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

Did 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

here. 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, Gabrielle Moreno made his first

start 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 Losega. He threw a fastball 99.6 miles per hour. So he is 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 there, the way we saw

Dre Jamison being optioned to Triple E 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 Brandon 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, you know, a 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, there are only other options right now is Philip Abner.

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 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 there 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 intents and 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 for 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 battered balls hit north of 95

miles per hour and both were groundouts. Again, this is a very, you know, so it's one outing. However,

considering what the Diamondbacks paid Soroka and considering what, you know, 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. I don't

know if you want to call it in the bed. I like to say in the bed, but kind of getting this new deal

with polymarket and 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 that features Jorge Barossa on it, there are going

to be a lot of fans that groan 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. He went two for three the day before

with a home run and two RBI in the win over the Cubs. And he's currently hitting three 24 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 Lordes Griel 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 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 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 at 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

so often. They want these guys playing and developing and getting better every day so that they

can soon become the future 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 in 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 the studios hold the heat well. Yeah, 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 more heat than anything is the goddamn 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

Katalm Marta is going to be back in the lineup. I haven't seen the lineup yet due to the move.

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 X 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 out 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. There's a family. We're going to have a little pregame,

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 going to sit at that. 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 Diamondbacks 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 in back show.

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apply well I got that update for you by the way I believe it was robber who was asking about

Jorge 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 Merrill 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 system 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 and Merrill Kelly and Zach gallon and they also bring back Michael or

bring over Michael Soroka on a very cheap deal now this is only really comes up because it feels

like it's a foregone conclusion that now if Merrill Kelly is going to go on the I L once he returns

that the odd man out is going to be Soroka 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 Soroka 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 that nobody is particularly safe at Wardo Rodriguez

based on what the Diamondbacks 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 Diamondbacks should put in a bullpen or you know just simply

move on from because of how frustrated everybody has been with Rodriguez's time with the Dbacks

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 2026 and where he's going to factor in however erot is also a 20

million dollar man as far as starting rotation goes so 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 Diamondbacks 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 they say Jordan Walker

excuse me he shall not be named okay so but anyway Jordan Montgomery but the Diamondbacks

overall here is they have three guys that you know 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

Diamondbacks to make that decision to leave him in in the starting rotation but that's just me

speculating they may have a different plan and part of that plan might involve their two younger

pitchers 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 um 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 put in the minor leagues put into the pen it does feel

like whoever the Diamondbacks 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 major league depth versus who the next man up would be after that

considering christian mana got shut down the the 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 Diamondbacks 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 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 okay but not really standing out above you know each other right and 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 any 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 pitch is very well so feels like his arsenal is 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 rotation right but again it doesn't feel like Eduardo Rodriguez is going to be

that guy and if he is then the diamond back still not only have to deal with this season but another

season of ERAW that they're paying in 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

I'm 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 time backs to move right but again Michael

soroka doesn't have my early options so you're going to have to put him into the bullpen or you're

going to have to DFAM or cut 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 diamond

backs 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 tough

decision on exactly what they're going to do and who they're going to do it to 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 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

nothing 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

again 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 Siroka for that final spot but overall again we just we we need the depth and hopefully

the 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

it'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

but 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

go anywhere you're watching the pH and next time in back show well circle K is Derek's third stop

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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 been

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 um but like this is this is

another case of major league baseball probably doing the wrong thing they are entering the prediction

market space uh 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 sweet 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 uh elections

you can bet on if Noah was going to sneeze during this 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 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 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 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 league's 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 league 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 circumvents the rules majorly baseball 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 god damn

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

the the you know commentators reading ads live during the show or during the game excuse me

used to doing 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 and again in 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 majorly baseball um they're 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 majorly baseball formula one racing

and the Mercedes Benz group ag's racing team

and it's there's also just stupid stuff historically usually it's club based right like

back in 2001 there was a company called web van that had its logo on all the cup holders at

san francisco giants pacific bellpark at the time the company went bankrupt i think before they 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 n-ron remember when n-ron was the

was the naming partner to the houston ashtros 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 erasing 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 majorly 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 frat leader but what i will say is i completely agree with him when it comes

all it comes down to greed 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 majorly 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 he's here 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 majorly 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 very new thing for baseball to be getting involved with

and uh 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 at 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 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 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 know

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 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

it 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

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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

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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

an 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

I 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

range 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

yeah 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

human 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

everyone 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

for 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 pre-game 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

I 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