by my guy, Damon Dogg,

on the ones in Tuesday, K.A.

Damon Ferrell, Damon Barkfark,

to you on this fine Thursday morning.

It's only there.

How's your basketball team doing?

My basketball team was maybe the best that it's ever been in my entire life.

You have a lot of exciting times ahead.

As do we, as people that not only get to watch this air,

the Arizona Diamondbacks team is 2026,

but also the World Baseball Classic,

which we are going to be talking about here.

Shortly, we are going to give our best attempt to put together

our winning bracket for that tournament.

Derek, I'm excited for the World Baseball Classic.

Oh, I really am.

I was telling my roommate yesterday,

I was like, I actually just can't wait for some high stakes baseball.

Like, this early in the season,

it just, it puts you in the baseball mood right away.

I remember, like, how 2023 felt,

where we had those big games,

and then all of a sudden we're straight into the season

and the debacks are hot off the jump.

And it was just a fever dream of like 10 months

of just awesome baseball.

I need it back in my life.

You're right. You're right.

I needed it so bad that now that World Baseball Classic play has started, Damon.

I, which, as you know, I've been getting some good REM sleep,

thanks to my new mattress, found myself up at 2.45 AM randomly.

As one does when they are 44 years old

and have lower back problems.

And what I saw on social media,

because you know, I can't stay away from Twitter when I'm awake at 2.45 AM,

is that in 50 minutes, South Korea versus Chechi,

it was about to start.

And I was supposed to not watch that.

I wasn't supposed to stay up for a game that starts at 3 AM.

I love this.

This reminds me of a KBO baseball all over again.

And in fact, maybe, just maybe,

that's part of the problem here, Damon overall,

is that we have, of course,

World Baseball Classic starting and kind of running over.

Spring training, which is fine because nobody cares about spring training games.

And that's fine too.

We're okay with all of that.

We're not going to shy away from the truth on this program.

We know that you guys don't care.

We know you stopped caring.

Like, you still want to know that Tommy Troy went three for four

and yesterday's win over the athletics.

But you don't care that they won over the athletics.

You don't care that the score was three to one.

Admit it.

That's fine.

But Tommy Troy did go three for four and yesterday's win.

Also, Jacob Amaya, he's been quietly doing some impressive things.

He was two for three with a home run.

And he scored all of the D-backs.

RBI, he had all three RBI for the D-backs.

Luke and Baker, another big fella that we are coming.

We are learning to love.

Big fellow is right.

Oh, man, he is.

If he's nothing, he's a big fella.

I mean, he's not, I mean, he might be the big show.

We might have to start calling him the big show, Luke and Baker.

But he's one for two with a double that he smoked 105.7

mile per hour exit Velo on his double in that game.

Again, two runs scored and a walk for Baker.

So that looks great.

Another thing on the very, very bright side of things.

Brandon Garcia returned to the Diamondbacks bullpen yesterday.

If you don't remember, he left the game.

His last outing after hitting a batter

and looking like he couldn't find the strikes out.

He left with a trainer, which was very concerning

and made all of us collectively hold our breath.

But luckily, as the Diamondbacks revealed,

it was just due to illness and Brandon Garcia went out there

and looked great in his one inning of work.

He struck out, too, didn't allow a hit.

Didn't walk anyone.

And again, looks outstanding.

But Tommy Troy, Tommy Troy looks great, man.

After going three for four yesterday,

he is currently hitting 524 with a 1.238 OPS.

And he has hit safely in seven of his nine spring training games.

We talk about a lot of guys on this team.

And again, I think when it comes down to it,

it's going to be disappointing

when we see certain names sent back down

to their minor league teams.

We're already seeing that today.

Gilbert Diaz was sent back down

to a reassigned triple A Reno aces or options.

Excuse me, do the Reno aces.

Dylan Ray also optioned to the Reno aces.

Those were guys, I believe, that were on their 40-man roster

that are no longer on their 40-man roster.

But Tommy Troy, again, just looks really good.

That 1.2308 OPS outstanding

is four doubles to RBI in spring play.

The Diamondbacks have won five straight games

in six of their last seven.

Because I guess the exhibition game

doesn't count against Team Mexico.

Derek, you did the thing.

I did the thing.

You did the thing.

The Diamondbacks currently have a 302 batting average,

which is second and major league baseball.

Behind only the San Francisco Giants,

we have a 318 team batting average.

Their OPS of 876 is third

behind the Rockies and the Giants.

So Diamondbacks doing some good things offensively here

already in spring.

But Brandon Fought, he made his first start.

He went two and a third,

scoreless innings.

He allowed one hit in his spring debut.

And again, just outstanding to see Brandon Fought

back out on the mound pitching.

There was some concerns about a side injury

that had kind of come up.

Fingers crossed that we didn't lose.

Brandon Fought because again,

now we would start to get down to panic territory.

But luckily, he just,

they had to slow play him a little bit.

But, you know, Brandon look great yesterday.

He said he was, he was, I think just being aggressive

was what led to his outing yesterday.

That was his goal.

He said they were pretty fastball heavy,

but they came out swinging.

We wanted to work on the curveball and the third innings.

Didn't land the three, two pitch, which I wish I could have

had that one back, but it felt good.

Stuff was moving great.

We were being aggressive.

He threw his sinker and his change up

primarily in yesterday's game.

He got three whiffs in it.

And D-backs, pitchers overall,

the entire pitching staff yesterday

did not allow an extra base hit to the athletic.

So good performance overall,

but you can't help but wonder.

Brandon Fought, right?

Brandon Fought is, is, is to that point now,

where you almost feel like you need to see that breakout

season from him this year, something that he truly

really hasn't had.

It's similar, I guess, to what we talked about with Jordan Lawler,

but Jordan Lawler is far younger in his, into his career.

Brandon Fought, we have seen how great he can be.

We've seen Brandon Fought be, you know,

one of the best pitchers on the staff at times.

However, just does not have that consistency

that this team is looking for from, you know,

a starter and from him, quite frankly.

I mean, again, there was a lot of expectations for Fought.

And so far, you know, you probably won't find somebody

that's harder on him than himself.

So it's kind of thing that something there that he needs

to shed as well for the 2026 season,

but across all the projection systems,

they like Brandon Fought for 2026.

They really do see him as a candidate to have a rebound season.

We're talking about steamer, zips, fantasy pros,

all of that stuff, it looks like Brandon Fought.

Obviously, if he stays healthy, projected to go about 30 starts

and 170 innings pitched, mediocre record around 500,

ERA improved, but still probably not outstanding.

They have his ERA somewhere in the range of 4.12 to 4.50.

Steamer has them at 4.31 with a 1.27 whip.

Zips has them at 4.12 with a 1.19 whip.

But overall, all better than it's 5.25 ERA from 2026.

And even that was kind of a bad luck,

his underlying metrics once again suggested

that Brandon Fought was better than that 525 ERA,

but Brandon overall, if he can be a guy that comes back

and can contribute in a way that it makes him look like a solid

number three starter for this team, number four starter,

the Diamondbacks can really go places again,

talk to you briefly there about their spring training,

you know, offensive numbers which don't really matter

in the grand scheme of things, but still are looking very good,

still at the top of the league.

You don't feel like offense is going to be the problem for this team

in 2026 and it doesn't appear that that is going to be the case

based on the way guys are playing so far.

It still feels like everything is going to hang on their pitching.

And that's nothing new.

That's probably something you could say about every baseball team.

If you have great pitching, you're going to get, you know,

you're going to win a lot of baseball games.

But, you know, what the Diamondbacks realistically need is

Brandon Fought in Eduardo Rodriguez to pitch

how we know they can, not how these numbers at the end of the season

essentially end up, right?

And again, I know I'm probably beating this to death,

but ERA had himself an amazing stretch last year

against some of the best teams in baseball.

That stretch right there is what I'm talking about.

It's those, it's those stretches and past seasons

that lead you to believe that he can be much better

than what we've seen.

I mean, everybody thinks that.

But at least makes you feel like that's still there.

From ERA, he said he felt, he has felt great.

Brandon Fought, again, says he feels much better than he did

and kind of over that side issue that he had.

But, you know, again, those two guys,

there's so many questions about what those two guys

are going to be in 2026.

There's also questions about how Sorroca

is going to factor here, factor in here

to the starting rotation.

Also, questions about when Merrill Kelly will make his debut.

He is scheduled to throw a bullpen today per Tori Lobolo.

Tori said that it'll probably be somewhere in the 15 pitch range.

And he said this is encouraging news.

He had a chance to speak to him directly

and that he said he feels good enough

to get back up on the mound and begin that progression.

So Merrill Kelly, resuming baseball activities,

not just throwing, but actually getting in and tossing a bullpen.

He's still trending towards being ready to pitch

at the back end of the rotation,

most likely against the Detroit Tigers

on March 31st or April 1st.

That is not official from the team.

That is me just doing math and using dates and a calendar

to figure that portion out.

But, again, the Diamondbacks, very much need Merrill Kelly

to come back here.

And again, he is going to be a welcome sight

at the back end of that rotation.

Forget that.

Forget spring training.

Nobody cares about that.

World baseball classic is here.

And now we are ready for actual world

baseball classic games to start.

And we already had a pretty shocking upset

in the world of world baseball class

in the world of world baseball classic.

Australia defeated Chinese Taipei

by a score of three to nothing.

The three hits shut out,

put together by Alex Wells,

Jack Oloflin and John Kennedy.

And top prospect Travis Bazzana

added a home run to give Australia insurance later on.

His name is all over the place.

If you go to the world baseball classic,

you probably, if you took a shot every time they tweeted

about Travis Bazzana,

you would be drunk before you scroll two or three times.

But this is a first game of the entire tournament.

Again, kind of a shocking win there

for Australia who grabs an early advantage there

in Pulse C, which also includes Japan, South Korea,

and Chechiia.

Is that right?

Am I saying that right?

It's Chechiia.

That's the name.

Because they were in the second game against South Korea.

They lost by a score of 11 to four.

Korea's offense exploded for 11 runs,

powered by multiple home runs.

I'm going to say a lot of names wrong here.

Let's just get that out of the way here.

Bo Gyeong-moon hit a grand slam

that helped blow the game open early.

And then Astro's minor leagueers,

Shay Whitcomb also had a huge game

with two home runs himself.

So Korea immediately looks like a serious contender

in a, honestly, a pretty stacked Pulse C there

as far as being in the same pool as Japan.

So now we got Australia and South Korea at one,

and oh, and Chinese Taipei,

or Taiwan, as Damon demands,

and I call them, oh and one, and Chechiia, oh and one.

By the way, is Chechiia,

is that the one where like a nuclear operator

is one of their pitchers?

I think so, yeah.

That was what Connor, our sales guy, Connor was.

Sorry, Chechiia, thank you, Martin.

Yes, so yeah, they have like a bunch of dudes with day jobs.

Like there's like dental hygienists and, you know,

and non-drivers, and then a nuclear monitor.

I felt like, I feel like he-

Oh, and there's a dude named Ryan Johnson,

as well on the Chechiians.

His name, I won't have any problems for announcing for short,

but Chechiia, it's Chechiia.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

But again, Chechiia is a Russian.

That's Russia.

Yeah, that's different.

All right, I'm bad.

I'm bad at all of this.

I'm on a team.

You got that in my head, for really.

I wasn't doing that.

And then you started doing it,

and now I'm doing it.

Yeah, it's bad.

Only the top two teams advanced to the quarter finals,

so early wins are huge here, obviously,

and there's not a lot of games, so.

Well, an Australia one, right?

Yeah, that's what you were saying.

So I wanted to shout out my guy,

who I've been DMing with, Derek,

fan of the program here, D-Backs fan,

and just overall go, Brad,

Brad Billett, who has been,

he's a fan of PHNICs, D-Backs.

He is an Aussie man,

and he has been messaging me

about different world baseball classic updates,

because Derek, I would like to announce that my second team

is also not the United States.

It's Australia.

I have team Dominican Republic and team Australia.

Those are my two teams.

No, I'm sorry, that's just how I am.

I'm not individual.

Oh yeah, I got big Jake Franklin texted me yesterday.

How about make a wish Kershaw,

hit an 87 on the gun and given up a no doubt bomb.

Bomb.

If Clayton Kershaw wasn't on that team,

could we get you to root for them?

Yes.

Of course, I've made that very clear.

The sole reason I'm rooting against USA

is because of Clayton Kershaw.

Last World Baseball Classic,

Otoni wasn't even on the Dodgers,

and I was rooting for the team USA over Japan.

Like no question about it.

But when you start making my team, my country,

a charity case for your loser.

Retired players.

Retired players?

Then I'm out.

I'm out on that.

So team Dominican, team Australia.

That's what we're all about.

And we dozzies, we got ourselves a dub.

Game one.

Jason's trying to put the two together

in the chat.

He says team Australia Republic,

or as a team Dominic Calia.

We'll workshop that.

We'll workshop that.

We might need a little bit more time.

In the Calia.

I don't know.

Well, we got some big matchups coming out today,

including Japan versus Chinese Taipei, Mexico versus Christian

Robinson and the great Britain team.

We got the Dominican Republic.

It's going to wipe the floor with Nicaragua and USA versus Brazil.

This is Team USA's first real WBC game as well.

So big matchups, fun stuff, World Baseball Classic.

It's going to deliver, man.

It's going to be exciting.

And we're so pumped.

We're going to do our best to figure out which teams

are going to advance from each of these pools.

And then we're going to try to determine

the winner of the whole damn thing.

Damon, let's do that on the other side of this break.

Shall we?

Yeah, let's do it.

Let's do it.

We're going to do that.

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Well, Damon gave his shout out to somebody here that he was communicating with that's turned

him into an Australian fan now.

I want to give my shout out.

Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy.

I do that automatically.

I didn't even mean to jump in on that, but hey, let's be honest, we can we can root for

Australia together.

Wasn't there?

I'm forgetting his name right now and I'm really sorry for that, but yes, we met another

Australian fan of the program when he brought his beautiful family out to the ball.

Oh, absolutely.

Two seasons ago.

It was awesome.

Yeah, so we do have some Australian listeners here that like the diamond backs for some

reason.

And so we love our Australian fans.

At the same time at the Royal Rumble and that was taking place at Chase Field, there was

this very tall Australian man that proceeded to help lift me up so I could see wrestlers

come in the entrance.

He was a darling human.

Oh, this is this was like when you were like you were you were younger at this point.

Yeah, I was younger individual.

Totally.

I was like 39 and this giant of a man was the kindest human being and then I I kid you

not.

Before the end of the show, I saw this great man being taken out by police for some reason

that I still don't know.

But again, not every story has a happy ending.

Do want to give a shout out though to our die hards.

You guys are amazing.

And as always, we thank you guys so much for supporting us.

And I mean that when I say this whole thing here at pH and X would not be happening without

the support of our die hard without the support of our supporters club members.

So again, thank you guys so much.

We wanted to spotlight one of our die hards, one of our wonderful Diamondbacks die hards.

Our guy here, Dean Browell, what a great name.

Bro well.

I probably might be brow.

I might be butchering it by saying it bro well.

I bet it is.

Browell.

It probably is.

But I think bro well is also just so cool.

So Dean, thank you so much for being a die hard as well.

Dean is from Richmond, Virginia.

And his favorite team is the Arizona Diamondbacks favorite athlete, Gabrielle Moreno.

And he has been a die hard for three years.

So again, Dean, we thank you so much.

Dean said thanks for being great.

Thank you for being great.

Dean, we appreciate it.

He said he became a die hard because he was looking for a community and fansource even

though he doesn't live in the area.

And we are so happy to provide that.

I will say that again, I know that speaking as a Diamondbacks fan right here in Phoenix

at times, it was hard to find a group of fans.

So we are happy to be helping this community grow and we are thrilled that you are part

of it.

So thank you so much, Dean.

For that, we appreciate you guys.

We appreciate all of you so much.

You guys again are the reason why we do this and the reason we're able to do this.

So again, thank you.

Thank you all.

But Damon, I feel like it's time for us to really start committing to these teams.

You've already done that.

I don't know doubt about that.

I don't think anybody would argue with that, but I think it's time for us to maybe start

figuring out who exactly is in the quarterfinals and who is going to advance to win the whole

damn thing.

So let's take a look at the world baseball classic bracket right now a little convoluted.

Maybe not as easy to figure these things out, right?

Because two teams from each pool advance.

And as you can see here on your screen, we have the four pools.

We have pool A that features Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama, and Colombia.

We have pool B, which features the United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain, and Brazil.

We have pool C that features Japan, Australia, Korea, Czechia, and Chinese Taipei.

And then last, we have pool D featuring Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Israel,

and Nicaragua.

All right.

So I mean, it's electric, the spots that they picked for these games.

I won't lie about that.

You mean the locations themselves, yeah, pool B being in Houston, Texas, pool A being

in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

That is going to be amazing.

Electric.

Tokyo, Japan for pool C seems unfair.

And Miami, Florida there for pool C, I mean, I guess maybe it's not weird.

It's on purpose, but all the Asian countries plus Australia are in there.

So that almost feels a little bit unfair to those countries, to like not randomize it,

and to just be like group them all together and be like, whoever comes out of the Asian

side of the bracket.

But it's like you're almost eliminating teams that maybe have a better chance of getting

there.

Like, what if South Korea was in, you know, the pool B, who's what's stopping them from

beating Mexico and getting past, yeah, you're absolutely right.

But now they're in a really difficult, they're probably going to get out of pool C anyways,

but like maybe Australia is one of those teams, but it just feels a little bit like, maybe

it should be more randomizing that, but I'm sure they're trying to reduce like the travel

costs and everything.

Well, and I think overall here, you know, you're right.

There is definitely a little bit of unfairness to it when it comes to the locations and everything

like that.

I mean, you could say the same thing about divisions in such a baseball, right?

Like some, like the Diamondbacks would be in such a better place if we played in any division

besides the NL West for sure, you know, so it's like some of these pools kind of do make

it a little difficult for some teams to make it out.

I think that pool A is fairly up for grabs, probably the most competitive division that

I don't know if you have a clear cut to teams that stand out.

I mean, let's, yeah, sure.

Let's kind of do this.

And I think we should do the easiest, obvious ones here and notice respect to the other

three teams.

But I don't see anybody meeting Venezuela or the Dominican Republic and pool D. Is that

fair to say?

Yes.

I think it is unless, unless, unless the plumbers are on the Netherlands team to get together.

Drew Jones has something to say about it.

We need the, you're calling Drew, Drew Jones a plumber.

No, let's get this on the record pitching staff.

I said pitching staff.

Drew, their pitching is not very good.

They do have a decent little lineup, though, the Netherlands team.

They do.

They do.

And I mean, honestly, you could probably say that about a few teams that are a bit surprising.

I think great Britain is better than they've ever been.

But true.

Again, do you see those teams kind of doing enough to outplay the other teams in their

pool, including Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, like the Australian win?

That's a big kind of shocker there, but it's not over Japan or Korea.

So it's not enough to believe, make me believe at least at this point that Australia is going

to make it out of that pool into the quarterfinals.

I see that still being Japan and Korea.

Man, these, these Netherlands pitchers are bomb steric.

I know.

I'm telling you a bunch of men.

They're so bad.

One guy's a lawyer.

All they have is, is, is Kenley Jansen.

Yeah.

That's the one guy that I recognize here on this list.

And it's like, okay, well, if they have a lead, maybe.

Even then, but they do have Aussie Albies, Xander Bogart's, D.D.

Gregorius is, is pro far allowed to play?

Or is that pro far as brother?

That's pro far as brother.

Interesting.

That's not Drixon.

That's whatever is his name.

They have, they have Jonathan Scoop's brother as well.

Charlon Scoop.

Uh, and then they have Drew Jones.

I mean, it's kind of a fun team, but I, Jeremy, Jeremy pro far.

Yeah.

I agree with you.

I do agree with you.

I don't think that anyone is beating Venezuela or the Dominican Republic out of

pool D.

And then, so if we're mapping this out, pool D would then go to game three of the quarter

finals, the winner.

So do you want to just say that the Dominican Republic is going to win?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Dominican Republic team is just a, a monster.

I can't imagine that team, um, not taking that pool and being the winner of it.

Um, and then Venezuela is still very good.

And I think again, Venezuela has a lot of country pride to play for right now as well.

Plus again, very good roster.

Uh, Japan and Korea just seem very likely out of pool C.

Do you want to actually commit yourself to believing enough to say that Australia is

going to keep Korea out of the quarter finals?

Damon, um, are you willing to commit to that?

I'm, I am currently my brain power is being.

Oh, yeah.

No, I get it.

Right now, he's, he's updating the bracket.

I'm here asking him questions.

Yeah.

I'm not entirely listening.

But so do we want to put, uh, Venezuela as the runner up in group D then?

Correct.

Yeah.

Venezuela will be the runner up in group D.

So again, when it comes to the quarter finals, it's a bit complicated.

But yes, Damon's putting together the bracket.

I have the, I have the format in my head.

Okay.

And I have it next to me.

Uh, so I'm kind of just basing it off of that.

That, that works for me.

So again, what we have here in pool C again, Japan, Australia and Korea are probably going

to be, uh, in a fight here for those two positions.

But I, again, can't imagine that samurai, Japan does not come out of pool C. So really,

it's up to the, the Australian team pulling off a fairly big upset and making it in over

Korea.

That's what we have so far, Derek, that's what I've been, that's what I've been working

on.

That's working out.

So taking up 75 to 80% of his brain power, which is there.

So what I was asking you was, are you ready to commit enough to Australia to have them

making it into the quarterfinals over Korea?

After Korea got that big W against, uh, Taiwan, I will call them, I, uh, I, I think it's

a cheque.

Actually.

Oh, I, wait, I thought Australia would be Australia, Australia, Australia, Taiwan, Taiwan,

I got you.

Um, yeah, man, I mean, that's a big win for Australia.

That feels like that's momentous.

Mm-hmm.

Let's, I feel like Korea has the pitching advantage.

Yeah.

They have to, right?

They do.

They absolutely have the pitching advantage.

But Australia, once again, has, also has lawyers, Australian pride and guys that do air

conditioning work on the team that are, you know, do they actually, do they have Liam

Hendricks?

No, he didn't suit up.

No, he did not.

What a joke.

I mean, again, the Travis Bazonah, yeah, Travis Bazonah has killed it.

He hit a home run and that one.

And again, like I said, if you, if you go to the World Baseball Classic account and take

a shot every time you see a tweet featuring his name, you're going to be wasted.

So, so what do we want to do here?

Do we want to go Australia or Korea?

Let's go Australia.

All right.

This is who you, this is who we're packing.

This is who you are behind.

So we'll throw Australia in there as the runner up.

Yeah.

As the runner up in Wab, Japan winning that division.

Okay.

So it looks like my teams will then be playing each other up work.

Yeah.

Good.

The winner of that, the winner of that quarterfinal game will then be the team that Damon can

go by a jersey of whether it's a progomo or a bazana jersey.

So there's that.

Meanwhile, pool B United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil, Brazil, not a

chance.

Italy, get out of here.

Great Britain.

You showed up at least.

We appreciate that.

But nobody's beating Rowdy to Les in Team Mexico and nobody's definitely beating the United

States when it comes to making it into the quarterfinal.

So I feel like that one's fairly obvious.

Maybe I'm being unkind to some of those other teams, but I just, I can't imagine it.

Team Mexico looked really good out there against the Diamondbacks.

We had a chance to see them in that exhibition game.

And then you also have the United States putting up, you know, going 15 to 1 over the

Giants and making them look like some fairly pathetic pedestrian's there.

So anyway, what do you, what do you think in here?

So this is in the group pool B.

We're now talking.

We're now talking about group B, United States, Mexico, Winter probably right.

And then Mexico, I would say, yeah, it's got to be, right?

Yeah.

That's, that's it.

That's it.

As far as I'm concerned.

And again, I know a lot of these are easy.

We went with Australia.

There's a little bit of an underdog, but Korea obviously making it in seems like that's

just as likely, but not probably enough there for them to, oh, I think you mix those up.

I think Australia would be playing Dominican, right?

And Japan would be playing Venezuela.

Isn't that what I have?

Oh, yeah.

They're across from each other.

They're across from their opponent.

Got it, got it, got it.

Yeah.

I see that now.

Got it.

All right.

And then the teams on the right are the home teams and the teams on the left are the

away teams as well.

Understood.

So then we'll do Mexico.

Yeah.

We'll do Mexico.

But pool A, by far, the hardest pool to determine, I feel like.

And yeah, I mean, it's just the teams are, it's the most wide open for sure.

It feels like, right?

Yes.

It definitely feels like the most wide open.

It feels like the one where any of these teams honestly could be really good and any of

them could kind of find, you know, their rhythm together.

It's hard, right?

Like it's a very short amount of time of you essentially becoming a team together before

these games actually start playing, you know, a few days at the most, but it's hard

not to think even though they have a lot of, I guess, a lot of problems overall with

the insurance situation that we unfortunately are going to talk about later on the show.

Team Puerto Rico still feels like a pretty decent bet there overall.

Team Puerto Rico feels like they have enough star power on that team for them to come together.

And, you know, win, get themselves into the quarterfinals, right?

I agree with you.

Interesting.

Some interesting people on this Cuban team, Derek.

Cuba Cuba.

They have Yoan Lopez.

Yep.

Yoan Moncato and Ariel Rodriguez.

Yeah, they have a Lexi Ramirez brother.

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

Did you hear me say what I just said right now?

Lexi Ramirez.

Stopped playing Major League Baseball in Derek.

Can you guess the year that he stopped playing Major League Baseball?

Go ahead and guess, Derek.

2018.

2016.

2016.

This guy hasn't played in the pinnacle of the sports since 2016 and he's in the World

Baseball Classic.

This is why the World Baseball Classic is awesome.

Yeah.

It's because you get these like these players, guys that play for like the great Britain

team where you're like, wait, what is he doing out there?

He's.

I thought Adrian Beltray retired 25 years ago and they're like, well, he has some obscure

connection to the, you know, the UK and so he can play for them and he's 45, but he's

still the best third baseman they got.

And you're like, this is ridiculous.

Yeah.

Is it Lexi Ramirez going to just be a third base coach for them?

Like what's going on?

He's going to be both.

He's going to be a third base man and a third base coach for that team.

Say, Zara, I was not in elementary school, but here's get this.

I was in high school.

I was in high school.

That was my senior year of high school was when Alexi Ramirez played ball.

All right, now you're making me feel old, but it's been 10 years.

I know.

I know.

Puerto Rico.

They got Nolan Aranado.

They got Edwin Diaz.

They got Seth Lugo, right?

You also have Canada with Josh Naylor, Tyler O'Neill and Jamison Tyrone and then Columbia

in my end, Michael Sorroca and Michael Sorroca.

You're right.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

Columbia with Jose Cantana, Michael Royo and one Neville, Chris Matt.

That's Columbia.

That's Columbia.

There's your, that's Columbia.

There's your factor.

There's your winner right there.

That's your division winner, Columbia, no, I'm joking.

I do think Puerto Rico is going to make it out of that.

I would put Puerto Rico probably as the winner, the winner of that pool.

Okay.

But what do you think here as far as I think Canada and Columbia is concerned?

I, let me, let me take a peek at this Colombian roster real quick just to kind of get a better

idea of what we're working with here.

John Romero, Jose Cantana, I mean, Julio Tejeron, which when was last time Julio Tejeron

pitched in an MLB game.

Now we're looking that up because this is insane.

Julio Tejeron hasn't pitched in a majorly baseball game since 2019, Derek.

He's on the Colombian team.

This Colombian team is really not bad.

I know.

They're pretty, I mean, they got a lot of like peripheral dudes, but like that's, that's

the type of team that can, I think, kind of play above its head.

Like when you get like a geo or shella and he's just a monster in the world baseball

classic and you're like, what, wait, that's not a thing that happens in regular baseball.

But when they, when these guys play for their countries, they get a lot better.

I'm leaning Canada, but I do think this Colombian team is sneaky.

I think they're real sneaky.

Canada did get beat by the Toronto Blue Jays in exhibition play.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

I don't know how that impacts your feelings.

It doesn't really impact my feelings too much.

I don't really care about spring training.

But yeah, no, I mean, we already, let's do this because I'm a wrestling guy.

And sometimes you have to book this for the best, like fan, fans, you know, situation.

We want big matchups, right?

We want hatred.

We want bitter all.

There's no bigger, like, there's no bigger rivalry right now than Canada versus USA, right?

After what happened in the winter Olympics with hockey.

So I'm throwing Canada in there and they are going to face off there against Team USA in

the quarterfinals.

I love it.

Right.

That's going to put some butts in seats.

That's going to sell some tickets.

That's going to get TV watching.

I mean, you would assume so, Dan.

You would, you would think so.

You would think so.

But sometimes you don't know these audiences can be fickle.

Damon, that's why every once in a while, you got to, you got to throw like a big show

out there.

AK, Luke and Baker.

The second time I've mentioned the big show, the big show on this show, what, he's what

Luke and Baker is what the people tune in for there.

That's what the people, they have in jelly bean, ham and jelly bean, a fact is what people

are here for.

But I think we've done a pretty good job here of setting up the quarterfinals overall.

We got Puerto Rico in there on the winners bracket side along with Team USA.

The Dominican Republic in Japan on the second place side, I guess you could say over here.

We got ourselves Canada, Mexico, Australia and Venezuela.

So love that.

I think that looks good for essentially an elite eight here in our tournament bracket.

So Damon, why don't we do this, why don't we take a quick break and on the other side

of this break, we will do some more bracketology here and figure out who exactly is going to

win the whole damn thing.

Let's do that here and be back here in a few minutes.

Of course, you guys, you know what you're watching.

You're watching me, you're watching Damon, you're watching the page next time on that show.

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Well, Damon, let's get that bracket back up there and let's figure out the rest of

the semi-finals and who is going to win the whole thing.

First, it gets a little convoluted, I guess you could say from here, because the seeding

in the next round would depend on where essentially what their records are, right?

But we do know that according to this information, the teams that advance or team Japan and team

USA cannot play each other in the semi-finals.

Well, I think that basically they can, I think, but it was kind of set up so that they

don't.

Right.

I think is more of the differentiator.

They tried to set it up where there's not really a chance that it happens.

I also think that they've kind of talked about this poorly because there's two games

of these quarterfinals that take place on the 13th and two that take place on the 14th.

So you would, I think it makes all the sense in the world that the teams that play on the

13th play each other and the teams that play on the 14th play each other in the semi-final

matchup.

Okay.

Because those games are also a day apart, so they want to have equal rest, I believe.

So I think that the pool B winner versus the pool A runner up, so that would be USA Canada

will take on the pool D winner versus the pool C runner up.

So we have Dominican Republic versus Australia.

Okay.

So I think we can plug those teams in as playing each other in the semi-finals.

USA versus Dominican Republic.

Right.

So I think either of those teams are going to lose, and I feel like when it comes to all

of the winners, and forgive me for not having more pride in my own personal island, the

same way Damon has pride in his little little island, I think the only upset here in the

quarterfinals is going to be Team Mexico over Puerto Rico.

Wow.

Is that really that big of an upset?

No, no, no, no.

I don't think in the grand scheme of things as far as those two rosters are concerned.

I just mean that, you know, you have the second place teams on the left versus the teams

that ended up winning their divisions or their pools on the right, right?

So I think Team Mexico goes on to take that game against Puerto Rico, and then I think

Japan is in there.

Now the big question, Damon, is can the Dominican Republic pull off the win over Team USA?

I got to be honest, Derek.

I'm sitting here, and as we're outlying this, and I'm kind of getting an idea of what

the bracket is headed towards, I can't believe baseball did it again.

I cannot believe baseball did it again.

Is there any player who has been propped up by a sport since Michael Jordan, as much

as this show, hey, Otony, that they have over in Los Angeles?

They are literally giving Japan a free run to the final.

Venezuela, Mexico.

Why can't the Dominican team get a shot at Japan?

I want a shot at Japan in the semi-final.

I know you do it well.

Would you think it would be crazy if I were to say I think they'll get a shot at Japan

in the final final?

What?

I think Dominican Republic team.

It's USA.

Oh, okay.

Let's do it.

The only advantage that Team USA truly has there, I don't want to say that.

That's probably not right, but I feel like their biggest advantage is pitching, and I still

question, you know, when their biggest pitchers are going to be available in these games.

Obviously, you've got to have a Paul Schienz or a Terrick Schooble pitching in that semi-final

game, right?

But didn't we discuss that if Team USA made it to the finals, it wouldn't be either of

those guys pitching for them in the final?

Yeah, it would be Nolan McLean in the final.

And no disrespect to him or his good name, but not exactly the guy would want in there

for the championship overall.

And then what, Derek?

You know what happens next.

You're going to make me say it.

Who already pointed out that this whole thing props up, Shoei Otani?

It does.

It does.

And the entire team Japan is going to win it all again.

The entire tournament was, was started just so Otani can add to his resume.

I'm convinced at this point.

I feel like the Dominican Republic has to be the team of destiny.

I really feel like they are.

It's just, it's like the vibes, everything about them, you know, Japan truly is the juggernaut,

the end boss, everything that, you know, God, I hate them.

We are going to rep the DR so hard in this game, Damon.

Harder than we've ever rep to any team or country like literally like it means more, it

means more to me than the debax season, maybe perhaps.

There it is.

There's your winning world baseball classic tournament bracket.

You need it any help?

Hope that helps.

Hope that lays it out for you.

Feel like it was too easy.

We just went with the good teams here overall, but we made some tough choices.

We did Australia over Korea.

We did the thing.

I'm okay.

I'm okay with this.

All right.

Well, you know what I'm not okay with?

I circled Japan.

That's our final bracket.

There you go.

That's what we got.

And it makes me sick.

It should.

It should make you sick.

I dude, is that really where we're headed?

Probably.

Probably.

But let's hope we, let's hope, let's hope it's wrong.

It's fun to do this.

This is where you head yourself emotionally.

You feel like you're bracket like this.

And then if you're wrong, you get to enjoy the Dominican Republic winning another world

baseball classic title.

Or perhaps Team USA getting the job done.

We'll see.

But, you know, it's not Japan that's ruining the world baseball classic, Damon.

It's insured.

Insured.

It's ruining the baseball classic.

And we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break because everybody

loves to talk about insurance.

So we're going to do that before we get out of here.

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reply back.

And then it came to him talking about, do you want me to grab this on the show?

Oh, yeah.

Let's, let's, we want to see this picture because this might be the best sign that the diamond

backs are going to have a good year.

But we'll get to that before we get out of here, Damon.

I'll give you a little time for that.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to talk about something that Damon loves to talk about.

And that's insurance.

Don't even get him started right now.

Damon, you go do that thing.

Damon has these, he's literally going to smash the keyboard right now.

I was showing there some, some memes earlier.

Oh, is that permission impossible?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's, there's some stuff out there.

Insurance in general is a joke as we all know if we've ever had to deal with it.

But the insurance for the World Baseball Classic is possibly the biggest joke you've ever

seen.

And I mean, you could argue maybe even slightly, slightly unfair might be bending the rules

a little bit just in favor of team USA overall.

That's because after the injuries last year or last World Baseball Classic, not last

year, but last time we did this to Edwin Diaz and to Jose Altuve.

There has been some concerns here from the insurance provider and the list of reasons

why a player could potentially not be insured is very lengthy.

Now, this is a weird situation.

This obviously was part of the World Baseball Classic, a part that got owners to allow their

players to participate, like we've said, it's understandable, even though it's a little

bit villainous for a organization, for a franchise to keep their start players out of participating

in a tournament like this in which they get nothing in return for those players participating

in the tournament.

So MLB implemented this insurance, which allows teams to insure their players and should

those players get injured participating in the WBC, their salaries would be covered by

Major League Baseball, but it actually wouldn't be covered by Major League Baseball.

It would be covered by an insurance provider much like most of us have insurance through

our jobs.

It would be a similar thing where MLB is paying to this insurance provider and then should

something terrible happen to one of these players, then they would be covered.

Their salary at least would be covered in the franchise themselves, wouldn't have to

put up with it.

So if Otani gets injured in the World Baseball Classic, for instance, and Otani, by the way,

not cleared to pitch by insurance, just cleared to hit.

So there's one way that this is impacting his availability for Team Japan is that Otani

is only cleared to hit in this World Baseball Classic.

This insurance provider company called National Financial Partners is the official insurance

broker for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

Basically, it evaluates players based on salary, age, injury, history, and maybe what team

they play for to provide coverage that protects teams, guaranteeing up to two years of salary

for position players and four years for pitchers should a pitcher or injure themselves in a way

where they their career is done due to an injury that they sustained during the World Baseball

Classic.

They would have to pay for four years of salary for that player, right?

But if a player has had a recent surgery, for instance, that is one of many reasons that

they can deny insurance.

In fact, I found nine of them that are broader categories that are reasons why or eight

that they can't that they could deny insurance.

And that's the bigger problem here.

Recent surgery, for instance, has impacted them, allowing certain guys to get injury,

meanwhile, other guys that have played for two USA, for instance, like an Alex Breggman,

they've had recent surgeries and those recent surgeries have not impacted their ability

to be insured and play in the WBC.

It's the reason why a lot of this is coming into question and why teams like Team Puerto Rico

are truly screaming foul about their guys not being covered while other guys are, right?

Number two is just a broad chronic injury classification that says insurance company can

categorize players as high risk if they have repeated injury issues.

A player may be labeled chronic if they meet criteria like multiple surgeries during

their career, 60 plus days on the injury list in previous season, which some guys again

on the team USA have experienced missing the end of the previous season with injury late

season, I'll placement after August 31st or multiple reoccurring injuries.

That covers every single person in this office.

Every single person in this office has chronic injury classification, Damon Mosley.

Also just having an extremely large MLB contract could disqualify you from participating,

which is weird because when that means Shohei wouldn't be allowed to play, what insurance

is actually covering the contract value, not just the player, as we found out, for instance,

like FIFA, has a similar insurance for players to take place or take part in the World Cup.

It only guarantees them a certain amount of the salary, not the full amount.

I think what was it, 7.8 million euros, something like that, Damon?

But meanwhile, the MLB has the entire contract covered, right?

So if a player has a massive deal, the potential payout is huge.

Lendor has over $200 million remaining on his contract, making him a high financial risk

to ensure not to mention he just had the recent, he made injury.

But another reason they can choose not to ensure you is age restrictions.

For the 2026 WBC cycle, insurer implemented a rule denying coverage for players, 37 years

or older.

Why is Clayton Kershaw out there?

Well, he's not insured, that's why, but still, Miguel Rojas reportedly couldn't get coverage

because of this age threshold.

So there's one guy that was not allowed.

So recent injury history, which is different than the chronic injury history and recent

surgery.

So if you have a recent injury, players coming up injuries, even if they're healthy for spring

training, could be rejected.

Jose Altube had a recent procedure and a history of WBC injury concern, so he was not approved.

And past WC injuries also can impact this as well.

In specific risk, number six, the sixth reason why insurance can deny you pitchers are often

harder to ensure because of higher injury rates, a past history of UCL or elbow injury and

a risk of arm fatigue, fatigue before the MLBC season.

That's why Shohei Otani was approved to hit, but not pitch.

Another reason, which is why I wouldn't be approved besides the 37 year old thing, disciplinary

issues.

Guys, no, I'm a problem when it comes to following directions and following rules, occasionally

players may be unable to participate because of international competition suspensions,

Javier Baez being suspended due to the testing violation for marijuana in this day and age

in 2026.

MLB teams refusing to accept risk, even if insurance is denied, a player could still play if the

MLB team decides to allow it, Carlos Santana, due to his age not being covered by insurance.

The Diamondbacks still let him participate as part of the Dominican Republic team.

Most teams refuse, you know, in this case, they are at the risk of essentially losing

his salary if he gets injured.

But to the Diamondbacks, it meant more to allow their player to participate in what will

obviously be, well, probably not obviously be because what like you just said earlier,

players can apparently participate in the WBC until they're 60 years old.

But Carlos Santana, this could be the end of the line for him participating in the World

Baseball Classic.

Do you want to be the team that denies him that glory by, you know, keeping him out simply

because, you know, he wasn't able to get insured.

So insurance became so rich, you know, strict because of Edwin Diaz and Jose Altube, those

incidents dramatically increased insurance caution and the cost overall.

And insurance companies like this one that covers the WBC evaluate everything.

So this is why they deny coverage and this is why guys weren't able to participate.

It sucks.

And not only does it suck, but it also feels like some of these guys that were insured that

are part of Team USA got special exemptions to be insured, not exemptions from their team,

allowing them to participate uninsured.

No, exemptions that had them covered where other countries and other teams don't have that

same, I guess, grace, that same, you know, that same courtesy extended to them.

So it does feel a little bit here like, you know, in a situation where you have a United

States-based company that's providing insurance for this tournament that they are being a

bit biased on behalf of Team USA.

We don't need that.

Like, we don't really need that.

Let's just make this fair and even across the board and let's remember that this is just

for the game of baseball.

Like yeah, there's a winner, yeah, there's a trophy, yeah, a country gets bragging rights

for the next few years, just like you do in the Olympics.

However, you know, this is one of those things that's meant to bring us all that together

more and not make players and countries and certain ethnicities feel like they're being

treated differently due to this insurance situation and that part sucks, but anyway, I just

want to go watch World Baseball Classic now.

This insurance stuff kind of brought me down.

I didn't mean to bring you down, but there are still plenty of amazing players participating

in this tournament and we get to watch 12 Diamondbacks be a part of it.

So let's all go do that.

We will be back here at 12 p.m. tomorrow with another show discussing the outcome of these

World Baseball Classic games and maybe taking a look back at our bracket wondering if we

already made a mistake or two.

So let's do that tomorrow at noon until then you'll follow me on social media at cap underscore

caveman with a K can follow Damon at Damon dog with a DAWG at the end and we're all Damon's

dogs.

Bar Park are shows at pH and X underscore D backs, but is always all roads lead to at pH

index underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You thank you guys so much for your time.

Appreciate you sharing it with us.

Wait up, Derek.

We got to show the snake.

Oh, I forgot.

Let's do it.

So our friend, what is our friend's name again, Dan?

Our friend Brad coming through with a picture of what he called a diamond Python, a diamond

Python in his front yard.

Let's never forget that Australia is a place that is just filled with danger at all times.

They have these qualities called drop bears there.

They'll just drop out of the trees and kill you, Damon.

It's insane.

But yes, no, this has to be a great sign.

This has to be the best possible sign you would think you would think.

I don't know how it might not be, but shout out to Australia as a whole for being a very

dangerous place.

Damon, let's get out of here.

We appreciate you guys again for your time.

We'll see you back here tomorrow.

Until then, behave yourself, Michael Dixon, and remember kids baseball is fun.

But it's so much more fun when everybody gets insured.

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