Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Snake's Territory, part
Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network. Be sure to like this video,
Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel, maybe leave us a five star
Speaker 1: review wherever you get your podcasts. I am Jesse Friedman
Speaker 1: alongside Jack Summers and Jack We were planning to do
Speaker 1: a postgame show after tonight's Diamondbacks Cardinals game, but that
Speaker 1: game is no longer happening, as the Diamondbacks and Cardinals
Speaker 1: have officially been rained out. This game has been rescheduled
Speaker 1: for July twenty third, and Jack Paul Sewald is not happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't blame him. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: he was thinking the same thing we all were. I mean,
Speaker 2: the players all were. Why didn't everybody knew that there
Speaker 2: was going to be a day lose tonight. This has
Speaker 2: been in the forecast for days. It was obvious last
Speaker 2: night for sure that this was going to happen. Be
Speaker 2: tracked this for days, and you know, the players were
Speaker 2: talking about why couldn't they have played this game starting
Speaker 2: at noontime? You know, And now the Diamondbacks are going
Speaker 2: to have to go back to Saint Louis on July
Speaker 2: twenty third to make up this game in the middle
Speaker 2: of what should have been an off day, turning a
Speaker 2: three city road trip into a four city road trip.
Speaker 2: As Paul talked about in a tweet that Jesse's about
Speaker 2: to flash up on screen and let us know exactly
Speaker 2: what Paul had to say.
Speaker 1: Well, here it is. This is about as sassy as
Speaker 1: it gets from Paul. Seawall too is generally a very
Speaker 1: very nice person. Paul said on Twitter. No, you're right,
Speaker 1: thank you Cardinals at Cardinals for not moving our game
Speaker 1: up to this afternoon when we politely asked. Given the
Speaker 1: whole world knew it was going to rain tonight, I
Speaker 1: actually was really hoping we could lose an off day
Speaker 1: and turn it into a four city road trip. And
Speaker 1: sure enough, that four city road trip that you're at
Speaker 1: differencing is now going to happen in July. It is
Speaker 1: now part of the Diamondbacks schedule. They already were slated
Speaker 1: to go to Washington, d C. To play the Nationals
Speaker 1: and then Pittsburgh to play the Pirates. They had an
Speaker 1: off day and then another series in Cleveland Guardian against
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Guardians entering the trade deadline, and now there's
Speaker 1: going to be a game against the Saint Louis Cardinals
Speaker 1: on the twenty third, And yeah, it's a four city
Speaker 1: road trip, which is something that you really never want
Speaker 1: to happen, and you can certainly understand seawall it's frustration.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: We can speculate on how deliberate this was on the
Speaker 1: part of the Cardinals. Did they want to make the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks come back on the twenty third, you know, coming
Speaker 1: off a series at home against the Athletics and right
Speaker 1: before they head to DC to play the Nationals. Maybe
Speaker 1: they're tired and they could take advantage of the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: But I think what we can say for sure is
Speaker 1: that the Cardinals wanted to play this game at night
Speaker 1: because generally you make more money that way. You're going
Speaker 1: to sell more tickets to a night game than a
Speaker 1: day game, and that presumably is why this game was
Speaker 1: scheduled at night in the first place, as opposed to
Speaker 1: being a getaway day afternoon game, which certainly the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: would have preferred.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's that, but you know, look the
Speaker 2: the tickets that you know, you have rain checks, right,
Speaker 2: you know, the people still would get to go to
Speaker 2: the game, but not everyone's gonna come and you can
Speaker 2: sell more tickets, you can promote the game. You got
Speaker 2: another month to promote the makeup game, and maybe at
Speaker 2: that point you can really promote it as you know,
Speaker 2: a showdown for the season series or whatever. You know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of ways that they could have played that, So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that it was kind of a
Speaker 2: bush move. Another peak behind the curtain here with Jesse
Speaker 2: and I, we were having a lot of fun in
Speaker 2: the run up to preparing the show, deciding words to
Speaker 2: put on the thumbnail for our show, and I was
Speaker 2: coming up with subterfuge and chicanery and all these big,
Speaker 2: long syllable words that don't well work too well with
Speaker 2: the algorithm. But uh, we went the alliteration there now
Speaker 2: run around. I hope you guys find it amusing. But
Speaker 2: there's a lot more adjectives that we could have used
Speaker 2: here to describe this. I think that just the tone
Speaker 2: of Paul's tweet kind of tells me, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: we politely asked. I mean, obviously there there was an
Speaker 2: effort there to get the Cardinals to make an adjustment
Speaker 2: here something about the NL Central, I mean, the dbacs
Speaker 2: just they run into weather there, and they've won run
Speaker 2: into a couple of teams down the last couple of
Speaker 2: years that have kind of given given them them run
Speaker 2: around when it comes to raindelays. So uh, not great,
Speaker 2: you know for the situation. On the other hand, you know,
Speaker 2: there are people out there that were happy not to
Speaker 2: have to watch Zach gallanpitch tonight, but it just means
Speaker 2: you're going to watch them tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard to really come up with a silver
Speaker 1: lining here for the Diamondbacks. I guess if you're really
Speaker 1: reaching for it, you could say that they at least
Speaker 1: can kind of plan for that game on July twenty third,
Speaker 1: whereas tonight was going to be pretty rough for them.
Speaker 1: Steve Berthume talked about this on the broadcast yesterday, where
Speaker 1: if this game had been played as scheduled and even
Speaker 1: been played on time, the Diamondbacks weren't expected to arrive
Speaker 1: in Tampa until about three in the morning after this
Speaker 1: game concluded. Tampa is not that far away from Saint Louis,
Speaker 1: but it's not real close either, so it was setting
Speaker 1: up to be a pretty brutal turnaround for them tomorrow,
Speaker 1: even with that being a night game against the Rays.
Speaker 1: So at the very least the d Backs can get
Speaker 1: off to Tampa a little bit earlier and hopefully actually
Speaker 1: get some legitimate rest tonight entering that series. But on
Speaker 1: the back end, yeah, now you've got a four city
Speaker 1: road trip a mess set up in July, so hard
Speaker 1: to feel too good about that, Jack, if you're the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a comment here from at trash City forty two.
Speaker 2: I think I might know who you are, and it
Speaker 2: says I'm just here so I can get the forecast
Speaker 2: for tomorrow's weather from Jack. Since I've been playing amateur
Speaker 2: meteorologist on Twitter. What I will say is the forecast
Speaker 2: is probably going to be pretty good, unless there's a hurricane.
Speaker 2: Because they're playing in Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's fair pretty good.
Speaker 2: They'll be playing at the Trump So unless they get
Speaker 2: a sudden you know, category twelve, you know, hurricane to
Speaker 2: rip the roof off again, I think they'll be Okay.
Speaker 1: Do you have a do you have a sense of
Speaker 1: the forecast for July twenty third, Jack, I know that's
Speaker 1: a little ways out, but can you maybe give us
Speaker 1: some assurance that we're not going to be in the
Speaker 1: same situation a month from now.
Speaker 2: Well, it's Saint Louis and it's going to be hot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, there we go. You could safely safely say
Speaker 1: that Muggy out. Yes, hot and Muggy is always safe
Speaker 1: to say about really anywhere in the Midwest this time
Speaker 1: of year. Yeah, unfortunate for the Diamondbacks. In terms of
Speaker 1: the pitching plan for this weekend, I haven't seen anything
Speaker 1: official yet from the people out in Saint Louis. We'll
Speaker 1: keep our eyes peeled for that. It seems probably safe
Speaker 1: to say that Zach Gallen is just going to get
Speaker 1: pushed back a day and start tomorrow against the Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay Rays. But that sets up a bit of a
Speaker 1: weird situation for the d Backs. Jack. We had been
Speaker 1: expecting Brandon Fought to come up and pitch on Friday
Speaker 1: and then be followed by Jose Cabrera on Saturday. Now
Speaker 1: with Gallon starting Friday, I don't know what the d
Speaker 1: Backs we'll do here. Do they just push fot In
Speaker 1: Cabrera back another day, or do they maybe just leave
Speaker 1: Cabrera to pitch on Saturday and then wait until next
Speaker 1: week to bring Brain and Fought back up to the
Speaker 1: majors That that maybe could even be good for him
Speaker 1: if if he's able to get a little bit more
Speaker 1: stretched out down in Reno.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The the inference from Nick Procuoro in one of
Speaker 2: his articles yesterday, I think it was when he was
Speaker 2: talking about this, was that thought was supposed to start Friday,
Speaker 2: but that could be pushed back and impact the plans.
Speaker 2: And I kind of got the sense from the way
Speaker 2: he wrote it that it might mean that he gets
Speaker 2: pushed back or another word skipped completely. The only question
Speaker 2: I had then is where is Brandon fought right, because
Speaker 2: you have logistics involved, you know, they they would have
Speaker 2: he would have been on a plane maybe from Phoenix
Speaker 2: or something. You know, he probably was you know, he
Speaker 2: rehab assignment right with with Reno, and he probably came
Speaker 2: back to Phoenix. He's probably been you know, throwing bullpens
Speaker 2: and working out at the complex something like that, and
Speaker 2: then was probably on his way to Tampa Bay today. Right.
Speaker 2: He would have had have been on the way there
Speaker 2: today to be ready to pitch tomorrow. So I'm not
Speaker 2: really sure, you know, unless he was with the team,
Speaker 2: like on the taxi squad, may have traveled to the
Speaker 2: team Saint Louis and nobody mentioned it a lot of
Speaker 2: times that would be the case. They put a guy
Speaker 2: in the taxi squad just so that they can get
Speaker 2: him there physically. So I don't know where he is
Speaker 2: physically right now, and that's the key, right because you know,
Speaker 2: if they want him to pitch on Saturday, then he's
Speaker 2: still got to get up there. The other thing that
Speaker 2: they could do is, you know, if he's already here
Speaker 2: in Phoenix, have him pitch in a complex league game.
Speaker 2: Just get his innings in, you know, don't worry about
Speaker 2: the results, just get stretched out. Just go get your
Speaker 2: fifth up down and throw sixty five pitches and then
Speaker 2: come back out the following week to pitch. So that's
Speaker 2: the other And don't forget they do have an off
Speaker 2: day next week. Yeah, so that's the other factor. Like
Speaker 2: you say, well, just push everybody back, but basically today
Speaker 2: turned into an off day, and then they got an
Speaker 2: off day Thursday, and then that gets really awkward when
Speaker 2: you're trying to you know, push everybody back or use
Speaker 2: six starters turned through the rotation. So we're gonna have
Speaker 2: unfortunately we don't have the answers for you tonight exactly
Speaker 2: what that rotation is going to be like you know,
Speaker 2: we'll be back with everybody tomorrow night, and by then
Speaker 2: it'll be clear, we'll know what's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is the hope. Certainly some decisions for the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks to make in the coming days, and they also
Speaker 1: did make some decisions today. We had a flurry of
Speaker 1: roster moves happen earlier today with Mitch Bratt being optioned,
Speaker 1: Max Kepler being activated and now officially joining the major
Speaker 1: league roster. So we're going to get into that. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk a little standings, look at some of
Speaker 1: the tiebreaker situations with Diamondbacks wild card contenders the other
Speaker 1: teams that they're kind of jocking for position with. So
Speaker 1: a lot more to get to in this episode. We'll
Speaker 1: be back right here after this on Snake's territory. Well,
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Speaker 1: Sea Geek. Well, we have a super chat here from
Speaker 1: just host zero two. It's a good one. They say,
Speaker 1: y'all see Gallon throw a no hitter. I sure did,
Speaker 1: and yes, technically that's true, right Jack, that's how this works.
Speaker 2: Well, I can guarantee that he did not give up
Speaker 2: any runs tonight. Hits. So well done, Zach Gallon Ohm.
Speaker 1: I yeah, Zach Gallen bouncing back tonight certainly would have
Speaker 1: been good to see. We'll have to wait, presumably just
Speaker 1: twenty four hours to see pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Speaker 1: I imagine that is a pretty difficult piece of news
Speaker 1: for him, having to game plan for a completely different
Speaker 1: roster on the other side. But I imagine the Dbacks
Speaker 1: also had some idea that this was happening. Maybe they've
Speaker 1: already already done some of that work and he's already
Speaker 1: started to research the Tampa Bay Rays and kind of
Speaker 1: see what he's in for against them tomorrow night. The Diamondbacks,
Speaker 1: who referenced it before the break, did make some roster
Speaker 1: moves prior to this game. Mitch Brat Jack, I guess,
Speaker 1: was the headliner there. He looked pretty good in his
Speaker 1: major league debut yesterday. It was just three innings, but
Speaker 1: he allowed one run. Was maybe a little bit less
Speaker 1: efficient than he would have liked to be at fifty
Speaker 1: four pitches, but he the Diamondbacks what they needed to
Speaker 1: win that game, and considering the circumstances, looked pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was a fine debut. The way
Speaker 2: I described it on Twitter was short and sweet, right,
Speaker 2: I mean it was three inning outing. You know, you
Speaker 2: can't extrapolate too much from three innings, either visually or
Speaker 2: data wise, but overall he looked pretty good. I would
Speaker 2: like to see a little bit more fine pinpoint command
Speaker 2: he's ultimately going to need that. It's the only criticism, really,
Speaker 2: I've ever felt watching him on you know, the minor
Speaker 2: league games. Those broadcasts sometimes don't give the best angle,
Speaker 2: but it does seem like his delivery is a little
Speaker 2: kind of a little extra oompit the end. There is
Speaker 2: that my describing that, right, I.
Speaker 1: Mean both of his feet left the ground on a
Speaker 1: number of pitches, which is I mean, it was kind
Speaker 1: of fun to watch, but you wonder if that's not
Speaker 1: ideal from a repeatability standpoint and whatnot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you know, it's using a lot of
Speaker 2: leg action. Maybe he's you know, that helps him get
Speaker 2: you know, more effort without overtaxing his arm and shoulder.
Speaker 2: I think that how he injured his shoulder is something
Speaker 2: that's kind of important to kind of mention. He made
Speaker 2: an awkward throw. I think it was, you know, a
Speaker 2: tapper or a bunt, and he ran and spun and
Speaker 2: threw without his feet planted, I think, And the way
Speaker 2: it was described it was kind of like his shoulder
Speaker 2: dislocated for a second and the bone rolled over his
Speaker 2: tendons and then rolled back, and so that doesn't sound
Speaker 2: very comfortable, but you know, they described it as a
Speaker 2: minor injury. He was able to come back within what
Speaker 2: two three weeks and pitch four innings forty eight pitches.
Speaker 2: But the way it was described was, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, the only it's a pain tolerance issue. So
Speaker 2: some kind of shoulder strain or dislocation happened there and
Speaker 2: he's pitching through discomfort. Just I didn't really love those
Speaker 2: descriptions of how that all went down. But you know,
Speaker 2: he looked fine for this outing and no word of
Speaker 2: anything bothering him, and so he's got to go back
Speaker 2: now for fifteen days, so he's going to get a
Speaker 2: couple of starts in Triple A and then if they
Speaker 2: still need him after the All Star break, then you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see him. But he's got a taste of what
Speaker 2: major leagues was like, and it was it was fun
Speaker 2: to watch Jesse. I think you have something some data
Speaker 2: you saw on his fastball, which I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people are going to be interested in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think you hear soft tossing lefty,
Speaker 1: you know, low nineties, Like this stuff isn't great, but
Speaker 1: he knows how to command it. And you know, you're
Speaker 1: maybe thinking of a Tommy Henry type or you know,
Speaker 1: one of these d backs pitching prospects that we've seen
Speaker 1: in recent years that just frankly didn't have the stuff
Speaker 1: to succeed in the big leagues. And looking at stuff
Speaker 1: plus from yesterday is kind of intriguing. This is, as
Speaker 1: you and I discussed earlier today, it's really too small
Speaker 1: of a sample size to view these numbers as gospel.
Speaker 1: I think they likely would change if he continued to
Speaker 1: pitch in the major leagues. But for what it's worth,
Speaker 1: he had a one oh seven stuff plus on his
Speaker 1: four seam fastball last night, a one oh six stuff
Speaker 1: plus on a sinker. The slider came in at ninety three,
Speaker 1: so a little below average there. And the curveball there's
Speaker 1: there's no reading on fangrafts, which is a little bit odd.
Speaker 1: But the fastball in and of itself is really important.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is a huge X factor for any
Speaker 1: pitching prospect is are you able to throw your fastball
Speaker 1: in the zone? And is your fastball good enough to
Speaker 1: compete against major league hitters? Like are you just going
Speaker 1: to have to hide that pitch behind your breaking stuff
Speaker 1: all the time or can you genuinely use it to
Speaker 1: attack hitters? And a one oh seven stuff plus is
Speaker 1: pretty good for a guy who's throwing in the low nineties.
Speaker 1: It's a much higher number than I expected to see.
Speaker 1: I know his VLO was up a little bit yesterday.
Speaker 1: He averaged ninety two point two in triple A. This
Speaker 1: year it was more around ninety one, So maybe that
Speaker 1: the true VLO there is going to be more like
Speaker 1: ninety one. Probably a little amped up for his big
Speaker 1: league debut and so forth, but still encouraging. Nonetheless, Jack,
Speaker 1: this isn't just about VLO with Mitch Bratt. The movement
Speaker 1: numbers where we're interesting. He has pretty good feel to
Speaker 1: throw that pitch at the top of the zone, and
Speaker 1: it appears that it could play there at the big
Speaker 1: league level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very intriguing to me. I mean, he threw a
Speaker 2: lot of fastballs at the top of the zone. Some
Speaker 2: were up high enough. I'm kind of was wondering, like,
Speaker 2: why are they swinging at that? But it must look
Speaker 2: you know, and that's probably where the stuff plus comes
Speaker 2: in just a shape and what it looks like in
Speaker 2: the batter's box. It's got good ride. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think the IVV only measured fifteen somewhere around there, so
Speaker 2: it's not like it had an eighteen or nineteen iv
Speaker 2: B like you see from Ryan Nelson. But something about
Speaker 2: that pitch just makes hitters think that it's coming in
Speaker 2: a little lower than it is and they're seeing it lower.
Speaker 2: But you know, you look at where it lands next
Speaker 2: to the strike zone box and it seemed well above
Speaker 2: it repeatedly, and yet he was getting lots of swings
Speaker 2: on that. So one thing that you know, I'll be
Speaker 2: interested to see when he does come back is you know, second,
Speaker 2: third time through the order, right, Yeah, once you go
Speaker 2: through the order second, third time, are they forcing him
Speaker 2: to bring that pitch down? If they're not offering at
Speaker 2: it and he's forced to bring that down into the
Speaker 2: middle of the zone, it's going to get hit unless
Speaker 2: he paints it on the corner. So you know, that's
Speaker 2: where I kind of go back to, does he have
Speaker 2: the command to do that? It's like, fine, throw it
Speaker 2: up at the top of the zone, try to get
Speaker 2: to swing and miss, or you know, get guys to
Speaker 2: pop up under it or hit a weak fly ball.
Speaker 2: But if they're not offering, then you've got to be
Speaker 2: able to paint on the owners at that velocity. You
Speaker 2: just do so that that's what I'll be looking Those
Speaker 2: are the improvements that I'll be looking for. Nothing to
Speaker 2: complain about his debut, Just I'm always thinking what's next,
Speaker 2: what's next? How do you get better? How do you improve?
Speaker 2: Sometimes that comes off as negativity to some, but I
Speaker 2: just know that this game is so hard that you
Speaker 2: have to keep just incrementally dilating and improving on your
Speaker 2: flaws or being able to maximize your strengths without your
Speaker 2: flaws getting worse in order to be successful in this game,
Speaker 2: so we're always looking for how to overcome those things.
Speaker 1: I think it also was maybe encouraging that he got
Speaker 1: decent results, and yet his command really wasn't that great
Speaker 1: in the game. His zone rate was actually forty four percent,
Speaker 1: it was only thirty three percent with the fastball, so
Speaker 1: he only threw his four seamer in the zone a
Speaker 1: third of the time, which certainly he did not intend
Speaker 1: to do. So I think just even there, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: Mitch Bratt was able to throw three pretty decent innings,
Speaker 1: and his command, which is really his selling point as
Speaker 1: a prospect, actually was probably not nearly as good as
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be as you hope it would be
Speaker 1: moving forward. He also got some swing and miss on
Speaker 1: some sliders that were certainly not in the location he meant.
Speaker 1: The slider seemed to be up in the zone a
Speaker 1: lot more often than you would think, and yet it
Speaker 1: seemed to play surprisingly well. He was able to get
Speaker 1: four whiffs on that pitch in the game. So all
Speaker 1: that to say, pretty good stuff for Mitch Bratt in
Speaker 1: his first outing in the majors on the flip side. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks did option him. Sounded like this was the
Speaker 1: plan going in that this was just going to be
Speaker 1: a spot start as the Dbacks waited for Brandon Fought
Speaker 1: to be on schedule to return. So I guess this
Speaker 1: is still a good opportunity, though Jack, for Bratt to
Speaker 1: go down and get stretched out more, and given how
Speaker 1: much the starting pitching depth is thin, doubt feels like
Speaker 1: the d Bacs are probably going to need him again
Speaker 1: before too long.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they will, you know, and we don't know
Speaker 2: who's going to be effective and who's not, and you
Speaker 2: know who knows. I mean, maybe they ultimately take my
Speaker 2: advice and move back to the bullpen. Then you got
Speaker 2: to move Brad up here. So that's a possibility. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now the other moves you know that were attendant with this.
Speaker 2: They brought up one Burgos, who didn't pitch today. Burgos
Speaker 2: has not been successful yet in Reno really, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, as Era is well north of six and
Speaker 2: the peripherals are kind of up there too. He's kind
Speaker 2: of think he's got twenty seven innings and it hasn't
Speaker 2: been great. But they must be seeing something that they
Speaker 2: like or that they felt good enough about to bring
Speaker 2: him up now. As he cycled these guys in Remember
Speaker 2: when they option him back out, they got to stay
Speaker 2: down for fifteen days. So some of the guys that
Speaker 2: they brought up and then they sent back, they can't
Speaker 2: bring him back right away. So you're really tapping into
Speaker 2: your depth. One of the things I just kind of
Speaker 2: segue here real quick. A lot of times when we
Speaker 2: talk about the bullpen and it has been really good,
Speaker 2: and we talk about like the cores six or seven
Speaker 2: guys that have been there all year, and how well
Speaker 2: they've pitched, and if you just remove the position players
Speaker 2: and a couple of guys that bombed well, then the
Speaker 2: numbers are much better. But you know, if you kind
Speaker 2: of think about it, you know, you look, these guys
Speaker 2: have pitched a lot. Your cores, six to seven guys
Speaker 2: have all pitched a lot, and somebody's going to go
Speaker 2: down at some point, hopefully not multiple guys all at once.
Speaker 2: But it's just not reasonable to accept that seven guys
Speaker 2: all on pace for over sixty games and sixty innings
Speaker 2: are going to nobody's going to come down with something right.
Speaker 2: And so how good is your depth? You know, how
Speaker 2: many Joe Ross's or Andrew Hoffman struggling, or you know, currently,
Speaker 2: Actually Drey Jamison, you know, isn't exactly pitching great. You know,
Speaker 2: these guys that come up, like your depth pitchers, your
Speaker 2: depth for leavers. You can't just keep saying, well, if
Speaker 2: you eliminate these guys, then your team er isn't that
Speaker 2: bullpen era isn't that bad? I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 2: starting to like stack up where you're really seeing the
Speaker 2: next line of defense on the bullpen doesn't look very
Speaker 2: good right now and makes me a little bit nervous
Speaker 2: because the bullpen has been so good and such an
Speaker 2: important piece of keeping this team together. But like I said,
Speaker 2: you got seven guys on pace for sixty games and
Speaker 2: sixty innings, and something's going to give somewhere.
Speaker 1: I think that's part of why Mike Hasen is talking
Speaker 1: about adding to the bullpen at the trade deadline, when
Speaker 1: on paper it's like, well, hey, this bullpen's pretty good.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that's a great point that one
Speaker 1: of these guys is probably going to go down and
Speaker 1: the dbacs will need reinforcements at some point, and or
Speaker 1: one of those guys in triple A to step up
Speaker 1: and be a little bit more of a force. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I Juan Burgos is going to be the guy. Frankly,
Speaker 1: it feels like this was sort of outam necessity. With
Speaker 1: Dre Jamison pitching a couple of innings yesterday, the Dbacs
Speaker 1: just wanted to give themselves a little more length, especially
Speaker 1: with the rain possibilities in a game like this. But
Speaker 1: we'll see. Maybe Pwan Bergos gets an opportunity and can
Speaker 1: show what he's doing a little bit, or show what
Speaker 1: he's capable of. Our pal Aaron Hughes in the chat said, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: hope you are well. Just wanted to note that Max
Speaker 1: Kepler is the diamondbacks second ever German born player after
Speaker 1: Edwin Jackson, and the first born there since the Berlin
Speaker 1: Wall fell. It's a fun fact from our good friend
Speaker 1: Aaron Hughes, and also a good segue jack into the
Speaker 1: Max Kepler conversation. We've been talking about him for a while.
Speaker 1: He's been down with the Diamondbacks minor league affiliates for
Speaker 1: a few weeks at this point, and today was the
Speaker 1: day where he was first eligible to come off the
Speaker 1: restricted list. The Diamondbacks activate him. He is now on
Speaker 1: the big league roster. In terms of expectations for Kepler, Jack,
Speaker 1: What do you kind of have in your head as
Speaker 1: we await his first game as a member of the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 2: I think he was rushed. I think from the time
Speaker 2: that they got him into the organization. I don't think
Speaker 2: he's got enough plate appearances. He had twenty four played
Speaker 2: appearances in Reno at Triple A. He played two games
Speaker 2: in Hillsboro, maybe a game in the Complex League before that. Total,
Speaker 2: I don't think he had forty more than forty played appearances.
Speaker 2: I would have liked to see him get another handful
Speaker 2: of games and get his timing down. So I expect
Speaker 2: him to struggle. I just do. And that's not even
Speaker 2: an evaluation of Max Kepler himself. It's just an evaluation
Speaker 2: of everybody else in the league. All these pitchers have
Speaker 2: been pitching for three months now, right, they're all, you know,
Speaker 2: the ones that aren't hurt. They're all halfway through their
Speaker 2: season and all dialed in and dialed up, and they
Speaker 2: know their game plans and they've got their stuff dialed in.
Speaker 2: And here comes a guy with you know, hardly any
Speaker 2: plate appearances into minor leagues this year and it's like
Speaker 2: he had, you know, half a spring training and now
Speaker 2: he's supposed to jump right in and have his timing down.
Speaker 2: I hope he does, you know, so that none of
Speaker 2: that is an evaluation of Max Kepler himself. Look, we
Speaker 2: can all look at the career numbers. We see what
Speaker 2: kind of hitter he's been in his career. He's got pop,
Speaker 2: he's left handed. They're hoping that he gets you know,
Speaker 2: a little lightning in a bottle against right hand to
Speaker 2: pitching projections don't love him because he's, you know, in
Speaker 2: his thirties now, and he's coming off a down season
Speaker 2: last year. So we'll see what they get. But even
Speaker 2: if he's in a good space, I just hope that
Speaker 2: they didn't rush him like they've been rushing Lords Gurry
Speaker 2: Errol off the injured list twice or Peven Smith off
Speaker 2: the injured list. You know. I mean the only guy
Speaker 2: that actually came off the injured list and swung the
Speaker 2: bat pretty well right out of the gate was Jordan Lawler.
Speaker 2: You know. None of the other short stint hitters have
Speaker 2: come back and done well. So I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 2: we'll see how it goes. But I don't understand why
Speaker 2: they feel so pressure too that they can't get the
Speaker 2: guy another five games. I don't get it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Kepler played ten games with
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks minor league teams. Only six of those games came
Speaker 1: in Triple A. He went six for twenty one in
Speaker 1: Triple A, had a three seventy five on base percentage,
Speaker 1: but just a three thirty three slugging percentage, so just
Speaker 1: one double out of those six hits. The other five
Speaker 1: hits were all singles there for Kepler. Kepler did not
Speaker 1: have great numbers last year with the Philadelphia Phillies. He
Speaker 1: slashed two sixteen three hundred three ninety one. His expected
Speaker 1: stats were notably better than that. His expected batting average
Speaker 1: was in the two forties, his expected slug was in
Speaker 1: the four to forty range. So you know, I think
Speaker 1: you can certainly understand why the Diamondbacks made this move.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I think it's clear that they're
Speaker 1: just trying to find any left handed hitter with a
Speaker 1: pulse who could possibly be an upgrade over what they
Speaker 1: have in house right now. And you know, maybe that's
Speaker 1: why they're pushing Kepler to be back the first day
Speaker 1: that he's eligible. It's not like peven Smith is setting
Speaker 1: up particularly high bar right now, or you know whoever
Speaker 1: other outfielder would be starting if Kepler wasn't against right
Speaker 1: handed pitching. So it's hard for me to blame the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks Jack, I mean, the d Backs option Tim Tawa
Speaker 1: in order to make this move right, a player who
Speaker 1: was not even playing for them. It's hard for me
Speaker 1: to believe that Max Kepler, even as he works to
Speaker 1: get his timing back, can't be an upgrade over some
Speaker 1: of those other guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, look, I'm not fault them for signing
Speaker 2: Max Kepler or giving him a shot. A lot of
Speaker 2: people are like, well, why did they sign him if
Speaker 2: he can't play in the postseason, But you know they
Speaker 2: need some bridge at bats. Here. While you were talking there,
Speaker 2: I just decided to go look up Manuel Pinia because
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, like, okay, you know, if he plays for
Speaker 2: six weeks in Triple A and he mashes, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe then they feel like, okay, well, let's bring up
Speaker 2: Manny Penia in August and September just for a quick notation.
Speaker 2: Here many Penia, he of the twenty six home run
Speaker 2: outburst in Double A. And why am I talking about him?
Speaker 2: Because he's a left handed slugger right, twenty six homers
Speaker 2: in Double A so far in thirty two played appearances
Speaker 2: seven games. He's yet to homer in Triple A, but
Speaker 2: he is hitting two seventy six with a three p
Speaker 2: forty four on base percentage, which isn't bad, but because
Speaker 2: there's no pop at all there, he's got a sixty
Speaker 2: two wrs plus small sample size thirty two plate appearances.
Speaker 2: My point is monitor Manualpinia, right, because they're not going
Speaker 2: to call him up now, but they're certainly hoping, like, hey,
Speaker 2: if this guy, you know, can carry over into Triple
Speaker 2: A and show that he's ready, maybe in you know,
Speaker 2: mid August or something like that. If Kepler isn't giving
Speaker 2: them what they need, or even if he's kind of
Speaker 2: doing okay, but they need to get somebody up there
Speaker 2: that they could use in the postseason. Maybe Manuel Pina
Speaker 2: could be a left handed bat down the road asking
Speaker 2: a lot to get a kid from Double A to
Speaker 2: Triple A to the majors and help you in the postseason.
Speaker 2: But this is where they're at with left handed batting depth.
Speaker 2: As you were just talking.
Speaker 1: About, well, just's just men mentioned his name in the chat.
Speaker 1: A big name in Diamondbacks talk in the last twenty
Speaker 1: four hours, of course, is Paul Goldschmith. Derek Hall, Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: president and CEO, spoke about the conversations that the d
Speaker 1: Backs had or did not have with Paul Goldschmidt over
Speaker 1: the offseason. So we'll get into that right after this
Speaker 1: break here on Snake's territory.
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Speaker 1: Before we get into our Paul Goldschmidt chatter, I do
Speaker 1: want to put a bow on conversation we just had
Speaker 1: and say that Ryan Nelson was also part of the
Speaker 1: d Backs roster moves. They transferred him to the sixty
Speaker 1: day IL move that we kind of expected. We figured
Speaker 1: the Dbacks would do that in order to open up
Speaker 1: a forty band roster spot Jack. That means that Ryan
Speaker 1: Nelson is first eligible to come off the IL on
Speaker 1: August fifteenth. Does not exactly inspire optimism, but also we
Speaker 1: didn't expect Ryan Nelson back before then anyway.
Speaker 2: Correct. Well, I mean when I spoke to Tory about
Speaker 2: it and I did the math, and he kind of
Speaker 2: giggled and said, yeah, well, that's like my manager math
Speaker 2: in a self effacing manner. He wasn't being sarcastic, you know,
Speaker 2: I asked him, however, many weeks down, then you have
Speaker 2: to add the same amount of weeks up to get
Speaker 2: back stretched out. However many weeks he's non throwing, then
Speaker 2: that's how many weeks he's going to have to be down,
Speaker 2: or that's how many weeks I'm sorry, that's going to
Speaker 2: take for him to get ramped back up. So if
Speaker 2: you're down for four weeks without throwing, then you're going
Speaker 2: to need four weeks to get stretched out. You're out
Speaker 2: for eight weeks. And he said originally, well, four to
Speaker 2: six weeks for Ryan, and then he said he's going
Speaker 2: to get the MRI in six weeks. That was from
Speaker 2: the date that we talked to him, June nineteenth, so
Speaker 2: that's why I asked her. I said, well, six weeks,
Speaker 2: so that means six weeks to get he can't throw
Speaker 2: before the MRI, then that's twelve weeks. That brings you
Speaker 2: into mid September rights and he's like, yeah, that's the
Speaker 2: math that I'm doing. So basically Ryan has always been
Speaker 2: September if at all. But for many people seeing him
Speaker 2: transferred to the sixty was kind of like a bracing shock.
Speaker 2: Had they not seen our show or rhetor art unfortunately.
Speaker 2: But the you know, bottom line here is is this
Speaker 2: is expected. This is the normal timeline that they were
Speaker 2: talking about because of the nature of the injuries that
Speaker 2: he has. So you know, if we see Ryan Nelson
Speaker 2: again in September, it's even then. It's just like the
Speaker 2: Corbyn Burns situation, would be very tough to get him
Speaker 2: ramped up. You're only going to have so many roster spots.
Speaker 2: You know, we'll see who makes it back and who doesn't,
Speaker 2: what kind of shaped are in and how stretched out
Speaker 2: they can get, and how many pitches they can throw,
Speaker 2: and if they were in a position to be in
Speaker 2: the postseason, are they in a rotation or are they
Speaker 2: in the bullpen. Don't even think about it right now, guys,
Speaker 2: it's don't even worry about it till September. We'll figure
Speaker 2: it out then.
Speaker 1: On Max Kepler, we should probably dive just a little
Speaker 1: bit further into his situation. The reason that he was
Speaker 1: first eligible to be reinstated today is because he was
Speaker 1: serving an eighty game suspension for testing positive for a
Speaker 1: performance in drug that happened I believe at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year after his stint with the Phillies last season,
Speaker 1: and Kepler has really never spoken publicly about that until
Speaker 1: today in Saint Louis. And this is a quote from
Speaker 1: our good friend Nick Pocoro's story over at the Arizona Republic.
Speaker 1: This is Kepler speaking on this situation. He said, the
Speaker 1: answer I have is really the answer that every player
Speaker 1: gives you at this point in time. I do not
Speaker 1: know how it got into my system. I am responsible
Speaker 1: for the fact that it is in my system or
Speaker 1: in the yurine test that the Drug Committee found, but
Speaker 1: I do not know how it got into my system.
Speaker 1: I'm not the type of player who would be cheating
Speaker 1: or having the necessary need to take a supplement to
Speaker 1: get through my career, especially not in my free agent
Speaker 1: Going into a free agent year, that's a little risky.
Speaker 1: I'm lucky that I'm back in this position now, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that's my stance. So I guess this is sort of
Speaker 1: the response that we're just accustomed to getting on these situations.
Speaker 1: So do with that what you will. When it comes
Speaker 1: to Max Kepler.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, I just want to add an extra plug
Speaker 2: for Nick here if that's okay. You know, he's a
Speaker 2: really excellent excellent journalist, and he's able to dig deeper
Speaker 2: than any of us. And you know, he's been doing
Speaker 2: this longer than any of us except maybe Steve Gilbert
Speaker 2: when it comes to the Arizona market. So you know,
Speaker 2: we're quite liberal in quoting him, and that's simply because
Speaker 2: he's the best. So, you know, hats off to Nick Pricorol.
Speaker 2: I look up to him and really admire his work,
Speaker 2: and you know, so I appreciate being able to share
Speaker 2: his work on our show. So you know, don't forget
Speaker 2: Nick pricorl Arizona Republic.
Speaker 1: Definitely worth worth the price of a subscription alone. Nick
Speaker 1: does really really great work covering the Diamondbacks were there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Max Kepler officially part of the major league roster.
Speaker 1: We'll see if he's able to contribute. The Diamondbacks very
Speaker 1: much could use some pop from the left handed side.
Speaker 1: Circling back to the topic guy he alluded to earlier,
Speaker 1: Paul Goldschmidt is not a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: He of course, is a member of the New York Yankees.
Speaker 1: He is not making a whole lot of money with
Speaker 1: the New York Yankees. That is a one year four
Speaker 1: million dollar deal that he signed with New York. But goodness, gracious,
Speaker 1: Jackie has been worth that and then some. He's hitting
Speaker 1: two ninety seven with a nine to twenty three ops.
Speaker 1: And of course there were some rumblings over the offseason
Speaker 1: about the Diamondbacks getting involved with his market, maybe as
Speaker 1: an option for them at first base. And then, somewhat surprisingly,
Speaker 1: Derek Hall spoke on the radio in the last twenty
Speaker 1: four hours and said the Dbacks never even had discussions
Speaker 1: with Paul Goldschmith. He said that they decided to sign
Speaker 1: Carlos Santana relatively early on, which was a little surprising
Speaker 1: to me that that move was made official on February tenth,
Speaker 1: but he said that the Diamondbacks never actually got to
Speaker 1: the point of having serious discussions with Paul Goldschmidt.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, the other point was that they they
Speaker 2: felt like it was going to cost more than they
Speaker 2: were going to be able to spend because they wanted
Speaker 2: to put the money into the pitching. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: the key point. You know, I know for a fact
Speaker 2: that you know, ownership was very keen on bringing back
Speaker 2: both Zach and Merrill. They wanted the pitching, and they
Speaker 2: were willing to spend for that, So you know, that
Speaker 2: being said, that's where they decided to allocate their resources.
Speaker 2: I think that bringing back Zach late was really quite
Speaker 2: the extra spend on the part of Ken Kendrick. I
Speaker 2: mean pretty much Mike Casen was tapped out for the
Speaker 2: most part, with maybe a little bit left to spend,
Speaker 2: and then you know, Kendrick wanted Gallon back, so boom,
Speaker 2: here we go, and that's where we ended up. Look,
Speaker 2: I'm going to spill here a little bit, guys, my
Speaker 2: understanding what I was told was back in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: you know, during the twenty eighteen offseason or just before
Speaker 2: the start of the twenty eighteen season, Paul's Goldschmid's representation,
Speaker 2: you know, put forth their thought process about what an
Speaker 2: extension might look like. And it was a multi year,
Speaker 2: nine figure deal that began with the two that they
Speaker 2: were looking for. So they were looking for an excess
Speaker 2: of two hundred million dollars at that point in time.
Speaker 2: And what I was told was the Diamondbacks never countered
Speaker 2: because they just felt that they were so far off
Speaker 2: from where they started off, so they never even countered that.
Speaker 2: I don't know what those numbers might have looked like,
Speaker 2: or what where the Diamondbacks might have been as far
Speaker 2: as what kind of counter they were willing to give,
Speaker 2: But I think they just felt like they were probably,
Speaker 2: you know, one hundred million dollars off between what Goldie's
Speaker 2: representation was talking about and where their comfort zone was. Subsequently, after,
Speaker 2: by the time he was traded during the twenty eighteen offseason,
Speaker 2: so seven months later, the market kind of softened early
Speaker 2: in the early and during the twenty eighteen off season.
Speaker 2: Seventeen eighteen offseason, the market was a little hotter and
Speaker 2: things kind of cooled down for the first base market,
Speaker 2: and Goldie ended up accepting a five year, one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty million dollar extension with the Cardinals that kicked
Speaker 2: in the following twenty twenty. Because he twenty nineteen, he
Speaker 2: was still on the last year of his extension with
Speaker 2: the Diamondbacks that paid him fourteen million. So a lot
Speaker 2: of people felt like at the time, well, Diamondbacks, why
Speaker 2: didn't they just sign up for five one thirty, But
Speaker 2: I don't think that Goldschmith's camp would have accepted five
Speaker 2: one thirty at the beginning of twenty eighteen. By the
Speaker 2: time eighteen got finished up. I think reality had set in.
Speaker 2: He'd been traded. He's in his thirties, Okay, let's go,
Speaker 2: let's do this, And I think he was happy with
Speaker 2: the city he was at. So that that's my understanding
Speaker 2: of the way that all went down. You know, as
Speaker 2: far as this latest episode, the only twist for me
Speaker 2: is at one point Gambo had tweeted out that they're
Speaker 2: interested in Paul Goldschmidt. However, you know they're obviously Derek
Speaker 2: said that they never talked to them, they never really
Speaker 2: made an offer. So the understanding there really is okay
Speaker 2: if you. Paul Sherman reported that gold Schmid took less
Speaker 2: money to stay with the Yankees, and the team that
Speaker 2: emerged as a team that was willing to pay more
Speaker 2: than what the Yankees paid was the San Diego Padres,
Speaker 2: and he actually took left. Well, I think the part
Speaker 2: of the story about goldschmanth being willing to take less
Speaker 2: money if he's going to have to be in a
Speaker 2: part time role to be with the Yankees makes a
Speaker 2: lot of sense, and I'm ninety nine percent sure that
Speaker 2: was true as well.
Speaker 1: The other part of this, this storyline for the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: was are they willing to have Paul Goldschmid as their
Speaker 1: everyday first basement, which is what he seemed to want
Speaker 1: as opposed to just having him as a platoon option.
Speaker 1: And what's weird is as great of a season as
Speaker 1: Paul Goldschmid has had with the New York Yankees, he
Speaker 1: has not been good against right handed pitching. He has
Speaker 1: a six sixty five OPS against right handed pitching in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six this season that has been unbelievable. He
Speaker 1: has a six to sixty five OPS against righty's. He
Speaker 1: just also happens to have a one point three zero
Speaker 1: four a thirteen oh four OPS against lefties. He's batting
Speaker 1: over four hundred against lefties in twenty twenty six, and
Speaker 1: so so it's made his overall numbers look totally awesome
Speaker 1: because he's just he's been the best hitter in baseball
Speaker 1: against left handed pitching. So, on one hand, I guess
Speaker 1: you could say, well, the d Backs are right Paul
Speaker 1: Goldsmith isn't isn't all that great against right handed pitching anymore.
Speaker 1: Most pitchers are right eyes. But maybe they underestimated just
Speaker 1: how unbelievable he could be against lefties, so unfortunate situation there.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks, of course, decided to give Carlos Santana half
Speaker 1: as much money one year, two million dollars for Carlos Santana,
Speaker 1: And as of about forty eight hours ago, Santana is
Speaker 1: no longer a member of the Diamondbacks. They have his rehab,
Speaker 1: his allotted rehab time down in the miners ran out.
Speaker 1: You can only have a guy rehab for twenty days,
Speaker 1: and the Diamondbacks presumably just decided like, hey, this guy
Speaker 1: just doesn't have anything left in the tank, and so
Speaker 1: they designated him for assignment and released him. And I mean,
Speaker 1: two million dollars is two million dollars. There's there's no
Speaker 1: such thing as a bad one year contract. I guess
Speaker 1: those you know that thinking still applies in a sense.
Speaker 1: But man, I mean, Carlos Santana got two hits and
Speaker 1: the Diamondbags paid him two million dollars to do so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, listeners of this show will know
Speaker 2: that I was never very enthusiastic about that signing to
Speaker 2: say the least. You know, I just I had a
Speaker 2: hard enough time dealing with the Nolan trade quite frankly,
Speaker 2: you know, and so whenever we talked about and we
Speaker 2: got around to Santana, I you know, just was never
Speaker 2: into it. I mean I never thought that that was
Speaker 2: going to be anything that would work out for them.
Speaker 2: He was too old and too many couple of really
Speaker 2: down seasons, you know, and you're bringing in a forty
Speaker 2: year old guy and saying, yeah, well, he's got a
Speaker 2: great glove. I mean, like, even that wasn't very good.
Speaker 2: So you know, that wasn't very good foresight on the
Speaker 2: part of the team. You know, there were other options,
Speaker 2: as I've mentioned over and over. I don't mean to
Speaker 2: keep touting my horn, but you know I identified, you know,
Speaker 2: a left handed slugger as the true need for this
Speaker 2: lineup in the off season and got blown off. I
Speaker 2: mean I spoke to the GM about it and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily see it that way. And he wasn't
Speaker 2: all too you know. I mean, he just didn't think
Speaker 2: I had any idea what I was talking about. But
Speaker 2: here we are. You know, he ranks last in first
Speaker 2: base and last in d H patting, and his left
Speaker 2: handed hitters that have stepped into those roles have been abysmal.
Speaker 2: And you know that downside bottom folding out possibility was
Speaker 2: always there. You know. Obviously, you project Peven Smith to
Speaker 2: be better than he was. Adrian del Castillo did not
Speaker 2: project to be that much better than he's been. You know,
Speaker 2: even prior to this year, his expected stats were not
Speaker 2: very good. Peven should be closer to a league average hitter,
Speaker 2: which he's been far far from, but he should be,
Speaker 2: so we'll see. Maybe he comes around, maybe he doesn't.
Speaker 1: Peven's just the interesting case where his career numbers are
Speaker 1: basically league average, his projections are league average, and yet
Speaker 1: he's not exactly been the model of a consistent sort
Speaker 1: of league average hitter. It feels like he's either hitting
Speaker 1: the cover off the ball consistently, like he did for
Speaker 1: a couple of months at the end of twenty four
Speaker 1: and the start of twenty five, or he just is
Speaker 1: not a productive big league hitter at all, which is
Speaker 1: what we've seen for the past year at this point
Speaker 1: when he's actually been healthy. So certainly the Diamondbacks did
Speaker 1: not make the right choice when it came to their
Speaker 1: first base situation. I think it is very easy to
Speaker 1: say that at this point. Props to Paul Goldschmidt for
Speaker 1: turning back the clock and having as great of a
Speaker 1: season as he has at age thirty eight. We wish
Speaker 1: him the best with the New York Yankees, even though
Speaker 1: people around here certainly wish he was still a member
Speaker 1: or had returned to be a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: We have one more ad break to hit here on
Speaker 1: Snake's Territory. Don't go anywhere. On the other side, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about the All Star
Speaker 1: voting situation not end so well for the Diamondbacks. We'll
Speaker 1: also talk about some of the key season matchups. The
Speaker 1: head to head records between the Diamondbacks and some of
Speaker 1: their wild card opponents, a really important thing to keep.
Speaker 2: An eye on.
Speaker 1: So don't go anywhere. We'll be back right after this
Speaker 1: here on Snakes Territory.
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Speaker 1: After a day where there was no Diamondbacks baseball. As
Speaker 1: sad as that is, we want to dive in real
Speaker 1: quick to the head to head matchups between the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: and some of their wild card opponents, Jack, I know
Speaker 1: this is something that you've been keeping an eye on.
Speaker 1: We could show the numbers here on the screen. D
Speaker 1: Backs are two and one this year against the Reds,
Speaker 1: two and one against the Phillies, two and one against
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. I guess you can call this a series
Speaker 1: win given the way it ended. The d Backs have
Speaker 1: split their two games with the Padres, and then they
Speaker 1: lost two of three to the Pirates. They lost two
Speaker 1: of three to the Nationals, and then they got swept
Speaker 1: by both the Cubs and the Marlins. So overall, Jack,
Speaker 1: not a great picture when it comes to these head
Speaker 1: to head matchups.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, as we have learned painfully in the past.
Speaker 2: You know, these head to head matchups well one time successfully,
Speaker 2: one time not so successfully. These head to head matchups
Speaker 2: really mean something. I mean, they're gonna have to, you know,
Speaker 2: clear out beat the Cubs and the Marlins for sure,
Speaker 2: almost unless you turn around and sweep them. And you
Speaker 2: know with the Nationals, uh and the Pirates, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to win those series on the road to be
Speaker 2: able to tie them. You've got eleven left against the
Speaker 2: Padres seven on the road because the Debacs got ripped
Speaker 2: off with two games of Mexico City as quote unquote
Speaker 2: home games, you know, and then they got to hold
Speaker 2: their advantage against Red's Phillies and Cardinals. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: you really need to win these series against these these
Speaker 2: other opponents. I mean, you need to win them all.
Speaker 2: Every game is important, but these are really going to
Speaker 2: come into play for those that aren't. Don't know. If
Speaker 2: you end up tied for the season series and you're
Speaker 2: tied for the regular season for somebody in a wild
Speaker 2: card spot, the next tiebreaker is your divisional record. And
Speaker 2: the Dbacks are in pretty good shape there because of
Speaker 2: their dominance over their Rocketies in Giants so far they
Speaker 2: split with the Padres. But of course, you know they
Speaker 2: need to do better against the Dodgers going forward, you know,
Speaker 2: to not undo all the good work that they've done
Speaker 2: against the weak sisters in the NL West.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not great. It feels like we kind of
Speaker 1: play this game every year where these tie breakers seem
Speaker 1: fairly likely to matter, and yet the Diamondbacks it feels
Speaker 1: like they always lose the tie breakers that are the
Speaker 1: ones that actually matter. We certainly saw this in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four the way that that season ended. They win
Speaker 1: eighty nine games, but they don't make the playoffs because
Speaker 1: of tie breakers. So it's still still fairly early. But
Speaker 1: the Dbacks have not gotten off to a good start
Speaker 1: in this regard. Speaking of not getting off to a
Speaker 1: good start, Jack, the All Star voting process did not
Speaker 1: go particular Billy well for the Diamondbacks. At least Phase
Speaker 1: one did not. And I guess there there is no
Speaker 1: Phase two for them because the Dbacks did not have
Speaker 1: any of their players advance into Phase two. Corbyn Carrol
Speaker 1: finished twelfth among NL outfielders in the voting. It was
Speaker 1: just the top six that moved on to Phase two,
Speaker 1: and fans will decide the three starting outfielders out of
Speaker 1: that group. We're kind of used to seeing this, Jack,
Speaker 1: it is a bummer, but this year with Corbyn finishing twelfth,
Speaker 1: I mean, Justin Crawford of the Phillies finished eleventh. He
Speaker 1: has a six thirty two OPS entering today, So it's
Speaker 1: a bummer to see Corbyn not get the respect that
Speaker 1: he deserves.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just a stupid system. You know, the
Speaker 2: system doesn't work I.
Speaker 1: Mean it's stupid. Yet Alejandro Kirk was one of the
Speaker 1: finalists after playing thirteen games this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, look the fan vote. I guess,
Speaker 2: on one hand it's stupid. On the other hand, it's not.
Speaker 2: I guess the fans that are more engaged with their
Speaker 2: team and supporting their team, then they get the right
Speaker 2: to have a bigger voice and who gets to play
Speaker 2: in the All Star Game. I guess that's the way
Speaker 2: they want it. I think it does a disservice from
Speaker 2: the game. I think you should have the best players
Speaker 2: in the game. I have a lot of thoughts about
Speaker 2: the All Star Game. I'm going to just throw this
Speaker 2: one out there. I think I might have mentioned it
Speaker 2: on the show before. I think that they should have
Speaker 2: the All Star voting take place after the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: and up until about the middle of spring training, and
Speaker 2: then play the All Star Game just before the season starts. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And there's a few reasons for this. Number One, I
Speaker 2: think you get a more complete view of players and
Speaker 2: who they should be voting for. I saw online today,
Speaker 2: you know, and very respected journalists say it should be
Speaker 2: by the stats. You know who's performing the best, But
Speaker 2: like what stats April stats May stats. You know, if
Speaker 2: you're talking about one third of the season, that seems
Speaker 2: a little short sighted. But then if you go by
Speaker 2: last year's numbers and this year's numbers together, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, now you're pulling in last year and it's
Speaker 2: not this year's all start team. Why not base it
Speaker 2: off the full last calendar year. Put the best players
Speaker 2: in the game. And oh, by the way, you'll have
Speaker 2: a lot easier time. You do it, like a week
Speaker 2: before the seed regular season starts, or six games six
Speaker 2: days before the regular season starts, you'll be able to
Speaker 2: It's kind of a way to welcome the fans back
Speaker 2: to baseball. Here's a big splash, and you won't have
Speaker 2: the problem of this picture can't pitch and that picture
Speaker 2: can't pitch. It's easy to line a guy up for
Speaker 2: one inning in spring training, right, and if you do
Speaker 2: it five or six days before the regular season starts,
Speaker 2: then you're able to get them. You know, the guy
Speaker 2: can throw his one inning in the in the All
Speaker 2: Star Game and then go down to the bullpen and
Speaker 2: you know, get his up downs and go get some
Speaker 2: pitches in there, and he can still make his first
Speaker 2: regular season start. So I think, you know, and most
Speaker 2: of the guys are all still healthy at that point
Speaker 2: in time, and so you'll get to see all the
Speaker 2: best pitchers and all the best players, and you won't
Speaker 2: have the you know, top players begging out because they
Speaker 2: got a slightly sore foot or handy because they're beat
Speaker 2: up for half a season. Most of the guys are
Speaker 2: coming out as from training healthy, So I think you
Speaker 2: get the full complement of players and rosters, and you
Speaker 2: get a better fan voting experience as well, and more
Speaker 2: informed fan voting experience that way.
Speaker 1: Anyway, rant Over, I like it. I've talked about that
Speaker 1: exact approach with people in the past, and it definitely
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. Maybe a little odd to
Speaker 1: have the All Star Game more so reflect the season
Speaker 1: prior than the current season. Like a guy could play
Speaker 1: in the All Star Game, you know, in spring training
Speaker 1: or right after spring training, and then have a terrible
Speaker 1: season and it would just be like, what is guy
Speaker 1: played in the All Star Game and then you know,
Speaker 1: at a six hundred ops or something. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's totally fine. I think you'd rather you'd
Speaker 1: rather have a full season of stats than you know,
Speaker 1: look at half a season of stats as we do
Speaker 1: right now. One thing that maybe they could tweak just
Speaker 1: to avoid the Alejandro Kirk issue is require like a
Speaker 1: baseline number of games or played appearances or innings pitched
Speaker 1: or something in order for a player to be eligible.
Speaker 1: It feels like guys who just don't play, or who
Speaker 1: don't play enough games, like a significant number of games,
Speaker 1: just get way too many votes. So maybe that's something
Speaker 1: they could look at doing. But anyway, Corbyn Carroll is
Speaker 1: not a finalist, could tell Marte is not a finalist
Speaker 1: as well. The two second base finalists were Ozzy Albi's
Speaker 1: and Bryson Stott, who has not had a good season
Speaker 1: for the Phillies. And Ozzy Albi's ranks like sixth among
Speaker 1: n L second basement and basically every category. So I
Speaker 1: don't think there's a strong case for Katel Marte as
Speaker 1: one of those finalists, but there's certainly not as strong
Speaker 1: case for Ozzy Alvis or Bryson Stott either. So you
Speaker 1: hope that at least one of the two finalists is
Speaker 1: like a good candidate, but at second base it is
Speaker 1: it is neither of those two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look, we're just going to have to accept
Speaker 2: the fact that you know, either the league of the players.
Speaker 2: You know, Corbyn Carroll is going in the All Star Game,
Speaker 2: there's no question about that. He's just not going to start, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know. And then the question is, as well, the
Speaker 2: Dbacks have a second player. So I really think that,
Speaker 2: you know, beyond Corbyn Carroll, the real discussion should be
Speaker 2: who should everyone be advocating for it to be an
Speaker 2: All Star on you know, this year and kind of
Speaker 2: lobby to get that player selected by either the players
Speaker 2: or by the league. Yeah, you know, And and that
Speaker 2: could be our discussion. I mean, I we've kind of
Speaker 2: talked about it. I mean, right now, you have to
Speaker 2: think e Rod right with the season that he's had
Speaker 2: so far, I mean, if he has starts, you know,
Speaker 2: forget the Fip Pip Schmidt. You know, guy's got a
Speaker 2: two three one or two two five whatever it is.
Speaker 2: You know. So he's been the workhoorse, the stud of
Speaker 2: the of the rotation, has been the most consistent guy.
Speaker 2: You know. So I don't see a problem with that.
Speaker 2: I think that it would be great for him. Just
Speaker 2: we know that the National League is very deep. I
Speaker 2: posted something the other day which is, uh, I take
Speaker 2: the ra A nine runs against per nine innings and
Speaker 2: the FIP base war and I averaged those two together
Speaker 2: and so it's kind of like actual run prevention against
Speaker 2: dominance and peripherals, and then you motion them together and
Speaker 2: it always seems to pass a smell test when you
Speaker 2: use that. And then you start tiering guys, and you know,
Speaker 2: e Rod was certainly in the top ten. I think
Speaker 2: he came in like sixth in the National League in
Speaker 2: that doing it that way, either sixth or eight. So
Speaker 2: he's like kind of right on the cusp because you know,
Speaker 2: they can bring like six starters and then they can
Speaker 2: bring like you know, eight or ten relievers or whatever.
Speaker 2: Make sure they got enough pitchers on the roster so
Speaker 2: that you don't have a disaster. You know, whether or
Speaker 2: not even got in the game, who knows, But I mean,
Speaker 2: I just think that Erod at this point in time,
Speaker 2: if you want to go by half season performance, I
Speaker 2: think he deserves a spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Irod has a has a compelling case.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe Nolan Arnado still has a shot, not so
Speaker 1: much because Arnatto's numbers are great, but because the third
Speaker 1: base class is just not particularly strong in the National League.
Speaker 1: This year. Max Munci is definitely going to start. He
Speaker 1: has in eight seventy three ops this season. But Alec
Speaker 1: Boehm is the other finalist, which is also absurd. He
Speaker 1: has not had a good season at all. He does
Speaker 1: not deserve to be an All Star in general. And
Speaker 1: you look at the ops rankings behind Max Muncy, I
Speaker 1: mean it's Nick Gonzalez at seven to nineteen with the
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Pirates, Matt Chapman of the Giants at seven fourteen,
Speaker 1: Kyle Carros of the Rockies at seven to ten, and
Speaker 1: then Nolan Arnado is right there at seven hundred. So
Speaker 1: if Arnado rattles off a couple of good weeks, you know,
Speaker 1: leading up to the All Star Game, I think it's
Speaker 1: possible that he could have the second best OPS among
Speaker 1: an l third baseman. Maybe there's a world that he
Speaker 1: could still make the team. So we'll see what happens
Speaker 1: with regard to the All Star voting situation. Unfortunate the
Speaker 1: Corvin Carol won't start, but as you said, he is
Speaker 1: a slam dunk to at least make the team at
Speaker 1: the very least. Thank you to all of you for
Speaker 1: being with us on this EPP episode For hanging out
Speaker 1: with us for one of our longer shows. We hope
Speaker 1: we've given you something to do on a bizarre night
Speaker 1: where Diamondbacks Baseball has not happened. As always, it really
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Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter. I am at Jesse N. Friedman.
Speaker 1: Jack is at sho Wizard fifty nine, and our show
Speaker 1: is at Snake's Territory. You can find Jack's written work
Speaker 1: over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI Jack. Any final thoughts
Speaker 1: here as we say goodbye.
Speaker 2: Yeah for Gray Mantle four and anyone else who joined
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Speaker 1: We do appreciate all of you who have given super
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Speaker 1: to all of you for being here with us. We
Speaker 1: will be back with another episode tomorrow night. We'll be
Speaker 1: live after the Diamondbacks Raise game, and we look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing you then. So thank you again for being here,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back with another edition of Snake's Territory
Speaker 1: tomorrow night